Chapter 6: Interesting
Florence panted as he looked over the dead wolf, his heartbeat slowing a bit as he rubbed his face a bit. This first encounter was stressful but provided useful insight, the combat seemed to have no outside help, appraise activated on its own it seemed and only triggered on certain things as it didn't just trigger when he looked at a leaf or the ground. He took a deep breath and began to go through the other windows that had popped up.
"Skill: Beginner Elven Bow Arts has gained four percent, Backstep has gained five percent, quest; Survive First Encounter has been complete, twenty experience points have been given to the player and a series of new quests has been unlocked!"
This had caught Florence's attention as he smirked a bit, the two skills gaining experience was rather quaint. If Elven Bow Arts was in its beginner form then he wondered what might become available to him once he finishes it and if there was any way to advance it in a better way. He might need some target practice however, he can't just point blank shoot everything so it looks like his bets might be placed on a bit of training in order to better use the bow but he wasn't so sure now was a good time to actually do so. With a deep breath, he began to retrieve his three arrows, only having trouble with the one embedded in the skull of the wolf. As he worked the arrow out of the skull the arrowhead snapped off, leaving him with a fletched and notched pointy stick. Sure it could be an arrow still but it wouldn't provide the same amount of power that the iron-headed ones did. He began to feel a little guilt due to the body lying before him with no use, a waste of a life, meat, fur, and a sacrifice in vain. He truly wasn't sure what to do before he remembered his knife, if anything he could harvest the wolf for what he could, bag it, and later sell the pelt, bones, and whatever he didn't happen to eat down the line. This sounded like a good idea in his mind, truthfully it was a privilege to be able to shove things in an inventory space and not let them spoil in his bag, it was an added benefit that masters such as himself seemed to hold. Speaking of inventory Florence had opened it up, fishing out the small blade and looking over the body before. He had never butchered an animal before and now was going to be his first time as he began to make an incision down the chest cavity, separating the fur from flesh as he generously poured over the process. The time he spent butchering the wolf in such an unskilled way would be embarrassing, he made mistakes, pointless cuts and was nothing like he thought it would be like as he harvested the animal for what he could, finishing after about two hours with barely over half of what he wanted to take. He felt queasy as he looked at his blood-soaked hands, maybe this game was a little too real as he realized that every drop of blood, every touch of the blood-soaked fur and the smell of the beast overwhelmed his senses. Truly this game stood at the peak of realism in the MMORPG, not skipping on an ounce of detail as he pushed what he harvested in the inventory, trying to not dwell on the bloody mess that lay before him and all he had done in order to make it that far. He swallowed the thoughts and pushed them away, bringing up Dave-Sama once more to check what his options for new quests were
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IllFang: Level 2
Race: Half-Elf
HP:134/134
MP:163/163
EXP:5%
STR:14 AGI:33 DEX:24 CON:9 INT:21 WIS:31 CHA:16 SPT:15
Skills:Beginner Elven Bow Arts:4% Beginner Elven Sword Arts:0% Falling:MAX Subpar Mana Curcits:0% Chaos of Man:0% Elven Grace:0% Everyone's Friend:0% Simple Apprisal:0.3% Backstep:5%
Titles: He Who is watched, First of the Half, Shooting Star
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As his stats popped up he wasn't too surprised, killing the wolf took him up a level and the quest gave him that push to go just far enough to head into level two. He was curious what his options would be when it came synergizing these stats to something like a class but as of now, he wasn't too worried about it, no need to currently dwell on things he doesn't know because as of now he is still stuck in the middle of nowhere. He scrolled through and eventually found the quest book, finding his completed quest on one side and his available on the other. There seemed to be two quests ripe for the taking, one labeled 'Opening Your Flow' and the other was simply '???'. He groaned a bit at the pain in the ass system that seemed to beat around a bush as if it were a weed whacker but it seemed as if it was something he'd have to grow accustomed to due to the nature of the game. He clicked on the first quest and was greeted with a small explanation,
"Your Elven ancestry has graced you with innate magical circuits through your human blood has muddled it and blocked them as of now. Open your circuits and allow mana to flow through your body. Hint: Meditate and learn the meaning of mana and how it works"
That was less of a hint and more of an answer to his question of how. Currently meditating was out of the question due to the fresh stench of blood in the air that welcomed predators to seek out the source of the smell which lead them to him. With a rather quick shake of his head and a dismiss of the thought he decided he should get going if he was fortunate and quick enough he could escape this bloody mess without any creatures finding him but only if he was quick. He stood and put the knife back in its sheath before retrieving his bow, to him it seemed as if Dave-Sama wasn't relied on to equip items and such. Simply grabbing a bow and using it allowed for said weapon to be equipped rather quickly as he had just done. With little thought Florence began to skulk around the forest once more, searching for a place to take shelter and sleep for the night as his gentle steps allowed him to make his way unnoticed. After twenty-five minutes of walking something caught his eye, a small little cave that seemed abandoned but it wasn't safe to assume due to the fantasy aspect of this game. He did a perimeter check around the small hobble, searching for any tracks, noteworthy clues, or anything that might suggest if a creature has made its home in the cave. Each investigation proved to be frivolous luckily, showing no signs of a resident in this cave which meant he had found shelter to keep him safe. Each small step was careful as he approached, just because there lacked evidence there was nothing here that didn't mean that it was uninhabited. He made it to the mouth of the cave as he peered into the darkness, the edge of light barely seeped in as he stepped inside. The small opening was about three-foot tall meaning he had to crouch low to get in but once inside he found that the ceiling of the cave seemed to be seven-foot up, a pleasant surprise as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. For a moment he stood there, unsure what to do while his eyes adjusted to the lack of light and learned something rather quickly. Everything was in greyscale, allowing him to see the inside of the cave rather well but something else caught his eyes. Sprouting out of the ground, ceiling and walls were a copious amount of mushrooms, each of a different variety. Some were rather normal looking, some had odd colors at least in greyscale, others had unique patterns on them but the entirety of the cave seemed to sprawl with dozens of them. It seemed like tonight would be a bounty of wolf meat and mushrooms, what a delicious idea.