I turned to the reaming 3 wolves, one was a Blue Horned-Back Wolf and the other two were Yellow Horned-Back Wolves. They backed off and growled at me but I wasn’t finished.

One of the Yellow Horned-Back Wolf started to run towards me, I moved to the side and slashed the wolf while it was in the air, I managed to slice a big chunk of its back leg off and it collapsed. All right, two left, the remaining wolves circled around me and stood on either side of me, if I can time this right, that’ll be it.

“Grrrrr!”

The two wolves growled as they ran towards me, ha! Knew they’d do that, both wolves lunged at my throat, I fell to the ground, catching them off guard, they smashed into each other and I managed to pierce ones underbelly while the other fell to the ground with a thud, I put my foot on the wolves belly and yanked my sword out and thrusted it through the other wolves head, ending the fight.

*44 Exp Points Acquired, 1 Skill Point Acquired

“Ha! I win!”

I pulled my sword out of the dead wolves head and waved it in the sky signalling my victory…

“OW!”

A hard cold pressure came across the back of my left leg, I looked down to see the Yellow Horned-Back Wolf that I thought I had killed, the one with the chunk missing from its back leg, it had bit into my Achilles Tendon and blood was pouring out. I fell down to the ground hard, damn it! That hurts! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! This hurts so much!

“Master Udon!”

Miko turned to my shout and let her guard down.

“Miko watch out!”

Miko turned back to the Red Horned-Back Wolf and took a swipe head on and got thrown hard into a tree.

“Miko!”

I shouted out watching her hit the tree hard, she looked unconscious, this can’t happen! I took my sword and thrusted it hard into the Yellow Back-Wolves head.

*22 Exp Points Acquired

I pried open its jaws and pulled my leg out of its mouth, the bite already looked infected as the blood had a tint of yellow running through it.

“I need to save Miko! I need her to move up!”

I looked over, and saw the Red Horned-Back wolf making its way over to the unconscious Miko. Not good!

“Miko”

I managed to limp across the forest and threw my sword into the Red Horned-Back wolves side, the sword made a satisfying piercing sound as blood spurted out from the wound. The wolf swiped at my sword causing it to fall to the ground, dumbass wolf. I picked up the sword and thrusted it as hard as I could into its underbelly, it was still targeting Miko and didn’t seem to notice me.

“Die! Die! Die! Leave her alone!”

I repeatedly stabbed the wolves underbelly, blood was showering over my body, the wolf was becoming wobbly, I jumped out from underneath it as it collapsed.

“M-master Udon?”

Miko woke up and softly called my name but I couldn’t lose focus.

“Leave my partner alone!”

I stabbed the wolf one last time in its neck, my sword was stuck again as the wolf let out a groan and head butted me, causing me to fly through the air and land near Miko.

“M-Master Udon”

Miko tried to shout as she crawled over to me, I sat up and saw the Red Horned-Back wolf back on its feet…Damn it! I’m going to die here! There’s no way out of here. Miko and I looked at wolf who crept towards us ready to take a bite.

“Miko!”

I shouted as I pushed her under me and covered her body with my own…Was that just a reflex? Why didn’t I use her as a shield!? Damn it! Toughen up Udon!

“Master Udon?”

The Red Horned-Back wolf was about to take a bite, but collapsed.

*Thud

*75 Exp Points Acquired

Level up!

You are now level 4.

Mount Riding Skill conditions met [Locked] 3 SP Required>

Self Sacrifice Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Attributes boosted

15 Skill Points Acquired

Level up!

Miko is now level 11.

Attributes boosted

5 Skill Points Acquired

I opened my eyes to see the collapsed Red Horned-Back wolf, it was in a puddle of its own blood and was defeated…we won? We won!

*Short Bronze Sword: 1/10 Mastery

“Uhh, Master Udon”

I looked down to see Miko looking up at me holding my chest tightly, her cheeks were red, is that blood?

