Level up
Diedrich hadn't felt hunger in the past few days however now that he was in the real world or whatever this place was it seemed the feeling returned.
Walking towards the boar while taking out the goblin dagger, Diedrich touched the boar to see how he was going to skin it when a sudden window similar to his popped up.
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Species: Jungle Boar
Gender: Male
Tier: 1 (Lv:7)
Affinity: none
Skills: Charge, Ram
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Diedrich was slightly surprised at the sudden window as he didn't think he could see another living being's status however, it seemed he could.
Having looked it over Diedrich willed it away making it disappear, he then finally remembered his Vine treant that was still firmly holding the boar's leg and mentally commanded the treant to let go, he would check it out more carefully later, however for now he focused on the boar.
Diedrich had never skinned an animal before but vaguely remembered having seen a video or two about it, and felt it wasn't that hard, so he began the process…
A few minutes later Diedrich was covered in blood and shit, plus the boar looked like a wrangled mush in front of him.
"Fu*k", Diedrich had messed up, although he had managed to save a few slabs of meat from the chunky boar, he apparently had no skill at skinning. He wasted a lot of meat trying to get rid of the skin while he also sliced its intestine making all the shit the boar had in it cover its body, ruining most of the meat, Diedrich felt disgusted.
While looking at the sh*t covered body of the boar, he saw something that stood out and was still shining red even in the now mostly brown body, Diedrich didn't want to touch it so he got a twig and was able to pry it out, after cleaning it with leaves Diedrich found out it was a red oval-shaped object.
The object was about as big as the nail of a finger, which was why Diedrich previously couldn't see it as the blood and size of the object camouflaged it. When inspecting the round object a screen popped up.
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Item: Soul core (Tier 1)
Grade: Normal
Description: Contains power of a Rank 0 boar. Power can be assimilated through absorbing the soul core. Will lose increments of 10% of soul power every 30 minutes, until it reaches 10% of original power.
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Diedrich looked at the core and pondered for a moment, he figured that by ingesting this soul core he would probably become stronger or level up, however, there was a major dilemma in front of him as he did not know whether to eat the soul cores or to throw it away, as it had been covered in fecal matter.
Thinking for a while Diedrich suddenly thought of his treant and looked at it as he had an idea, "fertiliser is basically excrement, so... it should even enjoy it". Diedrich told it to hold the orb, although when it came to absorbing the orb he had no clue as the treant had no mouth.
"I should probably check to see if I can view its status maybe it will give me an idea", Diedrich thought as he touched the Treant.
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Species: Treant (✩)
Gender: N/A
Tier: 1 (Lv:1)
Stats: Strength: 2, Intelligence: 0, Agility: 5, EP: 3, Constitution: 4
Affinity: Nature
Skills: Limited vine manipulation (✩)
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Skills:
Limited vine manipulation (✩)
Description: Can manipulate the bodily vines of the user.
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Diedrich was pleasantly surprised that he could see the Treant's stats and skills, although the stats were as Diedrich suspected trash, however the skill made Diedrich get an idea about how it could absorb the soul core.
Diedrich gave a set of mental commands and saw the treant move the soul core to its chest where its vines then extended moving around the core and pulling it into his chest.
At first nothing happened but after a while the Treant's vines suddenly began moving around its body seemingly pulsing with energy as it grew.
A few seconds later and treants growth had stopped. The treant still looked the exact same except that it was now 10 centimeters taller, Diedrich checked its status.
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Species: Treant (✩)
Gender: N/A
Tier: 1 (Lv:3)
Stats: Strength: 4, Intelligence: 0, Agility: 7, EP: 5, Constitution: 6
Affinity: Nature
Skills: Limited vine manipulation (✩)
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It had gained two levels and all its stats had increased by two except for intelligence which was still at zero.
"So the soul core makes you level up"
Satisfied with the knowledge he had gained Diedrich returned his focus to the boar.
He first made a little fire by finding two dry twigs where one was bigger than the other, it was a bit difficult as most of the twigs still had moisture in them, so finding them took a while, Diedrich then ordered the Treant to begin moving the smaller stick up and down in a straight line across the bigger stick until a grove formed and eventually smoke with a few embers.
Adding some dry leaves to the embers caused a little fire which he grew by adding dry twigs after.
Diedrich then found a large moist twig and with wood manipulation transformed it into a skewer which he added the meat to and let the Treant hold and rotate.
"This is tiring", Diedrich found having to imagine what the Treant would have to do the entire time mentally exhausting, and having to continue this for every single step the Treant would take on his journey was too much, making Diedrich look at his skill Novice Life Whisperer which made him able to give his Treant's basic instructions.
He activated his skill and zoned out, when he regained his composure he found himself in a dark green space that seemed to expand infinitely with his Treant standing in front of him motionless.
"Interesting", Diedrich thought as he tried to figure out how the skill worked.
It took a while but eventually he got a hang of it, he just had to think of what he wanted making an image of action be etched onto the treants body, although when he tried to make it do things that were too complicated like fighting or hiding, the image would simply dissolve.
Diedrich could erase the image whenever he wanted and after a bit of experimentation, he decided to give it five instructions although the most important was follow, creating an image of the small treant following a dark humanoid figures back.
The other instructions were punch, skewer rotating, and the rubbing of two sticks against one another to start a fire, as he assumed he would hunt regularly in the future.
Done with the instructions Diedrich ended the skill and found himself back sitting on a fallen tree looking at his treant holding the skewer, Diedrich thought of the instruction for the treant to start rotating the skewer automatically and it became active relieving Diedrich of his mental exhaustion.
Diedrich then checked his status and found his EP had gone down by 1 and immediately cringed understanding the implications of it, as it meant that every time he activated one of the basic instructions for his treant it would cost him 1 EP.
After 5 minutes the meat was completely cooked and Diedrich started feasting.
Having eaten his fill Diedrich stood up with a content smile, although the meat wasn't that tasty with no spices, something about hunting and making your own food made Diedrich feel satisfied. There was still about three kilo of meat left but Diedrich decided to abandon it in case any predators could smell it.
Diedrich then continued his journey to the mountain with his treant.
It took him five hours to reach the foot of the mountain, making the journey a bit longer than expected as the animal path eventually went in another direction, so Diedrich had to start making his way through the dense vegetation. Along the way, Diedrich had also encountered a pack of 4 boars and was luckily able to avoid them.
The sky was now turning dark, and Diedrich decided it was better to sleep now and continue tomorrow.
At the base of the mountain he spotted a small crevice that was about a meter wide and 3 meters deep, Diedrich made a door for it using wood manipulation and camouflaged the entrance by stockpiling a bunch of leaves and sticks before entering with the treant and falling asleep…