The forest was large, wet, and rich of plants. Its canopy was dominated by tall trees, probably about 10 meters with sparkling light dancing between the branches. It was a new experience for Noah, who never visited such uncared, wild forest before. Yes, there were natural parks in the countryside but the ones popular as tourist points were full of well cared footpaths, with a lot of people doing community jobs to take care of its environment, almost feeling artificial; inside Divel’s city forest he got a feeling of unattained wilderness, a new experience for him.

Branches drooped from many trees, and flowers clung from them, this alleviated the otherwise homogeneous forest atmosphere. Noah enjoyed this adventure in the company of Dominik and his two tamed rabbits but soon they were bound to encounter some wolves and he was getting a bit tense from the possibility of a sudden danger around the next corner.

A dozen meters passed before they heard a clamor of animal sounds, akin to howling, resonating through the air. “ Get ready because they are near, probably a full pack. We will try to avoid them and look for some lone beast. In the unforeseen chance that we are found out, stay behind me and get your pets to defend yourself. “.

They proceded with the usual formation, horned 1 and 2 were jumping between roots sprouting from the ground and bushes, Noah was right behind them with his large knife in hand and Dominik watched the rear.

They were still far away from the location of the howlings, it was possible to hear them only by standing still, Dominik said that the pack was moving away from their location. Suddenly noises originating from a nearby bush that horned 1 just passed and attracted Noah, it was then that he saw a mass of grey fur jumping from it out in the open.

Its head stood at around one meter with a muscular body, built like a killing machine; this beast grabbed horned 1 with his big maw, its teeth penetrating inside the small rabbit meat, this caused a damage of half the hp bar and a severe bleeding status, a sudden loss of a huge amount of health also caused stiffness and horned 1 was unable to move.

The big wolf looked straight to Noah, it had yellow eyes, light in color but deep and vibrating with intensity. He lost track of where he stood, this encounter too realistic for him to handle properly with lucidity, his surroundings palpitated with wild vegetable life and a ferocious beast, with huge claws as big as a human hand, stood in front of him. A shout woke him up, it was Dominik that brought him back to his senses; shaking his head to get some focus back in him, Noah squeezed harder his knife handle.

It was time to act, the poor little critter had fulfilled his role of bait and horned 2 was getting ready to attack. Noah approached the wolf that had dropped horned 1 in the meantime, before the big creature could land another strike to the downed pet, Noah was on it with horned 2 and both struck at the same moment.

-3 -20!

This beast was a level 4 and, after receiving two attacks, his HP bar only lost 1/10, Noah had to dodge right away because it didn’t allow a second strike and jumped at his throat right away.

It was a close one, taking a step back and pivoting on his left foot allowed Noah to completely sidestep the wolf lunge; finding himself behind the opponent was a nice chance and he struck down achieving a critical strike.

Probably Noah didn’t realize that he used the first move of Dominik’s sword dance, but finding himself with his sword lowered and seeing the wolf turning around with another lunge, made Noah think of the second transition and move of Unending Maelstrom: he pivoted another time and inscribed a full arc before striking down again, this time at the wolf head.

It was short work of the wolf once he grasped the right timing to dodge and strike back, allowing only a single hit that took ¼ of his health. Horned 2 was used as a distraction during the fight and his continuous strikes, in the end, amounted to a decent damage.

When the fight ended he noticed that horned 1 disappeared without leaving behind a body, apparently his severe bleeding status was fatal to it.

A voice came from behind his shoulders: “ As a first encounter it wasn’t bad, you did a good job fighting the wolf. Now you can practice skinning that carcass “.

Dominik wore a pleased expression while speaking, he did so a lot recently and Noah noticed it this time, he also liked his teacher. What he didn’t really like was skinning, it was a bit unpleasant. A wolf body is similar to a dog after all and with a bit of reluctance he began his job, it was necessary to learn the skill.

‘ if I go out in the wilds to chase some adventure it will be impossible without this skill…. Still … I have to do it ‘.

Two minutes later he got another failure and a bit of discomfort, having to go through this unpleasant process and obtaining nothing wasn’t nice at all.

“ Get ready, we have another few hours to get you used to walk in a forest. Let’s depart “. Dominik always spoke at the right time, urging him to go on was a nice way to change the mood. The instructor was able to see that little discomfort on his young companion, he experienced it too in the early days but knew all too well that indulging on something indispensable could turn out to be detrimental in the long run. A strong resolution was necessary to obtain huge rewards in this world, this was Dominik train of thoughts.

After 5 minutes of exploring the forest, they encountered another lone wolf, having found him before he could ambush them allowed an easier fight and Horned 2’s life was preserved. After this fight Noah got a level up and reached lvl3, there was another welcomed notification: Unending Maelstrom leveled up, he expected to see dodging(passive) increase in level too but, in contrast, it gained very little experience.

“Teacher, I don’t understand why dodging isn’t increasing in proficiency at all in these two fights, can Instructor enlighten me ? “. Noah, faced with this question, asked the person he relied on as a guide.

Dominik laughed loudly as soon as he heard the question, it was as if he forgot where they stood and the wolf pack that could be nearby.

“Pestilence, haven’t you noticed that you easily dodge every attack of the wolf? Well, you are way stronger than him. Your physical abilities alone are enough to fight him, you can’t gain any proficiency in any ability this easily at your current level. Harder situations are required “.

Noah now thought about his status screen, with the level up in Unending Maelstrom he got other bonus stats, even if he leveled up only 2 times, his stats were comparable to a much higher leveled character, how much higher he didn’t know yet, looking for some information in the forums was needed.

Now it was possible to see why Dominik’s trainee could enter the elites of each battalion. His foundation was solid and this gave him an advantage compared to other players, he could capitalize on this and look for ways to gain more passives that increased his stats. He was so eager about the hidden quest that allowed all of this to happen, he checked and there were two other days in the game before its completion, apparently following Dominik outside of the military camp was the way to complete it. Anticipating the next few days with the Head Instructor teachings and the coming adventure he began to skin another carcass, this time without showing discomfort. He was eager to challenge another wolf.