“Oh, sorry Miko”

I stood up and got off of her, she still looked shaken up.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to grab you”

Maybe she was angry I grabbed her and laid on top of her, even though I was just protecting her, in my experience girls will use any means necessary to turn the situation into you being a pervert.

“U-uhh its n-not that, I just uhh”

Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have done that, now she’s going to look at me like a pervert! She already is, her face is red of rage.

“I’m sorry Miko, it was a reflex, I’m not a pervert”

“N-no Master U-Udon its just that, you protected me with your own b-body and called me y-your partner, thats all.”

Huh? I mean it was just a reflex, maybe Miko was surprised.

“Oh, uhh, well, I did say anyone trying to harm you was in my way, can you walk?”

I looked down at Miko her face was still beet red, it didn’t look like blood either, she must have been really frightened. I put a hand out to her so she can pull herself up, she looked at my hand for a while.

“I know it’s bloody but I don’t have anything to clean it up with, don’t be so picky.”

“Thats n-not it, uhh, don’t worry Master Udon…Thank you”

What was she on about now? Miko grabbed my hand and pulled herself up, she wobbled a little but regained her balance.

“You levelled up, but you didn’t kill any wolves and you didn’t gain any skill points or skills?”

Did she gain exp points when I did?

“It’s because we are a party, only the person who kills the monster is granted skill points but the rest of the party shares in exp point, skills require certain levels, some levels don’t grant skills”

If Miko had killed at least one of the wolves I would get exp for nothing…I turned my head and glared a little at her.

“I’m sorry Master Udon! I’ll be better next time!”

She must have known what I was thinking because she bowed her head quickly and felt embarrassed, or, ashamed might be the best word.

“Come on, help me gather these corpses and skin them”

I limped towards the dead wolf corpuses and was ready to skin them, but I fell down to my knees.

“Damn it! That damn wolf!”

My achilles still wasn’t healed and it was hard to keep my body weight up on it.

“Master Udon, just stay here, I’ll skin the wolves why you rest”

Miko put her hand on my shoulder and knelt down, was smiling at the thought she could finally be useful, or smiling because I was in pain?

“Fine, I’ll make some small bags to put the materials in, do you mind carrying them?”

Small Hemp Bag successfully created!

Small Hemp Bag successfully created!

*Basic Weaving: 2/10 Mastery

“No, problem, I’ll unlock the Basic Monster Skinning skill.”

“Skill unlocked-Basic Monster Skinning (C)”

Basic Monster Skinning: 0/10 Mastery-Level 3 Common Skill, Unlocked: Skin and dissect small monsters.

Miko went ahead and skinned all the wolves, we ended up with 24 Yellow Claws, 12 big Red Claws, 24 Green Claws and 24 Blue Claws, Miko also took the fangs of all 7 wolves, so we had a total of 14 Horned-Back fangs, 2 of them being big. We also managed to acquire all their horns, which added up to 11 per wolf so we had 22 Yellow Horns, 11 big Red Horns, 22 Green Horns and 22 Blue horns, lastly Miko skinned their fur, we had 2 Yellow Striped Fur, 1 big Red Striped Fur, 2 Green striped fur and 2 Blue striped fur.

“That’s quite a hall, we should get a good price for them even if they are poor-somewhat poor quality”

I looked up at Miko as I used my hemp bandage to wrap up the bite on my achilles, the gash on my side was already fairly healed.

“Yes, quite a big battle for our first one”

Miko finished placing the materials into the two small hemp bags and sat next to me gripping her ribs. She did take a swipe head on, she must have some broken ribs.

“Lift up your shirt”

I felt a little guilty, she lost focused because I got injured.

“Huh!? Master Udon!? What!?”

Yeah…I didn’t phrase that right.

“You’re injured aren’t you, lift up your shirt so I can wrap this bandage around you, it’ll help with the healing”

Even if I phrased it wrong, surly she knew what I meant.

