Chapter 7: Chris Springs, Bjorn Johnson
<span style="font-weight:400">Chris walked behind the group of people he had expertly gathered, going over his stats as they all walked deeper into the forest.
<b>[Chris Springs]</b>
<b>Tutorial Alias [NA]</b>
<b>[Race: Human]</b>
<b>[Base ss: Warrior] Level 5</b>
<b>[Vitality] 62</b>
<b>[Strength] 94</b>
<b>[Dexterity] 32</b>
<b>[Intelligence] 26</b>
<b>[Wisdom] 30</b>
<b>[Endurance] 30</b>
<b></b>
<b>[Free Points] 0</b>
<b>[Skills] Basic Heavy Strike [Level NA]</b>
<b>[Titles] First Blood, Level Headed, Leader of Sheep, Schemer, Murderer</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">Chris smiled to himself as he looked over his stats and new level.
<span style="font-weight:400">His group consisted of around 25. Well, it was closer to 20 now after some mishaps. Some people that got mouthy may or may not have had a few idents during the fights.
<span style="font-weight:400">There weren''t any casualties after theirst fight thatted him level 5. He had been growing at a steady pace with this new world and its system. All while he was safely being protected.
<span style="font-weight:400">He would pretend to fight at the front with the rest of the warriors while only dodging the Vampiric Apes, letting the rest of the group he was in do all the real fighting and he would juste in for the final blow on some of the beasts. Filling up his experience and quest nice and steady.
<span style="font-weight:400">His stats had exploded with his fresh levels and newly obtained titles. Giving him more than enough strength to make sure anyone who saw him not fighting or maybe getting a little too ahead of him, a small little ident. And this was just the beginning.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Chris! How are you feeling? Are you alright after thatst fight?" Asked a girl around the age of 20. She wandered over to him from the front of the group. She was a short, petite, gullible, blond, ssic college party girl he had seen time and time again. And she had taken a liking to him right away when he told her that he would protect her while he was first forming their group.
<span style="font-weight:400">She had even gone as far to start recruiting people herself. And what was even better was that she was a Priest.
<span style="font-weight:400">"I’m alright. It wasn’t as tough as the other ones, we are getting pretty strong, haha. How is everyone else doing, Megan?" He asked, immediately moving the conversation''s focus off of himself.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Well some people had some scrapes and cuts from those nasty Vampiric Apes, but thanks to me, Julia, Jacqueline, and Mr. Park, it wasn’t any problem!" She answered excitedly, hopping slightly on her toes.
<span style="font-weight:400">Chris looked over to Megan who was now walking besides him. He was surprised that she was able to integrate so well into this new environment, after how distraught she was when he found her at first. But he had to give her credit, if it wasn’t for her keeping everyone motivated to keep going and healing them; they definitely wouldn''t have made the progress they had. She was almost like a bubbly poster girl for their group.
<span style="font-weight:400">She knew everyone by name now, and made sure to check up on everyone after every fight. And sure when anyone had a ‘ident’ or just straight up got unlucky by no part of his own, she was downtrodden for a time, but quickly bounced back to keep the group''s energy and morale up.
<span style="font-weight:400">"That’s good, you four are doing a fantastic job. I know we wouldn’t be here without you Priests healing everyone. We just need to push a little bit more, we''re halfway to 10 and almost finished with the Vampiric Ape quest." He answered back
<span style="font-weight:400">Megan beamed a smile at hispliment. "Yeah! You’re right! Only a little more to go. I’ll do my best to keep spirits up. We have to keep getting stronger if we don’t want to lose anyone else after all." She finished slightly saddened but immediately perked back up. "I’m going to go talk to everyone again and see if they need anything." She said as she waved while running back to the front of the group.
<span style="font-weight:400">Chris waved back briefly, going back to looking over his stats, thest thought he had as she left. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Dumb gullible bitch.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">The incrediblyrge man sat on the trunk of thergely felled tree. Corpses of crushed apes littered around him after they had continued to spill out of the dense forest’s cave just a small distance in front of him.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Is that thest of them..?" Bjorn said softly, finally letting go of the ragged Ape he had in his hand. The dead battered body of the Ape slipping out of his grip and onto the forest floor at his feet.
