Waking up the next morning Duncan was as usual completely refreshed, even though he went to sleep much later than it was normal for him. He put on some fresh clothes and packed the dirty ones for Clara, before he went to brush his teeth.
As he was brushing them, he checked his stats.
Name: Duncan Russel
Race: Human – Earth - UC3455788899332
Age: 22 – Earth years
Class: Jack of all trades
Level: 17
Unused stat points: 2
STATS:
Strength: 24.2
Dexterity: 28.7
Agility: 12.7
Vitality: 17.1
Endurance: 8.1
Perception: 26.6
Intelligence: 16.4
Wisdom: 17
Charisma: 3.7
PASSIVE SKILLS:
Acid resistance Level 1
Lightning affinity Level 8
Lightning resistance Level 11
Mental resistance Level 10
Pain Tolerance Level 9
Poison resistance Level 1
He noticed the two unused stat points he got from the level up in the mine and put them into Endurance bringing it up to 10.1. Charisma was worthless in his opinion if you died.
He thought about the skills he gained and brought up that list.
ACTIVE SKILLS:
Acting Level 3
Alchemy Level 9
Archery Level 8
Blacksmithing Level 7
Butchering Level 8
Cooking Level 4
Gardening Level 4
Identify Level 2
Learn Level 3
Mining Level 10
Observe Level 3
Reading Level 4
Swordsmanship Level 3
Unarmed Level 4
“I can bring Acting to level 4 next time I have access to Youtube,” he murmured as he rinsed his mouth.
He also made a mental note to use Identify more, since it has been stuck at level 2 forever.
He checked his Time Off counter and it was at 3 Hours 38 Minutes 17 Seconds.
“I have to be here at least one more day to have enough for a trip to a jeweler,” he thought to himself.
After that he picked up his dirty clothes and went downstairs. Wazsh was not around so he left them on the table and started looking for him. Duncan found him in the garden watering his vegetables.
“Good morning!” Duncan shouted.
“Good morning to you too, do you want to pluck a bird?” Wazsh asked while grinning mischievously.
Duncan rolled his eyes. He knew what a bird meant in British English so he knew what Wazsh was getting at. This great knowledge was imparted to him from his English teacher in high school when they discussed the language differences between British and American English and somehow, he never forgot it. Probably because it was totally useless until this very minute.
“I hope someone plucks you up someday,” Duncan replied.
“I will be done in a minute and we can do some plucking then,” Wazsh said and laughed.
“I put some dirty clothes on the table if Clara comes by and please stop it with the homonyms,” Duncan said.
“Here have some venison steaks while I finish this. You must be starving from yesterday,” Wazsh said and produced a plate and offering it. It was still steaming and a delicious aroma came from it.
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Duncan nodded as his salivary glands urged him to take it. So, he did and rushed back into the kitchen.
He ate the steaks with gusto and lamented the lack of bread and salad. Soon Wazsh came in and started hovering.
After a while he said, “Are you ready to pluck?”
“Yeah, let’s pluck,” Duncan replied while rolling his eyes.
They went in the cooler room and Wazsh took out a duck he was going to pluck.
“Turn on your cheat skill,” he advised Duncan.
“I find it easiest to pluck big poultry if they are hanging from the chain and you can use your weight instead of your arm strength,” Wazsh said before he tied up the duck’s legs and raised it to about the height of his chest.
Duncan noticed the size of the duck being around his size as it was raised.
“Start from the bottom and go down, raise the duck as you go to always have the optimal height. If we had a big pot, you could scald it beforehand and it would make the plucking much easier,” Wazsh explained.
Duncan could only hear low pitched bass sounds in his head as the whole thing was slowed down.
Wazsh started plucking the bird and was finished in about 10 minutes. Raising it several times to the optimal height.
“You can store the feathers as some are used for arrows or some other things like pillows. Depends on the bird of course,” Wazsh continued.
“Cut off it’s head and let the blood drain. Once that is done turn it around and open it up at the bottom and pull out the insides. Dump everything but the liver. Those can be yummy,” Wazsh said, and demonstrated the process.
“Then just wash it and chop it up into pieces,” Wazsh said and proceeded doing it.
As Wazsh finished Duncan’s Butchering skill did not level but the words Wazsh spoke were now ringing in his head and he could replay the moves.
He did the next one and his Butchering level went to level 9.
“You have two more birds to pluck if you have the stamina you plucker?” Wazsh said with a laugh.
“Grow up Wazsh!” Duncan shouted and Wazsh just grinned wider.
His butchering level stayed at 9 after the next duck but jumped to 10 after the eagle.
As Wazsh took it out Duncan took a good glance at it. It was 2,5 meters from beak to tail and it had a wingspan around 8 meters. It was huge. Duncan thought he will struggle to raise it off the ground but he was disappointed as its hollow bones made it light as a feather.
The eagle was much harder to pluck and took a long time, as some of its feathers were as sharp as razors. Duncan learned that lesson the hard way. This was also the first time ever his skill was aborted.
Luckily for him there was the inferior healing potion to the rescue and the nasty cut was handled in a minute. The razor like feathers were mostly on the outer part of the eagle’s wings so he didn’t lose too much time. He just lamented the lack of pliers to pull them out. After he managed to remove those, he tried reactivating the skill and it finished the job for him.
“In my next life I am going to be a vegetarian,” Duncan said after he looked at all the gore accumulated. The scent of iron which was the smell of fresh meat mixed with the smell of blood was also getting to him.
