Exploration

Leaving the relative safety of the town behind, I follow a commonly used path towards the forest, readying my mind for what is to come. Most of the trees near the edge of the forest are young oak trees, their leaves brushing the top of my head as I walk deeper into the forest. I haven't seen any monsters yet, which is probably due to the fast that this path is used often by adventurers, so monsters would learn to avoid this area. 'I'll have to make my own way if I want to encounter any monsters' I realized, before walking off the path into the forest. Near the edge of the forest, there were hardly any bushes but after walking for a while, with every step I would have to avoid various shrubs that littered the ground. Luckily, I found an animal trail that allowed me to travel with relative ease.

Travelling upwind, I walked on the trail while on the lookout for surrounding monsters. Near towns there would normally be an ample supply of goblins and assorted rodent or insect type monsters, but I had seen suprisingly few signs of these common monsters as I walked. I had encountered a few butterfly type monsters, but they were too weak to bother with. The tracks I had seen on the trail consisted mostly of cloven-hoof prints, so the trail was most likely formed by the rock deer, with a few wolf tracks, but they were not big enough to be elemental wolves.

The sun had started to set, and I was getting a bit hungry but I had set out today in the hopes of finding out some information on the local monsters, so I didn't let myself turn back yet. I could hear the soft gurgling of a brook nearby, which, considering the time and the closeness of this trail, meant that there are probably some monsters nearby having a drink. Thinking on this, I loosened my sword in its sheath before walking slowly along the trail, looking towards where I heard the stream. Soon, I saw what I was looking for. It was a small group of rock deer, four adults and one juvenile. The adults all had sharp, stone antlers on their brown heads, with the males' antlers being larger than the females. The juvenile's antlers were underdeveloped, but could still easily cause an injury. Rock deer normally charge at an enemy as a group, which can make them very dangerous if you do not spot them first. Because of the advantage it gives me, I have been walking upwind all this time, so the rock deer should have no idea that I am here. 'The best surprise attack I can do is using Light Blade skill to kill or heavily injure them.' Acting on my plan, I jumped out of the bush I was in, landing behind the deer so they couldn't run away easily. Wasting no time, I activated my skill and swung as fast as I could at the deer. They didn't even have time to make a sound as I cut through all their necks in one swing. As I needed to prove my actions, I cut off their horns and stored them in my spacial bracelet which contains a 15m cubic area that I could use to store objects and plants. Even though the production method of spacial items has been lost to time, they were once mass produced and are not hard to find. However, the quality of such items varies greatly. Some of them did not diminish the weight of any object placed inside, some were bag-shaped and could only fit in items that fit though the bag's opening. Luckily, due to my status as a Hero I was given a high quality spacial item that reduces the weight of anything I carry greatly. I wanted to stay here and use the deer corpses to lure out other beasts, but it is getting late and I want a proper bed to sleep on, so I am going to make my way back to town before it gets any later.