Zero unwrapped the bandage on his head after waking up. His injury has healed completely in the last ten days, leaving only a small tender scar on the back of his head. He closed his eyes briefly, and as he opened them, his Status Profile filled his vision. He didn't have to say the words out loud now.

Basic Information Attributes Status Information Class Name Zero STR 11 HP 360/360(+.0044/sec) Name Level Level 4 AGI 10 MP 140/140(+.0033/sec) none n/a Age 22 VIT 13(+1) SP 21/42(-.0002/sec) Zero Variable* 1* Sex Male INT 18 PHY ATK 16-18 Race Human DEX 10 PHY DEF 11 Condition Fatigued INS 16 MAG ATK 24-26 Experience 423/3000 MAG DEF 14 Weight Limit 2/41 kg

10 days of mind-numbing labor and suffering, he sighed inwardly. All for a single point of Vitality? WORST. SYSTEM. EVER.

-- 9 days prior --

Dorin took a certain gleeful delight in tormenting, or in his words, 'training' the young man. With the old man throwing rocks at him as he climbed towards an uneven, uphill terrain carrying two full buckets of water, it was all but guaranteed that he would spill more than half of what he fetched. Zero opted to leave each bucket half-full on his trips, thus reducing the weight and allowing him a certain flexibility to dodge the old man's projectiles. It also helped lessen the spillage whenever Dorin scored a direct hit on the buckets themselves. However, this method more than tripled number of return trips needed for him to refill the water barrels. By the time Zero finished filling the last barrel, he had already collapsed to ground in a panting heap, the mid-morning sun peering through a gap in the trees. The effort had cost him most of the morning. Dorin had already finished reheating the leftover stew from last night and was well into his second bowl by the time Zero recovered enough strength to crawl to the cookpot. There was barely enough food for one bowl. Zero scowled at the old man, to which Dorin responded with a toothy grin.

"Eat up boy, time's a-wasting," he said impishly. Zero didn't bother replying as he bent over his lukewarm breakfast.

--

Dorin spent the rest of the morning inspecting the pelts Zero tanned the day before. He tested the tautness of the hide, the style that Zero used to stretch the pelts between the wooden poles, as well as the cleaning and tanning of the hides themselves.

"Trash. Even more trash. Belongs to the dump heap. Waste of a good hide. Barely passable on closer inspection," the old man grunted dismissively as he criticized Zero's handiwork.

Zero glowered silently as the old man stripped the poles down and bundled the pelts on top of the flat rock they use as a worktable. Dorin snatched a glance at Zero and snorted at the expression on his face.

"What are you so mad about when I'm the one salvaging the hash you made of things? Here," the old man tossed his belt knife together with its sheath to Zero. "You go check the snares and make sure you reset them, otherwise you'll be sleeping on an empty stomach for the next two days. Now stop pouting like a pretty maid and go get our lunch," he ordered, waving Zero away with one hand.

Zero stomped towards the location of the nearest snare, muttering obscenities under his breath.

--

Zero tightened his belt strap as he exited the nearby thicket. He felt much better after taking a dump in the woods. Could've used moist towelettes thought, he thought to himself. Dry leaves do not make for a smooth wipe.

He quickly located the animal trail where they retrieved one of the rabbits yesterday, and he quickened his steps to find out if the snare caught anything of note. To his luck there was a catch, however... Holy fuck, Zero thought as he stared in horror at scene in front of him. A bleeding rabbit was wrapped in the tightly woven string of the snare. Zero must have knotted it incorrectly the day before. Instead of a clean catch, the rabbit instead lay in a dirty patch a few feet from the wooden anchor of the snare. Its fur was matted with blood from where the string bit deeply into its skin, and one of its legs was hanging at an awkward angle. The rabbit must have broken the leg some time during its struggle. The creature was breathing raggedly, and as Zero stared in numbly at the rabbit, it wrestled weakly against its bindings, only causing the string to bite even deeper, dripping more blood onto the stained earth. It broke Zero's trance and he hurried to the wounded creature, cradling it in his hands.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Zero mumbled to the rabbit. This is my fault, he admitted to himself. His carelessness caused an innocent creature prolonged and undue suffering. His shaking hand softly patted the rabbit's head, and almost tenderly, he snapped its neck. His tears fell on the rabbit's unmoving body as his head rang with several notifications.

