9 A strange encounter

Chief and the rest of the villagers arrived shortly. Chief spoke with the guards a little and then came to me. He looked at the boar and then at me and finally said.

, Young man, you really outdid yourself. When I first saw you a knew you were a special traveler, but I didn't expect that you would surprise me this soon. I heard that you slew this beast on your own. Lord of the Forest was on your side this day."

, Lord of the Forest was indeed on my side today. I pray to him to give me his blessings in the future too. But I must also thank the chief and Master Donar. With my new weapon, I managed to kill this Rage Beast and to return to the village alive."

I raised my staff high so that the chief could see it clearly.

, This is indeed Donars work. He rarely makes staffs but this one is a good one. But let us talk business now. I heard from guards that you want to sell this boar to the village."

, Yes that is correct. But I would like to make something out of leather for myself and also to keep a little part of the meat."

, That is not a problem but you would need a little so we can process the leather and the meat."

, Of course, chief, I will still be staying in the village. If you need something from me just ask."

, If I find some task for you I will certainly ask for you. Now, how much meat would you like to keep for yourself?"

, Maybe two weeks worth of jerky." I said.

, That is fine" said chief, now let us go to my house so that you can take your reward."

Two villagers started pulling the boar, and I went after the chief. We arrived shortly at the chiefs house and I waited for him to get in and bring the reward. Chief handed me four silver coins and said to me.

, I know this is not much but don't worry we will make you a great leather armor and maybe even shoes if there are enough materials."

, No worries chief I believe you, thank you for everything so far."

, Young man, you are too humble. Come to my house in five days time, by then armor should be complete. If in the meantime I need something from you I will task the village guards to pass you the message."

I bid the chief goodbye and logged out of the game. I was feeling a little tired, maybe my fight with the Rage Beast wasn't as easy as it seemed in first place. I slept a little longer this time. Mental fatigue was a real thing a thought when I saw the time when I woke up. I took something to eat and went outside for a regular run. This became my routine since a started running every day after my father told me to take care of my body.

Every morning I run for 10 km around our neighborhood, and I do some push ups and sit ups when I come home. This is enough for me, I mean I am not Wolf. Even though I don't think that he needs exercising he used to be in the gym lifting weights every time he was of duty. Now, though since Age of Gods came out, the only thing he lifts above his head is an ax probably.

Since we all had some time we had a little family gathering, talking about events that happened this week and what we will do next. After Sunday family lunch, and moms delicious apple pie, I once again entered the game.

First I went to Donar's smithy to thank him for making me an amazing staff, and then to his house after he told me that his wife needs more herbs. She told me to bring her as many herbs as I can and as a reward, I would get a little herb gathering spade. This toll shouldn't be looked down because it will be a great help to me in the future when I gather herbs for my personal use. Like yesterday I would also gain EXP but this time only 500 for every 20 gathered herbs. I then went to the temple and prayed to Veles for safety in his forest. I hurried on my way and invigorated with my yesterday's success went deeper in the forest.

At first, I collected herbs at the edge of the forest but then I decided to try to go a little further away. As I was collecting the herbs the only animals I could see were small animals like rabbits on the ground or squirrels in the crowns of the three's. From time to time I could also see birds flying above me freely in the air. Since I knew which herbs to collect, the work itself was relatively easy. I also saw some mushrooms but since I couldn't identify them I passed by them in a case that they were toxic.

As I was going through the forest I was starting to get careless. My victory from yesterday made me feel unbeatable, and the only thing I paid attention to were herbs.

Then, after I dug out one herb I looked up and turned around and then I saw him. Lord of the forest.

He was looking at me with his eyes which looked like a forest itself. His eyes were the first thing I saw, and as I was looking into them I thought I was in an ancient forest, in its hearth and that I will never get out. I looked into his and he into my eyes. How much time passed I have no idea.

I managed to see him entirely, but his eyes were still looking at me, and I like possessed still had one eye on him. Even though this was the first time a saw a bear this close, I saw a few of them in the zoo when I was little, but I knew that there were not many of them looking like this. He was twice as big as the Rage Beast from yesterday, but if he would stand on two legs, I had a premonition that he could reach the sky.

