No matter how Rak hoped and tried to will these Igorras away, eventually he saw movements on the ground.

“Doesn’t look to bad, strange that they are so close to the road.”

“What do we do?”

“Got a weapon?”

“No.“

This time around Url didn’t hide his disappointment and gave Rak a disdainful look. With great reluctance he fished out an item and handed it to Rak.

“Get ready.”

Received Url’s spare spear

Url’s spare spear

Damage

15

23

Attack speed

1

1

Durability

25

22

Url’s hunting thrust

Cooldown

10s

Energy

5

Damage

115%

“Url’s hunting thrust is a simple maneuver that has a piercing effect and is adequate to tackle low level creatures.”

This is the first weapon Rak has come across, excluding simple blades used for cooking or harvesting utensils. Not only that, the weapon has an ability imbued in it. The only other way to get such abilities is by completing a ‘job’ or ‘class’ quest.

“Huh?”

Outside of burning anxiety, surprise bloomed in Rak’s heart. These Igorras are not even the size his head and they look rather harmless.

“I’ll try and keep the course, jab at them if they get close, careful not to fall off the carriage.”

One of the reasons Url wasn’t worried in the least, was because they still had the horses and the carriage. These Igorras are not smart animals and will attack the wheels or try to leap onto the carriage. Only they can’t jump so high and they can’t really do significant damage through impact alone. They are never considered dangerous as much as they are considered pests.

“One of them is coming, Url.”

“Stab it.”

Rak was unwilling to feel frightened at such a small furry animal, even though there were plenty of them and their muddied appearance made them somewhat scarier than their usual appearance.

“Don’t be little chicken shit Rak, just use the ability.”

A slight glow appeared on the spear before a feint image of the spear shot towards the targeted beast. The image pierced through it and into the ground behind it. The number fifteen floated above the creature for a moment before fading away.

“Eh?”

In truth, Igorras are the type of animal even children are capable of dealing with. In most villages there will be some sort of pest like the Igorras that a beginner like Rak would be tasked to deal with.

“It died just like that?”

“There are more of them coming.”

Rak found courage after seeing the creature fall instantly and steadied his hand, ignoring the notification he just recieved.

“How dare they scare me like that.”

After a moment's thought Rak became a bit arrogant, blowing air out of his nose and grunting he let the spear pierce forward. Unlike before this is just a simple thrust, relying on Rak’s strength and finesse.

“What?”

Looking to Url for an answer what he saw was another disdainful gaze and he could practically hear the words, “you can only do this much damage?”

“Shit.”

The number seven flew above the little Igorra’s head. Leaving it with just a sliver of its total of eleven health. It also got knocked back and could barely stand, it no longer chased and instead whined desperately.

“Is the spear supposed to do at least fifteen damage?”

Understandably, Rak is confused. The spear does indeed possess the capabilities of bolstering Rak’s attacks but most of it depends on him executing the attack properly, his attributes and also on the creatures defensive capabilities.

Feeling indignant, Rak put more effort into his next thrust, and was elated to see the number eleven rise up. He glanced at Url victoriously as the creature had died in one hit. But what he met with was a face of indifference.

Everytime Rak used the spear’s ability, a creature died, and every third of his own thrusts managed to kill one of the chasing Igorras. All in all it was abysmal performance but still adequate due to the crying Igorras which stalled quite a few of them, who tended the wounded beasts.

“They should stop chasing us in a moment.”

A moment passed and indeed the Igorras turned tail and ran back. Url’s knowledge of local wildlife can’t be called insignificant. In general, all creatures have a range in which they stay, some can be tens of kilometers while others are just tens of meters.

Even though Rak’s performance was lackluster, Url’s impression of him went a bit up. From what Url understands, Rak is some type of merchant that doesn’t even carry a weapon, and yet managed to kill well over ten Igorras on his first try.

“This your first time hunting?”

“This can be considered hunting?”

“Yes, first time holding a spear as well.”

“That reminds me, hand it back.”

