Chapter 5 - Practice

[Eleventh Month, Second day, 4E 1894]

"This is your carving?"

"Yep! What do you think?

"It looks, well, like a carving. I can see a mouth here, some eyes."

"Yep! So how did I do?"

"It looks like a blind man made this!"

"It can't be that bad!" Rowan said with a pout.

He looked down at the carving he had worked on the past two days. Ever since his DEX went up to 7 points, he could control his hands and arms with much better precision.

He eventually decided to try carving a sculpture. After doing the necklace for a goddess of the ocean, he decided to do an aquatic themed sculpture.

At the bottom was water splashing upwards, from a fish leaping out from the water. Its tail was touching the base, and its head facing the sky. Its body was slightly curved, and its mouth was open as if it was trying to catch something.

"Come on, I spent pretty much two days working on this thing. My hands feel sore from doing such intense work!"

"That's common with craftsman. We work until our hands die and then we work some more! You will get used to it in time.

"Fine then Old John. What's wrong with my carving then?" Rowan asked.

"The eyes are lopsided, the mouth has no detail around the inside and lip, the fins are too thick and have too little detail on them, the curve of the fish has an area on the belly with a sharp angle, the scales aren't in any pattern at all, and vary in size from my pinky nail to my thumb nail when they should be the same size, the water at the bottom looks more like spikes than water, and then there's—"

"Alright, alright, stop! I get it!" Rowan said quickly. "It's my first ever sculpture, and I wanted to try something new. What do you think of for a first try?"

Old John slowly stroked his beard as he looked it over.

"Doing a carving of a picture on a flat surface, a two-dimensional surface, and doing one all around a piece, on a three-dimensional item, are completely different things. A picture and a sculpture have different techniques and skills that need to be used." Old John said.

"And it's really important to realize that a sculpture will be seen from multiple angles. From all sides, from the top, and even from below. With a picture, it is a flat surface, or atleast mostly flat. Because of that, there are less things to take into account. When you messed up on the belly of the fish, it was probably because you were too focused on a single angle and made the mistake." He finished and sat back down, waiting in silence.

Rowan stood there for a moment and slowly starting walking around the small 9 inch (23 cm) tall figurine. He could slowly start understanding the mistakes he made. Being single-mindedly focused for two whole days didn't help him at all, since he was focused only on how he wanted it to look from a certain place. He couldn't help but grimace a little. It was a mess.

"How would you rate this as a work from a first-timer?" He asked.

Old John looked at the wooden fish, then back towards Rowan.

"Let's put it this way. If you were to make another carving, with all the stuff you learned from this first time, the you would likely be able to get [Woodworking Lv. 3]." Old John said with a small smile.

"Really?" Rowan asked with a growing smile. There was a bit of hope in his eyes. It was a great learning experience for him.

"Probably. I initially thought you would have to use the Silver Star wood to reach level 3, but you might be able to do it without that." Old John said.

"Why is that?" He asked.

"The better the materials, the quicker your proficiency will rise. On the other hand, work with a material way below your skill set, and you won't gain anything. Work with too high above your skill set, and you won't be able to work with it, and will just butcher the item." Old John said.

Rowan gave a small nod. That made sense to him.

They talked for a bit before Rowan finally decided it was time to do a bit of training. He went back to his home and grabbed his iron hatchet and tied it to his pants with a small loop.

He didn't have anything better to wear, and with the same reed sandals and rough cloth clothes, he headed towards the center of the island.

It was around 1 PM, so it was bright and sunny. He walked across rough sand and sharp rocks as he got further into the island. He could see all around him, with little vegetation growing in the area. Looking back, he could easily see the town.

"Almost there…" He mumbled softly. He headed towards a flat area where there were a few tall weeds sticking up.

Once he reached the flat area, he checked his skills again.

[Hatchet Mastery Lv. 1] was the main skill he was going to try and reach level 2 with.

[Nature Camouflage Lv. 1] was something which he was going to test out near those weeds.

[Prowling Lv. 1] was one of his three abilities, and seemed to be the one which could work here. He didn't know how it worked for sure. [Ambush Lv. 1] likely needs a target in order to be used.

Rowan let out a soft sigh as he slipped the iron hatchet into his hand. He twirled it a little to get a better feel for it. It wasn't too heavy, and he could easily swing it around. He did some basic swings, getting used to the motions. He even did some quick chopping motions as well, since that's what would work the best with it.

He swapped the iron hatchet to his left hand, and went through the motions again. It didn't feel as natural as it did in his dominant hand, his right.

However, he kept the practicing. Might as well train both hands from the beginning, while he was still garbage at it.

"Should I try throwing it?" He mumbled a little while glancing the area for a target.

"No, it's best I don't. I don't want to chip it on accident. I can practice throwing in the future." He said to himself as he threw those bad thoughts away. It sounded fun, but still a bad idea for now.

Rowan took a deep breath before putting in a bit more effort into his practice. Doing various stances while practicing his swings. Both moving forward, side to side, and back.

