《Legendary Shelter Survival Guide》 Chapter 1 Prologue A light flickered with a powerful brilliance in a remote corner of the universe. Though it appeared as a small, sparkling wisp from afar, it was an immense, dazzlingly beautiful castle up close. Inside the castle stood three colossal thrones, each facing an empty center. Yet, even the grand thrones paled inparison to the immense beings who upied them. The air crackled with intense energy as the three figures engaged in a heated argument. A faceless man,pletely red, shouted, "How much longer must we guard this tiny ce? It''s been an eternity!" Despite the aggression in his tone and the bloodlust in his voice, the other two figures remained unfazed. "The orders are to watch over this universe, and we can''t defy them. It''s our fate to rot here, watching them make the same mistakes over and over," the second figure replied, his voice heavy with sadness. He was made of pure white light, too intense to look at directly. "What do you think?" The second figure turned to the third, a being of deep void-like darkness, who remained silent for a moment, lost in thought. "There he goes again, creating more baggage for us to handle," the red figure remarked. "Creating more dimensions might hinder us but we can do nothing if he wants to continue," the white figure responded. He was right¡ªthe third figure had a peculiar hobby. He was fascinated by the stories generated by those he protected across the universe. Whenever a story captivated him, he would transform it into reality. "Let''s wait just a little longer, and hope for the best... it''s all we can do," the second figure said calmly. The third figure finally looked at him, seeming to understand what he was suggesting. Their duty was to protect everything within the universe from external threats, and nothing more. ------------------------------- [Wee to the nes of Aemerion!] [You have been transported from your home to y this game!] [The nes of Aemerion are thousands of timesrger than your, and every species from your universe has been moved here.] [The rules are simple! Grow strong and survive in this world! But beware¡ªouter species like you are beacons of danger! Everything will try to kill you!] [You can learn about your skills by simply thinking about them! Good luck to all!] These were the words Lucas saw before his eyes when he mysteriously found himself in a dense forest. Before he could react, he was overwhelmed by waves of vomiting, whichsted several minutes until he finally passed out from exhaustion. Momentster, his eyes opened again, though his vision was still blurry from just waking up. "Fuck..." he muttered, unable toprehend what had just happened. His only option was to scan his surroundings for any danger and read the text disyed on the left side of his vision. The floating text was abrupt, revealing little yet saying enough. Lucas remained in the dark about many things, but the warning about the dangers lingered in his mind. ''This all feels like a dream¡­ Hm¡­ Think about the skills, they said...'' Lucas thought. A faint desire to understand made new text appear before him. [Configuring skills and statistics¡­] [Congrattions! You have obtained a rare skill!] Lucas felt a surge of excitement as dots continued to blink, loading the information. ''Rare skill? That sounds promising... but I don''t understand much yet. Where am I? ¡­ Wait! What about my parents?'' Suddenly, the reality of the situation hit Lucas. Amid the panic and stress of this unbelievable situation, he had forgotten about his family. He had been in his room ying on his gaming console when it happened. His parents were in the kitchen, and his older sister was at university, studying. [Configurationplete!] More text appeared before him, and he was about to read through it when suddenly... RUSTLE RUSTLE His attention snapped to a bush a few meters away, sending a jolt of fear through him. The word ''danger'' from the floating text shed in his mind. He wanted to run, but his legs refused to move, turning to jelly and making even standing a challenge. The bush rustled again, and Lucas''s heart pounded so loudly he could hear it in his ears. RUSTLE A head poked out from the bush, and Lucas stared at it in astonishment. His fear vanished, and he straightened up. SQUEAK! ''A fucking bunny...'' Lucas thought, feeling deeply embarrassed. He was relieved no one else was around to witness this. === Brown Rabbit Level: 0 Origin: Earth === "What the fuck?" Lucas couldn''t believe it. When he wondered about the breed of the bunny or whether it posed any danger, more text appeared before him, recing the previous one. The bunny jumped in fright when Lucas spoke, then bolted away in fear. Lucas sighed and thought about his skills again. === Lucas Garde Level: 0n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Origin: Earth Exp: 0/1 Strength: 5 Intelligence: 7 Stamina: 3 Dexterity: 11 Mana: 9 Skills: Shelter Generation (Rare - Level 1), Punch (Extremely Common - Level 1) === ''Shelter generation? What''s that?'' Lucas frowned in confusion. He clicked on the skill name, and a new description appeared. === Shelter Generation Rare - Level 1 The ability to generate a shelter is a rare skill. When activated, it allows the user to create a small shelter at a location of their choice. The shelter can be upgraded as the user''s skill level increases. However, thebat value of this skill is low. === Lucas couldn''t believe it. He read it twice before finally sitting down, cing his hand on his chin. "If this isn''t a dream¡­ I think I am screwed..." Lucas thought while looking around warily. The forest was dense and lush, with tall trees reaching up to the sky. Lucas had no knowledge of the flora around him, nor was he well-versed in the nts back on Earth. ''What happens if I use this ''shelter generation'' skill?'' Lucas thought, and when he clicked on it, the skill description appeared again. But his question was answered on its own. As soon as Lucas thought of using the skill, a transparentyout appeared before him, making his eyes widen in surprise. Theyout felt natural to Lucas, as if it were as instinctive as breathing. It spanned about 5 meters, and the trees, bushes, and nts within that area remained unchanged. [The shelter can be sessfully constructed here... Configuring materials needed... Wood: 25 (can be extracted from within theyout) Stone: 15 (can be extracted from within theyout) Build the shelter? YES NO] ''Can be extracted from within theyout?'' Lucas thought, looking inside the transparent area. Five meters wasn''trge, and Lucas could see the whole thing without much difficulty. ''Wait... Is it using the trees and that boulder inside for building?'' Lucas had many questions. He struggled to even ept this as reality. Still, he didn''t waste time and clicked ''YES'' in the floating text. Theyout shone and extended vertically, making it difficult for Lucas to adjust to the light. Everything within theyout vanished in the brightness, forcing Lucas to shield his eyes. CRACK! CREAK! THUMP! "S-Shit! That''s too loud!" Lucas eximed in panic. The noises from theyout were loud and erratic, ranging from the sound of trees being felled to other iprehensible noises. A minute passed with the sounds going on and Lucas had no way to stop it. Krr!! Suddenly, A growl came from behind him, and Lucas jumped, spinning around. There it was, a small silhouette moving toward him cautiously. === Vixenox Level: 1 Origin: Sandalian === The creature''s description appeared in the upper-left corner of his vision. The Vixenox was the size of a cat, with fur as dirty gray as a rat''s. Its mouth, however, was filled with sharp, canine-like protrusions, more suited to tearing than chewing. The Vixenox crept closer to Lucas, its posture resembling that of a cat about to pounce on its prey. Krra!! The small Vixenox leaped at Lucas, who instinctively dodged to the right. His reflexes were sharp, honed by his regr exercise routine. Training his body until exhaustion had always been his hobby, though many found Lucas''s dedication a bit extreme. Still, it proved useful in this situation. The Vixenox eyed Lucas again, malice glinting in its small eyes. ''Is this how it feels when somethinges for your life?" Lucas thought, his breathing unstable. The vixenox''s gaze was unmoving and felt very sharp, in its eyes, Lucas saw confidence. The Vixenox pounced again, this time a little closer to the neck. Yet Lucas just dodged it again, his instincts were better than what it seemed. "You leave me with no choice, Kitty." Lucas''s voice turning cold. His eyes sharpened too and he looked at the Vixenox with emotions he had been keeping dormant for a long time. The vixenox could tell the change in attitude but for it, Lucas was just amb ready to be ughtered any minute. A change of attitude was worthless for it. Though Lucas had always been sweet and gentle with his family, deep down, he knew his true nature. Suppressing his desire to fight had been a lifelong struggle, but now, he looked everywhere yet after noticing no life around except this damn Vixenox. If his butlers or parents were around, the Vixenox would have been dealt with without him even moving a finger. But now, it was his golden chance. He assumed a fighting stance. The Vixenox noticed the change in its prey''s demeanor again but still lunged at him. This time, Lucas was ready. He waited until the creature was within range, then kicked forward with the tip of his bare foot. "Fuck!" Lucas groaned in pain, it was as if he hit his toe at the edge of a wall. But he was sessful in taking the Vixenox by surprise, his kicknding hard on the creature''s neck and sending it reeling back. "Yeah Fuck you!" Lucas shouted while holding his toe, ted that his attack had connected. For the first time in his life, he had struck something without holding back. He couldn''t contain his excitement and sprinted toward the creature with an adrenaline boost. The Vixenox, sensing the shift in power, went on guard, growling to intimidate its opponent. But Lucas was built differently, his instincts had already taken over. He dashed forward and leaped into the air, preparing to deliver a powerful blow. The Vixenox saw thising and tried to dodge it, but Lucas managed tond a solid hit on the creature''s head without worrying about it biting back which sent it tumbling to the ground. However, Lucas miscalcted the force his almost broken tow could take and he crashed into the ground next to the creature. For a moment, neither moved. Lucas raised his head and looked at the creature lying unconscious. He forced himself to stand and approached it slowly. ''Wait, is it dead already?'' A soft whimper escaped the small creature''s mouth. The sound snapped Lucas out of his trance, and something else crept into his heart. This was the first time he had struck anything¡ªlet alone something as small and fragile as a cat-like creature. It felt deeply wrong, almost inhumane. In his adrenaline rush, Lucas had not realized what he was doing. For him, it was a lifelong dream, to fight without holding back. But it was toote. The Vixenox was already too weak to survive the encounter. Its small body,cking in strength, was built only for quick strikes with its ws and sharp teeth. But it had failed to use those against Lucas, unable to close the distance. === [+5 EXP] [Congrattions on your first level up!] [+1 Stamina, +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Mana, +1 Intelligence] [+3 Free Points] === Just as Lucas considered what to do next, a series of notifications confirmed his worst fear: the damage had already been done. The Vixenoxy lifeless on the ground. [Skill ''Punch(Extremely Common- level 1) has evolved into ''Unarmed Combat (Extremely Common - Level 1)''] Lucas stared at the blood trickling from the Vixenox''s mouth, haunted by the images of his foot striking the creature''s small body. The urge to vomit hit him again, but his stomach was empty; there was nothing left to expel. ''Calm down, Lucas. You need to survive... you need to get back to your family, it was either killed or be killed, there wasn''t a peaceful option, right?'' Lucas thought and asked himself, clenching his fists tightly. From a young age, he had learned to soothe himself, keeping his struggles hidden from his family to spare them any unnecessary worry. But now, he realized his mistake. The noise from using his skill had attracted the creature,promising his chances of survival. [Shelter Construction Completed.] Lucas took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves. This world was dangerous, and he would have to adapt quickly if he wanted to make it back to his family¡­ Chapter 2 Kill As the notification arrived, he cast a nce at his body and noticed a slight itching sensation. Despite this, he felt a sense of calmness in his mind and perceived that his physical strength had slightly improved. ''Is this psychological?'' He thought. There was only one way to know. He punched a few times in the air and felt some lightness while doing so. Finally, he opened the screen again. === Lucas Garde Sex- Male Level 1 Origin- Earth Exp- 4/20 Strength- 6 Intelligence- 8 Stamina- 4 Dexterity- 12 Mana- 10 Free Points- 3 Skills- Shelter Generation(rare- level 1), unarmedbat(extremelymon- level 1) === ''I have be stronger!!'' Lucas thought with excitement andughed inwardly. His gaze went toward the newly formed construction, the named ''shelter'' had stopped glowing, and a single small four-walled construction greeted his eyes. Lucas went toward it, the walls of the small house were made of wood, it looked like fine work that could not have been made in just a few minutes. There was a line of stone at the end of the walls, it looked like decoration. There was no door, just a single opening. Lucas went inside and was satisfied. ''It may be small, but better than being unprotected in the forest.'' Lucas thought.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The area was only five meters, there was no bed, a single window, just four walls, and a roof. Enough to survive in a jungle with no known civilization to depend on for now. There was a single ck dot on the right wall, and with curiosity, Lucas went to it. When he was close enough, a prompt opened in front of him. Lucas flinched and guarded his face, "They show so randomly¡­. random enough to give me a heart attack." ¡ª Shelter Rare- Level 1 2nd Upgrade requirement- 500 nks, 80 kg stone, 10 Life cores-mon quality, 90 nt fiber rope Skills- Landlord (rare- level 1), military power (rare- level 1) Members- 1 Description- A Small yet finely built shelter in the middle of a forest. Capable of protecting against blizzards, rainfall, and sr radiation. ¡ª In the dimly lit shelter, Lucas voiced in shock, "What in God''s name?" The only thing clearly visible to him was a blue prompt. "It appears that these materials will allow me to upgrade the shelter. But what''s the deal with these skills?" Lucas thought for a moment, then attempted to click on the two skills. As he did so, two additional prompts opened up in the corner. ¡ª Landlord Rare- Level 1 Description- You are the owner of and in a deste dense forest filled with dangers. With each level-up, thend will increase in size under your name. ¡ª Military Power Rare- Level 1 Description- When the skill is activated, a buff of +10 strength and a barrier are erected around the shelter''s territory for two minutes. ¡ª ''These skills are awesome, as long as I am here, it will be safer.'' He said and chuckled. A strong metallic taste came in his mouth, he moved his tongue around to see if his mouth was bleeding but now that he noticed, a strong smell of blood came to him. Lucas''s eyes went wide, he went out and saw the body of the Vixenox on the ground, blood was pouring on the ground from its mouth. "S-Shit" Now that he realized, the smell of the blood could make other creaturese toward his shelter. With urgency, he grabbed the Vixenox''s corpse and threw it inside the shelter. He looked at the patch of blood on the ground which was giving off the blood''s smell. With a little consideration, he started taking out the soil and mixing it up so that the smell would vanish. Lucas made all the soil that had any stain of blood upside down so that the smell would subside with time. "I can only hope nothing took a whiff of it." Lucas talked to himself and went inside the shelter. With so much to think about, he didn''t know what else to do but rack his brain to think. A thought of wanting to talk with his loved ones came into his mind, he wished for them to be safe. [Error! Cannot contact anyone till the 2nd phase!] The message came again in front of his eyes. Lucas furrowed his brow in confusion. He wasn''t even sure if there had been a first phase, let alone what the next phase might be. As he opened up his system once again, a notification caught Lucas''s eye. His curiosity piqued, and he clicked on it, revealing a new stat that had never been there before. It wasbeled "Free Points" and disyed a number "3" next to it. It reminded Lucas of the skill points that were often given in role-ying games to level up and strengthen characters. As soon as Lucas allocated one of the three points to his strength, he felt a sudden rush of energy surging through his veins, almost as if his body was reconfiguring itself. His muscles tightened and his skin felt taut, and just as he was about to marvel at this newfound power, an insistent itch began to build from within. The sensation was maddening - it was like his entire being was crawling with invisible insects. He tried to ignore it at first, hoping it would fade away on its own, but the itch only grew more intense. Lucas gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, desperately trying to fight off the difort, but it was no use. As he closed his eyes, Lucas realized that the itch wasn''t just on the surface of his skin - it was emanating from deep within his body. The feeling was so intense that he couldn''t help but scratch at his arms and legs, hoping to alleviate the irritation. But the more he scratched, the worse the sensation became, until he was practically writhing in agony. Finally, with a deep breath, Lucas managed to regain control of himself. He forced himself to focus on his breathing, and gradually the itch began to subside. He opened his eyes, he saw that the number next to his strength had increased to seven. Lucas looked at his arm, the veins popping out lightly. He was surprised because he had tried for many months to get these kinds of veins naturally yet it felt impossible. But now, after cing just one point in the strength stat. His body''s muscles were highlighted a little. As he rose to his feet inside the shelter, Lucas unleashed a series of punches and kicks into the air. His body moved with a practiced grace, honed by the self-defense sses he had taken at school, as well as the countless hours he had spent studying various fighting styles on the inte. His jabs felt stronger than before yet the speed had decreased. A thought came to his mind as he ced the next point in dexterity. This time, there was no itch but irritation all over his body. Lucas felt the need to bite on something and tear it off with his teeth. As he contemted, he couldn''t help but notice a subtle difference. "I remember earning a single point in each stat after leveling, but something feels off this time," he mused to himself. s, there was no one around to answer such questions. He could only steel his will and adventure the unknown. ''It was better than before¡­'' He thought and punched, kicked in the air again. This time, he could feel his attack bing faster than before. He didn''t know whether it was psychological or not, but it felt real. ''I don''t know if this all is just in my mind, all I can hope is to do better¡­.'' Lucas thought with a long sigh, things became quite unbelievable. As the negative thought crept in, he knew he had to push it away. He was starting to feel invigorated, with the adrenaline coursing through his body and excitement building up within him. His excitement bubbled over and he began to pump out push-ups with fervor, continuing long past his usual stopping point. Once he had struggled to reach 60, but now he pushed himself to 100 without even breaking a sweat. ''I can do more, I can feel it but my stamina is not keeping up.'' It was a very logical exnation as his body''s strength had abnormally increased than before and it was not used to the extras he was doing. The onest point went to stamina. It didn''t feel much at first but he started getting very suffocated in the shelter, he went out and tried to take deep breaths yet he could only take in a little air inside. ''Something is definitely wrong this time..'' He thought as he feared for his life. With the feeling of someone choking his neck, he regretted his decision of doing something so risky. Itsted for around a minute when finally he could breathe normally, he huffed in psychological exhaustion and went inside the shelter again. ''What should I do now?'' he thought. With no one to talk to or share his thoughts with, it had be a little boring and lonely. Exploring the forest felt like a lost cause. He did not even know what actually his purpose was in this ce. The thought of his family getting another skill than the shelter made him worry, with nothing to stay in and being protected by, he felt like it would be very difficult to survive. ''No matter what happens, the next phase has to start quickly. It feels like the only feasible way to meet my family.'' RUSTLE¡­. RUSTLE¡­. Lucas''s ears perked up, he could swear that he heard footsteps outside the shelter and the abnormal sounds of the bushes. Lucas approached the door of the shelter cautiously. He peered through the opening and saw nothing. After stepping out, he scanned the area for any signs of movement. Lucas listened intently, but all he could hear was the gentle rustling of leaves and the distant howls. He let out a sigh of relief and lowered his weapon, knowing that the howls had been a regr urrence for a while now. As long as the creatures stayed away from him, he was fine with it. The reality of his privileged upbringing hit him hard, as he had no survival skills to speak of. Now, he was paying the price for his sheltered life. As he turned to head back inside, he heard the rustling again, this timeing from behind him. He spun around and could swear he saw something move near a bush, only a few meters away. "Come out!!" He shouted after finally seeing a silhouette behind the bush. "English?!" A high-pitched shriek came from the bush which made Lucas literally jump straight. He looked at the figure emerging from the bushes, his mouth agape from the scene. As Lucas''s gaze fell upon her, he couldn''t help but be surprised by the woman that came in front of him. She had an athletic build, standing at an average height of around 5''7. Her skin was fair and slightly tanned, her face showed a level of anxiety that Lucas knew. Her hair, a curly and slightly messy ck, fell in loose waves around her shoulders. Her brown eyes, set in an oval face with a normal nose and pink lips, gave her a look of a woman in her twenties. Her clothes consisted of a blue-colored short showing off a lot of her leg, it had white vertical stripes on the sides, with a dirty ck top as if she was trying to show off the curves on her body. Lucas wasn''t giving off many emotions on his face, but he was inwardly relieved to see a human finally. ''What do I do now?'' He thought while looking at the anxious girl. The sound of howling came again, and the woman''s face became pale, she came running to Lucas''s side. "Please stay right there," Lucas said and looked at the surroundings with vignce. The howling had be clearer each time as if the creatures had reached closer. Lucas took a few steps back in order to make some distance. The woman looked surprised now that Lucas had stopped him. "Do you have a weapon?" Lucas asked while eyeing her non existent pockets on the shorts. "N-No, please, I don''t understand anything, c-can you please tell me where we are?" The woman asked and a trickle of tear came out her right eye. Lucas felt bad for her and wanted to invite the woman inside but after seeing all those movies that ended in betrayals, he wanted to have extra assurance. "Is there anyone else with you?" Lucas asked with vigilence. The howling seemed to be even closer now. "No, I am all alone. Please, can Ie inside for now, you can ask me anything then!" The woman said while crying. "... Alright,e in." Lucas invited he in and the woman took no more than a second to brisk her way in. "Are you okay?" he asked, she looked to be terrified. Staring at her, Lucas thought of his family''s situation right now. If they were okay or not. She nodded, but her eyes were still wide with terror. "I''ve been running from those sounds for a while now," she said, her voice trembling. "I¡­ I thought I was going to die for sure¡­ Nothing seems real right now" Lucas felt a pang of guilt for bombarding her with so many questions when she was this scared. "You''re safe now," he said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. The woman looked up at him with gratitude in her eyes. "Thank you," she said softly. Lucas gave her a small assuring smile and said, "My name is Lucas, what''s yours?" "... Sarah," she replied. "So Sarah, do you know anything about what''s happening here?" Lucas asked. Sarah shook her head and spoke softly, "I''m not sure what''s going on. One moment, I was at my friend''s ce, and the next thing I knew, I was in a forest. I was so confused and then I suddenly passed out for a while. When I came to, I just ran for my life until I stumbled upon you." Her eyes darted around the room, taking in her surroundings with curiosity, until theynded on the lifeless Vixenox. At that moment, she looked at the corpses with a pale face. "Y-You killed this thing?" She asked, her eyes begging to cry any minute. Lucas nodded, he was embarrassed by her reaction which was not out of the expectation. There was a dead animal in his house. "The thing attacked me out of nowhere, I experienced everything the same as you. First I saw a forest, they I passed out and then this happened." Lucas said while pointing at the Vixenox''s corpse. Sarah nodded, but it felt like she was still not sure. "Those warnings in the hovering messages are real," Lucas said, shaking his head. "I learned that the hard way when this thing attacked me. It''s a lot to take in at first, but the sooner you ept that this is your new reality, the better your chances of survival... I think." ''I don''t think this is a dream now, everything is so real¡­'' He thought while looking at the girl. "Uh¡­ I don''t want to sound stupid, but¡­ messages? What messages?" Sarah asked making Lucas think he had gone insane. Chapter 3 Not Alone Anymore Lucas learned that Sarah had been doing nothing but running since she arrived here, and the messages had disappeared until she woke up. He needed to exin to her how to view the messages and everything else. Inwardly, he hoped that she would be able to see them too. He didn''t want to bebeled as crazy or delusional. But it was his lucky day, Sarah first saw all the starting messages that she missed before, she was surprised and rubbed her eyes various times. Lucas only chuckled seeing her acting like a small child finding a new toy "Now, try thinking of how strong you are." He said. Sarah was confused at first but when a screen came in front of her, she froze looking at all the descriptions about her. Lucas tried various times but he could not look at her status, it only seemed that she was looking straight in a daze. "Now... In the skills section, what is written?" "Uh¡­ first is an umon, fireball. Then... extremelymon, sprint." Sarah said, she clicked on something in the air and her gaze went a little left. Lucas was surprised by hearing her say ''fireball''. "Wait! fireball?" Lucas asked with widened eyes. "Uhh... yes... is that bad?" Sarah asked feeling as if she did something wrong. "I don''t know, but after I have seen what I can do, unbelievable things can be real too." Lucas said out aloud yet Sarah only looked at her with confusion.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "If you want to try it out, we can go outside. That way, nothing will be harmed." "... Alright I guess." Sarah seemed to be more confused than ever and it was not her mistake. Lucas looked outside for a second and made sure if it was okay to go outside. Together, Sarah and Lucas stepped outside, and Sarah began to concentrate on using her fireball skill ording to the instruction Lucas told her to look at. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a second and suddenly, a small me materialized in her hand. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see the me and looked at Lucas, who was equally astonished. "Wow, you really can use fireball, Its a dreame true," Lucas said, impressed. Sarah tried to control the me, making it bigger and smaller making Lucas wonder how she could do all this naturally, she even threw it upward in the air like a ball. She was amazed by her newly found ability and couldn''t stop smiling. Lucas looked at her and chuckled, she was so scared just a moment ago. "Does it burn?" Lucas asked with curiosity to which Sarah only shook her head. A few secondster, her eyes started twitching, and sweat fell from her forehead profusely. The fireball was the size of a baseball, it was a little uneven due to being literal fire, suddenly, it started getting small and eventually vanished. Lucas asked "What happened?" and reached out to grab her shoulder, but she was so unsteady on her feet that she almost fell over. "I feel very exhausted¡­ Using this took all my energy¡­" Sarah said. Beads of sweat were falling off her forehead. "Careful," Lucas steered her carefully inside the shelter again. Lucas ced her inside the shelter, the floor was made of soil but it was finely furnished. There was no grass, no rocks, no misalignment, a perfect floor if one left out that it was still made of soil. He was wearing a cotton shirt over his half-sleeved t-shirt so it was better to give it to her. He ced it on the ground andid her down on the ground. Her eyes twitched various times but they closed from exhaustion after just a few seconds. Lucas only sighed and went out of the shelter, his stomach growled in hunger which made him look around but the trees had nothing but leaves and branches on them. ''Should I use that Vixenox? It had red blood anyway¡­'' He thought and started bringing small twigs of wood together. When a substantial pile was collected. He took some dry grass and leaves that he found near a tree and ced it over a twig that had a big surface area. He didn''t know what he was doing, just the things he had seen on discovery channel when he was a kid. He took hold of another lengthy stick and began moving it back and forth in a vertical motion over the withered grass. "Fucking hell¡­" Lucas couldn''t believe it, he was moving the stick so fast that it had taken a hard time for him to think it was real. The thought of his strength that increased in stat came to his mind which made him grin mildly. The difficult part was over when some smoke starteding out of the dry grass. Lucas knew it should have not been so easy, but results were results. "Yess!!" He shouted but realized again that he was inside an unknown forest with dangers he didn''t know about. He blew some air from his mouth on the dry grass slowly until the smoke increased. With haste, he ced it inside the pile of twigs he had collected. And with a little more effort, the work was finally finished. Lucas had made his first-ever fire, it was a menial task yet it was a very proud moment for him. Living in a society where people make others do all their bidding had made their survival instincts and skills weak. But when Lucas was making a fire leisurely, around a million outsiders like him had already died with him being oblivious of it. The fire started burning and making crackling sounds, Lucas went for the corpse, and then realization hit his mind. "How will I get the flesh out?" The Vixenox''s body was not harmed from the outside, so there was no wound on it. Lucas had kicked and made its insides all battered but he didn''t have a way to cut it open. He inspected the whole thing and finally found something he could work with. The left gut, where he had kicked the damn thing, had a little pointy skin which usually is not the case but because he didn''t know the anatomy and had never seen the creature before all this, he inspected some more. Turned out, when he kicked the Vixenox, many of its bones broke and one came a little out trying to cut the skin. Lucas knew what he had to do for survival, killing the thing did not have much of an effect on his conscience because he had consoled himself that the creature had tried to kill him first. But being the man who had never even cut a single tomato, doing something like this was more like skipping some important steps while climbing the stairs. He pressed the fur of the creature to get the bone out but it was not so easy, the skin of the Vixenox was a little tough and stic. If not for Lucas hitting all his weak vitals by mistake. First the brain, then the ribs, it would have not died so easily. With a little more strength in the pushing and teeth gritted tightly. A somewhat white-red colored pointy rib came out of the skin. Lucas was very happy, he had achieved something again. But if Sarah had watched what Lucas did and then became happy, she would have fled right away. What he did was actually a double-edged sword, the blood started pouring out like an open water tap, Lucas didn''t want to dirty his hands as there was not a single sign of water near him But the situation was urgent, he brought the blood-leaking corpse near the fire and made the blood fall on it. He didn''t know what he was doing but what more choice did he have? The already highly lit fire threatened to exhaust with every batch of blood that fell on it. Whenever the fire was going to exhaust, Lucas retracted the corpse and let it settle down. The process went on for around four minutes, and the blood that was falling had be less aspared to before. He looked back and saw Sarah just sleeping soundly, he decided to wake her up after taking care of the blood. ''Do I let her stay? Everything here seem dangerous. I don''t know whether she is dangerous or not too. What to do?" Lucas thought while letting the blood fell in the fire. All this time, Lucas was smelling and having a bad metallic taste in his mouth. He was only continuing this process because the smell was a little mildpared to the previous time. His whole body was sweaty from being so close to the fire, after another five minutes, the blood stoppeding out, the Vixenox was only the size of a cat. Lucas thought that enough blood hade out, so he kept the corpse near the fire. "A little more blood is left inside, but I don''t know which part to take out and which to eat¡­" Lucas pondered while saying aloud. His gaze went to Sarah who had been sleeping for some time now. It was only Lucas''s presumption with nowhere to look for the time there. Lucas crept over to where Sarah was sleeping, her face peaceful and untroubled. Despite the chaos that surrounded them, she seemed to have found a moment of respite, a brief escape from the fear and uncertainty that gued their every move. "Sarah, wake up." Lucas said while crouched down. "Mhmmm" A long hum came out of her mouth as she moved her face to the side. Lucas''s eyes twitched a little, the girl was sleeping so deeply in a dangerous situation like this. "Well¡­. Fuck it." He felt a little annoyed and he started tugging on her arm to wake her up. Sarah''s eyes opened wide as she got up straight on her back. She smacked Lucas''s hand away and went staggering to the corner. "Are you okay?" Lucas asked in surprise, "I had no intentions for anything bad, Sarah. I was just waking you up. Sorry if you found it rude." He said while scratching the back of his neck. "No No, I just got a little surprised. No need to apologize please." Sarah said and wiped her mouth. She averted her gaze feeling embarrassed. "I woke you up because there is something that I need help with." Lucas said while ignoring her embarrassment. Somethings it was better to just change the topic to help the other. "First, Can you check your strength again, tell me if something has changed.." Lucas said while waving his hand at her toe out. Sarah nodded and looked at her status, her gaze went from up and down until it stopped. "This ''mana'', it shows that I have only five left out of the eleven I had," Sarah said, her face formed in a frown. "That means that this ''mana'', that we both have depleted when you used that abnormal skill. Let me try something too." Lucas said and thought about using his ''Military Power'' skill. He flicked his wrist, causing a bright white light to emanate from his body and stretch out to the limits of the shelter''s territory. As the light subsided, a shimmering, transparent barrier emerge encircling the whole shelter. Intrigued, Sarah stepped towards the barrier, her eyes widening in wonder as she stretched out her hand to touch it. To her surprise, it felt solid and unyielding, like an imprable wall. She couldn''t help but feel a sense of awe at the power Lucas possessed. Sarah expressed her observation, "It feels like an invisible wall. Are you able to maintain this level of security all the time? Having this extrayer of protection would be really great" As she spoke about the need for protection, Sarah finally realized that she was asking something unreasonable from him. Lucas was just a person that she met an hour ago. "I can only use it for 2 minutes, and it used five of my mana''s points," Lucas said while still fiddling with his system. Soon, he also realized that he shouldn''t have even used it in front of her let alone tell her such sensitive information involving the shelter and him. Sarah came near him, her hands in her short''s back pockets. "Uh¡­ I want to thank you properly this time, it seems I have asked too much from you, first I slept all on my own, and¡­ I just want to thank you for helping me in this unreasonable situation we are in." She said. Lucas could tell from her face that she was saying all that earnestly. He had seen his big sister with that embarrassed but sincere face various times. "Now that the cat''s out of the bag, I think I should tell you. This shelter is a skill of mine, I generated it a little time ago just like how you generated that fireball of yours." Lucas stated, he didn''t know if it was okay to tell her all this but he too know about her skills. When Sarah heard thest part, she was surprised and wanted to say soemthing to him but then they both heard something loud. HOWWLLL!! Before they could start talking again, a howl resounded very close to them. Lucas went on guard while Sarah froze. She was not like Lucas, almost no one was like Lucas. He had changed his mentality very quickly. In his mind, he had only one thought. ''I have to survive and meet my family.'' With a slight rustling of the bushes, the source of the knocking revealed itself. The creature before them waspletely covered in ck fur, and had striking grey eyes. At a mere nce, Lucas identified the creature for what it was. "A wolf?" The wolf was around three feet in height, it had a calm expression on its face. While Lucas was on the guard, his gaze went to the wolf''s back leg. The fur had a red color even when the fur''s color was ck meaning the creature was wounded. ==== Normal Wolf Level 0 Origin- Earth ==== "It''s a wolf from Earth!" Lucas eximed, the status showed that it was from Earth too just like Sarah and himself. "Lucas¡­ I think it is just hungry." Sarah said while looking at the wolf with pity. "Hm?" Lucas looked at it again, the wolf''s gaze was only at the animal corpse near the fire. He was first thinking of using the liability of the wolf''s wound to his advantage but it was not wise to do it in front of Sarah. As Lucas pondered, he came to a realization. "The howl it gave earlier didn''t sound like a sign of aggression. It didn''t growl at us, it simply wanted to reunite with its pack," he said, with an observatory gaze. Lucas went to the Vixenox''s corpse with slow steps, he didn''t want the wolf to get away. He crouched down at the corpse and tore a little piece of flesh with his hands, it still had the fur with it. He threw the small piece of flesh at the wolf in the air, it''s ears perked up, and its eyes didn''t leave the flying fleshing toward it. The wolf came a little closer with staggering legs, it caught the food that was mid-air with its mouth and chewed on it profusely while wagging its tail. Lucas felt like he did something good, the wolf chewed the whole chunk of flesh with the fur for a few seconds until it gulped the flesh whole. "I don''t think you should do that..." Sarah said. The wolf looked at Lucas again with its tail still wagging, he chuckled and gave it yet another piece. "Why?" "We should show our dominance, if it thinks it''s stronger than us, it wille with its pack to eat us and that corpse," Sarah said in seriousness. Lucas looked at the wolf and then the Vixenox, the Vixenox may have been a little small but it was still enough. He wasn''t thinking that he might have to look for food again when it became bad or finished. He got up and before he could ask anything from Sarah about it, the wolf just flinched and ran back to the bush and disappeared. "Don''t worry, if ites back again intending to fight, we will not just stay silent and let it do so," Lucas said which made Sarah surprised. In her eyes, Lucas looked a lot more mature for his age. Chapter 4 Food When Lucas tried to go near the wolf, it went limping opposite to him inside the deep forest. Lucas could only hope that it survives. "So, you mean that in the 2nd phase, we canmunicate with our families?!" Sara asked, her eyes sparkling. Lucas just nodded, he too was excited yet a little scared too, in order to talk, his family had to be alive too. His father was a veteran when it came to fighting, he was in MMA when he was young while his mother was a simple professional businesswoman. His sister had been given self-defense training by him but she didn''t train by heart like Lucas, so he didn''t know if it was even worth it. He had to shake his head to stop thinking about the negatives of the situation. And while he was in his own world thinking about random things, Sarah had started working on the Vixenox''s corpse. "I woke you up because of this. The smell of the blood is strong so eating it fast would be great." Lucas said and came near her. Sarah nodded and kept processing it into something eatable, "This is one thing that I am good at, my brother and I go hunting a lot. He is the one who hunts but I cook the game at the camp." She said, her eyes looked distant and dazed. "As there''s currently no equipment avable, we''ll have to make do with what we have. Just a heads up, the food mayck some vor and you may even find fur in your mouth," Sarah exined with a chuckle and reached into the skin of the Vixenox. Meeting her made Lucas feel ted as he had never cooked before in his life. He didn''t have to worry about food as the chefs were always at his beck and call, delivering delicious meals within thirty minutes. Lucas went toward the bushes and took some more wood for the extinguishing bonfire. "Sarah, we must hurry. We don''t know what dangers maye our way following the bonfire," Lucas spoke with a sense of urgency. Understanding the gravity of the situation, Sarah quickly retrieved some chunks of flesh from the corpse, both big and small. Using the long sticks provided by Lucas, she erected them on the ground, tilting them slightly towards the fire for easy cooking. Chunks of flesh went on each stick, a look of satisfaction on