You have dealt 18 damage Forest rabbit killed! 1 experience gained

Zero wiped his face and tied the rabbit to his his belt. He repaired the broken snare and reset it further down the trail. He didn't know if the smell of blood would drive away other game from the area. He couldn't make himself care one way or the other. One rabbit clutched in his hand, he moved towards the location of the other traps. Kill or be killed, he thought to himself. God is this hard.

The old man had set several snares in a wide perimeter around the hut, while the hut itself sat atop a small, sparsely wooded hill. Zero already recognized the way the terrain sloped and was easily able to point towards the general direction of the hut itself, relative to his position. The impossibly high Alekhandres mountain range looming above the trees helped him map his movement as he circled towards his destination. A few minutes later he found the second snare. It was empty, untouched. The third and fourth snares were empty as well even though they caught rabbits there yesterday. The fifth snare yielded a scrawny squirrel while he finally lucked out and found another rabbit, this one properly caught, on the sixth snare. Thank you for the food, he prayed to the rabbit in gratitude. He snapped its neck quickly and with no fuss as he walked towards the seventh snare. He climbed over a slight dip in the ground and felt himself grow cold at the sight. The place was completely devastated. The grass was ripped from its roots and lay strewn about, together with the dark soil that covered everything. Dried bloodstains splotched on the ground and a few pieces of splintered wood and snapped string were all that remained of his snare. A boar? A wolf? A lion? Zero thought, trying to supress his panic. The place was so ravaged I wonder none of us heard the racket. He looked towards the location of the hut. This place is only a mere fifteen-minute walk away from the hut. I have to report this to the old man. Zero's heart pounded in his eardrums as fear gave his feet wings. His sore muscles cramped and bright spots of pain stabbed into his leg and lungs, but he didn't stop running until he climbed the small hill and stumbled in front of the cookfire.

You are fatigued. SP cost increased by 50% for all actions. Slowed by 25% for all actions. 600 second duration. Resting speeds up duration by 50%.

"What's gotten into you now boy?" Dorin accosted him. The old man frowned at Zero as he straightened from his inspection of the rabbit and deer pelts, now reaffixed onto the wood poles.

"One of the snares...,"Zero gasped. "Broken... ground tossed about... wild animal... maybe dangerous... thought you should know."

The old man's blue eyes narrowed. He handed Zero a filled bucket and the young man greatfully guzzled the cool, fresh water. He choked and coughed as he inhaled some of the water but he didn't stop drinking, finishing the remainder of the bucket by splashing it over himself. Zero sat on the log bench and let the water soak into his clothes. His body cooled from the exertion, and he shivered, either from the sudden chill or the memory of the bloody ground from the ruined game trail. It's just a wild animal, right? He thought to himself, remembering the creatures he encountered from the dam. A boar is dangerous enough, but who's to say that even more lethal creatures can't exist in this fucking fantasy world? His teeth chattered but steeled himself with stubborn resolve. I CANT' DIE HERE, he repeated to himself. His gaze fell at the bundle of fur at his feet, at the still-bloody carcass of the rabbit he caught that morning. I will use THAT skill if I need to. I have to survive. I am no easy prey. His body still shivered, but Zero discovered that his irrational panic has faded into a lesser, more manageable fear. Zero snapped out of his reverie at the sight of the old man emerging from the hut with his bow, and strangely enough, a sword strapped at his side.

"I'm going to check the site, see if I can find out what manner of creature we're dealing with," Dorin announced. "The seventh snare you said? that's just a few feet near the mud flats." His hand shot out and pointed to the day's catch.

"If you weren't such an easily scared boy you could've checked the rest of the snares to add more to our lunch," the old man scolded. "As it is make sure to skin, gut and cook this catch properly; food better be ready when I get back."

"You're leaving me alone here?" Zero uttered in disbelief. "What if that creature goes here instead? How am I supposed to protect myself? Or the hut and the hides?" he added as an afterthought.

"Tsk," Dorin grunted. He opened his belt pouch and tossed several short fragments of clear crystal to Zero, who caught them awkwardly. "Boomblind crystals. Snap them in two, then throw at whatever scary beast catches your fancy and run in the other direction. It makes a loud bang and a blinding flash; it should be enough of a distraction to let you escape."

"Huh," Zero played with one of the crystals. It felt brittle to the touch. "Sort of like a flashbang."

"What's that?" the old man inquired.

"Nothing." Zero answered quickly. "I'll try to keep myself safe here, and I still have your dagger so I should be able to protect myself," he spoke nonchalantly as he patted the dagger in its sheath.

