Chapter 10 Human village
As the two finished eating, they entered the forest and found a tree to climb up on and found a branch to sleep on. The next morning, Ajax had already picked out the route that they were taking. Luckily the map was detailed and showed depictions of animals mainly populated in certain areas. The first route that Ajax chose to take was one that passed by the horned bear's territory. The reason why he chose the horned bears besides the other creatures was because he was the most familiar with them and their tactics and it would be training for Tim and some experience for him. As the two began to make their preparations to head out, Ajax decided to carve out some arrows for his bow as he did not have any arrows left which will give the bow meaningless space on his body. Nothing can be said about being too prepared. After finding several sticks to make arrows out of, he had Tim prepare some fish so they can have some type of meal whenever they feel hungry. Ajax would prefer meat instead of fruits that he can find in trees mainly because meat provides gives him more energy when it counts and simply because he mainly ate meat in his past life. After Tim came back with the caught fish, Ajax quickly smoked the fish to prolong its freshness and they began to head out its course. As the village was about a four day trip, he found that he would have the time to increase his level and Tim's. Quickly going from tree to tree, it took about half an hour that they saw a beast to hunt. It was a level 1 ferocious boar. With their strength and combat superiority, Ajax decided to just take an arrow out and killing it with one shot to the head. With his strength, this was a simple task giving him 50 exp in an instant. Storing some meat from the ferocious boar, he left the rest for other animals to eat because if he decided to carry it, it will only slow them down. As the two went farther and farther away from their tribes, they eventually entered the horned bear's territory. After traveling for another few minutes they encountered a lone horned bear. The lone horned bear was a little smaller than the previous horned bear that he had faced in the past. The horn was also a little shorter being only about 4 inches long. It was currently sniffing around searching for food surrounded by trees and bushels. Before deciding what to do, he looked at the stats of the horned bear to double check his guess with his observation skill.
Name: Horned bear [Cub lvl3]
Strength: 20
Defense:25
Agility:18
Intelligence:20
Endurance: 15
"Cub? If it's a cub then he should be able to handle it". He looked at Tim and told him, "Go, you should be able to handle it yourself".
"All alright" replied Tim with a stutter as it was his first time hunting a beast.
As Tim jumped down he was crept slowly towards the horned bear with its back turned against him. He was hoping to sneak attack the horned bear and kill it with one shot hitting a vital spot. Suddenly, an arrow came flying and landed beside the horned bear alarming it. Tim looked behind him and saw Ajax smiling mischievously at Tim.
"wtf, why?" thought Tim.
Before he could take another step forward and strike before the horned bear could move, the horned bear glared at Tim and roared. Hearing the roar and seeing the glare from the horned bear, Tim got ready for battle.
The reason why Ajax did this was because he felt that Tim needed a proper battle first because needed to learn how to handle beasts properly that was more of what he can handle because besides living in the tribe and experience with the humans, the only person that Tim had fought was Ajax himself who was already overpowered with his battle experience and ability.
As the horned bear charged at Tim, Tim mentally prepared himself and got ready to dodge the attack. As their agility was about the same, Tim had to think ahead of time in order to keep his advantage. As the horned bear got closer and closer, he quickly jump back and then ran to the side of the bear slashing its side before it could turn its course towards Tim. 'slash' the hit making contact on its side but didn't do much. Seeing his slash do little damage despite him have the first attack and the quality of his weapon, he knew his strength was a little to weak to deal real damage to the horned bear. Feeling the sting on its side, it swiped at Tim but missed as Tim quickly rolled away dodging the large paw. From this point, Tim began thinking of ways to kill it. Tim decided that he would try to slow it down by slowly inflicting damage to it and slashing at its legs. As he put thought into motion, he saw that the horned bear was prepared to charge at him again. Taking the initiative this time, Tim ran towards the horned bear with the sword ready by his side. As he saw the horned bear lifting his right paw preparing to swipe at him, he side stepped to the left and slashed at its left front foot taking the momentum trying his best to cut all the way through crippling it and easily taking it out with a strong cut towards its head. But before he could cut all the way through, he felt his blade stop with a strong resistance and pulled back before the horned bear could continue with its strike. Although the slash did not cut all the way through, it still damaged it quite a bit. Feeling the pain coming from its leg, it tried to run away but stumbled a little. It wanted to run away but could barely move far before collapsing. Seeing its situation not in its favor, it ran towards a nearby tree and but its back against it and roared loudly, crying for help.
