11 Hunting for real

Again Friday morning, one more school week passed. This one faster than the last. Finally, I will get new equipment. As I had only two classes today I arrived home early and had some free time. I exercised a little and finished with the grading all the tests. There were seven of the students who reached 80% mark, but there were also a lot of students who passed the test. That made me very happy, maybe all of them strived for the reward but most of the students passing was a lot better than usual.

During the lunch, Hope reminded me to buy her a helmet. I must confess that I almost forgot about that so I did the only thing I could.

, Don't worry Hope I didn't forget. What do you think that the two of us go tomorrow morning to the gaming shop and buy you one?"

, Really brother?" she asked excitedly

, Yes of course" i said,, You can't play right away but as soon as you can you would have the helmet anyway. I can also give you some tips about the game on the way."

, Yes, thank you brother, if you don't get up early tomorrow I will wake you up so don't worry."

I could only smile at that. She knew very well that I like to sleep a little longer during the weekend. I promised her so there are no excuses.

When I entered the game I quickly went to the chiefs house. I hope that the leather armor was waiting for me. Chief was at his home. The only time he was out, was when he had to deal with matters concerning the whole village. He was sitting outside his house on the only wooden chair I saw outside any house in the village. He was resting with his eyes closed, probably thinking about the village. When he heard me nearing him he opened his eyes and talked to me.

, Young man, you are here. Good your armor is ready. We managed to make you two pieces. One leather vest and one leather pants."

, Thank you chief, thank you very much."

, Haha don't mention it. You brought it back to the village so it should naturally be yours. Wait for me here I will bring them to you in a moment." he said and then entered his house.

Not much time passed and he exited his house with leather armor in his hands. He handed them to me and said

, What do you think, we did our best I hope it will suit you?"

I looked at the vest and the pants and could only thank the chief again. No matter the options and stats it had it didn't matter. In the first place, how many players had a armor at this time. Not just one but two pieces. And I even had a rare weapon. I looked at the pieces of armor again and then put them on. They were actually very well made, Especially the vest.

Rage Beast vest(boar) set equipment

Uncommon

Leather armor

Defense +15

Endurance +6

Set effect 2/2 Defense +5

Rage Beast pants(boar) set equipment

Uncommon

Leather armor

Defense +10

Endurance +4

Set effect 2/2 Defense +5

And it was actually a set. It may have only two pieces and bonus it gives is 5 defense but nonetheless, it was very useful. Thinking about something I asked the chief.

, Chief if I can bring you more meat for the village can you also make something else, shoes for example."

, Of course, whatever you bring from the wild we will take it. Making you the shoes is also possible. But the jerky is not ready yet just so you know."

, Not a problem chief I can wait for the jerky until I leave the village, but is there anything I can do for you?" I asked him hoping for a quest. If there is affinity in this game it isn't numerically stated. But I knew that I was close with the chief so I hoped for a quest. But the reality was cruel.

, Nothing for today but maybe there will be something in the future for you to help with."

As I finished everything with the chief I went my way. One prayer to the Perun and one ready lunch later I exited the village and went into the hills and mountains. I didn't even know what am I going to hunt in the first place, but I thought that the mountain was a good place to start. After all, I did found the Rage Beast in a similar place. Maybe there will be more of them. This time I went higher into the mountain then the first time a encountered my first monster.

I thought that the higher I go the better chance to encounter one. I was very careful about going through the forest. Last time I only had my staff, today I have an armor but that is no reason to be easygoing. What if a pack of monsters comes in front of me all of a sudden. Not even a metal armor will help me then. Since I saw that strange bear in the forest I thought that there were not that many other predators roaming through the forest. That is why decided to move to the higher grounds.

From time to time I could hear strange howling from the mountain. The higher I climbed the more discerning it was. I was right about the place but hearing those sounds somewhat made me reluctant to continue. But nothing ventured nothing gained. I was very careful about not alarming whatever was living there. And it was not one monster but many. At first, I thought that it was wolves but that familiar sound in their voices made me realize that all of them were Rage Beasts, this time in form of the wolves. By the sound of it, I would tell at least four or five of them.

