Leveling Up (3)

Chapter 6: Leveling Up (3)

Corpses of monsters naturally turn into particles an hour after their death.

With their demise, an item drop also shows up.

Most newbie players usually wait a few seconds for the item to drop. If an item were to appear on their prey's carcass, they would examine it with the help of the system; if not, they would continue their leveling up.

That's obviously a mistake.

Jake understood that the wolf he'd just killed could be turned into various resources. Alas, he lacked the skills to extract valuable parts properly, let alone skin the wolf. 

Of course, he could have tried skinning the wolf with what he had at hand or even tried to open the mouth to pluck out the teeth. If he were to do it well through some sheer luck, he would receive useful survival skills.

Being smart enough not to really go for it since he'd never attended any survival classes and instead decided to preserve the body, Jake listened to Richard's advice and carefully walked to the wolf's makeshift bed.

It was made of leaves and could have been deemed the forest's aid to comfort its residents. The cluster of leaves surely didn't appear any special.

Jake, however, had learned from Richard that wolves respected each other's slumber. Once a wolf was spotted by their kin in the cradle of the leaves, the rest would leave it alone. Furthermore, the leaves of The Tutorial's Forest had a strong dulling effect on the smell.

The smell of blood would never waft over to others.

'Once preserved like that, the wolf also won't turn into particles as the third party had made preparations for its carcass to be manufactured,' Jake recalled the advice, smiling.

Since he was so close to the forest's feet, he'd decided to store the corpses around this area to later have Richard teach him about skinning and other extraction skills. Jake believed the newbie helper had enough knowledge to pass survival basics to him.

After marking his first checkpoint, Jake continued with the hunt. He let the thrill of hunting come over him and fill his veins with adrenaline, as he had been keeping it in check while preparing the carcass.

His green eyes darkened as he seemed to have blended with the environment once again.

-

[You have leveled up!]

[You have received three stats points!]

[Archer Lv.2 HP: 120 MP: 120]

It took Jake ten wolves to level up. 

It was quite a journey as he hadn't made careless moves and rigorously followed his principles and Richard's advice. In the current times of the short attention span being common, if Jake were to livestream his adventure on the tutorial island, he wouldn't have gathered many viewers.

Not only had he taken his time to challenge wolves while drawing his longbow, but he also often turned tails and dragged their dead bodies to his starting point, putting them among each other in makeshift beds of leaves to make it seem like there was some wolf's sleepover.

Consequently, he'd gathered lots of carcasses to learn survival skills later.

It was dark, and the forest seemed to have been blanketed in even more darkness, making it too hard for Jake to continue. He was now confident that he would receive a blow from the wolf had he fought one of them at this hour. 

It would have been too difficult to make them out in this darkness.

Still, it was amazing for a newbie archer with no prior archery experience to not get any injuries on his first hunting. It spelled about Jake's talent and diligence, which would have made his sister and friends sigh with hopeless smiles.

"Richard! Are you here?" Jake shouted after climbing up the roots and perching himself inside the break.

Richard raised a small lamp and waved it so as to show his presence.

Jake smiled, "Could you help me with the carcasses? I've gathered ten of them here."

Telling him through the lamp signal that he didn't mind, Richard hung the lamp on his side and effortlessly crested the roots, seemingly teleporting to Jake's side.

He whispered, "Don't shout like that. Monsters grow bolder in the time of the night. It's evening, though, so you should be safe."

"My bad, but I don't know how to communicate with you otherwise. I wasn't sure you'd enter the forest to help me, either," Jake chuckled.

Meanwhile, Richard assessed Jake's progress. The young adult had only leveled up once, but he had no wounds on himself, let alone scratches on his clothes. It meant no monster could have gotten closer to him and that he had coursed so meticulously that even the forest didn't mess with his clothes.

Such diligence was rare, too rare.

"I'll throw them out through the break in the roots and carry them to the cabin up on the cliff. You can return safely and wait for me there… I'll be done in five minutes," Richard said with a confident smile; his relationship level with Jake increased upon seeing him after the hunt.

Aware that he must have left a good impression on the newbie helper, Jake accepted his kindness. He leaped off the roots and ran toward the cliff's top, following the moon drawing the path for him. The air seemed much tastier than ever before, and his muscles, though hurt, seemed to have been enjoying this kind of rewarding oxygen.

"I'll practice the standard archery on the wolves for another week, then try the close combat archery I've had in mind all this time!" Jake shouted to the cloudless skies, declaring his path.

His smile was so wide he appeared like a child who had gotten the toy he'd been wishing for.

Although his gameplay was so rare that finding a teammate to play along with seemed to be like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay, Jake didn't think much about it and would even be fine being a solo player for most of his gaming time.

Jake reached the top later than he thought.

He was surprised to see that nine out of ten wolf carcasses were already here.

The last one fell from the skies, crowning the heap of the corpses.

"He threw them from this far? And so accurately?" Jake thought aloud.

Richard was a more awesome NPC than he thought.