“I’ve got it!”

I look up from the mass of wolf bodies to see Baila running towards us waving a knife…yes, we all chipped in 28 copper to buy a knife…that’s over half my money gone.

So while Baila bought the knife, the pinky duo and I kept destroying wolves. Apparently they have 20 strength...I can’t imagine how nasty a 50 strength would be.

In the 30 minutes that it took Baila to get the knife, we managed to kill another 8 packs of wolves, so we’ve got 35 wolves to skin (1 became unskinnable since its body is in half…).

Reaching us, Baila chucks the knife at me.

*Stab*

-3

“Ow, hasn’t your mother ever told you to not throw sharp things?”

At least it got stuck in my open hand; I’ll count that as a catch…

“…sorry” She looks down and starts making circles with a foot as if she’s being told off, well she is.

“Ok, Baila you may want to look away for this”

“No, I should be ok”

“Oook”

I turn back to pinky duo; they’ve taken a wolf out of the pile and laid it in front of me.

Kneeling down I begin to skin the wolf...by sticking the knife in it and moving it around?

PELT RUINED

…

..

.

I don’t really know how to skin things…

“…” Everyone pretty much facepalms at me trying to skin.

“Whoops…oh, Baila!”

“What?” She answers with a bit of fear…I think she knows what I’m thinking.

“When you kill your rabbits at home…who skins them?”

…

..

.

“…I do…”

“Hehe haha HAHA!!” Perfect…haven’t you ever heard never to wake the sleeping dragon (or kick it in its vital spot in this case…)?

I’m not the most vengeful person but there are some exceptions…

Everyone cringes to one or both of the facts; my villain laugh and Baila’s quite brutal hobby(?).

Then we all look at Baila.

Standing up, I wipe the blood from my hands onto my clothes and once reaching Baila, get down on one knee and offer the knife.

“Your morning chores need to be done Baila”

“Don’t make it sound like it’s something normal…even though it is!” She pouts and I feel her shaky hand take the knife.

Honestly, revenge isn’t the only reason why I’m making her do the skinning…

She heads over to the wolf and with much hesitation, she kneels down.

Slowly, she draws the knife across the wolf’s stomach and as if being unzipped, the fleshy meat

underneath is revealed.

Once a long line runs from navel to nape (entire body), she opens up the wolf’s legs.

With that done, she turns the wolf round and takes its pelt off like she’s taking off a jacket…

Damn, she’s good at this. And she’s not freaking out…But then again, the gut shower was pretty unique…

Within a decent 5 minutes, the wolf has become completely red and sinewy while Baila holds its pelt, with little damages.

“I…liked to make rabbit fur shoes so I was careful when skinning…”

…

..

.

She’s pretty pragmatic indeed.

She gives the pelt to PinkyS, who whistles at it.

“High quality, that’s some good quality pelt…Just how many rabbits have you skinned?”

“Hmm…one every Christmas, new year, thanksgiving, easter and then I’m asked to skin the ones from my neighbours and family…About 50 a year?”

…

..

.

I didn’t think she’d be so…methodical answering that question. We really didn’t need to know you eat rabbits in holidays, are you a rabbitarian or something?

Anyways, we stop questioning her since she’s the only one with skills here. Letting her continue work, we all sit around doing nothing…Not!

I ask PinkyS to help me train dodging and she nods at the idea.

PJ can just train climbing or something, which she does actually.

PinkyS and I go a small distance away so as not annoy the others.

Facing off PinkyS who is already bouncing on the balls of her feet…

-1

Wow, apparently clothes get ripped just like real life and in a good way too! I guess after fighting so many wolves it had quite the effect...

Dammit brain! Wiping off the blood, I close my eyes. This is going to be the only way I’m going to be able to fight.

“hehe. Don’t you like what you see?”

“It’s hard to handle” I say truthfully, I mean she can see that she has clawmarks on her shirt, strategically hiding the important part but still revealing enough to make me feel a little lightheaded.

“Heh. Well if you keep your eyes closed you may die and if you open them you’ll die. What a hard situation for you” She whispers into my ear. Dammit don’t get so close when I can’t see you!