I finally arrived at one clearing where I could see far away in the distance. There were no more trees anywhere in a radius of few kilometers after I exited the area with the trees. I didn't dare to proceed any further because I was afraid I would be spotted. On one wall of the mountain was a big hole. It was maybe three or four meters in height and a little bigger in width. How deep it was I couldn't be sure because I could only see the entrance. I could see two beasts lying down in front of the entrance. There were probably more of them inside. They were too far for me to use Appraisal on them.

I hid in the shadows of the trees and started to think about a plan to lure them over to me. If I showed myself in front of them I would do nothing but court death. I wasn't sure if I can deal with two of them so I needed to find the way to lure only one. Patience was crucial here. I only need one to separate themselves from the other and to come near me.

I waited almost an hour. One of them stood up, made a strange nasal sound and started going towards the forest where I was. Halfway it stopped and looked around and howled in a low voice. Don't go back I thought to myself, come a little closer. Like it heard me, it started moving again. Some 50 meters was left until it came into the forest. At first, I maybe thought to throw some rock at it, or branch of a tree, but then I realized that that could make it nervous and call for help. So I took one big branch and started to beat bushes around the trees. I hoped that this can work and that only this one will come to me. It worked somehow and it started approaching me.

I slowly started retreating from my spot back into the forest. This distance was still close to the rest of them so I didn't want to take any chances. I knew that it won't let me go if it saw me so I tried to hide from it for as long as possible. Half a kilometer later I finally revealed myself. It saw me and I saw it clearly now. It was a wolf, but a lot bigger than the regular one. It was a little smaller in height than the boar I encountered previously, but it was almost a meter longer.

When it saw me it bolted right at me. The speed was two times faster than the boars. As soon as I saw its speed I knew that I couldn't beat it. I immediately put ten unused stat points into agility. Was it enough I wondered. If it wasn't I must put more points into agility. I was standing right in front of a big oak tree, trying to make it collide with it. At the same time, I tried to avoid it, I used Appraisal on it. It worked on the first try.

Rage Beast (Wolf)

Level 8

5000 HP

It was certainly a lot stronger than the wild boar. First of all, it was more agile. Wolves were agile by nature so it didn't come as a surprise. It came right at me. It was faster than me for certain. Before I could put more points into agility I had to survive the first attack. It went for my throat right of the bat. By some pure miracle, or maybe my practice paid off I managed to thrust my staff right into its abdomen. That made it flinch a little but it still managed to swipe me with its claw. Luckily I had my new vest on. It did manage to take me a decent amount of HP, but thanks to the vest there were no wounds that could threaten me with bleeding. After the first exchange, I immediately put 10 more points in agility and 10 in endurance just to be safe.

The attacks of the wild boar were straightforward so I didn't need to pay that much attention to my health bar, but this one attacked from every side so I had to be on my toes all the time. I always tried to be a staff length away from it, and whenever it attacked I tried to avoid it. Its weak spot like with the most of the mammal animals was it's belly so I tried to hit him there as much as possible. Perun's blessing and my staff also helped a lot. Every tenth strike was I sure stun and thanks to the lightning damage from the blessing sometimes it had a second longer duration. And every time I stunned it I tried to heat the weak spot. Thanks to the Rage Beast set my health managed to hold down until the wolf finally fell dead on the ground. It gave me 4000 EXP which almost made me level 6. One more and I could make it. One more and that would be it for today. I wasn't sure if I can beat more of them today, but I knew that not one, but with two of them missing, will make the rest of the Rage Beasts restless. First, I had to take care of my wounds and eat my lunch. This fight had me on edge all the time and I was almost depleted of energy. Using the herbs would also improve my Wound Dressing skill, and I did have a bunch of them from all the previous days I collected them.

I needed time to recover myself so I rested for a whole hour. By that time I was both mentally and physically ready for my next fight. The only thing uncertain was will the second Rage Beast that was lying down by the hole come to me.