There were several players at the Training Field at the moment, many of whom had asked Alexx about the hunt, but Alexx said he couldn't really answer any questions and they went back to their own business. Most of them were sparring with each other, but not Alexx. Still injured from the fight with the Moss Wolves, he was shadow boxing; remembering the battle and thinking of how to improve.

His hands and feet were a blur of devastating punches and kicks, striking out at the imagined predators. Sometimes the force of his steps would create small craters in the dirt.

Suddenly, Alexx's movements stopped. "Still not enough," he grunted as he sat on a nearby stump.

His frustration came from how much he had just mindlessly flailed around during the fight and was continuing to even now. The Moss Wolves had been so numerous and relentless that he wasn't able to throw a real, direct punch, and instead had to just make contact while letting his high STR do the work.

Alexx had never been traditionally trained, he had simply started playing VR fighting games as a novice and learned through experience. His fighting style was both unrestrained and unpredictable, and while some had criticized him for his lack of form in the past he had just brushed it off, telling them "If it works it works."

'But this is different,' he realized. He was satisfied with those punches in the past because he had used ingenuity to come up with a functional attack on the fly. Those attacks with the Moss Wolves were just him relying on his ridiculous STR.

"I guess this is what Yang and Loran meant when they were talking about fighting multiple opponents." Although evading the wolves' attacks wasn't impossible, it was still far more difficult than he had anticipated. Moreover, evading wasn't always an option; sometimes dodging an attack meant letting it hit someone else in the party. Intercepting the attacks was the best option, but his style just wasn't equipped for it.

"Okay...." Alexx closed his eyes to think. "So who would be best for this..."

While Alexx was never directly trained in any martial arts, his style wasn't pure brawling. Most of the opponents he fought were highly trained fighters, and Alexx had distinct impressions of their styles and techniques from having fought them. Anytime he felt a need to actively improve on something he would think back to how his past opponents fought and incorporate whatever he felt would be effective.

'Rather than any precise strikes, what I need is flexibility and wide, sweeping attacks...maybe him?'

The opponent he thought of had used a low center of gravity to shift his body weight, allowing for kicks that seemed to come out of nowhere, along with punches that had wide motions, which they used to deflect incoming attacks while moving closer for more powerful blows.

Alexx took that same stance, feet spread a little wider than his shoulders and knees bent, with both hands by his right hip as if ready to draw an invisible sword. Returning to his shadow boxing, he shifted his weight forward onto his left foot while bringing his left hand forward, as if backhanding the imaginary wolf. At the same time, his other fist launched forward to strike at another wolf. As his arms retracted towards his left hip he pivoted on his left foot, bringing his right foot around in a wide-sweeping kick. His hands now in their starting position, but on his opposite side, launched out in a second round of blows towards the imaginary beasts. He envisioned another wolf lunging towards his face and in response, he shifted his weight back to his right leg, pulling his body away from the wolf before bringing his left leg up to kick it in the chin.

His practice continued for nearly an hour, only ending when his legs became too tired to continue the shifting movement. His technique was still rather rough around the edges and he definitely wouldn't be able to block all of the wolves' attacks, but it was a major improvement over how things went earlier. He never even had to resort to those fake attacks.

Breathing heavy and coated in sweat, Alexx sat down on a tree stump and brought up his menu to check his HP.

[NAME]: Alexx

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 8

[EXP]: 4375/900

[STATUS]

{HP}: 67.6/130

{SP}: 130/130

[END]: 13

[STR]: 42(+21)

[AGI]: 8

[DEX]: 8

[PER]: 8

[SKILLS]

[MIGHTY] Lv. 10

(Passive) Increase STR by 50%.

[POWER ATTACK] Lv.10

(Active: Cost 20 SP) This attack deals increased damage equal to 100% of the user's STR.

Alexx couldn't help but groan to himself, "damn, I know Loran said HP only recovers by like 1% every half hour, but that really is slow."

As dangerous as the Spined Deer and the Moss Wolf pack had been, fighting them was the most fun Alexx has had ever since getting stuck in NEO, and he was itching to go back out for more. He was even considering going out alone, despite everyone's earlier insistence that it was too dangerous. That being said, he wasn't about to go out while still missing a large chunk of his HP, but that didn't make waiting any less dreadfully boring.

