Chapter 5: NO PAIN NO GAIN!
*chirp chirp chirp*
As the sun started to rise from the East, all forms of diurnal creatures followed suit as they began to prepare another day of survival in the cruel hands of mother nature. Some stretched their tiredness away, some went to hunt for food, and some just went around to roam the vicinity of the forest while the nocturnal ones stay in their slumber waiting for the call of the night once again.
*SNOOOOOORREE SNOOOOORREE*
In the moment where diurnals should be most active, there is a particular one that refuses to yield from its deep sleep. That particular being is Jacob after the unexpected visit from the night before, he stayed like this until it was almost midday.
"Huh, wha-? Ugggh...hnnnngggg *crack crack* what happened?"
As Jacob awoke from his sleep he was confused for a moment before remembering the events last night where he almost lost his life.
"Oh shit! A bigass wolf is on my ass! W-where is it! I'll fuck you up!....Wait, oh right I already did that last night."
Startled, Jacob sprang up to action when he remembered the Alpha Wolf and frantically aimed his gun everywhere before seeing the obliterated corpse of the Alpha, courtesy of himself, and relaxed his guard.
"Son of a bitch, that was way too close of a close call. This guy has got to be the strongest monster I came across with in this world, if there are something stronger than it then I'll be buttfucked to death. I need to get stronger fast!" *grrrooowwll*" Having experienced the strongest this world could spit out, Jacob found the determination to walk the path to get stronger that no one else traversed only to be hindered by another protest from his stomach.
"Uggghh, how long was I out? I don't have time to hunt, I need to eat quick! *click* OOH! This looks delicious and perfect for a brunch." Jacob says as he purchased food from the 'LOGISTICS' while unequipping his gear and equipping something more comfortable.
['THE SCRAMBLER' BOUGHT! -50SP
'FRENCH TOAST' BOUGHT! -40SP
'CAPPUCCINO' BOUGHT! -15SP]
"MMMHHHHMMM! THIS IS HEAVEN! I bet nobody else gets to eat these on a camping trip." Jacob says as he devoured all the food in a blink of an eye when he went back to his campsite.
"*BUUUUURRRRRPPP!* Phew, alright now that thats out of the way let's take a closer look at my assailants," said Jacob as he went to the location of the wolves' remains. "Hmm, mhm, hmmm.....yup they're wolves alright, big ass ones." Jacob says as he stated the obvious when examining the wolves.
"They seem to have bodies as dark as the night while their bellies have a lighter shade of dark grey, it's a perfect combination for blending in the night. I wonder what their eyes look like? Uhh, should I look? Fuck it, let's just do it." Jacob stated as he went to look at all the details from these otherwordly wolves.
"Their eyes are either black or brown, except for the Alpha or whatever's left of it that has a blood red eyes. Their teeth are as big as my thumb that whatever they bit into wouldn't have any chance of breaking free from their bite, I should count my ass lucky to survive these wolves' assault."
Jacob sighed as he thanked his quick decisions that managed to save his self from the terrifying experience.
"Oh right! I remember that I got a reward, wonder what's special about it. *click* Let's see...There!"
[WOLF HIDE ARMOR SET:
A COMPLETE SET OF ARMOR MADE FROM THE HIDE OF THE DARK MIST WOLF. IT IS A LIGHT YET STURDY ARMOR SUITABLE FOR PEOPLE WHO CHOSE TO TRAVEL LIGHT WITHOUT BEING BURDENED FROM THEIR ARMOR'S WEIGHT.
IT CONTAINS FIVE SETS:
WOLF HIDE HELMET (15% INCREASE IN ENDURANCE)
WOLF HIDE CUIRASS (25% INCREASE IN ENDURANCE)
WOLF HIDE GAUNTLETS (20% INCREASE IN STRENGTH, 10% INCREASE IN DEXTERITY )
WOLF HIDE CUISSE (5% INCREASE IN AGILITY, 10% INCREASE IN SPEED)
WOLF HIDE BOOTS.(15% INCREASE IN SPEED)]
"Whoa! I hit the jackpot! In RPG, this is more than perfect for starting noobs in the game, only I'm not a noob here." Jacob said as he rejoiced from his reward.