her face. They sat near the bonfire opposite to each other and made small talk till the flesh looked to be cooked. After cooling it down, Lucas took a small bite of the flesh but immediately felt nauseous. Despite being fully cooked, the meat tasted extremely nd, giving them a glimpse of the true taste of Vixenox meat. They exchanged a nce, offering a reassuring smile before continuing to eat. With no other option, they had to consume the meat, having gone without any sustenance since their arrival, their hunger made it slightly more bearable. Sarah expressed her gratitude, " I''m full~ Although the taste wasn''t great. At least we''re not hungry anymore, and that''s what matters. Thank you for hunting and sharing the food with me." Her head hung low as she spoke. Lucas let out a sigh as he observed her demeanor. He already knew that Sarah was shy and not a ver confident person. "Stop being so self-deprecating, Sarah. Food is a basic necessity that everyone should have ess to. Don''t thank me, and don''t hesitate to share your own hunting endeavors with me someday," Lucas said with a smile while also speaking firmly. Sarah''s cheeks reddened slightly and she nodded. "Okay, I will. Thanks for reminding me. I''ll go put out the bonfire now." Sarah couldn''t help but think about her growing attraction towards Lucas. However, she quickly reminded herself of their dire situation and their age difference. Despite this, every time she looked at him, a feeling of safety and security washed over her, making it hard for her to resist him. Coming from a peaceful civilisation, it was easier for her to follow someone else than to take the lead. Lucas didn''t say all that for nothing, yes he wanted to give her the food from the good of his heart yet deep down, there was this desire for the food to be finished. To feel desperate enough to go hunting and exploring in that deep forest full of danger. He knew he was thinking selfish with one person to protect alongside him now but the desire couldn''t be helped. He took the stick that was his temporary weapon and went inside the shelter with Sarah, it had be very dark when the night fell. Being in the shelter was not a good feeling in this dark. Lucas took the rotten leaves that he collected before and ced them at the shelter''s entry. A single step on it would make a good enough crunch sound to wake them up. The vixenox''s corpse was inside the ground among the soil in order to not attract the creatures toward them. "Sarah, you''ve had enough rest. It''s my turn to sleep for a few hours, and you''ll need to keep watch inside the shelter, okay?" Lucas instructed Sarah. He didn''t want her to be a burden, so delegating responsibilities was essential. Sarah simply nodded her head in agreement, and Lucas settled down on his shirt where Sarah had slept earlier. By now, his habit of trusting someone innocently had not gone away. ''I will try to sleep but I don''t think *yawn* I will be¡­ able¡­" His thinking stopped instantly after heid down, all the mental exhaustion, and the sour muscles had taken an exhausting toll on him. Sarah kept looking at him for a while, and once she confirmed that Lucas had slept. Sarah approached Lucas and gazed at his handsome, peaceful sleeping face. The darkness outside the shelter was beginning to drive her insane, and every time she looked out into it, a shiver run down her spine. Without even realizing it, she found herself holding onto Lucas''s hand, drawing strength from his presence as she kept watch with less fear than before. . .n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om . The first light of morning illuminated Lucas''s face, and he slowly opened his eyes. His body felt refreshed as if all the exhaustion had been washed away, but his left shoulder was even sorer than before. As he turned his head to the right, his eyes widened in surprise and his heart began to race. Just a few inches away from him was a beautiful face - Sarah was sleeping cozily beside him, using his arm as a pillow. The veins in his brain pulsed in a rhythmic beat as he tried to calm his rapidly beating heart. [Congrattions for surviving the first night!] [The first Phase will nowmence!] [The barriers between all thends have been removed] [Objective- Survive for 10 days while defending against the hostile inhabitants of Amaeron and the outers. Reward- The option to talk, trade, and alliance will be added to the system Failure- Death] Lucas read it all, his eyes glued on the notifications. He was stillying down with Sarah beside him. ''The first phase has begun... I can talk to my parent after surviving for 10 days.... but will they be able to do that?'' Lucas became very determined at first but when he thought of how his parent would survive. His heart began to race, and he felt a sensation of difort just below his chest. This was a familiar feeling - whenever he was gripped by panic, he would experience an unsettling itch in that same spot. He got up forcefully from the ground making Sarah roll to the side. She opened her eyes with a cute groan and stretched her arms with a yawn. "Hm?" Atst, she also saw the notifications in front of her, Lucas did not have time to look at her now. ''In order to talk with my family again, I have to survive first.'' he thought and pped his cheek one time. '' No more depressing thoughts...'' Sarah didn''t react when Lucas pped himself; she was lost in her own thoughts and didn''t seem to notice. Butpared to Lucas, a relieved smile formed on her face with some tears. "I will finally be able to talk with him..." She said while looking at the ceiling. Lucas heard her, and a sense of determination and positivity bloomed in him. "I can tell by your reaction that you''ve read these texts. It looks like our first objective is to survive for 10 days. Based on what I''ve read, it''s not going to be easy." Lucas spoke to Sarah, who simply nodded in agreement. HOWL! A long howl came from the outside, Lucas looked at the entrance and saw the wolf again. It was wagging its tail and looking inside the shelter with calm eyes. Lucas ventured outside for a closer look, his eyes drawn to the wolf''s previously injured leg. To his surprise, the wolf was now walking normally on it, though there was still some dried blood visible. Despite the wolf''s dirty appearance, Lucas decided to overlook it for the time being, not deeming it an urgent concern. "You came here to get more food? Sorry, little one, we don''t have any." Lucas said and looked everywhere with vignce. From what the texts said, it would be more dangerous than before. The wolf made a small sound from his mouth. It went near a bush and soon the sound of rustling came from it. Lucas looked at the situation with interest, yet he had also readied himself for some uing attack. Atst, the rustling stopped and the wolf was visible again, there was a small creature in its mouth as it neared him. "A rabit?" When there was only a gap of 4 meters between them, the wolf threw the bunny toward Lucas. It came flying and fell near his leg. HOWL! The wolf howled again and after making small eye contact, it went away. Lucas looked at the bunny, there was a single bite mark on its gut, and aside from that. Its white fur was clean. "Giving the favor back, huh... interesting creature." Lucas chuckled and went inside the shelter again with the game he got. Sarah was looking at the entrance with a smile, she saw the whole thing. "Now we have the Vixenox''s half corpse and this bunny for food. Let me see..." Lucas went toward the small dot on the wall. He clicked on it making a notification pop up. ¡ª Shelter Rare- Level 1 2nd Upgrade requirement- 500 nks, 80 kg stone, 10 Life cores-mon quality, 90 nt fiber rope Skills- Landlord (rare- level 1), military power (rare- level 1) Members- 2 Description- A Small yet finely built shelter in the middle of a forest. Capable of protecting against blizzards, rainfall, and sr radiation. ¡ª Lucas furrowed his brow as he read through the description. He realized that the skills he possessed were mostly passive rather than focused on attacking. He had only one skill that was even remotelybat-oriented, but unfortunately, it was only effective within the limited confines of the shelter''s boundaries. He envied Sarah to have such a skill like a fireball, he knew she could only use it for a few minutes yet it was still able to attack. "There''s been a lot of time since we are here, we should explore a little around the shelter," Lucas said while giving Sarah a hand. "But didn''t it say that we are in danger for 10 days? Is it safe to go out there?" "It is not safe here too, and I don''t know why but it feels like if we don''t level up fast, there will be danger. And I have seen how it feels after you increase your stats. We actually get stronger from it." Lucas said while observing his stats. He continued, "What level are you?" Sarah looked in the system, her face formed a small pout. She looked at Lucas and muttered lightly, "Level 0". "It''s okay, I am only level 1 anyway. It is more of a reason to get stronger. We don''t know what will happen but all we can do is try harder. Let''s go adventure a little." Sarah nodded in response, she still thought that it was not safe but Lucas was able to kill a feline creature all by himself, it was something to feel protected about. Lucas went out of the shelter with Sarah in tow. They both jumped from the entrance to not make the pile of dried leaves crunch without reason. "Alright then, which way shall we go?" Lucas asked, pping his hands together in a yful manner. Sarah couldn''t help but giggle at his antics. "Let''s head in the direction of the wolf!" she eximed, matching Lucas''s dramatic tone with one of her own. Lucas picked up a branch he had pulled from a nearby tree. Though it was crude, it had the general shape of a spear. He used the decorative stone from the shelter to smooth out the tip of the branch, using it as makeshift sandpaper. Lucas set out towards the forest, eager for the adventure that awaited him there. Though he was aware of the dangers that lurked within, he felt emboldened by the presence of the fireball girl - he knew that they could handle whatever came their way. Killing the Vixenox was a confidence boost for him. Chapter 5 Troublesome Enemy Lucas and Sarah were journeying towards the north of the shelter, through a thick forest that surrounded them, except for the two-meter radius around the shelter. Lucas turned to nce behind him, and the shelter was still visible in the distance. They had already traveled a few meters into the forest, and Sarah followed closely behind Lucas, her face betraying her anxious thoughts. "What are these?" Sarah asked, as they had only walked a short distance of less than ten meters and already stumbled upon something new. In front of them, they spotted an umon nt with an unusual blue hue that caught Lucas''s attention, as it seemed like a fascinating discovery. Inquisitive, they both approached the nt and crouched down for a closer look. "It looks normal aside from the blue stem and leaves." Lucas nodded and was going to touch it but a notification popped in front of him. ----- Rapacious nt Level 3 Origin- ins of Amaeron ----- Lucas''splexion turned ashen, and he quickly grasped Sarah''s hand, who was still studying the nt with fascination. He urged her to retreat with him, and although Sarah was about to speak, an astonishing event urred before she could say anything. CRACK! The soil below the nt cracked and a big blue mouth came out. They both looked at the creature with a pale face. The previously harmless nt had suddenly turned into a menacing sight, as it grew rapidly to a height of 6 feet, towering over them. Its stem was thick and lengthy, tinted with an unusual blue hue, and at the top, there was a colossal mouth that resembled those of carnivorous nts found on Earth, but farrger in size. "S-Shit!" Lucas eximed. ''The system saved us there, who knows wher-'' HIs thoughts stopped when the big mouth of the nt swiftly came toward them. This time around, Lucas pushed Sarah to the left and hastily moved right. Sarah had frozen on the spot with wide eyes so Lucas had to take action on his own. The sudden jerk to her shoulder made Sarah fall to the left outside the rapcious nt''s trajectory. "Aaahh!" She eximed, her knee twisted making it sprain. The head of the nt had traveled a few meters. It finally stopped with a jerk. "He can''t move beyond its reach, Sarah! run!" Lucas shouted with a frown. It was a huge mistake traveling so carelessly without anything to protect themselves with, other that the crudest spear in existence. The ferocious nt moved his head to the wailing girl on the ground. Lucas knew it''s intentions were no good. He gritted his teeth and moved to the nt after closing off his brain. If he had thought with his brain, it was the worst decision yet he was dumb enough to try it. "Get the fuck away from her!" Lucas bellowed, as he struck the flexible and mobile stem of the nt near its head. The nt convulsed and the stem fell with a thud, forcing the head to lower as well. However, the nt made no sound, as if itcked any means ofmunication. "Sarah!" Lucas shouted yet again. sarah looked at his furious expression with gritted teeth. She was going to ask for help like always. "Get the fuck out of here quickly!" he said, the spear was not going tost long. He had already thought about the situation where it breaks and the heades up again. But before it, he had to make sure Sarah leave. Sarah gave a single nce at him and made herself get up. With pain evident in her eyes. She started limping toward the shelter. Lucas kept on forcing the stem to stay down. It was taking all his strength to keep it down. The idea of moving back came into his mind yet he knew that if he were to lose the pressure on the strength. He would get jerked back and the survival rate would definitely go down. "Come on, keep moving Sarah! You have to get to the shelter, now!" he eximed through gritted teeth. "But what about you, Lucas?" She asked with panic, with the limping leg, it might have been slow yet she hade out of the danger. She could reach the shelter on her own yet Lucas was still in danger and mostly because of her. "Just go! I''ll be right behind you. I promise." Sarah hesitated for a moment but eventually started limping faster, making her way back toward the shelter. Lucas, with all his might, continued to hold down the stem of the rapacious nt, sweat pouring down his face. The stem was getting more and more difficult to hold down as the nt struggled to get free. "Just a little longer...just a little longer." He was finally at his limit, the muscles of his arms and shoulders went numb. He couldn''t tell whether he was applying pressure right or not. The stem suddenly jerked and the rapacious nt moved up, sending Lucas flying back several feet. THUD! "Fuck.." Lucas grumbled, his head felt dizzy from the impact, he was lucky enough to hit the tree with his back that took the impact without much worry. He got up and started moving behind Sarah''s figure who was looking at him and calling out with panic. The nt moved its head around a bit trying to get the feel of the movement again, it had no eyes, just a face and it moved toward Lucas who was making his way through while taking the tree''s support. Sarah on the other hand could look at the nt readying itself to shoot again. "Shit Shit Shit shit, this can''t be happening." As Sarah held her head, she began to panic, overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events. The memory of Lucas saving her from the savage nt shed through her mind, giving her a sense of reassurance. She took a deep breath and fixed a resolute gaze on her hand. The thinking took ce for only a few seconds and soon, a ball of fire formed on her hand. She knew holding it for long was a lost cause. "Lucas! DUCK!" She shouted and threw the fireball straight. Her trust in Lucas had increased by a fold. Lucas saw the uing fireball, it wasn''t reallying toward him yet he still obliged and ducked down. The fireball made its way into the air fast and hit the nt right inside the mouth. BANG! "Kyaa!!" She eximed in joy and grimaced in painter, but it was worth it. Her aim which was either from luck or adrenaline had hit the bullseye. The nt made its way up and down the ground smashing its head everywhere. The sound of sizzling came out of its mouth with smoke. Sarah and Lucas looked at it with different emotions. [You have helped kill the creature of Amaeron- Rapacious nt of Level 3!] [+25 EXP] [Level up!] [+1 Stamina, +1 strength, +1 dexterity, +1 Mana, +1 intelligence] [+3 free points] Sarah limped her way toward Lucas. They both were hurt badly in their own way. While Sarah had sprained her legs, Lucas''s back was hurting badly from the impact. "Lucas! I am level 1 now!" Sarah said with excitement. She was hurting yet the achievement was big for her. "Congrattions! I leveled up too¡­ and my wounds are unusually okay too." Lucas leaned back, wincing slightly as he felt a twinge of pain from the pressure against his back. He was aware of the sizable bruise he had sustained earlier, but surprisingly, the pain seemed to have lessened a bit since thest time he checked. "You scared me with that loud sound when you hit that tree," Sarah said, shivering at the memory. She could almost feel the pain that Lucas was experiencing just by imagining it. "The points I got from leveling up helped me feel good. Believe me, I wouldn''t be walking right now with my wound." He chuckled and opened his status. === Lucas Garde Sex- Male Level 2 Origin- Earth Exp- 9/50 Strength- 8 Intelligence- 9 Stamina- 6 Dexterity- 14n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Mana- 11 Free Points- 3 Skills- Shelter Generation(rare- level 1), punch(extremelymon-level 1), unarmedbat(extremelymon- level 1) === ''The stats have increased again, I feel good too. This time the free points will go to mana.'' Lucas thought and looked at the body of the rapacious nt, it was on the ground with it''s whole length outside the ground. Lucas squinted his eyes and looked at it''s face that was open wide, something was shoning lightly inside it''s mouth. Lucas staggered his way toward the nt under Sarah''s confused gaze. He came near the head which was half the size of his body. "What is that?" Lucas crouched down with a groan and moved his hand inside the n''t mouth. "W-What are you doing?" Sarah panicked and tapped his shoulder in fear. Lucas stayed silent and touched the blob of light inside the mouth. His hand felt like burning but he didn''t react, too embarrassed to show Sarah his mistake. ''Fuck, the insides of the mouth is obviously acidic, how dumb can I be.'' He picked the nearest small stick and poked the blob of light. With three or four attempts, the skin tore and a small ball came out of it with a slimy juice. ¡ª Mana core Quality- Common ¡ª "Mana core!" Chapter 6 A useful Skill Lucas carefully reached out and picked up the small ball of light, known as a mana core, with his bare hands. The thick, slimy, transparent liquid covering the surface of the orb was disgusting to look at, but he didn''t let it deter him. Despite the unpleasant texture and appearance, he felt a sense of wonder as he gazed upon the tiny ball of light. It was pulsating with energy, and he could feel a faint hum emanating from it. Sarah wrinkled her nose at the sight of the slimy liquid, but she could see the excitement in Lucas''s eyes. "Ew¡­" Sarah groaned and closed her eyes, the whole process was gross to look at. "Ha! This little gem is going to bring me one step closer to be strong. The shelter''s screen mentioned these mana cores, and upgrading it is exactly what I need to do to survive in this unforgiving wilderness," Lucas dered, picking up the small ball with care. Sarah hmmed in response, knowing the use of the small ball of dim light. She was enlightened and happy. "Now that I look at it again, this nt is very big." She started looking at the dead rapacious nt up close. Her gaze fell on a small piece of something that made her furrow her brows. "Paper?" She questioned her own eyes, finding paper in an unknown primal forest was a very unique thing. She went near it and picked the small piece of paper. It was brownish in color which made it look old yet it felt finely made in her hand. "L-Lucas¡­ look a-at this." Sarah''s eyes were wide open in shock as if seen something unbelievable. Lucas was observing the mana stone with curiosity all this while. "Hm? What''s wrong?" He got up with the mana core in his hand. In Sarah''s hand, there was a piece of paper with a text written on it. Sarah passed it to him with frowned brows. === Herbalism Rare === [You are in contact with a skill ''Herbalism''] [ Learn it? Yes No ] "This is a skill!" Lucas eximed with shock. "We can get skills by killing things? Thats dark." Sarah said with a small sniff. Lucas looked at her cute little nose sniffle while she massaged the muscles around her knee in pain. "This is a good thing, herbalism from what I know will help us find the useful nts for use. The situation with that aggressive nt will not happen again with this skill." Lucas was very happy, not only did he get a small mana core, he also got a skill. He was going to click the option''Yes'' but stopped mid-way. "You earned this, Sarah. Good job with that urate fireball hit." Luke said and tried to give the piece of paper back yet Sarah pushed his hand away with a smile. "I was only able to attack because of you, you have helped me survive in this horrendous ce, and for that, I want to give my gratitude with this skill." "... If you say so, thank you." Luke was filled with warmth that showed on his face with a smile. They both had a emotional eye lock both expressing their emotions without speaking. Lucas took a deep breath and epted the skill with a tight grip. Sarah could tell that Lucas was nervous and excited at the same time. As Lucas clicked on the "Yes" option, a message popped up in front of him. [Congrattions, you have learned the skill ''Herbalism''!] === Herbalism Umon- level 1 Allows the user to identify and gather useful parts of herbs and nts for medicinal and alchemical purposes. === Lucas felt a rush of excitement as he read the message. He had never imagined that he could gain skills just by defeating monsters in this world. "Guugh!" Lucas let out a groan as he tightly shut his eyes and sped his head with both hands. "What happened?!" Sarah came and supported Lucas who was out of his wits, the headache looked serious. "Khhuughh¡­ FUCK!" He shouted. Sarah could only help him up and support him, she didn''t know what was happening and what to even do. A minute passed when finally, a somewhat rxed face of Lucas greeted her eyes. He was sweating profusely that it was dropping down his chin. He took a knee andid on the ground huffing in exhaustion. "Water¡­" He said, his lips looked dry. "T-There is no water, Lucas¡­ don''t sleep, we are going back to the shelter." Sarah pulled him up from the shoulders, it was hard but looked doable after the level up. Before Sarah wth Lucas in tow could take him back in the shelter. His gaze fell on the big nt''s body.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Lucas didn''t have energy yet his eyes bulged with astonishment. "...Wait.." He muttered slowly. "What is it?" "Take the nt with you¡­" Lucas said, his eyes still on the nt when finally, they closed. His whole body''s weight was on her shoulders. "Take the body back?" She said while lookin at it. His orders were important for her so she ced him on the ground for a second and went to the nt. "Huff¡­ one.. two¡­. THREE!" She pulled the nt out of the ground with one strong pull. To her surprise, the nt''s stem was at it''s full length outside the soil so a huge lump of soil with big thick roots brownish in color came out. Sarah pulled on it and found that it was not that heavy aside form the mouth of the nt. She pulled Lucas up again and with nt in the other hand started limping toward the shelter that was a couple meters away from them. Finally, they arrived at the shelter. Sarah had worked up a sweat, the sun beating down on her face, leaving her feeling parched. Surprisingly, the adrenaline rush and theck of exertion had not made her thirsty, nor had the act of running before. But the desire to drink water was still there. The thirst was getting very high. Her throat had driedpletely but the worry of Lucas being more thirstier than her came in her mind. She had already ced him inside the shelter and was looking around to see if there was any water. ''There is no water around¡­ Lucas needs water urgently¡­'' She bit her nail in panic. "If this goes on, he might die¡­" Chapter 7 Aftermath ".... Sarah..." Sarah''s heart raced as she heard a faint voice calling out her name from the shelter. With a sense of urgency, she stumbled towards the shelter, her mind racing with worry. As she entered, she saw Lucas stirring from his slumber, his mouth parched and his voice weak. "Yes! Lucas, I am here." She crouched down and lifted Lucas''s head and kept it on her thighs for somefort. "Did... Huff... Did you bring the nt?" Lucas forced himself to say, he couldn''t look at the big carnivorous nt that Sarah had already brought and kept outside. Sarah was taken aback by Lucas''s question, but she trusted himpletely. "It''s outside the shelter near the camp," she said with determination. She knew that their situation was dire, and they needed to rely on each other to survive. With a sense of purpose, she asked, "What do I need to do?" "You need to listen carefully, I can''t say again," Lucas said and stopped. Sarah made her facee closer to listen more intently. He continued, "Cut the blue stem of the nt with the spear... Huff... a jelly-like blue liquid wille out. It can be used as temporary water for us, bring it quickly..." With this, Lucas closed his eyes again leaving Sarah confused by this information. With a small tongue click, she went outside to prepare a pointy stick for the procedure. Her trust in Lucas was immense, if it was said by anyone else, she wouldn''t have gone along with this demand. The forest provided a distinct benefit in the form of wood, which was readily avable in abundance. If she required a particr size or thickness of branch, it was effortless to locate one. A suitable stick could be easily procured from a branch. Sarah quickly plucked it and tied it to test its durability. It was thick enough to not break with force in her hands. She went to the shelter quickly and scratched the tip of the stick with the stone outline around the shelter. After 15 seconds of rigorous movement, she got up and moved quickly toward the big rapacious nt''s corpse. With precision and a deep breath, she moved her hand and shed. "Hm?" She frowned in response, apparently, the stem was abnormally hard. But it didn''t deter her determination. She kept shing and cutting until finally, a blue liquid began to ooze out of the nt''s stem. Sarah quickly took the small part of the stem in her hand that had a small amount of blue thick liquid stuck to it. She didn''t dare to actually drink it as the very smell was repulsing. As she entered the shelter, she saw Lucas still lying with his eyes closed. She carefully lifted his head up which made him open his eyes. A hoarse groan came out of his throat, his thirst had made the whole throat dry which could be heard from his voice. "...Hm yeah, this is the thing. Good job." Lucas said and forcefully moved his hand up and took the part of the stem from her hand. Sarah could see the pain he was in, she was feeling guilty as Lucas was only hurt because of her clumsiness. ''If only I was stronger and level-headed at the time, maybe brother was right... I am weak-hearted.'' Sluuurp! "Khuhhhaa!!" Lucas eximed with augh. He already drank the liquid or more urately, sucked the liquid from the small stem part. "Are you okay?" Sarah asked with curiosity, seeing his face. Lucas looked to be fully healed. "No, my back is paining a lot. But! This liquid has an abundance of water and some properties of healing. It is not processed right now and can cause some side effects but still better than nothing." he said while licking the small stem.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Side effects?" "This is embarrassing but... it may cause some diarrhea for a few days. But drink it as it''s a necessity." Sarah went in a daze, she was fighting with her heart and steeling it in drinking something that she knew will make her have diarrhea. "Wait, how do you know about this?" "Oh! That part is very interesting, it was when I took the skill ''herbalism''. A lot of information came into my mind on its own. I felt that my brain was going to blow up but now I know useful things about nts. Oh... and on the point of nts, can I get some more... diariner?" "..." Sarah looked at him with a skeptical gaze, she was going toment on that horrible made-up name but the guilt was making her hold back. With a twitching eyebrow, she went to the nt to get more blue liquid leaving Lucas who had a smug expression. "Heh, That is one good name." He said andid back on the jacket. He didn''t want to show it but his back was in immense pain. ''I will have to be more careful, that was dangerous. The hit was directly at the backbone.'' He thought, the situation was worse than Sarah thought. Leaving all that aside, he closed his eyes and went through the information he got from the skill ''herbalism''. He couldn''t believe that he even had the knowledge of how good the soil was and the properties of the nts and trees. They didn''t have a name in his mind but just by looking at the nt, he knew what the use of its parts were. ''The information feelscking, I only know a single use of the rapacious nt and I know there are more. What is itcking..?'' He pondered intensely. In the end, he could only make himself happy with what he had. Just like that, under Lucas''s guidance, Sarah brought the big blue nt inside the shelter after shooking the dirt off the roots. Sarah also drank the liquid. She had a disgusted look before drinking but after was a different thing. Her face showed actual bliss when a cold and refreshing feeling went down her throat. Chapter 8 Newcomers 5 hours passed since then, Lucas and Sarah sat together and talked while sucking some of that liquid from small cut stems that she prepared. The nt was big and the liquid didn''te out because of how thick it was, so it was preserved and they didn''t worry about it being finished quickly due to its size. "Why are you looking outside again and again?" Sarah asked with skepticism, she thought that Lucas was not giving any attention to what she was saying. Lucas looked at her expression and for once in his whole lifetime, understood the emotion of the opposite gender. "Sorry if it disturbed you, it''s just that I can tell some uses of each nt in front of me. Do you look at that tree?" Lucas pointed at the tree that was near the opening of the shelter''s territory. "Yes?" "That tree has a sap inside it that can help with mending wounds, it can be said that the sap is a lesser healing drink. And the good thing is that it doesn''t need any processing." He said with an excited voice. Sarah giggled looking at the childish side of Lucas. "This skill really is too great, just how many nts and trees do you know the uses about?" "I don''t know, some shows nothing while some, even if I am looking at them for the first time, I know how to use them. My only guess is... the skill level is low." "Oh... do you mean the level written on the side of the skills? My fireball is still level 1" "Hnm, my skills are still level 1 too, we will have to see what we can do about it." Lucas and Sarah kept talking casually, they had just gone through a life-and-death fight with a creature that they hadn''t thought to ever see in their wildest dreams. It was with their wits and oveing their fears that they were able to defeat the rapacious nt. Lucas was still hurting very bad and so did Sarah''s knee. Everything was going right in this strange world but still, a mistake was made. The fire of the camp was giving off dark smoke in the air that could be looked at from various kilometers.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Many gazes fell over it making them decide whether to follow this smoke or not. Some had normal survival in their mind while others were filled with malice. But one thing was confirmed, the days were going to get busy. ---- One Kilometer away, A group of four people were staggering their way while looking in every direction. Just by one look at them, it was evident that they had been through a lot. A pale look and dirty faces and clothes. The group contained three males and a female. One of the males looked to be around forty in age and also the head of the group while the other two looked to be in their twenties. The woman with them also looked in her forties, she had a mature aura around her that didn''t falter even in this situation. The middle-aged man''s gaze fell on the sky, his eyes widened with hope. Just like that, they started moving toward the smoke with anticipation. ---- Lucas and Sarah were still inside the shelter, he had told her to get that sap from the tree he sighted before but unfortunately, they didn''t have any storage to ce the extracted sap for the time being. The idea was rejected quickly. It had already been half an hour since they talked about the sap thing and the time was passed with them sitting and healing their wounds which was the most important thing. RUSTLE RUSTLE "Sarah, get up." Lucas whispered and took the support of the shelter''s wall to get up. Sarah just nodded, she also heard the rustling of the leaves from outside the shelter meaning something had finallye knocking. "Lucas took the spear that miraculously survived after attacking the rapacious nt so aggressively. He took that spear with him and stopped at the gate. "Stay behind me and be ready to shoot that fireball when I tell to." "Hnm" Sarah just nodded and looked outside with a serious face. "Hey! There is a house here!" "Shut up, you dimwit! Don''t shout." Lucas and Sarah heard this conversation and couldn''t help but frown. The man who said the other man to shut up was also shouting loud. RUSTLE RUSTLE The sound of walking kepting, Lucas and Sarah were near the inner wall peaking outside in order to be safe from some projectiles if there were anying toward them. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" He shouted and got out with a groan, his back was hurting very badly. Lucas and Sarah stepped out cautiously, ready for any danger that mighte their way. They saw a group of four people, looking tired and worn out. One of the men, who looked to be the leader of the group, had spotted their shelter and was shouting with excitement. "Thank god, we finally found someone!" The man in his twenties spoke with a shout. "Don''t shout!" Lucas eximed with being cautious of his voice''s loudness. The group of four looked at the boy and girl in front of them and toward the campfire that had. A big nt was just beside the campfire which made their faces pale. "H-How is this thing here?!" Another man said while pointing at the rapacious nt''s corpse. "I said don''t shout, do you not understand what I said?" Lucas said again, his eyes became sharper than before. Giving shelter to Sarah was okay but this many people was a bit tough. "What do we do, Lucas?" Sarah asked from the back, she looked at the people with pity whose condition was worse than hers before she met Lucas. "Hello, kid. My name is John, this is my wife, E and my two sons- Sean and Barney." the middle aged man said with a mild smile. Lucas still looked at him with vignce. He was dumb when it came to the outside world but not dumb enough to just trust any stranger he find. "Uh... can you tell us your name?" The middle aged man said with a dry cough that made them feel how dry his throat was just from the voice. Chapter 9 Big Problem "... Lucas" He said while holding his spear tight. Both he and Sarah were still standing inside the territory of the shelter and if the family of four just a few meters away wanted to try something funny, he could just activate the barrier. "It''s good to meet you, Lucas. Do you know anything about what this ce is?" The man based with a calm face yet Lucas could tell the desperation in his eyes. He wanted his family to survive, just like him. "We also don''t know what happened and how we got here." Sarah spoke and stood right beside Lucas not wanting to be a burden anymore. "That is a house, right? How did you get it, man?" The man on the side asked with a small grin. Lucas found the guy annoying who tried toment on every single thing his father and him were talking about. "Let''s leave these things aside, I know what you came here to do, but sorry... I won''t be able to amodate any more people." Lucas said with a small courtesy. Sarah looked at him with worry, he was going to abandon a family with elder people just because there was less space. It was not like they couldn''t live in this ce. But Sarah had no way to ask him for letting them inside, she had no means as the shelter was not hers to begin with. "Lucas... If I am being honest, this ce is very dangerous and you both were the first we found after we arrived here. Don''t you think we should help each other out in this ce?" The man said again with reluctance, Lucas could tell he was a prideful man just by looking at his face. He could tell because his father always made the same face. "... How can I trust you? You can kill me and her for all I know." The four of them looked at Lucas withplicated faces. "Why would we kill you bro? Do we look like murderers to you?" The man on the side said with a frown as is offended by his words. "Sarah... what do you think?" Lucas threw a gaze at her and asked for her opinion. "Mr.John, You might know what he fears." She said and stopped getting a slight nod from him and continued, "We all are strangers but at this point, I don''t think it matters. This ce is very dangerous and if we are a big group, we have better chances to survive." Sarah said without making any eye contact fearing that she was bbering nonsense. Lucas for the first time smiled in front of them thinking that she was acting too cute. His gaze became serious again. He was going to say something but was interrupted by John. "I can tell why you are worried, young man... If you are notfortable with us being here, we can leave."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Dad!" "Please don''t shout," Sarah said while looking everywhere with vignce making others remember that it was dangerous to speak loud. "Uh... okay." The man blushed while looking at Sarah and averted his gaze getting a sigh from his mother. "I don''t want to be rude anymore, sorry you had to bear with this but I don''t want to mess up the n of meeting my family. Also, how did you find this ce?" Lucas said and asked at the end. ''Honestly, I don''t know what I am even doing right now... should I even trust these guys? But... they are humans and their state is the same as Sarah''s.'' In his mind, he could only think about this stuff. Lucas had no experience in handling these things so the only proper way was to be the blunt guy to not be dilly-dallied by the others. John looked to his left and pointed at the camp which made Lucas frown. He couldn''t tell what was wrong with the fire until his gaze went up. "S-Shit" Lucas went toward the fire while feeling excruciating pain. The fire was already extinguished yet the smoke came out without stopping so he started throwing soil over it. But his back went numb from pain in between which led to him falling to the ground. "L-Lucas!" Sarah eximed and went running toward him, and so did the others. Lucas couldn''t think much other than controlling his scream due to the pain. He bit his lip while trying to grit his teeth which didn''te to his notice even when his lip started bleeding. Sarah came to him and tried to give him support yet Lucas pushed her as it pained a lot. "D-Don''t" Lucas''s legs straightened and heid on the groundpletely trying to lighten the pain. "What do I do?... What do I do?..." Sarah started panicking again while biting her thumb again. She was not prepared enough to handle these situations. "What is happening? Is he hurt?" John came close and crouched toward the squirming Lucas who looked in a lot of pain. "D-Dad, don''t go near. He might be bing a zombie..." "Shut up, Sean, ande here to help." "Ugh, this is how every zombie movie starts." The guy said with a groan and went toward them. "Lucas got injured when we were fighting that thing, his back is in a lot of pain." Sarah said while still biting her nail in panic. John''s wife, E, came toward Sarah and hugged her while caressing her head to help her calm down. John moved Lucas''s t-shirt up, his eyes widened in shock with how big the bruise was. Even Sarah became paler than before. "W-What the hell is up with that injury? Why is the skin moving on its own?" Barney, the other son asked while stepping back. "His back is cramping, dear. What do we do?" E was starting to panic too while she looked at John. Lucas was not even aware that everyone was looking at his bruise on the back. It was all alright if the bruise pained alone which was happening all this while but Lucas, after trying to put out the smoke quickly, unfortunately, got a cramp right where the whole bruise and injury were. Chapter 10 Welcome aboard "Ugh..." Lucas let out a groan as he slowly woke up. At first, he didn''t think anything while embracing the relief he was feeling. It had been a long time since he slept like a log. RUSTLE When he tried to get up, a rustling sound came from beneath, he looked to the side and found many leaves under him. Everything starteding into his mind again making his face pale. ''How the fuck did I get this hurt? The pain... it will scar me for life...'' He thought but when he sat on his butt. Something was missing, he touched his back and felt that the pain had lessened. "Wait... what?" he touched it hard and felt a little pain but no way in hell was it the same pain that he felt before. "Really d you are this lively." A voice came from the side, Lucas''s eyes widened as it was not the voice he was looking forward to hearing. His gaze went to the right of the shelter and there he was, John... with his family, sitting inside the shelter. His eyes darted toward the whole room but there was no sign of Sarah anywhere. Before he could say anything, John spoke again. "Sarah is outside near that nt''s corpse, she is doing something with it," he spoke with a mild smile, and continued with a sigh, "You passed out half an hour ago, which made us a bit worried." He said with a small chuckle. "Yeah, I was sure you were gonna be a zombie dude.." Sean from the side said with a grin and a wink making Lucas weirded out. "Are your injuries okay now?" E asked from the side with a concerned gaze. She was sitting at the right of John. Lucas felt nostalgia looking at that warm face. His mother made the same face whenever he came injured or too exhausted from his relentless training that she despised. She always wanted her boy to be a big businessman but with how he trained his body, it seemed he was a lost cause. Lucas smiled and nodded at her, showing that he was now alright, he tried to get up which was pretty easy as if his body was healed miraculously. He frowned and jumped to know the level of his recovery and by far, he didn''t feel much pain. "That girl first told her to check for some skills, we were very confused but everything has be clear now." John said and moved his fingers around, gusts of air started flowing inside the shelter which made it cleaner than before. Lucas felt a dangerous chill looking at the man using his skill, if he were to get attacked with that gust of wind, it would be bad. "Lucas!!" A voice came from the entrance, and before Lucas could even look behind, a silhouette pounced at him with full strength. "Ugh..." He grunted and looked at the silhouette which was obviously Sarah, she was hugging him with her face on his shoulder from the side making it difficult to hug back. ''Such a strange thing, we met only a day ago yet the bond I have with her seems to be ages old.'' Lucas gave a warm smile forgetting about John''s skill use. He hugged her back showing that he was alright now. "Lucky bastard..." Sean from the back muttered slowly which got him a nudge at the shoulder by her mother to behave. "I feel strangely alright now, feels like the wound healed," Lucas said with a strange glint in his eyes as if getting to something. The recovery was just too strange. "That''s the effect of the skill she used on you. It''s a healing skill that elerates the recovery of injuries from what we have seen." Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Skill? What do you mean?" "Honey, show him.." John said while looking at E. E just nodded and with a deep breath moved her hand up, in a second, a whitish glow coated her hand which made Lucas understand what John was talking about. "Yeah, Lucas. Aunt E helped you at that time, they all got some peculiar skills." Sarah said with a giggle getting a nod from Lucas. ''I will go with my gut.... to trust them.''n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "I am very thankful for your help, Aunt E. I am indebted to you." Lucas bowed a little to show his thankfulness. "It was really nothing, you should thank Sarah not me, she was the one who told us about these skills that we have." As Lucas gazed into Sarah''s eyes, he felt a sense of gratitude and warmth wash over him. He didn''t need to say anything, his expression conveyed everything. It was as if the formalities between them had dissolved, and they could just be themselves with each other. The connection they shared was unspoken but powerful, and it seemed to deepen with every passing moment. Lucas felt a sense offort in Sarah''s presence as if she understood him in a way that no one else ever had aside from his family. It might have been because of the near-death fight they went through but whatever the case, he was feeling good. He couldn''t help but smile at her, a small but genuine gesture that spoke volumes. Sarah''s eyes sparkled in response. "Ahem" A throat-clearing voice came from the side making theme out of their small world. John and E had a smile while the two men had grumpy faces. After seeing them, it was as clear as the sky that they won''t be able to woe her at all. "It seems I was a bit harsh when I spoke before, to be honest, I am a bit scared in this ce, and taking such measures seemed to be necessary," Lucas said while looking at John. "I understand, If I was in your situation, I would have done the same so no hard feelings," John said while shooking his hand. Lucas spoke with a determined voice, "You''re wee to stay with us. It''s been only a day, and now that I''m certain this isn''t just a dream, we''ll need all the help we can get to survive." The weight of the situation was reflected in the serious expressions of everyone around him. Lucas knew that their survival depended on their ability to work together and support each other. With Sarah, John, and his family by his side, he felt that they had a chance at making it through this ordeal. --- THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE GOLDEN TICKETS AND GIFTS, IT MAKES ME MOTIVATED TO WRITE MORE! Chapter 11 The tree cutter Apparently, these four family members had some very interesting skills in their arsenal. John had the skill named ''Wind maniption'', it had the same application as what the name suggested, he could make the wind around him move with his will to some extent making it a somewhat envious skill that Lucas wanted to have. E had a totally different skill from all and the most important, it was called ''Heal aura'' and had a very good use that even saved Lucas''s life. E could cover her hand in the healing energy which was glowing white and whenever she kept it on his wound, the feeling was somewhat euphoric. His wounds healed from the aura slowly but it had the means to heal the wound faster than modern-day medication and the achievement was nothing to scoff at. Next was the annoying guy, Sean, who had the ''Strength enhancing'' skill, the skill helped the guy give some kind of a buff to others and himself that increase the strength stat by 5-10 points for a minute. He hadn''t tried it till now and they knew all this after he narrated the skill''s description. Atst, John''s other son, Barney had the ability to move things without using his hands to a certain level, it''s name was ''telekinesis''. It had been six hours since they banded together. - "You have a shelter that you made in a few minutes that can upgrade, you have a skill that lets you know the uses of the nts around, and you... you still think our skills are better?" John said with a constipated look. Lucas could only chuckle awkwardly as he said, "The herbalism skill was an extra for me that we both worked hard to get." He said while pointing at Sarah who giggled in response. They were all sitting near the camp that was not lit and no smoke came out. "Finally his skills are up to some good use..." A voice came from John''s side from E. "What skills?" "Every month, this man goes to the forest and lives there for a few days, he is been doing it for a few years now." She said with a mild smile. "It''s not much, but things will be handy if we have some tools. After looking at those messages in the air about surviving for 10 whole days from something. We need some fortification." John said with a serious face.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Lucas was curious and asked, "What''s the n?" He was fascinated by John''s way of living in the forest, but his family had never approved of it. They believed that he had enough luxuries at home and didn''t need to live like that. "There are so many trees around and no government or forest rangers around to pester us about not cutting them haha... so let''s get to work. Sean, Barney..e here." Lucas felt that his statement was a little bit weird but in a world like this, it was nothing to cut some trees down. And it was okay because Lucas could see around a thousand trees in a span of only 10 meters and the forest seemed endless. Lucas was going to get up too but E came to his aid and stopped him, she told him that he was not ready to do such work and had to heal first. He did not have any choice but to only look at their work. John first surveyed the area around the shelter and found some trees that seemed to be very young, their barks were thin and their heights were only around ten feet, which was smallpared to the fifty or sixty feet tall trees around them. John, with the help of Sean and Barney, pulled a thin small tree out of the ground which took a lot of strength and sweat. In six minutes, John and the two were only able to pull out one tree. Under Lucas''s curious gaze, John went to a pile of uneven stones. There was a boulder that looked to be above 200 kilos on the ground and many more small stones there. After carefully examining several stones, John selected one that was the size of a forearm just below the elbow. He grinned in satisfaction and then surprised Lucas by cing the chosen stone on top of arge boulder. With a powerful throw, he hurled another stone at the one he had just ced. The impact produced a loud sound that echoed through the forest. BANG! A loud sound resounded and both the stone broke. Lucas just stayed silent and observed, the man was making loud sounds but he was up to something. John held the chosen stone in his hand and gave a small nod. He then began chipping away at the edges using a small stone, working on it for several minutes until the thick rock became smaller in size and started taking on an oval shape. Finally, he began rubbing the stone against the big boulder, creating small screeching sounds in the process. Lucas realized with amazement. John continued working on the rock with the smaller stone, shaping it from the corners into a de and smoothing out the rough edges. He worked with such precision and focus that Lucas couldn''t help but be impressed. "Haah... finally done for now," John said, his hand had a hand-sized rock that had its corners sharpened. "Is this an axe head?" Sean asked with a curious smile. "Yeah, but our work will be done for now. I will make a handle for itter." John said and went to a tree branch. It was small yet thick, after checking it a few times, John broke it and brisked his way toward the tree that the trio had pulled out. BANG! He kept the pointy end of the stone at the center of the tree and used the thick bark as a hammer to hit the stone''s back. BANG! BANG! The stone went inside the tree by a little and it was time to turn the tree, John made another few hits on the stone resulting to make a line on the tree. Chapter 12 Lumber axe The center of the tree was marked by a circr ring, and John expertly carved into it with precision, applying just enough force to achieve a perfectly straight and even cut. His skilled handiwork was evident to anyone who observed the ring, as it appeared wlessly smooth and uniform, indicating that he had done this many times before.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Hahh... herees the lousy part." "It doesn''t matter, you can be lousy, If something happens, I will just activate the barrier," Lucas said with a smile, if something were to reallye, he was confident to fight with it now that so many people were with him now. "Thanks, I will leave it to you," John said without moving his head, he was staring right at the circr carving around the center of the tree. He kept the sharp side of the rock on the circle and made a strike with force on it with the wooden thick club. Lucas was sure that something woulde now that there was this much noise and he was happy, after that fight to the death with the rapacious nt, he wanted to experience that moment again, even his back was better than before with the help of Aunt E. With only three strikes, The rock''s pointy side dug itself inside the tree''s center. John made some side stikes in order to get a better surface area. After half an hour, John was sweating bullets, he took a deep breath and made onest strong strike. BANG! THUD The tree was cut in two half with the help of John, he breathed heavily yet his face showed a blissful smile as if he had achieved something. That face made Lucas very excited... excited enough to repeat the whole process on his own. "If there was much time, I would have made *Huff* a handle for the axe head but the fortification is necessary. "Oh wait for a second, I have to try something before you continue." Lucas got up briskly and took the second half of the tree which had no branches. He picked it up with one hand making the three males near the shelter look at him with surprise. The strength was nothing to scoff at. Lucas went his way inside the shelter and kept it at the side, he went to the blue dot at the corner and clicked on it opening the description of the shelter again. "Still zero in the nks huh..." He muttered but John was near him. He was afraid that Lucas would hurt himself trying to show off his strength yet that was not the case. He was an adult, so taking care of the kid no matter who he was came as a responsibility. "What do you need nks for?" John asked with curiosity, it was a forte he was good at. Lucas exined to him about the upgrade requirements of the shelter and that he needed a lot of nks. "Hm... so that''s the case huh... if the shelter could be this good when it''s only the first stage. It might get some better survivable measures in the next stage." John thought aloud with a nod, he continued, "As for the nks, this small tree that you brought here is not a nk. You have to cut a nk from one of those big trees. Getting this amount is nothing if we have some days." Lucas''s eyes shone brightly knowing that he had such apetent person in front of him. It made it easy to handle that annoying son of John when he had this much information. ''Everything is going the right way...'' He thought excitedly while controlling a weird urge of giggling toe out of his mouth. "What are you thinking of doing with the fortification?" John outlined his basic n for fortification. "We''ll sharpen one end of these two halves of the tree and then erect them into the ground outside our territory. This will make it difficult forrge animals to enter, and may even cause them harm, alerting us to their presence." "Thats a good n, but how many trees will we need to get?" Lucas asked with a small concern, this could be a bigger project than he thought. "Hm... around... 100-150 I think... But don''t worry, how is your injury now?" "It''s better than before." "Fantastic, I saw your strength before, unbelievable, the part of the tree you took was around 30 kgs. You will be a great help in making this fortification." John said with a thumbs up. Lucas couldn''t hold back his excitement and nodded vigorously. They both went out of the shelter while Lucas brought the small tree''s trunk out with only one hand and kept it at the prior location with the other one. "Lucas, you saw me make that stone axe head, right?" John asked and got a nod from Lucas. he continued, "Try making one on your own while I try cutting more trees with my boys." "Yeah, I can try making one," he said seriously yet inwardlyughed loud, since the time he saw John making the damn thing. He couldn''t hold himself back. Lucas went to therge boulder and took a rock in his hand. He smashed it on the big boulder breaking it apartpletely. The others saw this and Lucas''s in look and went with their own work thinking that it was going to happen often. When Lucas, Sarah, and John''s family sat together for the first 6 hours inside the shelter. They talked about various things. Lucas told them about the leveling up which came hard to understand for both John and E yet Sean and Barney took it well thinking that it was just like a game. Lucas told them about the strength and speed increase he got after getting the points by leveling up. Everyone anticipated the time when they could also level up. This was not a normal group to begin with, John and his family were already used to killing animals in the forest for fun family time and eating, back on Earth while Sarah went on a lot of dangerous camping trips with his brother. ----- Another oneing up in a few hours! Chapter 13 Uncle Johns worry If anything, Lucas was the one anomaly of the group. He didn''t tell them of his wealthy background, thinking they would treat him differently like always. In the past, whenever he would tell someone who his father and mother was, he would get treated differently, he didn''t want it this time. Another 6 hours passed by without any trouble, Lucas had made a lumber axe head and took arge tree branch to use as a hammer and cut some trees. While the others in a span of an hour could take down around 3 of these small trees, Lucas was able to get 5 on his own. John, Sean, and Barney used their strengths together to pull the trees and it was taking a huge toll on John who was not in a good condition. With age, the stamina of the body keeps decreasing, there is even a thing that the stamina that one build before the age of 25 stays at that cap for the whole life, and it only decreases with time. John was good at this stuff but he hadn''t done it this much in all his life. It was just for fun that he went to the cabin that he build over the years and live inside it and use tools made of iron that were so sharp that these stone ones couldn''t even bepared at any level. Yet, John was happy inward and E could see, he was an ountant back on Earth and hated the job but couldn''t quit because of the pressure of providing food at the dinner table every day. E was very happy while she talked to Sarah and cooked Vixenox''s corpse and the bunny. She would nce at her husband and kids from time to time with a warm smile that didn''t go unnoticed by Lucas. Atst, he went to Sean with seriousness and made him realize that they needed his skill now more than ever. Sean was a bit scared to use the abnormal skill but looking at his father, his will became strong and he finally used it on him. At the time, John felt an increase in his strength that was by far the weirdest thing he ever experienced, it was as if someone injected pure concentrated caffeine right into the vein of his hand. He went to a small tree and gripped the end with all his strength, at once, he pulled the damn thing without any help and took the tree out with the roots, loosening the soil a little in the process.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Lucas asked for the stat increase number from John and was surprised to find that John''s strength stat had be greater than even his for this one minute. He didn''t waste this time and pulled three trees out only to sit on the ground near his wife for a while in order to help his exhaustion go away. Sean had used five mana points at once in order to provide the buff, there was a two-minute cooldown after it and he still had 10 left to use. es, his mana was better than many in the group, even Lucas. In the span of these six hours of continuous work, Lucas got to know a single new thing, that they all had an increase in strength points after this vigorous work schedule. It was at a different time but they all got it, Lucas was the first because he was doing the work faster in order to have some free time afterward to sit with Sarah, next was John, then Sean, andstly Barney. In the present, There were 86 logs at the side of the shelter that needed to be chipped from a side in order to make it sharper. "Aside from the big trees, the area of five meters around this shelter had been cleared of the thin-trunked trees," John said while taking a dried Vixenox''s flesh piece and biting out of it. "Yeah, we might have to venture a little further," Lucas said while getting someplicated gazes. "To tell you the truth, I am notfortable taking my sons out there and neither you, so I might go on my own to find some food," John said and got up, he used his skill and waved the winds around the smoke to make it dissipate in the atmosphere, it had be a necessity to not bring any more people near them. "You want to go alone now when we have six people in the group to help up our survival? Uncle John, I don''t think it''s alright." "Yeah, Dad, why do anyone of us have to go? Let''s stay here until the danger is gone." Sean said with his eyes on the ground. "I was not talking about that, Sean. And the danger you talked about isn''t going to go away for the next eight days. Hell, I don''t know if it ever will go away." Lucas said with a serious face which made E and John look at each other. Lucas was younger than their sons and he talked so maturely while their sons just sat around thinking when this all will get over. It was not their mistake, this situation was normal, yet Lucas was abnormally mature and level-headed in this condition. Even Sarah had somewhat be like him and it was all because of the death fight they had with the nt. If they would have not killed the thing that time, Lucas was sure that they would be cowering inside the shelter too but they killed it showing that Humans were always superior in intelligence and perseverance. "Uncle John, do you know how we got near that big nt?" She said while pointing inside the shelter, the corpse was kept inside in order to preserve the water inside it as long as possible. "NO, I don''t, but we saw one on our way here, the big mouth was moving again and again and I was sure that it had something inside it. We ran after seeing it." John said after shivering for the first time. Lucas got to know that there were more of these nts here than he anticipated. "You were all lucky, we saw it when it was hiding and our gap wasn''t even a meter. We were inches near it yet we killed this thing with our teamwork." Sarah said which got a nod from Lucas, he was inwardly happy that sarah was on his side with this one. Chapter 14 Venturing outside the shelter Lucas and Sarah exined their whole encounter with the rapacious nt making them baffled that they got in this danger by looking at a small-flowered nt. "Wait, so you got this herbalism skill from killing that thing?" John asked with surprise to which Lucas and Sarah nodded. "That''s... nice I guess?" Sean spoke for the first time in a while. "Yeah, it is but we both didn''t know how to actually fight the thing and it almost killed me," Lucas said while pointing at his back, the others got the gist of it. "So, I am just saying, it will not be good if you venture on your own. Think about your family if you die alone out there. how will they survive?" Lucas said with seriousness. "Don''t fucking say that!" Sean got angry after listening to Lucas say some cruel things. "What a dick." Barney, who usually kept to himself said with an annoyed face. "He is right, I can''t die... not when you all are not safe.." John said with a distant look. Even E had an annoyed face while looking at Lucas but she still wanted to stop John from moving on his own. Sarah gave Lucas a sidelong nce and thought of giving him a piece of her mindter. "Then it''s settled, we will leave toward the direction we found the rapacious nt after a while. Is it okay with you all?" Lucas asked with a in face not minding the frowning gazes of the two sons of John. "Yeah, we will get ready in a bit." John said with a nod and asked for her wife toe with him. It seemed they needed to talk about something. "Lucas, do you have a minute?" Sarah asked while getting up. Lucas just nodded and followed her to the other side of the shelter where no one was present. "Why did you sound so harsh, Lucas?" Sarah whispered with a hand at the side of her mouth. Lucas was a little taken aback by her cuteness but he put those thoughts at the back of his head and answered sincerely, "Well, he was making a dumb decision, we still need the guy in order to survive you know." Sarah tilted her head with a surprised gaze, she didn''t know that Lucas was this practical which made her wonder at the fact that she still didn''t know much about him. They had not much history together other than the day they spent in this world. ".. Did... Did you take me in too for your own benefit?" She asked with her hands behind at her back. Her shoulders moved a little back showing a really cute pose. "Absolutely not, it''s just that I don''t really trust thempletely. It will take time for me to feel safe with them." Lucas said while scratching the back of his head. "Ugh, for the love of god, just stop talking..." Sarah became annoyed by Lucas''s ungrateful behavior and tried getting past him. But he grabbed her hand before she could leave making her a little surprised. "Okay okay, don''t be mad, I will try to be a little polite with them..:" He said with a smile. ''I can''t ruin my bond with Sarah just because of some rude remark..'' he thought and clicked his tongue inwardly in annoyance. "Thank you." She spoke with a sigh feeling good that the tensions in the shelter would be less now. 10 minutester, they all were ready to move, with nothing to carry other than some small outer skin of the rapacious nts containing the thick liquid with a small spear in everyone''s hand. Lucas told them to follow him and after only some meter''s worth of travel, they reached at the fight location where the rapacious nt was first located. "There" Lucas pointed at the loose soil on the ground at the end of the small clearing, they hadn''t noticed it before but thend around the ferocious nt had a lot of free space.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Oh, this is good grass!" Lucas eximed not too loud and went to the somewhat yellowish grass. He didn''t just pluck it from the ground but dug the soil slowly and pulled it slowly feeling good that not a single root broke in the whole process. "When getting these types of medicinal nts, try to be a little gentle, every single part of the thing is important," Lucas said while examining every singleleaf on the one-foot-tall nt in his hand. "What does it do?" E asked with curiosity that was infectious. "I just know that this nt''s leaves help to make the mind calmer, It''s not a drug or anything, the calming effect is all organic." He said with a smile. "You sound like a salesman," Sean said which made the others chuckle together. Such a strange site, they were all in a dangerous ce where getting attacked was the least horrendous thing and many had already died. Just like that, they only traveled a few more meters until Lucas found yet another good nt. Yet he didn''t pluck it out but made a mental note as to where it was located. ''For some reason, I can feel this nt is not ready yet...'' he thought, the nt was reddish in color and did not show any status but Lucas could feel the nt sucking some energy from the atmosphere at a high rate. "What about this nt, Lucas?" E asked looking at the same nt, it seemed she was interested in his skill. "Yeah, this nt is not ready yet, let''s get it backter, Aunt E." "This much area is okay, Lucas. We are not too close and not too far from the shelter. Let''s get these trees." Just like that, all six of them went to work. At first, John felt like Sarah should not do the heavy work with them but then she showed her strength which waspared to Lucas but a little weak. They all kept seeing the importance of leveling up and the drive to perform some acts of killing kepting into their minds. Chapter 15 The herd of creatures To not make much noise, Sean boosted the strength of Lucas whose arms were strong as it is, in order toplete the secondary task quickly. While the tree was getting plucked from the ground by Lucas, the others were looking around vigntly. Their primary goal was to look for something to hunt and level up at the same time. The forest was too dense with various colors in the same ce making things that wanted to hide get a better chance at it. In total, Lucas took out 5 small trees from the ground, and with the help of others, these trees were sent back to the shelter in the pile of logs to be processedter. "It is abnormally quiet..." Sarah said while looking everywhere. She was right, when they both entered the forest before, they found a humongous carnivorous nt within a few meters but now that they were ready for the dangers, there weren''t anying toward them. John was marking the trees with his spear by making carvings on them in order to return back after the travel. During the whole Journey, Lucas found many nts that were going to be good for his use. These nts ranged from some clovers that were the size of his finger and others that were bigger than his leg. They all were important and were carried by everyone in their pockets. After 10 minutes of travel, there wasn''t much hope, Lucas was just going to say that the travel had been a bust but John stopped him from walking further by keeping a hand on his shoulder. "What is it?" "Shhh..." John told them to be quiet and pointed to their left, Lucas looked to the left and saw clearly. There was a clearing where no tree was present for a few meters and tall green grass surrounded everywhere. The grass was not the only thing inside in the expanse, there were creatures grazing on it. Lucas couldn''t tell what they were but from afar, they looked like a deer yet it only came in its category. These creatures had six legs with a slightly longer neck than a deer, there were no horns on their head. Their fur was greenish, making them look rather unpleasant, yet Lucas had different things in mind. "Clothes... food..." He muttered making everyone nod with a gulp. These animals didn''t look any better than the deer on Earth that were very easy to kill if the part of killing them being hical is taken out. "The game is right there... What''s the n...?" Sarah asked while looking at Lucas and John. In the group, there was still an unanswered question of whether Lucas was the leader or John. While John was older and had a better experience, Lucas was the one amodating the people in his shelter and was the highest leveled person. "We got the numbers but if that thing''s traits are anyway near the deers I know, then we need to be careful." "It looks like a deer, what''s there to be careful about?" Lucas asked but the question made everyone look at him with a weird expression. "These animals have a very keen instinct, If we even break a twig.... they will get alerted and run if my knowledge extends here as well." Lucas didn''t notice the judging eyes of others and took in all the information like a sponge. In a world like this one, he had no way of surviving on his own if he did not even know how hunting worked. "So, how do we get them then?" Lucas asked the point question that everyone had been thinking about. John looked at those mutant deer-looking creatures with a serious gaze as if thinking of a n. ".... I don''t know." he said with a sigh making Lucas bulge his eyes out, he made that much suspense only to say ''I don''t know''? "The thing is, I have never hunted without my long rifle. My aim is good and am confident in killing with my gun but not with this.... spear," he said with a little frown. Lucas kept a hand at his chin thinking of how to proceed next. They were far enough to only see these guys herding on the grass. Lucas kept thinking for a few seconds until his gamer brain awakened for a while. "Hey... Don''t you have the wind skill?" He asked with excitement to which John only nodded wanting Lucas to continue. "You said your aim is good so why don''t you throw the spear like a javelin at the deer thingy?"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om John''s eyes shone for a second yet he became dull again, "Imend your mind but I can''t really shoot this spear without making them notice me first." "I know that but you can try throwing it while applying your winds maniption." A grin formed on his face. John still didn''t catch up and the others just looked at him as if saying to speak ahead. He exined his n to Everyone and John was the first to get baffled. Lucas provided him with a simple exnation - to channel his winds around the spear''s back to increase its speed. However, the challenge was whether John could execute the skill with finesse, as he had yet to develop a proficiency for it. After some collective decisions, They all decided to go a little further while also checking for some other predators around so as to not get third partied. "You ready?" Lucas asked, not to the expectant John but to the other guy, Sean. Sean just nodded in response, he used his skill on John making his strength increase by 5 points for a minute. John didn''t waste any time. He held his spear and concentrated on his wind skill. After concentrating with closed eyes for a few seconds, he threw the spear like a javelin toward the deer, and as Lucas had suggested, used his wind maniption to increase its speed. '' Chapter 16 Failure with some successful fruits John shot the spear from his hand and used his skill simultaneously making Lucas have butterflies in his stomach. SHOOOM! A speedy noise came from the spear when it was thrown by John. The speed was nothing to scoff at, they were about 10 meters away from the herd near some bushes, and aiming was pretty tough in this situation. The spear was finally going to reach its destination and everyone looked with anticipation. The deer like creature that was right in the trajectory perked its ears up with vignce and... before it could look at the spear, it was toote. The spear was just too close, Lucas''s heart beated faster, he was excited about the possibility of being part of a hunt. s, nothing was this easy, the spear scraped the neck of the deer-looking creature and went past it toward one of the nearby trees. BANG! The spear''s head got etched inside the trunk of the tree and it stood horizontally there. The deer-looking creatures whose numbers were not small started running in a different direction without making a single voice making Lucas baffled by their agility. "Damnit!!" John eximed with an angry look. He was gripping his right arm with his left hand tightly making others look at him with worry. He hurt his hand while throwing the spear with such force. "Honey, it''s okay... don''t worry, we will catch themter.." a came near and caressed his shoulder with warmth. A white hue covered her hand as she tried to heal her husband''s hand. Lucas had given up looking in the direction where the herd of creatures had fled to. He realized that they were impossible to catch up with how fast they were. Instead, his attention was drawn towards the spear that John had thrown, which was lodged about 5 feet above ground level on the tree trunk. He couldn''t help but stare at the spear in admiration of John''s skillful throw. It was impressive how the spear had prated the tree trunk and still remained securely lodged in ce. Despite the missed target and the loss of a potential meal, Lucas couldn''t help but feel excited and energized by the hunt. He was eager to continue the search for food with John and learn from his expertise in the manly jungle adventure. He went toward John who was beingforted by his family, John looked at Lucas and was surprised to see a small smile on his face. "Why are you sad? Don''t you know the achievement that you have aplished right now? That tree where the spear is lodged is around 20 meters away and you threw it with your bare hands. Now, what will happen when you practice and then shoot at those damn things?" Lucas said with a smile, he said all that to not only make John feel good but also to tell him about what he actually achieved. Even with Lucas''s strength, he was not confident in shooting that far. The shot was thebined effort of his wind maniptions, strength, and the buff Sean gave. John looked at the situation in a new light but still felt disappointed, he was an adult with a sharp mind, he knew what he did but it was still not enough. The only thing on the guy''s mind was to have a sessful hunt so that his family does not starve and they don''t be a burden to Lucas. "And if what I am thinking is right, this ce right here is a good grazing ce. Many creatures like these ones will try toe here to take thisnd for themselves." "God, just how many creatures are here...?" Sarah muttered with a dejected look which made everyone think. Lucas had till now seen many different things, some impossible to believe and some pretty normal. It all started with the bunny from Earth, then the Vixenox, the wolf, the rapacious nt, and atst, these deer-looking ones. Sarah''s question made him wonder just how many were there and how dangerous the situation was going to get from now on. "Oh, by the way, did anyone get these creatures'' description text?" Lucas asked but only got some confused gazes. He was the only one till now that had discovered these description texts but it didn''t appear this time making him wonder about the cause behind it. After talking for a few minutes, everyone decided to move back as they had food to eat for the night and the morning. Lucas with the help of John, carved some markings on the trees around to tell them where this grazing area was. he had already inspected with his passive skill ''herbalism'' but couldn''t find any use for these two to three feet tall grass deeming them trash in the process. While they were moving back, Lucas couldn''t help but feel a shiver down his spine, he looked back and couldn''t see anything in particr.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "What is it, Lucas?" John asked while also looking back but got a shook of the head from Lucas in response. They started their travel back to the shelter where the necessary construction of the fortification awaited them dearly. What the pack didn''t know was that a group of eyes were staring daggers at them from a dark corner of a big tree, it was only a few meters far from the grazing areas. Peering into the dark corner, one could discern numerous yellow, snake-like eyes ring back at them. The sight was utterly terrifying, enough to make even the bravest soul tremble with fear. The group of eyes whose bodies were unknown had their gazes fixed on Lucas''s pack moving back to their shelter. As the humans moved further away, the creatures slowly emerged from the shadows. They looked slimy and dark-skinned, with sharp teeth, ws, and scales all over that glinted in the sunlight. They moved with a quick and silent grace, stalking the humans from behind. Ans as always, Lucas''s group was oblivious was the uing danger. Chapter 17 Talk with Barney There was not much talk on the way back to the shelter, everyone was thinking what a situation they had got in. Trying to survive by hunting, no technology, not even baths. Mostly the women, with the habit of taking a bath two times a day. They had a hard time not taking even one for two days now. "We shouldplete that spike engraving around the shelter when we arrive, I don''t feel safe without it now." Lucas said to John while looking ahead. "No problem, it''s going to be easy now that we have these bizarre skills with us," John said with a chuckle which made Lucas smile a little.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om All this time, he had thought that John and E and even his parents would have a hard time in having to understand what these skills were. But to his surprise, they were taking it pretty well. The whole way back which only took 15 minutes of normal walking, John kept fiddling with his skill. It seemed he was pretty shaken from the bad hunt they just had. The whole way back, Lucas was racking his brain for two things. Firstly, if he had overlooked taking something useful the first time. And secondly, he observed John using his skill, it was very interesting how John just looked at a fallen leaf on the ground and made the winds around it move with his will. The leaf flew in the air for a while and Lucas could tell John was only trying to keep the leaf in the air. Just from his face, he could tell that it was a daunting task. But Lucas was happy that John was trying to learn more about his skill, rather than Barney who had the most useful skill, telekinesis. The guy could move around objects on his will, it may have been a little weak but it was still a pretty good skill that Lucas wanted for himself. They reached the shelter and everyone had a sense of security blooming in their hearts subconsciously. In all the dangerous shenanigans that were happening around, the shelter was the one thing that the guys had, to live a fairly secure life. Everyone in the group knew about Lucas''s barrier skill that could protect them if something were to go wrong. "E, please prepare the food for us... and Sarah, can you help her with it?" "Sure, honey." E smiled warmly and went toward the camp that was now shifted inside the two-meter-long territory that Lucas had outside the shelter. Sarah nodded and went with her too, she looked at Lucas for a second and went with E to the campsite. "Lucas, when do you want to start?" John asked with his hand on Lucas''s shoulder. Lucas was going to tell everyone to just rx for ten minutes and then their routine would start but John had made it easy. If he were to tell them to work right after they got back, it would have looked bad on his image and it was the most important thing if he wanted to make people have a sense of respect toward him. ''It''s not like I want to be some kind of a leader, I just want them to listen to the things I say and implement them as I tell them to.'' Lucas reassured himself with satisfaction, all the things he needed sounded like he wanted to be the leader yet he was feigning ignorance so tantly. "We can start right away orter, whatever is okay. I am ready anytime." Lucas said with a smile. "Good, then we are starting right away... Sean, Barney, get ready." Johnmanded his sons with a grin. He had seen through what Lucas was going for behind the words and it only made him more excited. "Ugh... right now? But my legs hurt, Dad." Sean said with a dejected look, so did Barney yet he didn''t speak anything. "Stop acting like a child, look at Lucas. He is so responsible and he is younger than you both! Get ready!" John said with a little shout that was okay as it was not that loud. All this made Lucas have a sense of happiness, getting praised while seeing the other annoying guys get belittled was such a form of satisfaction. John went toward the pile of logs that they collected. Lucas went past the two men in their 20s with a mild smile making a vein pop on their head. "This guy is annoying..." Sean said and started moving again, leaving Barney with a grumpy face. The construction had started, Lucas used the rock he refined into a sharp axe head and used it to make the small thin trees cut into two parts just as John demonstrated before. Sean was giving His father a boost in strength while Barney was using an axe head his father made to make one side of the thin trunks sharp as a spear. "Aren''t you curious about your ability?" A voice came from the side, Barney looked up right at Lucas''s eyes with a calm expression. "That telekinesis? It''s useless." Baney said and went back to work making Lucas look at him with a frown. "Useless? making stuff fly around is useless? Gods, then my ability could be called trash heh." Lucas remarked which made Barney look at Lucas with wide eyes. "What the hell, we are living in an unknown forest inside a house that is enough to amodate us all... your ability is the best out of all of us." "Hmm... if you say it like this, my ability sure looks delicious but can you tell me why you think yours is useless?" Barney kept looking at Lucas for five seconds with a serious face until as high left the guy''s mouth. "... Look at this." Barney said and moved his hand forward, in his hand, the axe head that his father made was present. In one moment, Lucas felt certain that he saw a bluish tint around the man''s pupil. In the next instant, the head of the axe he held appeared to levitate a few inches above his grasp, causing Lucas to break into a wide smile, revealing all of his teeth. He couldn''t hold back the excitement after seeing something so cool happen in front of him. Chapter 18 Fortifications complete The axe head kept floating over Barney''s hand for the next ten seconds. Lucas at this point had stopped his smiling and started looking at the thing floating with seriousness. The axe head was all this time shivering in the air and Barney''s face looked very constipated showing how much control, pressure, or concentration it was taking to keep the axe head up in the air. Finally, after another five seconds, the axe head dropped on his hand again while the poor guy massaged his head with a frown. "Did your mana get exhausted?" Lucas asked with curiosity as the things that bothered him looked like a headache yet Sarah had a totally different reaction to mana exhaustion. "...NO... I still have four points of mana left. It''s just that every time I use this fucking skill-" "Language!" John shouted from near. "Ah yes yes, this skill needs a lot of control and it makes my head hurt the more time passes." Barney looked back at Lucas and was confused to see the expression on his face. "What? Just say it." Barney eximed. "That''s it? You call this useless? Do you know how many possibilities there are of how to use the skill and you are not using it just because you are not used to it or whatever? That''s weak talk." Lucas said with a frown. ''He has such a great opportunity and he gives it up just because of a headache? Fuckin bitch!'' Lucas shouted inwardly yet tried not to show his annoyance on the face. "What possibilities are you talking about, transporting those logs here and there? that''s impossible because of their size." "That was one of the