What happened to the kind PinkyS that I thought she was? She seems quite evil, toruturing my mind so…

“Left”

“Huh?”

*Whoosh*

I feel the air whoosh past the left side of my face

…

..

.

I feel that I could have just died then.

“Right”

I immediately move myself to the left and I feel the wind brush past my right.

Ok, so that’s how we’re doing this.

...

Standing there moving my head the opposite direction of what she calls, I’m pretty good at it after 30 minutes; but I think she had slowed down her punches somewhat.

…

..

.

When’s the next one?

I immediately hit the floor but I don’t feel any wind above me…huh

“Pfft”

“Oh shut up, I thought you were going to kill me”

“I thought about it but I didn’t do it because I thought you wouldn’t be able to dodge it. Guess I was wrong: you can kiss the ground just fine”

“Ha ha”

“Hehe, stop hugging the ground, we got some more dodging to do”

“Ok ok” I get off the ground and stand up facing the direction of her voice.

“Ok, this time you’ll attack me”

“I can’t even look; it’ll be a bit hard”

“Well I can’t guarantee you’ll touch me, but if you do…who knows where you’ll touch”

…

..

.

Aha, so an all free pass then? A man can always dream of such a thing…

Open hand, I push out but feel only thin air.

“At least you aren’t dense, just pervy”

“Hey, blame yourself you man-torturer!”

"Heh"

I lunge towards her voice but once again nothing but air…

Hmm, time to actually use some skills.

I stand there first using my hearing…A light breath from the right.

Lunge!

Miss, damn.

Lunge!

Miss.

Lunge!

Miss…

Damn.

Hearing only shows the general direction, it’s not good enough…

Back to standing immobile in the middle.

“Given up already? I thought you’d have a lot more…vigor than that, especially after me giving you this free pass”

I don’t know how I thought this person was kind when she’s clearly pure evil dangling such treats just out of my reach…

Since hearing is no good, I move onto Smell.

*Sniff*

…

..

.

I smell blood…or is it just my clothes?

No, the smell just move slightly to my left.

Lunge!

Miss, but I felt fabric!

To my right!

Lunge!

Wow, skin feels so real in this game…only brushed past her arm though, I think…

Wait...the smell is gone.

Hmm…ah!

I lick a finger and hold it out, turning until I feel a chill from the wind.

Lunge to the left behind me!

…Miss, damn. But I could feel that enveloping heat through the fabric I just barely touched…Only a little more, a little more.

Seeing as though she can’t stay downwind from me, she starts running around me putting her smell literally everywhere.

However I can still hear you!

Lunge!

Damn, only the fabric at her back…

What can I do to catch her? I can’t use sight, smell or hearing...and touch and taste…well I can’t do anything with them (as much as I’d like to…).

“Pinky”

“Yeeees?”

“Can we take a break from me trying to hit you and go back to me dodging?”

“Hmm, ok? I don’t see why though”

“I need some time to think and plan”

“Ok, was getting bored dodging your terrible attacks”

I swear she’s sticking her tongue out at me but I don’t dare to open my eyes to confirm.

We get back to me dodging her punches while she calls out the direction. She’s actually quite nice and is punching where she says, partially because we both know I might die if she hits me…

“Left-Right-Left-Uppercut-Left-Kick-Kick-Kick”

She starts adding in some kicks and more advanced(?) attacks which aren’t just the basic left and right.

She’s still doing it quite slowly but without my sight it’s still quite tough.

After a long time, I can dodge the attacks proficiently without a single injury.

“Left”

-8

Jesus, that was just a graze!

She seems to have sped up somewhat and her attack came almost simultaneously with the words…

Calming myself, I try to sense the air flow and the movement of her heat as it comes towards me.

Success, somewhat.

I feel my imminent death so I kiss the ground.

“good dodge, but please don’t make out with the ground in front of me, it’s disgusting”

“Oh stop complaining, its either this or I’m kissing death”

I stand back up and once I’ve healed back to full a couple of seconds later, we start all over again.

“Right”

-7

Ow, but slightly better.

Heal and try again.

