Ah... It takes so long to finish a single chapter for me...

Writing this story seriously feels like doing homework. I'm really lazy to do it but once finished there is a nice feeling inside xD .

Anyway those who still read it I hope u will like it.

Chapter 35. Life and death. Part 1.

I step into my and Ingvil's room with a mug in hand and walk towards the table. As I sit down on the chair, I look through the window, where I see the sky and clouds already painted in a bright red color.

“Haa.. Another day comes to an end… Hmm… I guess it should be ready by now.” I speak my mind loudly.

‘First things first. ’

Status WindowLevel153RaceNorthmenStrength1403Defense1053Vitality257Intelligence484Stamina582Vigor552Agility459Presence74ResistanceWater1%Earth0%Ice16%Fire0%Lightning12%Darkness0%Nature0%Wind1%Poison0%Alcohol2%*Titles*

‘I wonder how much my stats will increase.’ I think memorizing numbers shown in front of me.

Finally satisfied I turn the screen off and I lift my right hand, which is holding the mug, while turning my head slightly to the right I say: “Happy birthday Asger! And may the future be full of pleasure, joy and fun.”

Then I turn my head to the left and say: “Thank you, my dear friend, Haraldson. And I wish the same thing to you too. Ha, ha, ha...”

After musing myself for a bit, I move the mug closer to my lips and drink everything in it, not leaving even a single drop.

Don’t worry I didn’t reach that bottom stage of the alcoholism where I happily get drunk alone. At least not yet. What’s inside my mug isn’t beer but instead a slightly blue water.

My level passed 150 barrier quite some time ago, but I decided to give myself that blue core, which was tempting me for so long, as a gift on my birthday, which is today.

“Yeah still tastes like water…” I speak my mind, while inspecting the mug to check if I drank everything.

It doesn’t take long before drowsiness starts to kick in. So I stand up and walk straight to my bed hoping to have a good night’s sleep.

Next morning the first thing I do is check my status.

Status WindowLevel155RaceNorthmenStrength1421Defense1066Vitality264Intelligence487Stamina587Vigor559Agility463Presence74ResistanceWater1%Earth0%Ice16%Fire0%Lightning12%Darkness0%Nature0%Wind1%Poison0%Alcohol2%*Titles*

As my eyes run through the text shown in front of my eyes, a smile slowly appears on my face.

“It could have given a bit more… But still gaining one and a half level overnight is still pretty awesome, knowing that it would take me around three weeks to gain this much by training.”

“Ha, ha, ha… I guess this is a good way to start a day.” I say cheerfully while stretching my arms.

****

Few weeks later, like every day lately I run towards the town. Once I get closer to it I increase my speed and start using all the covers I can find. Because there are a very dangerous predators roaming around. Locals call them ‘women’, but I tend to use the name ‘Terminators’.

So as I’m trying to remain unnoticed by those annoying, wild gorillas, I finally get on the main merchant road and start running as fast as I can to the south, away from town.

About an half hour later I stop. Satisfied that I’m not too close nor too far away from Landamot, I step off the road and head into the forest.

In the last few months my father occasionally started taking me on the hunts with him. And everything was going smoothly until my one little encounter with a wild boar family. I don’t want to go into the details now, but the long story short I understood that my tree climbing skill could use some improvement.

So about three weeks ago I started coming here to train. I decided to call it: ‘Project: Tarzan’.

I walk past the first line of trees and head a bit deeper, so that no one could see me from the road.

Of course I only train at the outskirts of the forest, because monsters rarely come her. Most likely over the course of many years they learned that this is our, northmen, territory. But even thought it’s relatively safe here, I still had a few let’s just call them ‘encounters’.

A week ago I killed one white fox, which gave me only a large white core, and just yesterday I met an already injured wolf, from which I got a medium yellow one.

Once I can’t see the road anymore I pick a tree. I walk closer to it and start climbing it’s trunk, using all the bumps and cracks.