"But wait, if I equip this set then that means I won't be able to use my camouflage uniform at the risk of exposing myself not to mention I wouldn't be able to equip my vest that holds all my mags. Unless...*click* * click* Okay, equip this set...*click* drop the Vest (Camo), manually put it on...Done! Wow, I can't believe that worked!" Experimenting, Jacob found out that although there is only one slot for his body, he can still put on two items by equipping the complete set using the system and putting on the vest manually over the cuirass.
"Looks like this works as well, even when I think outside the box. Anyway, looking at last night I managed to earn about 4700SP from the 8 wolves but I still need to harvest their cores and store their corpses before something even bigger managed to sense their smell." Jacob said to himself as he took out his Mithril Dagger and proceeded to cut open their corpses, looked for their cores which has a darker shade of red with the Alpha having the darkest color, and stored the corpses while planning how to get rid of them later. He found out that the wolf underlings' cores are worth 800SP each for a total of 5600SP for all seven of them, while the Alpha wolf's core is worth 1700SP.
Feeling satisfied that he earned back a lot of SP he decided to test his new equipment.
"Now that that's done, let's test this baby out. Hmm, there aren't any hostiles in the 500-meter radius of my mini-map, I should go deeper then. Let's go out for a jog then-" Jacob said, however, at the moment he said this, Jacob found himself dashing at the speed of about 40-50 kph right at a random tree in his direction.
"AAAAGGGGGGH! *THUUDD* FUCK, IT STINGS! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!" Jacob yelled as he couldn't comprehend how he achieved incredible speed in an instant.
[HOST, DUE TO THE PREVIOUS LIFE-THREATHENING SITUATION YOU ENCOUNTERED YOUR BODY HAS EVOLVED TO HANDLE THE STRAIN OF YOUR INCREASED STATS. COMBINING THIS WITH THE FURTHER INCREASED STATS BY YOUR EQUIPMENT LEAD TO YOUR CURRENT SITUATION WHERE YOU CANNOT PROPERLY HANDLE YOUR NEWFOUND STRENGTH. IT IS ADVISED THAT YOU MUST FIRST GET ACCUSTOMED TO THE CHANGES IN YOUR BODY BEFORE ENGAGING IN COMBAT.]
"Oww, I see, it looks like going beyond my limits strengthened my body to handle the stress. But shit, it looks like I don't need the 'WOLF HIDE SET' yet, I need to get accustomed to my own body first." Saying this, Jacob unequipped his new equipments and re-equipped his previous equipments.
"First, I need to test out my speed. I wonder how fast I've gotten after my evolution."
After experimenting, Jacob found out that he can cover 3 meters with every step as he ran a top speed of about 60 kph.
"Wow, not even Usain Bolt is a match for me now. I guess next is strength, hmm, I can try punching, lifting and jumping as much as I can." After another round of experimenting, Jacob found out that he can make a fist-sized dent about 6 inches deep in a bunch of trees he used as a punching bag; carry a large boulder about what he assumed as half a ton heavy, and achieved a height of at least 50 feet after jumping vertically.
"Holy shit, if I'm this strong now then imagine how strong I'll be in the future. But I need to be careful if I want to stay in a society of people, wouldn't want to kill someone from a single touch. I need to train myself to control the level of my strength and to further strengthen my body so that I can withstand more damage and dish out more punishment." Jacob decided, as he tried to think of a perfect way to train his body.
"Hmmm, let's see. Ah, a twig, let's see how strong I can grip it before it breaks."
Saying this, Jacob spent more than an hour testing the levels of his strength before being satisfied that he can hold it as hard as he can without breaking it, it took quite a while as he always broke it in half everytime he strengthened his grip a little.
For his speed and agility, it only took him 30 minutes to master as it doesn't increase much unless he exerts a little strength into it before finding the necessary level of strength he needs to either inceease or decrease his running speed. As for agility, he just dodged a bunch of trees while running and practicing side-to-side hops which is incredibly easy as felt his body as light as feather. Endurance does not need to be mentioned as Jacob still felt fine after a few hours of strenuous activities. For dexterity, he found himself easily hitting and aiming down targets about 500-800 meters of distance which is quite a feat for his previous self.
"Huuu, okay I'm basically considered a monster in my previous world now but I shouldn't be satisfied with just this, there's obviously someone else stronger than me out there. Hmmmm, I need to train harder and aim faster, I also need to buy a better gun than my M14 and M1911." Eager to get stronger, Jacob decided that it was now time to buy better gears.
