Jack felt triumphant as he carried his prize into town. Villagers nodded to him and his group in acknowledgement of their help in feeding the town. He couldn’t wait to get his cut of profits from the hunt. He was happy their long trek was almost over as he shifted his heavy load yet again. They were on their way to a butcher Hem regularly used who was a few streets off the main route. Once there, the boar would be skinned and butchered into cuts which would be sold to various businesses and people throughout the town. The hide would be turned into leather for use in crafting armor.

Jack was hoping to observe the tanning process so he could potentially make even more money. When he had skinned and butchered the rats, he had not received a skill for skinning the hide. He assumed this was because he did such a horrible job and mangled the skin. It had come apart in clumps and tears instead of a single usable hide. The lack of skill point could also be from some hidden minimum size requirement. No one wanted a one inch by two inch hide from a rat. Even child sized bracers would require a larger hide than that, adult sized tunics made from rats would be ridiculous. There would be more stitching than actual leather.

As they made their way into the butcher’s shop, Jack noticed that the only meat on display was smoked and cured. He supposed meat spoiled here on Nessag just as it did on his world.

They carried their load to the butcher’s counter as he approached their kill to inspect it. The butcher walked around them as they held the boar suspended between them, inspecting each damaged area of the hide. After grunting to himself throughout his inspection, he turned to Hem.

“I’ll give you 10 silver.” the butcher stated.

“Sounds good to me Tal.” Hem said as he smiled in anticipation of that evening’s ale.

The deal however did not sound good to Jack. He did the mental math and realized that Hem would receive 4 silver coins while the rest of them would receive 2. I made more money killing rats than I did on this boar, and I almost died! he thought in outrage. Hem hadn’t even bartered with the butcher, he had just accepted his first offer. Jack wanted to speak up, but he didn’t know why Hem refused to barter. Was it because it was a fair price or was he not aware he should be haggling.

Screw it, I don’t plan on hunting with Hem again anyways. “Excuse me Tal,” Jack began, interrupting the transaction. “This boar is worth a lot more than just 10 silver. The butcher down the street offered me 15 silver since the hide was in such pristine condition.”

Tal looked shocked while Hem just looked confused. Jack could tell Hem was trying to figure out when Jack had the time to get an offer from another butcher.

Tal immediately responded in outrage, “Who offered you 15 silvers, was it Jate? He knows I deal with Hem and he shouldn’t be butting in where he isn’t wanted.”

Grasping on the name Jack quickly confirmed his lie, “Yes, Jate said it was a good kill and worth at least 15 silvers.” Turning to Hem he said, “Lets go and get 15 silvers from Jate.”

Jack started back toward the shop entrance, forcing Leb to follow him or drop the boar. As they were about to exit the shop he heard Tal quickly exclaim, “Wait! You are right, I didn’t consider the quality of the hide, I will give you 16 silvers for the boar. Jate won’t give you that!”

At this, Jack stopped and looked at Hem for the decision to be made. Hem had overcome his confusion and was now smiling as he said joyfully, “16 silvers sounds even better!”

The transaction was made and Hem split the money between them. A notification popped up in Jack’s vision which surprised him.

Haggling is now level 2.

Instead of 2 silver coins for his trouble, Jack had now made 3 silver and 4 coppers. It only took a little bit of bartering. He did feel bad about lying, but if Hem would have just shopped around in the first place, he wouldn’t have needed to. By going to all of the butchers in town and asking them to compete against each other, they could have made even more money. Competition would always give you the best price.

Hem invited Jack to join them at the pub in celebration but he declined. While relaxing with a few ales did sound good to him, he only had 3 silver and 15 copper coins. He needed to save up for a real spear, his had low damage and low durability. Unfortunately, the spears with metal tips started at 6 silver and only got more expensive from there. He didn’t have time to save a silver a day toward a new spear, he needed it now.

Before leaving, he asked Tal about the process of turning the hide into usable leather. Tal explained that the hide would be salted and cured for hours. Once that was done, the hide would be soaked in water outside of the town for a full day and then scraped clean of any hair and fat. After this, it would be tanned by soaking it in a solution of water mixed with tree bark and leaves for several days. The last step was to stretch out the hide tight to dry in the sun. This would ensure that the leather was protected from rot and the elements as well as hardening it.

