Monster Farming

Noah hummed loud enough for Alice to hear. He hummed a slow soft song, it sounded gentle and comforting.

Looking at the ceiling feeling nostalgic, this song was what his mother-in-law would hum regularly. When she would hum, it would feel like a comforting spring breeze. He knew Alice loved this song and fond memories of it.

Through this song, Noah wanted to comfort Alice as much as he could without physically being there. She was distancing herself from him for some reason, but he could tell that it wasn't because she truly hated him.

He wanted for her to fall asleep with sweet dreams. Being locked out he wouldn't be able to wake her up if something like her last nightmare happened again.

He didn't know what Alice had been through the four years they couldn't contact one another, but he believed their feelings hadn't changed.

The euphonic sound carrying the feelings of love and care reached Alice.

....

Alice laying on her bed turned to face the door. She had ignored Noah the whole day and just locked him out.

She didn't want Noah to touch her anymore. Noah would hold, hug and carry her since they met again and she hadn't felt anything. But the moment her lips touched his, past feelings she had buried surfaced. The day they met for the first time to the day she parted with him, they would regularly kiss. It was something that gave her comfort, security and love.

Those feelings were too much to her. The empty her was filled with so much pressure that she broke. The feeling of her heart fluttering and her body wanting more scared her. It reminded her of the time she would cry herself to sleep hoping that Noah would come to her the next day. Only to be disappointed.

She didn't want to go through that again.

The thoughts of having Noah by her side were brought to the table which was only filled with ending her life. It made her believe that maybe they could start again. But she knew she wasn't what she was before, she wasn't the person Noah had fallen in love with. She would only hurt herself again if she believed there was hope.

Hope for her to live, for a happy life.

It had taken so long to get over him. She didn't want to be swayed.

'Did she want Noah back in my life?' she couldn't decide.

That one kiss had changed her answer from a 'no' to a 'blank'. So she reacted strongly to it. She heavily denied with as many reasons she could come up with and started to avoid him.

As Alice tried to clear up her mind of Noah she heard a familiar tune. It took a moment to settle in at what she was hearing. But listening to the melody a picture appeared in her mind.

She was tucked in a large white princess bed. Her face lit with the light of a nearby lamp clearly showed her unwavering eyes, far from falling asleep. In her large dark room, She watched the darkness making sure nothing was there and nothing was going to pop out.

A beautiful woman, who had similar purple eyes laid next to her woke up.

"Alice you're still awake? Come, darling, sleep with mommy." The woman opened her arms to let young Alice in.

Alice snuggled closer and but simply looked at her mother. She wasn't going to sleep.

The mother had noticed this and got up, supporting her head with one hand she used the other to part her daughter's hair to see her face.

"Sweetheart, don't you want to sleep, closing your eyes is the first step."The mother kissed her on the forehead. Her daughter closed her eyes.

She smiled an elegant smile seeing her daughters face and started to hum. Her voice was like that of sweet morning dew- light and refreshing. She sang a lullaby for her child.

The young Alice who had closed her eyes felt tired and soon entered the state of slumber.

...

Alice was listening to Noah hum. Hated him more, the music was soothing and melancholic. It quickly erased her feelings of unease and made her feel that everything was alright. She despised the fact Noah knew her so well, that he could easily comfort her.

She hated how she couldn't hate him.

The lullaby was something her mother would sing to her every night. It had been four years since she had last heard it.

Alice had wrapped herself into a ball and fallen asleep. Her eyes wet as unknowingly tears had fallen. While she dreamt of her parents and the love that had shown her.

....

Noah also fell asleep against the door.

He started to dream again. He was standing in an apartment, he could hear running water from an open door. Noah took slow steps as he got ready for what was coming he entered and saw Alice laying with her wrist bleeding, knife on the ground.

He fell to his knees clutching his chest as if his heart had exploded.

Noah woke up breathing heavily.

He got up and went back to his room. After washing his face, he sat down on a chair while looking at his desk.

He opened his status window.

_____

Lv.0

Name: Noah Sinfero

Age: 18

Race: Human

Attributes-

[Strength 10(1+9)] [Agility 10] [Physique 9] [Intelligence 10] [Willpower 10] [Sense 10] [Mana 1]

(Bonus Attribute Points: 0)

Awakened Talents-

Guardian of Love (C++ Class)

Blessed Mind (A+ Class)

Truth Seeker (E Class)

Spatial Sense (A Class)

Genius Martial Combat Body (D+ Class)

Traits-

[Ambidextrous] [Insomnia] [Explorer]

Skills-

[Lv.1 Flash Step (B+ Class)]

[Lv.1 Four Season Style: Winter (D++ Class)]

(Skill Points: 0)

_____

The first thing he noticed was that his strength stat had increased by 1. It was from the basic strength stone he had taken while training. He had taken all two for the day but only had an increase of 1.