Dorin snorted. "I doubt you can protect yourself from a pack of tame rabbits boy." He adjusted the straps of his sword and quiver and did a few stretching exercises to loosen up his body. "Keep your head down and don't use those crystals on anything less than a mountain drake you hear?" The old man warned.

Without waiting for a response the old man dashed downhill, his long strides easing into a graceful lope as he covered ground with uncanny speed. Soon he was only a quickly dwindling speck vanishing into a particulary thick copse of trees. Zero continued staring at the treeline several hundred meters away, flabbergasted at the way the old man reached it in such a short time.

"How the fuck can you run like that you old git!?" He shouted into the distance, half expecting to hear the old man's snarky reply in return.

You have recovered from Fatigue. Movement, attack and recovery speeds set to normal

---

Zero kept himself busy, if only to distract from his increasingly macabre thoughts. He mechanically separated the captured game into four piles: heads, skin, guts, and meat. Heads and skin were set aside for subsequent washing, tanning and stretching. The meat was quickly cleaned and rubbed down with salt and herbs from Dorin's garden, and was soon crackling on a spits by the open fire. Zero also took some onions and bell pepper from Dorin's larder and roasted them by the fire as well. The guts were thrown from a steep drop some distance from hut, to be scavenged by the more enterprising wildlife.

"Wendy, Wendy, for your hand, a thousand castles in the sand," Zero hummed. Melancholy King huh? It was one of his favorite songs. He was a terrible singer, but mouthing the tune helped calm him down. And besides, he thought sardonically to himself. Who cares if I sing badly? I don't.

"Kick it over as you stride, kick it, watch it falling down." He grabbed one of the skulls and smashed it with a rock, scooping the brain matter to use as a tanning agent.

"Love is when you leave with me, let's rot together you and me," he sang as he grabbed another skull and repeated the process.

"Wendy, wendy, for your hand, I'll burn all the castles in... the land." He finished gathering all the brain gunk and proceeded to scrape the excess fat from the skin, repeating the simple tune over and over as he bent down on his work, mesmerized by the simple yet soothing process.

---

New skins stood stretched on poles together with the other pelts from yesterday as Zero admired his work. The old hunter did good solid work on cleaning and tanning the skins properly, but Zero felt that he didn't fall behind in the quality of his work by comparison. Grumpy old bastard, he muttered angrily. MY work's not half-bad, you fucker.

Zero stoked the coals of the fire outside the hut and added a few logs from the stack of firewood piled beside the hut's walls. Dusk painted the sky in an orange light as the sun slowly set in the far horizon, its rays coating the peaks of the Alekhandres with bright yellow. Zero paced worriedly in front of the fire. He had already eaten one of the rabbits and a roasted onion a while back, hoping that the hot meal would help calm his nerves. It didn't. Damn it, you old fool. What is taking you so long?

He refused to give in to his worst fears. He fretted on how much time it would take to investigate the site of the incident and hoped that the old man was just unnecessarily delayed. A part of him prayed that the Dorin was just playing a prank on him in an attempt to drive him into a panicked state just for a few laughs. Surprisingly enough, the livid reaction he had at that thought helped calm him down a little. Knowing that stressing about the situation would just be a waste of time and energy, Zero took more logs from the woodpile and added them to the fire. He also lit the firepit inside the hut and put in enough logs to last the night. He crawled into his beddings and wrapped himself in his furs to sleep. Or so he thought. Instead he lay in a fetal position and stared grimly at the doorway. In one hand he clutched Dorin's dagger, the curved blade wrapped loosely in its sheath. His left hand held the boomblind crystals the old man handed him, in what seemed like a lifetime ago. He lay there unmoving for a long time, not daring to close his eyes.

---

There were over a hundred applicants like him in that room, talking loudly, sitting nervously, fiddling on their phones. And she sat there quietly, enjoying herself as she read one of Tolquin's The Sword of The King titles, her brows furrowed as she concentrated on the book, oblivious to her surroundings.

The receptionist walked towards them, and reading off a list, called out the names of the next batch of applicants. He stood up, and so did she. She replaced her bookmark and folded the book shut as she placed it in her bag. In a light dulcet voice she answered the receptionist as she walked calmly towards her. As she passed by him, their eyes met, and he suddenly found sucked in by her gaze. He lost himself, looking deeply into swirling pools of liquid midnight, unable to move or speak. A brief flutter in his vision as delicately carved eyebrows raised themselves quizzically at him. A hint of a respectful nod and then she turned her head away from him, but not before he saw a smile form on those beautifully formed lips.