Of course I don’t just climb up and down like some idiot… No…

Satisfied with a height of about 7 meters I stop climbing and get on one of it’s thick branches. By the way most of the trees here are quite tall and thick.

‘That one.’ I think after scanning my surroundings.

I take a few quick steps forward, while trying not to lose my balance, and jump with all my might.

‘Aaaaah-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaaahh!’ Suddenly I scream in my mind feeling my insides move, while adrenaline rushes through my whole body.

Moments later I grab a branch in front of me with both of my hands and immediately it starts to bend down from my forceful landing. Suddenly it releases the sound, which lately I started to hate the most.

*Crack* , *Crack*

‘Shit...’

Not waiting to see if it will truly break I release my grip on it and fall down.

Luckily there is another branch big enough to hold my weight just below my feet.

“Ha, ha, ha… This is awesome… With this training my agility is growing up really nicely, my skill in tree climbing is becoming a top notch and most importantly I can't remember when I had so much fun.” I speak to myself preparing to climb higher for another jump.

****

“Well it’s time to head home.” I say standing at the top of a giant tree, which might be close to 50 meters in height, while looking towards the already setting sun.

Suddenly I turn around and start to jump from one branch onto the other until I finally reach the ground.

I shoot a few glances around, inspecting if there are no uninvited guests, rub the left cheek of my butt, which is still somewhat sore from the hard landing earlier today, and start to head home.

“Haa… And again a long winter starts…” I say feeling a cold breeze.

“Summer is way too short for my taste…” I grumble as I walk leisurely towards the road.

*Grrr*

“Oh... The dragon inside my stomach is already awakening. I better hurry up and start running hom…”

I don’t just stop speaking but rather I freeze completely in my track.

Looking directly ahead I notice something that shouldn’t be there.

What I see is a gorilla covered with a completely white fur standing in the middle of the road, with it’s back towards me.

‘Um… Should I run, should I stay, should I try fighting it or maybe it’s tamable?’ I’m a bit at a loss meeting a creature like this for the first time.

Suddenly it lifts it’s head and turns it towards me.

My eyes immediately go wide open as I notice it, which is a slightly different from what I remember a gorilla should have.

Instead of a normal monkey like face it has a two quite huge, dark blue in color horns, protruding from it’s forehead, a sharp teeth, which looks like a sharks, with no lips to cover them, and no eyes… Seriously not even one and instead of them there is just a two shallow dents.

But the most disturbing fact is what it has between it’s teeth.

‘It’s a frigging arm, with fingers and all. Except maybe just one tiny detail: where the fuck is the rest of the body below the elbow?… Ah… Sorry… I didn’t notice it is lying below the creatures front feet.’

“It’s run… Definitely run…” I say and immediately dart back into the forest.

*Ggraawwwlll*

I hear a loud roar from behind me.

“Fuck. It’s just my luck to run into Onorilu.” I say remembering it’s name from school.

Apparently it’s an old name meaning ‘The eyeless hunter’. It has no eyes, but it’s control over presence is unparalleled, to the point that it can see/feel even better than a normal being. What’s more it’s very strong. The youngsters already are around level 300 and as they matures over the course of many decades they can even reach the level close to 600.

“Shit… I didn’t sense it at all… Fuck.” I say running as fast as I can between the trees and all the bushes around.

*Crack* *Snap*

I hear some branches breaking.

‘Damn it! Seriously? It’s already in the forest? There was like a one hundred meters of plain field between the road and the woods.’ I curse in my head.

I remember teacher saying that it is extremely fast in a straight line. That’s why instead of using my skill ‘So long sucker’, which most likely would have won me just a couple of minutes, I ran back into the forest hoping to gain some distance between us here.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck… I can hear him getting closer…’ I curse some more.

Noticing that plan A, which is me trying to outrun it in the forest, is pretty much doomed to meet the fate of Titanic, I decide to initiate plan B.

