4 Chapter 4 A Slow start

(here are the fonts used to differentiate and to help readers understand)

Thought or think

[digital or robot or digital communication voice]

{telepathy}

Big or loud echoing voice

chop

Dave keeps cutting trees.

chop

He is chopping some large, fine trees. He keeps chops and chops. He goes as another tree gets cut down and falls to the ground slowly, and then quickly, it lands down with a loud crash. "Timber!" Dave shouted. With the last tree down, he then slowly chops it into small pieces and starts witting the shorted wood into logs.

"Phew, and thats 50." He then looks around the forest and sees the work he had cut down; so many tree stumps can be seen, and fallen trees became wood logs. Dave then smiles.

He then starts staking them up into small pillars of these piles of logs he cut down, and when he finishes, he feels accomplished, and with this, he can get some money.

[Due to the player's hard work, the player gains 1 point in strength.]

"Heh, nice, I got another point!... wait!" he then realized and then started asking questions: "The quest says that if it exceeds the limit of logs 50, correct? What if it's above that?, can I get a bonus reward?"

[Affirmative]

"Now this would be like hitting two birds with one stone." He then notices this useful outcome. He notices that every time he does something like run 2 hours or cut trees with his strength, he will be rewarded by his efforts, with a point he will gain only if he makes effort, and time needs effort for this to happen. "Well, I mean, the system says that it is a class that needs manual labor to do anything," he says to himself.

"And plus, if I keep cutting trees, and the more trees, the more chances to gain a good reward? I hope so, alright?" he then saw the axe on the ground. He grabbed it, and he felt a bit weak and a little wobbly due to Dave keeping cutting the trees. He didn't rest, and his hands were a bit tired and exhausted.

"Whoa... i guess my body isn't like "the gamer" in Webtoon with the gamers body."

[answer, it is better for the player to know its limit and be able to rest from time to time. As an additional note, the Survivalist can help quickly recover stamina.]

Dave saw the screen, and its text intrigued and amazed him. He is so glad to miraculously unlock an achievement and gain this title. He then starts chopping once again, and then again.

"After 30 minutes of cutting, I have to rest and put the logs in my inventory."

[the player does not have one; the inventory you refer to is locked and unavailable on your current level.]

"Wait, whaa?"

[player has to carry them all to the village manually.]

"huh!?!"

The player must chop wood in order to get the bonus reward from the fruits of the player's labor.

"What! Are you kidding me? I can't carry this pile of wood! All by myself!"

The player can return to retrieve the wood and repeat the process; there is no easy route.

"Ugh. Alright, fair. I guess I'll chop all of these trees while I'm at it."

He tries to carry the axe again, but his arms give out, and he feels his arms are weak. He tries to pull the axe from the ground but can't succeed. Dave sees the flat screen in front of him once again.

[Rest, stamina will recover within the 30 minutes with the help of the "Survivalist" title equipped, cutting the time in half.]

"Oh well, I'm glad the title is super useful." He then sits on the ground and starts to rest, then sighs and then looks at the wood he cut down, and he sees that he chopped a lot of wood in just a span of hours of hard work. Maybe he should think about what he should do while resting.

"Right, I'm in this world with horrific black mist thingies; maybe I should need to at least prepare myself. Yeah, that is the most logical idea. What else? Where to now? Maybe I'll ask Sir Gundy; he seems kind of nice. I think, ok, what else? Right, since my skills are only 2 passives right now, maybe I should learn? Yeah, I should be."

With that thought on his mind, he then stands up and looks at the ace and then grabs it and then pulls it up and tries to lift it; he can at least feel the heaviness it gives, but it's bearable this time. He then turns around and sees a large tree. He then slowly approaches it and then takes a deep breath.

"So how much stamina do I have left?"

[Answer... 10% stamina after the player's rest]

"That's good for now. So how do I get a skill? Or at least learn it?"

[Answer: To be able to acquire a new skill, one must learn from a master, a book, or from observing; it depends on the chance.]

[To clarify]

[Learning from a master has a probability of learning a skill 85% chance to get one.]

[From observing others is to learn from others, 60% to 30% varies if the player understands what he sees and the distance the player is observing from, as details of movement are a must to understand without miss.]

[A book is 25% able to acquire a skill if the player understands the book and has a high intelligence stat to be able to understand the context.]

