Waking up, Kent realized that he had slept longer than originally accounted for. The sun had already passed beneath the horizon, and its light was only barely showing the colors of the world. His back was stiff, his right arm numb, and his head was pounding. His Toughness and Vitality not high enough to make sleeping on the forest floor a pleasant experience – certainly the origin of his hurting appendages and stiffness. Where the pounding headache came from was a mystery though. The fact that he was down three health after waking up was disconcerting. Worsened that its origin is nebulous.

Though on the other hand, he had noticed that he received a few more notifications. Why he hadn’t been woken up this time around was uncertain. He had heard stories of people being able to influence their system at a high level but unleveled as he was that was unlikely. On the other hand, his notification pings had never been as intrusive as for others, so he might have just slept through it.

*Ding – Notification pending*

New Notification Log Entries:

You have slain two “Drop-Pig” Level 2!

You have slain “Drop-Pig” level 3!

You have slain “Drop-Pig” Level 5!

You have slain “Feral Stag” level 7!

You have slain “Scrambler” Level 8!

“By Galbart how,” Kent gasped. It took a few moments for his brain to catch up to what must have happened.

All the monster-corpses he had poisoned must have been eaten up to cause so many casualties. It sent his heart racing a bit. Had he been able to level, reaching his second skill slot would have been certain. Level four wasn’t that difficult to reach without combat, but it surely helped. His parents and siblings had all needed a few weeks without. Disposing of creatures several times his level, would have pushed him to four no doubt.

He let those thoughts leave his head, forced them out figuratively.

Best to get used to that now, he thought only grimacing a bit. It was good that he had removed those monsters from the region, it would take an edge off for him, and maybe help the village as well, allowing their traps to catch more dangerous monsters.

Then he reconsidered.

Why would I care, they exiled me? Another thought struck.

The more he thought on the matter the faster his momentary anger quickly subsided. He knew the rules just as well as anyone, and it was the sensible thing to do.

When I killed so many weaker monsters in the region does that open the path for stronger ones? He knew that the village wouldn’t have issues with even monsters in the low hundreds when they combined their work, but everything stronger could be a death sentence. Not even the warning factor of the zone could help if something of that sort should approach.

He decided he was feeling more emotional than usual due to hunger.

The bitterness was still there though. Anger was one thing but how his family had looked at him when he had been told to leave that morning was something else. The mixture of disappointment and sadness was a mirror of his own emotions at the time. He tried to focus his mind on something else.

The zone of civilization. He had slept exactly at the border.

It was a good thing to test now. He hadn’t been noticed during his nap, or at least no one had been sent for him. That would open a few avenues of saver sleep for at least another nap and potentially more in the future.

When walking the twenty, maybe thirty, leagues to Reinsteel sleeping would become dangerous again. Yet, for now, he wouldn’t have to worry too much. The rest would come tomorrow.

Kent had a few more roaao but wasn’t in the mood to make a fire to prepare the otherwise inedible vegetables.

He decided on a slow and steady, but short excursion into the actual zone to harvest some of the permacultures by the fields. Certainly not because it might alert the village, he was in a reckless mood right now, but because he was lazy.

He returned after a brief while with a few morras in hand and chewing one of the bright orange fruits.

The complete dark was now replaced by the white silhouette of Salus and its twin Scindit, which shone in dark grey and light red, to illuminate his path. He made his way along the border, trying to keep the comforting pressure on his mind at a constant, continuously snacking on the crunchy slightly spicy morras, not minding the dirt on their skin one bit.

Repeating very much of the same procedure as during the previous march through the forest he tried to keep his eyes out, especially with the increased monster activity of the night.

He wondered though, how it was possible for there to be such a large discrepancy between monster appearances during day and night. There were theories out there, of course, explaining certain phenomena but in Blueleaf no one had ever given a convincing answer when telling him and his peers about the monsters. He hadn’t much cared regardless, being happy with his future of most likely becoming a nature or growth mage like the rest of his family he saw no reason to concern himself with disgusting professions that regularly engaged with monsters.

Unluckily for Kent, he couldn’t circumvent every danger he came across. Thankfully this close to the zone most monsters were smaller and less inclined to engage larger prey.

The first encounter of the night was an ambush from above, he realized the danger trees posed only after the short encounter was over. From one second to the next small claws punctured his cloak, pricking his neck. He hadn’t even heard the claws tapping on wood.