From what he knew if he wanted to increase his attributes further, at the moment, the only way was through rising in levels or these stones. It was also possible to have higher stats through equipment such as the dagger Alice had, but that was the only equipment he had seen that gave a boost to attributes a

Other than that nothing had changed from his status page.

Next, he focused on his traits. The system didn't explain them well, but he had learned a lot about them today.

'Traits are actually very useful, and can be a complete game-changer.'

The ambidextrous trait was nice as it was like parallel processing of his hands as two individual units. Insomniac didn't have a negative effect and only blocked out his sleep, stopping him from falling asleep too long, this was good since it gave him more time in a day.

Finally, the last one was the explorer, he had understood its effect while walking around the town. It helped in travelling, it was a mental GPS, that allowed him to know the location of places. He also didn't know when he learned this, but he knew that he could form a virtual map using the explorer trait. It was something he just knew he could do, it was innate to him.

The system told him that information about his talents, traits and skills was all innate. It was just he had to discover the information in his mind.

"Map" Noah said lightly. A virtual brown coloured 2d map formed. The map showed a satellite view of the town and a little of the area outside. Noah noticed that the map had formed around him as he walked.

.....

Noah got up and left the house.

He equipped the basic sword and made his way back to the training ground. He was going to spend the night training there.

All the instructor's had gone to sleep but you could still use its facilities for training.

Noah enter and found a crystal near the field he touched it and the skill screen appeared.

_____

Weapon Mastery skills-

[Sword Mastery]

[Shield Mastery]

[Spear Mastery]

[Dagger Mastery]

[Staff Mastery]

[Wand Mastery]

[Bow Mastery]

[Firearm Mastery]

Other things to learn-

[Horse riding]

[Mana Slash]

[Sonic Leap]

[Sharpness Increase]

[Accuracy Increase]

[Power Increase]

[Speed Increase]

[Range Increase]

_____

The screen had all the mastery skills Edward had listed and even had a section he hadn't seen before.

Edward had explained this to him as they trained. This crystal allowed someone to learn mastery skills without the help of an instructor. So it was meant for people who wanted to save time on learning skills they already knew.

Noah had thought of learning firearm mastery by himself since he had already trained in using firearms on earth. But ended not doing it since he wanted to experience it with an instructor.

All the weapon Mastery skills needed 10 copper to learn while all the others varied in price.

[Horse riding] cost 20 copper and was the most expensive, while [Mana Slash] and [Sonic Leap] cost 10 copper. The rest cost 5 copper.

He noticed that the other section didn't contain 'skills', the one that showed on his status page and the system recognised. Rather were simple information and practice lessons.

It was similar to how walking, running and breathing weren't skills. [Horse riding], [Mana Slash] and [Sonic Leap] was the same.

[Horse riding] taught you how to ride a horse. [Mana Slash] taught how to control mana and bring it into your weapon, making your attacks stronger and [Sonic Leap] taught on how to bring mana to your feet and take bigger jumps.

Noah made notes of what he wanted to learn and made his way to the forest.

...

It was nighttime and the lightless forest was much more intimidating. He heard wolf howls and trees rustle as the cold breeze passed.

Noah opened his map again and saw a birds-eye view of the area around him. The map was detailed and even showed monsters in the area.

He ignored the slimes and found a nearby lonely Grey wolf on the map.

It took him some time but he ran through the forest following the map and saw the wolf walking.

[Grey Wolf]

F Class

Level 1

Noah stalked the wolf slowly until he was close enough. He unsheathed his sword and got ready to attack.

With a sprint, Noah brandished his sword and slashed forward at the wolf. The wolf dodged to the side avoiding the slash but was corned back to a tree. It howled back as it attacked Noah.

Noah continued his first slash. With a step coming closer, he avoided the wolf's claw and slashed down.

Cut straight through the wolf's neck, beheading it.

Noah picked up 4 copper coins and resumed moving. He located another wolf and started the process again.

He spent the night ambushing solitude Grey Wolves. Keeping the fights quick and painless.

Noah was only able to kill 16 of them by sunrise. It was a very inefficient way of doing things. Even though killing a wolf took less than a minute, it would take 10-30 minutes just to reach one. Most of his time was simply spent going from one place to another.

Counting his total of 63 copper, Noah walked back to town. The wolves had only dropped copper and nothing else.

...

Before going back home he made a stop at the crystal at the training ground.

He learned [Sword Mastery], it would now be taught by the system.

Noah tried learning the increase skills and was answered with.

[They can only be learned after you gain Mastery skills.]

Noah then spent another 40 copper to learn [Horse riding], [Mana Slash], [Sonic Leap].

With that, he had spent 50 copper of his 63. He kept the change and walked back home.