“Right”

-7

Damn

Again

“Left”

-5

Ok, much better…

We continue this left-right punches for some time till I can finally dodge the blows as she says the direction.

Guess heightening senses works.

She stops once we reach that point and she plops onto the ground.

Huffing, I cuddle the ground too and pick out a piece of bread to refill my satiety.

“How long have we been doing this?” I ask curious.

“About…2 hours? I don’t know why you haven’t gotten dodge yet, maybe because the attacks were too slow?”

“Any faster and you would have killed me so i’m not complaining. Though now we should be able to speed up the attacks to the point where the system recognizes it as a dodge”

“Yep. Just don’t die on me!”

“I will try my best, but don’t try to kill me”

“I don’t promise anything”

Oh that’s kind of you PinkyS.

After catching my breath, we resume this dodging training.

…

“Left”

I dodge to the right feeling the air blow past me a lot stronger than when we first started.

“Right”

Dodge to the left

“Sweep”

Jump into the air and then land safely on the ground.

Bending back I feel hot wind blow above me, missing my face by an inch.

Jumping back I feel the wind sweep in front of me.

Right, Left, Duck, Jump, kiss the ground

…

..

.

What just happened?

“Hmm guess I was right” Right about what?

…

..

.

“Were you trying to kill me?”

“If you hadn’t dodged…yes. Although you dodged beautifully back then”

“Thank you? Though seriously, I don't want to die”

“It was just a theory that you’d dodge instinctively, I mean you’ve been doing so for pretty much 2 hours now, so I figured you’d get a little bit used to it”

“I…guess so?”

“Though I only used 20% of my usual speed so it doesn’t really account to much”

Praising me and then scorning me, she'd actually make a decent army officer...though I thought I was just doing some light dodging fun with her...

Anyways, I get back up and after a minute break we continue with the strange dodging session.

Another 20 minutes later PJ comes into the surroundings, I know because her footsteps are light compared to others and don’t make much noise; must be due to her size.

“Sister, Baila’s only got 3 more wolves to go, we need to collect a couple more”

“Ok, we need another 6 right?”

“No, another 8, she messed up on 2”

“That’s fine, let’s all collect the wolves while she finishes the other 3.

I feel a hot sensation arrive at my face and before I can do anything the wind crashes onto my face...

Ok so that’s 100% speed…if she’d used that I’d be dead before I could react…scary.

once the heat has retreated, PinkyS and PJ are walking away.

I join them, decently reluctantly, to kill a couple of wolves.

“Oomph”

…

..

.

Ah right, forgot to open my eyes…

I open my eyes while rubbing my forehead. Don’t walk in a forest with closed eyes…

Getting back off I ignore their chuckles and go find some wolves.

…

We quickly find a pair and the pinky duo rush out, punching both to death within seconds.

However they howl out and the sounds of incoming wolves fill my ears.

*Smack*

-1

I kiss the ground before I know it and I feel something sharp brush lightly over my back.

Ow, why do I have to dodge by hurting myself?

The wolf that pounced over me quickly registers it missed me, but that’s all it does. As it turns towards me, I feel it zoom above me once more and crash into a nearby tree.

I think if I play dead I might be more useful.

We learnt through the hunting of the other packs that I can’t really do anything but be bait; because wolves always go for the weakest looking one…

So when we attack a wolf or two, the reinforcements always come for me.

True to the theory, the other wolf which I hear is behind me, pounces at me as well. But with a sickening crunch, it falls onto me, unmoving.

Someone drags the wolf off me before I hear it being double tapped.

Removing my face from the ground I see the other 2 smiling at me

“Good bait”

Damn you strong people!

So after repeating the process once more, I somehow don’t get damaged to the point of almost death due to pouncing wolves. I’m extremely grateful for the dodging training PinkyS did with me.

Returning back to Baila’s spot, I see a surprisingly clean area. Well thank god for dissolving particles, or this place would be littered with red, sinewy wolves…

Baila looks quite tired as she’s on her 34th wolf.

Handing the remaining 8 to her, PinkyS and I go a distance to continue the dodging training.

Closing my eyes once more due to the almost ripped shirt (not that I’m complaining, it’s just that I might bleed to death), we continue the training.

