Ch 11. Mud-men bounties

Taking a short break at the pond to survey our surrounding, we looked out across the grass to find any roaming mud-men. Thankfully, unlike the slimes hiding in this pond here, mud-men were not ambush predators and instead preferred to roam openly. 

The wind and light rain on the grass made things difficult to spot, but far off in the distance we could see the bending of grass that looked more like wading of an animal than that the rhythmic patterns made by the blowing of wind on the field. 

We set off marching in that direction, Orion drawing his bow and nocking it while taking a position next to me. We came up, stopping perhaps only 50 meters away, now able to see the head poking out from the tall grass. The mud-man stood barely four foot, coming up to our waist in height, its mud body completely featureless except for the dull earth colored core positioned squarely on its face, looking a bit like a cyclops' eye.

When we were ready, Orion drew, aimed, and fired one shot. Hitting it squarely in the chest and drawing its attention. The mud-man ambled towards us through the grass, slowly at first, then picking up speed over time until Art stopped its momentum with a spear through the gut. I walked up and stabbed it in the 'eye', spearing the core on my blade as it struggled briefly to free itself. I pried the core out with my knife before handing it off. We'd split the earnings evenly at the end. 

"Strong little bugger", Art remarked. He seemed to be having some difficult in stopping it when it charged us. They were essentially a wall of mud running at us, so the amount of force contained in their charge was no doubt substantial, requiring him to fully brace for the impact. We agreed with him while scanning the area for more prey, zoning in on the same area we saw the first before finding three mud-men in close proximity. 

We used the same strategy as before, with Orion trying to pull just one with his arrow, but the other mud-men nearby seemed to have noticed and began stumbling in our direction before morphing into a run. 

"Art you take the left one, Sebast take the right one, I'll take center." I said while drawing my sword in one hand. 

The archers put away their bows and took up position behind us, holding spears. 

I positioned myself between the group and the first mud-man, positioning my sword towards its eye as it charged closer. The charging wall of mud ran straight into the point, instantly killing the beast but bowling my arm with a great force. Had I not enhanced my strength I might have dropped my sword just now and been plowed over, but with the system's enhancements I held firm as the the sword edge cut through the top of the mud-man's clay-like head while momentum carried it forward. 

The two brothers intercepted the charge of the other two beasts, catching them in the chest with braced spears while the two archers in the back approached with spears and struck the eye. This was the basic strategy we had adapted from our experience with the slimes, and it seemed to be working out well. 

I wiped the mud from my sword with a rag, before taking out my mirror. Noticing that I had picked up the 'swordsman' class that I wanted, swiping over to select it in favor of 'fighter'. 

Adventurer lvl 2, Fighter lvl 2, Alchemist, lvl 1, Commoner lvl 1, Swordsman lvl 1, Spearman lvl 1

Equiped Skills: Physical Boost lvl 1, Sword Mastery lvl 1

It seemed that each class had a level status seperate to my own level, these class levels didn't give me any benefit as far as I could tell aside from a skill point. Given that I was getting points, it might be the case that skills didn't enhance on their own, or perhaps leveling it that way was exceptionally difficult. 

Given the way this system worked, it seemed like collecting a variety of different classes and leveling them more or less equally had some benefit. Given that I was planning to make the sword my primary weapon, I invested my two points into sword mastery. 

Our short break over, we started our process again. Scouting the area, pulling individuals over to us and dispatching them as a unit. Seeing the others begin to grow tired, I proposed switching over to a new system where I would take care of any individuals alone and they step in only when additional mud-men came at us. 

The others were concerned I was being too reckless, but this was a good opportunity for me to practice and gain experience. 

Going based on instinct, I now stood with my body pointing towards the charging foe, making my exposed area as small a target as possible. Once contact was made I stepped to the side as the mud-man's own momentum carried the blade through its head and out the other side. The sword somehow moving more naturally in my hand.

Killing a few more before coming to a clearing a few hundred meters off with something that was clearly not mud-men. We had a slight vantage point on the sloping plain, allowing us to see. 

Small grey rats, bipedal, naked, about the size of a dog with a hunched posture. These were muck rats, no doubt about it. Something that Cal wanted me to look for and bring him their gall-bladders. Not to mention their pelts were good money, warm and good insulation while being harder and tougher than regular leather. There were a dozen or more rooting around in the mud, while one stood at attention its nose in the air sniffing occasionally as it looked around.