things I was going to advise but there is something even better and I got this idea by how you moved the axe head up in the air.... How about you use the skill to make the axe head or something sharp around and use it to attack? That way you will be far away from danger and could kill things." He stopped in order to let Barney sponge everything he said and he continued, "Gods, your skill makes me so envious, don''t you want to test how far you can go with it? Just think about why you were given this skill, everyone got something but you especially got his one... why?" ''This sounded like therapy.'' Lucas thought and felt that he messed up by speaking such shenanigans. Yet when he looked at the guy again, he had his eyes widened while looking at the axe head in his hand with new light. He was not the only one, apparently, everyone was listening to the duo''s conversation as there were none happening other than theirs and how interesting it was getting. Thest thing Lucas said had worked wonders on everyone''s mind. They in their own way thought that there was something special in them that got them these skills. It may have just been random yet thinking like this could only help in this situation and the most bizarre thing was that Lucas didn''t know how well he had done with that speech. "... I guess you are right... Thank you so much...I really needed the boost." Barney said with a toothy smile that made Lucas surprised. ''It''s the first time I am seeing a genuine smile on the guy.'' Just like that, they had already worked for a few hours and before they knew it, night had fallen already. "Okay people, you did a great job doing all that in just three hours, I am proud of you all," John said while standing in front of the groups with a smile. Around them about two meters away from the shelter. There they were, the thin trunks that they had poured their hearts into to build. With the help of Sean''s buffs and everyone giving their all to help in their survival in any way. They had actuallypleted the whole construction. Around the shelter in a square, the thin trunks were erected in a cross manner. Two trunks were dug halfway in the ground criss-crossed to not let some creature of any size enter without notice. There was a 1.5 meter long gap in front of the shelter in order to make a gate there afterward for getting out. Every spear that was erect on the ground had greenish color on the spike. It was from one of the nts Lucas brought alongside him in his pockets. The nt''s property was simple, it was a mild poison that could make the wound that it was inside restless. The symptoms tend to start after a minute and could take at most three. Yet Lucas was happy that they were actually able toplete the whole project sessfully. The poison was obviously applied after they were erected in order to prevent any problems. Piles of dried leaves were kept in the 1.5-meter entrance of the fortifications in order to alert them. But this was not the only good thing that happened, after the project waspleted and when John gave his speech. Lucas got some notifications that were mind-blowing. [Congrattions for making your first defenses!] [The shelter is now protected from the crude defenses which will be taken as part of the territory.] [The defenses can be upgraded by providing specific resources to the shelter.] When Lucas looked at the defenses again, he could see a small blue dot on the entrance of the defense, the same one that was inside the shelter.N?v(el)B\\jnn "What happened Lucas?" Sarah asked from the side making the others look at him too. His expression told everyone that he was dumbfounded by something but the next thing they saw, he was going toward the defense that was only four steps away. "Is he okay?" Sean asked with his hands on his head. Lucas clicked on the blue dot with anticipation, he gulped in excitement when finally, the text showed in front of him. Chapter 19 Wake Up! ¡ª Shelter Rare- Level 1 2nd Upgrade requirement- 500 nks, 2.5/80 kg stone, 1/10 Life cores-mon quality, 90 nt fiber rope Defense Upgrade requirement- 100 nks, 2.5/30 kg stone, 1/5 life cores-mon quality, 50 nt fiber rope, 3 Poison ntmon quality)- optional Skills- Landlord (rare- level 1), military power (rare- level 1) Members- 6/10 Description- A Small yet finely built shelter in the middle of a forest. Capable of protecting against blizzards, rainfall, and sr radiation. ¡ª Lucas kept looking at the changes that happened to the original screen. ''The stone part and mana core one are changed too! But where is the stone?'' Lucas looked back and saw some toward the 200kg something stone boulder, the small rocks that were around it were moved near the camp to have some support. ''The texts are taking it as the stone needed for the upgrade, which means the stone part is easy. Now only the nks, nt fiber, and mana are cores left....'' Lucas thought. "Are you okay Lucas, you have been standing there for a minute now..." Sarah said from behind. Lucas looked at them all and sighed, they didn''t know what the groups had just achieved. He moved to the back and with a big grin, he continued, "Well, my skill just showed that the defenses will be taken as the shelter''s territory and just like the shelter, it can be upgraded by keeping resources in the shelter''s territory." Aside from Sarah and John, the others looked confused and found it hard to understand but the change in John''s expression made them curious to ask himter. "What are the requirements this time?" John asked with interest. Lucas told them all to first enter the shelter, they all sat down near the walls and listened to him intently. After understanding, everyone was happy to have such a feature in the shelter as it meant that from now on, they had to just make the basic structure of something and it would upgrade with just the resourcester. Lucas couldn''t understand why it didn''t happen to the campfire but overlooked it for now. It was a joyous asion as their hardbor had just paid off by a double fold. While John took the watch in the night, Lucas and the others slept like a log. It had been a hectic day. After a few hours, John woke Lucas up for him to take watch this time. It had already been decided, Lucas and John were going to change their shifts for the night not trusting John''s sons for the job thinking they would also sleep making their survival a bit difficult. CRACK CRACK The sound of crackling resounded everywhere as if someone had broken some instant noodles. Lucas who was half asleep got up in an instant, those dried leaves were the defense mechanism that they had implemented at the entrance of the defense. "Wake up! Everyone!" Lucas eximed in a voice that was not loud or too low. He grabbed the spear that he had been using since the very start. The only change was the green poison that was smothered on the tip. Everyone had a spear and it was lubricated with the poison, John was the first one to wake from themotion, then Sarah, and then the others. They all woke up in about a minute and Lucas just went near one of the walls of the shelter where the entrance connected and tried to peek out to look for any enemy. s, it was too dark, aside from the thin spears acting as defense, Lucas couldn''t tell if the enemy was hit by anything as it entered. ''After all that hard work, I can''t believe something entered the defenses. Fuck...'' He thought. Lucas''s gaze went toward John who was at the other side, their eyes met and after a brief nod, Lucas''s gaze shifted to Sarah who was coincidentally looking at him. "We need fire.." Lucas muttered slowly making Sarah nod in understanding. Lucas was waiting for her to pull on the fire when she closed her eyes, her left hand moved upward and a small ball of fire materialized and started hovering over it. ''Oh no, she can''t hold it for long...'' Lucas realizedte that Sarah couldn''t hold it for a long time. He was going to say something again yet Sarah brought the blunt side of her spear and lit it up with the fire. It only took around ten seconds for her to light the other side of the spear. The shelter had already lit up with her fireball and everybody had to adjust to the shing light. "There is dead silence outside..." John spoke while looking out the entrance. Lucas took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He couldn''t be reckless as there were too many people at stake this time around. With E, Barney, and Sean who didn''t have much of an ability to fight, he had to be careful.N?v(el)B\\jnn ''Fuck it'' Lucas thought and went outside with quick steps. The spear that had now be a fire staff zed aggressively lighting the outside by a little. Lucas moved it in all directions, at this point, John was also outside with him holding the end of the spear on the fire to help with the lighting problem too. They both looked everywhere yet couldn''t find anything, Lucas''s eyes fell on the leaves they left before going to sleep. They were ced in a very symmetric manner but now, they were crumbled on only one side as if something set afoot inside yet didn''t go any further cause of the sound. "I think we are safe, whatever came here didn''t get inside the territory," John said while patting Lucas''s shoulder. The area may have been illuminated with the two torches they were holding yet it didn''t go much further. The forest around them was filled with darkness and they didn''t know what was there to haunt their minds forever... Chapter 20 The dangers around Throughout the night, Lucas and John stayed outside the dungeon in order to look for any dangers. It was dark and it took various hours for light to fall on the shelter again. *Yawn* Lucas took a huge yawn while opening his mouth wide, he was very tired of not sleeping for the whole night. After John gave the shift to him at around two in the morning, Lucas was awake since then. "Finally light huh..." John looked at the forest around them and couldn''t find any creature. It was as if the forest was all peaceful. "... Are you sure the leaves cracked? It might have been in your head, this ce is making us crazy I think." Sean spoke while yawning with a small smile, a vein bulged on Lucas''s head seeing him so carefree. "Sean,e here," John said seriously while calling Sean toward him, he obliged and Sean followed him to the leaves. "What do you see here?" He said pointing at those cracked leaves in front of them all. Sean looked at the leaves intently and finally, got the gist that the leaves were really broken by something stepping on them. "Do you see? When you were sleeping the whole night, Lucas was awake having the watch. Show some respect toward the kid." Lucas didn''t even bother looking at them both bantering because it was a verymon scene in all the three days that had passed of the first phase. "Okay everyone, please stay at the campsite as it is near the wall of the defense and not the entrance, there is less chance that something will attack you there. Uncle John... do you want to go scout the area with me?" "Well, we should eat first, then we can go to the forest and one more thing..." John spoke while looking up. Lucas traced his gaze and found that he was looking at those tall trees. "We might have to cut these..." "Why?" "We may have made the fortification that can make the creatures on the ground have trouble entering but what about those that are above the trees?" Suddenly, Lucas realized the problem, the trees around were very near and were dense. If something were to climb the trees and jump toward the shelter, getting past the defenses was easy if the creature survived the fall which Lucas was not sure about but still, the situation had changed a lot. They all went toward the camp where E and Sarah prepared thest of the food. The Vixenox''s whole body was gone, aside from a leg and some upper flesh, Lucas didn''t know why the flesh was still so fresh after all these days but didn''t care as they were getting benefited anyway. In half an hour, the food was ready Everyone ate it while making weird faces. It wasn''t easy for the grown-ups to eat it with a straight face either. "Sean, Barney... I and Lucas are leaving... till wee back, make a makeshift torch that I taught you." "No problem, Dad. Just be careful." Sean said and hugged John goodbye, Barney stayed behind but it took only a single eye contact for the both to convey their feelings.N?v(el)B\\jnn Barney was not much of an emotion shower, but his family was used to this habit of his. E gave a kiss on the guy''s forehead and hugged Lucas goodbye. "You ready?" John asked with a single tap on Lucas''s shoulder. Lucas only nodded and started walking with him. Everyone bid farewell to the two guys who moved to the North of the shelter like always. Lucas looked at the back again, at a certain someone... E. She was making a face of concern, the same face Lucas''s mother made when he was leaving for the first day of his college. John kept taking nces at Lucas from time to time and Lucas knew about it, he just didn''t know why. After five minutes of walking silently, John broke the streak and spoke. "You''re enjoying this, aren''t you?" He asked with a smile. Lucas looked at the guy for a second, with wide eyes. He didn''t know which enjoyment was he talking about, thepany of Sarah who was very close to him, or the help that he was getting in order to upgrade the shelter? "I can see the liveliness in your eyes... just like when I was young... You like to live in this forest with dangers.." John said with an ear-to-ear grin that made Lucas shiver. He was liking the situation, aside from his parent and sister who was away from him. Especially his mother who was not very prone to fighting yet after living with his father who trained every day, did yoga, and was into calisthenics even at the age of 40, she had picked some things here and there. ''Everything will be alright when I see them again... Sigh...'' Lucas sighed inwardly while thinking. John who was looking everywhere vigntly while having a conversation with Lucas saw his sad face. The face that one makes when he gets homesick or misses something dear to them just like a family. John, being a person who was in the customer service sector for a long time, had picked some things in all his years of work experience. One of them was knowing what the other person is thinking just by looking at the face. John was a prodigy that did not unt much but he was the best ountant in his office and was up for a juicy promotion if not for this situation. "You will find them, kid... don''t worry..." Lucas looked toward him and the mind smile John was giving him. A smile formed on Lucas''s face too, it was nice to have someone who cared. He didn''t care how John came to know about it. Another few minutes passed when finally, they both reached the grazing area. The grass was abnormallyrge but something else was in there which was new. "What the hell..." Even John froze up looking at the situation. There they were, three lizard-like disgusting creatures with humanoid figures. The creatures were on full disy and apparently, it didn''t know that the duo was looking at them. The creatures had the face of an alligator with their full body being the same as the humans... aside from the big long tail which had scales on them. Lucas didn''t know why but he was sure that the creature''s skin was shining in the sunlight. It looked wet and slimy. The three creatures were crouched near the end of the tall grass, all three of them were encircling a bloodied and battered dead body. The body was of the deer-looking creature they saw before. Chapter 21 Encounter "Those ws... and canines... this is a proper predator Lucas..." John muttered under his breath. Lucas just nodded in response, no matter how much he tried, getting the description of what they were seemed impossible. The three lizard humanoids were ripping the flesh off the corpse as if it was tofu. Lucas and John kept looking toward them with fear and panic, no matter how much they thought about confronting these damn things. Their minds went nk. But, just when Lucas was going to ask John to run... a thought came to his mind. ''The Vixenox had ws, I killed it. This time... these ws can be used for something better...'' Lucas thought, suddenly his gaze shifted from that of panic and fear, it was just a thought that came for a few seconds. Lucas came to his right mind quickly but for a little while, his gaze changed to that of a predator. If John would have seen that excited confident gaze, he would have gotten some confidence to kill those things. *Kr?* "S-Shit..." One of the creatures made a confused noise and looked right at the ce where Lucas and John were staring from. The blood in Lucas''s brain pumped furiously thinking that his life will end sooner than he expected, he was like a normal human on Earth as all his abilities came from the shelter and he was very far from it. While Lucas was feeling all theseplex emotions, John was different. Unlike Lucas, he was the head of his family that needed his protection. All his worry went to how his family would live in this god-forsaken world if he died so quickly. The reptile-like humanoid creature stood on his feet while still looking in Lucas''s direction, the other two creatures moved their heads up for a second but went back to eating as if not interested in their partner''s antics. Before they knew it, the humanoid creature hunched its back and with hands and feet on the ground, it started moving towards them slowly while sniffing the ground. Lucas looked at the creature''s cold-blooded snake-like eyes and couldn''t help but shiver a little. This type of creature looked more dangerous than a lion or a crocodile.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Lucas and John slowly backed away, trying to keep their eyes on the creature while also looking for an escape route. They knew that they had to be careful, any sudden movements could trigger an attack from the predator. As they backed away, the creature continued to sniff the ground, its eyes fixed in their direction. Its long ws dug into the dirt, leaving deep grooves behind as it moved closer. Lucas felt his heart racing, his palms sweaty, and his breaths shallow. He had never felt so vulnerable before. All this time when he was sure his life had changed where he would trample on anything that woulde his way. But it ended just like that. "Lucas..." A light voice entered his ears, Lucas looked at John who had stopped moving back to the shelter while coaching down. He furrowed his brows but John didn''t say anything until... "We can''t let this thinge anywhere near the shelter... we have to either run somewhere else or... fight." John this time made eye contact, Lucas''s spine shivered a little when he saw John''s expression. It was filled with determination and Lucas knew where it came from. ''He wants to protect his family...'' He went in a daze again as finally, he remembered his family again. In times of danger, sometimes people don''t think of anything but the danger they are in and this was what happened to Lucas, he shook his head violently to make his mind settle again, ''I am going to fucking meet my family!'' He shouted inwardly. His face showed the prior confidence again which John noticed this time. The confidence was like amunicable disease. At one ce, John knew what he decided. Lucas wanted to fight. At this point, the lizard was still pretty far but it was stilling in their direction. Lucas and John made a little pep talk in which their expression changed various times but atst, they both went to the side. The spears in their hands were ready to pounce anytime now. The creature had not stopped till now, it had felt something dangerous in that direction and it wasn''t going to back off. These creatures were an intellectual but primitive species called ''Kobolds''. Just like the humans, the kobolds were also shifted from their to the ins of Amaeron. The Kobold on this note were a very territorial species, at this ce, there were only three of them after the big teleport just like the humans. The grazing area had be their territory after they saw so many vulnerable creatures in this ce. They were the ones that followed Lucas and the others to the shelter, the humans from far looked like a very weak species covered in different clothes but still, the Kobolds wanted to y it safe. They waited for the night to fall and tried to enter the defenses yet it was a big mistake as the sound of the crunch made them run far away to the grazing area thinking they had made a big mistake. Like humans, they were also an intellectual species trying to survive in their own primitive and ferocious way. Lucas was at the side near one of the trees trying to hide but he could finally see the creatureing toward him. ----- Kobold Level 3 Origin- Lemenia ----- John was on the other side near a tree trying to hide, it was inevitable not to meet the Kobold now as it was too close. *Sniff* *Sniff* The Kobold took a few deep sniffs on the ground, its tail whipped around fast as if he was onto something. He sniffed again as his eyes moved everywhere when it finally stopped on a slightly big and muscr man. Chapter 22 The aggressive Kobold(1) There was long eye contact between the kobold and John. The Kobold didn''t move at all but its eyes were all over John, it was trying to find some long ws or sharp teeth but couldn''t find anything. Atst, its head looked back at the two kobolds eating the corpse on the ground inside out. ''What the hell...?'' Lucas thought and it was the same with John after they witnessed the Kobold''s mouth opening only to realize that it was grinning with its long tongue out. Lucas and John made eye contact and gulped, their n had alreadymenced when the Kobold saw them. *What a weak fleshhh... this hunt will be fun!* The kobold made some cranky noises from its mouth that went over both the human''s head. They didn''t care about this development... the only thing on their mind was to defeat this creature silently. Atst, John nodded at Lucas and after a deep breath of panic. Swish! He started sprinting to the left which made the Kobold snicker in a sadistic manner as if it was enjoying this. *Ku ku ku... how amazing!* The Kobold made some grunts and cranky sounds again yet John was already focused on just running until finally, the Kobold noticed something. *Are you trying to take me away from my brothers? How splendid!* The Kobold spoke again. In all the noise of them both running away, the Kobold didn''t realize that Lucas too was running behind them and he was surprisingly close to the Kobold. Yet the Kobold didn''t care, for him, this was just free food, and the further the food goes, the more food it will get to eat on its own. At the grazing area, one of the Kobolds finally moved its head up and looked toward the direction one of its brethren left its food and ran away. *What do you think brother is hunting?* The Kobold asked the other one with greed evident in its eyes. The other Kobold didn''t even look up and while having some bites here and there, it spoke with the usual grunts and cranky sounds, *Just shut up and eat, whatever that shit is hunting, we are eating better...* *Kugh... but are you sure?* The other Kobold asked again but saw no change in the other Kobold''s appearance until a silhouette came fast toward the guy''s head. BANG! The Kobold that was eating leisurely whipped it''s tail right at the other Kobold''s head and gave it the re that could make many just freeze and faint on the spot. *If you talk again, then I will rip your throat out...* The Kobold said and looked toward the direction the other Kobold left for the first time. *That bastard is weak... he won''t go after the strong and chunky without our help...* Just like that, the Kobold that got hit didn''t speak a single word thinking that the Kobold that was obviously their leader would really rip its throat out. Upon careful observation, it was noticed that the Kobold which struck the other Kobold appeared to berger in sizepared to the other two, indicating that it might be the dominant one among them. - "Hah... hah... I am stopping now!" John said with some heavy breathing, all three of them had been running for a minute and the Kobold still looked like it could go an hour. All this while, it didn''t catch John but looking at its constitution... it was obvious that it could have caught John if it was serious. ''The bastard''s ying with us... he doesn''t take us seriously...'' Lucas had a vein bulging out his forehead. He didn''t like to be taken as weak, not after he had killed two predators with his own hands. Lucas had high confidence whenever he was motivated. After John told him that they had to fight or run. Only one thing came to his mind, the rapacious nt was bigger than this shit, yet he killed it. What was this lizard in front of his brain? Lucas saw John stopping and so did the Kobold, he was about four meters away from the Kobold. *So you are going to stop now? Tired you little bitch?* The kobold was talking in its ownnguage that the duo humans did not understand. All the taunts by the Kobold were for naught as they couldn''t understand what the Kobold was saying anyway. Lucas didn''t stop and aftering a little close to the Kobold, he thrusted the spear in his hand in a horizontal strike meaning to puncture the Kobold''s body. The Kobold knew that someone was behind it yet it didn''t care as the bigger one, John was already in front of it with highly determined eyes. The Kobold was sure that John was the one with the battle intent he sensed before but it was sorely mistaken. Unfortunately, the Kobold was quite alert and managed to dodge the attack by quickly shifting to its right as though it was experienced in evading. Lucas couldn''t help but stumble a little as the spear keep going ahead with him and the ground was pretty uneven. Before he could retract his body back to get on guard, a small silhouette was speedilying toward his gut. Bang! The kobold had whipped Lucas right at the gut with its tail as it was the nearest weapon it had around Lucas. THUD! Lucas went a little above the ground level andnded at a tree''s trunk and his back made a loud sound again. ''Deja-vu?'' The same thing had happened to him before with the rapacious nt but Lucas knew the difference altogether. The rapacious nt was stronger and the force it used to send Lucas flying was higher than that of a Kobold. And on a second note, Lucas had already leveled twice. He ced a lot of points on his strength which in one way or another helped y wonders on his constitution. *You little meal... how dare you try to sneak up on me?* The Kobold looked angry from its continuous grinding teeth and eyes that had be very narrow.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om All its attention was on Lucas who had a serious and cold expression while he held the spear near his shoulder with both his hands horizontally. The way he was holding it looked like a proper stance and even John was a bit bbergasted by it until he realized that the n had to be progressed or else... they both were going to be lizard food. Chapter 23 The aggressive Kobold (2) Till now, everything had gone a little too perfect. From the grazing area to its left, Lucas had decided to pounce at the Kobold anytime but seeing it ying around had made it possible for them to travel a bit further to avoid any more trouble. Lucas had taken the Kobold''s whole attention while John looked at them from aback. For a second, a smile formed on his face only to be reced by that of hurry the next. ''I can''t believe things went sessful... just like Lucas nned.'' "Haah! Come on!!" Lucas shouted through his lungs to give John some more time. ''I can take a hit or two...right?'' He asked himself in his thoughts.N?v(el)B\\jnn The tail whip had hurt Lucas on both sides... the gut and the back yet he was still okay. He rubbed his back on the tree to find any bruises that could potentially hurt from contact but so far, there weren''t any as if he was never thrown at the tree. The Kobold gave some snarls and screechy noises that sounded to havee directly from the throat. It crouched its body a little with the sharp ws digging themselves into the ground. Lucas made a single look at the back where John was and tried his best to not make any expression changes. "So now begins the time game huh... You know we can kill you right?" Lucas spoke aloud while looking at the Kobold which tilted its head with a frown as if confused as to what Lucas was saying. Lucas knew that the Kobold couldn''t understand it and that didn''t matter. All he needed was a bit of time. Lucas kept speaking while looking at the Kobold and didn''t move even a bit, his stance was still the same but the Kobold seemed to just stand there trying to understand what Lucas was trying to say. The Kobold looked a little surprised by what Lucas was doing and couldn''t help but stop and listen. The sounds Lucas was making weren''t any growls or shouts. The way Lucas was speaking made the Kobold wonder why it sounded a bit intelligent. The Kobold came out of its daze in only 10 seconds and started growling at Lucas with vignce again. He happened to get his attention back due to a change in Lucas. From the normal serious face with the eyes a bit cold. One thing had changed, an ear-to-ear grin was on Lucas''s face and his eyes looked a bit crazy. If someone had looked at this expression in the human civilization on Earth, they would have backed away from the guy by various steps as he looked a bit out of his mind right now. "Haha... so long, sucker..." Lucas spoke but the Kobold was done with all his shenanigans. The Kobold was going to pounce again but a shiver went down his spine and it jerked a little. Its eyes darted toward the back but his senses were a bitte. SCHWING! A loud whistle-like sound came from the back and when the Kobold''s eyes came in contact with it, the Kobold knew it was toote to move. PUCHI! A spear of about 2 meter length was plunged from the Kobold''s back and tore its way out its chest. The Kobold looked at its chest with eyes filled with surprise. But they changed to that of despair when the Kobold saw the pointy end of the spear stuck in its chest. The spear was covered in its blood and it looked back again only to see John, the burly guy, a few meters away from him. The same ce where the Kobold left the guy at the start. "Hahahah... you were sooo unlucky..." The Kobold jerked its face back to the front when it heard the human in front of it make the strange voices again. The Kobold couldn''t understand but the human still continued, "If it was me, I couldn''t have stabbed you but that guy is special~" The grin on Lucas''s face didn''t go anywhere, it only went a little wide from the happiness. If John was in his right mind, he would have scolded Lucas to change his expression but he was too bbergasted with what he did. When Lucas tookmand and made the Kobold have all its attention toward him. John had started executing his n. All this while, he was waiting for the right moment with the spear in his hand ready to beunched at the Kobold like a Javelin. From this point, it was obvious, John was going to use his wind maniption skill to make the spear faster. He was first going to aim it at the head for an instant kill but he came back to his senses. He had missed before because of this n at the hunt of the deer like creature and he had already learned from it. So, in the end, he shot the spear right at the Kobold''s chest in order to prevent any mistake to repeat itself again. But a part of him froze when the kobold jerked and moved his face at the back before he could even throw the spear. At this point, it was do or die, so he just shot with all his strength while increasing the wind flow around the spear. And luckily, it hit the Kobold before it could get away and dodge just like the time when Lucas attacked it. - The Kobold kept looking at the spearheading out of his chest with eyes wide. It couldn''t believe what had happened to it and soon, the blood-filled veins in its eyes increased. Lucas hadpletely forgotten to guard himself but pulled his spear up again when he saw the Kobold move its hand up. A few seconds passed and its hand reached the spearhead. Lucas could tell that it was gritting its teeth. URGHHH! An inward low scream came from the Kobold when he started pulling the spear out from his chest. "What the fuck?!" Lucas couldn''t tell how the Kobold was even standing right now. "What happened, Lucas?" John asked from the back, he did not have a view of what the Kobold was doing around its chest. "He''s pulling the spear out its chest!" Chapter 24 Level up! The Kobold was holding the spear with life burning in its eyes, Lucas who had been very happy and excited all this time came to his right mind that the Kobold had not died till now. His mind went to how a dying wounded lion is the fiercest and feared that the fact was getting checked in front of him. The Kobold tried to take the spear out s his hands slipped from all the blood. It was not the blood per see but the poison on the tip and a little back that was the very pulpy inside of the poisonous nt he once collected in his early expedition in the unknown jungle. Lucas looked at the creature trying to hold on to the spear desperately and trying to get it out. It was a genuinely pitiful thing that made him a little guilty. His eyes went to John who had moved a little closer to Lucas. He was looking at the Kobold with heavy eyes as if some tears woulde out any minute but he was still very serious. The Kobold may have been a fierce creature but it was still a living being that looked like a human. Lucas was pretty excited about fighting these creatures. The Vixenox... the rapacious nt... and the Kobold yet the end result was always death which made Lucas a bit uneasy. "This is the life we are in now... we have to be cold and survive... we have to kill... it''s the only way to keep our families safe." Lucas said with a heavy heart while looking at John who was having a hard time. He didn''t want the best fighter after him to break emotionally from just this much. ''Why is this man crying and I am not... am I too cold? But I feel guilty too... and yet not to this extent...'' Lucas had a hard time figuring out his emotions while the Kobold only concentrated on the struggle of getting the spear out. At this point, the poison had started working and its eyes were closing. The emotions on his face faded as it looked at Lucas right in the eyes. THUD Finally, it fell on its knees and while still staring at Lucas, its body fell from the front. THUD! The Kobold fell on his stomach which made the speare out of the back without breaking. John went to the side and vomited a little, he looked at Lucas while cleaning his mouth with strange eyes. "What?" [You have killed an outsider of level 3 with apanion!] [Dificulty level- MIldly Hard] [+50 EXP] [Level up!] [+1 Stamina, +1 strength, +1 dexterity, +1 Mana, +1 intelligence] [+3 free points] [Basic Spearmanship(Common- level 1) learned!] "W-What is this feeling?!" John asked while clenching both his chest tight. "You just leveled up... Don''t worry, everything is fine." Lucas said while feeling somewhat dizzy but after a few seconds, it was over. Lucas thought about his strength and his information came in front of him. === Lucas Garde Level 3 Origin- Earth Exp- 9/150 Strength- 9 Intelligence- 10 Stamina- 7 Dexterity- 15 Mana- 15 Free Points- 3 Skills- Shelter Generation(rare- level 1), punch(extremelymon-level 1), unarmedbat(extremelymon- level 1), Basic Spearmanship(Common- level 1), Herbalism(rare- level 1) === "Basic spearmanship huh... Thats new. Oh... and the free points are here again! That''s pretty good..." Lucas kept mumbling while looking at the status screen while John had a frown on his face. "What? Why do you keep looking at me like that?" Lucas asked bluntly as it was now making him ufortable as if he was getting judged. "Nothing... What''s with these changes in my body?" John said after making those emotions fade deep in his heart. He wanted to tell Lucas that the thing that they just killed had two feet that it used to walk like them and also two arms that were just like theirs. But seeing that he was okay, John could only believe that Lucas had not thought about it like that, so he just left this important talk forter believing it would not be suitable if Lucas get emotional trauma. ''Ugh... I feel like we killed a human.'' John thought but returned to the conversation where Lucas told him how these things worked. John had killed various animals in all the years he lived on Earth. Whether it be a small bunny or a big stag... he had taken the lives of many but not something that looked like a human ever. It was like his first ever kill that he saw in many movies where people get a bit guilty after doing it. He knew the same things were happening to him and as the adult he was, he had to toughen it and move on with only time to heal these new emotional scars that stacked over many. - "So it''s like this... do I put these free points right now?" John asked while reading through his status screen with interest. "Not right now, after you use free points, you will definitely be vulnerable for a few minutes... so after we go back." "Alright, Wow... I definitely feel stronger... Is this real or I am just imagining it?" "I hate that no one was there when I got all this information, I feel like I am getting some deja-vu." Lucas facepalmed and groaned, he was envious of John and the others as he was there to tell them these things and there was no one for him but from another perspective, he was better than the others in terms of information of this world. Lucas continued, "This is not imagination and the strength you feel is real. It was just one point but the strength increase is something to look forward to." "Ok, now what do we do with this thing?" "Oh, we have to bring it with us... some things are useful in this thing." Lucas spoke and went to the Kobold''s dead body. John just looked at him with strange eyes, but in the end, he just shook his head and went to help him.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om ---- Thanks for reading this chapter~ Mission- 100 Power stone= 2 extra chapters that day 40 Golden Tickets= 2 extra chapters that day Enjoy and have a great day! Chapter 25 Journey back Within a few minutes, the duo found their way back to the usual pathway they take to move back and forth. All the way back, both John and Lucas had stayed silent. Their eyes were dazed while they carried the Kobold''s corpse which was around 60 kgs. But as the weight was all shifted in different ces, it was not difficult to carry it back. They both were checking their skills and the upgrades they had on their status screen. Lucas had a new skill- Basic Spearmanship. Since he got the skill. Lucas had a better understanding of how to make the spear move without many extra movements. The information was not much but still good enough to start with something. If it was someone else, the thought of getting information that felt like a person had it all his life was very strange and difficult to see as reality. But Lucas was different, he already had the ''Herbalism'' skill that made a lot of information avable to Lucas. Till now, all abilities that Lucas had were only level 1 and he had no idea as to how he could improve. The only option that seemed toe to mind, again and again, was to just go with the flow, keep using the skill, and hope that the skill upgradees soon. In around 7 minutes of a somewhat continuous journey, Lucas and John could see the shelter again. SIGH "You okay? We can take a break again if you''d like." Lucas said with respect, he knew John''s stats were still normal and with his age, it was difficult to do this much activity. "Naah, I am not tired at all... but my mind feels like a ticking bomb, I don''t know how you are coping with all this," John said while looking ahead near the shelter where they could now see the spearsced with poison as defense pretty clearly. "What is there to cope about? We were thrown or something in this ce and now we gotta survive by doing anything these texts tell us. If you have any other method to survive, then be my guest." John kept quiet for about two minutes as what Lucas said was pretty much right. They couldn''t do anything about them being transported here by god knows how and why. So their only option was to go with the flow. "So do anything to survive huh... it sounds about right. Really appreciate you helping us, Lucas." "Don''t worry, it goes both ways." Lucas gave a cheeky grin in return and everything went back to normal. "Hey, Dad and Lucas are here!" Sean who was with Barney suddenly saw the two peopleing toward them with something they were carrying with them. On further notice, they both saw a reptile-like long creature with hands like a human waving around while they carried it. Their face became pale when they saw the ws on the thing. As John and Lucas drew nearer, Sean''s eyes widened with surprise as he finally recognized the object they were carrying. "What in the world is that?" he eximed, unable to contain his astonishment. John nodded with a chuckle, slightly out of breath from the journey. "It''s a Kobold. We encountered it on our way back. It put up a fight, but we managed to take it down." Lucas could feel a bit of pride in his voice. Why wouldn''t he be? The man was showing his kids the ferocious creature he just hunted. Barney came close to the Kobold''s body, he moved his hand in a somewhat weird manner. The Kobold''s hand that was hanging downward started moving up until it was horizontally straight. "Amazing bro, your practice has not gone to waste," Lucas said with a thumbs up while holding the corpse with his other hand. Barney looked toward his father, his face had constricted lines as if the pressure was immense. John looked at his son and nodded with a ''hm'' sound making him finally lose control over the hand. The Kobold''s hand fell and hung above the ground again like usual. "But... how? such a big hole in the chest! and are you injured or something?" Sean asked with concern while looking at John, Lucas didn''t mind that he did not really ask him. They were not that close anyway. "We will tell the whole thing and the dangers we saw in a while, first let us go inside." John with Lucas''s help went inside the defenses with the Kobold''s body in tow. Both Sarah and E were waiting near the camp and just after one nce, E came running and hugged John tightly. Lucas looked at her with distant eyes thinking that his mother would have had the same reaction after seeing him. But a hand grabbed his left hand and he looked at the person with gentle eyes. She was Sarah who had a smile on her face after seeing Lucas without any injury.