Chapter 7: Self learning and getting ready

Trying to calm his wildly beating heart Lukeas took a deep breath and eyes the blue bear keenly. Then the next second hits eyes widened as he watch the bear lunged at him once again while opening its maw aiming to bite his head off. Which he avoided by crouching down and rolling to the left side.

Seing this the bear twisted its body and use its right arm and did a wide claw slash that reap through the ground, throwing dirts everywhere. On the other hand Lukeas was still trying to recover his stance and stand up right when he saw this, not seeing a way out he use the sword and blocked the attack.

It might have shielded him self from getting sliced up but it still fly through air for a dozen meters before hitting a tree knocking the air out of his system. After bouncing off with a painful thud, Lukeas fell back down on the ground on his knees violently coughing up. But thanks to his training of carrying a giant ore with his bare hands, he managed to keep his grip to the sword.

'Thanks Old man..' he thought before forcing him self to stand up. He still remember how the old man said that his training is the perfect blacksmith training. Because it focuses on enhancing your hand grip, stamina, strength, endurance, and he brag that it also make your back really strong. And with this training, he somehow survived that wall crash..

Once he was back on his feet he grip the sword tighter as he have found a way to deliver a good hit to the bear..

He waited nervously for the bear to get closer. And once it did he stayed in his placed and watched the bear wind up its arm, charging for a devastating wide claw sweep. Something Lukeas wants. As for the bear, it thinks that Lukeas was paralyze from fear after having a taste of its power. It happened quite commonly making the bear drop its guard as it released his attack when it suddenly noticed Lukeas trembling and petrified look vanish replaced with a big victorious smile.

The bear wanted to retract its attack but it was too big, and it have used quite a lot of power behind that making it nigh impossible to cancel.

..

Seeing the claw come after him Lukeas didn't wait any longer and jumped over the thick armored arm of the bear, and once hes directly above it he used his leg to pushed him self up and at the same time pushing the claw down.

And while in air Lukeas twisted his body by using his leg as a pendulum making him spin halfway in the air and finally, hes facing the nape of the bear and with a swift movement he brought his sword up and peirce the bears neck. The tip of his sword could be seen on the other side of its neck where it peirce the bears windpipe.

Blood splatter everywhere, the beast stumbled a few times before finally falling to the ground with Lukeas still on top of it.

.....

Another 4 days have passed.

Lukeas now wore another coat made up of a blue pelt. Its hood was made of a strange bear's head minus the jaw. Its maw seemingly open widely while a face of a young fellow could be seen. He have long deep messy dark brown hair a bright emerald green eyes.

The coat seems to covered most of his body, with his shoulder and back having the most protection since the bears carapace focus on there. While his pants seems to be made up of scaly skin, similar to the blue bear's belly skin.

He have crudely saw it together using natural fiber as a string and a sharp spike that came from a hedge hog like boar.. Yes a hedge hog boar..... And as for his feets, he made use of the bears arm as a shoe. Not only it was covered in hard shell, it has also already a shape of a feet. Making it much easier to turn it into a shoe.

And as for the rest of the bears body, he chopped them up with his sword and smoked them for food. As for the normal bear meat.. Its all eaten by Lukeas himself. His tree house have also increased in size. The heart or the main part of his tree house is now located deeply in the core of the tree's foliage hiding it away from monster from both in the ground and up in the air. And now he could sleep comfortably, using the coat made from the normal grizzly bear as a bed sheet to sleep on.

...

Another week have passed since then, the tree house didn't change and was the same size but thats not the case for Lukeas, he now have few tools he crafted himself strapped on his belt. One of them is a really sharp knife that was made from a claw of a beast he found dead. He couldn't scavenge more of the beast's part since most of them were eaten by something even bigger and stronger. And the second tool he have is.... A rope... It was made of vines and fiver that he braided together to form a more durable rope.

And meanwhile, Lukeas now have countless moves he have mimic from animals and beast, he have also spotted a few adventurers in this forest, perhaps completing a quest. But he managed to mimic some of their moves as well, one girl specifically stands out. Her way of handling a dual dagger was so great it took Lukeas a while to memorize her move and days to practice it before managing to copy it for maybe up to 48%. Its not as deadly and fast as the girl but it was enough for him. He will practice that whenever hes free.

He have also managed to see how a drunk person fight. Because for some reason a pair of adventurer got into a fight while drinking, and all he could say was.... Its hilarious. Still... He practiced it as well, mimicking quite well that it would be hard to spot the difference... But the huge difference is hes not drunk and could think properly.. It might come in handy in the future...

With this adventurers he have also manage to find the way out of the forest... But he found himself in a different village, one with bigger size than Astavan. And he also came to learn that the village name was Luicruos, it was heavily populated by adventurers and many people.

But he chose to go back to the forest and followed the marks he left behind to return bavk to his tree house.. For him.. Hes not ready yet... But soon.

And for now? He'll be here doing some self learning exercises. Practice the movements he have not yet perfected, heck he even started combining some movements together, making his fighting style even more confusing, effective and deadly. He also started learning how to craft a trap, and how to craft things better, trying to improve his tools with all the knowledge Mr. Dune thought him, together with knowledge he learned and discovered himself. Upgrading his armor, tools, and his weapons.

...

And with that 2 years have passed by...

And Lukeas could be seen crouching on a tree branch silently watching a pair of dude walking suspiciously. The location was quite near the village but not near enough to be easily found.

And currently the crescent moon barely produces enough light making this two people even harder to spot.

Lukeas with a black and blue cloak watches them like an eagle, his armor looks like a combination of many monsters and animal parts with some parts he bought to from the village. Making his once shabby hooded cloak into an actually well made one. With the scale of multiple powerful monsters that he have faced he created a light armor made up witb scales amd skin that could withstand a direct hit from the blue bear that he faced years ago without getting completely destroyed.

It was light, and durable.. The only thing was, its hot, extremely so to the point that he may die of heat stroke if he slept on it. As for his sword... He "borrowed" a newer one. Its more slender and easier to move around.. Its also sharper too. For now it remains on its sheath on his waist.

As for his tree house.... He abandoned it.. Because the tree got discovered, and along it the people have also discovered his base. Surprisingly people have been searching for it for quite a while now. And it was quite understandable that it wasn't found till recently because the terrain and the trees around that place was almost a maze. He overheard that the tree bore a special fruit and that fruit was one of the main ingredients in making a useful potion. But thats all he could figure out from that conversation.

And he have also long noticed that, because a year in his stay in that tree house he basically eats that thing whenever he feels like it.. And the changes was quite noticeable.. Because he could now easily see in the dark. So currently the darkness of the night doesn't bother him at all and he could clearly see the two walking.

He followed both of them, jumping tree to tree silently and finally.. The two have stopped in front of a huge bush.. Then one of the guy went forward and pull the "bush" off revealing a cart covered in black and brown sheet with camouflaging patterns. He moved the sheet a little revealing many people inside. In chain, blindfolded, and gagged. Some of them are still moving, some of them not.

Lukeas then carefully took out a piece of paper in his pockets and read:

[===

Find the culprit for the disappearance of many people in the city, finding the kidnapped or the body of the captives will be rewarded with a bonus.

Reward: 100 gold, 5 ranking points. One potion

===]

He smiles...

"This time, ill be ready"