CHAPTER 7

Chapter 7

Spirit Forest

The daylight had gradually dissolved, giving way to twilight. The smaller beasts began to retreat, while the fiercest hunters of the forest started to emerge.

Reily, sitting on a boulder, watched with satisfaction as his five prey lay before him. It had been a challenging afternoon, but he had ultimately captured all five horned rabbits.

Unlike previous hunts, this could be considered one of his most successful hunts ever. Previously, he struggled to even capture one prey a day, and in fortunate cases, two, but today he had managed to capture five.

Reily felt almost moved by this.

"Haa, finally fate smiles upon me," he said, pretending to wipe away an imaginary tear.

The first three had not been too difficult to catch, but the last two had given him a hard time. However, by the end of the day, he had completed the mission.

During the hunt, Reily had noticed many differences between today and his past hunts. His reflexes had improved exponentially, as had his sight, smell, and even his sense of danger.

He had even managed to intercept and avoid crossing paths with some rank F monsters.

Although the outer part of the spirit forest was relatively safe, it was not uncommon to encounter a low-level evolved beast.

Taking a deep breath to compose himself, Reily focused on the notification flashing before him:

DING!

[Congratulations! You have successfully completed your first daily mission]

[---------------------------------

[Daily Mission]

- Hunt 5 horned rabbits.

Mission State (5/5) [COMPLETED!]

Rewards:

- Skill: Dissection [click here to redeem]

Time Remaining: 09 : 23 : 32

---------------------------------]

Reily pressed on the screen in front of him and saw another window appear before him:

[---------------------------------

[Dissection]:

Description: Knowing how to dissect prey is one of the basic skills of a hunter. This ability allows the user to accurately dissect the corpses of living beings and separate them into their different parts (fur, meat, bones, etc.).

To use it, the user must be in direct contact with the corpse of the subject to be dissected.

---------------------------------]

Seeing the description of the ability, Reily was pleasantly surprised.

In fact, one of the main problems he had encountered during his hunts was dealing with the corpse. Never having hunted before in his life, Reily had faced various difficulties in dissecting the prey, often ruining the materials he obtained from it.

The first few times, he ended up ruining both the fur and the meat. He didn't bleed the corpse first. he didn't know the positioning of the animal's organs, leading him to often cut those containing feces, and more. Only after many attempts and failures he managed to achieve a sufficiently good result.

Otherwise, he would not have been able to sell anything. The first products ended up being used for the construction of his residence (hut), and the subsequent ones were sold at the market.

With nothing else to check, he finally decided to put his newly acquired ability to the test.

He chose one of the 5 rabbit corpses and placed his hand on it, activating the ability. The rabbit's body began to shimmer, and with surgical skill, the body opened before him, revealing its various components separated with precision.

Just as Reily was amazed at the effectiveness of the ability, a message appeared before him:

[Do you want to store the materials obtained from the beast's body in the dimensional pocket?]

[yes/no]

Reily thought for a moment before pressing "yes." It was better to put the materials in the dimensional space immediately because otherwise, at the end of the process, they would fall to the ground. Although this was not a big problem, if it could be avoided, it was better to do so.

Previously, he had learned from the system that the dimensional space had the ability to keep objects exactly as he had placed them inside it, almost as if time stopped for them, and this was a great advantage because now he could set aside excess meat without constantly worrying that it would spoil. Of course, this problem did not arise before, as he couldn't hunt much, but now the situation was completely different.

That said, he repeated the process with the remaining rabbit corpses and set off.

He found a suitable spot in the outer part of the spirit forest and lit a fire. Carefully, he inspected the surrounding area to ensure that no beasts approached while he cooked the meat. He decided to consume only one of the rabbits, while the other three he would sell at the market and one he would keep for himself for a future meal.

With some stones and dry branches, he made a rudimentary bonfire and lit a flame using pieces of wood. It wasn't easy, but after all this time, he had learned the right technique to do it.

After a while, he finally managed to light the fire. Once done, he skewered the rabbit meat on a tree branch and planted it on the ground near the flame.

As the meat slowly cooked over the fire, Reily began to lose himself in his thoughts.

At the end of the hunt, his level had not increased, but the percentage had risen to 58%. It wasn't much, but it was still better than nothing.

Then there was the issue of the rabbit fur and horns, which he had decided to sell at the market tomorrow. He wasn't sure whether to sell the meat immediately, as it could come in handy if he didn't find prey in the next few days.

"status" he opened the status screen to check his updated information:

[------------------------------------

<System >

Name: Reily Nast

Level: 2 (EXP: 58%)

Age: 14

Race: Vampire (low-level bloodline)

Blood thirst: 23%

[HP: 19/20]

[MP: N/A]

[STR: 15]

[DEF: 10]

[INT: 10]

[AGI: 15]

[CHARM: 10]

Storage (lv.1)

[VP: 0] (Void points)

----------------------------------]

After becoming a vampire, he had noticed various improvements in his body. He didn't know what statistics an ordinary person had, but he was sure that his were slightly higher. To have a smoother hunt, he had decided to use his 10 Void points to increase his agility and strength.

It wasn't always possible to catch a monster by surprise, so he had to increase his speed to at least match that of the beast. And the same went for strength. He had to make sure to inflict a lot of damage every time he hit the target, so the fight would end quickly, without prolonging it too much, thus avoiding attracting another beast or giving the prey a chance to escape.

Reily had also noticed that his blood thirst had increased significantly compared to this morning.

So he decided to consume the rabbit blood to lower it a little.

In the status screen, in the "storage" section, he could see a box showing red spheres. It was the blood of the 5 horned rabbits.

[--------------------------

[storage]: space dimensions: 1m^3 .

> copper coins (20)

> horned rabbit fur (5)

> horned rabbit skeleton (5)

> Horned rabbit meat (4)

> Condensed horned rabbit blood (5)

--------------------------]

The system had automatically collected the blood of the rabbits in the form of these condensed spheres.

He no longer had the blood of the blue-horned deer, as he had consumed it all that time, bringing his blood thirst down to 0%. So now he only had this.

He took one out to see what it was like. The surface of the sphere was slightly elastic to the touch.

Its size did not exceed that of a golf ball.

Reily wondered how the system had managed to collect all the blood from the horned rabbit into this small sphere.

While he was thinking about this, he opened his mouth and ate the sphere.

the taste as usual wasn't great. it didn't taste like anything.

But the effects were felt instantly.

[Your blood thirst has decreased by 1%.]

Blood thirst: 22%.

his blood thirst had decreased by 1%.

He expected the blood of the horned rabbit to have less effect compared to that of a magical beast, but it was still very little.

So he took out the rest of the blood spheres and ate them.

[Your blood thirst has decreased by 1%.]

[Your blood thirst has decreased by 1%.]

[Your blood thirst has decreased by 1%.]

[Your blood thirst has decreased by 1%.]

Blood thirst: 18%.

His mind, although not entirely, had calmed down a bit. For now, he could do nothing but leave it as it was. Tomorrow he would see if he could find some beast blood at the market.

Although he had never seen it, he thought he would find some, as it is a component used a lot to make potions and other things.

So he left this matter for tomorrow and focused his attention on the meat that was cooking.

Seeing that the meat was almost ready, he took the end of the tree branch and pulled it towards him. Blowing on it a little, he took the first bite. The meat was warm and tender.

Although Reily hadn't seasoned it with anything, he could still feel a bit of the natural sweetness of the rabbit meat.

After a long day of hunting, Reily enjoyed his well-deserved meal in the twilight.