VII

A lone wolf, stalked along the tree line. His matted coat, stained with blood and dirt. 

Manny battles were won under this beasts paw, and now it was nearing the end.

The pack had abandoned it due to age. 

Since leaving the pack, it had been through countless fights. Other wolves and beasts couldn't pass up the chance at easy prey. The wolf looked weak and old. Most young beasts were convinced they could kill it.

Even still, the wolf was alive.

Though, not for long.

A black figure sprang from the dense forest.

Three whistling sounds could be heard, as the wolf felt 2 small objects pierce its skin.

'Two out of three, not bad'

The wolf staggered from the two small injuries.

The black figure, now slightly visible under the moonlight, wouldn't miss this opportunity. It sped towards the wolf, with a low stance. Shoulders parallel to the ground, the figure closed the distance of fifteen meters in just a few seconds!

The wolf had yet to recover. It decided to use the last of its strength, to let out a deep howl and brace itself.

Once the figure was a meter away from the wolf, it jumped!

The figure flew through the air, brandishing a long, thin stick with a sharpened end. Pulling the long stick behind its head, well-defined back and arm muscles could be scene bulging, from the tension. After reaching the height of its wingspan, the figure brought the spear down in a wide arc in front of them.

The sharpened tip of the make-shift spear dug deep into it's upper-abdomen, as the wolf let out an terrified whelp.

Before the wolf could retaliate, the figure landed and removed the spear, then stabbed it back into its chest. This time losing it after a failed retrieval, due to the wolf swatting it away.

The wolf barely clung to life as the figure, wrapped its entire body around it's large neck. The figure used all its strength to squeeze the throat of the lone beast. Both parties wouldn't give, as they rolled along the ground violently.

After nearly ninety, brutal seconds, the wolf ceased to move.

Ensuring the full kill, the figure stood as a notification appeared in its view.

-SYSTEM DATA-

(Host receives 65 experience points for defeating a dire-wolf!)

(Host receives 10 additional experience for first beast kill!) 

EXP: 100/100

(Host reached maximum threshold. Level-up will commence!)

Dylan cold feel a warm sensation envelop his body. His exhaustion was still there but he felt that he now, had a little more in the tank.

'Seems like, when i level-up, my stamina increase can help with being wore-out,' he thought. 'Nice!'

-SYSTEM DATA-

Name: Dylan/Grain

Age: 9 years and 1 month (post-Gate)

Race: Human/???

Level: 2

Strength: 7

Agility: 8

Intelligence: 11

Dexterity: 6

Faith: 0

EXP:  0/500

It had been ten months since Dylan left the orphanage.

He still had dreams of the fire, and the screams.

It took a few month for him to be relaxed enough to remain in the open.

He was convinced the plunderers of his home, wouldn't be far behind him.

'Get as far as you can, just get away from it!'

With this one driving thought, he spent nearly 5 months, hunting once every week, and spending his time otherwise, hidden in a make-shift shelter or running. He had no idea where he was going but he kept the sun to his back in the morning, and chased it during the afternoon. 

He wasn't sure the sun fell into the same rules as Earth, but he knew that he was at least going in a straight line.

The next almost six months, were spent creating a routine. 

Dylan's pace slowed down considerably once he felt he wasn't being followed. He decided to only travel once a week. The other six days would be spent, hunting, practicing with his sling, and creating new weapons.

So far, his weapon had gone through about eight different iterations. He originally just picked a thick piece of wood and sharpened it. After a few of those breaking at critical moments, he opted to use a smaller, more flexible wood.

He found that if he shaved down the entire piece of wood, to a thinner width, he would be able to make more mistakes. The smaller circumference meant better penetration. He still broke them occasionally, but usually, he could attack multiple times with out any problems.

By then, he would have won. 

Before, he had to rely on his strength to essentially, ram the head of the spear into his target. With his knew found method, the wood would easily slide in the softer parts of the body. Granted it would cause less damage, but Dylan learned most of his fights came to a battle of attrition.

He didn't have the power to end a fight in one blow, so he opted to wear his target down with many different wounds. Hence, his combo of ranged attacks from the sling, and close range attacks with his spear and hands.

Thanks to the advancements in his battle strength, Dylan had slayed his first beast!

He had slayed many wolves and other large enemies, but this was the first time it had net any EXP.

'The system called it a dire-wolf. I wonder if this is evolved from the regular wolves, or just a separate thing,' he pondered. 

'Either way, I finally leveled up! Plus, this wolf will feed me a few days and I can probably make some clothes from its fur.'

Dylan pulled off his cloth shirt and rolled the dire-wolf on top of it. The wolf was easily over a meter and a half tall, so Dylan knew he couldn't carry it very far.

He opted to wrap the cloth shirt around it and drag it along with him.

He wanted to get a safe distance, in case any scavengers or unsavory people heard the fight.

-

After getting deep in the forest and making his hole shelter, Dylan took a sharp stone and did his best to skin his kill. Harvesting the meat and bones will be easy, but removing the fur, while keeping it intact would be difficult. 