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ''Yeah, I am not alone.'' He thought while appreciating the gentleness of her hand. While grabbing her hand, Lucas was relieved that she got a skill like a fireball that would help her be a support rather than get injured or use a weapon that leaves scars and calluses behind. Just like that, Lucas and John sat with everyone and told the short tale of the fight between them and the Kobold. John was very detailed about the n Lucas made on the spot making everyone surprised and look at him in a new better light. The camp''s fire was exhausted from a while back, the temperature in the forest was cool and breezed. It was not too hot or too cold. The tall trees had a huge impact on the atmosphere making it bearable. - "I can''t believe creatures like this exist, is this some kind of a dinosaur we haven''t found the fossils of?" E said while looking at the Kobold''s cold body. "We don''t know about that but everything you see is dangerous, don''t think that you can get out of a situation without a fight now," John said with a serious expression making everyone a bit uneasy. Lucas chimed in, his tone was optimistic. "Exactly. Instead of dwelling on the ''how'' and ''why,'' let''s focus on what we can control. Together, we''ll figure out the rules of this world and find a way to thrive." ---- Thank you for reading the chapter! Mission- 100 Power stone= 2 extra chapters that day-- 43/100 40 Golden Tickets= 2 extra chapters that day-- 6/40 Enjoy and have a great day! Chapter 26 Skill level up! They all talked outside the shelter but within the defenses, and everyone had many questions which Lucas and John answered thoroughly. Their main motive was to tell them everything in order to make everyone more wary of their surroundings. "We were very lucky as the Kobold was very arrogant, it felt that me and Uncle John were weak. But this won''t happen again and I assure you that." Throughout the whole conversation, Lucas was very serious. "We all have to get adept with our abilities as it''s the only way that we can survive in this ce," John interjected in between. Everyone nodded together like sheep, they all were feeling quite strange after getting to know that there were these types of creatures inside this mysterious forest too. When they were all talking, a growl came from the side. Lucas''s eyes went to the location of the sound and he tried his best to control his emotions. At the side of the camp, Sarah had a blushing face while everyone looked at her. "Ohh~ Little Sarah is hungry?" E asked while giggling. She was trying to lighten the mood as everyone hadn''t eaten since the night. As Lucas couldn''t see any daylight, it was hard to tell what the time could be but if he had to guess. He was sure that it was afternoon. "We don''t have anything to eat..." Sean spoke from the side to which Lucas and John nodded. They looked at each other with a strange glint in their eyes. "We could have eaten some herbs or nts but everything I collected is just medicinal. But we do have one thing..." Lucas said, the strange glint still in his eyes. E, Sarah, Barney, and Sean couldn''t tell what he was talking about but John did. They had just hunted something that had fresh flesh. "... It seems morally bad, Lucas. I don''t think we can eat it." John said with a somewhat disgusted look. The three immature people still couldn''t understand but E had caught up already. She looked at the Kobold''s corpse that was inside the shelter right at the entrance. "Do we have anything else to eat, Uncle John? We can''t starve and it''s been more than twelve hours since we ate..." Lucas snapped a little. He felt that he was being a little rude but he was getting grumpy cause of not eating for a while. Yet John was a good-hearted person by heart, he had a lot of experience with human emotions and he knew why Lucas was being so grumpy. The end result was that he took the situation with calmness and went on thinking. "Well, you have that herbalism skill. Does it tell you if something''s eatable or not?" John said with eyes alive again as if he had a great n in his mind. "... Yeah, I have seen some nts that are not poisonous and are even edible. But the quantity in one won''t even make a single person''s stomach full." "But it''s not like we have specially gone to look for it, so the idea is not that out of reach." John was still speaking with hope and it was infectious. ''Damn you for giving me other hopes...'' Lucas thought. After preparing his mind to eat that Kobold for a long time, John hade up with a different thing. "Well, we can only try and see," Lucas said with some reluctance. They had juste back yet they needed to go again. "Okay! Let''s not be so hopeless, in a few minutes we will all leave to find food. No one will stay behind, okay?" john said after getting up, he had a grin on his face and even if everyone were hungry, they felt that they could find something due to John. .. 10 minutester, Lucas led the group with a decisive stride, orchestrating their movements with precision. Positioned at the forefront, Lucas fortified their defenses, while John stood steadfastly at the rear, ensuring their protection. Sarah positioned herself just ahead of John, always ready to provide the necessary support when called upon. Taking her ce before Sarah, Sean stood prepared to bestow his buffs at a moment''s notice. Lastly were E and Barney. E was a healer with no fighting skill yet she was still important. But Barney was feeling very left out as he was the only one that was useless in the whole group. His skill sounded nice and strong, to move anything in the air whether it be a bowl of food or a weapon. Lucas looked everywhere and was able to find many things, they came across a tree with many fruits but Lucas knew that they were poisonous ones that could make the skin bloat. He was in a dilemma as they had gone around the shelter to find something closer to them yet it was pretty hard. "I saw a bunny when I came here at first, the wolf brought a bunny too. Then where are the others?" "A wolf brought you a bunny?" "Oh yeah, she was pretty cute you know~" "Yeah, cute until it bites your leg off." "Ugh... Lucas, why are you so mean?" The banter went on for a long while and it was a pretty good way to make time go fast. Before they knew it, Lucas had looked at over 50 nts that had some quality or another. Many of them gave him a feeling that they were not yet ready to be harvested which he got before so he just made a mental note to checkter. [Skill ''Herbalism'' Level up!] "... huh" Lucas closed his eyes and stopped. "What huh? I am saying a cheeseburger is better than a burrito." Lucas did not respond to it and just closed his eyes while still at a stop. ''Ugh... this familiar pain... I hate it...'' Lucas was having a severe headache but it was still milder than the first time. Lucas could tell that the information in his brain about herbalism was upgrading. "What''s wrong, Lucas?" John asked from the back as it had been a minute since he stopped with eyes closed. ---- Thanks for reading the chapter!n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Ugh, we were so close to a 100 Power stones! But since it reached 70, there will be 2 bonus chapters tomorrow! Chapter 27 Food! Around five minutes passed and Sarah hade to Lucas''s aid. She didn''t know why but the situation seemed very simr as after giving Lucas a hand, he ced his whole body weight on her as if standing had be a taxing job for him. Lucas had his eyes closed, he had sweat dropping off his head on a regr base. They all decided to put a hold on the search as the man who could look for food had be half unconscious. About a minuteter, Lucas opened his eyes. But they twitched when he kept them open for a second, Lucas just grabbed his head and pressed it tightly in order to relieve some pain. The upgrade took a toll on him but he was still okay rather than the first time. He opened his eyes again only to see Sarah in front of him, she was holding his shoulders gently to make him stable and had a concerned expression. "Sighh... I am okay, Sarah..." He said with eye contact. "That''s a relief, you have been like this for a while now, what''s wrong?" Before Lucas could say anything, his eyes went around the forest. Within a second, his facial expressions changed from pain to dumbfoundedness. "Ugh... now what?" Sean asked from the side, he had be very annoyed by Lucas''s antics. They didn''t know that Lucas''s ''Herbalism'' skill had just leveled up, the first person to achieve it was him. "I got it... The food... we have it here with us!" Lucas got up with the support of a small tree in front of him. All the annoyance that the brother had went away at the mention of food, they really were very simple humans.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "That..." Lucas pointed at a small nt on the ground near a tree. It was only two inches long with only one leaf and nothing else. John looked at the small nt and couldn''t help but frown. Sean went toward it and pointed at the small nt, "Is this it?" He asked. "Yeah" Lucas went to the nt too and crouched down. The nt was near a tree but not too much. There was a gap of two hands between them. Even the tree was a bit peculiar. Its trunk had purple patches which were a bit hard to notice as they were very light in color. Lucas had a smile on his face which others couldn''t reciprocate. But he didn''t mind, he knew what the nt really was. His hand moved toward the soil around the nt and he started digging around the nt. The others just kept looking at what he was doing. If it was John or someone else other than Lucas, they would have plucked it out with force without this much work that Lucas was doing. When he dug in a circle for less than a minute, he finally pulled on the one-leafed stem. CRACK The soil around cracked when suddenly, a huge silhouette came out of the ground. "Woah!" Barney eximed, it was too unexpected. When others were thinking that they would have to eat such small nts that would not even make their mouth wet. Lucas took out some kind of a big vegetable or a fruit. "What is that? And how did you know? Was it the Herbalism skill?" John asked while he came close. He had too many questions that he needed an answer to. "My ''Herbalism'' skill leveled up! I am so happy! At first, I could only tell that this nt''s leaf was good for digestion which is present in most of these nts but after the level up, I could tell that there was something eatable here." Lucas said while dusting off the dirt from the brownish sweet potato-looking stuff. His eyes darted around and a manly excited giggle came out of his mouth as he moved to another nt after throwing the big potato toward John. === Glimmerroot Common Amon grade consumable that grows all around the Forest of Amaeron. When consumed, it can provide nourishment for a few hours. It can make the mouth dry and get stale after two days of taking it out of the ground. === "Our problem of food is gone! No more meat for a while!" John was very excited after reading the description. It was something he saw for the first time and was even a bit surprised when the texts popped up out of nowhere. While Lucas went around and pulled Glimmerroots out of the ground one after another. John passed the food around for everyone to see its description. After five minutes of finding and digging, the group had a total of 10 glimmerroots in their possession with a single different one. === Vitalia Common Amon grade consumable that can give additional toughness of +10 to the skin after consumption. The toughnesssts for five minutes. Vitalia starts deteriorating after ten days of taking it out of the ground. === "What a good haul... Thanks to Lucas, it couldn''t have been possible without you." "I keep telling you, Uncle John that it goes both ways. We have different capabilities and everyone is important to the group." Lucas spoke while trying to amodate another glimmerroot in his hand. Barney looked at them all with a strange glint in his eyes which did not go unnoticed by his mother. But she decided to not speak for the time being yet the pain in her eyes told enough of how much she cared for him. They all went inside toward the shelter that was not that far away as they had traveled only a little to the east this time around. Lucas gave ast nce to the tree with purplish patches on it. No one noticed that it was a bit strange as they didn''t care but Lucas knew it was something good. ''You are not ready too yet...'' Lucas thought and went away with the group, a smile stered on his face. He did not know why these nts and trees were not ready to be harvested or how long it will take for them to be ready but he knew one thing, that he will be waiting. ---- Thank you for reading the chapter~ Next mission- 120 Power Stones= 3 extra chapters---31/120 Chapter 28 Plant fiber rope? Easy! The food problem was over for a long time as Lucas had the ability to find eatables from the forest. It could be said that his ''Herbalism'' skill was divine in this forest filled with all kinds of stuff rted to his skill. While he and the group ate the Glimmerroot. Some outsiders like them had starved to death due to not getting out of their hiding ces due to being scared. They all sat near the camp where they had ced some small broken logs found from here and there in the forest near the shelter. There was no fire in the camp as the Glimmerroot could be eaten raw. And if it could be eaten raw, then it was not worth taking the risk to cook it. "It''s too dry..." Sean spoke while looking at the bite-taken Glimmerroot in his hand. The inside of it was also brown in color.N?v(el)B\\jnn "We don''t have anything else so bear with it, Sean. And be respectful, you would be eating a Kobold if Lucas didn''t find any of these glimmerroots." John said with seriousness, he was a bit disappointed in his kids. One was nagging as if he was the only one suffering through all this and the other had not joined them to eat and was in the corner doing something. John kept looking at Barney who was at the other side of the shelter trying to lift those rocks with his skill. He didn''t go to his son or let E go as it could hurt Barney''s self-esteem. To be consoled by their parents would send the message that he will be not great ad they still support him. It would only backfire, Barney was very motivated since he heard that Lucas''s skill upgraded. There was one interaction between them on the way back and he only asked a single thing, about how he leveled his skill up. Since Lucas said that it might be due to the repetitive use, Barney had been practicing the whole time. ''I don''t know if I should be proud or scared, he is trying something to self-grow for the first time in his whole life but...'' John''s mind kept going deeper and deeper in his thoughts and he was only drowning until a hand reached him. He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at E who nodded at him, he stared at her silently thinking if she was feeling the same. While these two were in their own world handling the problems that their family was facing. Lucas was looking at the days remaining till the phase getspleted. [6 Days:12 hours:52 minutes:32 seconds] "Still six and a half days till this phase end... it''s taking too long... *Crunch*" Lucas said with a grumpy voice and took a huge bite of the Glimmerroot. "Yeah, time is moving too slowly. I want to meet my brother so badly that I want to just wander around and try to find him." "... Please don''t do that." "Haha~ Am just kidding..." Sarah said with a giggle but anyone could tell from her eyes that she was really thinking of doing that. "Yeah youngdy, it should just be a joke," E interjected and continued after getting her attention. "You wouldn''t want your brother to find you dead by doing something stupid after 6 days after all." "I was really joking, Gosh you just sound like my mom," Sarah said and her face got even sadder. Apparently, she was not really good at handling her emotions. No one talked after that for a while thinking that silence would take care of everything. Everyone needed some piece of mind. After eating, Lucas talked with John about what to do next but he was said to take some time off. John needed to spend some time with his family which Lucas respected. He talked with Sarah about how refined his knowledge had be about ''Herbalism'' now and that he was sure that if he sees some equipment used in ''Herbalism'', he was sure that he could tell what its use is. Sarah on the other hand talked of how she wanted to improve her Fireball skill, saying that it was still not enough to help everyone out properly. After a while, they all went on their own and practiced or theorized about how they could use their skills. Lucas directly went to the upgrade options of the shelter and was happy that the stone part was fully aplished. The only things that were still zero were the wooden nks and the nt fiber rope. "... The fuck?" Lucas was dumbfounded after looking at the requirements. The nt fiber rope part was the one he was the most unsure about but after his skill upgraded, it was like he knew it all along making him get weirded out. Lucas went running out of the shelter with a somewhat creepy smile which did not go unnoticed by John. "Where are you going, Lucas?" "Uncle John, please be here for a while and look out, I will be back in a few!" Lucas said and went away. Before John could say anything, Lucas was already gone. "What will you do, honey?" E asked who was sitting right next to him. "Sigh... that kid is just too reckless I tell you, but I do trust him," John said with a grunt which made E giggle a bit. JOhn may look tough but he was a softie inside. Lucas decided to explore the forest in search of nt fiber. He knew that finding the necessary materials would be crucial for upgrading the shelter and improving their living conditions. With his somewhat expertise in Herbalism, he was confident that he could identify the right nts to obtain the required fibers. As Lucas ventured deeper into the forest but still close to the shelter, he scanned his surroundings with a keen eye. He recognized various nts and herbs, but he needed to find ones that specifically provided nt fiber. ''Yes!'' he screamed in his mind. After some time, he stumbled upon a cluster of tall, sturdy nts with long, fibrous stems. Excitedly, Lucas approached the nts and examined their structure. He carefully plucked a few strands of fiber from one of the stems and tested its strength. Satisfied with its durability, he began gathering as much nt fiber as he could, being cautious not to damage the rest of the nt. With a bundle of nt fiber in his hands, Lucas returned to the shelter, eager to find if he was right or not. ----- Thank you for reading the chapter! 120 Power stones= 3 Bonus chapters!---31/120 Chapter 29 Tough choice Lucas returned to the Shelter with the fibers in tow. He wasn''t sure if it was enough but it didn''t matter as getting more was very easy if what he was doing is correct. John and the others tried to talk with him but he only shushed them with seriousness. Lucas did not want to waste even a single second. Using the nt fiber, Lucas demonstrated the process of turning the raw material into usable threads. He showed them how to twist and weave the fibers together to create strong cords which only took about 3 minutes. When the first one was done, it looked like the ropes used on ships that sail the seas only a little smaller than those ones. Lucas gave it some stretching and it didn''t seem to break. "Looking for something strong to start with was a good idea. Nowes the time of the judgment." Lucas left the group behind near the gate of the defenses and went inside the shelter. In the corner, he clicked at the blue dot and was baffled by what he saw. "Oh my god! It worked! Fuck yeah!" ---- Shelter Rare- Level 1 2nd Upgrade requirement- 500 nks, 80/80 kg stone, 2/10 Life cores-mon quality, 1/90 nt fiber rope Defense Upgrade requirement- 100 nks, 2.5/30 kg stone, 1/5 life cores-mon quality, 50 nt fiber rope, 3 Poison ntmon quality)- optional Skills- Landlord (rare- level 1), military power (rare- level 1) Members- 6/10 Description- A Small yet finely built shelter in the middle of a forest. Capable of protecting against blizzards, rainfall, and sr radiation. ---- Lucas almost jumped with happiness, the others did not know why but one thing was clear, something good had happened. Lucas beamed with excitement as he shared the good news with the rest of the group. They gathered around him, curious to know what had caused his sudden burst of joy. He recited them the updated information on the Shelter''s status.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "The fiber rope is a sess!" Lucas eximed, pointing to the description. "Now I just have to make 89 more of these." The group erupted into cheers and apuse, thrilled by the progress they were making. Sarah, wearing a wide smile, couldn''t contain her curiosity and asked, "Woah! That is a good thing... What more do you need to upgrade the shelter?" Lucas took a moment to read through the requirements once again before responding, "Stone is done, nks.... we got nothing, Wait... 2 Mana cores?" Lucas stopped at the mana cores that he hadn''t noticed before. The count of the mana cores was at two when he only had one inside the shelter. But realization stuck quickly when he jerked his face toward a certain dead body inside the shelter. "Now what? Gosh, your reactions are too dramatic..." Sean said from the back but Lucas didn''t care. "Well, the corpse of the Kobold has a mana core somewhere inside it. Why don''t youe to help me open it up?" Lucas said while giving the guy a sarcastic grin. Sean''s eyes twitched when he heard it and looked at the damn thing on the ground. "W-Whatever, I gotta help Barney with his skill... I will be outside with him!" Sean went out where his Brother was with quick steps which got a shook of a head from his mother. "Sorry about him Lucas, tell me how I can assist you," John said while scratching the back of his head. The more Lucas remained with John, the more he came to like the guy, he was very helpful and was the most sensible person aside from his parents. "Yeah, I will help too," Sarah said. "Yeah, I will stay here too, and if you want to butcher this thing, it will not be right if you make a mess here where we sleep," E said from the side. "Oh! Good point." Lucas took ahold of the Kobold''s hand and dragged it outside the shelter. Lucas was going to stop at the entrance but John took the Kobold''s legs and told him to go out the defenses which Lucas didn''t deny. The four of them went outside quickly and finally stopped near a small clearing just a few steps further. "If we are doing this, we might as well take everything that is valuable for us," John said and crouched down, he had his spear in his shirt''s back with the spearhead high above his head. "Valuable?" E asked with confusion, whenever she saw the Kobold, she could only think that the thing was an abomination and had to be burned so that they could not see it again. "Yeah, Lucas talked about getting this thing''s nails and teeth or something." E and Sarah looked at him with a frown but it changed after a second. Lucas could still feel their judging looks but he did not care about it. "The mana core can be anywhere, I found the first one inside the mouth of the Rapacious nt, it was glowing." Lucas took the axe head out of his pocket and tried to figure out the first ce to mangle. "How about starting with the heart and head?" "Yeah but is the heart at the same ce as us humans?" "... We can only try," John said and took the axe head from his pocket too. He continued, "Okay, I will check the head and you check the heart." Lucas nodded and took a deep breath. He looked at John''s eyes but surprisingly, they were only serious with no wavering emotions. Before anyone could react, John used all his force and bashed the sharp end of the spearhead at the Kobold''s forehead. BANG! The axe head went inside the skull breaking in only one strike, blood started oozing out of the skull, and some whitish lumps which were obviously the brain matter. Sarah kept a hand on her mouth which was bloated, she was going to vomit but suppressed it. Even Barney and Sean who were looking couldn''t help but avert their gazes. Lucas noticed everyone''s faces after looking at the brain matter oozing out rapidly after John took the axe head out which was inches deep inside the skull. While Sarah, Sean, and Barney were disgusted while John had a serious face. E kept looking at Lucas and John and then the Kobold with a concerned face. ''Why do I feel normal?'' Lucas asked in his mind that he wanted to say out loud desperately but felt that they all would look at him as a dangerous individual with no emotions, a freak so he didn''t bother. At the end, he decided to make a fake frown. "Well, do not bother with getting the heart, the work''s done I think." ---- Thank you for reading the chapter! 120 Power stones= 3 Bonus chapters!---61/120 Chapter 30 The Wooden PLanks! The rest of the work became very dirty and everyone except John and Lucas went away to do other work. With nose stiffening from the brain matter. The first thing John did was to dig a hole and throw that pulpy juice in it. He closed it and worked with Lucas to take out all the nails of the Kobold. From a closer look, it was observed that the Kobold''s ws were about two inches in length and had great sharpness. Lucas who at first checked the sharpness of those wster regretted it when he had a small hole punctured at the tip of his index finger. As they were hard to pull, they first had to cut the hard skin around and take them out one by one. When the job was done, Lucas appraised the nails only to get another texts to get present in front of his eyes. === Kobold''s ws Commonn/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Amon grade w that was once attached to the hand of a ferocious Kobold. The w is highly sharp from the tip and can be used in any kind of production with proper information. === "It was good that we got them, Uncle John." Lucas said while asking for him to appraise it too and continued, " We will just hoard it until further usees up." "Sounds about right... and let''s just drop the idea of getting the teeth of this thing, we don''t have proper tools right now," John said with an awkward chuckle. He was right, even getting the nails was a taxing job and took around an hour to get them. And it was an hour wasted as these nails were going to just stay in the shelter until they know how to use them. - Since then, 2 days passed... At the start, Everyone starteding up with a n to get the nks and John vouched in with the knowledge. But it was still a bitplicated as they didn''t know what size the shelter needed or from which tree- the big ones or the small ones would suffice or not. Atst, they could only do some trial and error. John with the help of his boys cut down a small tree and with the triangr wooden tool he made, he started making the nks which was very easy. All they had to do was use the triangr wooden too which were apparently called wedges that would go inside the center of the bark of the tree and after cracking it, the wedge would stay inside at the start where the same process would be carried on to the other end and the middle. And after that, John had to just keep hammering the wedges inside until the crack widened and the tree split into two. The inside of the tree''s trunk which was just cut into two was also very uneven but John didn''t worry about it and went on to do it to the two pieces until the circr end of the tree was on the ground as scrap and there were two rectangr uneven nks in John''s hands. Atst, John went inside the shelter and told Lucas to check, and after a disappointing discussion, they came to know that it was still zero in the upgrades. Everyone became half-hearted when they saw the hard work John did go to waste but John did not falter. He was not done and he started using the wedges and the big thick bark he was using as a hammer to even out the nk. After a little more time, twenty minutes give or take, the nk was ready and the final moment hade once again. Yet this time, when Lucas checked, his eyes bulged and a grin formed on his face when he gave a nod to John who did not have much of a reaction but inwardly, he was dancing in the most goofy way possible. He was truly happy because if this had still not worked, then all he did was for naught and they would have been stuck on how to make the nks again. The days went on peacefully with nothing to stop them from advancing. One can say that there was no path and they were just doing what they thought should bepleted. But the days were very long and if no work was done, then everyone''s mind always went to a dark ce after overthinking things. In these two days, everyone hadpleted a lot of work. When 90 nks were needed, they had already made 50 of the nks and all 89 of fiber ropes at the end of day two. Everyone felt aplished and two days had been cut from the 10 days of phase 1 which made everyone a bit relieved too. Only 4 days and some hours were left until the phase was over and Lucas was both excited and frightened at the same time. There was also a small problem that the adults of the group were on various medications when they were in the civilizational and their bodies had be dependent on it. John had a problem of High Blood Pressure due to a lot of stress from raising his family well and E had stage 1 Osteoporosis with pre-diabetes. Lucas didn''t know if everyone''s changing bodies by leveling would fix these problems on their own too. But it was all just a problem for the future. E had surprisingly not felt any pain in her lower back even when she was not on medication for six whole days. The group continued their work, focusing onpleting the remaining tasks for the Shelter upgrade. They pushed themselves to make progress, driven by the sense of aplishment they felt when they saw tangible results. The only thing that was left on arge scale was the mana core ofmon quality. John had made a small n as to how they would get it but he had to use his ''unique'' knowledge that no one cared for on Earth. ----- Thanks for reading the chapter! 120 Power stones= 3 Bonus chapters!---75/120 So close, readers! Chapter 31 Traps "We just need to ce traps all around certain areas near the shelter." A burly man said while taking a small sophisticated bite from a brownish potato-looking thing. "Near the shelter? I have not seen any creature near the shelter since the 2nd day. How about the grazing area?" Another man said, on a second note, he was not really a man but a growing kid that was a year younger than reaching his 20s. "But you never know when something wanders its way here. We have already seen a huge variety of things... it will be wise if we don''t just depend on these defenses." "Huh... that''s a good point, Uncle John. But do you know any traps?" "Haha... I wouldn''t have brought it up if I didn''t know... Let''s start in a while." While both Lucas and John were talking, others couldn''t help but listen without interrupting. Or on a second note, they didn''t have anything to say as there was no entry in the conversation. Setting up traps was something even E was in the dark that John knew how to do. It was given that John and Lucas were the ones doing all the bidding around and no one had any objection because both of them were making the shelter progress a lot. E was a little sad that both her sons were not doing anything butint all this time. ''What would have happened if we hadn''t reached here? What if there was no smoke? What if we were the ones that got in a fight with that big nt?'' All these questions filled her mind and didn''t seem to get out soon.N?v(el)B\\jnn She knew survival would have been tough if they were the only ones. No matter how productive and informative John was, if there was no one like Lucas around, they wouldn''t have been sitting this peacefully without a speck of food shortage. "Lucas, Dad, thank you for the food, I will go now..." Barney said and left without a word. Lucas looked at his back leaving and felt that something good was going to happen soon. To be honest, he was very excited for Barney to progress in his skill. The thought of him moving around small sharpened sticks or daggers made him have chills about how good their support would be. "Don''t you think it''s a little weird that there is no danger these past few days?" Sarah butted in, she had to speak in between so that she could also feel like she was helping. "If there are no dangers, then it''s only good, Sarah. Don''t worry..." E patted her head in affection with motherly eyes that Sarah didn''t refute, from the look on her face, Lucas felt like she was enjoying it. "You may be right about this Sarah, the floating texts said that we are a beacon of danger and that many will attack us. These days have been too peaceful." John said while his hands on his eyes brows, he was thinking very hard or was just tired from the night shifts that Lucas and he were doing. They were the only ones that were helping, John didn''t want E to not have a good night''s sleep even when she was persistent about taking her own shift. Sarah on the other hand had already failed her first night shift, the meaning of the night shift was to stay alert all the time and wake everyone up if one hear something outside. But Sarah slept with Lucas on the first day which he could not ever forget as her face was sitting on his shoulder. And about Barney and Sean, they were just too untrustworthy to be given this much responsibility. While Barney looked to be mature, only John and E knew how irresponsible andzy he was. Lucas had a gist of all this too but was reluctant to say anything about it. He couldn''t handle someone making a scene and break the harmony in the group. "We can only do our best to make traps like Uncle John said, there is nothing better we can do right now." Everyone nodded in response while Sean was just sitting half asleep on the log near the camp. "And Uncle John, have you decided about the free points?" Lucas said and changed the topic. John looked to be in some thought when finally, a smile formed on his face. He said, "I have decided to not use them." Lucas didn''t say anything but stared at him with a confused face as if telling him to continue. "After learning about them from you and the texts, these points are only given at the time of the level-up. So using them this quickly is unnecessary. I will collect and use them at the time of need." "... Alright, it''s your wish at the end." Lucas didn''t show much but he thought that Uncle John''s idea was good. Even he had not used his points of this level-up ad just decided to store them secretly. - After 15 minutes, Everyone left to learn and make the traps. ording to John, he knew two basic ones that he was going to teach everyone. First was the deep hole that everyone once in their life had seen in any type of entertainment they consumed. It was just as stated, a hole was to be dug that was deep enough to keep the creature inside. Lucas gave the idea of putting a stick with a sharp point at the bottom of the deep hole but John told him that it was unnecessary. They made a hole near the south of the shelter, John then ced some weak but long twigs that were all around the ground over the hole and finally, a bunch of leaves and grass were kept over it. Even Lucas knew how to make this trap but he didn''t want to interrupt thinking that he didn''t know the processpletely. Just like that, they all made about six traps, one in each direction of the shelter and two at the passage toward the grazing area. There was a chance that the Kobolds woulde. The traps were inefficient for the Kobolds but some altercations were made like they ced a sharp spear at the deep ground of the hole and some small pointy sticks on the walls pointing upwards with poisonced on the tip. --- Thank you for reading the chapter! 120 Power stones= 3 Bonus chapters!--- 104/120 Chapter 32 *BONUS* Johns extensive knowledge The second trap was something that John didn''t know the name of. He exined it in a way that made Lucas sure that he didn''t know much about it or that he hadn''t ever tried it before. "I saw a video online about this trap and it made me very excited, I can''t believe I get to make it now," John said with a smallugh. Lucas on the other hand didn''t know whether tough or cry. The trap was to be made in order for their survival, not for fun that John was having immensely which could be known just by looking at his bloomed face. ''So I guess even adults can be childish sometimes.'' He thought and a chuckle came out his mouth. He hadn''t ever seen the yful side of his father or mother, they were either always serious or being parents so he had guessed on his own that people change with time and they have to get serious. But seeing John right now, he got to know that he was wrong, even in a ce this stressful, he found something that he liked and they needed. "Yes! I can''t believe I found it..." John said a loud and surprisingly ran forward leaving others behind. He stopped at a big te-like stone a few meters away and started to examine it. Before everyone could arrive, John picked the big t stone that was 2 meters in length from one side and examined it from the bottom too. "Dad, be careful... your back will start hurting." Sean came to his father''s aid and started pulling the stone too, and so did Barney. "It''s not that heavy, get back now, I am keeping it back there." THUD The stone fell again and John kept looking at it with his hand on his chin as if contemting. After a few minutes, he went near a tree and broke a thick branch with force. He brought the axe head out of his pocket and started striking it with the makeshift hammer he carried around. While the others made a circle around John to help him concentrate on what he was doing, Sean was asked to help by John. Lucas looked at the whole process. At first, John split the big thick branch into two and then took some measurements with his hands scarring a spot after what looked like some calcted measure. John threw the other cut branch away and concentrated on cutting the other one which had the measured scar. After a while, it was split into two and then John kept them together taking in note that they were of the same size, he made two more specific cuts on both, one on each. The lines he carved on both of them were on the same ends for both. John started smashing the axe head on the lines and went halfway deep only to take the axe head out again and repeated the process on the other. When it was done, he picked one up and started hitting the top of the thick stick which was circr. A crack formed that went down until it came out halfway. Lucas came to the realization that John wanted to make the cutting stop at the carved lines part, that''s why he shed it halfway. He did the same thing again with the other one until he had two half-split branches. The processter became a bit confusing and Lucas didn''t quite catch it. Before he could make sense, everything was over, the result looked like this. The stone b was half up and was supported by the two branches John was working on. They were together in a very delicate manner as if a single action would make the branches drop resultantly dropping the b down too. There were also two small twigs on the ground connecting a small one that was attached to the main two. (Pic in thement of the end result.) "I can''t believe I did it..." John kept looking at the piece with eyes sparkling with sunshine. E came to his aid and caressed his shoulder while looking at that piece of art. "I don''t want to try it as a lot of work will take to erect it again. But you all get the gist of how it works, right?" Lucas, Barney, and Sean nodded in unison but Sarah didn''t, when everyone''s eyes went on her, she awkwardly nodded too with her head down as if ashamed. "Haha... don''t worry, Sarah. This old man had to see the same video, again and again, to understand it too at the first time." John patted her head with a chuckle and went on to exin it. The two small twigs on the ground under the stone b were connected in such a way that if something was going to put even the slightest force, it would fall making the whole structure get down with it. After the exnation was done, Sarah looked at the whole thing with a new light and took a few steps back to y it extra safe. Atst, John kept a small piece of the gimmerroot between the two twigs on the ground with patience and control. "Now, we just have to leave and pray that something gets stuck under this trap." "Uncle John, sometimes a wonder how lucky I am that you found the shelter," Lucas said while looking at the trap from all angles carefully cramming in all the details as someday, even he wanted to make this thing. Lucas was looking for a reaction from Uncle John but there wasn''t any for an abnormal number of seconds. Atst, he looked back at him and frowned. ''What''s with that expression? Wait... don''t tell me..." "I got a skill!" John eximed with his face filled with disbelief. His eyes had gone wide and mouth agape.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Ugh..." The next thing, he held his head in his hands and pressed it. Before Lucas could go help him, he was fine again. E took his arm in both her hands but John just smiled at her. "I am fine, it was just a little headache..." John said but his eyes darted toward Lucas who tilted his head in confusion. --- Thanks for reading! 2 More to go! Chapter 33 *BONUS* Barneys good progress John just had a severe yet notsting headache, it was fixed in mere seconds on its own. And it was not a simple headache at all. Information about basic trap-making was in his mind that he did not know he had ever seen before. Ideas from metallic traps to small-scale traps, he knew some of all. Yet they were all for small-scale creatures. The skill was only level 1 and after experiencing before, John knew that after a level up, he will be getting more information. But that was not what was boggling his mind, He was looking at Lucas with disbelief. ''The information I gained was not on the level of what Lucas gained, I know that for sure... Just how much pain did he suffer from?'' The question was making him shiver. John decided to not say about it and mentioned the skill''s name and description to everyone. "So now you can make more types of traps?" Lucas asked curiously. Yet John''s eyes became sad as he said, "No... we can''t make any of them aside from these two for now. We don''t have any tools or even any type of metal. And even if they were, I don''t know how to smith my way and make the traps. So sorry but it''s impossible for now..." "Na... it''s okay. Haha... I was just getting greedy, if our work''s done here, let''s go back." Just like that, everyone returned to the shelter with reassurance that their safety had yet increased and that if everything goes fine, there will be some meat in their stomachs too. Only 3 days and some hours were left till the first phase was going toplete. Lucas had butterflies in his stomach at the thought of meeting his parents. At this point, his sense of concern had lessened from before. He knew in his heart that they would be okay, but the concern couldn''t go awaypletely, it was his family, the people who he had lived with his whole life and the only people he loved with the purest of heart. Now that the traps were done, everyone went on to spread time within their small formed groups. Lucas and Sarah together and John''s family together. After some hours of dilly-dallying, everyone went back to doing their work of making the left 40 nks so that only the mana cores part was left. Night fell soon and they all went inside the shelter like always. John was the first one to take the shift and he had the knack of doing extra. It was decided that the shift would only be three hours but he always did it for more making it less taxing on Lucas. But Lucas knew about it and in turn, told him to rest in the afternoon when everyone is up and if anything were to happen, they would just scream. John agreed but was reluctant after being pestered by literally everyone. Sean and Barney may be careless and irresponsible, but they still had a soft heart for their father and mother. - In a certain area, a small silhouette was found moving around while sniffing the ground until it got a whiff. It went toward the b''s shadow and smelt a good fragrance, something that it could eat to its heart''s content. Its small arms before reaching the fruit stepped on the small twig on the right side. THUD! The b within seconds fell on the creature and it didn''t even get to know what happened, when the b fell, it was an instant kill... At the same time, John got the notification of getting EXP s he was sleeping and it vanished after being present for half an hour.N?v(el)B\\jnn - The morning was livelier than always and the reason was big too. Everyone made a circle with a single person inside it. The young man was making an axe head hover in the air and making it move in circles around him, his face was not that constipated now but there were still creases. It was Barney. CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! E started pping and then John,ter everyone started pping with smiles on their face. "Did the skill level up, Barney?" Lucas asked while looking at the hovering axe head in the air, the axe head was by no means lightweight but it was not very heavy too. It was 500 grams on average in weight. "No, my control got better by getting used to it. Now get a side everyone, let me show you this." Barney said and made the axe head hover toward him until itnded on his hand. Everyone got on the side and gave Barney a lot of space. Barney looked at the axe head in his hand with seriousness until it started floating in his hand. He gave a side nce to everyone making sure everyone was looking. His hand made a curve making the axe head spin horizontally, the V-shaped part pointed toward the front. "Huuuu..." He took a breather making Lucas annoyed, the guy was making more suspense than a professional storyteller. "HAAAGH!!" He shouted and pushed his hand ahead, the axe head went flying at great speed in a forward trajectory. Everyone looked at it going speedy until it fell on the ground about 4 meters ahead. "That''s... my range...