chapter 19

Knock knock

" haa"

"Get up it's already morning"

"I'll be out in a minute," Jack said groggily, feeling a strong urge to go back to sleep. However, he quickly reminded himself that he wasn't living alone anymore and needed to be responsible.

Putting on his shoes, Jack walked out and made his way to the back of the house, where Matt was waiting for him.

"You're finally up. I thought I was going to have to try to wake you up again," Matt said, stretching his limbs.

"Where are the weapons?" Jack asked, feeling impatient.

"Hold your horses. We're going on a jog first," Matt said, getting ready to start jogging.

"Ok" Jack said, he normally ran to go fight monsters and he had high endurance for a normal human so he didn't see any problem.

The both of them went jogging around the village for half an hour. They rested for a few minutes while Matt asked him a few questions. After the break was over Matt grabbed a wooden sword while he told Jack to use his weapon since he didn't have a wooden spear.

"We're just testing skills, so no using mana, okay? In the next round, we'll go all out," Matt said.

"Okay," Jack replied, eager to test his skills against someone who had likely received training. He had intentionally refrained from using his appraisal skill on Matt, and before he could even ask how long they would fight, Matt lunged forward towards him.

Jack quickly activated his focus skill and jumped back, narrowly avoiding the swing aimed at his head. In response, he thrust his wooden spear towards Matt's chest, but Matt blocked the attack with his sword, causing the spear to bend slightly under the pressure.

After parrying Jack's attack, Matt backed away to create some distance between them. Wanting to see Jack's skill, he went on the defensive. Jack closed the gap between them, but no matter how he attacked, he couldn't get past Matt's defenses. He thought he had more power by the way Matt moved before being struck, but he couldn't find an opening to exploit.

"He lacks technique and footing in some areas, but he does have raw power. I'm going to have to get serious, or I'll lose," Matt thought to himself as he assessed Jack's skills.

Despite agreeing not to use anything but pure skill, Matt couldn't resist using one of his few skills. He felt confident that he wouldn't lose against a kid.

"Arghhh," he grunted as he activated his Lower Enhanced Speed skill.

The tables slowly turned, and Jack found himself on the defensive. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't keep up with Matt's increased speed and skill. After a few minutes of struggling, Jack eventually gave up.

"I yield"

A sword stopped right in front of his face.

After the first match, Matt gave Jack some constructive criticism, pointing out that he needed to work on his footing, technique, and acceleration to reach his top speed. They had another match, and this time Jack was able to win. It was a close match, with Matt becoming more aggressive and accurate with his strikes. In the end, Jack won by tripping him. He couldn't use all of his attacks, since some were lethal, but he did show Matt what they were later on.

After the match, they went to eat, and Jack met Matt's wife, Frida, and their daughter, Melissa, who had been out the previous day. Melissa was a shy girl who always hid behind her mother, but Jack didn't mind and ate peacefully with Matt. During the meal, Matt shared his story of how he met his wife and his work as a soldier in a nearby city. It was a pleasant evening, and Jack felt grateful to have met such kind people in this unfamiliar place.

Matt offered to take Jack on a hunting trip with him, as it was his turn that day. He warned Jack not to venture too far into the forest, as they could encounter dangerous monsters. Matt also wanted to work on their teamwork if they were going to hunt down the mountain king.

Although Jack had initially planned to hunt the mountain king by himself, he realized that he couldn't take any chances if Matt wasn't confident in defeating the monster alone.

As they made their way to the forest, Matt greeted all the people they encountered on the way, stopping to talk to some. Jack observed how friendly Matt was with everyone.

…

"You see this, this is a deer trail, that is going to be our hunt for today. This footprint is still very fresh so it's still close let's go."

Jack had only hunted monsters by exploring and just finding them on his way or because the amount of sound they produced. So Jack was a little happy to learn how to hunt down animals just by his surroundings.

Jack and Matt walked for around twenty minutes before they found a deer. Instead of using a bow, Matt used his sword while Jack had his stick. They waited for a few minutes for it to get closer before Matt rushed toward the deer. When the deer heard the noise it was only able to give 2 steps before it's head was cut off. From hunting goblins, slimes, and ratmen he also expected the Reindeer to be super fast or something but no it was a normal mundane reindeer.

After Jack and Matt had successfully hunted the deer, Jack carried the animal on his back as they made their way back to the village. Once they arrived, they gave the deer to the local butcher. Matt explained that they would usually catch one more deer to feed the people, but the mountain king had been killing a lot of animals in the forest. To allow the animals to repopulate and to have more in reserve, they decided to hold off on catching another deer for the time being.

"I forgot you had a stick, let's go to the blacksmith and he will make you a new weapon.

"Doesn't he have one ready"

"No, normally he doesn't make weapons since he is just fixing things like knives and other stuff. We are lucky to have a blacksmith. Normally a village won't have a blacksmith but since the man is old he doesn't like how loud the city is, so he moved here since it is way quieter."

"Hey old man are you in there," Said Matt as he knocked on the door.

"I hear you, I hear you, what do you want?"

"Hey Oden, my good friend Jack over here wants a spear, and I told him you can make one," Matt said, patting Jack on the back.

The blacksmith, Oden, looked at Jack and said, "This little fella here, haven't seen you around before. What rotten luck you have. Anyways, do you want a spearhead or a full spear made out of metal? It's going to be pricey if you want the latter."

"Nice to meet you, sir. I would like it if you could make just the spearhead out of metal," Jack said, looking down at the ground. Oden gave Jack a strange feeling.

"Okay, I'll have it for you in two days. Oh, and what is the payment going to be?" Oden asked.

Before Jack could say anything, Matt interjected and spoke for him. "I've got this extra bunny," he said.

"You and I both know that's not enough. What else can you give?" Oden asked.

"Okay, I can also make you some charcoal, since I know you don't have a lot of coal. How about that? Is that a deal?" Matt proposed.

"Fine, I'll take that. It saves me the time of doing it myself," Oden agreed before heading inside again.

With that, Jack was about to get his own weapon.