He reacted as fast as he could. Everyone knew about this ambush predator and if he couldn’t get it under control quickly, he would indeed be done for. Once a turrl called for its companions even someone who out-leveled them several times over was in danger.

The thought of using the skill that was imbued into his cloak didn’t even cross his mind as he let himself fall on his back. Curling up to hit the ground precisely where he felt the monster’s teeth puncture at the same moment.

A single instance later, not fast enough to even blink, he already turned around drew his knife, and plunged it into the monster.

*Ding – Notification pending*

He could only hope that none of their soporific salivae had entered the wound. Otherwise, he might be incapacitated for days.

He checked his status, maybe there would be an indicator.

Kent Larsson [Lvl. 0] [NONE]

Health: 34/39

Stamina: 58/64

Mana: 6/8

Vitality: 8

Toughness: 7

Endurance: 11

Strength: 13

Agility: 10

Senses: 9

Mind: 7

Magic: 4

Willpower: 8

Regeneration 10

New Notification Log Entry:

You have slain “Somniferous Turrl” Level 6!

Nothing had changed, besides his health dropping by a few points – he wasn’t sure how much exactly – not having kept an eye on the slowly growing value –, and stamina dropping a single point.

Kent brushed off the dirt, leaves, and other foliage that had gotten stuck to his cloak. Wearing his cloak's hood, regardless of how uncomfortable the optical effect made him feel, had been worth it. He had seen the passive effect the cloak provided when the hood was up, his uncle had scared them with that several times. It just felt so silly and needlessly irritating.

He moved his hand under the hood to feel for the puncture. There was little doubt that anybody seeing the signature whisks of dark shadowy smoke drifting down across his face, visible to everyone else would get him killed should he be spotted. At least his neck was safe should he come across another turrl.

If his uncle’s stories were to be believed the item – a very rare dungeon reward – had helped him manage spectacular deeds. Supposedly the man had once dashed unnoticed into a group of a hundred level forty monsters and cast a rooting spell right in the middle without being noticed.

Now looking for a quieter life and having children of his own he had no use for it any longer. At least that was one of the reasons. Kent’s mother, during one of their harvest celebrations, had called him out about not being able to effectively use it anymore which was the real reason why he wasn’t using it anymore.

He was without a doubt the highest level in the family so maybe he really had outgrown the effects of the spell. His uncle had repeatedly voiced his regret over outgrowing the cloak - whatever that meant. Since he couldn't use the cloak effectively anymore, Kent thought it wouldn't do much harm and might not be noticed for a long time.

Kent had already taken a few steps away from the vicious little rodent when he decided to take it with him for as long as possible. Maybe he could use its saliva for his purposes. Coating his knife’s edge with it might have an overtime effect that could slow down opponents. But there would be little short-term gain.

With the night steadily growing colder his discomfort rose. With winter approaching the coming days and nights would be bad for him, especially should another rainstorm wet the fields he could end up in a bad situation. He had been worried about food, but with the chill, he might freeze to death long before then. He cursed his inability to level once again. A combination of a high Toughness and Endurance stats would make that issue go away easily.

It always comes back to that, doesn’t it?

As he trekked further, he considered making more sounds to attract another one or two turrls. The likelihood of multiples being close by should be increased due to their pack animal nature. But maybe even that would be better than being ambushed again.

Once he had gathered the required courage he trudged backwards to where he had fought the first. As that might reduce the likelihood of other monsters joining in.

Imitating a plethora of farm animals made Kent feel exceedingly stupid, especially since nothing seemed to react to his fake sounds.

Had he known the turrl’s call to fight he would have tried to emulate it. As it stood, he was limited by whatever animals he had heard previously.

As luck would have it after several iterations of practicing the neighing of the common horse, he heard it rustling from three distinct directions.

Two were overhead and further into the forest, the other came from where he was heading just minutes before. He had at least evaded another sneak attack this way.

He prepared himself, knife in hand and a stick he had picked up in his off-hand. The replacement weapon for his firestone was not going to help much but might keep one of the rodents off him.

He wanted to keep standing where he was but a memory of a story his uncle had told prodded him to engage the turrl that was attacking from the floor.

He sprinted towards whatever was approaching and switched hands for his weapons. He would most likely need to be efficient with his reach. Bending down might prove fatal as long as the creature was still up and running.

Several paces later he heard more than saw the critter run up a tree too far away. Without thinking he extended his arm back and swung the stick with all the might he could muster forwards towards the turrl.

