Chapter 4 Life choices

Race - Shadow Panther (Adult)

Rank E

Holy Hell!

My body freezes in place and a cold sweat appears on my back as the panther looks around, after a few minutes it goes back into the cave. Once it finally leaves, I turn and run away as fast as my short little legs will take me.

After finally making it back to camp after seeing the adult shadow panther I realize that I am the smallest fish in this pond.

I'm going to have to do some serious ranking up if I don't want to be one shotted by one of these adult monsters, I say to myself still filled with terror after seeing the adult Shadow Panther. I lean up against a tree and attempts to get some rest after this stressful encounter and tomorrow I'll have to make a game plan on how I am going to start getting stronger. Before I try to fall asleep I absorb the monster core I got from the shadow panther, after I finish the fire crystals on the cavern ceiling start to dim making it look and feel like nighttime.

Hours go by without an incident, and the fire crystals are slowly starting to brighten.

I awaken and am well rested, ready to take on the world, yesterday's encounter has really opened my eyes to the rank gap between myself and the bigger monsters around here.

Since I now have these boots and my trusty spear, I should be able to take out the infant monsters pretty easily.

I drink from the river to quench his thirst after waking up and formulating a plan. Having access to water but still not having any food, I'm going to have to see if there are any fruits or something to eat around here.

Grabbing my spear and heading into the forest, making sure to stay away from the panther den, I notice some mushrooms growing at the base of some of the trees.

Picking one and observe it, it's a black color with golden strips running across the top of it.

Eclipse Mushroom

A mushroom that grows in damp woodland forests, its outer appearance attracts many omnivorous monsters to eat it. One eclipse mushroom will fill an F Rank creatures belly for 6 hours.

Well, this mushroom tastes like dirt, but at least I won't have to worry about being hungry for the next 6 hours though. I start picking some more of the mushrooms in my immediate surroundings and putting them into my backpack.

Well, if I can get past the terrible dirt flavor I'll have some more later. Now that I have at least a little something in my stomach it's time to start hunting for some monster cores, I declare confidently.

Going back towards the river I follow it upstream to see if I can find some monsters trying to get something to drink after they've woken up from their slumber.

Soon after he spots in the distance a group of boars, quickly hiding behind a tree he makes his way closer to count just how many there are.

There seems to only be six boars together by the riverbank, I'll have to be careful, just because I have a weapon doesn't mean I need to be careless. I'll try to take out the nearest one as fast as I can and then try to do crowd control on the other five, I strategize as I gets closer to the group of boars.

Slowly creeping towards the nearest boar, I make ready my spear, when I get within two feet the nearest boar, which seems to start looking around as if it smells something. I immediately leap forward and stab my spear into its eye piercing its brain. The other boars notice me and start to charge at me, I start to circle around them making a monster train behind me as I quickly turn and jab my spear at the leading boar.

It pierces its throat and the boar falls forward doing a cartwheel as it dies, the other two boar directly behind it trip over its lifeless corpse and roll towards me. Slashing my spear in a wide arc, I cut one of the boar's abdomen open while cutting open the shoulder of the other. The remaining two boar charge me with eyes filled with rage and bloodlust.

I jump sideways barrel rolling as they charge past me, missing me by a hair. I run over to the injured boar and stabs it through the heart killing it instantly. Four down, two to go, crouching readying my spear as the final two boar come running back at me.

I sprint towards them covering twice as much ground as they are and as I get near them, I jump over them and stab my spear into the back of the furthest boar causing it to fall over in pain.

The other boar keeps running due to its momentum, I quickly stab the downed boar piercing its skull and killing it instantly. The final boar looks at me with sheer hatred in its eyes after seeing its five brothers dead all around it.

In its madness it charges me as I plant the butt of the spear in the ground and lowers the point aiming straight at the charging boar.

Splat!

The boar runs itself clean through with the spear, the tip of the spear entering is skull and due to the momentum, it exits through the boars ass.