While it was very interesting, he didn’t have the time to do all of this. It seemed he would be buying his armor in the future, not making it.

After leaving, Jack leaned against the wall outside of the shop and finally spent the time to assign his two attribute points. He mentally willed the two points to go into Agility and then brought up his status.

Name: Jack Herring

Race: Human

Level: 3

Experience: 0/400

Health: 100/100

Strength: 7

Agility: 11

Vitality: 10

Intelligence: 12

Skills:

Inspect level 1

Haggle level 2

Fire Starting level 1

Butchering level 2

Cooking level 1

Woodworking level 1

Spears level 1

Boons:

Polyglot

Contestant

He had thought through all of the implications of his time problem and had decided on a course of action. The only way he could gain power quickly enough was to hunt often and by himself. Since he would have no one to assist in his fights, he needed to be quick enough to avoid taking hits.

If he added points to vitality, he wouldn’t do any more damage, only live for a few seconds longer. Jack did not want to experience the pain of being injured. He shuddered at the memory of being gored. If a 15 damage injury hurt that much, why would he want to be able to take more? It was best to avoid injury all together.

Placing his points in intelligence would be a large gamble. Since he didn’t have spells or mana, he would effectively be wasting the points until he did. He couldn’t take the chance of not finding magic and gimping himself. Hem had mentioned that magic was rare and he did not know where someone could learn it.

The last option was strength, but that was almost as bad as vitality. Sure, he would be able to do more damage to his enemy with each thrust, but he would die quickly if he was not able to dodge.

Things would be different if he had gold. If he had the money, he could buy heavy mail armor and would be almost invincible. He could shrug off every hit like it didn’t happen and his levels would quickly rise. Much like the video games in Jack's world, it seemed Nessag was pay to win.

Jack tested out his newfound speed and coordination by quickly dashing back and forth. He feigned left and rolled forward without losing his hold on the spear. A smile rose to his face as he appreciated his new body. He felt like a gymnast and he only had 11 agility. Imagine what I could do with 20!

After he got used to his new speed and coordination, he checked the sun. It was only a little after mid-day. Jack decided he had time for a solo hunt, one he hoped he would not regret.

The stag lazily grazed on the weeds below, oblivious to the danger from above. It had taken Jack a long time to get in this position, ready to strike. He had slowly and carefully walked through the woods searching for any dangerous beasts, ready to run and hide. He had come upon a break in the woods, and saw a herd of deer grazing in the distance. Jack had frozen immediately upon spotting the herd and observed them. He then realized that they were making their way in his direction. The animal trail he had been following must have been used often by them as it was easier to navigate than going through the brambles and bushes.

He had desperately searched around himself for some semblance of a plan. As he had glanced upwards, he had realized there was a perfect branch overhanging the animal trail the herd was heading toward. His heart had gone wild and his anxiety had risen as he tried to find the perfect balance of quickly climbing the tree and moving slowly to remain unobserved. He only had one shot at this, he did not think he had enough time to find any other game that day.

Jack was not sure if the herd would run or attack, either way he needed to do as much damage as he could in his first strike. He inspected the herd and saw that the female deer were either level 3 or 4 and the lone stag was level 6. The massive rack of antlers on the stag’s head would turn him into a fierce foe. As it was the most likely to attack, Jack decided to focus on the largest threat first.

Now! he thought, as he jumped from the overhanging branch with both hands above his head and his spear held high. He gripped the spear tightly and thrust down as hard as he could. *Thwack* The spear lodged deep within the stag as Jack’s weight tackled the deer to the ground. He quickly repositioned himself while it was stunned so it could not fight back properly. It was bucking its legs and trying to goar him with its antlers, but he had leverage. Jack realized that the opportunity may not last forever and grasped for his knife. He rained down stab after stab upon the buck’s neck in his frenzy, stopping only after he realized the stag no longer struggled.

Glancing up to spot the others, he found that he was alone with his kill. The others had run off when he had savaged the stag. He checked his notifications to see how much experience he had gained.

You have dealt a crippling blow to a Stag Elder for 35 piercing damage.

You have dealt 6 piercing damage to a Stag Elder.

You have dealt 6 piercing damage to a Stag Elder.