*Thud*," Barney said slowly and fell on his knees, his face was sweating heavily. "I can''t believe you did it, my baby!!" E came briskly to his side and hugged him. "M-Mom, you are embarrassing me..." Barney said while he was still limping down. John came toward him and patted his shoulder, Barney mustered all his strength to look him in the eye, teeth gritted to show how much pressure he was cing on himself right now. John ruffled his hair and smiled, he gave him just five simple words, "I am proud of you..." yet it was all Barney wanted. He fell unconscious while his mother kept him sitting. "Oh mannn... I wanted to tease call him a baby..." "Sean! Shut up!" "Okay Okay, don''t get mad." John picked Barney up and took him to the shelter to rest after checking if he was alright, turned out he was only unconscious from fatigue or something. ---- Thanks for reading! Chapter 34 *BONUS* Two traps worked Barney took a few hours to wake up and E stayed with him. Lucas and John with Sean and Sarah in tow started making the nks. But before they could start, John became a bit perplexed after looking at his status. "What''s wrong, Uncle John?" Lucas asked while carrying a non-refined medium-sized tree trunk to the Shelter''s territory. "I got extra Experience points... We have to check all the traps. Everyone nodded and separated to look at every hidden trap they had set up yesterday. John directly went to the one he had made at thest, which made him get the ''Beginner Trapmaking'' skill. As expected, the big b of stone that was once half up was on the ground but it wasn''t touching the ground properly. "Urphhh!!" John picked the stone b from one side and looked at the small creature that had died from the b that mmed on the ground.N?v(el)B\\jnn === Grey Ogol Level 1 Origin- Uphal === "Hm?" John looked at the mouse with a frown. It was not because he was disappointed and that they have to eat a rat now but something else. The mouse was normal aside from the abnormally long legs and feet. The feet''s knees were curved like a goat making John sure that this rat was able to walk on its two feet. Its hands had four fingers, with nails the same as humans yet extremely small. John didn''t have his hands free so he tossed the creature with his feet to the side. THUD John picked the creature up and examined it, the mouse-like thing had a slim body and John knew why, it got squeezed horizontally by the b and now the body was somewhat t. As he examined the creature further, he noticed small details that stood out. Its fur had a slight bluish hue, and its eyes wererger than those of a typical mouse. The creature''s limbs, although ttened, appeared strong and agile. John didn''t bother to repair the trap again and went toward the shelter to show them what he found. -- At the same time, Lucas had chosen to go to the two traps located at the passage of the grazing area. He went toward the first trap that was closer to the shelter and after seeing that it had not been triggered till now, he continued. Lucas went to the other one and finally saw something good. The trap that was in the middle of the passage did not have any leaves on it, it was made about 15 meters away from the first one. "What the hell?" The leaves were all over the ce and Lucas could see that there was some resistance there. The upper sharp spear that was pointing at the top was either broken or covered in blood. At the deep end of the trap, the big spear was all bloodied. Even the ground was red in color rather brownish from all the blood. Lucas''s eyes went toward the side of the trap. "Blood trail?" He took out his spear and went ahead following the blood trail to the end. He kept tracing it for about a minute until he was there, at the grazing area. The trail went on from the bushes he had never crossed toward the grazing area until it seemed to have topped at one ce. There was a small boulder near the blood trail''s end and Lucas didn''t know what was on the other side but a guess was super clear. "The Kobolds..." CRACK Lucas''s heart skipped a beat and he shed his spear at the back just for safety. "S-Shit... it''s me!" Lucas was surprised to see Sean near him and relieved that the spear hade no way close to the man. But he went near him and jammed his palm at his mouth. Sean tried to mumble with wide eyes but Lucas told him to stop. His gaze went to the boulder in the grazing area again but luckily, there had been no movements. Lucas and Sean left the grazing area with slow steps until they were at the second trap and after fixing it up. They went toward the shelter. Inside the grazing area, behind the bolder, there was a reptilic creature with ragged breathing. The Kobold''s left foot was all messed up as it was the one that activated the trap. It was the big Kobold that acted like a leader for the three before. The other Kobold was at the top of a tree with vignt eyes. It had noticed that Lucas and Sean had arrived in their territory. Its eyes were filled with malice and if everything was right, the normal five feet tall Kobold would have attacked them. *These are the things that took my brother... and hurt big brother too...* The bloodlust the Kobold was taking out was dangerously high but he stopped after a jerk. Terror formed in his heart when he felt another bloodlust near him, he looked toward the location and shivered at the sight of his big brother looking at him. The big Kobold might have been injured but it was still the older brother that had to show its pack its dominance. -- "You won''t believe what I saw in the passage, Uncle John!" "Dad! Listen! The little bastard hit me!" Sean interjected in between but got smacked by Lucas in the head again. SMACK! "Act that recklessly again and I will hit you harder," Lucas said with seriousness. "Wait, Lucas. tell me what happened first..." John asked while giving the stink eye to his younger son. He didn''t know what the situation was but now the thing was clear that Sean had done something idiotic. ---- Thank you for reading the chapter! It''s the end of the 3 Bonus chapters, thank you so much for reaching 138 rather than 120. There will be another Bonus chapter event after the Power Stone reset. Have a good day! Chapter 35 Quite a pickle After Lucas told John all about what happened, John scolded Sean for being this careless. "Even if that injured Kobold didn''t attack you, Sean. You are lucky that you have not been cut by the spear, they are evenced with poison." John kept scolding Sean who took it all with an annoyed yet understanding face. At first, he was thinking that his father and Lucas were acting too crazy but after listening to John for a while. He came to know what he did wrong. In a dangerous situation where Sean clearly could see that Lucas was trying to hide, Sean sneaked up on him and almost got killed. And to put oil in the fire, he screamed a bit. At this point, even Barney was up and looked at Sean with a smirk on his face as if enjoying that his brother was getting berated. ---- A day passed and the group hade up with a lot of food. Enough tost them for many days if preserved carefully. With the help of the trap that used the stone b, the group had 2 bodies of the grey Ogol and it was decided that the meat was to be smoked in order to preserve it inside the shelter. Right now, everyone was near a certain area that they had just found, it was right opposite to the grazing area in the North. "Aunt E! Heal Uncle John while I take its attention!" BANG! Lucas tackled the long, strong familiar creature that he had fought before. The big mouth, the long stem... it was the rapacious nt yet a level higher. They were in a pickle of a situation just because Lucas and John had be a bit arrogant. . Half an hour ago, The whole group was traveling with their formation toward the south of the shelter. They already knew what was in the North, North East, and North West near their shelter but nothing about the other direction. So everyone came to a uni decision to travel south, the travel waspulsory as they needed things to kill in order to get thest ingredient for upgrading the shelter- the mana stones. They had just started traveling and went about 15 minutes of continuous travel when Lucas suddenly saw something. At one nce, he knew that a rapacious nt was a few meters away from him near a tree as a small reddish nt just like the first time was there except the color was blue the first time. "Everyone stop, there is a rapacious nt ahead of us near that tree." Lucas stopped everyone and pointed toward a normal tree. Everybody saw a small red-petaled nt near them and couldn''t help but be fascinated by it. If Lucas wouldn''t have stopped them, one of them would have already gone near the nt with curiosity. "It won''t attack before we go near, its nature is to sneak attack just like many carnivorous nts." "Then we have to move back." E said and was going to start going back but then she saw Lucas and John''s expression, "... Right?" "Aunt E, why do you want to go back? With so many people... it''s going to be easy." Lucas said. He had a grin stered on his face. Sarah kept looking at that nt and was getting serious deja-vu. She didn''t know why Lucas was so confident as thest time was more than hell, even surviving was a very taxing task. "Lucas is right, with a great strategy, killing this thing can be doable." "... Are you serious, Dad?" Sean asked with one of his eyebrows up. When they first arrived here, John''s whole family had already seen one of these things eating something. Its sheer size made Sean shiver in panic. "A challenge? Let''s do it, Dad." Barney said with a determined face. "Shut up, you got a useless skill anyway," Sean interjected. "... You wanna die?" Barney''s face became dark as if he was really offended by his brother. All this seemed a bit serious yet it was normal for the groups as the two brothers always bantered the minute they start talking. "So what''s the n, Uncle John?" Just like that, they all sat together about 10 meters away from the rapacious nt and made the n to kill the thing without any trouble. "The formation would be the same but this time E will be far back. Sean will be in the middle and give buff on his own ord or when someone asks for it." his eyes went to Barney and continued, "Barney, after seeing that throw, you said that your range is 4 meters right?" Barney nodded in response and John continued with the n description. "Okay, then when I say and think that the nt is in your 4-meter radius, you will shoot on my say. Case closed. Now, Sarah, I know you can shoot volleyball-sized fireballs but if they be tennis size, the numbers will increase so keep shooting at the nt till your mana reaches safe exhaustion." John stopped and asked Sarah if it was okay to which Sarah nodded with a smile, all this time, in her free time, she was practicing her uracy which was not good at first but it had be enough to hit a big target now. "And Lucas, you know what to do. Just attack it with me." "Alright," Lucas gave a thumbs up. "Everything seems nice, but why will I stay far? I am the medic." E interjected with a somewhat pout that looked cute. "It''s because you are a medic that I have kept you far as your role is the most vital one," John said and stopped for giving his statement a little weight and it obviously picked her interest. "Whenever someone gets injured and I hope no one does. But if that happens, the person is to go back and get healed. At E''s level, she can heal a normal cut or bruise in around 34 seconds. I have checked it so whoever gets injured cane back to support again, okay?" Lucas was getting butterflies in his stomach, the n was basic but it was still a n.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om ---- Thanks for reading the chapter! The Power stones have reset! So, here it is, Every 120 Power stones= 3 Bonus Chapter Have a good day! Chapter 36 The struggles... When everything was sought and the n was clear. The group started approaching the reddish nt about 10 meters ahead. E was stopped at 7 meters in and with Lucas and John in the front, they all went in with the formation.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Now" Lucas stopped and showed a hand signaling everyone to stop. He nodded at John and started approaching the nt like thest time. Sarah was shivering from just the feeling that the nt would pop up anytime, she couldn''t believe that Lucas was not afraid, and in truth, he really wasn''t. Lucas had already killed the rapacious nt, it may have been due to luck but he had a big part to y in it. With each kill, it was as if his fear was decreasing. With the spear in his left hand hidden behind his back. Lucas approached and crouched down but was ready to fall back anytime soon with just a simple jump. After waiting there for 10 seconds, everyone started second-guessing things. s, it was toote. CRACK! "It''s happening!" Lucas jumped behind and made the formationplete. Sean was ready to give a buff anytime, his limit was only one for now and he had to wait for one minute in order to give another buff to another. Barney started hovering the spear near him, the spear was on his right, its tip desperate to puncture a hole in that nt. Even after he started floating the spear, Barney had no problem or stress. The weight of the spear was half the axe head, it could be even less. The crack on the ground became bigger until Lucas could see the whole silhouette. The rapacious nt was different this time, its height was higher than before and the big mouth of its looked enormous. John gulped when he saw the creature, his eyes were saying that the unwavering confidence from before was getting lost. Lucas on the other hand had his heart pumping fast. He saw the creature and could feel the bloodlust it was emitting. It had happened since the Kobold who was filled with bloodlust. Lucas could still feel that tingling in his body when he made eye contact with the Kobold but the rapacious nt didn''t make him tingle as much. "Uncle John,e!" SWOOSH! Lucas ran toward the rapacious nt that was above 10 meters in length. ''Its range is better than the first one...'' Lucas thought and kept running until the rapacious nt itself came toward him. Lucas at the right moment faked his movement to the left when he moved toward the right. The rapacious nt head went past him horizontally and scraped his chest a little but nothing happened. ''The fuck?'' Lucas thought when he saw the open mouth of the rapacious nt for a second. He could swear that there were small numerous canines in its mouth. The rapacious nt didn''t make any noise, it didn''t stop and go back for Lucas but instead, its big head traveled toward the group. "Get back, everyone!" John came in front of its trajectory to stop the thing before it could hurt anybody. Till now, there had been no problem with the n as it had just started. But he hadn''t felt a single thing in his mind and that was the fear that the others felt. While Lucas and John had already experienced something worst than this. the Kobold may have died but it was too ferocious, the sheer ws of its could make many freeze from fear. The same thing was happening to the others when Sean was supposed to already give a buff to John to help him stop the big nt. He had frozen in one ce while looking at the uing slobbering mouth of the enormous nt toward him. Things like how could the nt even travel like this, to begin with, came to his mind yet they kept changing. So the hope of having the n be sessful was going toward a lost cause. John threw his spear on the ground and gritted his teeth. The rapacious nt was going to hit him anytime now and he didn''t want the spear to get in the way. He had the ability to get away but the people behind him were too important to just disregard. BANG! John used his hand to stop the rapacious nt and it worked, he used both his hands to grab the ends of the big rapacious nt''s hand. "Urgh... it burns!" John shrieked as his hands started to sizzle, at one hand, he was not able toprehend why he could stop this big thing with his hand, and on the other, he was feeling like his hands were burning from water. His hands were all slobbered up and Lucas knew that it was acidic. "Get back here!" Lucas used his right hand to pull the red stem of the big nt. It made the nt jerk a little but the power was not enough. He hit his spear with power on the ground and the end went inside it which helped it be erect on the ground even when he was not holding it. Lucas used both his hands to pull the nt and it worked. But John was getting pulled with him as if his hands were stuck there. At a second nce, Lucas saw a big slobbery tongue wrapped up on John''s left hand that he didn''t seem to feel with how the burning feeling on his arms and hand was increasing. "Get away from my dad." Barney didn''t remember to use his telekinesis and just smacked the spear that was on the ground. It was on the ground because his concentration was hindered when John got in contact with the rapacious nt''s mouth. SMACK! Barney hit the slobbering tongue that was wrapped around John''s arm with the spear''s length. The rapacious nt loosened the grip on the arm and finally, John was free when he got down on his knees right in front of the big nt. "Urghhh... s-shit!" Barney eximed while holding his hand, when he hit the tongue, it was a bit soft, and the saliva all over it spilled around. One of the drops fell between his fingers and the skin around corroded very quickly. The rapacious nt saw the opportunity and was going to just gobble John up when Lucas increased the pulling until the rapacious nt got further with him from the group. "Aunt E! Heal Uncle John while I take its attention!" Lucas shouted ad picked the spear up when there was no need to pull. The rapacious nt was pissed and it was speedily moving toward Lucas. "O-Okay" E came running from the sidelines and knelt near John. Her hands started emitting white light. When she saw John''s face, a tear could not help but fall from her face. She made the aura do its work after keeping her hand on his wound that he was holding with yet another wounded hand. John''s face became calmer when he felt some relief in his wounds. At one thought, he knew E was doing her wonders on him. SWOOSH! Lucas on the other hand was running everywhere while dodging the Rapcious nt''s agile attacks. The others couldn''t help but just look at the scene with wide eyes. "T-The n is ruined! Let''s just run back!" Sean eximed. He was panicking hard from the thought that if his dad could get injured, then he was nothing against this thing. But John only got injured because the others in the back didn''t move from the trajectory of the rapacious nt. If he wanted, he had a level-headed mind and would have jumped to the side on time. "Sarah! Only you can do something! SHOOT!!!" Lucas said while running fast, the rapacious nt was just meters away from catching him and he didn''t have a choice but to run. ''If I stop, the fucker will just gobble me up.... shit.'' Lucas knew in his heart that he had made a bad decision. Even if he didn''t think this but he was the leader of the group and making such a decision was risky for the whole group. Everyone agreed to the n because both the fighters made it sound easy but in honesty, Lucas and John were thinking of taking care of everything on their own. But one muste back to reality in order to see the real picture. Both of them had learned the lesson quickly. In panic, Sarah made a small fireball but her hand kept shaking. She closed her eyes and calmed herself down yet the shivering didn''t go away. Her eyes started zing with determination when she saw that Lucas''s speed was decreasing. ''If I don''t do something quickly, Lucas will get eaten.'' With this thought, she shot the first fireball of the day toward the moving head of the nt, Sarah had to predict where the big nt would go a secondter in order to hit a moving target. It was just something she knew from the past when she saw her brother y a shooting game and he shot a bullet ahead of the moving enemy but it still hit it. With great prediction, Sarah shot the fireball. SWOOSH The fireball went in a horizontal trajectory until it was very close to hitting the nt but it was too fast and went further without hitting. Yet the rapacious nt could feel the heat from the fireball even when it was close to it for a second. Its whole existence told him to attack the one who threw it and its eyes went to Sarah who was making yet another one. It moved its mouth slowly toward Sarah and was going to attack yet a grave mistake has already been made. Lucas, who was furious from his action saw the spear near him that he erected. He grabbed the spear and when the big nt was readying itself for yet another speedy travel to Sarah. He pounced on the back of the big nt which made it fall on the ground. Lucas knew he was taking too much risk but he did not want to let anyone else hurt because of him. He readied the poisonced spear and punctured it right in the center of the red head. "S-Shit!" Lucas''s bnce got bad after the head started moving and he fell to the side. his legs were also very sore from all the continuous running at full speed for a long time. The head bobbed up, greenish liquid kept falling off its head and mouth. Before it could do anything unnecessary, the rapacious nt just fell on the ground. BANG!! [Congrattions! You have killed an Avaelonian creature of level 4 withpanions!] [Dificulty level- Hard] [+20 EXP] The notification came to him and a sense of relief formed in his mind. The fight was over. "What the hell?! I leveled up!" A voice came from close. Lucas''s exhausted eyes darted toward the voice. All the pleasure he just felt just vanished... It was Sean that spoke up. ''He didn''t do anything? He only fucking stood there? How? Why?'' Questions formed in his mind and just like when he questioned the number of phases at the start. Some texts formed in front of him. [All the members of a group get the end experience points equally.] "I did too!" Barney spoke up, excitement evident in his voice. "Me too but I feel dizzy..." E said while she kept healing John''s wounds until he stopped her. He gave her his support when she kept her hands on her head. Lucas just got up, his face formed an unpleased expression yet he didn''tin. He was the one that got them in danger because he was excited to fight. "Sarah, can you help me get to Uncle John?" "Sure" Lucas with Sarah went to John who was just sitting beside his wife,forting her while she faced the stat change. John looked at Lucas who was staring at his wounds with a guilty face. "What''s with that expression? These wounds? They are nothing, now we got more water with us? Be happy!" John said with a grin and tried to be as enthusiastic as he could. He wanted to hide his real emotions. Lucas just nodded in response and sat there with everyone until his breathing became okay. The two brothers had already forgotten what had transpired just a few minutes ago and bickered happily about their level-up. Another 10 minutester, they all started traveling back with the corpse of the rapacious nt in tow. When they reached back, Lucas just sat alone thinking about his actions. When others were just together eating, there was only one person who came to his aid. "What''s bothering you?" John asked while looking at his hands which Lucas was doing too. There was not a single scratch on his fully burned hand from before. Everything was healed by E''s continuous skill use. "... I was wrong this time. I-" "You did nothing wrong..." John interjected and continued, "You saved everyone, Lucas. You made my family level up when they didn''t do anything." "Don''t worry about it..." Lucas said with a smile. "No, it''s not okay, you killed the thing. And everything got divided. There was no drop too. I am really sorry, Lucas... I wasn''t able to help you at all." "What are you saying, Uncle John? When all these shi... people were frozen, you literally sacrificed yourself for them. If anyone was a hero today, it was you." Lucas said and patted his shoulder in reassurance. John didn''t say anything for a while, Lucas was right and it didn''t do any good for him. His sons were deadbeat in the whole hunt. And if they were not there, John was confident that he and Lucas would have taken care of it without trouble. "Lucas... we made a mistake this time. You and me, we both were wrong. But let''s not forget that it still was sessful... we can only move forward." They talked for a while, both saying things the other needed to hear even if they were cringe. There was impatience and they wanted to fix this emotional trouble soon as... The next phase was going to start the next day... --- Thanks for reading! The chapter was too long today but this was the end of Volume One- The Prologue. Every 120 Power stones= 3 Bonus Chapter---- 45/120 (Read Author''s note) Chapter 37 2nd Phase commenced With the passage of a peaceful day after the intense battle, tranquility reigned within the group. No major discussions took ce, but Lucas felt a growing urgency to address an important matter with some individuals. Lucas and John had thought about something that others might not like but it had to be done for them to grow as a group. ''But everything has a time and now it is to talk with my family.'' Lucas thought, his heart was pumping blood like a maniac. It was a special day that he had waited for a long time toe. The day when the 1st phase would getplete. In front of Lucas, there was a numerical value that he had been looking at for an hour now without a single stop. Sarah was the same but the others of the group did not look forward to it as much as their whole family was already with each other. [00:00:01:56] Lucas had butterflies in his stomach that didn''t seem to stop moving anytime soon. His breathing had be faster even when he had sat the whole day inside the camp peacefully. For others, the time may have been moving fast. But for Lucas? It was a nightmare. Every second felt like it was been counted twice. [00:00:00:30] But time was not moving ording to Lucas, it was neither slow nor fast, it moved normally. [00:00:00:03] [00:00:00:02] [00:00:00:01] DOOM Lucas''s whole body jerked at thatst second, his heart skipped not one but three beats which made him take high breathers of air quickly. But the wait had finallye to an end when he heard a ''Ding!'' Sound in his mind which was new and made him startled. The others were the same. [Congrattions! Through Luck or skills, you have survived the 1st Phase!] [Rewards Gained: Options ''Talk'', ''Trade'', and ''Party'' are added to the system.] [Note:- Call on these names in order to use them!] [The 2nd Phase will nowmence!] [Objective- Make a Party with 10 or more creatures, Level your every skill to 5 in a span of four months, defeat five Boss monsters Time Remaining- 4 months Reward- Personal individual Quests, 1 Mystery Chest, level 1 map, universal Language skill Failure- Death] [Extra Update: - Chests of varying grades ranging from Extremelymon to Ascendant, will appear randomly throughout thend, each guarded by a Boss monster. To im the treasures concealed within, one must first ovee the challenge of defeating the chest''s Boss monster. - Dungeons of different grades will spawn from Extremelymon to Ascendant randomly around the ins of Amaeron, the creatures inside are fierce and if the dungeons are notpleted with time, everything inside will swarm out.] [Note:- The skill level progression now includes the added capability to visualize and track the advancement of each skill.] "..." Lucas had no words, for every word he looked at, his face constricted with confusion. Just like the first time, everything was written with not much but enough to tell everything. Everyone had their eyes straight at the texts, even the two brothers were concentrating. The information in each line was dense. "... Talk!" A voice eximed in a hurry, everyone darted their eyes toward the voice, they all were too surprised by the sudden outburst. Sarah was the first to use the ability to talk, Lucas was not going to be slow in any way too. ''The information is all here for me to look at forter... Let''s focus on what''s important first." Lucas''s eyes twitched, he was a very daring kid in every scenario but when it came to saying a single word, his mouth seemed to not work. It was as if something emotional was stopping him. But he had no time for these shenanigans. "... T-Talk" Lucas said, and finally, a small text-filled interface opened before his eyes. ------- [Search] [Blood rted] -------N?v(el)B\\jnn "Blood rted?" Lucas said aloud confused, he could tell what the search function could do but the blood rted was unexpected. But it was too clear, his family was going to be in the blood rted section so he clicked on it quickly. "What the hell?" Lucas said aloud again which got a few gazes from others but when everyone had such a reaction every few seconds, no one reacted to each other. A long list of names came in front of Lucas, he knew he had the ability to even scroll down but in the ''Blood rted'' section. There were three names right at the top as if they came first when it came to being bonded with blood. He didn''t know why but his hand instantly went to the second option. TRIIII.... TRIIII.... Wierd sound started resounding in his brain and when he looked around, no one had a reaction as if he was the only one who could listen to it. DING! Suddenly, another voice came, the text in front of him changed from the list to a single name with some other option beneath it. -"H-Hello!? Lucas?!!"- A feminine voice resounded in his mind. Lucas knew whose voice it was. His mother... tears started flowing down his face on its own. There were no words that came out of his mouth. Just the single concerned and panicked voice of his mother was enough to make him content. -"L-Lucas!? Can you hear me? H-Honey! Where is Lucas? I can''t hear him. You told me that I can talk with him now! *Smack!*"- Voices of his mother bantering with his father started filling his mind and he couldn''t help but chuckle a little. There was no sound of his father but he could tell that he was with her. He knew that it was his parent''s habit to start bantering if there was something wrong but only Lucas knew that it was all healthy and he didn''t care for it. "Gosh... why are you crying this much, Mom? I am here and I can hear you." He had a toothy innocent smile on his face that couldn''t seem to go down anytime soon. --- Thank you for reading the chapter (Read author''s note) Chapter 38 Tessas troubles -"Lucas!"- His mother shouted again. "Yes, Mom I am here. Please don''t shout." -"I-I can''t believe I get to finally talk with you. Your father was so concerned for you. Hm? Yes you were, don''t lie." "Mom please, stay on the topic, tell me, are you okay?" -"Yes we are okay, forget about that. Tell me about you and fast!"- ''God, she won''t stop.'' Lucas shook his head with a smile and told her a discreet tale of his not-so-safe adventures. He took out many things like the two near-death fights with the rapacious nt and the fight with the Kobold. He changed it all to how they spotted a herd of creatures that seemed to eat the grass and killed them. -"I am proud of you, my dear son~ So that is how you became level 3?"- His mother said with a warm voice. "Wait, what?" Lucas was confused by what he heard. It sounded like she just told him his level. "Mom, how do you know my level?" -"What do you mean? it is right there with your name, can''t you see mine?"- Lucas realized that all this time, he was talking while looking at the little sky he could see from all those big branches and leaves and not the screen. Near his mother''s name, there was a level... 2. "Oh right, you are level 2." -"You were always bad at finding things at home too, my son. Sigh~ When will you improve this habit?"- Lucas started hearing how he should improve his hearing ability and do things with concentration. ''Some things never change huh...'' Lucas felt very good while talking to his mother. It was s if a huge load had lightened from his shoulder. He changed the topic by telling her how he found his group. He didn''t know why he hadn''t told her till now but atst, he said that his skill was a shelter. Lucas''s mother was very happy with the news, she told him that his father and hir had trouble making things format the scratch which made Lucas a little guilty. "Uncle John, Aunt E, my mother is saying thank you for all you have done," Lucas called for them both and thanked them after his mother told him to do so. "No worries, it''s the least we can do." "Oh, mom! Where is Tessa? Is she with you and Dad?" Lucas asked with excitement. he couldn''t help but want to talk with his older sister Tessa who had taken care of him all his life even when his parents were not home. -"Uhh... she is not with us."- "What?!" -"Don''t panic! If you panic, then I panic! I was going to call her just now but yours came first."- She said with concern. "Why didn''t Dad do it? What''s he doing anyway?" -"Uhh... he''s busy, I have to go now! call your sister and tell me if she''s alright!"- She shouted the end part which made Lucas a bit worried. It was as if there was some trouble going on their side. ''DING!'' Another voice came into his mind and the texts in front of him showing his mother''s name went away. "How was the talk?" E asked with a smile. They could all still hear someone crying andughing at the same time on her own, it was Sarah. She had finally got to talk with his brother after parting for 10 days which felt like each day was a month''s worth. Lucas looked at E and smiled, a mixture of relief and concern evident on his face. He could hear Sarah''s emotional outburst in the background, a cacophony of tears andughter blending together. "It was... weird," Lucas replied, his voice tinged with both joy and worry. "Your mom was worried about you, young man. What is weird about it?" E said with a pissed tone. Lucas felt like he hit a nerve, he had almost forgotten that she was also a mother. "Uhh... Nothing. I gotta make another call." Lucas''s said and clicked on his sister''s name this time. DING! -"Oh, you finally called huh? What''s up Dork?- A feminine voice came to his mind yet again but this time it was not the same. "Tessa, always so charming," Lucas teased, his voice filled with affection. "Tell me where you are and are you okay?" "Lucas, we are going to call someone too at the side, we will be back soon," John interjected to which Lucas only nodded. -"I am okay. I can''t believe what''s happening around, Lucas. Are you okay? You are fully intact, right?"- "Yeah, not a single scratch, it seems we both were separated from Mom and Dad. Have you talked to Dad, by the way?" -"No, he didn''t call me. How will he, it''s only been a few minutes since the option came to us."- Lucas nodded, his eyes went toward her name to know what her level is. In a second, his eyes bulged out and a look of dumbfoundedness formed on his face. "What the hell? How are you level 4 already? I am level 3!" Lucas couldn''t believe, the sister who had no interest in fighting physically other than her words was now at an even higher level than him. -"... I don''t want to talk about it... Just tell me that you''re safe and okay."- Tessa''s voice became a bit emotional which was very unusual for Lucas as his sister was the best at her poker face after their mother. "I am perfectly fine, Tessa. I have a good house, many good people around me. Tell me, what happened?" -"Lucas... many people that were with my group died from an attack."- "What? Are you really okay, Tessa?" Lucas''s heart was beating fast. ''She was attacked, but by who?'' Questions like these weremonly floating in his mind. -"I am perfectly fine, it''s just... hard. These small green disgusting bastards are relentless. They keep attacking our camp. If not for my skill, I would have not survived Lucas"-N?v(el)B\\jnn "Oh, I am not liking this, Tessa. What are these green creatures? And what''s your skill?" Lucas asked with concern. -"They are called ''Goblins''... small greenish or brown skinned animal faced bastards. And my skill''s name is ''Ice shards''. I can make and shoot bicycle shards out of thin air."