'It should only take a day or two to heal up, but I don't have anything to do in the meantime.' He used to just spend his days chopping down trees, but he had already washed his hands of that.

"Whatever, let's deal with all of this EXP."

It really was a crazy amount, being enough to level up at least three times. 'Should I just keep dumping it into STR?' That was certainly his plan after Loran and Yang had started telling him about the "Glass Cannon" build, but after their last fight, he realized that it would need more planning than just his mid-combat reactions.

'If I want to close the gaps in my guard I need to be faster, maybe I should... no, I need to keep boosting STR and END, adding AGI to that list would be too expensive.' This was something that Loran and Yang had hammered into his head early on, the longer you play an RPG the more valuable stat points become. As long as he wants to have an STR-focused playstyle, he can't just distribute his points inefficiently.

As he continued looking over his menu, his eyes drifted over to his Skill list. Most other players had acquired several Skills by now, while Alexx had only been interested in the STR-based ones. Seeing them again, he came up with an answer to his problem.

'The damage boost that came from maxing out Power Attack is a lot higher than just increasing my STR, and think I heard Loran say on our way back that Sprint also increases attack speed, so that would definitely give me the boost I need. It would just cost 1 Ability Point too.'

After making this decision, Alexx headed back into the village to find Soze, who was the Sprint Master. While walking he realized that this would increase his SP consumption by a ton, Sprint alone would burn through his entire SP bar in under a minute.

'I guess I'll just get the SP Booster Skill too.' Even if it would cut his HP in half, his plan was to not get hit anyway.

After a while, he was able to find both Skill Masters, and after leveling up once to get the necessary Ability Points, he was able to learn and max out [SPRINT] and [SP BOOSTER]. He then used the rest of his EXP to level up again and raise his stats some more. Alexx had briefly hoped that messing with his max HP through the SP Booster Skill would result in his HP bar being more filled, but unfortunately, the amount reduced to remain the same percent.

[NAME]: Alexx

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 10

[EXP]: 475/1200

[STATUS]

{HP}: 39/75

{SP}: 225/225

[END]: 15

[STR]: 45(+22.5)

[AGI]: 8

[DEX]: 8

[PER]: 8

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 3

[SKILLS]

[MIGHTY] Lv. 10

[POWER ATTACK] Lv.10

[SP BOOSTER] Lv.10

(Passive) Reduce HP and increase SP by 50%.