As Ajax saw this happening, he thought that it was strange to back itself to a corner while roaring like this. He then heard a ruffle sound coming not far from him. It was a pair of horned bears and they looked a little stronger than what he was used to. They came running out of the thick bushels and looked towards the cub horned bear. Seeing its situation and the ape not far from it, they became filled with anger. Seeing the situation becoming a little too dangerous for Tim, he jumped down from his tree and stood before the two horned bears.
As Tim saw the two horned bears he became a little hesitant of what to do. He was afraid that Ajax might make him handle it himself for training and hesitated whether or not to ask for help. But as he saw Ajax jump down and stood before the two larger horned bears, he was slightly relieved.
"Don't relax and focus on your horned bear. Be serious as you never know what it could do when backed into a corner" said Ajax as he began to use his observation skill on the two horned bears.
"Yes, I got it" replied Tim snapping back to a serious expression.
Ajax saw the status of the two bears it showed before him.
Name: Horned bear [lvl8]
Strength: 28
Defense:30
Agility:25
Intelligence:25
Endurance: 22
Name: Horned bear [lvl9]
Strength: 30
Defense:30
Agility:25
Intelligence:28
Endurance: 22
Seeing the two stats, Ajax was slightly surprised at what he saw, and the strength that was shown to him. Luckily, his speed was still a lot faster than them and he could still handle their defenses if he hit the right spot.
Seeing the other ape before them, they became even angrier as it was blocking them from going to help their child. They roared as the two charged at Ajax hoping to take him out quickly. Seeing this, Ajax quickly shot arrows at them slowing them down as they began to block it with a flick of their horns. Ajax ran towards the stronger one because the other one he could easily deal with by spending a little more time. He slashed at the stronger horned bear head on as he wanted to test its strength a little as he combined it with his speed although his strength was a little lower. 'bang' a clash could be heard as the sword made contact with the horn which resulted in a stalemate as both figures didn't move from their spot. Seeing this, the other horned bear chose to keep running towards Ajax wishing to impale him on the spot. Sensing this, Ajax used some momentum from the clashed and pushed himself away from getting impaled by the horned bear and gaining some distance. Seeing the situation at hand he started to think about his new skill that he gained from the alpha wind wolf. He hadn't used it before in a fight so this could be his chance. With the +5 in speed he knew that he could easily run circles around the two and deal with the situation by the time Tim went to go kill the wounded cub. Seeing the distant Ajax, the stronger horned bear dug one of its claws into the ground and used the dirt from its claws and swiped upwards towards Ajax hoping to blind his eyes for a short period of time and charge at him while its mate go help their cub. But as the dirt came flying towards Ajax, he had already used his ability and vanished from his spot. Ajax appeared right next to the other horned bear surrounded by swirling wind and slashed towards the neck, cutting off the head of the unprepared horned bear. 'ding' a sound resounded in his head.
[ Congratulations on killing a horned bear]
[ 250 exp gained]
Smiling at the new notification, he moved towards the next horned bear but was greeted with a large horn cutting at his direction. As the horned bear saw its mate's death, he became even more angry and used all of its strength to try and avenge it slashing its horn. Ajax quickly blocked the slash but was sent flying a few feet backwards by the force. Preparing to attack again, the horned bear charged at Ajax but as he started running, it saw the sky and the towering trees. The horned bear was already dead.' Ding' a sound resounded in Ajax's head.
[ Congratulations on killing a horned bear]
[ 300 exp gained]
"huh, this skill is a lot stronger than I thought. With the momentum of my speed my cuts are a lot stronger and has a lot of force behind it" Thought Ajax as he looked at his status.
Name: Ajax [lvl 5]
Exp: 850/900
Race: Primate [chimpanzee]
Strength: 25
Defense:12
Agility:30
Intelligence:25
Endurance: 22
Skill points: 0
Skills: Dexterity [lvl5], language [lvl2], Martial arts [lvl6], Observation [lvl1], Spear Fishing [lvl1], Weapon mastery [lvl6], Wind enhancement [lvl1], Cooking [lvl1].