“Oh, uhh sure”

Miko hesitantly lifted her shirt, she looked away from me as I wrapped the hemp bandage around her ribs, she had a deep gash but not to severe that the bandage shouldn't work. I looked up to see Miko sweating a little and her face flushed red again, did this girl have some sort of medical issue? She was always going red, I know it must not be good having me wrap a bandage around you, but you can’t do this by yourself.

“If you do this by yourself it won’t heal properly, I know I’m not the ideal guy to be so close to you but I’m the best you go at the moment, so suck it up.”

“T-thats not the problem, y-you’re fine, well, m-more then fine if I’m honest”

“What did you just say? I was just tying the bandage up, I didn’t hear you”

“Oh nothing! Nothing!”

Miko waved her arms around and pushed me over a little.

“Master Udon! I’m sorry!”

“Settle down, far out, here, grab the two hemp bags and lets head off.”

“Yes”

Miko replied picking up the two hemp bags and slinging them around her shoulders, we headed deeper into the forest and fought many more monsters.

“The map says thats the last of the monsters on this level, we should head up to the third Floor”

I called out to Miko as we had just defeated some small Golems.

“Yeah, I don’t want to fight the Ancient Floor Monster-The Armoured Bull, so we should head up now.”

We had quite a hall, I ended up creating another Small Hemp Bag, it was filled with 7 were-rabbit feet, 3 armour calf leather, 15 Dungeon Ore, 10 Undead Rat skulls, they were apparently good for creating an anti-venom for an undead rat bite and we just put 2 Small Golem eyes in there, they were a hard blue rock.

“We are going to need a bigger bag, do they sell them at the market?”

I asked Miko swinging two hemp bags over my shoulder and placing the two hemp water pouches filled with the slime goo on my waist belt.

“They should, and we could get some good money if we sell those Undead Rat Skulls”

Miko replied slinging the other two hemp bags over her shoulders and placing the hemp water pouch on her waist.

“You levelled up right, Master Udon?”

“Yeah, level 6 now”

I had levelled up twice since we fought the wolves, I met the conditions of a fair amount of skills I could unlock and I had 80 SP now, while Miko had 90 SP. I should check the skills I had just met the conditions with and see if any are useful.

Low Heat Resistance Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Low Stab Nullification Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Low Cold Resistance Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Basic First Aid Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Low Poison Resistance Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Monster Meat Resistance Skill conditions met [Locked] 63 SP Required>

Low Mind Control Resistance Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Low Pain Nullifier Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Basic Mana Increasement Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Skill Merger Skill conditions met [Locked] 7 SP Required>

Basic Animal Tamer Skill conditions met [Locked] 2 SP Required>

Basic Leather Armourer Skill conditions met [Locked] 1 SP Required>

Weak Intuition Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Hmm, I’ll unlock these later when I have time to go over all of them, for my attributes, they had gone up a fair amount to.

Attributes Menu:

Attack: 50

Defence: 80

Stamina: 57

Speed: 35

Focus: 99

MP: 20/50

Still not where I want, but this will do for now. Miko and I headed into the town and looked for a bag that could carry most of our stuff, we went back into the market, we made sure to avoid that summoning crystal stall.

“Master Udon! Over here”

Miko waved out at a stall she was checking out.

“Find what we are looking for?”

I walked over and looked at the numerous sized and styled bags on the table in front of a young man.

“Yep, and he said he’s willing to trade and buy some of your stuff.”

Great, this was what we were looking for.

“We are after a bag big enough to carry all our items that we are carrying now, can you help us out?”

I asked the young man who was wearing a grey laced shirt and dark blue pants.

“Of course Sir, I would suggest this, but if style is an important factor I would go with the pricer bag over here, I’m assuming you don’t want two bags so the young lady doesn’t have to carry it herself”

If I didn’t believe Miko would run off with the bag, of course she’d be carrying it! This gender crap is just as bad in this world as mine, everyone wants equality but will stick to the stereo-typical crap like men carrying the heavy items. I sighed as I looked at the two bags he pointed out, one was a normal brown leather bag, that had a seperate area for your water pouch and some straps to hook in a medium sized blanket, it was exactly what we were looking for, the other bag on the other hand was this extravagant shiny pink bag that had each section clearly laid out…yeah, thats not what I want, only an idiot would be caught wearing this.