Left, right, down, jump, back, left, left, back, duck, jump, right...

...

After another 30 or so minutes she’s sped up somewhat and after a couple of near-death grazes I’ve finally reached the 40% speed mark, according to her.

A couple of minutes ago, she stopped throwing attacks and chuckled. Asking why, I found out that she had just gained the skill: Holding back…

I finally figured out why I didn’t die when she hit me with the grazes. Even though they’re just grazes, with the strength she has she could easily kill me with one of them.

I’m guessing she isn’t the average Jane when it comes to fighting…I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not…

Anyways, we take a short break and in the last 10 minutes it’s my turn to attack.

Oh, I’ve been waiting for this!

I stand there immobile. First I get her general direction through her soft breathing, then I confirm a slightly better position with the slightly sweet smell of her sweat. Guess training with her close-by helped me distinguish her smell somewhat…

Ok, she’s over on the right around my 4 O’clock about…3 metres away.

Jumping towards that direction I hear her step right then bound left and I switch direction swiping my hand at the back of her shirt.

I stop and she does too…

Confirming her position 2 metres away to the 7 O’clock position, I charge once more.

Turning right once halfway I hear her surprised gasp as I intercept her and finally my hand clasps her supple skin

…

..

.

Dammit, why did she have to block with her arm? Although it’s a nice arm…I’m a failure.

Dropping to the floor, I wallow in self-regrets at being a bit too slow, for about 30 seconds.

I then get back up, determined to be just that tiny bit faster.

I confirm her, 12 O’clock, 3 metres.

Dash!

“Time-out”

I stop abruptly…What?

“PJ is coming in a second”

So free pass only when alone? I’m not sure what to…whatever, I’m not going to try delve into a woman’s mind…

“HEY you two. Baila’s almost done, let’s go”

Sure enough PJ comes close to my 6 from the trees and she quickly turns round, walking back the way she came.

PinkyS walks past me and I follow too.

Making our way to Baila she’s breathing quite heavily but I feel she’s decently happy with her work

“Ok, last one, almost done”

The *Shick* of the knife sounds as she quickly skins another wolf.

After a couple of minutes of hanging around…

“Ok, I’m all done. 13 high quality pelts and 27 mid quality”

Wow 13 high quality, that’s 1 in 3, pretty good I must say.

A couple of dinging window sounds appear as Baila trades the pelts to the Pinky duo.

After they complete the transaction, she heads over to me but she stops a little off from me for some reason.

“Umm, Joat?”

“What have I done wrong?”

“You-” She doesn’t get to finish the sentence for some reason.

You what? I…oh, that!

I open my eyes

…

..

.

Well having them firmly shut for a pretty long time is already making it sort of feel a bit natural to me.

“Right, sorry. Shall we trade?”

“Ok?!” She’s quite confused I can see that.

She trades 10 medium pelts with me and I feel very happy with the outcome; All I needed to do was be bait…actually that doesn’t make me feel happy.

Thinking about it, I’ve spent 5 hours in this forest and have gotten no skills…THAT’S HORRIFYING!

However when I think about it, I’ve only been in game 12 hours and have gotten a whole bunch of skills (I think 16, I might have lost count though). So overall…it’s ok.

I mean I haven’t gotten dodging even after almost 4 hours of it, but that’s because the attacks were a bit too slow…although I seemed to have improved in other areas somewhat…

I internally lick my lips.

Mmm, I can taste that delicious skill that is almost within my grasp.

Although I don’t think I can get it tonight.

We all quickly head out of the forest and sprint through the fields.

*Ding*

Congratulations! Through repeatedly running at high speeds you have learnt the skill: Sprint

SKILL:Sprint, Beginner [lvl1] 0% (Active)Sprinting is the art of running fast.

When used:

Movement speed increased by 1%

Agility bonus: n/a

Strength bonus: n/aCost: 25% extra satiety, Duration: Until cancelled, Cooldown: None

For learning a new skill, xp is increased by 5%

Woohoo!

I skip for a bit as I rejoice at Sprint, which I’ve finally gotten.