Mid-flight he could tell that his aim had been off. He had been too eager, had anticipated the rodent to be faster than it really was, and aimed halfway up the tree.

As though mocking the squirrel-type monster had stopped moving to wait for the branch to hit. As if it were smart, it waited for the opportune moment to dodge.

It hadn’t considered the still sprinting Kent though.

He rammed his knife into the dodging creature’s back moments after the branch hit the tree. His hand scrabbed along the tough bark and the uncomfortable pain of a scratch wound shock through his body. He had his knife still in hand when he came to a stop.

Taken me long enough, to learn not to let go off my knife. Blood dripped down the blade, and he had obviously managed to wound the creature. The missing ping from the system told him that he had not taken it out yet.

He quickly rushed backward, searching for it before the other two opponents could arrive.

The state it was in when found was abhorrent. He must have separated several muscles of the hind legs because it was clawing itself up the tree with only its two front paws.

It would bleed out soon, he realized. But there was no reason to cause extended pain to anyone.

Staring down at the creature he sagged for a moment. It felt wrong to just take the life of a now helpless creature.

The memory of cutting into dead flesh, muscles, bones, and tissue coursed through his memories. It was utterly disgusting, making him shiver.

He heard rustling right above him and knew that he had waited too long. As fast as possible he scrambled away from the tree. Trying to prevent the vicious creatures from attacking him from above once again.

There was not much else he could do at the moment for the dying creature.

What options do I have? Should have thought about that beforehand. Should I allow them to attack the cloak and replicate how I did it earlier?

It was the only idea he could come up with, so he came to a hold as far from any of the large trees as possible and waited to locate either of the remaining beasts.

For as long as waiting usually took, time passed almost instantly this time.

Kent was shocked when almost simultaneously three, not two, impacts hit him. The one up front had gotten entangled in his clothes within seconds. He hit himself as fast as possible, wherever he felt the rodent, getting a few good hits in, on both himself and the monster.

The other two creatures weren’t idle and tried to piece the cloak from behind. His ploy had worked. It proved strong enough to withstand the poor strength of the monster’s jaws.

As he finally hit the turrl up front with the pummel of his knife he decided that it was time for what might become his signature move in the future should he stay as inept as he was now.

With a thump he landed on the ground, uncomfortably hitting his hip on some roots in the process.

*Ding – Notification pending*

“What?” he gasps. There is no way I’m that heavy.

The squirrel on his back had disengaged, seemingly looking for a new angle of approach while the one up front was now firmly trapped in his unarmed hand.

He pushed himself up with the other hand. With how dark it was exceedingly difficult to make out the last remaining not incapacitated target on the ground.

“Ahhh shit!” he yelled as he realized that the monster in his hands had in fact not been incapacitated. In shock and pain, he squished his hand, as he usually did when in pain, and felt something give.

Disregarding everything else he threw the creature on the ground, dazed as it was it tried to get up and move but he just stomped down repeatedly until the next ping sounded.

*Ding – Notification pending*

Kent shivered all over again. The disgusting feeling of breaking bones was… Gross.

The world turned quiet once again, but Kent knew that there was at least one opponent somewhere.

Slowly turning and scanning his surroundings he came up empty. His ears picked up nothing as well.

I could make a run for it.

It had the potential of making the monster aware of his position, but worse it had the chance of notifying the zone of potential hostile movements.

*Ding – Notification pending*

Before he could come to terms with the notification his thoughts were once again interrupted by an impact.

From the front this time. Disregarding all caution, he hit himself repeatedly again in an effort to take out the last remaining opponent. He missed too often.

His last resort throwing himself to the ground finally managed to remove the last remaining contestant from the fight for long enough to stump it to death as well.

*Ding – Notification pending*

I really should have taken a club or something else with me. Knives are disgusting.

With the last vestiges of wakefulness leaving his body he tried to hide. There was no doubt that he had alerted the village. He stumbled toward the closes large bush nearby and fell down face first…

***

“We should have been careful enough; I just don’t see how they could know we were here in the first place. It can’t be a coincidence. I’m telling you,” said an obviously agitated voice.

“I told you to be quiet. Let the others sleep. We need to be in top condition tomorrow,” a voice grunted, dampened by the forest shrubbery a few hundred feet of to his side. “He didn’t even get to warn the village, so everything is fine.”