Everything about him seemed normal, his fur, his snout, his paws, and his build, it all said this is an ordinary brown bear. But the longer we looked at each other I could feel that this bear was not ordinary. I finally remembered to use Appraisal but no matter how many times I used it I could not find out what was exactly in front of me. This was maybe one of those famous wild bosses, bosses who roam specific regions or an even the entire world in some cases.

The only thing I knew at this moment was not to upset him in any way. If this was as close to the reality as developers said it should be, bears should soon go into hibernation. When I realized that I freaked out even more. Before hibernation bears eat to gain strength for the winter sleep. I wouldn't like to be his dessert before a big sleep.

Maybe some greedier players would try to hunt this bear, but I knew that that was a fool's errand. Not even a hundred players together could hunt this bear. I didn't even have the slightest idea to try fighting it myself. First of all, even one of his paw strikes could and me, and the second even more important reason was that bear was a symbol of Veles. He even walked in bear for most of the time, if not his statue in the village wouldn't be a bear but something else. Who knows this may be Veles himself.

But whoever it was the only thing I could do right now was to wait. Wait and see what will his move be. How much time passed I don't know. It could be a minute, an hour, or maybe even a year, maybe everything until now in my head was enough for one second to pass, I don't know. Even though I looked at him all the time, finally I didn't have enough strength to keep my eyes open so I blinked. The next moment when I opened my eyes he was gone. I was as surprised now, as I was when I first saw him.

I looked all around me for a good minute, and when I calmed myself down a little my knees dropped and I lied down on the grass filled with relief. I looked into the sky wondering what just happened. I tried to figure it out but I couldn't. This was what it was supposed to be like, I thought. As realistic as possible. I could even feel sweat dripping down from my forehead onto the ground. I decided not to relax in any kind of situation wherever I found myself in the future.

Also, I decided not to kill animals in the forest for leveling, only if there is a good reason. I wouldn't like to make Veles mad after all. Who knows what punishment he could rain upon me or anyone by the way in the future. Maybe it wouldn't come immediately but someday when you hope the least divine punishment may come for any of us. Not just Veles, it wouldn't be good to anger any of the gods. In mythology divine punishment was not so rare of an occurrence. If someone angers Perun I imagine that the lighting and thunder would fall upon him at once.

After I finally calmed down, I continued with my herb gathering. Honestly, I didn't pay attention at all at my surroundings, even if I decided to always do so. I thought that after this strange encounter nothing out of the ordinary would happen today. I was right by the way, the rest of the day was as boring as one of my classes, in the eyes and ears of most of my students.

I continued with finding herbs and filling my bag with them. Because I had the almost full bag I decided to start moving towards the village. I went a little towards the fields with a thought that I will maybe find some herbs over there. And I wasn't wrong there were a lot of herbs in that area. Having nothing else to do I pulled herbs left and right not caring for anything else. In one moment I heard a notification in my head.

, You have learned skill Herb Gathering

Herb Gathering

Passive Skill

Increase double the speed of gathering herbs"

I was really surprised at first. But then I remembered that I collected more than a hundred herbs in total including yesterday. This skill will be very useful in the future. If I can I should learn more about herbs. Who knows if there will be any healing classes, so herbs will be essential for dressing wounds if needed. Since I collected over 80 herbs today I decided that I could return to the village.

I went directly to Donar's wife where I gained 2000 more EXP and also a little spade.

Herb gathering spade

Common

Attack 1-2

Herb Gathering skill +1

A tool for gathering herbs

Nice, I thought, this tool can be used forever. This will significantly reduce my time in gathering herbs which can be used for many different things. I also raised my level by one, now I am level 3. Now, what should I do for the next level? Maybe I can gather herbs again tomorrow. And what do you know, I can. Donar's wife said that I can bring as many as I can. The only reward was 500 EXP for every 20 herbs, but this was a great leveling method. I should use it for as long as possible and raise my level again.