Finalizing his deal with Lisa, Arang left the office satisfied. He is looking forward to the gaming capsule that soon will be his, he could sell the capsule for some cash later after the subscription period ended or in case of emergency. The money will be very helpful for him and the orphanage. Arang finished his training for today after the meeting with Lisa and regretted that he still have to enter the game using the capsule provided by the government, since Lisa will only give him her capsule after she leave. Still stuck with the maintenance duty, he was on his way to clean the gathering hall when Seri called for him to meet her in the office.

Meeting Seri, he was informed that he now will act as an assistant for the Head Instructor replacing Lisa. Turn out after talking with him, Lisa contacted her father straight away to inform him about her idea and ask for his help to make the necessary arrangements. Her father is delighted with the idea, as it can also used to raise his status in the political circle so he approved her right away and decide to give additional reward for Arang by letting him taking the assistant role that will be vacated by Lisa. That afternoon, a few hours after the call with her father, Lisa is instructed to come back to Pontianak by her father. They will leave to the capital in the next morning to make an official recommendation directly to the central government, her father already made some calls to the people in central government and her recommendation is already as good as approved. They only need to go through the formal process.

Surprised by the extra arrangement, Arang is reminded that he still need to continue his maintenance duty until the next evaluation. Later, his evaluation will be fully conducted by the Head Instructor based on his performance as his assistant and also his gaming performance. So there is still a possibility that he might continue maintenance duty after the next evaluation. Arang doesn't mind to continue his current maintenance duty, he is sure that he will catch up and maybe leaving everyone behind in the gaming session during this period until the next evaluation. Now that he will use a private gaming capsule, he can play longer compared to other cadets every night, not limited by the 6 hours gaming session quota. Suddenly everything seems going right for him, he even considered to praise Lisa as his lucky star.

After finished his talk with Seri, Arang went to finish his maintenance duty for today. Since Lisa already vacated her room, leaving only the gaming capsule, Arang also already ordered by Seri to move tonight. His roommates already doing their gaming session so no other cadets know that Arang will move out from the dorm and act as an assistant replacing Lisa, he is looking forward to see their reaction in the next morning gathering. Entering his new room, Arang noticed the game capsule in the corner of the room, ecstatic that it already his now. Putting his things down, he sit down in the desk and checking his duty and schedule as the assistant. His duty and schedule is still the same as Lisa's, which is pretty lax, but he knows that things might not that easy later on. Who knows what the Head Instructor have for him when they meet after the gathering in the morning. Then he entered the game.

Rimba appeared in his room in the orphanage. Hearing the flurry of activities downstairs, he went down to greet everyone. Sarah just give him the same quest to get meat, but the "Cooking" skill reward is now replaced by a 100 additional EXP. Rimba went to Olaf's place after that, he want to ask about the monsters extermination army from the capital. Olaf is nowhere to be seen when Rimba arrived at the training field, he went to the watch tower on the northern gate to look for Olaf. As the Head of Village Security sometimes Olaf went there to talk with the militia and make the arrangements for them.

In the northern watch tower, Rimba saw the number of militia are less than usual. He asked the young militia he often accompanied during night watch and found out that Olaf and some of the militia are joining the monsters extermination army from the capital. Olaf was waiting for him, but since Rimba is not coming and the leader of the extermination army not willing to wait any longer they just left yesterday. Rimba realized he forgot that the game is running even when he logged out, and with 4:1 time difference the arrival of the army was 2 days ago. They stayed for 1 day in the village before leaving to exterminate the monsters, without any information how long they will do the extermination before coming back to the village.

Knowing he can't do anything about it, not to mention he won't be able to catch up with them even if he leave right away, Rimba just accepted the situation. He went back into the village and visited the butcher to see if his armors are finished. The butcher already waiting for him with his armors, unfortunately the pelts are only enough to make pants, a pair of boots and gloves. Rimba is still thankful, he checked their stats and equipped them.

"Leather Pants"

Defense 3

Durability: 40

"Leather Boots"

Defense 2

Durability: 40

"Leather Gloves"

Defense 2

Durability: 40

Satisfied with the additional 7 Defense, he believes it will be easier for him to face wolves if he meet them again. Last time he met them he only have 1 Defense from his "Magician Robe" and he still able to take some hits, not to mention now that he have 8 Defense. Rimba just went through the gate once again, heading to the forest when the Militia Captain who seems just coming back from patrolling the village calling for him. It seems his 90 reputation in Suram Village starting to show its effect.

"Hey young man, I heard from the butcher you managed to kill 6 wolves on your first trip to the forest. Can I ask you for help?" The captain said.

New Quest

"Helping The Militia"

The militia captain ask you to patrol the forest outskirt on your hunting trip, report back to him when you finished or find something.

