I was in RL for about 4 hours. Most of it was spent studying and exercising with rest of the tidbits in eating, or freshening up.

When I finally dived back in again, Trichia was waiting for me.

"Welcome back."

Or atleast that's what she made it look like. She probably sensed my wave thingy(whatever she called it) and appeared just now.

"I'm back."

Anyway, I just patted her head and went on to my merry hunting.

(Oh.. Before that...)

Yes. I had to eat the lunch that the innkeeper packed.

After finishing that, I made a mental note to commend her for her cooking skills, and got back to the real reason I was here. This time, I decided to go as far into the forest as possible. It was for the purpose of scouting as well as in the hope of finding more powerful monsters. I decided to use a simple trick for this. With my crazy strength, I could jump crazy high(an act I already performed and lost 10% of my HP doing). So while moving, I would jump with a restricted strength, high enough to look over the tall trees to the village, then move in the direction exactly opposite to it. This way, I could travel in an almost straight line, going as far from the village as possible while still making sure it was within sights so I could return.

At first I had a bit of a trouble restricting my strength, but after dozens of tries and losing a few hundred HP, I finally got used to it. I encountered many monsters on my way, but I didn't kill any because I wanted to find a strong monster to get its best loot.

I reached the point in the forest from where the village looked like an ant. I dared not go any further for the fear that I should lose my way.

(That was disappointing.)

The highest level monster I found during my journey was LVL 31, another bear. I started to think that there was nothing else here that could be challenging enough. I could go wandering in search of unknown lands but the main problem was food. Though I could eat the fruits and vegetables in the forest, should the need be but what if I come out of the forest to a grassland or a volcano or an arctic? I didn't even know how to cook so even the meat was useless. In emergencies I could still just put it above a fire to cook it but I didn't even know how to build a freaking fire!!

"Haaah..."

(I give up.)

Right now what I most needed was skills. I already had too high of a level, so that was a worry out of the way, not that this stupid forest was good for hunting anyway. For this, I decided to try out various acts. I got insta-kill by completing certain conditions and appraise as an award of a quest. So I knew 2 methods of gaining skills and I was going to try out the first one, while at the same time doing some hunt. Though I said that hunting was useless in the forest, that was for exp. I still had to collect items and meat, not to forget that I had to complete my daily quota of getting the best item from a high level monster.

I remembered that on the way here, I encountered some deer-like creatures that I hadn't seen before. While roaming around looking for the LVL 31 bear for my first kill, I encountered one.

Deer LVL 14

It was a normal deer except for the two tails. I noticed that most of the monsters here were just a slight variation of an original species. For example, the bears three eyes and the rabbit two nose.

(They just gave one extra body part to it and called it a monster. So stupid.)

Getting back to the deer, it was drinking from a stream. I took out some fruits that I collected on my way and went closer.

The deer looked back suddenly and then turned towards me completely, having seen me. It looked cautious so I advanced slowly as to not startled it. When I got close to it, I reached out my hand towards its head to stroke it. At first, as if confused, it started smelling my hand. I advanced more and finally placed my hand over its head and stroked it. It was smooth and its ears were extremely soft.

(I could get addicted to this.)

I had a very nice feeling and a completely new one for me. With my other hand, I tried feeding it. What I had, was a red cherry like fruit. I had already tasted one before and it had a sweet favour. I thought it was extremely delicious.

The deer ate the fruit easily and looked up to my face. I couldn't tell what it was thinking and just took it as a sign that it wanted more. Taking out more of those red fruits, I fed it and it ate happily. Though I didn't get any new skills yet, I was hoping for something like monster tamer. Right then, I heard a rustle behind me. The deer stopped eating and looked from my side. I also looked behind.

Jackal LVL 23

It was a two-headed jackal. It was growling at us, ready to leap any moment. I felt the deer move. As I looked back, the deer was already out of my hands and running away. I turned to face the Jackal once more.

"You just had to piss me off! Insta-kill!!" I shouted at the jackel.

I was angry. It made my efforts worthless. I aimed at it with my palm and shouted the name of my most powerful skill(well, I only had two and appraise wasn't a combat skill). The result was....

It leapt at me.

(It must have more than 300 HP. Doesn't matter!)

I unsheathed my sword and sliced off its two heads with a single swing.

*clink*

As it disappeared, a silvery something fell to the ground. On a closer inspection, it was a silver colored dagger. It was too silver to be steel. I realised it was the first kill of the day.

"Appraise." I said with anticipation.

Silver Dagger

Effects:

STR+5

AGI+5

STR+10 when fighting undead.

"Ohhh...."

It was a good item, atleast better than anything I had ever gotten. I immediately swapped my current weapon with the dagger. I was no longer angry at the jackal and thanked it in my heart.

I hunted some more and tried other methods of gaining skills but nothing worked. Instead, while gathering some fruits..

Congratulations. You have passed the requirements to gain a new skill.

New skill obtained: Gather

I immediately opened my skill list and read its description.

Gather MP 10

Collect all the fruits in sight in the user's inventory.

It was an okay skill. Not too shabby. Probably good for a beginner. The most that I can get out of this skill is getting lazier, so I probably wont be using it.

Another thing to note is that I obtained the skill while collecting some fruits. And its not the first time I did so. That means a condition to obtain the skill must be to gather fruits a number of times. There may be some restrictions like 'do it in given time' or 'any fruit a minimum number of times', but it was hard to tell. Though the concrete conclusion was that I shouldn't stop trying.

After hunting some more, I was starting to feel hungry. Having collected enough items and meat for the day, I decided to head back. On my way, I collected more fruits and also some herbs. Once they were taken out of the ground, they could be appraised. I didn't have much of a need for the herbs but I did it anyway in hope to gain a new skill of some sort. That reminds me, I also tried feeding a rabbit today but that didn't give me anything either. But I wont get too discouraged! The Gather skill was proof that I was on the right track.

As I got back to the village, instead of going through the gate like I previously did, I jumped over the fencing towards the back. The fencing was as tall as a human adult, but for me it wasn't even worthy of being called an obstacle. I had carefully chosen the part of the fence which would be closest to the inn so I reached my destination in no time at all. Having given the innkeeper the meat, I asked her if the herbs could be used for anything. She told me that it could be used for cooking or in making other things like ointments, potions etc. Though, it was regrettable that the village did not have an alchemist, so I just gave the herbs to her.

Then, after another supper and taking with me a boxed lunch, I headed off again, this time in another direction.