You have dealt 5 piercing damage to a Stag Elder.

...

You have dealt 5 piercing damage to a Stag Elder.

A Stag Elder has died.

You receive 320 experience.

Spears is now level 2.

Sweet! Jack thought, ecstatic about the large amount of experience he had gained. I am over three fourths of the way through level 3 already! He awkwardly danced around the corpse in celebration, agility no help with his horrible dancing skills.

After coming down from his high, he opened his pack and brought out his rope. I knew I would need this! he thought, feeling vindicated with his purchase. Unfortunately, the stag was too heavy for him to carry by himself. He would need to drag it back to the village and hope the hide was not overly damaged. It had only a single large hole along the back of the buck, the knife stabs had been in the neck. With the large hide in such great condition, he hoped to get as much as he did with the much heavier boar. He looped the rope around the stag’s antlers and tied it securely. After grabbing his stuff and with one last look around, he set off for town.

“I’ll give you 9 silver and 5 copper, that is my final offer,” said the latest butcher Jack had visited. He had dragged the stag up and down the street from shop to shop looking for the best price. Staring eyes had once again followed him on his journey through town, this time for the large buck dragging behind him instead of his garish clothes. The last butcher he had visited had only offered 9 silver, so he gladly parted from his kill. He had told each butcher he had visited how much the last had offered him in an effort to play them off eachother. Jack estimated he made an extra 3 silver by haggling with the butchers. He would need that extra silver.

He had originally wanted to go deep into crafting, learning to make his own weapons and armor to save money, but he did not have the time. All of his available time needed to be spent killing and leveling up. He would need to sell his loot and buy what he needed. While his frugal personality still called him to cook his own food, he didn’t have time. The two or three hours he would spend finding food, making the kill, setting up a campfire, butchering his kill, and then cooking it were too long. Besides, his food tasted like crap and he wanted stew. However, he was still going to sleep in the cellar for free. There was no way he was wasting 10 coppers to sleep in a crappy bed in an inn.

With 13 silver weighing down his purse, he decided it was time to buy a new spear. Unlike butchers, there was only one blacksmith in town. When he had gone through the general stores, he had seen several old rusty weapons for sale, but the best weapons were sold by the blacksmiths themselves. He was sure in a larger town, they would have high end weapon shops, but in a village like this, he had to go to the source.

As Jack approached the blacksmith’s store, the sound of hammering became louder. A young man hammered a horse’s shoe back into shape outside of the shop. That must be the apprentice, he thought as he went indoors.

“What can I do for you Jack?” said the blacksmith. Jack paused. It still threw him off when everyone knew his name. The ability to inspect people was convenient, but it was still strange to him.

“I need a new spear, do you have anything available for sale?” he asked.

“I have three, a simple spear with an iron tip, a barbed spear, and a banded reinforced spear.”

“Can you show me the spears?” he asked.

“Follow me to the storage room.”

Once he was shown where the spears were kept, he inspected each of them.

Iron-tipped Wooden Spear

Damage 6

Durability 50/50

Strength required: 7

Barbed Wooden Spear

Damage 6

Durability 50/50

Strength required: 7

Effect: Causes bleeding damage when removed.

Banded Reinforced Iron Spear

Damage 13

Durability 200/200

Strength required: 12

Agility reduced by 1

“How much for the Barbed Wooden Spear?” Jack asked.

“11 silver.”

“What! I can buy a used spear for 6 silver!” he responded in mock outrage. “How about 8 silver?”

“Go buy the 6 silver spear then, and see how that works. This spear is 11 silver.”

Despite Jack’s best efforts to haggle, he was eventually forced to hand over the 11 silver. Monopolies suck! he complained as he parted with his precious coin.

The blacksmith had even refused to buy his self-made spear for a single copper. He had called it a poor job made with substandard materials. It had hurt to have his hard work insulted like that, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. There was a reason he bought the Barbed Wooden Spear, and didn’t continue using his own.

Without devoting large amounts of time to crafting himself, he could never match the quality and skill of others who had devoted their life to it.

His stomach rumbled in protest at its lack of food and he promised it stew. It was too late to do anything but eat tonight, tomorrow however the grind would begin.

I will level fast or die trying.