- --- Thank you for reading the chapter! (Read author''s note) Chapter 39 Skill progression After talking with Tessa for a while, Lucas came to know many devastating things. Tessa told her story from the start with detail as she had free time. When she came to this ce, she was alone just like Lucas but then she came across a group after walking endlessly. Even she told Lucas that the forest seemed to have no end. She told him that she found many good people. A mix of girls, boys, men, and women. They all seemed to survive together while hunting small creatures for food until something not very good happened. The ones who go for the hunt all had certain attack skills and that included Tessa. To be exact, her skill was the best in her group. She did not have to go close to the monsters and could just kill them with a single hit. Lucas guessed it on his own, he knew that Tessa was into archery when she was young. She made some tweaking and her aim was as good as anew. But then they got in trouble with those green-colored small human-looking monsters. With how Tessa described them, they really were disgusting. Tessa told him that in their first encounter, it was hard for them to kill them. Not because they were strong but because they looked somewhat human with the body, the face had some human features too. But the goblins did not care about such a thing. They had a drive to kill and she could tell from their look that they were just looking at the hunting party as if they were a bunch of food bags. Because of this, out of the six including Tessa, three died from their hands. Three young good people that had the welfare of their families and the group in their mind died just like that. This all happened on the 5th day and from then on, Tessa had a mental breakdown. The whole camp which consisted of fifteen people was in terror andter, when they didn''t go out much. The goblins came knocking on the door, Tessa exined her emotions to Lucas as ''angry'' that day. She killed all the small goblins in cold blood which had a more traumatic effect on her mind. But the people in the camp were very supportive of her, she healed her heart due to their support and now she killed for these people. She told Lucas that she had no remorse for killing these bastards in cold blood and would do it again and again to which Lucas supportedpletely. The only thing that weighed on her mind was the people that died that day because of her foolishness. Lucas consoled her and she was happy that her little brother was now mature enough. After the call, Lucas tried to call his mother but he couldn''t because of a rule that one can''t call the same person more than once in a span of 24 hours. He called his father who didn''t seem to pick it up. Now, Lucas panicked but knowing his father and mother, if they survived for the 10 starting days, a few more hours would have also been easy. He looked at his father''s level while calling and didn''t have much of a reaction even when the number 5 was written in ce of the level. "I expected my father to be this high level. With his skills, lower than this would have been disappointing heh." Lucas said with a chuckle to make his mood fresh again. He was sitting at a log near the camp, around him, every one of the group looked at him as if they were waiting for something. "Are you done, Lucas? We need to talk now." John asked, his face showing the calmness that one would expect from an adult in any situation.N?v(el)B\\jnn "Yes, Uncle John. Let''s begin." Lucas looked at everyone one by one who looked back at him with serious faces. "A lot of information was given to us today and we need to discuss it all. Will you start, Uncle John?" "Certainly, for the starters, the awards of the 1st phase. We got three more options inside our systems today. They being... party, trade, and talk. Everyone knows what talk is and most in here have already used it so I will skip it. The next is trade, from what I have seen, trade will help us barter stuff with others we talk to. It does not have a range so no matter how far we all are, we can give each other stuff even if we are far." "Does that mean?" Sarah had a huge smile on her face to which John reciprocated with a nod. "You all can send stuff to others through this, Lucas to his family, Sarah to her brother." Lucas nodded, he had discussed everything with Uncle John beforehand and all this information was for the group. "Lastly, this party thing, we all are not together right now. We call ourselves a group but these texts don''t see it like that. The EXP and everything is a mess. So after looking at this party option, it just means that through this, we can be a group under the eyes of these texts." John stopped and took a breather. He continued, "This is also one of our objectives, make a party of 10 people." Everyone nodded in unison, understanding what John said without any trouble. John was the one to be appreciated for this, he dumbed it down so that everyone could take all the information even better. "Lucas, continue." "Yes, you can all see the objectives and one of them is to level all our skills to 5 in these 4 months. Everyone, open your status screen." Lucas asked them and opened it himself to give a better exnation. === Lucas Garde Level 3 Origin- Earth Exp- 9/150 Strength- 9 Intelligence- 10 Stamina- 7 Dexterity- 15 Mana- 15 Free Points- 3 Skills- Shelter Generation(rare- level 1, 10%), punch(extremelymon-level 1, 5%), unarmedbat(extremelymon- level 1, 20%), Basic Spearmanship(Common- level 1, 64%), Herbalism(rare- level 2, 3%) === Chapter 40 Party fomation === Lucas Garde Level 3 Origin- Earth Exp- 9/150 Strength- 9 Intelligence- 10 Stamina- 7 Dexterity- 15 Mana- 15 Free Points- 3 Skills- Shelter Generation(rare- level 1, 10%), punch(extremelymon-level 1, 5%), unarmedbat(extremelymon- level 1, 20%), Basic Spearmanship(Common- level 1, 64%), Herbalism(rare- level 2, 3%) === "In the skills section, you see those percentages? That tells us how far we are to a skill level up. It is a new thing that got added just a few hours ago." "My fireball is at 78%," Sarah said while her eyes dated all around her status screen. "That just means that fireball will level up soon if you keep doing what made it progress this whole time." "Now, everything is clear, we will talk about those chests and dungeonster as Uncle John and I don''t know much about them. Does anyone have anything to say about it?" Everyone shook their head, there was nothing they needed to add so Lucas went forward and nodded at John. "Thest thing left is the objective. We need to level our EVERY skill to 5 within these four months. The part where we have to defeat Boss monsters is new but I would encourage you all to take outside help and ask others not in our group about it. Lucas stopped and looked at John who sighed and nodded, thest part had finallye that they were waiting and hating for at the same time. "Lastly, the party part. We need 10 people for a party toplete one of the objectives. We have six people here but it''s still not enough." Lucas stopped and continued with a deep breath, "But even in the six people, we are thinking of not including some." Everyone wentpletely silent at the thought of someone not being included in the party even when they are inside the group. "What does he mean, John?" E asked from the side but John only took her hand in his and told her to wait. "After the fight with the rapacious nt, we found out that not many in the group help in kinds of stuff that are important. I assure you, I have a hard time saying this but these people need to prove that they are worthy. We can''t keep nearly dying every time we fight something even when we have this big group." Lucas stopped, he wanted to let the things he said settle down. "And you are on board with this?" E asked again yet this time, she was looking at John. "Yes, Dear, you don''t understand. We would have all died there if not for Lucas and Sarah. We can''t let that happen again and again." "But Dad, can''t we just fight and learn, why take this big decision? Let''s just get in a party and move forward." Sean tried to say, he was sure that he was one of the people who are to not be at the party. "Son, listen to this, in thest fight, you leveled up, right?" "Yeah, it was the best feeling, Dad. I feel strong and have not used those free points till now as you said." Sean said with augh that didn''t make it easy for John to continue but there was no choice. "But... did you really do anything in the fight? I mean to say, did you help?" Sean and Barney went silent, in their hearts, they knew they had done nothing to help. "I mean, I was there, right?" "Sigh... Sean, Barney, you took the experience points that you didn''t deserve. Now, Lucas is okay with it but I am not. I did not raise you to be a freeloader." John rebuked both of them while they bit their lips. E had a dark expression, she couldn''t believe that John was taking this decision without her. "Lucas, am I also out of the party? If that is, I am okay with it, I wasn''t able to do anything too." Sarah said, her head down with disappointment. "Sarah, it''s not like you didn''t help at all. Your fireball made the rapacious nt change its course for you. I was able to give a killing blow just because of that." "So I am in the party?" "Yeah, the part of you being scared is getting away with time, Sarah. And that''s what we need the most. After listening to what happened to my sister''s group. I am not going to take any chances." "I got this from here, Lucas. Boys, you both are on your own till you show me that you can do something. This is not our ce, but Lucas''s. We need to help with everything to our best capabilities in order to earn our keep. Got it?" "No, I didn''t get it. What does all this mean now?" Sean asked with a frown. "That you both will not go with us outside the shelter till you show me that you are ready. Oh, and try finding your own food for a day, and know how easy it has been for you two. That''s all." John got up and went outside the shelter, E went out with him and so did Lucas. "Ughh..! I always hate this side of Dad. Why couldn''t things just go on like before?" Sean said and took a big bite of the glimmerroot in frustration. "Barney, as angry as I am too. Not a single thing that Dad said was false. we really are doing nothing to help." - While the two brothers were having a conversation near the camp. E was angrily saying things to John. "Couldn''t you have consulted me with this big decision? I am their mother!" "E, listen. You are too soft with those boys." "What?" Lucas felt like another discussion was going to start so he interjected in between. "Aunt E! Sorry for talking out like this but we don''t n on leaving Sean and Barney behind. It''s just a n we made to make them realize that it''s not like before now." "... What do you mean?" E asked with a frown. "Yeah, dear. We are only doing this to make them realize that they have been spoon-fed the whole time they have been here. Now they need to take some responsibilities." ---n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Thank you for reading the chapter! Every 120 Power stones= 3 Bonus Chapter---- 100/120 Chapter 41 Offer As the sun set, tranquility embraced the night, devoid of any disturbances. On that particr day, following an exchange of words, the brothers engaged in a conversation. After pestering their father, they finally got a night shift to make sure that everyone was safe. Even Sarah took one of them but Lucas wasn''t done. Since he leveled up, it was like the sleep he should usually be taking in order to be refreshed the other day had be lesser than before. He didn''t sleep that night till John''s turn came to make sure from time to time that the brothers and Sarah didn''t sleep between their shifts. To Lucas''s surprise, Barney and Sean both kept awake throughout their shifts and so did Sarah. Lucas felt like things would change pretty soon and the group would get better coordination. The next day, everyone woke up early. Lucas had some bags under his eyes but it was till manageable. ''I almost took an all-nighter but it''s not like before when I yed games all night and messed up my sleep for many days ahead. These levelups are really doing wonders.'' Lucas thought, impressed with the things that had been going on around him. "Would you look at that... even Sean is training his skills," John said. Sean was near Barney inside the defenses at the corner. Barney was making the spear revolve around him at a fast pace while Sean kept giving him buffs from time to time. His eyes kept darting toward John who had a grin on his face as if he was happy with how much things had changed with only a night. "That reminds me, Let me call my old man," Lucas said and made a call again with the system. The same ''TRII'' sounds started resounding in his mind but his father didn''t pick up the call. But Lucas wasn''t thinking of any negatives as at the side of his father''s name, the number had changed to 6 meaning his father had leveled up since a day ago. Lucas felt proud that his mother was in good hands and they would not be in any trouble. "He didn''t pick up, and I can''t talk with my mother cause of the cooldown. Uncle John, I can''t sit like this, what do we do today?" "Hm... everything that the shelter needed has been done aside from the mana cores but I have a good feeling today. Why don''t we go and look for those chests and dungeons?" Lucas thought about it, their best action would be to look for the mana cores. Lucas didn''t want to fight the rapacious nts for a while as they needed a functional group to kill it. "Good idea and let''s also find a water source when we are out," Lucas said awkwardly. All these days, the bathroom condition had been really bad. They didn''t have anything that could help with these things. And the only option was a hole they made just at the side of the shelter. They all hadn''t bathed for 10 days and they reeked. Their hairs were very messed up and they couldn''t do anything about it. The dense liquid from the two rapacious nts couldn''t even wipe their butts properly. "I am so dumb, can''t believe I ced the shelter down without any investigation of the area," Lucas grumbled while eating the dry rimmerroot that felt bad in the mouth. Now that they were eating properly. The drive to eat better was high but they had no supplies of any kind. "Don''t beat yourself about it. This area is safe enough for all of us, there is no point in grumbling. We will find something soon, don''t worry." John said and went toward the tree near them. The tree had various marks on it, to be exact, they were shes. John was practicing his shooting, his attacks had be very fast and deadly. Even the winds he could manipte had increased in volume. While he was practicing, Lucas went to see the requirements of the shelter''s upgrade. There were many ticks near every material aside from the mana cores. Even the defense upgrade was very easy. He finally saw that the cooldown was over and called his mother whose level had increased yet again by one. She was the same as Lucas. -"Lucas? Are you okay, my son? I am sorry I wasn''t able to pick up the call before."- A concerned voice came from the side. "Don''t worry, Mom. As long as you are okay, it doesn''t matter. So, can you talk with me for a while?" -"I would love to Lucas but all these bodies- no, the food is to be managed. You know how your father is, he does all the work extensively."- "Figures" Lucas and his mother talked for a whole 10 minutes and he could tell that his mother was being as discreet as possible.N?v(el)B\\jnn ording to her, they were living with a bunch of people, and Lucas got to know yet again that making living arrangements was very tough and he was the lucky one. His mother''s skill name was ''Precise Aim''. It helped her with very good aim while she used a bow and arrow made by his father for her. His father''s skill was ''Knight''s Aura'', something that helped him coat his hands or even full body in a reddish aura that ording to his mother looked creepy. His father had a fallout with some weird creatures that walked on four feet and had a big bodies like a cow. But they were aggressive. His father for unknown reasons, killed every single of these creatures on his own and now they were having a hard time storing all of it. -"Hey, I just thought, since we have an abundance of food right now, how about I share some with you using the trading option? I remember using it once before with your sister. I only got to use it one time with your sister."- There was a small option below her name that started to blink. An old measuring device''s image was made on the option and it kept blinking. --- Thank you for reading! The other chapter and the Bonus chapters are on their way. Sorry for thete. Chapter 42 Successful Trade "I don''t think that''s a good idea, Mom. I mean, don''t you have more people than here? Won''t you need extra food?" Lucas asked, in truth, he didn''t want any food because he wanted to hunt them on his own. There was a sense of pleasure and pride in hunting on your own and eating it to your heart''s content knowing that you hunted it. -"Nonsense, ept the trade, or else I will tell your Dad that you are misbehaving again."- "Heh... that would have worked before but now that you are god knows how far, am not afraid of Dad," Lucas said with smugness, John was sitting right at the side of Lucas and couldn''t help but shook his head with a chuckle. Lucas may have been a bit mature for his age but he was still a kid. -"That may be the case but you wouldn''t even listen to your mom? Have you be so distant, I thought this would happenter bu--" "Alright Alright! Gods, stop with the drama." Lucas said and clicked on the blinking option on the floating texts in a rectangle. A screen opened yet again where two small rectangles were present, in one to the right, there was an image of a big creature, just like his mother told, it looked like a cow yet the orange hair on it was long making him believe that it looked like a Yalk. -"Now, for the trade to beplete, just put anything in your box, it can even be a stick. Just be quick."- Lucas looked around and found a glimmerroot near him. It was the one allotted to him for the day. Lucas picked it up and neared it toward the box to the left until the fruit warped from existence and appeared inside the box. Lucas couldn''t help but be highly impressed by the scene. "What?" Even John was a bit surprised after seeing the fruit get vanished out of existence when it was clearly in Lucas''s hand a second ago. -"Son, is this edible? Are you eating things randomly in the forest?"- Lucas had to exin to her about the skill he gained called ''Herbalism'' that helped him find great things. -"This is good... very good... Hmm..."- Lucas knew what his mother was bbering about, it was her business brain that switched itself on. It always happened whenever she had some ideas to make more money or a business opportunity. She even forgot to ask if where he got the skill from when it was not his main one. -"Lucas, tell me this thing''s use and description quickly."- "Uh... its food that you eat, it is called the glimmeroot and after plucking it out of the roots of the nt it grew in, you can just keep it anywhere for 2 days before it gets stale. It''s a bit dry but we don''t get hungry and that''s a good thing I guess." -"Fantastic! Quick, put 3-4 more fruit in there. You won''t get hungry with this Xerax for a few days anyway. This way, I won''t have to sneak you this way any longer. And work on your confidence a bit more, you are my son for god''s sake."- Lucas didn''t care what she said and even ignored thest part, if her mother was saying all this, he was sure that something good woulde out of it. "Uncle John, Can I take these fruits? It''s for good use." John just nodded, he didn''t care and they could just go and get the fruits again anytime from the forest. Just like that, Lucas ced five glimmerroots inside that small box that kept changing the images. All five glimmerroots vanished and showed themselves inside the box. Lucas tapped the option ''Done'' at the side and his side of the box became bright blue in color. -"Okay Lucas, you have done a good job. Let Mom take it from here. I will click done and the call will cancel on its own. Bye~ Love you~"- DING!n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Before Lucas could say anything, the talk was over and a big creature materialized in front of him. THUD! "S-Shit!!" John and E who were the only ones at the camp had their heart skip a few beats. The big creature was about four meters in length and covered the whole burnt logs in the camp. The creature''s face had so much fur that everyone could only see the outline of the face. The neck that was long was tilted and the head was taking the support of the shelter''s wall. "L-Lucas, what is the meaning of this?" John couldn''t help but stutter when he spoke. Even a guy as calm as he had to react like that. The situation was too bizarre and everyone made a circle around the overly haired creature. "Holy fuck! What and How?!" Even Sean who was showing his serious side since the night reacted with his original nature. John was too bbergasted to even rebuke Sean for his cussing. "I just made a trade deal with my Mom... Apparently, my dad hunted many of these and they had too much to store." Everyone stared at Lucas with disbelief, they all were thinking of eating meat again one day when their wishes got epted so easily. "And if I read between the lines correctly, we can trade this thing by giving the glimmerroots officiallyter on." There was one surprise after another that not a single one among all the people present knew how to react. They just stared dumbly at Lucas or the dead body. 5 minutester, There was still silence in the shelter''s territory but Lucas didn''t falter with his curiosity. He checked the whole body of the creature in depth and could see that it was too much like the cows he knew from his. It made him wonder how he had found many creatures and not a single one was from outside the basic families of creatures he knew. Kobold obviously belonged to the reptilian types, the rapacious nt belonged to Aster, and the Vixenox was a mammal. It made him feel like they were the basic types in every but his horizons were still too narrow so he didn''t make his theory a fact. ---- Thanks for reading! Chapter 43 A dungeon? "Okay, I don''t know anything about skinning this thing. I tried once with the Vixenox but it only became a mess." Lucas said while he looked at the creature''s neck. When he finally touched the creature, blue-colored texts came in front of his eyes. ---- Xerax (Diseased) Level 4 ---- ''Level 4...'' It was the same level as thest rapacious nt they hunted. Lucas couldn''t help but be astonished at the fact that his father had killed many of this level yet Lucas''s full group was not able to do it with their numbers. "Lucas, this is too much... it is free food that your mother gave..." John said with an embarrassed face. "It is not free, Uncle John. We will provide them with glimmerroots and other eatables from the forest." John still had some reluctance but could see that it was not really ''free'' food. "But if we don''t skin this thing, it won''t matter even if we get it." "I know skinning, Lucas," Sarah said with sparkling eyes as if wanting to do work that would go on her record. "My whole family knows how to skin, why don''t Sean and Barney help Sarah skin this thing?" "Oh, No problem, just leave it to us, Dad!" Seand said while keeping a hand around Barney''s shoulder who also had an approving expression. "It''s settled then, you all skin while we three will go explore a bit. If anything''s a problem. Just contact me through the system." "Haha... it''s be quite convenient." Lucas couldn''t help but make a manly excited giggle. "That is true, tell you what. Let''s leave in half an hour." John said and rested his eyes after sitting down. Lucas was not the only one who took an all-nighter that day. While John was resting, Lucas decided to call his sister who apparently got the corpse from their mother too. E helped the others in the skinning process which had be a bit better since thest time as Sarah had the sharp axeheads that John had just sharpened early in the morning forter. Half an hourter, the trio was ready to venture outside on the lookout for the chests guarded by the boss monsters or dungeons that the system said would spawn randomly. The trio moved to the south where they found the rapacious nt. Lucas had two spears, one in the hand while the other hung at his back with the support of his shirt.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om As the trio ventured further south, their eyes remained alert, scanning the surroundings for any signs of danger or potential treasures. The air carried a mix of excitement and anticipation as they walked through the dense foliage of the forest. Lucas took the lead, spear in hand, his senses sharp. John followed closely behind, his experienced gaze assessing their surroundings for any hidden threats. E had a spear in her hand too but her main focus was to heal in the trio''s time of need. They ventured further into the forest, this time with the determination to go deep while being safe. It had been 20 minutes since they kept walking. Lucas kept looking behind at the duo to know if they would get tired or not. The forest was bumpy, there were uneven grounds, sometimes grass the height of Lucas that they avoided and sometimes even the roots of the ginormous trees were so big above the ground that they had to climb it. But John didn''t forget to keep making a marking on the trees, it was for an extra measure toe back safely to the shelterter on. John already knew how to analyze footprints and the trio were leaving quite a few of there''s behind. "Wait, look down." John broke the long silence by crouching down and pointing at a certain track on the ground. The grass was pressed and the soil around had a foot''s shape implemented on it. Lucas stopped to examine the trail, analyzing the ground for any traces of recent activity. He knelt down, his fingers brushing against the dirt as he detected faint footprints and scuff marks. It was evident that something had passed through here not long ago. And one thing was obvious, it didn''t walk on two feet like the humans or the Kobolds, or not even the Goblins, the creature was all on all fours, and by the shape of the footprint, they were hooves. Lucas and John made eye contact and nodded, both hadparatively the same mindset when it was time to make some big decision. They both knew with a single nod that they both had the same idea in their mind, to follow the footsteps that looked to be going quite far. E didn''t bother with their decisions, in the end, she was only there to heal them in their time of need and was told to stay out of the fights as much as possible. But John was still paranoid so he showed her a few tricks of how to use the spear with efficiency. In the shelter''s group, only two of the six had the rookie spearmanship skill at level 1 and they both were Lucas and John as expected with their prowess. Lucas was not some prodigy or a person with a lot of experience with life. It was just that his mindset was different that the others, while one would think that a said task was hard and dangerous, Lucas would get excited to do it even if his life was in danger. He was good at adapting to the fast changes going on around him and had most of the leadership qualities one needed because of his mother. He strived to learn things that he didn''t know irrespective of the type. This was why he was a jack of all trades yet hand mastery of none. They kept following the track of the footprints that were straight for a long time, with John''s help, it was already deduced that there was only one footstep for a long time until there started to be many. "This is getting serious..." John said while pressing some solid in his hand, around them were a lot of tracks. Some were definitely hooves while one of them looked to be a foot. "4 creatures on fours and 1 is on two... What do you say?" John asked Lucas and E at the same time. "What do you think, we havee this far, and am not going back without results this time, it''s getting depressing, sorry." Lucas stated with a grumpy tone. It had been many times since Lucas and the others ventured out and after all this time, they had only found 3 mana cores. Many of their trips had been a fail but Lucas was not nning on making another one yet again... fail. In the end, the duo also agreed and they started walking again while looking for more tracks. 5 minutester, in their eye range. Lucas could see a huge greyish stone. At the height of five meters. There was nothing around that looked rtively simr to the huge stone. And the discovery of the huge stone was not the end, all the tracks had stopped at this ce and the trio knew why that was the case. The big stone was not in any way simple, and it was not another one of the theories that Lucas likeding up, there was an actual entrance inside the stone. Lucas was mesmerized by the sight, at one ce, the stone was not long in width but the entrance looked abyssal, unending. "What do we do now?" Lucas asked the two beside him. He was not the only one that looked at the sight with fascination. "Is this a dungeon? Or just... something else?" E asked with curiosity. "Didn''t you get the description till now, Lucas and E? Think of what it is and just keep looking." Lucas shrugged and looked, he didn''t want to feel like a child and was embarrassed that he didn''t do it before John as he was the one who told him in the first ce about this ability of everyone. --- Umon Dungeon Difficulty- Mildly Hard Rmended- 4 party members Rewards- Umon grade --- "Oh, I got it." "Before making any rash decision, I gotta try something." John looked around and finally picked a small stone in his hand. Even if it was small, it didn''t break with the strength of a level 3 John. John closed his eyes, and three secondster, his hair started moving furiously as if there were strong winds but nothing was happening to the other two. John opened his eyes, got up, and went in a throwing stance. PEW! A high pitch voice came from the throw that was intensified with the help of his wind maniption. With his uracy, the stone went flying inside but to their surprise, there was no crashing sound. "It''s as if there is extra space inside... the back of the stone boulder can be seen. Sigh... what a headache..." --- Thank you for reading! Chapter 44 Dungeon Exploration Lucas, E, and John started walking toward the Dungeon''s entrance. There were many tracks of different creatures near it but they disappeared near the entrance. "If the inside is going to be this dark, then maybe we should make a torch before entering," Lucas advised to which John nodded with understanding. He went near a tree and was just going to make some arrangements when E started moving toward the dungeon with fascination. She tried to peek inside the darkness to know if there really was no light mechanism when suddenly. She warped out of existence. Lucas was looking at her the whole time to make sure she was safe but after only blinking his eyes for some milliseconds, she was out of his sight and it didn''t even let him react properly as it had happened too fast. "What?!" "What?" John looked back to make sure that everything was right. He finally realized that E was not with Lucas and observed that Lucas was looking at the dungeon with wide eyes and a dumb expression. "No..." John''s face became pale, his eyes twitched from fear. His legs started moving on his own when finally Lucas could see John right at the entrance of the dungeon and he disappeared after a single step inside the dungeon''s gate. This time, Lucas did not even blink; it happened again, and John had warped out of existence. "Fuck!" Lucas eximed, his face paler than what would deem as a healthy one. He had the urge to go inside but he was not dumb enough to do it right away, what if some creature could be right there in the darkness, but how did the both of them just disappear and note back again till now? His n for making the torch was still there but he didn''t know whether he had the time or how to make it in the first ce. It was getting confusing and Lucas kept thinking for a while until something totally unexpected happened. ''TRIIII'' The sound of a call kept resounding in his brain, he looked at the name and felt relief. Before he could think of anything else, he had already clicked the button to make the call connect through his system. -"Lucas, can you hear me?"- A man''s voice came from the other side which made Lucas have relief. "Yes, Uncle John. Come outside of the dungeon. We can make a n and go in again." -"No, there is no exit, just believe me and get inside the dungeon right now."- Lucas first frowned but after thinking for a second knew that Uncle John would not do anything bad for him. Lucas took a deep breath and took a step inside the dungeon yet when he did so, there was no darkness or anything in front of it but a well-lit corridor there. Lucas got deja-vu from this sudden travel, the same thing had happened before when he came to this forest for the first time. [You have entered the small realm of the Dungeon] [Note: There are many more entrances like the one you came from, so you are not entirely the only one inside the dungeon.] [Note: You can''t leave beforepleting the whole dungeon.] Lucas had an urge to puke yet this time, he could control it. Many texts came in front of him again exining some things that he had entered the dungeon. Lucas was holding his mouth trying to keep the hard-earned glimmerroot inside his stomach. ''DING!'' ''The call cut on its own?'' Lucas frowned. "Lucas, we are here." A familiar feminine voice came right from the back. Lucas looked behind his back and saw two people just taking support of the greyish color wall. "You both are safe! Thank goodnes-" "Shh..." John kept a hand on Lucas''s mouth and continued, "It isn''t safe, talk slowly." When Lucas was finally done with his reactions, his eyes darted in every direction. He was in a greyish-colored corridor with small torched every few meters on the walls. It was a simple ce and the small orangish mes from the torches seemed to have kept lighting up the room this whole time. Lucas had only one thing in his mind for the walls, it was as if the walls had a cement finishing and a really good one. But someone had forgotten to color the walls making it look unfinished. "Wait, how did we enter here? It looked nothing like this from the outside." Lucas eximed with astonishment. "I don''t know about that but one thing is clear that we are stuck here. Until we clear this dungeon, nobody gets out." When the both of them were silently thinking of a way of moving things further, E kept squinting her eyes while looking at the unending corridor with the same wall and the torches. On the floor, there was a little bump. "So? Should we start moving? It''s not like we can just leave anyway." Lucas said. They both started moving further but E had some other ns. "Wait!" "Speak slow, honey." "I have a bad feeling, give me something that I can throw," E said and moved her hand near John as if asking for something right there.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om John rummaged through his pockets, searching for something suitable that E could use. He pulled out a small, smooth stone and handed it to her. E took the stone, her eyes fixed on the bump in the floor. She hesitated for a moment, weighing the stone in her hand. With a flick of her wrist, she threw the stone ahead, aiming for the bump. The stone hit the bump, and to their surprise, it triggered a hidden mechanism. The floor beneath the bump gave way, revealing a hidden pitfall. E''s instincts had saved them from a potentially dangerous trap. CREAKK! It made a loud noise and finally, the whole floor of around 3.6 meters ahead was reced with a pit. "What the hell?!" Lucas crouched down and looked at the bump on the floor once again, if one looked with precision, they could find that it really was an oddity in a perfectly aligned floor. Lucas made a few careful steps until he found out was down in the pit. There were spears erected on the floor that was near and not that deep. What made him cover his nose was a metallic smell that spread very quickly. "I guess we know where those animals that left all those tracks are now... Look down." Lucas got away and let the duo also look. John and E went ahead careful with their hand on their noses, the smell had already spread to them too. The sight made E literally puke but she controlled herself. On the spears that were long, the bodies of the dead animals could be seen on them. They were too above the ground with the spear making them stay still while blood dripped on the ground in the pit continuously. At this point, Lucas hade back again with curiosity to look back again. He looked at all of them and finally, his eyes fell on a certain odd looking being. It had brown skin with no hair, its height looked to be small by human standards. Around 5 feet, it had an ugly face with nothing covering its body other than a short cloth that unfortunately couldn''t hide anything, not even it''s deal. By looking at it, Lucas felt a nostalgic feeling, he rummaged through his memories until a word came right at his tongue. "Goblin..." He said in a low voice, the others had not noticed the create that was at the corner and he didn''t want them to. It was the second humanoid creature they hade across and he didn''t want the already small group to feel scared right from the start. "Thank you, Aunt E," Lucas said in earnest that got a small smile and a nod from her in response. "How do we move ahead, we will either have to jump or close this pit again," John said with a hand on his chin. E on the other hand had another n, the stone she had thrown had already been shifted to the side of the pressure te on its own. She picked it up and before the two men could do anything irrational, she threw the stone again at the te thinking that it could not be any worse than what had already happened. CREAKK!! The floor that had moved to the side fast hade back with the same pace. Nobody could look at the floor and tell that it could move with just a single step like that. "... I think Aunt E should move in the front." From then on, their travel had begun again with E at the front. But everyone was looking for some kind of a trap like before with heightened vignce. The corridor seemed to be unending and Lucas didn''t know why but he felt like this was the main challenge that would get them the rewards but he couldn''t be any more wrong. --- Thank you for reading! Chapter 45 Ella- The danger solver "Hehe~ Would you look at that, I can''t believe someone would fall for this," E said with continuous giggles. It was as if she had be a kid who got his first lollipop. E moved further and at this point, the duo behind had the confidence to let her go on her own. She had proved her proficiency. E moved her hand at the walls, there were small holes that were too obvious to be shot from. But in truth, just a minute ago, they were hidden and E was the one yet again that made ite to light. When Lucas and John asked her how she was doing this, her answer was very surprising yet disappointing at the same time. As she was a housewife back on Earth, she was getting a lot of free time since her kids had be adults and could live life on their own, it was difficult for Barney and Sean but they had still be more mature than a child. E had left her job when both of them were young in order to provide her full support for her kids. But with time, it was like she was getting a lot of free time. She was thinking of getting a job to support the household just like John but thought of getting a bit of free time just for herself after all these years. She had started reading novels, ying games, and going out with her friends after years. And one of the games she yed was ''Find the Hidden''. It was a puzzle game that had honed her skills at deciphering very few details for clues. It hade to the point that shepleted the whole game and went on to others until the whole market''s popr sellers were cracked by her easily. Now, she was inside a dungeon. With dangers in every nook and cranny. She wasughing and solving traps that were extremely lethal with no fear. At first, both Lucas and John were reluctant to let her do all this, thinking that it was too dangerous but with every second. It had be hard for them to not put the whole responsibility of keeping them safe on her shoulders. But she didn''t care, she picked the responsibility up without even a speck of trouble. It was the 9th trap that she had deciphered, each unique in its own way. Till now, the trio had found no creature other than the ones at the first hidden danger. Since then, there was nothing but walking and stopping for E to decipher the danger and then again start walking. But Lucas was not bored for one bit, unlike John who had totally given the whole responsibility to E. Lucas wanted to learn and be self-sufficient. He tried to find these traps before E but had not been sessful these 9 times. But it did not make him disheartened, the excitement inside him only increased. Lucas had a bad habit of obsessing over small things. In the previous world too, he had the need to do things he liked with no shortcuts and withplete concentration, to also do it before others and win even when there were nopetitions. This was one of the reasons that he was called the ''Weird one'' at his back in his school but that didn''t bother him from being himself at all. Now these habits of his were making him excel in this world, he was already a leader of a pack of five. A frontline fighter for the pack and had just erased the food troubles even before his mother sent the dead body. It had been a few hours and E was not done at all. She was continuously finding hidden dangers and just activating them from afar so that there were no mistakes or mishappens anytime soon. During this whole time, John had already called Barney for updates and was told that the dead body was done halfway. He was told that in order to not attract anything dangerous, they had made a hole and had thrown all the unwanted insides of the animal in it so that the smell would fade with everyyer of soil they ced over the insides in the hole. Five more minutes passed yet this time around there were no traps that E found. ording to her, there weren''t any that she could find. Another five minutester, they could finally start seeing the corridor''s other side. They vigntly reached the exit of the corridor until finally, they were right a few steps from crossing it. A minuteter, John kept his first step inside a whole different area. After him, so did E and Lucas. They looked around and found that the area was too big and looked like a dome of sorts with no horizontal ceiling but a circle that ended very high, around 50 feet. It was the same color as before, greyish like cement. [You have safely crossed the hidden traps section of the dungeon.] [Final rewards are increased, a testament to the wless victory.] [The Boss monster will be spawned in 2 minutes.] [Good luck!] "The boss monster huh... weren''t we supposed to kill one for the objective this time around?" John said while looking at the center of the room. There was a big runic circle right at the center of the whole dome-like room and everyone could tell that it was where the boss monster was going toe from. "If that is the case, let''s form a party. We will be killing two birds at the same time." Lucas proposed quickly. There was not much time left. After seeing a nod from the duo husband and wife, Lucas opened the ''Party'' prompt where there was a plus made in a square box right at the center of the blue screen. Lucas clicked on the plus thinking that it would help add the others when suddenly a ''DING!'' sound came into his mind. He looked up and saw that he could see a plus sign in a square box on both of them. Lucas didn''t wait and pressed both of them when finally, both E and John got the question of whether they wanted to enter the party or not. They both clicked on the tick at the right and another few texts came in front of them. [Party of three formed] [Note: Look at the left edge of your eye and the description of the party will show.] Lucas did the thing the Note said, he moved his pupil to the left edge when finally he could see two bars in his eyesight. It was as if he was in a game and he was able to see the Hit points of his teammates. The others got the same message as Lucas and they knew where to look. "Just perfect, this way, I will know if any of you are injured and Aunt E will have a better way of knowing who is injured." "That''s a good thing, it''s going to start in five seconds. Get ready, Lucas. And E, get back." Lucas gripped the spear that was in his hand with power. His eyes had the fierceness that would make one feel dominated in the previous world. E got back as she knew she was only going to get in the way, her spearmaship may have been better than Sarah and her two sons. But it was nowhere near where she could actually fight with it. RUMBLE RUMBLE The ground started to quake which made E take the support of the wall while Lucas and John grabbed each other''s shoulder. The runic circle with unknown symbols written in abundance started shining in white and before they could know it. A silhouette was getting materialized in front of their naked eyes. The sight was mesmerizing, first, there were white shining particles, then they started forming a shape when finally, the creature formedpletely. It was white in color when finally, some color erupted from it. Lucas started feeling that the room had be warmer and it had been only 10 seconds since the creature arrived. In the end, there it was. A flying bird was right in front of them with its eyes closed. The bird pped its wings continuously in a pristine manner. Lucas couldn''t help but inspect what the majestic creature was. It was as if the mythologies in his world had formed themselves inside this realm of the dungeon. ===n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Firebird level 5 Origin- in of Amaeron === The bird was about four feet in length, its whole body was on fire as if its whole existence was made of mes. Its eyes which had opened a second ago were emerald green in color that shone in the bright mes. It looked like a ''Phoenix'' but was called a Firebird. "Holy cow... how do we defeat this thing?" Lucas mumbled but was heard by the duo. The thing looked way above there level grade but they had no choice but to fight. As it was the only way they were going to leave this hellhole. ----- Thank you for reading the chapter! Chapter 46 Firebird (1) SHRRIEK!!!! A loud noise came from the firebird, Lucas knew that it was a battle roar. Both he and John were ready with the spears up high and grips tighter. Before the firebird coulde toward them to attack, Lucas went dashing to the left which caught the attention of the firebird as it pped its wings making waves of heat go everywhere. John did the same but he went straight so as to not give the bird any chance to go and attack E who was waiting in the corridor''s exit. The bird''s attention went toward John which made it give yet another loud shriek. John had stopped at this point thinking that E was safe in the distance. The bird pped its wings and finally came speedy toward him. John hadn''t taken it in ord thinking the bird will go for Lucas first. He ran to the left where Lucas was present so that there was a fighting chance. "What the n, Lucas?" John asked while moving around, the firebird wasn''t flying very fast and had some time to speak, only a few seconds. "Don''t know, just attack when I do!" Lucas said and went near the firebird, he wasn''t wearing any protective suit, he wasn''t protected by any means but he had no choice but to defeat the creature by any means. The firebird increased its speed, it was some inches above the ground with its fiery wings pping horizontally, the wing span wasn''t by any meansrge but Lucas was still a bit scared. Lucas was running toward the bird while the bird was doing the same. It came to a point when there were only some steps left till Lucas could hit the damn thing. The atmosphere had be a bit warm, it might have been due to the aggressive fire the bird was made of but it was just that. The warm sensation had not increased even when Lucas was close. Lucas''s mind went on overdrive, he looked at the space between thend and the bird''s fire ws, he knew it was going to attack with its ws seeing the posture the bird was in while flying. He made a split seconds decision and when the bird was very close, to the point the ws were going to hit his chest any minute. Lucaspletely fell to the ground in an instant horizontally. The bird went from his above straight and stopped midway. It was a very risky y that gambled getting a huge hit but there was no other choice, he couldn''t have dodged the other side with the wings pping and taking arge space. "I didn''t feel warm, Uncle John! I will keep dodging, just throw the spear at it!" John was going to juste toward them and attack head-on but took Lucas''smand and started preparing. The winds around him started generating furiously until they formed around his spear and hand, the winds now became solid looking and covered the whole spear and his hand. The change in the atmosphere around made the firebird look toward John at its back. It was already making some screeching noise as if annoyed by what Lucas did, but now someone was manipting winds in its territory. While the bird changed its direction and was going to dash toward John who was looking at it with Spear ready tounch with a cold expression. "You can''t go there!" A voice came from behind and before the bird could change direction mid-air again, a long spear shed at it horizontally. At first, Lucas was going to stab but thought that he would get stuck with the bird for a few extra moments. Even if he was not feeling much heat but touching it was a different thing altogether. he didn''t want to damage his spear with a single attack too. It had been with him the whole time, from the start of the first day of the 1st phase. To Lucas''s surprise, the sh of the spear gotpleted without trouble as if he was attacking the air. The firebird broke into two and Lucas could see John from the space between the two parts of the bird. In a split second, the fire started spreading and the two split bird became one again. A loud screeching resounded everywhere as if telling that the damn thing was nowpletely pissed. It moved up in the air away from the spear''s range. Even John was not confident to hit the bird with his extra fast speed. Lucas ran toward John with his eyes still on the damn bird moving up. He grumbled while saying, "Can''t believe the spear went right past the thing, how can we kill it if we can''t even touch it? Is it even solid?" "I don''t think so, Lucas. I think... it''s made of fire entirely." John said while looking up, the firebird finally stopped and looked down at the duo mockingly. Suddenly, it made a screeching sound, the wings started moving faster and before they could react. Two balls made of fire materialized near each wing, they hovered near the wings that made the duo get pale with every second. "S-Shit! This is a ranged attack! Run!" Lucas eximed with panic, he didn''t want to be a roast from such a big ball of fire. It was double the size of what Sarah could make. "You bothe here! It''s covered!" E said from inside the corridor. Lucas was tempted by the offer and was going to move there but a shout made him stop. "NO! We can''t risk her! Keep running and keep your eyes on them!" John said, he was running to the other side of the corridor exit where E was. In his mind, keeping her safe was greater than anything. Lucas stopped and looked at the bird who was still at the same distance, the bird was very close to the tip of the dome. It may have been very far but if the bird''s uracy and perception''s good then they may actually be a roast today. Lucas thought. The bird looked at Lucas who was just standing and looking at it, a sense of arrogance filled it and Lucas didn''t know why but he could feel it from those emerald colored eyes. SWOOSH!n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om It shot one of the fireballs to the right toward Lucas who looked at the ball with calm. ''Little more...'' "Dodge, Lucas!" John shouted from the side. ''A little more...'' When the ball was roughly 10 feet away and was moving very fast, Lucas finally started moving to the left and out of the trajectory. The fireball was big, the size of two basketballs together, even the gravity was moving against Lucas, making the speed even more with each second. BANG!! When the fireball fell to the ground, a loud sound resounded everywhere and the air bursts made Lucas fly toward the ground. BANG! Hended on his knees which made a huge impact on them, the knees even made a pop sound as if they were not moved for a long time. "Ughhh... Fuck!" Lucas was getting pissed, he had no way of attacking the thing that was so far in the air and the only choice was to just run till it get down again. The bird had no calm after making eye contact with Lucas and just threw the other one at him. Lucas this time started moving when the fireball started moving toward him. He went to the side and Looked up seeing that the fireball was now falling at the same location only this time he was nowhere near. All this was happening in a matter of seconds, Lucas had already been hit with 2 fireballs and more were being generated by the bird again. Another two were near the wings yet this time around, it threw the both of them together toward Lucas. Both of them were moving at the same pace and direction. Lucas didn''t have much of a choice but to run but something told him that he was not going to get out of this one. "1!... 