Wood

Will made his way on one of the buildings. The reason he went into this building is because it had an 'inn' sign on the outside.

It was a simple wooden building. A bit worn down inside and out. There was a fat lady on the counter, with smooth skin and ragged clothes. She smoked heavily, there were even several cigarettes on an ashtray near her.

She was currently reading a small book. Her eyes focused on Will for only a second, but shifted back on her book.

"20 coppers a night." She said grumpily. Will didn't even ask anything. Her voice was raspy due to smoking a lot.

"20… what?"

"20 copper coins to stay in a room for a night."

"Um..." Will had realized something, he had no money on him. He didn't even know what type of currency this world used.

"You don't have any money with you?" She raised one eyebrow.

"I… I don't."

"Then strip."

"... what?"

"Strip and I'll let you stay." She said without shame.

"I am not a stripper." Will then realized that maybe it was a small price to pay. He would much rather strip, than to be eaten alive by whatever monsters crawled in the world

"Ugh! I have no interest in your skinny body. I am willing to give you 40 silver coins, and some comfortable clothes for your fancy clothes."

"Silver…"

According to his video game knowledge, 100 copper coins = 1 silver coin. So 40 silver coins = a lot of copper coins. He's not very good at math.

If that was the case, then it should be a great deal on his part. Not only were these clothing uncomfortable and flashy, but also dangerous because it could lead him to some dangers with certain horsemen.

"Okay…" Without thinking twice, Will fully stripped of his clothes and handed him to the fat lady, he also kept the gun by his side. After she inspected the clothes twice, she dumped it on a closet without much care. She grabbed some green clothes from her closet and gave it to Will. She noticed the gun but did not think too much about it, because she too was armed in case anyone tried to rob her.

"And here's 39 silver coins and 80 copper. I deducted 20 copper coins because I presume that you're going to stay here at least one more night. Here's your key, your room is on the back of the building."

"Uh, sure."

As Will was about to make his way to his room, someone slammed the door open.

"Mom!" A woman about her 20's barged into the room angrily. Her looks were okay, but she had a mature aura.

"What?" The fat woman annoyingly asked.

"What the hell is this?" The young woman practically rubbed a sheet of paper on the fat woman's face.

Her appearance was normal. She was tall, large breast, king black hair in a ponytail. Her face, hands, and clothes were covered in some sort of black dust.

"I know what it is. I spread them around the village, and other nearby villages as well." the fat woman did not seem to care in the slightest.

The sheet of paper had a picture of the young woman on one side, on the back side of the paper were several words describing herself.

"Why the hell did you send these papers everywhere? I am not looking to get married!

"Well, you should! Any man is better than the one you have right now! Have you no shame!"

Will recognize this scene. A mother who is forcing her daughter to marry off some powerful and rich bastard for personal gain only. But something felt off.

"I want you to take these posters off as soon as possible!"

"Not happening."

"Why can't you just accept that I am in love with someone else already. He and I are going to get married in 3 years."

Will now understood. The mother does not like the woman's love partner, so she will take matters into her own hands. Probably because the guy is either a leech, useless, or simply because she doesn't like him.

"THAT'S BECAUSE HE'S YOUR BIOLOGICAL SON AND MY GRANDSON!!!"

"PFFTT!"

Will did not expect this.

'Did I reincarnate into fantasy Alabama?' He thought. Since he knew that it wasn't any of his business, he ran inside his room.

"I STILL LOVE HIM! HE IS STILL HALF OF HIS FATHER!!!"

The walls were thin, meaning that Will could hear everything.

The room was crappy. There was only a bed, a bathroom, and a table for eating. It was small but he had to make do with it.

Surprisingly, the bathroom had a fully functioning bathroom, with a sink, toilet, shower, and so on.

After taking the best shower and dump of his life, he could finally rest on the bed, which was hard but better than the ground.

It did not take long for Will to fall asleep. How long was it since he had a decent sleep? He had a lot of trouble in his past life because of his insomnia. But now it was gone for good.

Will woke up in the middle of the night. It was quiet and dark unlike in the morning.