The sun is quite low now, almost sunset actually. Maybe in about an hour or so I believe.

A usual day would be 14 hours sun and 10 hours night, and it looks like this world does the same too (We logged on at 7 am, in-game, and its 7 pm in-game right now).

Heading into town, we run into Jenna’s leatherworking store and see that she’s surrounded by people once again…

About 10 people are surrounding her all offering their pelts to her in a mad rush

Hmm that’s not that many…

I open up the friends list and sure enough, 23 people are at level 1 again…those wolves are dangerous. Poor poor idiots. Though the numbers show that some people died doing other things.

Anyways, seems as though we’ve reached them at around the same time (I thought we were fast but I guess Baila’s just average speed then).

“QUIET!”

Everyone quietens...when the hot woman speaks one must listen no?

“LINE UP, AND I’LL INSPECT YOUR PELTS ONE BY ONE” She’s quite a loud woman it seems.

We all queue up (pushing slightly to get in-front of course). As we’re all queuing I get a lot of ugly looks from most of the people there…Why? Oh…I almost forgot that I’m surrounded by 2 well endowed rabbits and 1 loli rabbit…Hehe, I’m a lucky man indeed (though not sure about the loli rabbit…).

First in line is the blue lizard trio that I’ve seen before.

Jenna actually chops one of the blue lizard trio members on the head as he offers her the pelt.

“You call this a pelt? All I see is scraps of fur stuck together”

Ouch, that’s a bit harsh, no-one’s skinning can be that bad (lets forget my little experience with skinning earlier shall we).

“I’m sorry, we only had our claws to work with”

Nevermind, I believe that they only recovered scraps of fur stuck together…

Rejecting them, Jenna moves onto the skeleton and Zombie duo. Apparently someone decided to choose those sub-races. I mean the skeleton looks like he’s off to a Halloween party somewhat, but the zombie looks quite foul with a bit of rotting skin here and there. Oddly enough she doesn’t smell.

Yep it’s a she; undead women are not hot, not in the slightest…

“Hmm, better, I shall accept 10 from each of you”

The duo smile…eegh…as they take their pelts out of their inventory and give it to Jenna.

She tells them to sit down at the side and wait for a few minutes.

Next in line is a grey wolf-beastman with a silver line of fur going down his back.

Wow, skinning his own kind, that’s ironic…

His pelts are determined as good although rough around the edges, to which he gruffly replies that he only had claws. Damn, mid quality with just claws.

The blue lizard trio gives him the evil eye as they leave quite dissatisfied.

The group of 4 in front of us is obviously a random bunch of people who decided to join together (well, my party is technically the same but whatever): The party consists of a red-longbearded dwarf, a quite muscular human, a horse-beastman and a raven-beastlady…

Actually when I think about it, it’s not so much of a random party.

The way that all 3 of the guys talk nonchalantly with eachother shows that they actually know eachother pretty well. Also the fact, that whenever the raven-beastlady with sleek black hair opens her mouth, they all stop whatever they’re doing and listen intently...I did say that when a hot women speaks one must listen. These men do seem to follow that code...

I do feel that the raven-beastlady has a quite cold, mature aura surrounding her, especially fitting with her raven-like look.

Checking out the other 3 in a bit more detail I’m only a little surprised with some things; The dwarf is pretty straightforward normal, as well as the human. The only one that actually looks interesting is the Horse-beastman as he’s pretty much fully human except for his brown horse head…I swear I’ve seen that somewhere before…

I can’t quite put my finger on it but I think the horse-beastman has a horsehead for a reason.

While I’m checking them out, Jenna is checking their pelts.

“They are dexterously cut, albeit with minor faults, well done indeed”

The dwarf grins. Hmm, so I guess dwarf’s renown for delicate hands is true in this game.

She has the 4 sit down with the undead duo and the wolf

…

..

.

Ah, this is a problem…

I look at my party and they’ve all counted the numbers…

How are we going to get out of this?

…

..

.

Hmm…that might work.

I quickly grab Baila and move her to the back.

“Wha-?”

“Trust me, save the best for last right?” I give her a wink, hopefully she understands.