[However, to self-teach, without learning the proper way itself, it is effective if it's a very common skill. For example, make-up, writing, communication, critical thinking, and the like, as well as endurance, speed, and strength can be learned. The probability to acquire a skill is around 5%, but the skills to acquire them are also based on the determination of the player. If the player's focus and concentration are high, the probability will be boosted by an additional 15% or above, depending on how much focus and determination the player is.]

Reading the long text on the screen floating in front of him, Dave reads it slowly and focuses as he reads it word for word, and then after he is done, he nods in understanding.

"Alright thanks"

He then swipes the screen to the side as it disappeared, surprisingly worked and raised the axe and then looks at the tree and then looks serious, he have been chopping the whole two hours, he wanted to at least learn a skill, so with a deep feeling of MOTIVATION, and DETERMINATION, he then grips the Axe and then swings with all his might with a quick precision on the tree and then chops the tree, and then sees that his first strike, is much more stronger then his last strikes when he cut the other tree's before, and then cuts down again, and hitting with strong strikes, it was then the tree falls down once it hits the last strike and then with a loud thud Dave panting in exhaustion, he then sit down and then rest again, he was waiting for the notification will pop up, but none came but then he smiles.

"It's ok. I still have a few more hours before the sun goes down."

He then rested for another 30 minutes, resting his whole body, and did it again. He has to at least learn at least one skill and get free stat points along the way. After fully resting after a whole 30 minutes, he then continued to keep going for 2 hours of nonstop chopping.

Meanwhile, after those 2 hours in the village where Gundy lives, the man that Dave got the quest is a busy person as he tends to the farm. He then goes out of his farm and sees his farm grow slowly, only for him to hear Dave calling out to him.

"Sir! sir over here! I got some wood!" the man turned around with a serious face. "Took you long enough."

"Yeah, sorry about that." The man was cut off by his sentence.

As he sees Dave, he comes back with a stack of wood that is on a wheel carrier and is then pulled by Dave as he struggles. He looks very tired and obviously looks like he is overusing his strength a bit too much.

He was then able to reach by the front of the house of Gundy, and then Dave then pants as he lets go of the carriage. "This... this was the first load." Dave stops panting for a moment as he looks up and sees a speechless Gundy, and he exhaustively smiles and then waves his hand. "Oh, sir! Haha! Sorry about it. Hear the 50 logs on this carriage. I borrowed it from a nice woman who sees me struggling."

But of course, not only did he cut a lot of wood, according to the system, he mostly cut like 200 or more logs in his 2 or 3 hours of wood cutting; not only that, those hours were able to attain 2 additional strength points from his effort, but also, of course, a skill. He then silently side-eyed the screen and saw the stats displayed for him.

[Dave Lvl 1]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Jack of All Trades]

[Title: Survivalist]

[HP 15/15]

[Strength: 5 (+5)]t2 strength points added, becoming 5]

[Dexterity: 2]

[Constitution: 2(+5)]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Wisdom: 3]

[Charisma: 1]

[Inventory: none]

[Skills:]

[Versatile Memory Lvl. Max]

[Adaptive Instincts Lvl. Max]

[Axemanship Lvl. 1]

[Titles attained:]

[Survivalist]

It was a hard-earned skill and point! and it was a great start to his first day in this world, especially when he finally got the skill to protect himself!

[Axemanship Lvl 1] (passive skill)

[Skill Description: Master the basics of wielding axes with precision. This skill enhances your proficiency in handling axe weapons and tools, making you more adept in both combat and practical tasks like tree-cutting. As you progress, your mastery will grow, unlocking advanced techniques for improved efficiency and effectiveness.]

Dave laughs, or at least a slight chuckle is let out from my mouth, and I then smile. "That brings me to say, this is the first batch; there are a few more back at the forest I cut down."

The man hums as he sees the stock pile of logs I have brought, and he looks at me. "I see. You dont need to come back. Ill get the extra logs that you left out. It seems like you worked yourself out then." He looks at Dave with squinted eyes and then gets inside, then turns around and walks back inside his home, stopping and turning his head slightly.

The man, Gundy, turns around and then goes to his front door. He then turns his head at Dave and signals him to "come inside."