A voice echoed through his mind.

'Spawn point set'

It was the voice of a man. His gentle voice was smooth to hear, like hearing Morgan Freeman's voice echo in a tunnel.

Will was spooked at first, but realized that it was the system talking. Which is a first because this is the first time he had ever heard it speak to him.

Being so busy these last few days he never had a chance to fully inspect his system.

Thinking about the 'brown book' it appeared on his hand.

The book cannot be seen nor touched by others. Will re-read the note that was left by the one who brought him into this world. It contained vital information.

Opening the book, he also saw some other stuff included, some crafting recipes, it even included the Ice Slime he encountered before and the horse he rode on. Humans were also included in the bestiary book for some reason. But there was no dragon or sea serpent in the bestiary.

There was also a recipe to craft the very same handgun that he stole from Clement. Only that he lacked materials like 'iron, metal, magic bars, runes,' and a 'iron handle'

{Handgun(magical): A special gun made using magic. Able to shoot 6 different kinds of bullets depending on which mode the user sets it}

{Requires: 20x iron bars, 1x-low tier mana ore, 10 steel bars}

{Gun station required to craft}

Will was ecstatic. Maybe this will be easy.

"So whatever I touch it goes in the crafting recipes. Okay, that makes sense."

After reading it several times he found out something, that he is screwed.

"I'm doomed. I am so dead."

After an hour of testing things, Will has not been able to figure out how to use his powers.

"It's like Terraria and Minecraft they said. Screw that! This is nothing like Terraria or Minecraft!"

This was not a simple 'right click, left click, spacebar and you mastered the game' it is real life, and it is DIFFERENT from video games.

He tried punching the ground, bed, shelves, but it only injured his hand instead. He thought since the system is like Minecraft, then by simply punching stuff he should be able to collect it, but no.

He didn't even know how to craft anything. Does he need a table, crafting bench, what?

"I don't even have a goddamn inventory."

Will tried stuffing the gun in an inventory, but there was one problem, he had absolutely no idea how to summon his inventory. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he had an inventory space.

For now he had to travel light.

"Okay, Will, if this is like Terraria and Minecraft, then the first thing I would need is… wood. Yes! That's right!"

Wood is extremely vital in those two games.

Seeing the sun rising, Will finally got the courage to go outside. It would be a dumb idea to go outside in the night especially when he is weak.

"Okay, I need wood, but how much?" Will checked the book for any recipe, but there was nothing in there that could use wood. The only thing he could craft was a bed, a gun, some clothes, and that was it.

Since he knew that touching items would go inside his crafting recipes, then maybe by touching wood it would unlock more recipes, possibly even a crafting station of some kind.

Exiting his room the fat lady was still there smoking.

"Are you going to pay me another 20 copper or are you going to leave?" Her manner was worse than it was a day ago.

"I'll stay." Will had no desire to venture outside. It took so much time and suffering to barely get to this village. Now that he was here, he planned to live in it, even if it costed him a bit of money. Anyhow it didn't matter because he had enough to stay for many days.

"Then you better pay up within the next 4 hours or I will kick you out."

"Fine, here." Will threw the 20 copper coins at the counter.

"Do you know where I can cut down some trees?" Asked Will.

The fat lady merely looked at him and assessed his body.

"You gonna work as a lumberjack?" She did not believe that Will had the strength to be able to handle an axe and cut down a tree.

"Something like that." He couldn't just tell her the truth because she wouldn't understand it. It was better to let her think that he was becoming a lumberjack for the time being.

"Go to the right of this building and head outside the wooden walls. Some men are currently working there collecting wood so they can construct a brothel to attract more people."

"Oh…" Will did not think of anything dirty. He was just excited to be able to collect some wood so he ran at full speed.

Seeing Will leave in a hurry, she shook her head.

"Men will be men."

Obviously she misunderstood Will's intentions. He could care less about a brothel... for now.

Will observed the area. There were many things he did not notice the first time he entered the village.

There were several large wooden walls surrounding the village. There are two ways to exit and enter the village, that was by walking through wooden gates that were located at the back and front of the village.

