Onwards

While walking back, Sanjay and Dave talked about the weird world they have come into. And as they talked, Dave asked several questions about Sanjay's abilities. He was very interested in how he was able to make that barrier. Also, he wanted to know about the explosions that he heard while running toward him. They didn't sound like something to be caused by the rampage of the creature. It sounded as though someone was doing field testing of grenades…

It turns out that Sanjay chose the newbie magician class while coming here. With that class, he got the staff and three skills, of which one was the common tongue skill. One of the skills helps him fire a blue color ball from his staff. And the other one is the barrier that Dave saw him casting to separate him and the creature.

As they talked further, Dave realized that the magician class has offensive as well as defensive abilities. And it is a pretty good class considering the situation they are in. But it also has a lot of drawbacks. And the most lethal drawback was the fact that Sanjay was physically very weak.

His physical stats were not higher than two. The only stat that stands out in his stat window was his Intellect and Arcane. Sanjay's intellect was 5 while his Arcane was 3.

His level was the same as Dave's, he is a level-3 magician. But now that Dave has leveled up. And he had understood from the messages as well after seeing the stats that he could get more powerful if he invests stats points that are available to him in his stats menu. But for now, he had decided that he would just wait for some time before investing his stats points.

While walking, eventually Dave had the idea to try the staff himself. He wanted to see whether he could wield it and do some magic as well. But his plans were foiled because as soon as he touched Sanjay's staff, a blue color message appeared before his eyes…

.........…..

You need 5 Intellect to wield the Beginner Magician's Staff.

..........

"Hmm… It seems like I won't be able to use the staff after all" Dave said while reading the message. Hearing this Sanjay who was walking turned towards him…

"Why?"

"Well according to the message that I have received, it says that I need 5 intellect to use the staff."

"How much do you have?"

"I have 3 intellect."

"So if you invest 2 stat points in the intellect then you could use the staff?"

"Seems like it."

"Well, that is good news. If someone regrets their initial class choice, then they would be able to change it afterward after hunting some beasts."

"Right… But you know, it is very strange that one could simply hunt nasty creatures and get points for it. And you don't even have to be there physically. I may have trusted my sword into that creature's neck, but I didn't kill it. Most probably that creature would have died from blood loss. But still, I was rewarded for its death."

"But you were the one that inflicted that nasty wound on him, didn't you?"

"Yeah… But what if… Okay, hear me out. If suppose I am hunting a creature. And I inflicted so much damage to him that it is on the verge of dying. And then suddenly some other guys swoop in and deliver the final blow to it. So then what would happen then? Well, I get the points for it, or would that person who got the last blow would get the point?"

"Ah… I don't know…" Sanjay said while thinking about what Dave had said.

The duo walked for 10 mins more and they soon were able to travel back to the rock formation where they encountered the creature. As they got to the rock formation, Dave couldn't help but notice that Sanjay was sweating with the walk. His breaths were heavy as if they were doing power walking. While he, on the other hand, was completely fine. His breath was fine and he didn't feel fatigued at all. Seeing this he realized that stats points in the stat menu do help in getting a perspective of one's physical condition.

Not too far away from the rock formation was the body of the creature itself. By the time they had got to the body, flies were humming around the body. While the body itself was lying in a pool of blood.

Dave straight away went for the sword that was stuck in the neck of the creature. It took a lot of strength to pull it out. But as the creature was not moving, it became fairly easy for him to pull the thing out…

"It is a very big monstrosity," Sanjay said in the common tongue.

"That it is… So what should we do with it?" Dave asked.

"Well, after killing an animal, one should usually pry open its stomach and take out all the organs like the intestine, heart, stomach, etc. And while doing so, one should also drain blood out of the animal's body."

"So do you think you can butcher it?"

"With the tools we have? I really don't know. I have never used a sword before to gut an animal before. Also, your sword looks pretty heavy to me." Sanjay gave his honest opinion.

"Do you think we could store a body this huge in our inventory?"

"Inventory? You mean the one that we got in the system interface?"

"Yeah."

"We can store items in there?" Sanjay asked with astonishment. Hearing this, Dave understood that this idiot didn't even try to use and understand the different functions of the weird holographic system. And according to his stat, his intelligence is supposed to be 5…

Dave then ignored Sanjay for a second and put his hands on the creature's carcass. And he tried sending it to his inventory. Hearing his will, his system's response came quickly in the form of a blue color window…

..................

Sending the carcass into the inventory will use 25 boxes worth of storage.

Do you want to proceed?

Y/N

...............…..

Dave instantly answered 'yes' and the carcass of the creature vanished from the ground. Seeing this, he was very astonished and started bombarding Dave with a question about the system…

***

After securing the food, Dave and Sanjay were stuck in a very familiar situation once again. They may have food but they don't have water or any shelter. Also, they don't even know where they are. After Dave shared his concerns, Sanjay told him that everything will be fine…

"Don't worry. I used to watch a lot of discovery channels while back in India. So I will get you out of here." Sanjay said with a proud and confident smile.

"How is your watching a science channel gonna help us?"

"Let me show you…"

It is then Sanjay did what Dave failed in doing previously. He climbed up a tree. It was pretty spectacular to see the technique that Sanjay used. He wrapped his shirt around the tree and started climbing skillfully up the tree. According to him, he was used to climbing up the tree to pluck mangoes that used to grow on his grandfather's farm.

Seeing his skillful ascent and descent up and down the tree, Dave was fairly impressed. And after he got down, he told him about the geography of the terrain around them…

"Well, we are surrounded by trees in every single direction. But I spotted a few hills north from our position. While I also spotted a range of mountains in the east. I think we should move towards the hills in the north. They are close to where we are. Also, there is a better chance of finding a lake or a cave in the hills."

"A lake or a cave? How do you know that?" Dave asked.

"Well, I used to watch survival series called Man vs Wild a lot. And the anchor used to tell a lot of crazy things about survival. And he used to say that three things are essential for survival. And those are food, water, and shelter. We already have food. Now we are left with water as our main concern, we may be able to find some in the hills. But even without water, we could still survive for two days at least. Also, the hills would provide us with a good view of the area that could help is located a nearby water source."

"Amazing… You are a genius."

So both of them started walking towards the hills. According to Sanjay, they would reach the hills after a 3-4 hour walk. And as the sun is over their head then it could mean that they will be able to reach the hills before nightfall. And that was a good thing.

While walking towards the hills, Dave noticed that his sword had been damaged. The part of the sword that collided with the thick and strong bones of creatures had chipped the sword. And now there is a small chunk of metal missing from the sword. While his shield was perfectly fine for now…

***

With his sword in his sheath and shield in his inventory, Dave walked quietly beside Sanjay. He didn't look tired at all, while Sanjay was huffing and puffing as if they were hiking on a mountain. As Dave looked at his pathetic condition, he insisted that they should take a break to cool off. And Sanjay agreed to it instantly.

It was probably a good thing that they had not encountered another creature till now. And their journey had been a quiet one. While going towards the hill, Dave started thinking that maybe other people that he saw back in the facility may had have the same idea of going to the hill. So there was a high chance that they would encounter more humans on the hills.

After resting for a while, Dave and Sanjay eventually started moving again. But as they were moving they eventually came across something that made them stop…