He managed to remove a large enough portion to make a pseudo-cloak. Slightly less than a meter long, but due to his small stature, it still covered most of his body.

After cutting off the portions of meat from the legs hips and ribs, Dylan chose to just discard the rest. He had access to small game, so food wasn't too much of an issue. He wanted to cook and dry some of the meat, but he had only ever seen the process done on TV or in novels. He figured he could just give it a try, and if it made him sick he could just discard it.

"Wolf doesn't taste great anyways,' he thought.

He managed to clean the femurs and skull of the dire-wolf relatively well. He planned to dry them out and see if he could get a good weapon or container out of them. So far, any bones he collected from his previous prey, would be too brittle to make use of. 

He climbed out of the shelter and built a fire. He would leave the meat and bones to dry in the hole. Surprisingly the smoke would be enough to deter most critters, and even then Dylan noticed the insect population was rather low in this new world.

Maybe it had to do with the climate.

A lot of the vegetation and produce he had seen was mostly able to grow in dryer areas. At least on Earth it could. He knew his frame of reference could be faulty. For all he knew, farming was done with magic and the soil here could only produce these trees and small brush

After searing some of the meat over the fire, he hung it to dry and continued to cook the remainder of it. He knew that to kill the bacteria he had to cook the outside. He only hoped the dry climate he found himself in would manage to cure it.

He decided to use a clay-like mud he found, and after boiling it in a rabbit skull, he covered the dire-wolf meat in it. 

Dylan only hoped his spotty knowledge would prove to be useful.

After cooking the remainder of his bounty until he was satisfied it was safe, he ate and prepared to get some sleep.

Once he was rested and the meat was completely cured he would set out.

'Another ten months, and Ill know what the blessing does. Maybe then, ill be strong enough to be around people. I still cant risk becoming someone's cannon fodder. This world is only the platform I'll jump from, in to Godhood. I can't become a slave to someone else's power.'

-

It had been eight months since his encounter with the dire-wolf.

He had traveled an insane amount of distance in that time. He passed dozens of settlements. Some were small villages with children and families, others were, what could only be described as military camps with only armed men, and then some were large cities with castles and walls for defense. 

He completely avoided these places. The trauma of seeing everyone he knew in this world killed and his home set on fire, still prevented him from making human contact. He was able to keep moving due to his tunnel-vision, but that didn't mean these events didn't effect him. Everything that happened shaped him even more in this new world.

The exclusion he felt from the orphanage and the guilt he felt when he was the sole survivor of the same orphanages pillaging. 

The many fights with animals, leading to the clash with the dire-wolf. 

It may have seemed like he handled the latter expertly, but in reality, he was close to death during each interaction. He knew one mistake meant his death, and he had sustained numerous injuries reminding him of that fact. Luckily none of them were life threatening or crippling. 

Dylan currently laid in one of his hole-homes. He decided to give the structure a name. 

After all it was a cheat-code in this world. He still had yet to see one being that lived in the ground. Even animals like moles and worms were missing. He also noticed the lack of flying creatures. 

He had once seen a flock of what, could only be described as Griffins. 

They were however, rode by humans in golden armor and Dylan avoided their sight as they flew above. He didn't get a great look but he was sure there was something special about the party. Considering they were the only thing he had see have control over the sky.

Over the last eight months he had mastered curing meat. A product of learning that skill, was his solving of the ever growing food problem. He could finally spend days traveling without having to stop to hunt.

This made it easier to actually search the places he was running through. Because of that he had been able to construct a crude map in his system.

It showed he had traveled a huge distance from his initial location. The map also showed he had been traveling east this whole time, or to the right of where he was. He still wasn't sure if the top of the map was north, but he just guessed it had to be, or at least this worlds equivalent. 

The left most half of the map was mostly blurry, other than the straight line he had travelled.

From what he had gathered, he had to travelled at least five hundred kilometers!

The eastern half of the map was more filled out and had house-shaped markings representing the settlements Dylan had come across. Turns out the system won't automatically record anything man-made. This included his hole-homes, so he had to mark them with shapes. His current residence was usually marked with a heart for 'home base'. 

He also marked other things he came across. Such as, dams and other dens created by animals. In doing so, he had managed to develop a rotation that wouldn't interfere with the natural food chain. 

Dylan would eat any kind of meat, so he made sure to keep his prey coming from a variety of species. He figured that way. as long as no one directly seen him, his existence was essentially non-existent. 

He knew that unlike other children he had the advantage of nearly forty years of experience. Granted most of that 'experience' came from novels and video games, he still wouldn't let his advantage go to waste.

To many children were put on paths decided for them, far before they know how they want to live. Even more so in this world with the constant warring amongst kingdoms.

It could be just a coincidence that he would unlock his blessing, at the same time he could be sold off. Ten years old marked the age that children would become apprentices or become engaged in nobility, but for people with poor upbringings, such as Dylan, only the army or slavery were available.

He wouldn't let this archaic world hold him down. He knew that hero's could come from humble beginnings.

Though, if he could ask his future self, he would probably regret comparing himself to a hero.