There's also a small restaurant, a weapon shop, a stone building that stood out from the rest of the buildings, and there was a wooden board with job requests like in the Witcher 3. Will got curious and wanted to see what kind of jobs there were.

Only to be faced with a minor problem, 1/4 of the entire quest board was written in strange languages he has never seen before. It looks like something from the Lord of the Rings.

However the rest he could read perfectly. There were some weird jobs like cleaning, hunting, waiting tables, sewing, herb gathering, gathering materials and so on.

There was one other job he saw that was perfect for him.

"Lumberjacks needed. Help us collect wood to build a brothel to make this place better. You will be paid 7 copper coins an hour and meals will be provided."

Will was just going to gather some wood for himself. But getting paid for it seemed like a bonus as well.

He ripped the poster off the wall and proceeded to run to the job site.

Upon arriving, there were only 4 men cutting down trees. Most of the trees were thick and larger, and some were thinner than others. Depending on the tree's size also depends how long it takes to chop it down.

They only used axes and their brute strength. The four men that were cutting down trees were pretty fit.

One of the lumberjacks noticed Will getting closer. He was chubby but had arms like Dwayne Johnson. He also had a long brown beard, and a whole lot of hair. He reeked of wood, sweet and blood. It was clear that he hadn't taken a shower in weeks.

"Run along, son. It's too dangerous to be near this area." he waved his hand at Will to make him go away.

"I'm here for the lumberjack job." Will handed the smelly man the job poster. He looked at the numbers and words floating above him.

{Human}

{HP 70/70}

{Status: fatigue]

Everybody has this floating above them. Clement also had one, but Will was too tired to notice how much HP he had.

"...you aren't supposed to yank this out from the board."

"Oh, I am sorry. I did not know that.'

"It's okay. Since you're here for the job, take this." The man handed Will an axe. They were desperate for more lumberjacks and were willing to hire anybody.

Will grabbed the axe and thought how heavy it was.

Then he thought of something. While grabbing the axe with one hand, he also summoned his brown book and checked the crafting recipes.

As he thought, a new crafting recipe was added.

[Stone axe: meant for cutting down trees and wood}

{Required: 10x wood, 15x stone}

{Basic crafting station required to craft}

It even showed how to craft it. All it required was some stone, and wood.

The only problem was that he had no idea how to craft it, which is why he's here to collect wood to possibly unlock a crafting station.

"Start chopping kid." The smelly man went back to cutting down trees.

Will was going to do that anyway. He started with one of the smaller trees he could find. A hint of worry could be seen on his face. If this theory doesn't work, then who knows how long it will take him to fully understand his system powers.

The only chance he has in surviving this world is through the system. If it weren't for it, then he wouldn't still be alive. He would still be inside of a dragon's stomach for a few hours until nature calls.

With all his might, he swung at the tree. It only cut 2-3 centimeters. He swung once again, again, and again until the tree fell down.

He inspected the tree carefully. Shouldn't it transform into wooden planks or something? At this point he had no idea what to expect.

But nothing happened. The tree was still on the ground intact. He touched it, but nothing appeared in his book.

"What am I missing here?" Will asked himself.

"That's good kid. Now chop it just small enough so you can carry it to the sawmill." the smelly man thought that he should help WIll by offering him guidance.

Feeling frustrated that his theory did not work, Will swung his axe angrily at the tree and chopped it into large pieces.

"This has been a waste of time." Will grabbed one of the large pieces, and as soon as he touched it, it shrunk in size. The large wooden log, that was at least a meter long shrunk down to a few inches on his hand.

"The hell?" Will was confused at first, then he remembered something.

In the Minecraft game, Steve is able to carry large things on a single hand, like a bed for example, there is no way that any normal man can carry an entire bed with one hand. But it was possible for Steve because it looked like it had shrunk its size when it was in his hand.

"It makes sense now. So I can shrink stuff in my hand to make it easier to carry around?"

He then checked his brown book, and he smiled, because his theory was correct.