[M14 EBR MOD 1 (SCOPED) BOUGHT! -2500SP
7.62mm NATO 15x 20-round magazine BOUGHT! -1500SP
GLOCK 17 BOUGHT! -800SP
9x19mm 10x 17-round magazine BOUGHT! -100SP
INTERMEDIATE HEALING POTION x6 BOUGHT! -1800SP
From his previous 20000SP, Jacob now has about 13000SP left. After storing his old guns and equipping his new ones, he pumped himself up beofre attempting another Farming run but this time he stayed cautious and decided to store every corpse he found after harvesting their core.
As he ran around in the forest full speed, he checks his mini-map occasionally as he tried to find any hostiles to farm. After an hour of searching he found a group of goblins numbering in 6, in this battle he decided to use his new strength to take out the goblins melee style using his mithril dagger. As he approached without concealing himself the goblins charged in his direction in a relatively fast pace, however in Jacob's view it's almost like he is seeing everything in a slow motion as he saw the goblins move at terribly slow speed that even an extremely old lady can outrun them. Grinning, he moved in for the kill, slicing the nearest goblin's head off, stabbing their hearts and heads, and even obliterating their heads with one punch.
*DING DING DING DING * As he made quick work of them, Jacob heard the System's notifications.
"For trash like you, even a single bullet would be a waste for someone of my stature." Blurting out a badass comment, Jacob felt his inner geek giggling like an idiot for the badassery that just happened.
After he was done fooling around he went to find another batch of preys while pretending to act tough. As he was running around he detected 5 hostiles 400 meters Northwest of his position so he quickly headed to that direction and what he saw was a familiar sight, 5 wolves that looks the same as his assailants from before with an Alpha leading the pack.
"Well, well, it looks like I found another group of mutts, I wonder if this is fate yet again." Jacob said as he was eager to test his new self against the strongest enemy that he encountered.
*AWWWWWOOOOOH!* In a similar manner the Alpha of this pack ordered a charge against what they assumed is their new prey, what they don't realize however is that their roles would soon be reversed.
Seeing the charging pack, Jacob focused his senses to slow down their movements while equipping his M14 EBR, he planned to use his rifle in close quarters combat by shooting at the wolves' head as soon they missed him by a few inches. Sure enough, as the first wolf pounced at him, he sidestepped to the left narrowly avoiding the attack while aiming his rifle at his assailant's head before firing at point blank range. *BANG* He saw the wolf's head explode from the bullet's exit wound before crouching down quickly as he saw another wolf jump for his head, seeing as its underside is exposed he fired two shots to where its heart and lungs are located at. When he saw it fell down with no movements he quickly looked at the remaining two charging at his exposed sides as they tried to pincer attack him. Instead of feeling scared he only felt excitement as he quickly swapped his M14 EBR with the Glock 17 on his left hand and M1911 on his right aim with both of its barrel aimed at the two wolves' head. *BANG BANG* *BANG BANG BANG* After having reached a sufficient distant, Jacob fired both of his pistols at the two wolves, riddling their heads with 9mm and .45 cal of lead respectively.
*Fuuu* Like a badass, Jacob blew away a few smoke from his guns' barrels, as a form of provoking the Alpha Wolf to attack with everything it has, *GRRROOOWWLL* it worked and Jacob now gets serious as he knows the extent of this species' capabilities.
"Oh yeah, I still don't what this species of wolf is called, I should use my 'Appraisal' on it before sending it off to its death." Jacob said as he appraised the Alpha Wolf before killing it as an act of respect for its strength.
/TEMPEST WOLF: A HIGH RANK EVOLVED FORM OF THE 'DARK WOLF'. UTILIZING WIND MAGIC, THEY CAN EXERT EXTREME SPEEDS TO QUICKLY CATCH UP TO THEIR PREY BEFORE DELIVERING A POWERFUL BITE ATTACK TO INCAPACITATE THEM AND ULTIMATELY FINISHING THEM OFF. THEIR FANGS ARE KNOWN TO EASILY PUNCTURE THROUGH STEEL AND THEY ARE ALSO KNOWN FOR HUNTING AND TAKING DOWN OGRES IN GROUP WITH THEIR SPEED, CUNNING AND TEAMWORK. IT CAN ALSO USE ITS TAIL AS A CLUB THAT IS STRONG ENOUGH TO BREAK TREES A FEW FEET THICK. IF ENCOUNTERED ALONE IT IS BEST TO RUN AND HIDE WHILE PRAYING IT DOES NOT FIND YOU./
'Tempest, what a befitting name, also, it looks like this bastard knows magic. That explains their great speed. But after the first humiliation I received from their species I am eager to get revenge on them.' Jacob thought as he replaced his M1911 with his Mithril Dagger and sized up his opponent.
