Chapter 6 - Surpassing Expectations

Kazimir woke up to another brisk morning. The chill from the air seeped into his body, and spending another night in the tree didn't help. His new, younger body was weaker than what he was used to and needed more care.

To expel the cold and stiffness from his body, Kazimir went through his morning routine. After doing stretches and external exercises, he went through his internal breathing and meditation. Again, Kaz felt a strange clarity after his internal meditation, this clear state of mind helped him sense a slight change in his body. He could feel a small heat that remained in his lower abdomen.

He first dismissed this as the warmth built up from exercise. He's always been able to focus on his dantian in meditation, so this must have affected what he was feeling.

After warming up, the sun was already clearly in the sky, so Kazimir went to wake up Obie, and then they woke up the rest of the goblins together.

Kazimir had the goblins collect the processed good that they prepared the day before. Today he was going to have the goblins focus on making tools and weapons. He wanted these weak creatures to have some way of attacking the Kobolds, so today would be their preparation day.

When the goblins brought the materials to Kazimir, he was pleasantly surprised by the quality of what he saw. Soft processed hemp, uniform and clear resin, sharpened stone blades and ax heads, everything he showed them yesterday was prepared perfectly and in large amounts.

Moreover, Kazimir was astonished at the fact that the quality of these things was better than what he was able to produce when he gave a rough demonstration. This confused him because these were the very same goblins that were still sleeping naked and without shelter. Seeing this progress, Kaz thought that they could be useful, these goblins showed some promise.

Taking the materials, Kazimir started showing the goblins how to use hemp fibers to make yarn, clothes, and rope. Then he showed how to make cutting tools and weapons. He showed how to use stone with wood and to haft them using the resin and the yarn made earlier. The last thing he showed was how to put wooden logs and planks together with the hemp ropes and to use resin in order to waterproof the structures into watertight buildings.

The goblins were very excited as they were shown these production technologies. Obie's eyes were shining with excitement, he only had to repeat once what Kazimir told him because the village goblins were taking in the knowledge like the dry earth absorbed rain after a drought.

Kazimir noticed that there were more adult goblins surrounding him and Obie, and when he went back to ask Josz about it, the old hobgoblin explained that with the amount of food that he brought back, the oldest of the young ones were able to mature almost overnight.

This rate of growth blew away Kazimir's previous understanding. No wonder there were still so many goblins in the village even when one or two of them would die every day. With enough food, this one goblin village could grow to the size of a kingdom in a month!

Once all of the instructions were given out, and Kazimir explained a simple layout for how he wanted a large log house built, he and Obie set out to continue their scouting mission. He was surprised that the language of the Goblins was becoming familiar, and he could understand more than half of what was said.

The morning was gone, and it was probably already after noon. The sun was high in the sky. Kazimir thought about how he got engrossed with the progress the goblins were making, and spent the whole morning in more of a survival or RTS game, and that now it was time to get back to his Action-RPG grind. Speaking of games, he decided to check his status.

"[Status]." Obie just looked at Kazimir, and then continued walking.

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Name: Kazimir Lin

Race: Human

Level: 5 Class: N/A

Strength: 7 [+]

Agility: 8 [+]

Vitality: 6 [+]

Intelligence: 6 [+]

Spirit: 2 [ ]

Unassigned points: <4>

Titles: N/A

Skills: <Survival lvl 1> <Martial Arts lvl 7>

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Hoh~ Kazimir realized he leveled up twice more. He thought about it, but he only killed three more Kobolds. The previous two levels were gained for defeating three Kobolds and two goblins. This meant that killing goblins didn't give him that much experience.

Two more attribute points was good, but he still didn't feel like he was lacking anything for now. Kaz felt expectant about being stronger and facing enemies that required an increase in strength... The Spirit went up to 2? Kazimir wasn't sure he knew what increased it, but from all his actions until now, it must have been his internal practice and meditation, the heat he felt earlier.

The other stats were self-explanatory, but Kazimir still wasn't sure what the Spirit attribute did. He couldn't understand the way to use it. He couldn't increase it with points, and it didn't seem to do anything at the moment, but here it was. Increasing all on its own. This was puzzling, but out of all the stats, Kaz thought Spirit was the only one that might have something to do with Magic and Qi, so he decided that an increase was a good thing.

Switching his attention to Obie, who was walking in front of him, Kazimir said, "Let's try hunting some animals today. I can't bring myself to eat a Kobold, but I want some meat. You know, meat!"

Obie nodded his head. He started thinking. This was the perfect opportunity to test out Kazimir's full strength. There are wolves, bears, and giant spiders in different parts of the forest, and each creature powerful in their own way but Kazimir should be able to beat them. With what he saw, Kazimir may even be strong enough to take on an Ogre all by himself! Obie had great confidence in Kazimir. Obie had to plan this out carefully; he would gather info on Kazimir and make him like Obie more by helping him get animal meat.

"Ther ar woolves or bers we can hunt. Woolves hant in nambers, but bers are big and hav a lot of meet." (There are wolves or bears we can hunt. Wolves hunt in numbers, but bears are big and have a lot of meat.)