“…Ok, I get it, but if this doesn’t work, I’ll give you another trip to the ground”

I do not want that! Why are all the well endowed women by me dangerous in many different ways? The only one who appears mildly safe (although possibly crazy) is PJ...

Heading to 3rd in line I watch PinkyS and PJ get accepted with a “that was decently done, and I see some good work here too”

Going up to Jenna, I get on one knee and offer my pelts.

“To the lovely Jenna, please take this mild offering of pelts from this one”

“Hah, lovely words won’t get you nowhere…but these pelts will”

I get ushered over to the rest and I see the zombie grinning slightly at my behaviour. However everyone else gives me double the evil eye...be jealous all you want but those rabbit-beastladies are my party members.

I give a smile towards her before I turn back to see the fate of my grandsons lie in Jenna’s hands.

“Ok, that’s all the pelts I need”

She waves away Baila

…

..

.

I’m screwed

“Wait a second Jenna” Baila touches Jenna’s shoulder as she turns away.

“I don’t need any more pelts so don’t bother trying”

Jenna coldly turns away. I’m not sure whether it’s just her or the system…

Baila doesn’t look like she’s lost, as she takes out one of her pelts and plops it over Jenna’s turned shoulder

“Not even these?” Oh she’s truly devious…I made the right decision…phew.

…

..

.

“Go join the others, and give me all those exquisite pelts you have there” She looks very pleased indeed

“Yes Teacher Jenna!”

All the others look a little bit shocked at Jenna breaking the system’s rules (well she did make(?) the quest herself so she can break it freely?) and allow 11 people to join.

Certainly the quest finishes then.

Quest Completed: Wolf Pelt Gathering110/100 wolf pelts given to Jenna

11/10 people given a reward

Well, guess rules are made to be broken?

Although, it might have only worked because everyone else only gave mid quality and maybe a couple of high quality. Baila only gave high quality so it was sure to catch Jenna’s eyes.

Thank god that worked or I really would be making my party an all female group…

Baila half-skips towards us and sits down by me with her devious smile

“Ooh that was a close one”

Indeed it was.

“OK you lot, we’ll start tomorrow”

“…” Right it’s almost night time…Everyone looks a bit miffed buuut it looks like we all understand that it’s a bit late to start.

“Just how long is the session going to take?” The She-Zombie speaks up

“As long as it takes”

So basically a long time...great! That means this skill must be quite valuable if it takes a long time to get!

We all stand up and are quickly ushered out her house.

Getting outside, everyone disperses into the largeish crowd of people walking about town…

seems as though not many people are willing to go outside at night, understandably.

I turn back to my rabbit trio.

“So what are everyone’s plans for tonight?”

“I have to feed my rabbits and then take a little nap”

The pinky duo nod at the taking a little nap part…Guess playing for over 12 in-game hours (so only a bit over 6 hours RL) does tire a person…

BUT NOT ME!

I wave them goodbye as they tell me to meet up in 2 in game hours to do a couple of night things...

They go offline and my party is disbanded.

At least they said we’ll keep partying up. Thank god, because that would’ve sucked if I had to try find a new party.

Thinking about that…

I glance at my friends list to see a staggering 70 are online at the moment. Good, that means I can hopefully find someone to party with.

But first things first…how do I get money?

Hmm…maybe I can sell some berries to Nathan? Well in the least I’ll improve my herbalism skill.

That sounds like a plan.

Going to the gate I see quite a few people clogged around the Elder asking for quests. A lot of them I don’t immediately recognize, so they must be part of the hunting group.

“Ooh, finally I get to hunt wolves again!”

One excited youth’s voice is heard over the crowd. Ok, so everyone’s still pretty much working at the same pace.

Heading outside I quickly spot the…what the hell are those?

Just a question to you peeps who are reviewing..

Did you prefer the darker blue or is the lighter blue better for your eyes

(Honestly I'd love to do proper tables buuuut that's something that i'm going to have to learn and then spend literally hours creating the hundreds of tables T_T...someday...someday...)

Also thank you for reviewing and telling me useful stuff (or just saying thanks, every little helps!)