As Jacob was having an inner monologue, the Alpha Wolf was also sizing up its prey that can clearly fight back. It saw that it can react quickly to attacks from the front and the side and usually bends its body down whenever an attack is aimed at its head. Seeing this it decided to focus its attacks on its prey's legs, before moving in for the kill. Should that fail, it can use its tail to smack the prey's legs before finishing it off. Satisfied with its instinct, it charged at full speed, lowering its body while aiming to bite off Jacob's legs.
Jacob, seeing through the Alpha Wolf's plan, jumped 3 meters high avoiding the low attack of the Alpha wolf. However, he was surprised as the Alpha Wolf made a quick recovery and followed his initial attack with a tailspin aimed at his exposed legs. Acting quickly, Jacob bent his body forward, performing a front flip before meeting the tailspin attack with both his legs kicking off the Alpha Wolf's body. The two forces met, and resulted in Jacob flying higher while the Alpha Wolf went straight into the hard ground.
After that, the two distanced themselves by 15 meters. For Jacob, although he managed to counterattack, he was still hurt from the brunt of the Alpha's tailspin attack while the Alpha Wolf brushed away his kick like it was nothing. Feeling disadvantaged, Jacob told his System to use one of his remaining Basic Healing Potion for his wounds while gripping his Glock 17 with his right hand and holding his Mithril Dagger with a reverse grip under his right arm with his left hand.
Seeing its plan has failed and it received an injury, the wolf became enraged as it tried to use brute strength to overpower its opponent while focusing its attack at the front.
Unlike before, where he didn't see how his opponent quickly got the jump on him, Jacob now sees what the Alpha Wolf looks like while executing its charge. He can see a gust of wind quickly surrounding the Alpha Wolf before it rushed behind it, creating a tailwind that gives it an extra force to propel the Alpha forward.
Reacting to this in a quick manner, Jacob sidestepped to right and quickly stabbed his Mithril Dagger into the Alpha Wolf's neck, using its own force against it while forcefully swinging the dagger in a 360° manner with the entirety of the Alpha Wolf at its end. After that quick exchange of blows, the Alpha Wolf smacked into a a tree, breaking it in half with the upper half slumped forward, locking the Alpha in place while severely wounded.
Seeing its current state, Jacob quickly headed in its location before pointing his Glock 17 at the Alpha's head.
"It's high noon for you, you mangy mutt" Jacob says coolly before finishing it off with a few rounds *BANG BANG BANG*
*DING DING DING* +470SP, +488SP, +500SP, +485SP, +1382SP
As soon as Jacob heard the notification, he quickly harvested their cores and sold the 4 for 3200SP while deciding to keep the Tempest Wolf's core as a souvenir.
This farming session went on for an entire day before Jacob returned to his previous camp while counting his well-earned SPs from his bountiful harvest of Goblin, Ogre and Wolf packs.
"Sweet! I managed to earn approximately 16000SP this time! Combining them with my current 13000SP I HAVE A TOTAL OF 29000SP! But, I realized that this place has fewer monsters than before, I'm not overhunting them am I? Whatever, this world is full of monsters anyway, one monster down means one less monster that can endanger the human population. I should also prepare again in case of another fucking night attack." Saying this Jacob bought more mines than before and surrounded his campsite with land mines and claymore mines.
[LANDMINE (ACTIVATED) x15 BOUGHT! -3000SP
M18 CLAYMORE x10 BOUGHT! -3000SP]
Buying additional mines, he placed the pressure activated mines from the West, Northwest, North, and Northeast just 50 meters away from his camp and about 10 meters away from each other.
As for the Claymores, he installed them 30 meters away from his camp and placed them on the gaps of his landmines as a second line of defense, setting up tripwires for anything that broke through his landmines.