To Rak´s dismay, Url never intended to give away the spear. If it wasn’t for Url himself having plans of his own, he would’ve went out in the field and slaughtered those Igorras himself.

“I wonder if I can get him to sell it to me.”

After experiencing the feeling of combat, a weird one on a carriage combat, but combat nonetheless. Rak felt it wasn’t too bad and that maybe he should try some casual hunting of his own once one or two his startups could run themselves.

One of the key aspects of becoming a ‘startup’ guy was to make sure everything ran by itself, and that he’d only have to check and balance some expenditures versus a final income. This not the best or most perfect way to assure the success of a business but it allows him to focus on many different businesses.

“Woah. Shhhhh, easy girls. Easy now girls.”

“What is it?”

“See over there?”

“Eh? No?”

“By the creek, by those stalks of river cane.”

Along the creak there are large patches of river cane, its texture green at parts and yellow at others, most of the time, a blend of both.

“Those green and white bamboo looking things?”

Url ignored Rak’s question and just handed the reins to the carriage to him.

“Hold this, If I’m lucky I’ll only be ten or fifteen minutes.”

Helpless, Rak sat there limply holding onto the reins. He saw Url slowly go out of focus, which was bizarre, and before he knew what happened he couldn’t see Url anymore.

“How the hell did he do that?”

Unlike more nefarious professions or those arcane ones, the hunter is closer to the druid in its stealth. The hunter’s stealth is more in alignment with its environment and makes it easier to mask his scent, allowing him to walk from up wind of some animals.

This doesn’t mean that his scent vanishes, but that it becomes something neutral, something animals do not have any developed senses to be alert against.

“He’s done?”

Url’s figure blurs back into vision by the river cane, in his hand a small green and yellow animal that’s struggling to no avail.

“Alright, I need to subdue it, so you get us going.”

“What?”

“Lift the reins and slightly whip them down.”

Unwilling to take another of Url’s disdainful looks, Rak lifted the reins and snapped them down. The two horses neighed and looked back, their eyes filled with questions. Due the nature of Chaos theory, not anyone could just command a carriage like that.

“It didn’t work.”

“Do it again but a little bit faster.”

After numerous attempts the two horses reluctantly began walking forward at a snail like pace. But to Rak this was a major improvement, he no longer saw those horses look back at him with questions that he felt were more like them mocking him.

“It worked!”

“Good, now do the same thing twice in succession.”

Feeling confident, Rak whipped the rains two times. To his dismay the two horses immediately stopped moving and looked back. Rak frowned deeply and he became a bit pale.

“Am I moving backwards? Why did they stop.”

“Alright start from the beginning. Whip the reins once and then two times.”

Rak didn’t turn back, in the carriage Url was doing something to subdue the river cane animal, Rak had no idea what he was doing and focused on the carriage.

A more experienced carriage driver could make the animals go to whatever speed they were capable of with a simple motion, and yet here Rak was struggling to get them moving to a even a jogging pace.

“I’ll be here til nightfall.”

A rough hour of whipping the reins and countless bewildered looks from the horses has made Rak numb and his forearms weak.

“I did it!”

“Good job.”

An immense feeling of pride and accomplishment is washing over Rak, a degree of which he has never felt before. Not when he started up his first business, not when the finished school, not when he lost his virginity, not ever has he felt like he really worked for something as hard. If he had a phone on him, he’d call his father and tell him about this excitedly.

“Alright, the girls should do most of the work, but make sure they don’t veer of the road, it’ll be a hassle if the carriage gets stuck in the loose and wet dirt.”

“Got it.”

It was to Rak’s fortune that the original path between the two villages was built to be wide enough for two carriages to drive side by side, as his driving has him swerving left and right constantly.

“Why doesn’t it go straight?”

Seeing as Url wasn’t making any comments Rak could only continue to keep the carriage straight. At least the horses were moving at a good pace, not nearly as fast as when Url was driving but this much speed is already a huge accomplishment for Rak.

“That should do it.”

“You’re done taming it?”

“No, I just subdued it so I would be able to tame it later.”

“What do you mean?”