2!... 3!" A voice came from afar. Lucas didn''t have anytime to look so he just gave a nce to the fireballs and kept running. ''Thank the gods this area is so big...'' Lucas stopped to take a breather, he looked again and saw that he was still close, the surface area had increased on which the st would happen. Thest one had left a big dark spot and the airwaves had made Luca literally fly for a few seconds. The pressure on his knees was immense and he did not want to try it again or else he was confident that this time he would fall on his face battering it to a pulp in the process. SHOOMM!! A shrill voice resounded, the dome structure was making sounds echo inside the big chamber. Lucas looked at it, his eyes widened after seeing a speedy silhouette making its way toward the fireball. The attack looked so calcted that the silhouette was already at the ce where the fireball was going to be in the next few seconds. BHUP! A pop sound came to everyone''s ears and Lucas couldn''t believe what he saw with his dear eyes. ---- Thank you for reading the chapter! Chapter 47 Firebird (2) When Lucas looked back, he saw a small silhouette at an astonishing speed moving toward the fireball that was going to hit him anytime. The silhouette even got in contact with one of the fireballs and suddenly, just after the contact, the fireball that got hit dispersed out of existence with a pop sound. Lucas looked at the speedy silhouette move from one part of the chamber to another swiftly until the momentum was gone and it couldn''t fly anymore. "Dodge Damnit! I didn''t do that for nothing... Huff... Huff..." Lucas didn''t respond and snapped back to reality, the fireball was getting close every second but this time he was far from that one. Whatever John did, he had already taken care of one of the fireballs that was going to be a pain in the ass. His eyes darted toward John who had done something that Lucas didn''t know he could do with his skill. But after looking at him, one thing became clear, John was huffing in exhaustion making Lucas wonder if he had run for a few hours. SHRRIEEEKKK!!!! "S-Shit!" Lucas eximed while keeping his hands on his ears. The firebird had screamed so loud that he felt his eardrums would tear any moment. Before the firebird could do anything more, Lucas had started running toward John who was still looking in bad shape. In 7 seconds, he had traveled toward him even when he was considerably far. It made Lucsa wonder for a second whether his speed had increased due to all this leveling up. "Are you alright?" Lucas crouched and ced his hand on John''s shoulder in order to give some support. The man was clearly not in a good condition, beads of sweat were falling off his head. "Huff... Huff... That attack... was taxing... Can''t do it again for a while..." "Don''t speak, just rest. I will think of something." Lucas didn''t wasn''t John to do any unnecessary action, the man was clearly suffering from using a lot of mana at the same time. It had happened to Lucas, around five days back when he used the shield of the shelter twice after each cooldown to show off. He had a very bad time after that, but he didn''t let anyone know about it thinking that the main purpose would go in vain. ''It will take him a few minutes and mana regeneration of some points to get back to normal.'' Lucas thought while looking at the firebird who was staring daggers into him. "He should also have a limit, if this thing keeps spitting those fireballs all day, we won''t reach any conclusion." Lucas grumbled under his breath, all this running had also made him tired but it was bearable. Also, the adrenaline from his extra blood pumping helped a lot. It was hard to look at the bird''s eyes as it was very far but after some extra squinting, Lucas couldn''t help but think whether the bird was looking at him with hatred or John. The firebird gave a war cry while pushing its head up in the air, it went into a position while flying that Lucas was familiar with. The bird was going toe down. Under normal circumstances, that would have been a bad thing, but the firebird was more dangerous if left far above.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "What to do... What to do..." Lucas kept murmuring, he couldn''t run away from John as he wasn''t sure whether it will attack John when he is vulnerable. "Huff..." A deep breath came from behind, Lucas saw John getting up while grunting as if his back was paining but that wasn''t the case. John''s whole body felt weak, weaker than when someone''s blood pressure is really low. "... one chance..." "Hm!" "... ONE chance," Joh spoke, Lucas was surprised after looking into his eyes. The will to fight in them was intoxicating which made Lucas have another adrenaline rush, this time not from the body but the will. John stood straight and stared at Lucas''s spear. His hand moved above and he started gritting his teeth while his lips were lifted. "Woah!" Lucas looked at his spear and the hair on his hand that were flying, even his hand and arms felt fresh with the breezes. Lucas looked at the spear and couldn''t help but squeal. The winds had started moving in circles around his spear''s head. Lucas didn''t say anything, whatever John was doing, it was taxing as before. Concentration was the main key for skills like Wind maniption and Telekinesis. One concentration loss and a series of failures awaited the user. He looked up and saw that the bird was still away even when it was flying at a good pace downward. Lucas felt like it was trying to restrict its speed so that it won''t smack on the ground from the force at which it was going down. He looked at his spear again and the results were surprising. The spear''s head had a transparent coating over it that didn''t seem to stop moving. Lucas could see that they were strands of winds moving at a high pace after collecting at one ce due to John. "... You get one try, stab don''t sh.... And don''t move even a step." John said and stopped. He said the whole thing speedily as an exnation was important. "I already had the gist, don''t worry," Lucas said and looked at the spear with regained confidence. He continued with a cheeky grin, "I don''t feel like losing today." The bird that was flying downward all this while finally started pping its wings furiously about a few meters above the ground. Its momentum stopped but the attack hadn''t. It moved its head in the duo''s direction and started flying speedily toward them. "One chance," John spoke again but Lucas didn''t respond. All he could see was the bird flying toward him. It was intimidating but still, he sent all the negative thoughts at the back of his head not risking to close it off at this important and dangerous moment. The firebird didn''t stop even after seeing the spear in Lucas''s eyes. It could obviously feel the winds circling fast around it but arrogance was a double-edged sword that the birdie hadn''t realized. Chapter 48 Dungeon complete? Finally, the firebird was about 10 meters away. In Lucas''s mind, it took forever for the bird to reach him while he anxiously awaited it. In reality, the bird had only been moving toward him for ten seconds now. John''s whole face had turned reddish, the veins on his forehead and near jaw line bulged showing the pressure on his face but Lucas could not see his miserable state. SHRIEK! "Haah!!" Lucas tense his hips and thighs not wanting to fall with the pressure he was going to use in trying to stab the bird. The bird was only inches away from Lucas but he could see that it was confused as to who to attack. Lucas didn''t give him the satisfaction of thatst choice, he forcefully trapped it by moving the spear toward the bird. The bird felt annoyed thinking that the enemy was too cocky for his own good. It shifted its ws toward Lucas''s direction while also thinking that the spear won''t do shit to it like thest time. Lucas''s spear was inches away from piercing the middle of the bird. While the bird''s right feet''s three ws neared his shoulder. Lucas panicked for a second thinking that ws made of fire were going to pierce his shoulder. In the end, he thought of E and how she was there for them. Even thest second felt to be more than one. Until finally, both bird''s and Lucas''s attacks had hit each other. PUCHI! POOF! "Ughhh!!!" Lucas felt an intense pain in his shoulder, even after readying himself for the pain and moving his shoulder to be safe and not be hit on the neck instead. His eyes had closed from the pain and when he opened them, something rewarding could be seen. A huge chunk of the fire the firebird was made of was gone leaving some of the feet, neck, and face in the process. The w that was embedded in Lucas''s shoulder removed itself but not in a normal way, the w had materialized into a normal fire and made its way toward the little fire that was left in the firebird. When it started forming itself again, Lucas''s face went pale but after the transformation was done. Everything felt normal. The bird had shrunk in size, it had lost half of the fire it once had that made a poof sound and dissipated. Finally, Lucas could see some panic in the bird''s behavior. It was darting its eyes and moving its neck around fast as if flustered and panicked. It moved its whole body around and wanted to make distance but something was right behind it that even surprised Lucas. All this time, he was looking and only concentrating on the bird not realizing that E hade to them running from the corridor''s exit. She had started running after she saw John fall on his knees, she knew how it happened because she had seen the whole thing. John had done the same thing he did with Lucas''s spear with the winds. But the first time he did it was different. The winds were not only on the spearhead but the whole spear including the hand that was holding it. SWISH! Before the bird could react, E had already made a vertical sh splitting the bird in two. The bird''s whole existence became a flickering fire again that wanted to join together like always. But at the same time, while taking advantage of the moment, Lucas had in turn made a horizontal sh but he was not done thinking it was not enough even when there were now four fireballs floating in the air. Lucas let the momentum of the sh he made with the spear make him move a whole circle. The spear, in a second, returned to attack the fire making a nting sh in the process. It would have been a normal horizontal one but as it was a split-second decision, Lucas was already falling on the ground from moving the circle due to imbnce. The fire was now in countless pieces which were getting smaller in size every second. It seemed the firebird was not really fully invincible. Not only did the wind attack with the help of John made half of its fire dissipate. Now, when E and Lucas were not letting it mend together and making many pieces out of its existence. The fire was getting smaller until only a little was left. As Lucas fell on the dungeon''s ground and E couldn''t make another attack still feeling a huge stress on her shoulders and back from that previous fast vertical strike. The fire got away a few meters and mended together. The firebird was yet again in the form of a bird as it pped its wings to keep flying. CHIRPP!!! A loud chirp resounded in the chamber loudly making everyone silent. Even John who was breathing heavily stopped for a second. "Pft..." Lucas couldn''t hold a singleughing out of his mouth.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om The firebird had be a pitiful creature inparison to its former self. Its size was no bigger than the sparrows back on Earth. With only a few inches in width and height, the firebird found that the enemies that it had not even measured with their height had suddenly be huge. The firebird after listening to Lucasugh had its head building with anger. No matter what the size, it was a creature that was nothing to beughed at! SWISH The firebird came flying toward Lucas who was awaiting it. The bird changed its posture with its feet ahead of the body like an eagle that is about to grab a rat from the ground. SLASH Lucas shed again and this time, he was slower with exhaustion. The firebird became an insignificant me again only this time the me had be the size of a candle''s top until it exhaustedpletely. [Congrattions for defeating a level 5 Boss Monster of an Umon Dungeon in a party!] [+200 EXP] [Umon chest unlocking in 1 minute] [...] [Level up!] [+1 Stamina, +1 strength, +1 dexterity, +1 Mana, +1 intelligence] [ +3 free points] Chapter 49 The rewards In a forest full of tall and thick trees of different kinds, there were some people moving in a certain direction. The leader of the pack looked everywhere with vignce. But there was a sense of pride too as if it wanted others to try and attack him. The man was 6''1 in height with an athletic build, he had a slightly hairy face due to not being able to shave for a while. In his hand, there was a copper-colored sword that had various chips and scratches on the de. "You are too aggressive, honey." A woman in her 30s said with an annoyed voice. Even when she was in her 30s, gravity was doing nothing against her build. There were various curves in the right ces making many wonder if she worked out daily. "As I said, I am sorry... got too excited back there..." The man in the front of the pack said with thest part in a whisper. Yet the woman didn''t let go of thest part. She looked back and sighed. The sight was too great. The four people, women and men had various bodies over their shoulders. The bodies were normal in size and stood out to be simr to a boar yet the features were too different. The main difference was the face that was more like a deer''s than a boar''s. ---- [The dungeon is now fully cleared! The next Boss Monster will spawn in 5 days.] [1/5 dungeon Bosses defeated! After killing 5, the dungeon will upgrade to Grade Rare.] Lucas and the others got two more notifications after leveling up by killing the firebird. Lucas was finally level 4 and had got three more free points that he this time decided to put in some stats. But everything had to be dropped for a few, even healing the shoulder of his that bled lightly. Before they could all say something, a shimmering sound came from the center of the chamber. When their eyes fell on the location, they saw that the runic circle was blinking white after every second until white particles formed on top of it. In 5 seconds, the particles had taken a shape and color of a chest. The size of the chest was not that big, it looked like any other normal trunk. The only thing noticeably different was its wood finish and a metallic stripe just below the lid. "Are you okay?" E asked in concern while supporting her husband to get up. "Y-Yeah. I feel okay, it''s just some weakness from mana overuse." "If you say so..." E said with a sigh, she was not convinced if John was really okay. "Oh! sorry to have forgotten, Lucas. I will heal you right now." E came near but Lucas just smiled and pointed toward the chest that had just spawned at the Boss monster''s runic circle. "It doesn''t hurt that much. Anut E, let''s go get our rewards first hehehe..." Lucas ran with a hand on his shoulder toward the chest with many manly giggles that came right from the butterflies in his stomach. Lucas entered the circle and looked at the chest onest time before he ced his hand on the handle and pulled it up. BAM!n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Ugh..." The lid of the chest automatically opened itself fully with pressure that made the lid hit the ground hard. Lucas had a jerk in his body with the sudden event that made his shoulder hurt from the movement. Lucas looked inside the chest and had a frown. It wasn''t what he expected in the least. The duo also came staggering toward the chest and looked inside. It was a rather surprising sight. The chest''s inside had two sections and in each section''s top, there were some texts written just like in the system. [Choose 1 skill out of the 7 choices each] [Choose one weapon out of the 5 choices each] The skill text was written on the left while the weapon part was on the right. Luas looked ahead of them and found many small rough paper sheets inside the box in both sections. He could see the name of every skill in his mind through the system with the description. The weapon part was the one that was the most surprising. The five weapons were not in a physical state but were shown on the same rough small paper sheets. "This is all too much... but I get the gist. The three of us can choose a weapon each from the right section and a skill each from the left one." "Yeah, got it. E, we got to read every skill in detail. There is only one chance." John said with seriousness. Often, having too many choices was also a poison. It makes the decision-making weak due to choosing one from the 7 present. Lucas read through every skill with fascination, he found these choices to his liking and was excitingly looking for a skill that suited him. ---- Perceptive Eyes Umon The skill makes the user have eyes that have high perception which will help in seeing through things that are not meant for the naked eyes to see. ---- Tamer Umon When activated, the Tamer skill unlocks a unique affinity ofmunication with animals. The user gains an innate understanding of their behavior, needs, and instincts, allowing for effectivemunication and the establishment of a deep bond. Through patient interaction, gentle persuasion, and a touch of magical influence, the Tamer can tame and gain the loyalty of creatures that would otherwise be hostile or untamed. ----- Smith Umon When activated, the Smith skill allows the user to harness the heat of the forge, wield hammers and tongs with precision, and shape molten metal into works of utility. With meticulous craftsmanship and a deep understanding of metallurgy gained through the skill, the user can transform raw ores and ingots into finely-crafted weapons and armor, imbuing them with both functionality and aesthetic appeal. Having Blueprints is a must for smith. ----- Wind Arrows Common When activated, the Wind Arrow skill grants the user an unparalleled control over the very air around them. The archer''s arrows be imbued with the power of the wind, making them faster, more agile, and highly precise. ----- zing breath Umon When activated, the zing Breath skill allows the user to harness the inner furnace within them, channeling raw fire energy into a concentrated stream of searing mes. The user''s breath bes a zing torrent, capable of melting steel, reducing adversaries to ash, and scorching the surrounding environment. ----- Earth Wall Umon When activated, the Earth Wall skill empowers the user to call upon the raw power of the Earth element. They can mold the surrounding terrain to create sturdy walls ofpacted soil, fortified with the strength and durability of the very earth itself. These walls can vary in size, height, and thickness, providing versatile options for defense. ------ Ranged Heal Umon When activated, the Ranged Heal skill allows the user to project healing energies over a distance, directing them toward injuredrades with precision and efficacy. ---- All the skills were described with enough information to make them connect heads and legs about them. "This..." John was at a loss for words. "This is too much information but from the skills, I think that E has only one option that suits herpletely." "The ''Ranged Heal'', right?" Es asked to which Lucas and John both nodded. E didn''t waste any more time as things were already veryplicated. She dugged her hand beyond the texts and pulled the healing skill she had the most affinity with. After she was done, the chest shimmered with white light, and a slot was gone. "Okay, Lucas, you can go ahead. I think I already know what to take which you won''t like anyway." "Which one is it?" "The ''Wind Arrows''." "Figures." Lucas went on and looked at the skills with concentration, out of the seven, two were gone leaving the five behind that he could choose from. "Before choosing, let me see the weapons too..." Lucas''s gaze shifted to the other section where the five weapons were located. ----- Lightning de Umon +2 strength A sword crackling with electrical energy, capable of delivering shocking strikes to enemies. It is made from the lightning nt type and a lightning embed wood branch. ----- Venomous Fangs +5 Mana A pair of daggers coated with a potent poison that can weaken and debilitate foes. ----- Frostbite Bow +4 Dexterity +1 Intelligence A bow crafted from ice-infused wood, releasing arrows of any material that freeze and slow down opponents. ----- Mana Staff +70 Mana A staff imbued with the power of increasing the mana of the user enabling the user to cast more skills than were meant. ----- Windrider Crossbow +3 Dexterity + Calming effect while holding the crossbow A crossbow engineered with wind enchantments allows for swift and urate shots, even in challenging conditions. ----- "Holy shit..." Lucas cussed openly which made John frown but he refrained from speaking. "Let me guess, you have decided to get the bow. I just got a crazy idea about it." Chapter 50 Skill selection complete Lucas exined his so-called ''brilliant'' idea that he was very excited about. The frost bow was something that could make any arrow, whatever the material coated with ice. He asked John what would happen if the arrow was made of literal wind. "Oh my god... that would be icicles if I am thinking right..." John was impressed with Lucas''s creative mind. "It may not happen as we are thinking but even if that''s the case, the bow will still be a great weapon and those wind arrows will be used in another bow that we can make with wood and nt fiber." "... I guess there is nothing to lose then, I am good with ranged weapons anyway." John said and picked the skill ''Wind Arrow'' from the left section which made that section shimmer white. He also took another small rough paper that had the name ''Frostbite Bow'' written on it. "And Aunt E, I think you should get that Mana staff. It will suit your abilities." E went to think for a minute and after looking at every weapon for a while. She picked the mana staff. "It''s your turn," John said after patting his shoulder. He went and satin the ground and asked the same from E. "What''s wrong? Still feeling dizzy?" "That and he is going to take a while so I might as well take some rest." John said and took a deep breath. E sat with him and they both looked at Lucas who was in his thoughts, not even caring about what they were doing at this point. ''Two of them are already gone. That leaves five... zing breath, I will keep it on probation... Earth wall... It''s a good skill.'' Lucas thought and he was not done as he continued, ''Smith... it seems good but I don''t think this will help in the short term when all of us need to survive... Tamer? Nah, it will take time and I have to level the skill to five too...'' He kept looking at every single skill and the description until his eyes fell on the single one that had some uncertainty around it but Lucas had a hidden feeling about it. "Perceptive eyes..." He said aloud without even wanting to. ---- Perceptive Eyes Umon The skill makes the user have eyes that have high perception which will help in seeing through things that are not meant for the naked eyes to see. ---- ''See through things that I a not supposed to... Why do I think that to be great?'' Lucas couldn''t understand why he thought that the skill seemed to be what was the best among all of them. The Earth wall was great but it was just defense and Lucas didn''t like being the defense. It was something of a primal instinct to take a weapon in hand and go fight head-on that made Lucas excited and helped him feel alive. The fire breath was good but Lucas could tell that it would take a great deal of mana for a few seconds that he didn''t have to spare. Without knowing, his hand went to the skill that he deemed was better than all that was still inside the chest. There was hesitance but Lucas just put them all in the back of his head and just picked it up. The paper was the same as before when he got the herbalism skill. Lucas did not waste any time and clicked on the option Yes that popped up after he had the skill in his hand. [Congrattions, you have learned the skill ''Perceptive eyes''!] Lucas was ready to be hit with much information again but this time around, there were none. He didn''t feel any abnormal thing and was perfectly fine both physically and mentally. He thought of using the skill and suddenly, there was a weird feeling in his eyes. He looked around and seemed to feel nothing special but it was different when he looked at John. There were some markers all around John''s body that were in very sensitive ces. From the top, it was at his eyes, the ears, the back of his head, and the neck from a certain angle. The areas right below the ribs, a certain point that made Lucas feel that the heart was located just there. Before he could look below, pain instilled itself in his eyes and he had to close them to make the irritation and feeling to pluck his eyes out stop. He deactivated the skill and looked at John only to see that he had turned to normal and there were no markings on his body to indicate something. All this time, John was looking at Lucas whose eyes had turned greenish with a glowing hue in the pupils. He didn''t speak and didn''t let E speak too after seeing that Lucas was not looking at him with focus, he was concentrating on him but was not at the same time. After Lucas looked around and thought of it some more time, barely 30 seconds. Realization struck him. All the markings he saw, he already knew that they were the sensitive points of the humans in general. "Your weaknesses! How could I not know it in an instant? Oh my god! This skill is too great!" "Shhh! Stop shouting, we will talk once you have taken a weapon too. Be fast." Lucas just nodded with a grin on his face, he turned around and picked a paper that he had his eyes on from the first time he saw it. ----- Lightning de Umon +2 strengthn/o/vel/b//in dot c//om A sword crackling with electrical energy, capable of delivering shocking strikes to enemies. It is made from the lightning nt type and a lightning embed wood branch. ----- The description was on the rough paper that was in his hand, Lucas was first happy and then confused as to how he should get the sworn in his hand. [Weapon detected Summon it? -Yes -No] Lucas clicked on the yes the instant it came in front of him. Soon the paper in his hand started shooming with brightness. Lucas tried to look but it was like staring at the sun, the only thing he could see was the brightness. Soon, he felt like the shape changed and he was no longer holding a paper in his hand. When the light dimmed until there was nothing left, Lucas could feel and see a 60 cm-long sword in his hand. He was already holding the hilt that was ck in color with some light yellow lightning design. His eyes went above when he saw the sword in his hand. There was no de as a scabbard was covering it. Lucas moved his hand and took the scabbard off revealing a yellowish sharp de of a good size. When Lucas looked at the de after keeping it straight near his face. He could see his own reflection which made him wonder how cleanly made it was with no cracks or chips. "Wow" John said while he observed the sword with fascination. It looked right out of a fantasy. Lucas ced the sword back in its scabbard as he knew in order to make the de get electric, he had to put some of his mana in it and the only way he knew is because when he pressed yes and got the sword. The information was already in his brain. He didn''t have any mana left after using it halfway with perceptive eyes. Suddenly, Lucas started feeling very good. It was as if he was having a massage. He looked back and saw that E was smiling while her hand had a ball of white light. Under his gaze, she threw the ball that went straight to his shoulder making him feel good again while also some itching inside the wound. "That was a good aim, Aunt E. I already feel great." "You were pretty close, young man. And these two balls of healing took 2 mana points each." E said with a bright smile on her face. "You both should get your weapons out of that paper. We will have to leave now." Lucas''s eyes fell on John who was looking at his hand, suddenly, the air started circling around his palm like a tornado. And after five seconds, it took the shape of an arrow. "Don''t use the bow right now, Uncle John. Let''s do it after we reach the shelter." "Alright, I will summon the weapon when we reach back." After a minute, the circle below them that was emitting white light became dim and was off the next second. The chest that was in the center of it became particles again and dissipated into thin air as they came in the first ce. The trio started walking toward the corridor they came from and found that the traps were still there, and were alreadypleted. After 30 minutes of walking straight while also looking for some traps here and there, they were outside the dungeon. Chapter 51 Troubles at home "Wait... can''t we get the mana stones from the ones in that trap?" When they got out, Lucas finally realized that they had just forgotten some free mana cores. "Naha, I won''t rmend it, sometimes, these are areas where a hidden trap gets off. You will go down, click on something that you shouldn''t, and many more spears will get out like before. It''s too risky." "OK" Lucas thought that it was a good reason and they started traveling back. On the way back, Lucas went on his usual routine. Finding and marking the nts in his mind that were not ready but were going to be better than the other ones. "Wow, these nts seem to be making quite the progress. I give them one or two weeks tops to growpletely." Lucas said while looking here and there. Some of the nts were truly great to look at. They were fascinating and exotic to look at but Lucas knew that after they get ready, they would look better. When they were halfway there, Lucas started feeling that something was off. He could hear some weird sounds from the front where the shelter was located. He looked at the duo and didn''t think that they noticed. Lucas for a brief moment activated his perceptive eyes and the world became different all together. A nt in the front that he was waiting topletely grow had a bluish aura around it. But he had to close them quickly so as to not waste his mana. "These eyes are truly good, but the range is what I can see normally. Uncle John, Aunt E... let''s go faster." They started moving even faster than before without breaking a sweat. The weather was pleasant too. After 5 minutes, Lucas and the others finally started hearing those noises quickly, as if a fight was going on. They went faster by literally running and when they finally saw the shelter, they panicked. The sight was oppressing, around the shelter there was a horde of creatures trying to get past the defenses but the defense was still erect without trouble. Under John''smand, Lucas and E crouched down and surveyed the situation. "They are around 20... what happened while we were gone and why didn''t they call?" Lucas asked the others with concern evident in his voice. The situation didn''t look good but they were still able to hear the voice of the trio. The entrance of the defense may have been open but if many try toe through it then the chances were high that they get stabbed with a highly concentrated poison that Lucas was very proud about. BAM! A st urred right at the entrance where five of the bulldog-sized creatures were trying to enter but were sent flying with the help of a fireball that hit them to a crisp. Lucas looked at the one that just came down falling and couldn''t help but feel happy about Sarah''s skill. "We have to move, Uncle John, Now is the time, use the weapon and the skill," Lucas said with urgency, the situation may have been handled right for now but it was still pretty dire. John didn''t say anything and took the paper out of his pocket, the paper started shining brightly which made some of the creatures look in their direction. After seeing the trio, five of the creatures came running toward them with their tongues out which made them wonder if there were hungry and so was the reason for the attack. "Uncle John! I am going first, attack from behind, and Aunt E, please heal me... I will need it." Lucas shouted and started running toward the creatures that were sprinting toward him. He removed the scabbard from the weapon and threw it on the ground. The sword shone when it came out. Lucas kept running until he got in contact with the first creature. === Wild Coyate level 2 Origin- PL Sandalian === Lucas had a grin on his face, for some reason, there was no fear in him as if the enemy was nothing. In his eyes, it was just a small mutt in numbers trying to kill and eat him just like Lucas will doter. All these fights were bing easy since Lucas leveled up and gained better skills. SHING! His sword made a sound while it moved horizontally speedily cutting the head of the mutt into two leaving the lower jaw intact. He got the EXP but shook it aside as the fight was not over. The next second, another was at the side of Lucas that was going to pounce at him yet Lucas didn''t give it any face and kicked it right in the stomach which made it fly and hit a tree hard. It made him realize that some days ago, he was the one being sent flying by others but now he was capable of it too. He had the strength but s he was still too inexperienced. CRUNCH! "Ugh!!" Lucas saw that his left hand was already been bitten and the sound of bones breaking came at the same time.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Before thinking much, he picked the Coyate by moving his hand up while it was still inside its mouth. He after taking the creature up jerked it around but it made him feel more pain so thatst thing was brutal but effective when he mmed the mutt right at the ground making it whimper and run away from him. "Get back here! Fucking bitch!" Lucas roared in anger, he looked at his hand that dripped blood continuously, all his skin was torn from all the movement. Even his bones could be seen if looked closely but Lucas strangely didn''t feel the pain to the extent that it looked like. Another one came right at him and was going to crunch at the leg but a cold icicle came flying and punctured the poor mutt''s brain making it be a corpse without any pain. Lucas looked back and saw John who was making yet another arrow that with the contact of the bow solidified into a somewhat arrow-looking design. Chapter 52 The gruesome yet unexpected fight 5 minutes had gone by and Lucas was just slicing the coyates with his right hand while E tried to heal his left from afar. Some of her heals hit him and some didn''t. Her aim wasn''t very good. John just kept hitting the enemies with the bow and wind-materialized arrows that had changed into icicles. Lucas didn''t let a single one get at the back where the two were located and let them give their valuable support. "Lucas!" A feminine voice came from inside the shelter''s defenses, the voice was filled with panic. "I might as well go all out." Luas looked at his weapon which didn''t shine even a little now. It was covered with the red blood of the animals that kept on attacking even after getting injured. Lucas first thought that they were mindless but he started to feel that these coyates were trying to survive as much as they were. These animals also needed food that they could get in abundance by killing Lucas''s group. But it was not possible, the coyates may have more numbers but Lucas and the others were skilled with weapons that they felt proficient with. At this point, Lucas just left his hand untreated, it had be a bit better from before as much of the skin came back after E''s few heals. The wound was still bleeding but it was bearable but not the bones that were hanging inside his skin cracked. Lucas didn''t mind as he had the assurance to get it healed like it was never there before from E. If he was back on his home, Lucas would have to get many screws ced in his bones in order to make them work, and that too would take half of the hand''s mobility. Lucas concentrated on his weapon while running and after thinking about putting his mana inside the sword. He felt something leave him and make a connection with the sword. The sword was at first normal but then it started sparking startling Lucas in the process. There wasn''t much show but Lucas wanted to be done with these creatures quickly as he didn''t have infinite mana. When his sword got in contact with the first wolf that was growling at him as if telling him to sit back. What a peculiar thing to see, an animal was telling them to stay away when they were inside the homes of the ones it is growling at. Lucas''s sword got in contact with the creature and even before it got near, an electric current formed a line between the coyate and the sword. He didn''t get to see the use of the current as the coyate had already died with one hit but he didn''t let it bother him. This time, Lucas was not going to make the same mistakes. he looked at every single one of the Coyate that wasing toward him in the circle. Lucas swung the sword horizontally and made a full circle in the process. It was not much of an attack and would have only worked in intimidating the enemy but Lucas''s weapon had a different n. The sword that came close to every Coyate that was going to pounce at Lucas in a group got electrocuted with a single strand of current connecting to their skin from the sword. They had a paralyzing effect, one even fell on the ground with its eyes still open as if its legs had no strength. John and Lucas took the opportunity of the few seconds and started finishing them off and only stopped when they got the EXP for the kill. For the most part, Lucas was feeling uneasiness, he could see these Coyates had fear in their eyes. But they still didn''t stop as if they had no choice. Lucas could see the determination in each of them so he didn''t pull back his attacks giving them a clean death in one strike to honor this battle. They may have attacked Lucas''s house and also hurt his people in the process. But every creature was stuck in this ce like them so it was either do or die. The consequences of the talks, the actions were a hundred times more rewarding or fatal at the same time and these creatures had unfortunately been in thetter.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om After a few more minutes, thend was covered with corpses and blood that had a strong smell. All the Coyates outside the shelter were killed which made them travel inside where the trio was fighting with four more of them. Sarah was at the back, she looked very dizzy as if her mana pool was all depleted. "Sarah!" Elle screamed which made her look for a second. E continued speaking, "Take this and finish the fight." E threw the mana staff in the air which was still vertical in order to help her catch it safely. Sarah caught it clumsily and felt invigorated at the first second of the touch. She did not waste time and made another fireball that materialized in her palm instantly. She threw it right at the one that was nearing them. Whimper Right at the contact, the st made them all hurt, Sarah did not wait for them to be ready when she threw another one and then another. "Hey Hey! Stop! You are going to damage the defenses and shelter!" Lucas eximed in panic, he was not worrying about the others but his and the other''s hard-earnedbor. It was good that the ropes were inside the shelter, the nk at the back, and the stone here and there. "Oh... sorry." Lucas went to the two Coyates that were still alive and sliced their heads in one clean move when they were whimpering with the fire burning them alive. Lucas finally sighed in relief when all of them were killed, he went on his knees and looked at his hand which was in very bad shape. The blood of the creatures and him were all mixed up and making a burning sensation on the wound. "Huff... You three have some exining to do." The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!