Kazimir thought about it, wondering which would be better. A large number of wolves would be good for leveling, but bear meat... Bear meat is delicious.

Just thinking about the bear hotpot that Kazimir once had in the mountains made his stomach rumble. He already had some sweet fruit that he could use as a sauce, and the goblins had some big pots. Vegetables would be better, but beggars can't be choosers.

"Let's hunt a bear. Where can we find one?"

Obie explained the location of the bear that he knew of. They had to skirt around the largest camp of the Kobolds since it was on the way to the bear cave. While they were going through the Kobolds' territory, Kazimir took the opportunity to get an idea of the terrain and the Kobold numbers.

The Kobolds also had a cave, larger than the goblin cave and seemingly much deeper. There were regular patrols around their camp, always three Kobolds at a time. Kazimir left Obie deeper in the forest as he scouted out the camp.

He saw what he thought was the Shaman. It was a taller Kobold than the others in the camp. The Shaman had painted its face red, and had black paint around its eyes. The Shaman carried a gnarled wooden staff with a red rock affixed to the top. It wasn't clear enough to be called a gem, but possessed a unique charm.

Kazimir didn't take any action against them at this time. He just took notes of the number of Kobolds, their patrol routes, and the best places to strike.

After confirming all of the information he wanted, Kazimir retreated and went back to meet up with Obie. His mind was filled with future plans. He envisioned leveling up through a small-scale massacre. Obie looked at this human that he was spending so much time with, and a small chill went down his back. Kazimir's determined face looked sinister at this moment.

Obie and Kaz spent the next hour walking through the forest until they found signs of a bear. They had tracked the bear's tracks back to a den. The trees around it were scratched up with huge claws. When Kazimir walked up to one of the marks, he saw that the claw marks were so big that he would believe it if someone told him they were by an excavator.

"What kind of bear did you say this was?"

"Thees is a Rok Berr. It iss big, and strrong. Its called a Rok Ber becas it's bonz stik out ov its skin, and look like rocks." (This is a Rock Bear. It is big and strong. It's called a Rock Bear because its bones stick out of its skin, and look like rocks)

Kazimir imagined what kind of giant monster this bear might be, and felt that he found a challenging fight.

The two were tracking the bear's tracks from its den for another half an hour before they found the bear in a clearing. The bear was 'playing' with what seemed to be a dozen Kobolds. Torn limbs and splattered blood were all over the place and the Kobolds were falling left and right.

Kazimir sucked in a breath as he took in the sight of monster. On its fours, the bear was ten feet (three meters) tall and 16 feet (five meters) long. He imagined that if it stood up on its hind legs, then it would be three times as tall as himself. The bear had a row of bone spikes protruding along its spine and shoulders like an armor. The skull of the bear was on the outside like a bone helmet and all of its paws were covered in bone pieces like armored gauntlets.

Kaz hesitated, this giant monstrosity was much bigger and too different from what he was expecting.

When he was preparing to fight a bear, he didn't expect that a bear of this world to look like... this.

He didn't have any armor, and only had a rusted shortsword and stone spear to use for this fight. He didn't think the dagger would even do anything.

He was preparing to back off and challenge some wolves to level up and build his confidence before coming back for this bear. He wasn't so lucky.

Obie glanced at the bear in terror, and looked again at Kazimir as the latter walked back. Kaz obviously seemed to not want to fight the bear, maybe he wasn't confident about fighting the bear.

Obie thought he may have been a bit rash in his estimations.

*Snap*

Realizing that they would be backing off for now, he made to turn back and accidentally stepped on a twig! He was regretting everything about his carelessness, he cursed him for having feet that would betray him like this!

Hearing the snapping of the twig, Kaz whipped his head around to look again at the bear, only to be met with the bear's glowing red eyes staring right back.

*Grroooaaar~!*

The Rock Bear roared, stabbed the last surviving Kobold with its claws and threw it at Kazimir. The Kobold's body crunched against a nearby tree, blood spattered onto Kazimir's face.

"Run!"

Kazimir started running, and Obie was screaming as he followed. They were frantically weaving through the trees, jumping over logs, and doing everything they could to distance themselves from the Rock Bear.

The bear ran after them while ignoring the terrain. Trees, stones, logs -anything in its way was either smashed apart or flung away by its charge.

Kaz was unable to increase the distance between him and the bear. He could run faster, but that would mean leaving Obie behind. Kazimir looked back, and although the bear looked like it was in a frenzy, it was not speeding up or making any effort to stop them.

It wants us to lead it to other prey! Kazimir realized that the Rock Bear was just playing with them. With its height and speed, it could have caught up to them at any time. The crazed look and growls were all for show.

"Run away, I'll buy you some time!"

Making up his mind, Kazimir turned around and brandished his spear. He couldn't afford to take a direct hit from the bear. He wasn't sure he could kill this bear. He considered abandoning Obie, but he already decided to use the goblins as his foundation in this world. Obie's death would pose too many problems.

Taking a deep breath, Kazimir formulated his strategy.

"Come at me you ugly bastaaaaard!"