‘Let’s see if ‘Project: Tarzan’ is useful.’ I think darting my eyes around and scanning the surroundings.

Finally my eyes lock onto the thick branch which is growing about three meters above the ground.

As I get closer to it, I jump up with all my might and grab that branch with my bare hands, just like an eagle grabs it’s prey. After all a single mistake may cost me my life.

Once my hands are firmly holding the branch, I immediately pull myself up.

Standing on it I don’t even look back but instead I keep on climbing higher as fast as I can.

“Phew… God that was scary.” I finally say feeling somewhat safer at the top of the tree.

I look down and notice my pursuer standing still with it’s head turned directly at me.

‘Ugh… That creature looks like it just escaped from someone nightmare.’ I think as a few shivers run down my spine.

*Ggraawwwlll* Suddenly that nightmare opens it’s bloodied teeth and releases a piercing roar.

While my ears are still ringing from it’s scream, the beast doesn’t waste time and charges towards the trunk of the tree I’m currently sitting in.

“No, no, no, no, no… You can’t be thin…” I’m cut in the middle of the sentence as the tree suddenly violently shakes.

*Crack* *Crack*

A very disturbing sounds reach my ears from down below and before I can think of what to do, the tree starts to slowly tilt to one side, gaining more and more speed with every passing moment.

“I will not die here.” I shout and jump away.

I try to grab other branches with my hands while falling, but they all are too thin and break under my weight. Luckily at least they slow down my fall.

*Crack* *Crack* *Snap* *Thump*

‘Come on, come on.’ I’m still trying to grab one or the other branch as I hear that the tree behind me already hit the ground.

Without any luck a moment later, with quite a number of scratches on my body, I also hit the ground.

Even thought I feel some numb pain all over me, I don’t pay much attention to it and instead try to get up back on my feet as soon as possible.

But as I’m preparing to flee again, from the corner of my vision I notice that the bastard is already close by.

My body automatically moves by instinct turning slightly sideways and lifting my left arm to shield more vital parts of my body.

Before I can process of what’s going on I’m already hit by a huge force, so huge that it literally sends me flying back.

“Agghhhh…” I shout from pain, as the distance between me and my attacker just keeps on getting bigger and bigger.

Suddenly I crash into something hard, most likely a tree.

Since I had strapped my axe on my back, the pain is even greater than it would have been.

*Thump*

And just like that I limply fall down on the ground.

For a moment I just lay there hardly even breathing before my brain starts to register what just happened.

*Cough* *Cough*

I cough a little because I breath in some thick liquid.

“Ahhh…A… Ah…” I want to scream from all the pain, but just a low sound leaves my mouth.

‘Need to get up.’ A single though emerges in my mind.

“Ahhh…” Once more only a muffled sound leaves my mouth as I want to shout.

Tears start to run down my cheeks, as I try to stand up. But my body doesn’t listens to what I want, especially my left arm, which completely has lost all the strength in it.

After a few failed attempts to stand up I give up and just sit with my back to the same trunk of tree which caused me so much pain.

“*Cough* I… must… look… like shit… Ha, ha.. Ughh.” I say looking at my somewhat limp left hand and bloodied clothes, while feeling some of it still in my mouth.

‘One of my eyebrow must be cut, since I can feel some of the blood trickling down over my eye.’ I think feeling somewhat annoyed because it’s hard to keep that left eye open.

I spit some more blood out from my mouth and it lands directly on my chest, but I hardly care about it. Instead I lift my head to look where that eyeless monster is.

Because of the teary eyes everything is quite blurry, but I can see where it roughly is.

‘Looks like it’s just standing there.’

*Ggraawwwlll*

Suddenly it roars again and starts to charge at me once more.

‘I guess… This is the end.’ I resign to my fate and as I do my consciousness starts to fade.

Darkness begins to shroud my vision and the last thing I see is those two shadows rushing to rip me apart.

‘Two?’

== End of chapter 35 ==