[SPRINT] Lv.10

(Active Cost: 3 SP/sec) Increase movement speed by 100%.

~~~~~

"So, do you think we can cultivate this stuff?" After returning, Soze had brought the Moss Wolf carcasses and pelts to the Kitchen. The bodies needed to be broken down for their meat, but he also felt that it would be better to store the Wolf's Boon here. In real life, he had once heard someone compare cooking to chemistry, and if that was true the cooks here had the best chance of using the moss to make better medicine or even figure out a way to grow more in the village.

"Hm... I have a few ideas." Soze was currently speaking to Aman, he was effectively the player in charge of the Kitchen and was the one who created the Blood-Berry Blend. Out of all the players with an interest in cooking, he was the most experimental, having already tested over 100 different ingredient mixes and cooking methods since he arrived two weeks ago. "By the way, try this," he said, holding out a bone spoon with some minced fish.

Soze reluctantly took a bite, taking a moment before calmly swallowing. "I don't know what you put in there, but it tastes like how sweat smells."

Most people have learned to avoid Aman since he would regularly have others test his creations, and so far the Blood-Berry Blend was the only success. Currently, he was experimenting with using a large flat stone as a frying pan and was trying to saute some river fish. Soze was one of the few people who wasn't afraid to be a taste tester, as his experience with survival situations had taught him to be very tolerant of poor tasting but nutritious foods.

"I figured as much, it was Brown River Trout sauteed in Spined Deer blood."

"And you thought that would work because...?"

"Because the first time I used Spined Deer blood I got Blood-Berry Blend. It worked once, I need to know what other combinations there are." Aman paused for a moment before grabbing some berries out of a bowl. "Maybe if I add some Red Berries..."

"So those ideas about Wolf's Boon?"

"Oh right. Well, the most obvious answer is the domestication of the Moss Wolves themselves. That would definitely give us a steady supply without worry, and I bet the hunters would love having them work as trackers."

"Obviously, but what's your plan?"

"Cultivating it without live wolves is iffy." Aman tasted his concoction again; his face scrunched up in annoyance and he added more Spined Deer blood. "Based on the description the moss should grow even without the wolf sweat, but it might lose potency or growth rate. Regardless, each pelt will probably have a limited time where we can keep harvesting Wolf's Boon from it before needing a new one, so for the time being we should make sure each pelt is left to grow before getting used for anything else."

"Good thing I brought it all here then, the Workshop guys probably would've started tanning them already."

"Mmm... the only option I can think of is to find a more readily available substitute for Moss Wolf sweat. Probably best to include the body fluids of the wolves themselves."

"You're not suggesting we use urine right?"

"No, god no. I can't even imagine that being healthy, I was thinking about blood."

"...You think about blood too much."

"Look, you wanted my suggestion and there you have it. Now if you don't mind I need to focus before I burn this."

"I'm going, I'm going." Soze left the Kitchen, grabbing a Spined Deer skewer from one of the other cooks as he went. 'Well that's taken care of, now what?' He and Loran typically spent entire days out hunting, now that they had returned early he wasn't too sure what he should be doing. Glancing down at the cuts in his hunting gear he decided to go repair it before making his way to the Workshop, finishing his skewer along the way while telling nosy players to wait for his announcement at The Pit tonight.

Once he arrived he didn't bother any of the players currently working, so he searched for the materials he needed before working on the armor himself. They didn't have any real thread, so sewing the cuts shut involved using a sharp piece of bone to make holes around the cut and using thin strips of rabbit leather instead. It was a slow process, but Soze found it enjoyable, nostalgic even. It reminded him a lot of his extreme camping trips since he would need to build all his necessities from scratch. Eventually, Soze was done with the cuts on his chest piece.

"Hey, Soze!"

Just as he was checking the rest of his armor for damage, Soze looked up to see Alexx jogging towards him. "Hey kiddo, what's up?"

"Do you really have to call me that?"

"Is it that bad?"

"Not really," Alexx shrugged, "it's just a little weird seeing your avatar calling me 'kiddo'"

"In that case, I'm gonna keep doing it." Soze chuckled as he watched the young man roll his eyes at him. "Anyway, you were looking for me?"

"Yeah, can you teach me Sprint?"

"Why?" he asked, mildly surprised.

Alexx then began explaining his earlier thought process, even demonstrating some of the changes he made to his fighting style.

"So, what do you think?" Alexx asked excitedly.

"I don't know, it seems a little too risky. Especially how you want to lower your HP even more. That's definitely too much."

"Uh.... about that."

"...You already learned SP Booster, didn't you?"

"And maxed it out, yeah," he said, smiling sheepishly.

"Haa... well now I have to teach you Sprint." Alexx had already made himself more vulnerable for the sake of being able to use this Skill, not teaching him at this point would just be stupid. "Give me your hand."

The two grasped each other's hand like in a handshake while Soze opened his menu.

[NAME]: Soze

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 10

[EXP]: 1125/1200

[STATUS]

{HP}: 101.3/160

{SP}: 160/160

[END]: 16

[STR]: 10

[AGI]: 21

[DEX]: 22

[PER]: 15

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 4

[SKILLS]

[ANALYSE] Lv.10

[HUNTER] Lv.10

(Passive) Increase damage against beast targets by 30%.

[SPRINT] Lv.10(Master)

(Active Cost: 3 SP/sec) Increase movement speed by 100%.

He then pressed the (Master) icon next to the [SPRINT] Skill, causing a notification to appear in front of Alexx.

[PLAYER (Soze) WOULD LIKE TO TEACH YOU THE {SPRINT} SKILL]

[IT WILL COST {1} ABILITY POINT AND {100} EXP TO LEARN THIS SKILL]

[LEARN SKILL?]

[YES] / [NO]

Once he confirmed it, the points were removed from his menu and the 100 EXP was added to Soze's. Alexx then took a moment to raise the Skill to level 10 before thanking Soze.

"It's no big deal."

"Well, I'm gonna get something to eat, wanna come with?"

"Hm, I just ate, but it's not like I have anything better to do. Besides, maybe I can get you to eat Aman's latest masterpiece." Soze took a moment to put his armor back on while Alexx shivered at the thought of being Aman's next victim, and the two-headed for the Kitchen.