Inhaling the air with the taste of rustic blood, I kicked the naked three lifeless bodies at front of me on the cobblestone road. “Gold buyers….”

“Huh? What’s that?

Ops… Eh…”Ah, nothing you should worry about, partner”

“uh, Right! Boss!”

Hah! Kneel for your boss!... Nevermind… “Douglas, report on what we have obtained”

“This is awesome! They had 30 Gold, 42 Silver and 30 Copper together!”

“Here, I trade you half of the gold and give you the rest of their equipment.” He cheerfully said and walked towards me.

Whoa… You have gotten good Douglas.... Striking the deal first is always good.

“It is only right that you get more as it was you who beated them afterall, Boss!” He added.

TradeAccept/Decline

“Accept”

TradeAccepted

Obtained MoneyTotal: 15 Gold, 21 Silver, 15 Copper

Acquired itemsDouglas have given you a lot of items

Nice! This is a great start for a newbie, “Lets see what we have here”.

… Normal leather chestpiece, pants, gauntlets, noob daggers, worthless materials, food… Worthless stuff!

Well at least there was two items that caught my mind.

Items acquiredEnchanted Leather armorArmor Type:LeatherPhysical Defense:15Durability:17/20Magical Defense:5Usage restriction:5 StrengthEnchanted leather armor for the use of stealth. Made in Winter’s Hold, also good for keeping heat within the body.Increases your chances not to be detected

Items acquiredUnknown AmuletArmor Type:AmuletPhysical Defense:UnknownDurability:17/20Magical Defense:UnknownUsage restriction:UnknownUnknownUnknown

Sigh, looks like I have to identify this later in a Wizard’s shop. At least I can equip the armor that was better than mine.

Equipping the new set of armor made out of leather, I saw that Douglas smiled happily as he snuggled with the bag of gold… Addiction is coming, I believed firmly.

“Douglas, lets go”

“Yeees!”

…

Walking off the snowy cobblestone road through a snowy path surrounded by the cold trees to a lumber mill with a herd of Black fluffy Winter oxes nearby, it looks like have finally arrived after at least an hour of walking.

Looking at the excited Douglas I asked “So… When do we start?”.

“Ah, well I am gonna go and get my equipment inside the house, just start chopping every tree with a cross on it ” He said and ran to the lumbermill.

“DO IT AT THE CROSSES Also!” He yelled from afar and went ínside the house.

“Okay…” I said as I walked towards a tall and thick tree near the lumber mill that had a cross.

Raising my steel axe that should be heavy but isn’t, thanks to my strength, I started to chop the tree with ease.

“Chop”

“Chop”

“Chop…. Pant…”

“Chop… pant.. pant”

Shit… I am tired already…. Breathing heavily with the vapor that rises from my mouth to my eyes, I sat down at front of the a quarter chopped tree and took a rest with the breeze.

A few seconds later, I stood up with new energized energy and started to chop again.

Obtained 1 Endurance

Heh… Here it comes! The payoff for being a low level that do physical work or any sort of stuff that could increase your stats! It’s easier to do it at a low level and at level 1? Hah!

Quickly I started to chop more while ignoring my heavily breathing.

After at least 15 chops to the thick tree, it started to crackle and bend over to the direction of the cross.

…. “Crash”... “Rustle”

Actually, thinking about it, chopping the tree the way I did, is kinda ineffective. So I sat down beside the tree, gazing upon the blue sky and white clouds blocked by the forest and waited for Douglas.

“Oi!” Someone said and patted my shoulder.

“Boss, you are as strong as ever!”

Heh, “Well I might be, but can you teach me how to properly chop down a tree?”

The man who stood at front of me cheered with delight “Yeah! I can, come with me, I’ll show you at the tree over there”

Nodding, I stood up, brushed my pants from the snow and followed Douglas a bit further away to another tree with a cross.

“This is how you do it” He said and started to raise his own axe, but stopped midway “Actually, maybe you should do it instead, since your chops will be more effective”

“Just chop like this” He said and started to draw colourless lines on the tree with his finger. A triangle like mark on the front and one behind the back but a bit above.

I nodded and started to chop just like he wanted me to. Just like that I did it fell down towards the ground in 6 chops compared to 15. Smiling with delight, Douglas patted my shoulder with a thumbs up.

Obtained 1 Endurance

Douglas thought you the basics of a lumberjackTree cutter - beginner 1

“Well, lets do it like this instead. You chop, I bring the fallen trees to the lumber mill with the help of the Oxes and we’ll do it until twilight or until we get hungry.

“Right” I answered and sat down to take a rest for a while, as he quickly worked his way with the Oxes.

Heh… I might be slow, I might be half fat, my endurance might be bad. The game might try to force me to take a rest, but that is not the way I am in real life!

Standing up with my new fuel of fire, I chopped every tree with a cross nearby. As I did, I saw that Douglas started to sweat as he quickly tried to pick up his face, together with the herd of Oxes.

