13 Old Friends

"Maybe its one of those magic bows that doesn't need arrows?" Lloyd suggested. She was secretly envious of the loot, but it wasn't worth fighting about at this point. Markus nodded at the idea and aimed the bow to the side. After drawing back the bowstring, he released it with expectation.

Twaaang

The string vibrated back and forth and nothing happened. Punch couldn't help letting out a snicker. Markus sighed and sat back down. He stored the bow and thought about what to do from there. Outside the camp, Fists and Baby were still busy processing the body of the large boar. If anything showed up, they would be able to alert the three of them sitting in camp.

Markus decided to stop thinking about the arrow problem and turned toward his status.

[Name: Markus (mortal) Level 2

Status: 20/20 hp | No conditions

Experience: 20

God's Favor: 1

Talents: [Lazy Genius]

Skills: [Leatherworking Level 1], [Survival Level 2], [First Aid Level 1], [Deception Level 1], [Block Level 1], [Stealth Level 3], [One-handed Weapons Level 2], [Naturalist Level 2], [Looting Level 2]

Abilities: [Mind Block Level 1], [Vital Strike Level 2], [Danger Sense Level 2]

Message: You're pretty skilled for a mortal.]

Looking at his conditions, it seemed the combat had used up his [Satiated] status. Since he still had it before. Markus decided to keep that in mind for next time. Perhaps there was a limit on temporary health that wasn't clear in the description of the condition. The next thing he noticed was a new line appeared in his status.

Markus opened the forums and searched the term 'God's favor.' Despite several results, none were related to the status. Most were discussing game lore. He did notice someone talking extensively about Hades and the underworld. Markus wasn't too interested in mythology, despite being aware that the game was heavily influenced by it.

The main reason for this was one of the developers talking about the game having its own story that may be contrary to the known mythology. Although a lot of names and concepts would be similar, the game itself would develop in a unique way. Markus surmised that learning too much mythology would affect this judgement.

For example, perhaps he learned that a certain monster would mainly use ranged attacks because the lore suggested it. He would go through the preparations to face a ranged enemy only to discover that it only used melee attacks. Despite his previous attitude toward gaming, he still had incredible gaming sense and a strategic mind.

Markus tried to further inspect the new entry in his status to no avail. A lot of aspects in the game required the player to explore on their own. He sighed and turned his focus to his armor. The best he could do was patch it up since there wasn't enough leather to make a whole suit again. He removed his armor and shoddily repaired the holes with another piece of leather placed over it.

"Ugh, it looks so ugly…" Punch commented while he was working, but he didn't bother to put in any extra effort into its looks. He focused merely on function. And he smiled when a notification appeared.

[Leatherworking has increased to level 2.]

[Leatherworking Level 2

Rank: Mortal

Effect: Items and equipment made from leather are 15->30% better quality.

Message: Leather jacket, leather pants, leather shirt, leather boots, leather undergarments…]

'Well deserved of being called genius…' Markus put the armor back on and went to where Baby and Fists were. Although a corpse only had 5 minutes for the loot timer, once the process of skinning and processing the body reached a certain point, the timer would be extended. Seeing that the whole boar's skin was successfully removed, Markus was impressed.

However, there were many chunks of flesh or torn section of the hide. In this case, it was quantity over quality. The looting system made the hides come out perfect, albeit in fewer amounts. When it came down to butchering the flesh, Baby took over. Using a long piece of woven leather rope, they tied the boar's back legs together and hung it up over a sturdy branch.

Taking his short sword, he began cutting into the boar with expert skill. Markus was curious and watched the whole process. It was quite interesting as he had never seen a pig being butchered before. Sensing his gaze, Baby took a short break while putting away the cuts into his inventory.

"I grew up on a farm. I've been butchering pigs since young." He explained.

"It's impressive. How does the experience get distributed in a group and when manually processing?" Markus expected to team up once the tutorial ended, and everyone entered the shared server.

"Ah, that's right. You've been solo so you probably don't know. The system determines the person who contributed the most and gives it to them." Fists explained while Baby got back to butchering. "It's really grindy, but with more people we can take on stronger opponents. Hah, guess that isn't relevant to the Gaming God!"

Markus nodded his head. They didn't seem to have faced stronger enemies yet, so their understanding of experience distribution wasn't very advanced. It could work differently the later you get into the game. While pondering the future, he suddenly realized something.

"How did you four manage to get into the same instanced server?" As far as he knew, everyone was thrown in randomly.

"Hm? What do you mean? Didn't your organization buy you a server spot?" Fists said with a perplexed expression.

"According to the manager, our company paid extra to guarantee spots in the same server." Lloyd happened to walk out to check on the three of them and overheard the question. "Were you originally part of a team, Markus?"

"You could say that…" He said offhandedly. He thought about his friends from his earlier gaming days and missed their closeness. The four of them reminded him a lot of his old friends. He hadn't seen them in a long time. 'Maybe I should reach out to them…'

Tenthousandfists: "Danger! Something is approaching."

Markus narrowed his eyes and Lloyd took out her shield and spear. He walked to the side and utilized his stealth under the cover of the nearby trees. With a stealth level of 3, most things would be unable to detect him. As soon as he hid himself, Fists smacked his lips. Despite watching him move into hiding, even with his perceptive talent, he still lost track of Markus's position.

"Help!" A voice was heard from the direction Fists pointed out. Two players were running at top speed while being chased by three large wolves. Markus observed in the dark and frowned. He recognized the two people. They were exactly the two players seeking him and PKing.

Markus: "Watch out, those two are PKers."

FinkLloyd: "Understood."

"Hurrah! Fight, fight fight!" Lloyd shouted out in a beautiful piercing voice. Markus felt something affect his mind and automatically activated [Mind Block]. Then, he saw the notification pop up in his game log.

[Abnormal condition: Blood Boil]

[Mind Block]!

Because of where he was standing, Lloyd accidently included him in her ability. Fortunately, Markus was able to resist it. However, the two players ahead were unable to resist. Their skin turned red, and their eyes became bloodshot. They immediately stopped running and turned around.

"Die!" "Die!" they simultaneously shouted and began attacking the wolves. Markus was impressed with Lloyd's talent. With Fists's perception talent, he now knew two of their talents roughly. Markus also estimated that Baby had a craft-based talent. The bone needle and bag were a lot better than the materials would normally allow.

The two went all out against the wolves, not bothering to defend at all. Markus was impressed and understood why she never used the talent before. He wondered what the statistics were of the condition, but seeing the two ignore bloody wounds, it must be pretty strong. He slowly crept up closer and closer in order to find a good opportunity to strike.

[Wolf (mortal) level 2]

[Wolf (mortal) level 1] x2

Markus watched the damage numbers pop up over the heads of the wolves. Lloyd kept back with Baby and Fists's to her flanks. Regardless of who survived the fight, they were ready to follow up. What surprised them was the Caster suddenly stepping back and raising his staff up to the sky.

"Solis!" A blinding light broke through the night sky and descended onto the three wolves. After the pillar of light faded, the wolves lied in a heap of burnt flesh. The duo had already broken free from the status condition and turned to face the group.

"You'll pay for— gasp" The fighter suddenly inhaled sharply and saw a blade come out of his abdomen.

Critical!

-12

[New ability Sneak Attack learned.]

[Sneak Attack Level 1

Rank: Mortal

Effect: While attacking from a hidden state, deal 33% more damage (Half for ranged). 10 minutes cooldown.

Message: I'm just dying in your arms tonight!]