There were a whole bunch of new recipes in his book that required wood. However, it seemed that it only added materials that can be crafted by using wood only.

For example, a stone pick required stone and wood. But in his crafting recipes there did not seem to be any other stone materials like stone sword, pickaxes, and so one. There were only materials exclusive for using wood only.

Meaning that if he wanted to unlock more crafting recipes then he needed more materials.

"But still this is good enough. Oh god, and I was this close to giving up hope."

Along in his crafting recipes were wooden armor, wooden weapons, wooden chest, some wooden decorations which were useless at the moment, and most importantly, a crafting station

{Basic crafting station: A station to craft the most basic of equipment}

{Materials required: 20x wood}

{Able to craft with your hands alone}

"How much wood did I get from that tree?" Will looked at his hand, and it seemed like he only got 1x wood.

"I wonder." Will touched the other large pieces of wood that he had cut up, and sure enough, they stacked on his hand. There was a number on top of the wood on his hand '5x' it told him how many pieces of wood he had right now. The other lumberjacks were too busy doing their jobs that they did not even bother looking at Will.

"Obviously cutting down bigger trees will net me more wood. But it took me a while to cut down that small tree. It will take too long for me to cut down a huge one and chop it into large pieces."

After weighing his options, he thought that cutting smaller trees would be faster.

And so Will cut down 4 more small trees and he got 27x wood in total. It was more than he needed but he thought that it wouldn't hurt to have more just in case.

The worst part is that Will could not carry his wood and chop down trees at the same time. So he had to throw it in a pile. Once the wood left his hand it grew back to its original size once more. Will made another note to create something to help him carry more stuff.

"You're doing great. This is a good amount. We'll help you out." The smelly man and his other lumberjack friends took Will's wood and carried it to the sawmill.

"No, wait, no, stop, dammit!"

Will could not even say anything as he saw them leaving with his wood. He worked so hard to collect that wood. It would be weird to say anything to stop him, mostly because it is his job to collect wood.

But the point of this was to see if by collecting wood would it help him unlock more crafting recipes, and he was right. At least he made some progress and knew what to do next.

He was only left with 4 pieces of wood. Each of those men collected at least 5 logs each. Their strength was something else.

"Dammit…" instead of pondering about it, Will continued chopping down wood. This time he made sure to hide it from plain sight.

After hours of chopping down wood Will sat down. His arms were aching and his fingers hurt. This is the first time in a while that he has done something as hard as chopping wood. It might look easy, but it required a lot of physical labour.

"There has to be an easier and quicker way."

After all this, he had collected 60x wood. As Will was about to craft his crafting station, someone called out to him from behind which scared him.

"There you are. Why are you so far away?" The smelly man asked.

"I don't know." Will lied.

'So you won't steal my wood.'

"Whatever. It's lunchtime already. Come."

Will massaged his eyes in frustration. Will he ever get a chance to craft his crafting station? It seemed like there's always something cockblocking his progress.

"Ah!"

*thumb*

He heard the man yell in pain then fell on the ground. There were 3 arrows that had pierced his back, it was coated in poison.

Will saw how someone died in front of him just like that. But what scared him most is 'who' killed the smelly man.

*laughter*

He heard laughter behind him. It seemed like there were more than 2 people laughing. The only thing was it did not sound like a man, but something else.

Turning back, he saw little green men, almost naked barely covering their private parts with leather, pointy ears, jagged teeth, and big eyes. Will could see about 4 of them, but he suspected there were more hiding behind the trees.

"Goblins!" He recognized them obviously. Goblins are one of the most common enemies in video games, Dnd, and in Goblin Slayer. That last one isn't a game:

The goblins aimed their bows and arrows at Will and shot at him. But Will ran and moved just before the poison-tipped arrows could pierce his body.

"Nonononono!" Will could not afford to die, not when he had so much stuff with him. That's when he thought of something;

'If I die, do I lose my stuff or do I respawn with it?'

As much as he would like the answer to his question, he did not want to die again. Dying is very unpleasant and painful.

"OW!"

One of the arrows hit his back and did some damage to him.