Quest Reward:

Reputation in Suram Village +10

Short Bow

30 Arrows

Quest Penalty:

Reputation in Suram Village -50

It is actually another forced quest, so Rimba just nodded and continuing his trip to the forest. When he arrived, he just going deeper ignoring the rabbits in the outskirts area. His target are the wolves, he met a pair of wolves and killed them easily. His higher defense really help, as he can focused more on hitting the wolves. Feeling confident, he look for more wolves and soon met another group of wolves. There are 6 wolves now, but no alpha leading them. It seems 6 is the usual number of members for the wolves hunting group. Pulling out his Training Magic Rod as second weapon, he charged into the wolves instead of waiting for them to surround him. His defense and total health now means each bite from the wolves only inflicted 20-30 damages and the claw strike only inflicted 50-60 damages. He simply ignore the attacks from the 6 wolves, just focused on killing them and still have around 60-70% health left when he finished them all.

Rimba continued hunting the wolves, but he doesn't dare to venture too deep. He learned from the Militia Captain earlier that stronger wolves are located deeper. The last time he was lucky only meeting a young pack, and the alpha just left suddenly. If he met an older and stronger pack he is lucky if he can run away. A few hours and 6 levels later, there are 38 wolf carcasses in his inventory. He decided it's enough and went back to the outskirt of the forest to patrol while hunting rabbits, but instead of using the Magic Rod he pulls out the Training Bow. Yes, he planned to train his archery with the rabbits while patrolling. He already have enough meat for the orphanage, so it doesn't matter whether he can kill the rabbits or not using the bow. The prospective reward from Militia Captain also strengthening his resolve to learn archery.

"Training Bow"

A wooden short bow for training purpose

Maximum Shooting Range: 15 metres

Durability: 50

Option:

Self-Repair (When not in use will recover 1 durabilty per 30 minutes, unless destroyed)

"Training Arrow Quiver"

A quiver pairing the Training Bow

Capacity: 10 Arrows

Arrow Attack: 1

Durability: 50

Option:

Self-Repair (When not in use will recover 1 durabilty per 30 minutes, unless destroyed)

Arrow Retrieval: Retrieve 5 arrows automatically in order when emptied during use, retrieve all arrows automatically after 5 minutes when not in use. The arrows can only retrieved when within 60 metres radius from the quiver.

Bow and arrow ready, Rimba walked along the outskirts of the forest. Whenever he saw the rabbits he let loose the arrow, occasionally hitting and killing them. Most of his shots are missed, even the ones hitting are usually lucky shots that hit the other rabbit around his actual target. When he killed the 10th rabbit, a notification appears.

You learned "Archery" skill

Beginner Archery Level 1 (0%)

Dexterity +1 for each level gained

Agility +1 for each level gained

Maximum Shooting Range +1 metre for each level gained

"(Huh? I gained the skill so quickly? Is it because of my level or my stats? I remember it took me 5 days to learn the Magic Rod Mastery skill, and 7 days to learn the Blunt Weapon Mastery skill.)" Rimba is surprised to learn the skill so quickly. He was expecting the skill to be learned much later. Had he known it would be so fast, he would already use the bow during his training in the protection period. Accepting the fact and ignoring whatever reason behind it, Rimba continued his patrol and rabbit hunting.

With the help from the skill, Rimba accuracy also improved somehow. He started to hit once out of 3 shots, unlike his earlier accuracy which is totally random. The skill also growing steadily and soon would reach level 2, he planned to go back and report to the Militia Captain when he reach level 2 in Archery. He already patrolled the forest outskirts facing the village, and he estimated another 2 or 3 hit will get his Archery to level 2.

Soon he reached his target, together with 21 rabbit carcasses in his inventory. Returning to the village, he didn't notice 3 little goblins are following his tracks in the outskirts of the forest and catching the rabbits that got shot by him but not dead and managed to run away. Those weakened rabbits become easy prey for the little goblins. The little goblins took the rabbits they caught toward a small cave further past a small river. Inside the cave there are 3 wolf pups sleeping adorably, when they heard the sounds of the goblins arrival and smelling the bloodied rabbit carcassed they instantly awake and running towards the goblins.

Unknown to Rimba, these 3 goblins were the reason why the alpha wolf from his first hunting trip was suddenly leaving. The alpha heard the faint cries of his pups, realizing that his pups might be in danger he just left and returned to his lair and noticed 3 of his pups were missing leaving only 2 behind. The alpha smelled goblins and wanted to chase the thieves but worried that the human he just fighting earlier with his pack will come to his lair after killing his remaining pack members since it's not that far from where they were fighting, so he just stayed at the lair letting the thieves go away. Knowing how fast and cunning the goblins are, he know he won't be able to catch up easily with them, he might even got ambushed and killed by the goblins if he chase them by himself.

It's just a series of coincidence that allowed the little goblin trio to manage getting away with their thievery on a defenseless wolf lair. If Rimba didn't come close to the wolf lair, the alpha won't call his pack and his mate to surround him and would still in the lair with his mate. If Rimba didn't chose to make a breakthrough past the alpha's mate and hit her, the alpha wouldn't come out and join the attack. If the alpha didn't overtake Rimba and stopped him on his track, Rimba would just continue running instead of stopping and decide to make a stand against the wolves. If the 2 wolves that got hit on their forelegs didn't whimpering along the sounds of Rimba flailing around against the other wolves, the alpha would able to hear the cries of his pups much earlier, not giving time for the little goblin trio to run far enough.