Jack was awakened by the squeal of the cellar door opening and Islar’s soft footsteps descending into the room. His night had not been as pleasant as he had imagined it would be. Sure, he had been safe from large predators, but that did not mean it was comfortable. He stretched his aching back out to work out his sore muscles. Not only did the uncomfortable sleeping position prevent him from quickly falling asleep, but he had awakened multiple times throughout the night as well. Waking up by a rat biting your fingers or toes was not a pleasant feeling. Luckily, within an hour his wounds had healed leaving only the blood on his skin to wipe off.

He had reached level two in the night and had been given a free attribute point to spend. Rather than assign it quickly and potentially make a foolish choice, he needed more time to familiarize himself with his options and his fighting style. He didn’t see any time limit on how long he could wait to assign his point, so he decided to wait until he was sure of his choice. He checked his status again to see how far he had to go until the next level.

Name: Jack Herring

Race: Human

Level: 2

Experience: 140/200

Health: 98/100

Strength: 7

Agility: 9

Vitality: 10

Intelligence: 12

Skills:

Inspect level 1

Boons:

Polyglot

Contestant

Available Attribute Points: 1

Only 40 more experience to go! Jack thought, as he dismissed his status and made his way upstairs.

“How many rats have you managed to kill for me?” Islar asked.

Proudly presenting the pile to her when they reached the bottom step, Jack showed her his trophies. “Eleven.”

Clearly shocked at the amount he had killed, she was stunned to silence. Eventually she gathered her wits and stated with resignation, “Well, a deal is a deal, yes it is. 5 coppers per rat minus the 1 copper for your meal is…” she paused while she did the math, “2 silver and 14 copper coins.” she counted them out slowly as she handed him the coins from her purse.

“If you would like, I could dispose of the corpses for another 2 copper,” Jack offered.

After a short deliberation, she agreed and he was 2 coins richer. Jack had spent a while thinking of ways to save money during the night and had found another way to pinch his pennies. Why should he pay for others to kill and cook his food when he already had meat here in front of him. Sure, it would probably taste awful, but it would still be edible and would save him the cost of at least one meal or more.

“I will be back in a short while, I need to drink some water and purchase some supplies,” he said as he headed up the stairs. His mouth was dry and he had been thirsty for hours.

He headed outside of town to the stream to get his fill of water. He refused to pay for water in the inn. I can’t believe people are so lazy, they would waste a copper when water is free from any stream! he ranted. He knew he was a cheapskate, but he didn’t see it as an insult, he chose to look at it as a badge of honor. Once he was full to the brim, he headed to the general store with his newly earned coins in hand. Literally. He had to carry the coins in his hand because he had no pockets or anything else to carry them in. Yet another item he needed to purchase.

When he wasn’t being bitten by rats, Jack had spent the night deciding what his most essential purchases would be. He needed clothes, a pack, a flint and steel set to start fires, a sharp dagger, and a water bladder. With the dagger, he could butcher his kills and cook them over a fire which would save him tremendous amounts of money over the long run. He could also whittle a spear from a long branch in the nearby woods instead of buying a weapon. He was mostly using his borrowed shovel as a spear anyways.

Jack finally arrived at the store and stepped inside.

Cara greeted him with a frown on her face, “Do you have any coin today?”

With a large smile on his face he said, “Yes I do.” Jack then opened his hands, showing her his coins. An instant smile appeared on her face as she asked what she could help him with. As he recited his list to her, she tried to ‘up-sale’ him on multiple objects. He had declined each time and had chosen the cheapest option available. What then followed was a long round of haggling.

Jack had never haggled in his previous life. In the United States, the only thing you generally haggled over was your vehicle and house. Because of this, almost no Americans were good at haggling. Ironically, those two items were also the most expensive items they would purchase in their life. He had seen people spend hours cutting coupons to save a few dollars, yet take the first offer when selling their house. They easily could have saved thousands of dollars or more with a little bit of haggling, but their inexperience and fear of the buyer walking away prevented them. However, just because Jack knew he needed to haggle didn’t mean he was any good at it.

He spent the morning trying to find any flaw he could use as an excuse to bring the price down. He had even bluffed walking out of the store. Luckily, she had called him back with a counter-offer. He had sighed in relief and wiped his sweating brow. He had almost wasted the morning away. Finally, after the haggling was over, she presented the cost back to him to make sure he agreed on the final price.

“I will sell you the pack for 3 copper, tunic for 2 copper, trousers for 2 copper, belt for 1 copper, leather boots for 5 copper, water bladder for 2 copper, a coil of rope for 1 copper, flint, steel, and tinder box for 8 copper, and the dagger for 1 and a half silver. That is 2 silver and 14 copper total.”

You have learned the skill: Haggle

Surprised by the new skill, he paused and dismissed the message. Hopefully he would have an easier time haggling in the future. After handing over the coins, he was only left with 2 coppers. He put them away in his new coin purse which came attached to the belt and he loaded his purchases in his pack.

With his supplies now in hand, he made his way back to Islar’s shop and his cache of rats. Jack waved to Islar as he headed back downstairs in the cellar. It was finally time to change his clothes and load up his pack.

He admired his new clothes in the dim lantern light as he took them out and laid them aside. His woolen tunic and trousers were frayed at parts and the brown dye was faded from the sun. There had been some very expensive clothes dyed with rich deep colors at the shop which looked new, but Jack didn’t care how he looked. The used crappy clothes he had purchased offered the same protection as the much more expensive ones, only the durability was less. He had seen leather jerkins and studded armor at another shop the day before, but that was still out of his price range. He had even seen some enchanted jewelry that would increase his attributes, but it was so expensive, he doubted anyone in this small village could afford it. He finished dressing and added the leather sheath that came with his dagger to his belt. It was now time to transport his rats out of town. While it would be convenient for him to cook them on the side of the road, he would be kicked out of town and fined.

