Ch-8- After The Hunt (First Edit)

Returning home, I slow down and walk to the stream. There, I take off my clothes and bathe in the cold water, as I have not washed myself off since coming to Astérion.

With my trait, I was able to stay reasonably clean throughout these past few days, but the feeling of being dirty still accumulated, and it felt nice to wash and get rid of it.

The sand from the beach was still in my tail, along with dirt and leaves from my run earlier, so it took some more time to clean it out. When it came time to clean my ears, I accidentally let some water through them, and it got stuck behind the water-tight fluff.

This caused me to splash about in the water at the feeling of pressure in my ears until I managed to drain them out. For some reason, when I felt the sensitivity of my new tail, I did not think that it would apply to my new and different set of ears, but it did, although it was in a smaller amount.

When I finished with the bath, I moved back to the shack that I called a house.

After entering, I walked over to the stove and opened its door. Pulling some wood from my inventory, I piled it up in there and brought out my fire starter, lighting the wood to heat the stove.

Turning around, I used the wood floor as a table and pulled out some kitchenware.

I placed some cougar meat, potatoes, and carrots on the kitchenware. Dicing the meat, potatoes, and carrots, I set them aside as I pulled out a pot and went outside to the stream to fill it with water from upstream of where I bathed. Returning to the shack, I place the pot on the stove. Picking up the ingredients from where I prepped them, I add them to the pot and put a lid on it to let it cook. 

With dinner cooking, I go to the bedroll and sit down, opening the system and waiting for the notifications to show themselves.

[Congartulations, your successful hunt has brought you more in tune with your natural hunting instincts. Your skill level in tracking and stealth has increased.] X12

[Congartulations, you have gotten used to the bow and started uncovering your talent. Your skill level in archery has increased.] x5

[Congartulations, you have successfully found multiple Medicinal herbs and wild vegetables. Your skill in foraging has increased.] X14

[Congartulations, you have slain a post-mortal level high beast metal-skinned bear. You have been rewarded +1 (AGI) due to your method of killing a creature over two major realms above you in cultivation and over three major realms above you in strength.] (unclaimed)

[Congartulations, you have slain the local overlord of the forest and taken his position. You have been rewarded the title {Minor Lord of the Forgotten Forest}.]

[Congartulations, you have successfully found a copper deposit. Your skill in geology has increased.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have received the level-up rewards of +2 skill points and +1 tech points.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have received the level-up rewards of +1 skill point and +1 tech point.]

Even knowing that I was going to receive some notifications, I was still quite shocked by what I read. This was where I could see the goddess made more changes to the system.

Previously, the details I gave were that a person's base stats were permanent, but this was the second time I was given a stat point as a reward.

Not hesitating, I claimed the point and felt all the muscles in my body spasm slightly. Now my body felt like a bow pulled taut and ready to snap forward but also more under my direct control, to the level that even if I wanted my heart to stop beating, it would.

Before this sensation ended, I pulled out enough cultivation cores so that the Qi sparks would equal one thousand and converted them to experience. The cores that I pulled out were from the other sailors and not the captain. 

[You have leveled up.]

[You have received the level-up rewards of +3 skill points and +3 tech points.]

[Congratulations, you have completed the hidden quest [Speedrun] for reaching level five in under seven days. You have been rewarded +1 (END) with the message, "You must be tired from how fast you've been running, so here is a pick me up. Now go to bed."]

As the level-up message hit, I felt what seemed to be a well of energy and stamina open up and flow through me.

The slight exhaustion I felt from being active the whole day lessened, and my body relaxed as I sat there and just studied my breathing. Then I looked at the third message and saw why I felt that while I was breathing steadily and slowly, calming my mind.

I was about to call up my status panel when I saw a flash of yellowish-white light zip past me. Following its path, I saw multiple other lights appearing in the air, ranging from red to violet, with white and black mixed in. Already having an idea of what these are, I ignore them as I plan to wait before playing with cultivation. Then, continuing with what I was previously doing, I bring up my status panel to see the change in it since the last time I looked.

Name: Not Yet Chosen

Race: One-Tailed Kitsune (unaspected)

Height: 1.8288 Meters (6' Ft)

Physique: Primordial Empress Body

Spiritual Root: Heavenly Ten Element Revolving Spiritual Root

Realm: Mortal

Survival Level: 5

Stats:

 STR: 6

 END: 9

 AGI: 10 (Limit)

 INT: 10 (Limit)

 SEN: 10 (Limit)

 ENE: 10 (Limit)

Traits:

[Genius Mind: With an intellect nearing the limits of the mortal world, you can learn any information with relative ease. Increases (INT) to a minimum of 9.]

[Martial and Qi Origin: You can create new techniques, martial arts, and even completely new cultivation methods with relative ease. Increases (ENE) to a minimum of 9.]

[Evolving Bloodline: You are the start of your own bloodline, which will evolve with you and grow more powerful while you gain new traits as you grow stronger. There is no current bonus.]

[Body Blessed by Virgo: Your body naturally seeks to be in its cleanest state. This might, however, cause you to have a slight amount of obsessive-compulsive disorder when it comes to keeping things clean, on top of a slight perfectionist mindset.]

[Retractable Claws: The natural physical weapon of many beast or beast-adjacent species.]

[Enhanced Lowlight Vision: You can naturally see in places with minimal light as if it were as bright as under noonday sun.]

[Enhanced Elemental Compatibility: Since your race is already one of the beloved children of the elements and you have even greater compatibility than your kin, the elements may randomly decide to help you out in whatever way they decide.]

[Natural Hunter: The hunt is engrained into your blood. You will always be quieter and more careful with your movements, even when you are not trying to. You are always moving in a form of stealth.]

Blessing's:

[???]

Seeing four of the six stats I have at the world's limit and one on the cusp of reaching it, I suddenly get the urge to get all my stats at max before cultivating.

So, holding off, I change the tab to the tech tree. There, I immediately placed one point into materials refining and looked at the currently available options to buy.

Directly connected to materials refining is the anvil. Connected to materials refining and, the two different building sets are refined wooden construction set and stone construction set. Finally, connected to materials refining, the two bedding sets and stone kitchenware and set is furniture making.

I then buy everything but the furniture and primitive bedding that has yet to be bought. When buying the two new building sets and the anvil, I asked the system to delay the information upload until after dinner, when I would go to bed.

{Information upload delayed until host rests.}

Getting up, I checked the stew to see if it was ready before grabbing a bowl from my inventory and then sitting down in the middle of the floor to eat. The stew itself was not as flavorful as I would have liked, but I did not have any spices at this point.

When I finished the meal, I cleaned up the dishes and checked the fire in the stove to see if it needed more wood.

With that done, I called it a day and went to bed. At this time, I realized that sleeping in a bedroll would not be as easy as I first thought, as my tail kept getting in the way. Knowing this would not change any time soon and I would have to get used to it, I made the note to make a new bed in the morning.