As he finished his battle, he saw that Tim, had just finished his with a new minor wound that was on his forehead, looking at him with a blank expression.
During Ajax's battle, Tim charged at the wounded cub but was surprised by what he saw. He saw that the cub and stood on its hind legs with his body facing towards him and its back towards the tree waiting for Tim to come at him. As Tim thought that this was a dumb idea as the bear was now taller than him and he could easily strike any spot as he saw fit killing it, he charged in and was about to land a killing blow but had a bad feeling. As he looked upwards, he saw the large right paw coming straight towards his head. Before the strike came in, he ducked and jumped backwards but was slightly injured in the process as a small cut appeared across his forehead with a little blood trickling down. Feeling this, he felt fear as he once again remembered and understood what Ajax meant about beasts backed into a corner. Tim once again charged in with his body lower and when he approached and saw the right palm coming again, he was prepared this time and side stepped to the side to the left and 'puchi' pierced right through the heart of the cub horned bear killing it. 'phew' thought Tim as he didn't expect such an incident happening against a wounded beast.
As Tim finished his battle, he looked towards Ajax and saw the blinding speed of Ajax cutting down the two horned bear. "How could he move so fast" thought Tim.
Seeing the blank expression, Ajax knew that Tim was going to ask him how he moved so fast.
" You can move this fast too, with enough training" said Ajax lying straight to Tim's face.
"wow ok" said Tim in amazement as he did not know that he was just lied to.
Tossing an healing herb to to Tim, Ajax said, " Apply this to your injury and we can move again after taking some meat".
Holding the herb, Tim said, "hmmm, okay".
After applying the herb to his injury, they quickly cut some meat from the bears and began their journey towards the human village again. Like this, they hunted and trained for four days. They encounter many lone and groups of horned bear. Sometimes Ajax hunted the group of horned bears alone and would have Tim continue to hunt lone horned bears only allowing him to fight two at once. In the past four days Tim's level has risen by three and Ajax by two.
Ajax had put his first five stats into his defense and three into intelligence and two into strength. Some of Ajax's skills also leveled up from constant use. Their stats are the following:
Name: Tim [lvl 4]
Race: Primate [Orangutan]
Strength: 20
Defense:25
Agility:22
Intelligence:28
Endurance: 27
Skills: Swordsmanship [lvl2], Spear fishing [lvl1]
Name: Ajax [lvl 8]
Exp: 400/1200
Race: Primate [chimpanzee]
Strength: 27
Defense:17
Agility:33
Intelligence:25
Endurance: 22
Skill points: 0
Skills: Dexterity [lvl8], language [lvl2], Martial arts [lvl7], Observation [lvl1], Spear Fishing [lvl2], Weapon mastery [lvl7], Wind enhancement [lvl2], Cooking [lvl3]
Ajax has been trying to find ways to level up his observation skill but failed in doing so.
After the four day travel and training, they eventually reached the outskirts of the forest and can be seen on top of a tall tree looking out into an open field. In the open field, they saw large gray stone walls on four sides and at certain positions the walls you can see watch towers with soldiers clad in steel armor with arrows and bow guns at the ready for any sudden attack. At the base of the walls there were many wooden spears point up and angled away from the wall preventing creatures or people from getting to close to the wall. Just looking from a distance you can see a towering building with a bell at the very top. The 'village' looked about 50 acres long and 30 acres wide. As Ajax saw this, he asked himself, "Village? this is more like a small city". You could see a large gate in the middle of the wall and Ajax guessed that there would also be a gate on each sides of the walls to allow smoother passage for people to come in and out. Seeing this city, Ajax was struggling on how to do things. He did not know how the humans would react when seeing them among them. He did not know the extent of the strength of the guards or human leaders. But before even approaching them, he felt that he should at least learn how to communicate with them better, so for that he needed more information on their language and writings.
He then thought, " There are always clichés of bandits or robbers along the entrances of forests near the city gates in fantasy novels and animes. I should wait for a chance and... yes... damsel in distress. When in doubt go with my gut" thought Ajax laughing at the end listening to his thoughts.