Huge Success

There was a prophecy that had been passed down through the generations in the village, stating that the Beast Spirit Wrox would one day send its strongest warrior to the village. This warrior would have the strength of a hundred, and would aid them with all their needs, be it food or water. As the guardian spirit of the forest, Beast Spirit Wrox was the subject of worship by the villagers. This warrior shall be known as the Holy Messenger, the embodiment of Wrox's message to them that it had always been watching over them since the beginning of time.

And now, the Holy Messenger had finally arrived!

The village was in a festive mood even days after the village chief had announced this fact, but there was one person in the village who was not genuinely enjoying the festivitie – Paul still had no idea what was going on!

After the treatment on the night that he first arrived, he had been arranged to rest in an empty house near the doctor's. Paul was relieved to finally get a place to rest, but he ended up not being able to sleep the entire night! It wasn't even that the bed was not comfortable enough, but he just did not feel sleepy at all!

This amazed even Paul himself, but he knew better than to go out wandering around on his first night at the village. If he was unlucky enough to be caught, he might even be treated as a thief or a spy. Thus, he simply sat in bed and tried to organise the day's events in his head, trying to gain a better understanding of the situation that he was in.

He wasn't too disturbed by the fact that his alertness never diminished over the course of the night. After all, characters in most role-playing games didn't need to sleep. Since he was in a virtual reality game right now, it wasn't surprising that he wouldn't need to sleep either.

However, he needed to find a way to convince the villagers that he was an asset to them even though he could not speak their language. It felt like preparing for a job interview all over again, only that this time, he had no way to gather any information beforehand about this organisation that he was applying for. He thought long and hard the whole night, but who knew that when the following day came, he would actually have visitors right at first light that would provide the answers to this problem.

This group comprised of mainly old and important looking people, escorted by some warriors who were dressed just like the lookouts from the night before. The old female doctor was among this small group as well. But one thing Paul never expected was that after they saw him walk out to welcome them, they would actually be shocked into immediately kneeling before him!

These people were naturally the village chief and other important elders of the village. Upon hearing that someone who was likely to be the Holy Messenger was heavily injured, they had their own doubts about the authenticity of the matter. But when they arrived, they actually saw that this supposedly heavily injured person was walking around nonchalantly like nothing had happened! Moreover, they could still see the freshly sewn up wound at his neck and abdomen since Paul did not have a change of clothes. With that, they had thoroughly believed in the village doctor's words!

Paul was completely at a loss upon seeing the group kneel down before him, but he did not let it show, giving the best poker face he could. He simply glanced lightly at them, then walked back to his bed and sat down.

Seeing the Holy Messenger just walk away naturally, the group of elders quickly got up and followed along to his bedside.

"Hurry up and get the Holy Messenger a fresh set of clothes!" the village chief ordered one of their escorts before walking up to Paul and spoke carefully. "Holy Messenger, may I know if you have anything that you wish us to do for you?"

Paul might not be able to understand his words, but he could tell from the body language of these people that they were being completely submissive towards him, perhaps even to the degree of worship?

Him refusing to give a direct reaction, instead walking to his bed, was actually done just to calm himself down and buy time to think about what to do next. At the same time, he needed to observe what these people would do in response to his every action.

"Leave for now, I want to rest!"

Paul gave a short wave of his hands, signalling for them to leave the room. He then turned around and lay right back down on the bed, back-facing the group. He still had no idea how he should act to be considered proper, so he could only do something like this to stall for more time.

"This…" all of them awkwardly turned to look at the village doctor, hoping that she could provide some explanation, but she was just as clueless!

Helpless and not wanting to offend the Holy Messenger who seemed to want to continue sleeping, the group could only leave the house. However, they immediately ordered to start preparations for a huge feast in order to celebrate the arrival of the Holy Messenger. With that, the entire village went into an uproar!

Over the next few days, Paul did leave his temporary house to explore the village. Wherever he went, the villagers would deferentially make way for him. Finally realising that he seemed to speak in a different tongue, the village elders also arranged an armed escort for him, hoping to get him whatever he needed. In fact, many of the elders wanted to personally act as his escort, but they was too old to keep up with his fast pace of walking, and had no choice but to give up.

Whatever he wanted, Paul needed only point to it, and the guard was supposed to obtain it on his behalf. But due to his identity, all the villagers simply offered the items for free anyway. Paul had no idea why they were being so generous and reverent towards him, but he did not want to push his luck too far either.

So after getting a bit of food, Paul simply asked for a sabre, a short knife, and a set of bow and arrows. He had already gotten a few sets of clothes from the village chief, and was now walking around dressed in clothes made crudely out of animal skin, so he did not require any more.

In fact, he realised that he wasn't too interested in the fruits and roasted meat that the villagers were offering either. Instead, he actually craved for the raw wild boar meat that he feasted upon on the first night!

After two days in the village, he had already confirmed that all the dead animals that were brought into the village by the hunters did not give off the energy of death. With that, he guessed that he would probably have to be the hand of the Grim Reaper and personally land the killing blow in order to be able to absorb that energy. Thus he decided that he needed to stop wasting time and start hunting again. That was the only way he could get stronger, as well as get that delicious meat from before!