He used his old hospital gown as a makeshift garbage bag and loaded it up with bloody rats. The last thing he wanted was to spend forever cleaning his new pack and clothes, no matter how dingy they were. There was a difference between frayed cloth and bloody cloth.

Nodding to Islar on the way out, he headed toward the village gate. Along the way he noticed that he no longer received long stares and scowls from the populace. Jack hadn’t wanted to purchase clothes at first. They did nothing to help him save money or survive. He realized however that his strange clothes may have been what prevented him from getting paid work in the first place. People in general were comfortable with what was known and familiar, things that are different were generally to be avoided.

As Jack reached the streambed, he filled his water bladder and set off upstream from the village. He didn’t know if there were any local ordinances against fires, but he would rather be safe than sorry. He wanted to put a few trees in between him and the village for some privacy. Once he found a good spot to set up, he gathered small sticks, branches, and leaves to use as tinder to start his fire. Luckily it had not rained recently and everything was dry.

Striking flint against steel, Jack blew on the sparks that hit the tinder and hoped for a flame to catch. Eventually, his patience had paid off and he built up his fire with the surrounding dead wood.

You have learned the skill: Fire Starting

Jack was gaining skills left and right now. How come I didn’t gain any skills from killing rats in the cellar last night? he thought. He assumed he did not receive a skill because he was using the tool improperly. A shovel was used for digging after all, not for killing. He wondered if he dug a hole, would he get the digging skill. He had mainly been using the shovel as a spear, and a shovel was definitely not a spear. Hopefully when he used an actual spear in combat, he would be rewarded with the skill. While the fire was building in heat, he retrieved his dagger from its sheath and inspected it once again.

Rusty Iron Dagger

Damage 5

Durability 57/62

Strength Required: 3

Jack pulled out the dead rats from his pack and began to butcher them with his dagger. After he finished his poor job of butchering the first rat and had several small pieces of meat, he received another skill.

You have learned the skill: Butchering

Over the next few hours, he slowly worked his way through the other rats, getting better after every rat he butchered. On the 10th rat, he was presented with a skill up.

Butchering is now level 2.

Jack didn’t know if being level 2 in butchering made skinning the last rat easier, or if he had just gotten better at it after lots of practice, however the result was the same. Not only did he skin and butcher the eleventh rat in a quarter of the time it took him on his first, but he was left with larger chunks of meat as well.

He speared the meat with a whittled branch and slowly turned it over the fire.

After a while of roasting, two of the pieces caught fire and he was forced to quickly blow out the flame. With his now burned meat, he decided the rest was cooked as well and he lifted the branch further away from the fire.

You have learned the skill: Cooking

Good, maybe next time my meat won’t come out burned, he thought. After blowing on his meal to cool it off, Jack hesitantly tried his meal. After chewing for a few moments, he decided it definitely wasn’t good, but he believed he could finish it. It was dry, tough and mostly tasted of char, but it was free!

He then forced himself to eat the rest of the pound of over-cooked rat meat. He may not like the taste, but this may be all he eats today.

Now stuffed with food, he searched the nearby forest floor for a perfect branch to whittle into a spear. He threw away many weak or rotten branches until he found the perfect specimen, six feet long. Jack whittled all of the bark away, smoothed the rough edges, and sharpened the end into a point. As he was hoping, once he finished his last stroke and admired the spear, a new window appeared.

You have learned the skill: Woodworking

Crudely Fashioned Wooden Spear

Damage 4

Durability 15/15

Strength required: 5

The spear he made had slightly less damage than the dagger and a much lower durability, however it had one thing the dagger did not, reach. Sure, his dagger would do more damage to his prey with a solid strike, but the entire time he was attacking, he would be in reach and also taking damage. The spear however would keep him safe at a distance while he struck his foe. At least, that was the idea.

He gathered dry leaves for his tinderbox and then cleaned up his impromptu campsite before leaving. With his new spear in tow, he headed back into the village to find more work to do. He had seen groups of hunters celebrating their kills in the pub the day before and would like to join them for their next hunt. He had never hunted animals before and had no real idea of how to use a spear. Who knew how dangerous the wild game was, where to find it, or what to do with it once he killed it.

The lack of reaction from the patrons brought a smile to Jack’s face as he entered the pub again. The day before, as soon as he had entered, all conversation had stopped while they stared at the odd sight.

He made his way toward a group of three hunters who looked more approachable than the others. It was still early in the day, but it had taken him longer than he had wished to finish his chores. As he approached the table, the conversation finally died off as he now had their attention.

“Hello, do you have room in your group for me to join you tomorrow hunting?” Jack hesitantly asked.

The two younger men looked towards the older to make the decision and it was obvious who the group leader was. Jack inspected the leader to find out his name and level.

Name: Hem Mattor

Race: Human

Level: 12

Health: 210/210

Hem meanwhile seemed to have inspected him as well. “Well Jack, do you know anything about hunting, or how to use that spear you have?”

“I only have a little experience with hunting,” Just rats, he thinks, but they don’t need to know that, “but I promise I am a hard worker and will follow orders.”

Hem grunted his approval and gave me his answer, “Well it is your lucky day, we have been down a man for two hunts and need a replacement. The profit is split between us with me receiving two shares as the leader and everyone else receiving one. If you want to join us, meet us at the village gate at first light.”

Nodding his head in excitement he said, “Thank you Hem, I will be there and you won’t regret it.”

“See that I don’t,” Hem harrumphed as he resumed his conversation with his fellows.