‘What now? Is it a fantasy breed of Sheep? Does it put you to sleep or something?’

Her question was answered.

[Congratulations, You have learned {Identify}, a general skill.]

She looked at the ram once again.

[Battering Ram LV. ??]

It prepared for a charge. Irena did so as well.

She was fairly familiar with those things. She worked from home, and loved living in her boonies. The neighbors kept sheep, and, of course had a problem with rams.

The trick wasn’t to try and dodge. Rams horns are pretty wide and pointy, getting grazed could sometimes hurt just as much as getting hit.

You needed to give it a target in front of it. Rams often make a final leap before connecting to their intended victim. All you had to do, was give it a reason to make that leap before it reached you.

Irenas’ method was to stick out her foot in the direction of a ram, and get it to charge her boot instead of her body. The leg would be held loosely, so that it wouldn’t transfer any shock to her body, and rams momentum would bleed off.

Then, it had to be grabbed and lifted up before it could regain its speed.

Worked mighty fine on critters up to her own body weight.

She grabbed her shovel, and stuck out her foot.

The ram looked at her aggressively, and charged. It hit her in the foot, but without the leap.

The charge would continue. Unless…

Irena tensed the leg, and kicked the ram with it.

It didn’t stop it. Instead, Irena was flunged away herself. She rolled from her back to her feet, and this time, the ram was already charging.

Fortunately, her shovel was still in her hands.

She quickly went down to a low stance, and one the ram was close, she swung the shovel right into its front right knee, hitting it with an edge.

The ram stumbled in its charge, which was exactly what Irena needed. She jumped left. The ram followed, but its attempt at supporting itself on its injured leg was only partially effective.

Irena grabbed the ram by its horns, and rolled over to the ground, pulling the ram along with herself, and kicking it in every leg she could hit.

Both the animal and the woman landed on the ground. She was quicker to get up, and pounced on top of her opponent. It flailed, and hit her with its horns several times. But those strikes lacked momentum, and didn’t prevent Irena from opening her pocket knife.

The ram gurgled, and flailed as its throat was cut. She managed to cut one more tendon, this time on the left leg, before she was thrown away.

But it didn’t matter. It wouldn’t be able to chase her anyway.

Right when the ram stood up, it got hit with the shovels tip right between its horns, behind the head.

Once. Twice. Thrice. The spine cracked.

It collapsed again, twitching wildly.

But this time, Irena didn’t need to do anything, but wait.

[You have slain a Battering Ram] [In light of defeating a foe 40 or more levels above your own, additional experience has been granted.]

[Your strength and dexterity had been proven greater. Strength +5, Dexterity +2]

‘Huh. I wonder what that experience actually does.’

.

Once the adrenaline levels normalized, she felt forming bruises.

“Auauaua! That damn critter really did a number on my bones!” She vocalized.

‘At least nothing seems to have broken. I hope that self regeneration thing really works. Actually, how does it work?’

{[Self Regeneration] is a skill found in few sentient races across the world. Yours included. Health regenerates at a heightened rate. It heals wounds normally crippling, and can use mana to speed up the process.}

‘Oh, cool. So I guess I don’t have to worry, huh?’

Come to think of it, how much damage did I take?

[Health 190/200]

Not that bad, huh.

[Health 191/200]

‘Uuu, fast indeed.’

She looked over to the carcass. ‘Nice, I have something to eat now.’ She strolled over to the body, machete in hand, sleeves rolled up. She didn’t have much practice doing this, but she sure knew how the animal should be built, and what’s inside it. She hoped it bled out sufficiently from that cut to the neck.

Slice, pull, chop, knife comes in, guts come out. Don’t damage the gallbladder.

The carcass didn’t look entirely like a sheep. Some parts were thicker, some had different proportions. Even hooves were more solid and round.

Irena wiped her hands on piece of wool, and went to light a fire. She cleaned a patch on the ground of vegetation, and set up the wood. All that work with a machete paid off, and a single match was sufficient.

After skewering some pieces of meat, Irena sat down under a tree, and began staring at the fire. After a while, she changed her position and, as if she was hypnotized, her hand creeped closer to the flame.

It was fun playing with fire. It didn’t burn her, it was warm, and …twirly.

It started burning after a couple of seconds, but Irena… pushed it away, for lack of better word. Instinctively.

Ding!

