First Encounter with Participants

Sam started picking the spikes out of the bear's body. By the time he was done the remaining three came and four of them worked together and dragged the corpse to the middle and started dressing it.

When Sam started dissecting the bear and tore open its torso, he found a small scroll inside, which surprised all four of them.

He took the scroll and opened it to see that it was a point scroll. There is a number 10 written on it and there is runic figure with a space in the shape of their token in the centre of it. The expressions of everyone immediately brightened up on seeing it. It is only second day and they already got their hands on a point scroll.

Eve and Shor felt more delighted and satisfied on their decision to follow Sam. When they are in their own fantasies, Sam's voice interrupted their thoughts.

"Three each for Jack and me. Two each for two of you. Have any objections?" Eve and Shor came back to their senses and nodded immediately. After all, they didn't do any major work other than following Sam's instructions.

Sam took his token out of his pocket up on gaining their approval. The token has a number 6 on it and there is his name engraved under it. He placed the token on the scroll and the runes brightened up.

Soon, the number on the scroll changed to 9 and then 8 and when it finally reached 7, he took the token and looked at it. There is a number 3 on the back of the token indicating his points.

The points from the point scrolls can be see on the badge, the points for the survival and obtained from the battle are calculated and noted down by the elders.

After four of them are done with the point acquisition, Sam continued his cutting and soon the bear was cut into several parts. He took the major parts with mean and passed them to Jack and buried the innards of the bear. Even though they can be used as food, carrying them with them in the forest is akin to putting a target on themselves.

After that all of them picked the bear meat, and spikes to the cave, but before doing so, Sam set the log trap again.

"Why are laying the trap again?" Shor asked out of curiosity. Sam smiled and said.

"If someone comes here and accidentally gets hit, we can gain a point for taking out an opponent."

"But will the elders consider it?" Eve asked this time. This time Sam replied rather loudly.

"Why won't they? After all, setting the traps also is my prowess and everyone who fell under my trap are obviously took down by me. If they don't think so, I can't do anything about it anyway."

Sam and the team left with their things and entered the bear cave. The cave is a little deeper than the previous fox cave and it is also more spacious. But this also made it a little darker on inside.

They started a fire in the middle. Shor and Eve are responsible for roasting the meat, while Jack and Sam are responsible for exploring the cave.

After enduring the horrible stench of blood and gore in the cave along with the dirt, they finally found two things inside the cave.

One is a weapon, which is an axe and the another one is a defence scroll. They took the axe and the scroll back to the camp.

Sam and Jack walked outside the cave after giving the defence scroll of Eve and Shor as they took the bear hide which he was able to remove cleanly from the bear and walked towards the stream nearby.

They moved stealthily and after making sure that the coast is clear and there is no other creature at the stream, Sam washed the bear hide and made use of the make shift bamboo containers he made to collect the water back to the camp.

After coming back to the cave, the four people had a sumptuous meal with bear meat. Even though the taste is full of game flavour, they didn't feel repulsive at all.

After the meal, everyone started to take rest. Sam took the bear hide and started working with the dagger and the thin rope made of the bamboo skin. An hour later, he had a bag in his hand.

Sam tried to pull and stretch the bag to test it and then he let out a satisfied smile. The bag is nothing special. It doesn't even have any aesthetic look. All it has was space to place things, a cover over to not expose the things and the rope attached to hang it over a person's shoulder.

Jack came over and looked at the bag and nodded in admiration. He really wants to know how Sam got so many ideas and how he was so familiar to the forest and have survival skills of normal human. Of course, he will never know.

Sam washed the remaining meat clean and kept to dry for air. After that, he wrapped the meat in green leaves and stored it in the bag along with the defence scroll. He left some meat to eat at night. It is already past noon. Just as he was thinking that they should go out and explore the area

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh…."

A scream disturbed their peace. Sam and Jack looked at each other and smiled. The scream came from the direction precisely where they set the trap.

They looked at Shor and Eve as Jack asked. "Do you guys want to follow or you want to stay here?"

Both of them looked at each other and decided to follow them. Jack hung the bag containing the meat and scroll. He took a bamboo pike and passed the dagger to Eve while he passed another pike to Shor.

Sam held the axe as four of them slowly walked towards the spot where they took down the bear.

When they reached the spot, they saw a group of people surrounded at the tree where the bear fell. There are people from another team. And that too it is a full team with ten members. But only people standing and the last one is laying on the ground unconscious.

The group looked pretty haggard. He even saw some people from the Misty river city and there is also guy who scored twenty points in tower of will. The team members are pretty flustered as they saw the person laying without any motion.

"Sam, I think we should leave. They outnumber us easily." Shor said from behind.

Sam smiled and replied. "Their number is the main advantage for us. Look at them, from their faces and situation, they didn't even seem to had proper food and water since yesterday. They might have been having a hard time, adapting to being a normal human with hunger and exhaustion. This is a best opportunity to farm points."

