2.3

Just what is this thing, a friggin' Caerbannog Rabbit?! Its head is badly damaged, as is the rest of its body but despite that it was still able to move around to such a degree!

I instinctively backstepped to prevent it from biting into my throat but that didn't stop it from pressing on the attack. It even threw an occasional body slam into the mix! And let me tell you, when it connected, I felt that with my whole body as a numbing shock spread throughout it! This is really dangerous. I cannot allow any more of those to hit me or I might be toast for sure!

I hacked and slashed at the damn thing but it was as if it had engaged some kinda 「Zombie-Berserk Mode」 or something, because no matter how many times I managed to cut it, it just refused to drop dead and die. Damn it, why are my attacks not working as well as they were just a few minutes ago?! Whenever I could I sneaked two or three strikes in, but it just completely abandoned any form of defense in favor of an aggressive offense. This is getting worse by the minute! If I don't do anything, I might die to this rabbit for real!

I somehow managed to avoid its subsequent attacks and regain my proper fighting posture and even hit the Slow Rabbit in the belly, making blood gush out of it. Good, it looks like that slash was deep enough to actually do something to it. If I can just keep this up, then I might be able to finally bring this bastard down!

But despite my best attempts, it still refuses to drop dead.

Another blow. And another one. Another one, another one, another one. At long last, after what seemed to be an eternity for me, the Slow Rabbit finally bites the dust and melts into the ground after emitting a puff of smoke.

「Haaa….」

I made a big sigh as my shoulders were frantically moving up and down in tandem with my ragged breath and the aching which was resonating throughout my whole body. That… was… beyond… ridiculous now! Is the difference between a normal weapon and the one obtained through Bonus Weapon really that big? I mean seriously, compared to Durandal, the Copper Sword was like, thousand times weaker, maybe even more! Or could it be that this particular Slow Rabbit was bugged beyond all rationality with how insanely strong and tough to take down he was?!

Speaking of which, he should have had a Lv displayed next to his name? I know it was thoughtless of me not to confirm it when the battle started, but I just kinda sorta assumed that it's going to be Lv1, the same as all the others. But now I know what to look out for, so from now on, I will be using Durandal to fight with every enemy that might show up to make sure that a fuckup such as this one won't happen again. I now see that the copper Sword is, without the shade of a doubt, the shittiest of the shitty weapons in this world. As for Durandal, did it not have some kinda life steal or absorption skill? I'm sure that with it I will be healing my wounds faster than the enemies will be able to inflict them upon me, limiting the damage taken to the bare minimum or maybe even eliminate it altogether. With that in mind I put away the Copper Sword and all the Rabbit's Fur I managed to collect and equipped Durandal again.

Not long after that encounter I happened upon another Slow Rabbit, but this time I made sure to check it out with Identify. So those things are Lv1 after all? I approached it while remaining cautious and prepared my Holy Sword, slashing at it while it was unaware of my presence. It disappeared in a puff of smoke while leaving the Rabbit's Fur behind while relieving some of my body's pain and recovering a bit of HP. It's great that this is an actual recovery, not a placebo effect. That way I should return to my best condition after defeating just one or two more enemies. I bagged another copy of Rabbit's Fur to my Item Box and continued to look for more prey.

There weren't that many monsters left in this neck of the woods anymore, but I continued my search in hope of finding even a single one, but I guess that has its merits too. With no monsters in the immediate vicinity of the village I will be able to live that much more calmly, at least until I will finally decide to leave this place for good.

I wandered around the forest until it was late afternoon and I killed around 10 more Slow Rabbits. It's not getting dark just yet, but it will soon be 10:00 PM and the last thing I want to do is to wander around in the forest I have no knowledge of when it is getting so late so I should probably make my way back as soon as possible.

Even though I could probably still fight some more, that was definitely enough harvesting for today. I slowly exhaled, looked at my own opened hand and used Identify to check my Status.

Player Name: Kaga Michio

Character Information & Equipment:

Class: Villager Lv3, Hero Lv1, Thief Lv3

Weapon: Holy Sword Durandal

Accessory: Ring of Determination, Sandals

Looks like my levels are slowly rising and the best way to keep it that way is to continue to seek and kill monsters. It might also be connected to the fact that earlier my Bonus Points went up for some reason. That reason might be one of the Jobs leveling up to Lv2. So does that mean I scored some good EXP for those Bandits who attacked the village? I must've gotten so much that I didn't notice gaining a Lv2 in my Jobs since that would explain why reaching Lv3 took me almost an entire day of farming basic mobs. But if the leveling process is so easy, then why are most of the villagers such low-levels? Could the speed of gaining EXP have something to do with this? Questions for later. For now, it would be nice to receive confirmation regarding Bonus Points. Are they really increasing with each Level Up? And how do I use them without resetting my character all the time? If I want to be able to pull my own weight in here I better find the answer to those questions fast. See, this is by far the biggest problem I have with this shitty game: it doesn't give you any Tutorials on how to do things, it's just 「Hey dog, you've been thrown into the game and like, that's it man, go figure the rest out for yourself because we're too lazy to explain even the most basic of mechanics.」. Oh come on, even Dark Souls did it better!

For now I unequipped Durandal and headed back in the direction of the village. On my way back I was thinking of resetting my character again and trying the other options from different levels of the Bonus Weapon skill, which were 5 in total, but then a thought occurred to me: those different Bonus Weapons will probably be weaker than the Holy Sword Durandal, a weapon from Bonus Weapon 6, which was capable of decimating enemies with a single blow, not to mention that it's HP Absorption power was necessary for me to recover my health effectively. So maybe I should keep Durandal instead of experimenting with different ones after all? Also, the Rabbit's Fur is quite small and light, so I wonder how many of those would I need to gather in order to make a coat out of it? Something is telling that it would have to be around 100 or 200 of them, maybe even more. Not to mention that the selling price probably won't be that high. All right, Durandal it is. I don't care if using it against Lv1 monsters is going to be considered a cheat or not. All that matters is my own survival and the comfort and ease of the hunt.

While finally making up my mind I have reached the back of the village.

Next to the Village Chief's house was another one almost as big that had its doors widely opened. A three-story house that the merchant came out of in the morning. I wonder if this is his shop, his personal house, or maybe two of them combined into one? I took a peek inside and surely enough, he was right there behind the counter.

「Welcome!」

There weren't any shelves with products of any sort, but it was obviously a store of some kind.

「Sorry for the intrusion.」

I called out to him from the entrance as I made my way inside.

「Oh, if it isn't Michio-sama! What brings you here today to my fine establishment? Do you perhaps want to do business?」

「That depends. What kind of goods are you selling here, exactly?」

「Oh, just a little bit of everything. This is the only store in the entire village after all. As for the amount of goods we sell, the exact amount depends on how much we order from the city and how long it will take for them to get delivered, hence the occasional shortages.」

So that's why all the counters and shelves are almost empty? Awful. This level of civilization is just the worst.

「Can't you do something to always keep some of the goods at hand instead of waiting for them?」

「Even if I wanted to do so, the only type of goods that could be managed in such a way would be slaves for sale. And that is, you know…」

The merchant spoke quietly.

I understand what he was getting at. Even if he wanted to do so, slaves were not a commodity that could be easily obtained even when there was a high demand for them, and they cannot be stored in warehouses like fruits or vegetables. They might not have any rights in this world, but that would be too inhuman of a treatment.

Wait a minute, does this guy think I've come here to buy a slave for myself?!