The usual uninterested voice coming from Url was a bit more outspoken after subduing the river cane animal.

“If you don’t subdue the animal after you capture it, it will much more difficult to have it get used to you later on. Unless you’re breeding war animals, this is something you have to do.”

“Oh.”

Rak shook his head in his heart, he was already used to people in Chaos theory talk about things in such a way. He took it to be an esoteric thing at first and later realized it was just that Chaos theory is still a virtual world with its own means of teaching things to people.

“You want the reins?”

“You got novice carriage driver yet?”

“No?”

“Consider it a gift, I’ll help you get your novice.”

Rak was a bit confused for a moment before sudden clarity hit him. There are no horse riding instructors in town or carriage drivers for that matter. But what he didn’t know is that Url has expended a lot of effort hunting that river cane beast and then subdue it. In truth, Url is just exhausted.

It should have been about an hour or two to Gorg from Horst but it took Rak, with Url’s occasional instructions, three and a half to get there. Just outside Gorg, Rak received a notification which made his eyes light up like torches in the night.

Gained novice horse rider

Gained novice horse carriage driver

While the passive abilities he just gained are exclusive to horses, it will not take too long before they become generalized to all beasts in the same size category as horses.

Character

Status

Abilities

Active

Passive

Basic stamina

novice horse rider

While riding horses, maneuverability is increased by 15%

While riding horses, movement speed is increased by 10%

novice horse carriage driver

While driving horse carriage, maneuverability is increased by 10%

While driving a horse carriage, movement speed is increased by 5%

Inventory

Already Rak can feel his control over the carriage become easier, the things he tried to do came a bit easier and he saw horses sped up a bit.

“You got novice rider then?”

“Yes! And novice horse carriage driver”

“Of course, a carriage driver can’t be learned without the other.”

Had Rak already learned to be a novice rider, he would have had a much easier time becoming a novice carriage driver. Not only that, if he hadn’t had Url giving him instructions for approximately two hours, it may have taken more than two days to achieve this much.

While this skill is not priceless, and not even that difficult to attain, it can still take considerable time and for people at this stage in time it can be considered expensive.

“Alright, give me the reins. We’ve wasted enough time.”

After reluctantly giving away the reins, Url and Rak quickly found the village ‘centre’ hower due to the time, it was already filled to the brim with outgoing villagers.

“Will you come in this time? Grab something to drink, maybe something to eat?”

“No, I’ll wait here and keep the girls company.”

Rak could only enter the lively village centre by himself. Upon entering the heavy air was the first thing to hit him and then the numerous gazes on him which made his skin crawl.

“Who is this?”

“Wit’s kid?”

“Wit’s kid is eleven.”

“And?”

“How is that an eleven year old?”

“What do you know? Kids grow up so fast these days.”

“Alright, you should slow down on the drinking.”

Various conversations began sprouting up but eventually most of them went back to their own little worlds. Rak went straight to the kitchen entrance, like in Horst there is a window showing the insides of the kitchen, only a tad smaller.

“Oh? Good eve, mister?”

“Abstinence.”

Rak had already resigned himself to the nickname he chose for himself, seeing as contracts would use that name without consulting him.

“How can I help mister Abstinence?”

“I’m looking for the owner.”

“The owner. Uh. I guess the village head is the owner. But Klaus manages the the village centre.”

“I’d like to meet Klaus then.”

“He’s over there.”

The working village bar maid pointed to a table with three men chatting enthusiastically while partaking in the bar’s finest ale.

“Which one?”

“The one with the rusty beard.”

“The bald one?”

“He doesn’t like to be called balled.”

Rak gave the barmaid a knowing look and went to seek Klaus.

“Not too surprising.”

“Don’t act so big, you’ve never faced Igorras that big.”

“Enough with your giant Igorras, who hasn’t hunted Igorras before?”

Listening to the three men bicker Rak felt a bit awkward. He was already standing just by the table but the men were really into their nonsense. It wasn’t until someone bottomed out their large mug and searched for the barmaid that one of them noticed Rak standing there.

“Who is this?”

“Who?”

“This young boy.”