“Think of the stats Duncan…and the roasted eagle,” Duncan thought.
“In my country I would go to jail for this,” Duncan told Wazsh.
“Oh, yeah. The Bald Eagle is the symbol of your country? Wazsh asked.
“Yeah, and they are illegal to hunt,” Duncan replied.
“I will have to marinade this big boy,” Wazsh said as he stored away the buckets.
Duncan meanwhile just realized he made a huge mistake. He went and did butchering in his only clean set of clothes. He looked like he just came from a chainsaw massacre minus the chainsaw.
The animals were dead for a long time but like the food dishes in Wazsh’s inventory they were held in a pristine condition which meant the blood still gushed out as he cut into them for exsanguination.
“Give me your dirty clothes. I will bring them to Clara myself,” Duncan suddenly said to Wazsh.
“I thought we will could do the cat next,” Wazsh said.
“Later, I mean not today,” Duncan said in a hurry as he had quite enough of the bloody business of butchering. The only useful other useful thing besides the stats that he could think of, that came from it, was the variety of dishes Wazsh would serve over the next few days and his knowledge of animal anatomy was considerable better. He would know where to aim the pointy bits a lot more effectively for maximal results should he meet any.
“Alright. Alright. Hold your horses, I will bring them into the kitchen,” Wazsh said and left the cooler.
Duncan went to the bathroom upstairs to wash his hands, face and hair from the blood splatter before going back down. Soon they met up in the kitchen and Duncan hurried off.
As he walked, he calculated his stats in his mind. Duncan was very good at simple mathematics due to his father always asking him math questions when he was a child and it stuck. He added them all up and got 160 stat points at level 17.
Thinking of how he could compare his strength compared with someone with a normal class he divided 160 with 17 and got 9.5 approximately. There were 9 stat attributes and he remembered his average was around 7. That would add up to 63. So, someone with a normal class would get 5 stat points per level or 80 stat points till level 17 with 16 level ups. That gave them 143 points in stats compared to him.
Duncan was surprised he was not weak for his level but he knew this could go down very fast if he moved to a higher-level zone. If he leveled five times and didn’t raise his skills he would be falling behind again.
Duncan then considered another matter. He was like his class a Jack of all trades. He had a very uniform distribution of stats except for Charisma. Compared to the cat which had probably most of its stats in Agility and Strength it was no wonder he had trouble following its movement.
As he came at Clara’s door he knocked and the chubby woman opened it soon after.
“Hello, I have Wazsh’s dirty clothes and mine for you,” Duncan declared.
Clara nodded before she said, “Hello. Thank you! This saves me a trip.”
“Could you maybe do mine right away? I will pay extra,” Duncan quickly responded.
“I guess so, come in it will take a while though,” she said and opened the door wider.
Duncan came into a small room with racks for clothes. They were mostly empty but some had clothes hanging from them. There was also a big table with some weird markings on it.
“Which ones are yours?” Clara asked.
“This package here,” Duncan said and offered it to her.
She opened it and saw the brownish stains on them right away then looked at him wearily as the clothes he wore were stained in the same color.
“What did you do in these clothes? Why are there bloodstains everywhere?” she asked.
“I butchered a bunch of animals we caught and you know they tend to spray blood around,” Duncan said as he rubbed the back of his head.
“I forgot I only have two sets of clothes, so that’s why there is a rush,” he admitted.
Clara nodded and got to work. She first took the leather armor and laid it out on the table. Pressing her hands on a marking on the table she frowned until the markings lit up. Duncan could see a mist forming and going over his armor collecting the dirt and blood. The mist was gathering it in a ball which rolled down the top of the table into a bucket.
Duncan looked at the process in amazement.
“I need around five minutes before I can do the next one,” Clara said with a smile.
Duncan nodded before he asked, “What is this table?”
“It’s a cleaning formation my ancestor bought from a big city a very long time ago. It has been in my family for ages. It’s a family heirloom we pass down to our children,” she said with pride in her voice.
“Can it do anything else besides cleaning?” Duncan asked.
“It can return some fabrics into their original state if damaged and it also scents the clothes with perfume that you insert here, I just have to supply it with mana and it does the rest,” Clara replied and showed a small hole in the table.
Duncan nodded. He heard the word mana from games before and even had an indicator for it but he didn’t know how to use it actively. He saw it go up and down when he used Observe or other skills though. Wazsh used the word energy instead of mana but he guessed that was the difference between the natives and the rest.
They soon cleaned all his dirty clothes with five-minute intervals.
Duncan picked them up and smelled them with a smile on his face, before he had an idea.
“Do you have a place where I could change clothes, so you can do the ones I am wearing too?" he asked.
“Sure. You can change right here or if you are too shy use that storage room,” she replied with a smirk and pointed at a door.
Duncan quickly walked inside and changed and brought the dirty clothes out and Clara did her magic. After they were all clean Clara asked for 15 bronze coins and Duncan gave her 30 bronze coins which lit up her chubby face.
He enjoyed the feeling of fresh clothes on his body and thanked her.
“Come again anytime you feel dirty,” she said with a smirk.
Duncan waved as they parted and said he will. Thinking about it, as he was walking away, he could not lose the feeling the chubby middle-aged woman had other things in mind besides cleaning his clothes. He shook his head and let those thoughts drift away as he walked back towards the bar.