---

Zero awoke to the sound of birdsong. He opened his eyes and saw sunlight peering between the wooden slats of the door. The fire has long since died to ashes, and Dorin's bed lay untouched. Zero stumbled out of bed, still lost in the dregs of last night's dream. Or was it a memory? he asked himself. He found himself still holding the dagger and crystals from last night. He returned the dagger to its sheath and placed the crystals in his belt pouch. He felt... strangely calm. His body felt light, as if he was filled with a boundless energy. Smiling to himself, he crawled out of the hut and into the morning sun. Light bathed him and his surroundings as he stretched his arms wide and filled his lungs with fresh air flowing down the mountaintops. Half-burnt logs and white ash where all that remained of the large fire he built last night, and the pelts and hides planted on wood poles glistened with morning dew. He drank from one of the water barrels and just sat there for a while, and for the first time, let himself appreciate the beauty of nature.

And Zero sat there in quiet contemplation. Until Dorin's muttered curses reached his ears and he found himself looking towards the west as a figure in furs and leathers shouted obscenities at him, a wild mop of silver hair gleaming in the sun as the old man shouted for his breakfast.

Dorin had spent the whole night tracking an Obsidian bear to its nest as it rampaged a circuitous path of destruction across the forest. Obsidian bears were lethal enough to most people, even experienced [Hunter]s, but it seems even a berserk Obsidian bear was not even a challenge to the mighty [Hunter] Dorin, to hear him tell the tale. Zero humoured the old man as the latter regaled the young man with his fearsome encounter with the dreaded beast, telling the tale with unbridled enthusiasm as he bit into his rabbit. They spent the rest of the day walking back to the cave to retrieve the bear's corpse, and Zero once again found himself marvelling at the old man's strength and abilities after he used his [Appraisal] on the bear.

Basic Information Attributes Status Information Class Name Obsidian Bear STR 122 HP 0/3590(+.0121/sec) Name Level Level 28 AGI 60 MP 0/162(+.0021/sec) none n/a Age 8 VIT 91 SP 0/365(-.002/sec) Sex Male INT 6 PHY ATK 175 - 179 Race Beast DEX 44 PHY DEF 93 Condition Dead INS 0 MAG ATK 11-13 Experience na/na MAG DEF 19 Weight Limit 0/224 kg

"Impressive," Zero praised the old man."You really are something you old coot."

"Shut yer trap and help me load this carcass to the sled," Dorin snapped. "Obsidian bear hide makes for great magical robes, and I know old Herman from the village inn can make an amazing honeyed roast meat; he'd spring at the chance to cook all this lovely bear meat. This things is gonna fetch us a lot of coin," he said excitedly.

"Wait," Zero froze. "There's a village nearby?" He had assumed based on his observations and the old man's attire that they were very far from civilization.

"Of course you numbskull," snapped the old man."What did you think was the reason we were gathering all this hide and meat for?"

"Well..." he had nothing to say to that.

"Young idiots with fluff for brains, the lot of you," Dorin commented sourly. "Listen up boy: in eight days an old farmer will drive his cart upriver to meet us. In exchange for carting all the fur and smoked meat we can sell to the village, old Ned just needs to celebrate a nice day off with his favorite drinking buddy. And since I have you to get rid of as well, all the more reason for us to earn more coin. You hear me?"

-- present time --

Zero shook his head at the memory. Eight days of trapping, skinning, tanning, curing, and smoking all sorts of wild game. Not to mention the effort it took to dismember the 900-pound bear they hauled back all the way to hut. It was a very informative experience for Zero, yet he was frustrated at the lack of visible experience and rewards to his attributes. Still, he thought to himself, as he ducked outside the hut and shouldered three heavy sacks the old man handed him. I can't say I came out of it entirely empty-handed now, can I?

"Inventory," he whispered.

Name Amount Weight Obsidian Bear pelt 1 8 kg Obsidian Bear meat (smoked) 5 2.5 kg Obsidian Bear meat (cured) 5 2.5 kg Forest Deer pelt 12 3.6 kg Forest Deer meat (smoked) 48 9.6 kg Forest Rabbit pelt 39 3.9 kg Forest Rabbit meat (smoked) 27 5.4 kg

"Fuck," Zero knees buckled at the weight as the sudden notification rang in his head.

89% of Weight Limit reached You are Overburdened. Natural HP/MP recovery halted. All actions slowed by 70%. SP reduction increased by -.005 SP/sec