If someone were to see him doing this, they would just shake their head in shame. He looked like a buffoon. But what could he do? He has never fought anyone before in both lives, and knew very little about combat. What he knew was from either reading, watching from TV or movies, or from videogames.

However, his [Hatchet Mastery] did help him a bit, and slowly he started to get a bit more comfortable with waving it around. As for his stance and movements, they were still abysmal.

After nearly two hours, and sweating a ton, he was panting and a bit out of breath. He knew he needed water, but that would come later. "Let's try out the other skills." He said to himself.

He walked towards the bushes and walked between the tall reeds before squatting down, facing back towards the open area where he was practicing. "Let's see if I can get [Nature Camouflage] to work." He muttered while he began focusing.

While focusing on hiding and blending in, his [Stealth] kicked in as well. After a few minutes, he glanced down at himself, and saw that both his skin had got a soft yellow color like the reeds, and his clothes had slowly developed a faint pattern similar to the reed's stalks.

"Haha! It does work!" He said with a bright smile forming. "Let's try [Prowling] now."

The difference between skills and abilities, were that skills were more on the passive side, always there, and always available when the conditions were right. [Stealth] and [Nature Camouflage] both were under this category. They just activated if he made the right movements or was in the right situation.

Abilities, on the other hand, were more on the active side and had to be intentionally triggered. The abilities he had were [Wood Inspection Lv. 2] [Ambush Lv. 1] and [Prowling Lv. 1]. He tried activating [Ambush] just for the heck of it, but as his body tensed, ready to spring forward, nothing happened. What would he ambush anyways?

Then he finally said in his head '[Prowling]'. His whole body suddenly felt restless, and he wanted to move. He needed to MOVE! His body quickly slipped out of the bush as he walked into the center of the empty area before he stopped.

"Whoa, that was weird." He said to himself. It's like kind of movement ability which couldn't be used when standing still at all. "Hmm… what is the definition of prowling? I wish there was a dictionary in this world. Wait, there probably is. I wish there was a dictionary on this island." He said.

"Isn't it something about moving around quietly, while not stopping, or something? I can't remember." He said with a soft sigh. He slowly walked back to the bushes and squatted down with his hatchet in hand, and slowly focused on [Stealth] and [Nature Camouflage] again. As he waited for a minute, he finally began to see the changes on his skin and clothes again.

The changes were the same from earlier. When he looked down at the hatchet, he could see that the wood had made a small change in color and grain, but the iron was still the same as before.

"Does it not work on metal?" He mumbled softly.

After saying that, he suddenly heard a hissing noise right behind him.

When he heard that, his whole body tensed up and he swung back without holding anything back while jumping forwards and back into the dirt clearing.

"Shit, shit!" He said over and over while turning back quickly while holding his hatchet ready.

Nothing came out.

Rowan slowly walked forward before peaking further into the reeds, and saw a snake.

Well, it was a dead snake now.

The snake was about 18 inches (45 cm) long, and at about 3 inches (7.5 cm) below its head, was a large gash that cut halfway through its body.

The snake was thrashing around, spreading blood around while it slowly bled to death.

"Damn. I hate snakes." He muttered. Even in his last life he hated them.

He couldn't let out a helpless sigh as he thought about how far he needed to go. Even an ordinary snake, which would be considered Grade 0, made him freak out like that.

After a minute of waiting for the snake to fully die, he was finally able to step forward and pick it up. He would be easily able to find somewhere where he could sell the snake to someone. After wiping the few drops of blood from his hatchet onto the reed stalks, he began to walk back home.

Along the way, he decided to check his Status Screen again.

Three of his skills had risen a level. [Nature Camouflage Lv. 2], [Stealth Lv. 2], and [Hatchet Mastery Lv. 2]. It was likely because of how he killed the snake. Sitting still in a bush, blending in to the surroundings, and swinging the iron hatchet on reflex.

Name: Rowan

Age: 15 years and 11 months [Born: Eleventh day of the Eleventh month, 4E 1878.]

Titles: [N/A]

Level: 1

Classes: [Forest Prowler Lv. 1]

Professions: [Woodworker Lv. 2]

HP: 50/50 (VIT x 10)

HP Regen: 0.05 per minute (VIT / 100)

MP: 0/20 [Unavailable] (INT x 10)

MP Regen: 0.02 per minute (INT / 100)

Stats:

STR: 5

VIT: 5

DEX: 7

INT: 2

WIS: 5

CHA: 2

LUK: 4

Phys ATK: 5 (STR)

Mag ATK: 2 (INT)

Phys DEF: 5 (VIT)

Mag DEF: 2 (INT)

Phys PNTR: 0%

Mag PNTR: 0%

Conditions: [Mana Locked]

Unique Ability: [Dormant]

Skills:

[Pickpocketing Lv. 1] [Woodworking Lv. 2] [Forest Striding Lv. 1] [Nature Camouflage Lv. 2] [Stealth Lv. 2] [Hatchet Mastery Lv. 2] [Dagger Mastery Lv. 1]

Abilities:

[Wood Inspection Lv. 2] [Ambush Lv. 1] [Prowling Lv. 1]