Just like Lorne Village, this village similarly had its own hunting team tasked to procure meat for the village. However, Paul had no intentions of joining them like May did.

Not to mention that he couldn't communicate with the locals, but even if he could, what excuse would he have to convince the locals to let him land the killing blow? Won't that just make him look like some useless leech?

He carefully went through his three newly obtained weapons, and was relieved to find that although they were crudely made, at least they seemed sturdy enough. The last thing he wanted would be for the blades to break when he slashed down on a wild beast! Slinging his bow over his back, Paul kept his two other blades on each side, hanging onto his belt. With that, he made to leave the village for the first time.

When he first left the village, the villagers could not send anyone to accompany him due to his insistence. While they were still unable to communicate through words, it was easy enough to show his displeasure towards anyone following him. Thus the worried villagers could only watch helplessly as he left the village, praying in their hearts that he would return soon and not leave for good.

All right, time to start killing some beasts!

Paul's steps were light as he skipped through the forests, using his sabre to cut down the protruding branches that got in his way. He was already drooling as he thought back to the wild boar he had previously. He was completely looking forward to another feast of meat!

However, he soon realised that hunting wasn't as easy as he thought. He had gotten lucky on the first night when he managed to quickly encounter the wild boar, but despite walking along the river for hours, there were still no animals in sight!

Weren't there supposed to be animals by the river? Why couldn't he find any! Or was he just not observant enough to spot the animals that were hiding nearby?

Paul stopped and focused his eyes, carefully scrutinising his surroundings. He was now extremely determined to find all those animals that were trying to hide from him!

No luck.

Perhaps he stopped at a spot where there really weren't any animals around? He could only give up and continue walking down the river, hoping that the day would get better for him.

And it really did!

Calls from monkeys could be heard from the treetops just as the sky was turning dark. Paul immediately pulled out his bow and loaded it with an arrow, carefully watching the canopies above for any sign of movement.

There!

Paul hurriedly took aim once he managed to spot a monkey lazing on a tree branch, enjoying its fruit without a care in the world. At least it did not have to leave this world as a hungry ghost! Or so Paul thought when he loosed the arrow.

Thud - !

A dull sound reverberated through the silent forest as the arrow hit a tree trunk. He had missed, and not by a small margin too. In fact, Paul had no idea how the trajectory of the arrow could be so far off from where he imagined it to go! Were his eyes playing tricks on him?

Thud - ! Thud -! Thud - !

He let loose another three arrows in quick succession, all of them flying everywhere except towards his target. At this time, he had caught the attention of the monkey. However, it simply continued to sit calmly on the branch, staring at him in contempt, as if judging him as a loser who would never ever hit an arrow in his entire life.

It was depressing, but even Paul himself no longer believed that he would be able to use the bow and arrow effectively enough to hit the monkey. He made a mental note to practise with the bow when he got back to the village as he returned it to its original position over his back. He then turned to leave. There's no way that he was going to get that monkey unless he could climb trees better than it could, and he obviously couldn't.

It was only after the sun had set that he finally managed to spot a pair of deer idling by the river. By then, he had already been out of the village for more than 6 hours!

He drew his sabre carefully as he once again tried to approach in silence. However, even before he could attempt to get near, a thunderous splash from the river caught him by surprise! A crocodile had actually struck at his target before he could!

It clamped its jaws around the neck of one of the deer, while the other completely ditched its companion, speeding off into the cover of the trees. The trapped deer could only call out desperately as it struggled to avoid being dragged into the river, but there was no way it could fully resist the overwhelming strength of the crocodile!

Bit by bit it got pulled into the river, and bit by bit Paul's heart bled.

No, this cannot be allowed! He had spent the whole day searching and just when he managed to find prey, this bastard actually sought to steal it from him? In its dreams!

Paul brandished his sabre in the air as he charged forward towards them, determined not to let his day pass in vain!

He made it in time, reaching the two before the crocodile could pull the deer far enough. Seemingly shocked upon seeing a third party charge towards them, the crocodile quickly released the deer from its jaws and faced Paul warily. This moment was all that Paul required!

He swung the sabre down with all his strength, sinking it almost halfway through the neck of the deer that was already too heavily injured to make its escape. Blood spurted out from its neck as the deer died instantly!

This was it!

Paul felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins and a familiar stream of death energy rose from its lifeless body before entering his forehead. Once again, he felt like he had gotten slightly stronger. This only served to further confirm that his conjecture about the clue was right!

However, he didn't relish in the pleasure of being strengthened. Ignoring the carcass of the deer, Paul quickly looked towards the crocodile which was actually slowly retreating into the water.

It seems to be afraid of me? Could it be because it saw my majestic strike upon the deer that killed it on the spot?

But Paul was not intending to let it go either. He was already within striking distance of the crocodile, and if it wasn't going to attack, he would deal the first blow!

It was over in a matter of seconds. When he moved forward, the crocodile finally pounced forth with its jaws opened wide. However, Paul was ready for it and simply slashed with his sabre into its mouth, cutting through the vulnerable flesh within that was not protected by its thick scales. This completely incapacitated the crocodile, and Paul just finished it off with a few more slashes.

With that, Paul's first day hunting after leaving the village was a huge success!