While I chopped, the windows of stat increase started to appear now and then. But it got to the point that it started to get annoying instead as it obstructed my view. So I turned it off and kept chopping while breathing heavily to my death.

It took me around 2 minute to chop one tree, rather it actually takes 30 seconds, but because the fallen trees obstructed my chopping, I had to wait for Douglas to drag away the fallen trees or it would be a chore to. This gave me enough time to rest before chopping the next tree.

…

One hour later in the cold wind.

“Stop!” Douglas shouted to me who was about to cut another tree.

“What’s wrong?” I shouted back.

“We need to get the batch back to the town, or the mill will be full and I can’t work properly”

Oh… “Ah, yeah I’m coming!” I said and ran to Douglas who was drenched in sweat even though it was cold.

“Pant, pant, pant” Douglas let out as he stood beside me with a large wooden wagon and two strong Oxes at front of it.

“Ah, Good work Tony, I didn’t expect us to be able to get this amount of wood this quick.”

My nose got longer, I crossed my arms, “Well it’s me after all”.

“Hah, as expected of boss… I believe it will take 1 month if we keep this up” He said with a smile.

“Well, help me load the wagon with wood” He said and beckoned me into the mill.

…

Huh? “Holy god, that’s a lot of it…”

Looking at all the wood in pieces stacked in a large row, I could help but feel awesome that 2 people did this in 1 hour. Douglas must be pretty skilled to be able to bring the wood back and cut them to pieces that quick. As expected of someone who worked solo for some reason.

“Yeah, all thanks to you” He said and patted my shoulder once again with a thumbs up.

With a shrug I said “ Well , lets get back to working then, shall we?”

“Yeah!”

…

After loading the wagon with at least around a ton of wood, the big and muscular Winter Oxes struggled on the path of cobblestone back to the town, with me and Douglas relaxing there and inhaling the sweet fragrance of the chopped wood behind us...

Should I go buy something when I get back? No… “Douglas, I think we should spend some coins on a new and bigger wagon and someone who can transport it back for us”

“...”

Huh? “What’s wrong, why so quiet?”

“Actually… Before it was only me, we did have a few workers, working together” He sulked.

“Everything went well until one day, wood always got stolen by bandits on the way back”

“It went on for a year and the town was in dire need of wood as the cold will quickly take over if we didn’t use the fireplaces”

“One day, my father decided to escort the wagon out of nowhere and we found out that the bandits worked together with the workers… Since then, he didn’t trust them anymore”

… That’s deep, but a bad reason, lol…Old man are you trying to kill your son early?

“Well, if you say so… Lets just buy a bigger wagon then”

“Yeah, I guess…”

Heh… “And, buy a few workers…”

“But!”

“No buts, if your old man can’t trust his own people, he shouldn’t be a guardsmen”

“Besides, we have a lot of gold, just don’t brag about it and no harm will happen”

Looking eachother, he started to smile cheerfully.

“Heh, yeah boss!”

“Thud” “Rumble”

What the… “Did we hit something?”

“No idea”

As the trees moved according to the wagon, I looked behind and saw that we drove right over the dead corpses buried in snow of the bandits from before… Ops…

“It’s nothing, just a stone on the road” I shrugged as I said.

“Ah, okay…”

“...”

“By the way, you don’t seem to be an adventurer who started his adventure this morning”

“How are you so skilled?” He asked as he inspected my body.

Heh, “Well, I used to be an adventurer until I took an arrow in the knee”

“What? You got married?”

Coff, “No, I literally took an arrow in the knee…”

“Oh… But you don’t look so old. How old are you if you don’t mind me asking, boss?”

“18”

“What?! When was it you started to adventure then?”

“7”

“Whoa! So young! And stronk!” he said as he started to flex his arm in amazement.

Kekekeke….

Looking at him believing my lie so easily, I couldn’t hold my chuckle in anymore.

“Hahaha, I’m sorry Douglas, I actually started to adventure today. Just kidding with ya.”

I patted his back who looked away bright red.

“...”

“Besides, it looks like we have arrived”

As the wagon pulled by the oxes got out of the lushy and snowy forest, we looked up at the tall stone wall that rose to the clouds, as the flags waved happily with the strong wind as it blew by.

…

“RAISE THE GATES!” The heavily fortified metal door rose as our wagon filled with wood and a few snow on top waited outside patiently.

“Tom, Jerry go!” And so the oxes waltzed inside with the wagon… You named the Oxes TOM and Jerry?!...

Anyways, we stopped right next to the gate inside the walls where it seemed that my partner started to look around for someone. After a while he then said “Tony, meet me here after I while, I’ll go get a new wagon, a few workers and deliver the wood to the Major who seems to not be here because we are early”

“Oh, right. I’ll take a walk around the town then”

“Yeah, do that” He said with a smile and rode with the wagon away.

So… What do I do now…

...