Jake woke from his slumber, roused by the sound of the pup’s excited yapping somewhere near his camp. As the fog of sleep cleared, he remembered the events from the night before. The tumultuous battle between the mother wolf and the hydra was a level of power he had never seen before. The adrenaline filled his body as he received his quest to protect the wolf pup. He remembered the feeling of triumph as he succeeded in bringing down the hydra, followed by the deep loss he felt as the wolf cub mourned its lost mother. A now familiar voice filled his mind as text appeared in front of his face.
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New Title: Hydra Champion – First monster slain: Hydra.
New Title: Unbreakable – Defeat an opponent 10 levels higher than you.
Level increase: 7
New Level: 7
Free Attribute Points: 14
Would you like to designate attribute points? Yes / No
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This message from the interface gave Jake some important new information. He knew he was lucky he defeated that hydra. He would have been incredibly outmatched if he was the hydra’s only opponent. He silently thanked the wolf, both for protecting its pup and weakening the hydra enough for Jake to have a slim chance of victory. He did not know titles were available and was not sure of what benefits his new titles would contain. It also seemed like, for now, every level gained netted him two attribute points. “Yes,” he responded to the system’s prompting.
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Current Attributes:
Strength: 4
Dexterity: 3
Constitution: 3
Intelligence:7
Wisdom: 5
Charisma: 5
Please designate free attribute points: 14
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Jake thought about his attributes. The obvious choice would be to pour a respectable number of points into his physical attributes, as they were lacking compared to mental. He proceeded to add four points each to strength, dexterity, and constitution. The remaining two points he allocated to wisdom and charisma. This rounded out his attributes quite nicely, with strength being the highest, at eight, and the remaining attributes either at six or seven.
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All free attribute points designated.
Would you like to hear title benefits? Yes / No
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A persistent yapping interrupted Jake's train of thoughts. The pup's excited barking had become more agitated, and Jake could not concentrate on the interface. As if the interface could tell he was distracted, it faded from his field of view.
Jake made his way out of his temporary shelter, following the sound of the young wolf. The persistent yapping was coming from up the hill, near the freshwater spring.
"The trap!" he exclaimed. He rushed hurriedly towards the noises of the pup.
As Jake approached the noisy young pup, he saw a rustle of movement in the trap he had set up the day before. The pup was nimbly circling the trap, jumping and barking in excitement as it looked at the creature trapped inside.
The creature in the trap looked like a rabbit from Jake's old world. It was a dark grey color, with specks of brown dispersed through its coat. It had two long soft looking ears on top of its head, and dark beady eyes that scanned the world outside the trap in a frenzied panic. As similar as it looked to the rabbits Jake knew, there were some key differences. It had a third eye, slightly bigger than the others, placed in the center of its head. It also had a long whip-like tail, which Jake guessed it used for defense. The most obvious difference was a single horn, sprouting from the top of its head in between its ears. The horn looked like a deer antler, but small and symmetrical, branching out intricately into fine points.
Jake placed a calming hand on the back of the pup.
Its excited movements grew more tranquil as it felt Jake's presence. The pup looked at Jake and then back at the rabbit, panting in anticipation.
Jake moved slowly towards the trap, feeling the rabbit's beady eyed gaze on him. He slowly opened the swinging door that trapped the rabbit inside. He reached inside to grab the animal, his mind only thinking of the warm meal awaiting him soon.
The rabbit bolted from the cage, its antler leaving a large gash on Jakes olive green arm. It saw an opportunity for freedom and took the chance it knew would not come again.
Jake swore as he fell back holding his lacerated arm. He heard a high-pitched bark from behind him, and the sounds of a short scuffle between animals.
The pup stood proudly over its catch, its two front paws holding down the squirming rabbit.
"Hold it there," Jake instructed.
The pup seemed to listen, or maybe it just did not want the prey to escape.
Jake found a stone with some weight behind it. He strode over to the pup, knelt, and dealt a quick blow to the back of the rabbit's head, between his ears. His father taught him when he was younger that this was the most humane way to incapacitate a rabbit. He silently thanked the rabbit for the sustenance it would provide.
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The wolf pup looked down at the rabbit, no longer trying to escape. The pup looked disappointed, as if it enjoyed the challenge of catching the rabbit. It then looked back to Jake and happily romped back to camp.
Jake picked up the incapacitated rabbit, reset his trap, and followed the pup down the hill. Back in camp, Jake had to clean the rabbit before he could cook and eat it. He remembered watching his father do this during camping trips but had never attempted to himself. He started by using the natural string he acquired from the strangely colored oak tree to hang the rabbit upside down by one of its hind legs. He then retrieved his knife from his inventory, steeled his nerve, and smoothly cut the head off the rabbit, allowing its blood to flow from the body.
Soon after, the rabbit's body had completely bled out. Jake then removed the rabbit's front legs and made precise cuts around and down the rabbit's hind legs to remove the skin. He followed this by slicing off the rabbit's tail. Once the tail was removed, Jake pulled its skin down and over its body, completely removing it. He finished by cutting into the rabbit's belly and removing all its internal organs. Jake felt a sense of accomplishment after finishing the sequence he saw his father do so many times when he was a child. He would have never done this in his old life. He was mildly disgusted by the process, but the promise of food incentivized him as it felt like his stomach was growling constantly now.
Jake left the cleaned rabbit hanging from the string for now. He needed to make a makeshift spit to cook it over the fire. He made his way over to his wood pile, and luckily found two Y shaped branches. He picked them up and grabbed the straightest piece of wood he could find and approached the fire.