“Oh. Is it Murfie’s kid?”

“Oh Murfie’s kid?”

“Ah. Ko-. No Can? Murfie Can.”

“Ah! Of course little Murfie Can.”

“What do you need little Can?”

Rak felt sweat roll down his back and he was thinking about abandoning his plans and come back at another time.

“Well spit it out then. What’s he standing there all quiet like?”

“Probably shy.”

“Don’t tell me he’s mute!?”

“I’m not Murfie Can, I’m Abstinence and I need to talk to Klaus for a few minutes.”

“What business do you have with Klaus?”

“Whatever business you have with Klaus is directly related to us.”

“What nonsense are you speaking? How is my business any of you two idiots business?”

After a harrowing struggle, Rak finally managed to peel Klaus from the wretched hands of those two older men. Even as they walked away towards the kitchen’s door, he could hear them hollering to not keep secrets from his friends.

“Mister Klaus, I am mister Abstinence and I have recently set up a brewery in Alp Town.”

“A brewery?”

“Abstinence brewery. And I want to offer you the same deal I offered the guys down in Horst.”

Just like in Horst, it didn’t take much convincing to settle on a contract. Rak finalized the deal after a sober assistant of Klaus ran her eyes over the deal. This assistant is the same barmaid spoke to earlier.

Once the deal was done, Rak quickly went outside and jumped on the carriage. No words needed to be said, Url snapped the reins and the carriage took of running. Their speed enough to make Rak feel his head pull back.

“It can go this fast?”

Url decided he’d go their fastest maintainable pace, considering his girls needed the exercise anyway and they’d get a good reward afterwards. Just like anything else, these horses need to train to become stronger.

In Url’s fashion he didn’t say anything useless and only focused on the path. The illuminating star brilliance made everything look rather desolate but beautiful nonetheless.

“This isn't too bad.”

Finally getting some time to relax, Rak leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment before checking his status.

Character

Status

Constitution: 87/100%

Fatigue: 52/100%

Hunger: 15/100%

Clarity: 74/100%

Stamina: 99/100%

Abilities

Inventory

“My fatigue really dropped during the hunting. Looks like people who fight need to do more than just buy a house and a bed.”

There are endless ways to manipulate various statuses, but fatigue is the most cumbersome in Rak’s current position. There are also multiple ways to increase the numerical value of each status, constitution and stamina being the easiest.

“I need something to eat when we get back to Alp.”

The rest of the journey back to Alp was filled with silence. At a few points Rak wanted to strike up a conversation with Url but then remembered that Url’s responses were dry and left one exasperated.

What Rak didn’t know, was that Url´s impression of Rak was increasing specifically because Rak wasn’t talking. Url enjoyed the galloping of his horses and the bright star brilliance. He didn’t mind having Rak accompanying him on this ride.

After arriving back in town, they drove by the brewery but seeing that there was no movement, Rak assumed correctly that Olric went home for the night. So Rak had Url drop him off at the nearest tavern, the Horseshoe inn to get something substantial to eat.

Unlike villages, the town offered more services this late during the evening but not that many. The taverns and two restaurants were currently open. Two of these restaurants are far enough away that Rak didn’t consider them.

The rowdiness of the the horseshoe Inn can’t be compared to those village centers. But nonetheless Rak strode in, ordered a large meal and asked to take it with him. Rak was given a plate asked to return the plate tomorrow.

“Can’t even get proper take-away.”

After eating like a wolf on his deathbed, Rak returned the dish indignantly and began walking back to house.

“This world really needs the internet.”

Upon entering his house Rak directly removed his clothes and went into bed. He selected the option to sleep for nine hours. According to his bed’s information that’s maximum efficiency of the bed and fatigue will no longer build up and only be maintained.

With Rak’s current fatigue he can only reach sixty seven percent. The bed can fill fatigue by exactly fifteen percent by itself. Other effects can be stacked to increase it further. People who seek sustainable fatigue are people who do not want to return to the real world. Rak should not be one of these people. He did however enjoy the benefits of being ‘rested’.