(Shadow Boar (Piglet) killed)

After their bodies disappear I collect their cores and start to absorb them.

Phew, that was a little more challenging than I thought, but it wasn't too difficult, I exclaim as I sit against a nearby tree. I guess I should add some more of my free attribute points since I have a good little bit.

Status:

Race - Goblin Runt

F Rank

Strength - 7

Intelligence - 15

Stamina - 7

Dexterity - 7

Vitality - 7

Agility – 7 (+5)

Magic -

Luck -

Available Attribute Points - 4

Skills:

Appraisal Rank F

Sneak Rank F

Craftsman Rank F

Perfect, now I need to go find some more monsters so I can start power grinding, I state as I get up from the tree trunk.

Several hours go by and I am back at camp cleaning up after a very successful hunting trip. I sit down and eat some more of the mushrooms since I haven't been able to find anything else that could be classified as food. Finally having a full stomach since I came back to life two days ago, I think back at some of the things I've seen since then, as I looks at my status panel.

Status:

Race - Goblin Runt

F Rank

Strength - 10

Intelligence - 20

Stamina - 10

Dexterity - 10

Vitality - 10

Agility - 10 (5)

Magic -

Luck -

Available Attribute Points - 4

Skills:

Appraisal Rank F

Sneak Rank F

Craftsman Rank F

I've finally balanced all my status together except for my intelligence, I sigh in satisfaction.

After killing so many monsters in today's hunt, I have gotten quite a few pieces of loot. I start by going through and organizing the loot by rarity, since I actually got some of four different rarities. Now let's see, I have twenty common, fifteen uncommon, five rare and one epic.

I think I'll go through the crap ones first that way I'll be left with all the good ones at the end, I muse in excitement.

(Gently used bandage) x5

(Used backpack) x4

(Boots) x3

(Pants) x2

(Gloves)

(Iron ore) x5

I put on the pants and gloves and put the iron ore and the bandages into the backpack, not needing the other items he put them to the side and started to look through the uncommon loot.

(Dagger)

(Backpack)

(Boots)

(Leather breast plate)

(Leather cowl)

(Leather grieves)

(Clean bandages) x4

(Preserved meat) x5

Whistles.

This is a pretty good haul, grabbing the backpack I notice that it's bigger than the other ones and that it is made of a more durable material, while putting the bandages into it along with the food and the ore I got earlier.

I put the armor to the side along with the dagger in case I happen to get something better from inspecting the next few pieces of loot.

(Short sword)

(Spear)

(Skill tome - awareness)

(Skill tome - slash)

(Fire Starter)

Two Skills!! Finally! I'm finally getting some skills to use. Let's take a look at them and see what they do, I yells in excitement.

Awareness (Rank F): enhances the user's senses passively allowing them to have a greater understanding and perception of their surroundings.

Slash (Rank F): allows the user to create a physical slashing attack.

Alright! I got a passive and an active ability. With awareness I'll be able to sense monsters around me so I shouldn't have another incident like I did with the panther. With slash I'll be able to use it with my weapons or my claws to better kill my opponents, I start formulating for my future battles.

Now it's time to finally see what piece of epic loot I ended up getting!

(Armor of Steadfast Ward)

Sweet! Now I finally have some good armor, let's see what this bad boy is all about, I murmur to myself.

Armor of Steadfast Ward - Grants the wearer plus 20 Strength, plus 20 Vitality and plus 25 Stamina.

Holy Shit! This is way to OP for someone as low a rank as I am. With this I'll be able to kill up four times faster. With my new weapons I'll be able to be more versatile when fighting my opponents, I shout in shock and excitement.

Status:

Race - Goblin Runt

F Rank

Strength - 10 (20)

Intelligence - 20

Stamina - 10 (20)

Dexterity - 10

Vitality - 10 (20)

Agility - 10 (5)

Magic -

Luck -

Available Attribute Points - 4

Skills:

Awareness Rank F

Slash Rank F

Appraisal Rank F

Sneak Rank F

Craftsman Rank F