Chapter 5 : Cave

Greenleaf Village

"Hey, Scy! Welcome back! Here's your backpack. You were really reckless earlier you know," Elou and the others greeted me with heartwarming welcome.

"I finished crafting your equipment, Scy. Next time, please be more careful. A noo... a new player like you should know it. And that was one awful way to die, you know," I don't know if I should be happy or not but he looks like he's bullying me. Handy handed me the leather equipment including the bone weapon and shield.

Leather equipment is considered light armors so it would be perfect for my mastery. Also, they are not just light but also have good protection. With a shield, I can easily block some light attacks easily but heavy attacks still should be avoided.

"Thanks, Mr. Handy. It's really worth it!" I gladly expressed my gratitude.

"You're welcome. Anyway, here is your share of the loot from earlier. Goblins don't really drop anything but just useless weapons they used which crafters like me will just disassemble to gain low-grade materials. So, we agreed to just buy it and distribute the profit to those who participated. Here are your 10 silvers," Well, 10 silvers are equivalent to 1000 coppers so I think it's not that bad.

Akko and Lili are now wearing hooded clothes made out of leather. Also, they have their own staves and backup daggers in case they ran out of mana.

"Hello there, did you manage to learn any new spells when I'm gone? I learned Fire mastery earlier," I asked friendly.

"Oh, that's great! Lili and I learned Support Mastery, by treating other players' wounds earlier. We would like to learn Fire Mastery too if you can teach us," She replied. Lili is a bit shy so Akko was the one replied to me.

"You just need to create a fire with something and use it as a weapon to attack enemies. I tried it earlier by creating a fire using a torch and the alcohol from the barrels," Akko and Lili's eyes are beaming with excitement.

"Thanks! If we discover a new mastery we will inform you too!" That's good to hear.

It's time to check my Stats again because the last time I checked it was when we were in beginner's area. A window popped up after tapping my head.

Scythe / Rank: I

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Fatigue: 0%

Hunger: 70%

Stats

Strength Rank: I

Constitution Rank: I

Dexterity Rank: I

Agility Rank: I

Intelligence Rank: I

Wisdom Rank: I

Charisma Rank: I

Masteries

Battle Mastery I

Light Armor Mastery I

Light Weapon Mastery I

Fire Mastery I

Stealth Mastery I

These are my stats today. My Rank is still I which is still low compared to anybody else.

According to the guide, Strength improves the overall physical damage of most weapons. Constitution enhances our overall physical protection including our health. Dexterity is the best partner of those who use long-range weapons even those who use melee weapons because it increases your accuracy enabling to hit your target easily, also improves your critical damage from attacks.

Agility, on the other hand, makes your body nimbler and reflexive enabling you to avoid attacks easily and increase your movement and attack speed. Intelligence raises your affinity to spells making you deal more damage using destructive spells, also strengthens the effects of support spells. Wisdom reduces your mana consumption of your spells to cast more spells, also reduces magic or spell damage from enemies.

Charisma affects the way monsters and players behave when they see you, characters with high charisma are well respected, even monsters will even obey your commands, good for leadership. I heard that you will be favored by Gods too which increases your overall luck.

About my Masteries, Battle Mastery's potency increases when fighting which improves your overall stats and the most basic fighting mastery of players. Light Armor mastery increases my defense and evasion using light armor. Light Weapon Mastery improves my accuracy, attack speed and damage when using a light weapon.

Fire Mastery is the most powerful offensive magic, it lacks utility but it's purely used when doing explosive damage. The mastery improves my intelligence and damage using fire spells and also increases your resistance to fire. Stealth Mastery is for scouting or assassination purposes. It's harder for players to detect your presence, also increases the damage of your surprise attacks. This increases my agility by a lot but reduces your charisma.

They are all good Masteries but stealth reduces my charisma which is not good. Well, I will do something about it later. For now, I need to develop my Masteries.

"Hey guys, I really want to try something out on my own. Is that ok with you guys? I'll be back later," I asked my group in case they need me.

"Sure, we will be just hunting again anyway. If you want to join again just whisper us later and don't die," He said.

The plan I mentioned earlier was to improve my Mastery Rank Fighting stronger enemies would make me attack and defend more which will increase my mastery's rank faster. Wolves would be the best monster to hunt. It's faster and stronger than Wild Cats. The location of Wolves is just south of Wild Cats area and near the Beginner's area.

Far East of Beginner's Area

I arrived at the location. Wolves attacks in a small group about three to five of them. The only way to fight them is a head to head battle. Luring a wolf will not work because of their strong sense of smell which my stealth's effectiveness will be reduced. I decided to attract a group of three wolves' attention and run towards an open area. Fighting them in a narrow area and near the other packs is suicidal. Most of them are showing their fangs already.

"GRRRRRRR!" Ready to bite me any moment.

Thankfully I now have Shield that can protect me from their attacks. I readied my Bone Dagger and Bone Shield to counter their attacks. They surrounded me and they moved really fast.

"RAAAWWRR!" Suddenly, the wolf behind me tried to bite me with its fierce fangs but I evaded it successfully because I was prepared. I countered by stabbing its belly dropping him to the ground and finished it by stabbing its neck afterward. The new dagger is so powerful it pierced like it was a needle. The other wolf tried to bite me on my leg but instead, I surprisingly stabbed its head from above. It was super effective and instantly killed the wolf.

The last wolf called for help with its loud howl. Another three wolves appeared but I didn't have the slightest doubt or fear. Compared to the Boss we fought, these wolves are just like pawns. I survived the fight and hunted more.

Of course, I didn't forget about the loot. I one by one picked the most precious loot from their dead bodies. Suddenly I sensed a sudden attack from the back! A surprise attack! I wasn't ready and used my hand to hit the enemy instead.

"Bare Hands Mastery Learned!" It doesn't sound any good mastery. But it's still a mastery so I wouldn't be picky.

The attacker which is a wolf seems to be affected by the attack. It wasn't powerful but it's fast that it caught the wolf off guard. Now it's time to teach it a lesson!

Wolves started to scatter and leave the area knowing someone would hunt them. I searched the area and found some bones from their prey. Nothing much, oh well. At least I earned some loot and improved my masteries.

It's almost the end of grassland which leads to the forest. Forests are mostly filled with tall trees. There is a suspicious cave behind the trees, but it's really not normal. It's like someone made it and I don't think I can enter alone. I should go inside with my party members.

"Hey guys, are you busy? I found a cave here. Would you like to take a look together?" I whispered them. Thankfully, they are still not that far for Whisper feature to work.

"Sure, we're done hunting. So, where is the place?" Elou asked.

"It's at the end of the wolves' area, south of Wildcat's," I answered.

"Sure, wait for us! We'll be right there!"