"This should me more than enough for my defense, I swear if something else comes from the streams at the East or the South I'm going to fucking cry." Jacob said as he bought a 'Hamburger Deluxe' for 80SP and an 'Italian Sausage Pan Pizza" for 50SP. For drinks, he bought a "Six Pack Budweiser" for 60SP.
"*Gulp Gulp* Aah, hell of a day in another world. Huuu, I could use a drinking buddy right now. *SIIIGGHHHS* Guess I'll clean up before catching some ZZZZs." Jacob says as he started to yearn for social contacts before going to rest.
{Insert "Edvard Grieg's Suite No. 1, Op. 46 - I. Morning Mood" here}
A new day, a new life. Jacob managed to peacefully sleep through the night without any interference which he considered quite a feat.
"Hnnnngggg *crack crack*, what a wonderful day. I have a sudden urge to go exercising this morning, maybe I'll do just that, after eating breakfast and removing all the traps that is." Jacob said as he prepared for today's breakfast which consisted of 'Pancakes', 'Weisswurst' and 'Hot Chocolate' for a total of 55SP.
After a few hours of stretching and doing basic yoga moves, Jacob decided to train harder by jogging while strapping a large boulder on his back, performing push ups with said boulder on his back, shadow boxing with the boulder still behind his back, practicing a simple version of martial arts that he picked up from a few ex-military guys called Kali using blades and his entire body by slashing, thrusting and evading with his footwork. He continued these kinds of exercise for about 6 hours everyday before putting the heavy boulder down and resting at lunch time, and then going out to farm SP again.
As he went out to hunt, he finds that the number of monsters is now really scarce that he's lucky if he earned 10000SP a day. On the first week, he calculated that he earns an average of 31000SP, which he predicts will dwindle as time passes. Sure enough, on the second week he now calculated that he only earned about 24000SP, even Goblins who is knowns as fast breeders can barely be spotted now in this part of the forest. The third week passed by in a blink on an eye and Jacob is feeling gloomy that he only earned 16000SP, if it was in the past he would have rejoiced but now, he merely sees that amount as a pocket change. On the fourth week since he started his training regime of strenuous exercise for 6-8 hours and farming for the entire day, he decided to spend a few days moving further up North in hopes of finding a new source for SP while finding a way to make his exercise more challenging.
On the verge of the fifth week, Jacob managed to find new sources of SP in the form of oversized hogs called 'Hog Behemoth', these monsters stand at about 2.5 meters high and more than 3 meter in length. According to his System, the hide of this 'Hog Behemoth' is so thick that even a Tempest Wolf will have difficulty sinking its teeth into it, it also has a formidable charge that can destroy anything on its path from trees to small boulders. It's only weakness is that it has horrible peripheral vision and that it can't easily change its trajectory every time it charges.
Realizing that his current arsenal of guns lacks the punch to take this beast down, he went to purchase one of the most suitable weapons for penetrating its thick defenses, the 'CheyTac Intervention' which costs 15000SP. Chambered in .408 CheyTac, can carry 7 rounds and is worth 500SP per mag, Jacob utilized its anti-materiel capability by shooting it from a distance of 200 meters away directly at the Hog Behemoth's head before seeing blooms of blood and gore appeared due to the muzzle energy of the .408 caliber rifle round. *DING* As he heard the usual notification, he found out that the earned about 1600SP from killing it and that its core is worth 2400SP. All in all, he earned approximately 75000SP with a grand total of about 98000SP in a whole month.
On the second month, he found yet another source of SP in the form a bloody red bear called 'DEVIL BEAR'. When he appraised it, it says that they are mostly hunting solo for food and are extremely territorial that they attack anything they see in their territory. The first time Jacob encountered it, he was startled as it suddenly slashed a tree apart near his location when he tried to creep up to its position while calling in another one near its location. Not daring to mess with their immense strength, he poured lead on their heads using his M14 EBR before finding out that they're worth 600-700SP per kill and that their core has a worth of 1000SP. At the end of the second month, Jacob managed to earn more than 105000SP, a new record since his stay in another world. This makes his SP a grand total of more than 200000SP
As soon as his SP reached 200K he received a notification from his System that brought him great surprise.
*DING!*
[HIDDEN REQUIREMENTS MET! WEAPON SYSTEM 2.0 IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FOR 200,000SP. DOES HOST WANT TO UPGRADE WEAPON SYSTEM TO WEAPON SYSTEM 2.0?
YES/NO]