{Congratulations. Acquired General Skill: [Flame Manipulation]}

[Flame Manipulation]- You managed to communicate with fire, feeding it your mana, and getting little something in return. This skill will help you control flames better, whether to save things from fire, or set them ablaze. Do you wish to learn it?}

‘Fuck yes, I want to learn to control fire.’

Ding!

[Self regeneration reached LV. 2]

‘Oh, cool.’

She thought, and immediately put her hand deeper into the fire. A bit of sheep fat dripped on her hand.

‘Ouch.’ That one burned.

She suddenly came up with an ingenious idea.

‘What if I fry the liver on my shovel?’

The spade would be hot anyway, so no germs were going to survive.

Just wipe it down, hold it over fire, and put some fat on it.

That liver was too tempting for Irena to stop. She made her idea into reality, ate it, and looked at the remaining meat.

She shifted, deciding she can get some rest before the rest of the food is ready.

She shut her eyes, and went to sleep.

Not for long however, as she was woken up by stomach pain, and messages.

Ding!

[You are under effect of Vitamin Poisoning]

[Hp: 149/200]

Ding!

{Congratulations. You have acquired [Biological Poison Resistance] You have either fallen victim to a particularly nasty trap, or ate too much random stuff. Either way, please stop to reconsider your life choices.}

‘Doesn’t feel nice, but sure nicer than seconds ago.’ Irena was in pain.

[Hp: 150/200]

‘Oh, good. It’s getting better. Keep it up, self regeneration, I’m counting on you.’

She was sitting like so for quite some time. Finally, pain subsided enough to forge rational conclusions.

‘It’s probably that damn liver. I thought only seals and polar bears are this chockfull of vitamin A, but I guess not. That being said, the rest of polar bear meat besides the liver is supposedly fully edible, so I guess this here should be as well.’

It smelled delicious. Like a barbecue with an old friend, who got the meat for free.

But just like there is always that irritating person who comes to a barbecue empty handed, end eats for three people, there were unwanted guests here as well.

Irena grabbed her shovel when she heard them growling and eyeing her prey.

She growled back. The voices got silent, and made her hopeful they ran away. Alas, no such thing happened. The noises came back even stronger than before, and from the bushes, there came four dogs, visibly attempting to encircle her.

She used identify.

[Dire Wolf LV. ??]

[Dire Wolf LV. ??]

[Dire Wolf LV. ??]

The smallest one was described as [Dire Wolf LV. ?]

‘Well, I guess I’m in a Dire need of help.’ She smirked.

“Or not. You have guts attempting to steal my food when you don’t even reach my knee.” She said aloud, and grabbed a shovel.

She swung it several times, but the animals dodged her easily.

‘Oh, so I guess there is a reason you think you can take me on. But don’t think you can scare me, dear wolves the size of a Jack Russel Terrier.’ She said, as she thrusted her spade into the campfire, and focused on grabbing onto it with her [Flame manipulation].

The biggest dire wolf came forward snarling, most likely in a fake charge.

It was met with a swing of a shovel, accompanied by fire and glowing ashes.

It breathed in some of it, and started coughing.

That was enough for it to fail dodging the next, full powered swing.

The dire wolf yelped, as its skull got a dent that wasn’t supposed to be there. But it stood right up, and turned to Irena.

‘Oh you tough motherfucker.’

But it wasn’t in any condition to move around as swiftly as before.

It got hit again. And again. And again.

Two other wolves however, recognized the opening, and closed the distance to bite Irena.

But their attempt to seal her movements had one fatal flaw.

They went too low.

“Work boots, bitches!” She shouted, and brought a shovel on one of them in a stabbing motion.

The second one released its grip, and bit again, this time in her calf.

The panicked strikes of her weapon were fast, and powerful, if not very precise. They did the trick however, and the only remaining animal was [Dire Wolf LV. ?]

It turned its tail and run away.

Just to be sure, Irena smacked her shovel down several more times.

[You have killed a Dire Wolf] [In light of slaying a foe 30 levels or more above you, additional experience has been granted.]

[You have killed 2x Dire Wolf] [In light of slaying multiple foes 20 or more levels above you, additional experience has been granted]

‘I would rather get some water, experience sounds cool, but I don’t think it did anything yet. Like cleaning that bite wound. Hope rabies isn’t a thing here.’

She looked at the wolves at her feet.

‘I wonder if there are any differences in anatomy between those, and normal dogs.’

Curiosity may have killed a cat, but Irena was no furry.

‘Let’s check.’