“Master Udon, how about we get this one”

Miko pointed to the first bag, the one I wanted, so we agreed.

“How much does this bag go for?”

I asked the young man ready to barter with him.

“Well, Sir, it is quite the useful item I must say, I’ll be willing to part ways with it for, lets say 5 Silver Shark Coins”

Was he serious!? 5 Silver shark coins! Not on your life buddy.

“Wow, didn’t realise this bag cured diseases”

I need to make sure this man knew who he was dealing with.

“I could go as low as 3 Silver Shark coins, any lower then that and I’ll be losing money”

“How about this, we give you three of our small hemp bags, one small hemp water pouch, five undead rat skulls and twenty Aloe Vera Herbs in exchange for the bag, two medium sized water pouches and 3 Silver Shark coins?”

That was quite an offer I made, but as soon as I mentioned those Undead Rat Skulls I knew I had him.

“Hmm, you drive quite the bargain Sir, how about all of that but 2 Silver Shark coins?”

So he did know what stuff was worth after all, time to bring it home.

“4 Silver shark coins and I’ll throw in a Yellow Striped Horned-Back Wolf Fur?”

“You have a deal Sir”

I handed over the items I promised him, and he handed us the items he promised us, we placed our items into the new bag while Miko kept the bag with the wolf Fur in it, then we left the stall, he seemed happy to acquire some undead rat skulls that he didn’t even bother checking the quality of everything else, ha!

“Check the quality of a product before you accept it”

I mumbled to myself giving out an evil little chuckle.

“Master Udon? You sound like you just did something bad? Did we just take advantage of that young stall owner?”

Miko looked a little uncomfortable, what is with this bee? Didn’t she hate humans? Shouldn’t she love every chance to get one over on them?

“Miko, if we are to survive here, we need to use our wits, if someone isn’t smart enough to do a simple ‘quality check’ then it’s really on them”

“I still feel a little uncomfortable Master Udon.”

“Thats why I’ll barter”

I told her letting out a sigh.

Between us we had two medium leather water pouches, two small hemp water pouches that contained the poison slime goo and the earth slime goo, one small hemp bag which contained 1 Yellow Striped Horned-Back wolf Fur, 15 Dungeon Ore, 2 Green Striped Horned-Back wolf Fur and 2 Blue Striped Horned-Back wolf Fur. I tied the big Red Striped Horned-Back wolf Fur on the bag I carried and inside the Medium Leather Adventurers Bag we had 3 small hemp bandages, 35 chamomile flowers, 20 echinacea roots, 20 feverfew leaves, 20 aloe vera herbs, 7 were-rabbit feet, 3 armour calf leather, 5 undead rat skulls, 2 small golem eyes, 24 yellow claws, 12 big red claws, 24 green claws, 24 Horned-Back Wolf fangs, 2 big Horned-Back Wolf fangs, 22 yellow horns, 11 big red horns, 22 green horns and lastly 22 blue horns.

“Along with these bags and 6 Silver Shark Coins, I believe we’ve done quite good for ourselves, how about we head to the inn and spend the night with a good meal.”

I wasn’t going back to that black smiths house, even if I saved a little money, that wasn’t happening.

“Ok, Master Udon, we’ll get a room and dinner then head off to the third floor tomorrow”

Miko agreed, she seemed to know I didn’t want to go back to the Lack’s house so didn’t ask. We ended up in the Tavern and Inn and grabbed 2 dinner meals which consisted of a unicorn rabbit stew with a lot of vegetables and Yaki imo, which was roasted sweet potatoes, it was quite weird eating Yaki imo when it wasn’t winter. Miko managed to convince me to get a 2 single bed room instead of 2 single rooms, she said it would save us money and would be safer, I tried to disagree, but with that logic I had my back against the wall, all in all for the room, a bath and 2 meals, it set us back by only 7 Bronze Bear Coins.