Without further ado, Dave follows to the house of the man and then looks around, and Dave sees a lot of leather and hunting tools. On the other wall, there is a bow, and a few arrows scatter along the corner of the wall. Dave can tell that this man, Gundy, is probably skilled at hunting animals and good at archery, as he can see the bow being displayed. With that thought, Dave stops and turns his head to the man himself, Gundy, and looks at the top of his head. As it does, he can see the HP and its basic stats, even his class.

[Gundy Taupher Lvl 15]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Animal Hunter]

[HP 50/50]

[AP 40/40]

[Strength: 28]

[Dexterity: 23]

[Constitution: 18]

[Intelligence: 7]

[Wisdom: 17]

[Charisma: 8]

Dave is really in question on the stats and HP, like 50? Isn't it a bit too big? while Dave is 15 HP? But he doesn't bother asking why or why not; he will not question his system with its weird stats and levels that just don't seem balanced. It really needs some fixing, but it is what it is.

The man, Gundy, walks more as he looks around for something, probably the reward for something. He then keeps looking around his house and sees a small pouch. And he takes it and gives it to Dave. Dave takes the small pouch from Gundy and opens it eagerly. Inside, he finds a handful of square-looking cards, and he looks at the man, and the man sighs, "That's your reward, kid." His eyes widen with excitement as he realizes that this is his reward for completing a quest or task. Despite his earlier reservations about the system's imbalanced stats, Dave can't help but feel a surge of satisfaction and motivation to continue playing. With this unexpected reward, he now has the means to buy using this currency. What should he buy? Well, he doesn't know, but at least he has something he can use to spend.

He then look at the screen in front of him, the holographic screen changes its text showing his accomplish of his first quest.

[Quest Cleared]

[Quest: Cut Trees for Gundy Complete]

[Description: Cut the trees in the nearby forest]

[Required amount: log wood 50/50 (exceeding the amount that is given will give a bonus reward)]

[System reward: 100 lien]

[Notice: you exceed the the amount that is given]

[Bonus reward: iron hatchet]

[Would you like to obtain rewards?]

[Yes/no]

Dave didn't answer and ignored it for now. As he swipes his hand very subtlely to not get suspicious of his movements, he then looks at the man and looks up again to see the stats. He notices that there is this AP thingy below the HP bar, and he looks at the man and doesn't ask for it, as he can probably ask his system if it knows something. "Thanks, sir, well, uuhh.. I'll be on my way then!"

He turns around with a smile on his face, for he is happy about his first successful quest, but he stops as the man, Gundy, speaks to him out loud to get his attention and says, "Wait, aren't you empty-handed?"

He then turns around and Dave just chuckles, of course he has one from his award, but he can't just press yes, and perhaps a hatchet came out of nowhere and the axe that he borrowed is owned by the man himself that Dave is talking to right now, so he instead shrugs and then gives a thumbs up "I'll be fine, I don't want to go hunting anyway, not like you, sir, I'm going to find a place I can ummm."

Now that Dave thinks about it, what is he going to do in this world? He never really asked that question. Well, he did, but he brushes it off and never gives it some deep thoughts or thinks about it again, and he then scratches his head for a while. What does he need to do? What can he do? He is not a fighter, well, he technically kind of is since he has a fighting skill at least for him to protect himself, but he is not the fighter; he has no experience and no knowledge, but he has a system that can answer that he needs to know the basics so that checks out, but what "can" he do? He then gives it some thought and then looks at the quill on the man's desk, as he stares at it heavily and then hums in thinking, and then he widens his eyes for a bit and looks at the man, and then he points at himself with his finger using the thumb and says, "I'm kind of a young writer, you could say, and you see, I was kind of lost, but thanks to you and the map, I at least know where I am now."

The man felt something of the mist due to Dave's charisma, but he didn't push it further and nodded. "Ah, but how did you get here without anything?"

Dave, however, smirked slightly, knew he would say that, and then started to act frustrated and sigh, "Well, the thing is, I got some problems on the way. I used to travel with a bag, but I got knocked out from behind, and the moment I wake up, all my stuff is gone. I just got lucky that I was alive."

"Ah, bandits and thugs, alright, makes sense, they roam around in these parts, you sure are a lucky son of a gun." The man nodded again in understanding, then turned around and approached his wooden crate, slowly grabbing something as Dave was actually surprised that he pulled off that lame excuse of a bullshitery he just made out of the blue. "Oh sh*t, it worked!?"