<b></b><span style="font-weight:400">Bjorn let out a long sigh. He thought he was done with the nonsense of fighting constantly. He had grown up with hisrge frame, and it always brought him trouble.
<span style="font-weight:400">He looked down at his bloodied hands, opening and closing the massive things, a slight self-deprecating smile crossing his face. His given name had been spot-on for his entire life.
<span style="font-weight:400">Bjorn, or bear, was the closest thing he could have gotten to describe him, he thought. He was a hulking beast of a man and had the strength of one to boot, and this ‘Tutorial’ had only made him stronger.
<span style="font-weight:400">But he hadn''t liked fighting, it was just that fighting simply found him wherever he went. Most people would even be surprised to find out what Bjorn did when they first looked at him. He was the CEO of an IT Firm that had started up in Silicon Valley like many others, but like always Bjorn had kept finding fights even when there weren''t any to be had. So he quickly decided to cash out the firm and move up north to Canada, finding an out-of-the-way, cozy, secluded ranch in a low-popted area.
<span style="font-weight:400">But, even fights found him there. The locals were tight-knit and didn’t want him intruding on them, so they regrly tried to force him out early on. He changed their minds quickly though. First, the hooligans that vandalized his home got a quick talking to, and their mothers even decided to nervously thank him for disciplining their sons when his lurching figure brought them home in person. The rest of the townsfolk quickly warmed up to him after he starteding to meetings and othermunity events because he had always brought food and snacks, and more importantly hard liquor for the older gentlemen.
<span style="font-weight:400">Hard booze was always the currency of the realm for distinguished gentlemen, and he was already missing his personal cab filled with his favorites.
<span style="font-weight:400">Something suddenly brushed against Bjorn’s leg as he was lost in reminiscing and he looked down to find the small rabbit that had been following him around every now and again. When it first came up to him he was surprised to find actual wildlife present in this wild murder forest, he simply assumed because of all the crazed Apes he had run into so far that none of the animals would be left.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Found me again, huh little one?" he said, slowly bringing down his finger to pet the top of the rabbit’s head gently. Its ears bent backward, and a slightly hummed squeak leaked from its mouth in pleasure.
<span style="font-weight:400">Just as quickly though did the rabbit’s ears perk back up and it sat back on its haunches. Then it was off, scrambling for the bush of the forest.
<span style="font-weight:400">Bjorn looked in the opposite direction, slowly standing up himself, prepared for another fight. The figure of another ape walked out from behind a tree, spotting Bjorn and the encirclement of Vampiric Ape corpses around him.
<span style="font-weight:400">It threw the Ape into a furious state, as it yelled and hooted loudly making a charge straight for him.
<span style="font-weight:400">Bjorn didn’t move and just waited for the beast to reach him, wondering why it hadn’t run away after seeing how many of its kind he had killed. It was the same for the Apes in the cave, it was almost like they were programmed to attack people with reckless abandon, and had no actual animalistic instincts.
<span style="font-weight:400">Just when the monster got close enough to lunge at him, he wound up his right leg. When it was in range, Bjorn punted it as hard as he could back into the forest.
<span style="font-weight:400">Sitting back down, hoping for some peace and quiet for a little bit, he cleared his notifications and checked his status.
<b>[Bjorn Johnson]</b>
<b>[Race: Human?]</b>
<b>Tutorial Alias [Bear]</b>
<b>[Base ss: Warrior] Level 9</b>
<b>[Vitality] 107</b>
<b>[Strength] 174</b>
<b>[Dexterity] 51</b>
<b>[Intelligence] 37</b>
<b>[Wisdom] 35</b>
<b>[Endurance] 57</b>
<b>[Free Points] 14</b>
<b>[Skills] Basic Heavy Strike [Level NA]</b>
<b>[Titles] First Blood, Two versus One, One versus Many, One Man Army, Battle of Attrition, Monkey yer, Hater of Apes, Front Runner, Big Man on Campus</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">Bjorn scoffed looking at his status screen, the system really knew how to poke fun. What did it mean by putting a question mark by his race, of course, he was a human. And his titles had exploded after the Ape cave. He couldn’t help butugh.
<span style="font-weight:400">A rustling of the branches brought him back to the present as he got back up.
<span style="font-weight:400">"That didn’tst long, why can’t they just let me rest a bit." Bjorn sighed.