Then Sam looked towards a nearby tree. There is a middle-aged man in black looking at them. The remaining three also followed and felt a little surprised as they thought that the elders will not shoe themselves at all.

"Elder, I will be getting a point for the guy who fell due to the log trap right?" Sam asked with a smile. The Elder didn't answer but only nodded them.

The team who are at the tree finally sensed Sam and his team's arrival. The guy with the twenty points who seemed to be the leader of the group took a step forward and asked.

"Are you responsible for this?" He asked as he pointed at the log swing. But he didn't get an answer, instead he got a smile from Sam in return which he took as acceptance.

"Despicable."

"Yes, how can you use such underhanded schemes?"

The teammates behind him started to complain.

Sam didn't bother with them and turned towards his three teammates. "We are taking them down. You guys had a meal and proper rest. So, all you have to do is take down at least one weapon and we can do the rest."

After he finished saying, Jack placed the bag near a tree and picked the bamboo pike, which is as almost as long as his sword. Shor and Eve also held their weapons tightly as they looked at the group.

When their opponents looked at Sam and others having weapons like dagger and axe, they were filled with envy. Even the bamboo pikes made them frustrated. They also took some time to examine other people's appearances. Even though they are still covered by mud. Their faces seemed to be fresh and energetic. Unlike them, who are completely avoiding the danger.

"Derek, what should we do?" One of them asked the leader, who is the guys with twenty points at the tower.

Derek was also a bit dazed and was burning with envy. He was avoiding the danger as much as he thought that he can start fighting after he found some weapons and scrolls in the forest. He thought that they might be merely hidden in some places and he just have to find them.

But when he looked at the four members in front of him, he thought that he has to face dangers directly to get the benefits. He also thought that the remaining six people are out in process of getting the dagger and axe.

The question from the teammate woke him up from the daze. He thought for a moment and his eyes were sharp as greed clouded his mind.

"There are only four of them. If we take them down, we can get those weapons. Let us surround them." He said in a slow voice. Then he walked towards the guys who fainted due to log trap and broke his token. An elder came and vanished along with the guy.

The nine members them exchanged glances and surrounded the four people.

Sam just smiled and looked at Shor and Eve. "You only have to hold on until we can help you. If you can take at least one of them down. That is even better."

After saying that Sam and Jack nodded at each other and made their move. As both of them are warriors their prowess came into handy here. Three people came at Sam and the remaining six went two vs 1 against the remaining members.

Sam swung his axe directly at the chest of the guy in the middle. His move was ruthless and cruel. He doesn't care if he injured the other guy.

The guys who was targeted wanted to dodge, but both sides were covered by his teammates and he can only move backwards, but the axe still pierced through his chest and blood came out of it.

The remaining two are dumbstruck at the scene and before they could even make it out what happened, an axe swung over to one of them and pierced itself into the abdomen of another guy.

The remaining person wanted to run. The three people weren't able to put up a fight at all. They are weak as they didn't have any food or proper rest. Sam just threw the axe that pierced through the back of the remaining guy.

He walked towards them and broke their tokens one by one and picked up his axe as he looked at his teammates.

Shor and Eve had their backs against a tree as they are surrounded by the four people. Jack is fighting with Derek.

Derek seemed to be a warrior and he is pretty skilled with his foot work and fist techniques. He is dodging the bamboo pike Jack is swing at him and trying his best. But Jack seemed to pretty relaxed. His other opponent is already groaning in pain as he rolled on the ground.

Sam threw the axe at one of the four members who surrounded Eve and Shor. Both of them are holding there but the four guys aren't daring enough to make a move.

When the axe pierced one of the guys in the back and made him faint, the others are flustered. Shor and Eve took this chance and took down two opponents. Only one person left and Sam immediately knocked him down.

When he was finished dealing with them, Jack is still toying around with Derek with a smile on his face. When he observed Sam and others are done, he immediately made a move and placed the sharp edge of the pike on Derek's throat halting his movements.

Derek's face was unwilling and reluctant. But he still took his token and broke it and soon the only four members were left on the spot.

"Sam, one point for the guy fell for log trap. The remaining nine members were taken down by you as a team. The total points are 45. How are you going to divide them?" The Elder standing on the branch asked them.

Sam thought for a moment and said. "13 for me, 12 for Jack, 10 each for Shor and Eve. Is that okay for you?" He asked the question to his teammates. They nodded without hesitation. After all, it is still a big amount no matter what.

Sam said the allotment to the Elder, who nodded and disappeared. The four of them took the bag and left back to the cave. After reaching the cave, Sam said.

"We will be staying here for the night. We will see what to do tomorrow morning. We have good harvest today."

They stayed in the cave as they ate bear meat on the camp fire. They had same arrangement as yesterday and took turns to take watch and sleep.

{Scores

Sam-17

Jack-15

Eve and Shor-12}