The pup looked at Jake inquisitively as he walked away from the meal and rummaged through the wood.
Jake noticed its questioning gaze and glanced back at the rabbit.
"We need to cook it before eating."
The pup tilted its head to the side in a confused expression.
"Just give me a few minutes to prepare it and we can eat," Jake grumbled. The concept of cooking was foreign to the pup, and he knew it was likely just as hungry as him.
Jake drove both Y shaped branched into the ground on either side of the fire. He made sure they were level before turning his attention to the straight piece of wood he was holding. He used his knife to peel the bark from the sides of the branch and sharpen one end. He retrieved the cleaned rabbit carcass and placed it on the spit. Jake quickly rinsed off the rabbit in the stream leading away from his small pond to ensure no contamination from the internal organs remained on the meat.
After walking back to the fire, Jake placed the long stick holding the rabbit across the two Y shaped branches he had placed to support the spit. He rotated the rabbit every few minutes, salivating at the smell of the cooking meat. Grease dripped off the meat, sizzling on the open flame.
Following what felt like a considerable time, the meat was done. Jake was not sure how he knew the cooking was complete, but he was sure of it. He took the rabbit off the spit and let it cool for a few minutes. Looking at the wolf pup drooling next to him, he sliced the rabbit in half and laid the pup's portion down in front of it.
The pup immediately tore into its half of the rabbit with the ferocity of a wild animal. Its teeth bared as it devoured the tender flesh of the rabbit with what seemed like an unyielding hunger.
Jake had not seen this side of the small animal in his brief time with it. It had almost seemed like a domesticated dog from his old world at times. This outburst when it was presented with food reminded him of the reality. This was an untamed beast, having only lived in the wild. It was likely that in its short life the pup had to fight alongside its now fallen mother for survival.
The scent of freshly cooked meat drifted from the rabbit in his hands to his broad oversized nose. His mind snapped back from his musings on the pup's nature and his one focus became the hunk of meat in front of him. Jake tore into a leg of the rabbit. Each bite was a new sensation, the taste of the tender meat overcoming him after a day and a half without sustenance. Sinking his teeth into the warm meat, juice dribbled down his chin as a feeling of content washed over him.
The pup, already finished with its meal, walked to the small pond for a drink. After drinking its fill, it walked past Jake with a look of gratefulness and made its way to the shelter for a nap. The pup laid down in the soft pine straw underfoot and with a stomach full of warm food, quickly dozed off.
Jake smiled, watching the young animal relax as he finished his meal. He thought of its mother's sacrifice the night before. He did not want to leave her at the sight of the battle but did not have the means to transfer her to a suitable location for a proper burial.
"Wait, my new attributes!" he burst out.
He looked over to the pup, still sound asleep even after his outburst. The night before he did not have the power to carry the massive wolf, but now with his strength increased to eight and his dexterity seven, he might have a chance. Jake stood up and started making his way to the clearing where the two beasts had fought the night before. He walked past his spring. He was not sure exactly where to go, he had blindly followed the noises of the skirmish before. He looked closer and saw a small path of downtrodden undergrowth and broken branches. It must have been the path he walked the previous night. Following the path, he found the small clearing.
The mother wolf lay where she fell, fur matted and covered in blood. Her neck was twisted grotesquely from the hydra's finishing bite. It pained Jake to look at the body of the once majestic creature.
The hydra's body was nowhere to be seen. Jake cautiously crept over to where its body used to be located. The dark stains of blood still covered the forest floor, but the hydra was gone. Jake knew he finished it. He received the Hydra Champion title from the interface. Maybe someone or something moved the body since he was there last. He scanned the clearing, looking for any signs of disturbance at its edge. He saw nothing. His improved goblin eyes noticed nothing out of place, other than the damage caused by the battle. The hydra simply disappeared.
Jake had a mission. He could develop hypotheses about the strange disappearance of the monster later.
The wolf's body was heavy. Even with Jake increasing his physical attributes by four each, he struggled to lift the huge animal. Once he had her on his back in a position he felt confident moving forward in, every step was a tribulation. One stumble or misstep and he might fall, unable to escape the weight of the nine-foot-long wolf slumped atop him. He would have looked comical to any onlookers, a small goblin carrying such a huge beast. He slowly trudged his way back downhill, taking every step carefully. As he passed by his camp, Jake decided to continue further to find a peaceful burial ground for the resolute creature. He also did not want the pup to become worked up at the sight of its mother, so soon after her death.
A single ray of light pierced through the dense canopy. The air was cool, and the ground was covered in an array of green ferns. The now familiar pine straw surrounding them. This peaceful glade was the perfect place to bury the wolf. Jake sighed and tried to place the wolf gently on the ground. Her weight and ungainly size overcame him, and he dropped her awkwardly to the ground with a thud. She did not deserve treatment that rough, after her heroic display of motherly protection the night before, but Jake simply did not have the strength to do better. He examined the ground in front of him, trying to decide the best place to begin to dig.
He heard the snap of a twig behind him and a rustle in the woods. Jake spun around, finding himself face to face with a pair of piercing green eyes. It was a wolf, bigger than the pup he left at his camp but nowhere near the massive size of the pup's mother. Its silver fur rippled as it walked towards him. Frozen in place, Jake stared into the depths of the approaching creature’s gaze, its eyes cautious and curious, as it closed the gap between them.