{HP 15/50}

{Status: poisoned}

Just one arrow was able to do 35 damage to him. Not only that, thanks to the poison effect, every minute he will lose 1 HP until it reaches 1/50.

"Fuck!" Will hid behind a large tree. He did not expect a single arrow to deal so much damage.

One of the goblins signalled to the others to walk forward and kill Will. They put away their bows and drew out their knives instead.

"Looks like it's all up to me." Will took out the gun from under his shirt. Knowing that he will die if he doesn't do something, he quickly jumped out from the tree and aimed the gun at the goblins.

The group of goblins did not expect Will to come out of his hiding spot. They had killed humans for many years, and they were all weak and fragile. And not only that, they thought that Will would be too weak to move after taking on a poison tipped arrow. But since the poison had not spread out throughout his whole body yet, it was only natural that Will was still able to move.

Will pulled the trigger;

*Boom*

He blew away all of those goblins into tiny little pieces.

"HAHAHA! TAKE THAT YOU LITTLE PIECES OF SHIT!"

As he was rejoicing, he forgot to take note of something, when there is an explosion fire is sure to follow. And since Will shot an explosive round in the middle of a forest, some of the trees caught on fire and it started to spread.

Will noticed that the fire was not diminishing. If anything it was growing rapidly.

"Oh, shit, oh shit, oh god no."

Will had no idea how to stop the fire from spreading. If he were to let it spread, then it would burn the entire village to the ground. And this is the only safe place he knew.

"Does this gun have anything to turn off the fire!" Will began playing with the handgun. But there was nothing he could do to calm the fires.

"Fuck! What do I do! *cough*" he accidentally inhaled the smoke of the fire and started coughing. He covered his mouth with his sleeve.

Will had two options right now; Warn the people in the village about the fire, but also face possible jail time and possibly get killed by an angry group of villagers.

Or he could run away into the deep forest, avoid any troubles with the villagers, but face the possibility of fighting powerful monsters, and there was also the chance that he could not find another village before midnight.

"I guess, in the end, humans are more understanding than monsters." As Will was about to run towards the village, he heard a young man yelling repeatedly.

"FIRE! FIRE!"

It did not take long for the people to notice and do whatever they could to protect their village from the fire.

"Nevermind." Now that the villagers knew about the fire before it could cause casualties, Will decided to sneak towards the other side of the village where the second gate was.

Will thought that if he were to warn the village in time it won't burn to the ground. But now that they knew, he did not need to tell them that it was him who caused the fire. Which is why he thought it was better to sneak inside the village without telling anyone.

The villagers brought buckets of water from a nearby river and splashed it over the fire. They all did a great job in putting out the fire.

As they did that, Will successfully made it back to his hotel room without anyone else noticing. But as time passed by he started to feel weaker.

{HP 9/10}

{Status: poisoned}

As his HP gradually goes down, he will start to feel weak. After having his HP go down many times, he noticed that after it reached 10 or lower will he feel significantly weaker.

And the bad thing about having a poisoned status effect, is that it is permanent. Unless it can be treated with an antidote, then his poisoned status will remain with him forever. When he got poisoned in the swamp, even after a whole day had gone by, the poison did not go away.

Will pulled out the arrow from his back and threw it on the ground.

"Damn, I should have gone to the hospital. God I am too weak to move." Will laid on his bed. He didn't even have the will to move away from his bed. Then he closed his eyes and went to sleep. The sound of the villagers putting out the fire could still be heard.

And the one who caused it all was sleeping soundly on his bed. But Will did not see it that way. He thought that he stopped a possible goblin raid on the village, and a goblin raid is much harder to handle then a forest fire, and the villagers should be thanking him, right? Well he's not wrong.

In the end, the village was spared from the fire that threatened them. No one knew who actually caused the fire.

After investigating, they saw one of the lumberjack's dead body with three goblin arrows pierced on his back. Many stories spread throughout the village about the lumberjack who saved the village from a goblin raid.

The fire was pinned on the goblins. And after that, no one ever suspected Will.