The man takes out a sheathed dagger and then closes the crate and gives it to Dave. "Here, take this, you're going to need it."

"Oh, thanks!" Dave gratefully takes the dagger, and it has a belt along with it too! He then quickly puts it around his waist, and it fits perfectly. He then looks back at the man again as Gundy reaches out his hand and asks, "Can you give me the map?"

Dave nodded and took out the map, and the man opened it, laid it down on the table, and then looked at Dave and said, "You know where you are currently?'

"Well, I know since my system told me," but he will just say he didn't since he really doesn't fully know where he is. "Well, not really. My head is hazy a bit from the hit those bandits gave me."

"Alright, come here, let me show you." I lean closer and lean closer to the map that is on the table as the man points his finger on the part of the map. "So this is where you are right here, this village is called Rusthall, on the continent Anima, in the Kingdom of Mistal. So where do you want to go? What do you prefer kid?"

"Hmm... Well, I prefer safe, of course, sir, and also a lot of greenery, as well as at least a good amount of forest, so I can at least get a part-time job in at least wood cutting, or, in a way, since I'm good at it, also earn an income while I haven't made books yet, heh." Dave then smirked slightly, and he pointed at himself again.

"Hmm, alright, by that, you should probably go to the continent of Sanus, where the kingdom of Vale is, it has greenery and other needs like shelter and food, and of course, lots of jobs you can apply for," the man, Gundy, then points it out on the map as Dave leans in closer to the map as the man says, "See that little island over here, which leads to this continent? This is Vale, the city that I'm talking about."

"Huh, alright, thanks, sir, so... uhh, how can I go from here to there?" He looks at the man with a question mark on his expression.

"Of course by transportation, but if you want to use the airlines you have to travel through here, Argus City, the biggest port around here, will take you at least 3 to 4 months by foot," the man points at the map of Argus City, which is around the winter area of the continent Anima, and Dave cringes at the far distance and looks at the man, "Any short cuts?"

"Well, you can go to Kuchinashi. Kuchinashi is a city in the Kingdom of Mistral. It is located to the south of the main city of Mistral. It is the main city, and you can take a safe ride of a bullhead and get straight to Argus City," he then pointed out at the map bit, and his face looked grim. "But I suggest you go avoid Kuchinashi and take a turn if you ever get closer to the city, it's home for dangerous men out there."

"Noted then," Dave can tell from the man's expression that he is serious about it. "So how long can I go there?"

"If you want to go by foot just about 1 half or 2 weeks from here," the man grabs the map and gives it to Dave as he takes it back and puts it in his pocket. "Alright, thanks, sir."

"It's nothing go on, kid. There is a neighboring village you can rest before the sun is down, it won't take you too long to go." The man walks out first and then points his finger to the north, and Dave walks out of the house and looks at the direction he pointed, and then he looks at him, nods, and looks up at the sky, seeing the sun is still barely up since it's around afternoon, which is close to night.

"Right, thanks, sir!" Dave begins to wave as he waves at the man, and the man yells out, "You sure you don't want to stay for the night? Grimm's are vicious at night."

Dave felt his spin get cold and gave him the shivers, but he didn't let it get to him, and he fully smirked and then put both his fists clashing on each other. "Thanks! But I think I can handle myself!" After all, he has a skill and a title with a buff, he sure thinks he can handle it, but he doesn't want to go and fight, but he is just level one, he needed to at least try level up, and it's the best opportunity. And with that, he then starts running off, and off to the distance he goes, and then swipes his hand in front of him as a holographic screen slides and appears in front of him, and then pants as he runs. He keeps running and running, and then looks at the reward that he hasn't received yet.

[Would you like to obtain rewards?]

[Bonus reward: iron hatchet]

[System reward: 100 lien]

[Yes/no]

He then presses yes.

[Player Dave Obtain today]

[Strength Points: 2]

[Skill: Axemanship Lvl. 1]

[Currency (lien):]

[Pouches: 1 bag 50 lien from Gundy>

[100 lien from quest award for completing Gundy ]

[Total currency: 150 lien]

[Bonus Rewards:]

[Hatchet from completing the quest]

[Dagger from Gundy]

To be continued....

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