Lumberjack

The next day Ryu woke early, there was no breakfast for him yet, he went out of the village and waited, leaning on the fence from the outside. There were many people waked by the time he went out, most of the people were farmers, so waking before the sun is something pretty normal for these people.

Ryu was extremely cautious to pass unseen, he used the houses to hide and passed unnoticed practising his stealth. There were no problems if he were caught, he wasn't planning to assassinate anyone in the end.

It wasn't long until he heard steps coming his way, a man passed by his side without realizing his presence. It was Clark passing with an axe on his shoulder, yesterday he talked Ryu that he would go to the forest to gather wood to repair the houses.

"Good morning." Ryu said. Clark gave scare jump to the side, he landed on the ground in a fight stance with his axe ready to defend himself.

"Gosh, you scared me. Are you trying to kill me from heart attack?" Clark dismantled his posture.

"No, I am here to join you gathering wood." Ryu said pulling an axe he "borrowed" with Susan, it was an old axe dropped on a corner of the tavern.

He has not asked for permission to take the axe, he was sure that Susan would no reject the request but asking would ruin the effect he wants. When he come back later he would gift something to her as an apology for taking it.

"You want to come cut trees with me?" Clark was not sure what to think in this situation, at the one hand it would be good to have someone helping him but on the other hand, he could not accept taking a cultivator from the sect to cut wood.

If the others villagers knew about this situation they would pass away worried about the possibility of offending Ryu. Clark knew he should not agree with it, but how can he reject Ryu without offending him even more.

Clark tried his best to dismiss Ryu saying he would just get some wood and that he doesn't want to take Ryu's time. Eventually, his excuses ended since the man was still resolute about going Clark gave up.

"Okay, you can come with me. But don't tell the others I have agreed with it."

"I will tell them I followed you. I have told you already that day, i don't any special treatment, adress me as Ryu."

The moment Clark agreed to take Ryu in the system made a sound and a screen appeared.

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Quest: Follow Clark and get wood to repair the damaged houses.

Reward: 200 exp

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The reward for these simple quests is way bigger than the ones he got in the sect, Ryu could not understand what is the difference between the previous chop wood he got in the sect that has a reward of just 15 exp, but this one that has 200 exp.

'Is this what Nura was talking about?' Ryu felt his knowledge about the system to be lame at the best, something that he has no clue is happening before him and still he failed to understand. He is planning to make Nura speak the next time they met.

He missed to find a reason but he would not fail to take advantage of this effect, if he can find quests as valuable as this he would get level in no time.

Ryu started to walk beside Clark, he has a large smile on his face displaying his extremely happy mood. Clark found no reason for his happiness and misunderstood it for the Ryu being a woodcutter lover.

Clark himself likes his job a lot, but getting this happy about going to take down a few trees were beyond his comprehension. 'Cultivators are truly different from us normal people.'.

They went deep in the forest, Clark leading the way in a direction where he usually goes when he needs wood.

"Are you not afraid of that a beast could attack?"

"There is actually very few beast arround. We can track them easily, but if we spot one we run as fast as we can."

They reached the place with fine and straight pine trees projecting high, Clark looked at the trees and chose one to take down. He was positioning himself to start chopping it when Ryu stopped him asking him to start.

Switching positions Ryu went before the tree, he grabbed his axe tightly, opened the legs a lite bit sent the axe to his back and applying every lit bit of force he could he send the axe forward.

The tree was with such force that its whole extension trembled, a loud *bang* sound spread far in the forest, leafs started to fall down.

He gave a look at the man at his side and saw his face contracted and his eyes wide. Proud of his strength he sends the axe another time, digging it deep in the tree. He tried to pull the axe back but it was struck, he went forward and released the axe rotating it.

Back to his position, he sent the axe back to strike again, but something draws his attention. Clark coughing and looking to the side with a worried expression.

"Are you surprised with how strong I am, huh?"

"Yeah, you are surely strong..." Clark said the sentence, but the way he said it was like he has only said half of what he was planning to say.

"What is it? You can say."

"It is nothing, is just that your techinique with the axe is a little bit... how can I say... it is exotic."

"My techinique is exotic? In that case can you point the flaw and help me improve it?"

"It is just one thing or two,

Your hands are too separated one from the other, in an axe, it is better if you put them closer to increase the strength.

Your elbows are wide, this will make the recoil hit you really hard and your hands will get hurt.

You are leaning your spine backwards before applying force, this will reduce the accuracy of the strike.

You are rotating your waist too much..., you have to bend your knees a little bit..., your feet have to point forward to the place you will hit...

This is basically all."

A blink and a deep breath Ryu looked to Clark with a long face, as if asking 'is that all?'

"I see, one thing or two right? Thank you for the help, I will try to make this one or two corrections."

He placed before the tree, but before taking pulling axe to strike he made every correction fixed his posture adjusted the grip on the axe pulled it back made a slow rehearsal strike, pulled the axe back and applying force he sends the axe forward.

The sound was not as impressive as before, the tree also did not tremble as it had. But the head of the axe went so deep that a crater appeared. A sound of cracking was heard and the tree bent to the side a little bid still not falling.