Chapter 7: Night Hunting

When I came to in the game it was to find myself sitting in the long bench seat of the coach leaning against the end wall with Lana asleep leaning on me and the dog sitting upright and alert beside here. The rest of the coach was mostly empty, there was even enough room for a small person like her to kind of curl up on our bench if the dog switched sides, but the other two people were now currently stretched out on their bench.

Because I sat up without realizing the situation I had to catch Lana who immediately tipped forward toward the floor. She did not even wake up but simply continues ever so softly snoring away Seeing me awake, the big dog did its best to curl up on the bench further down before taking its turn going to sleep,

Silently praying that the dog did not fart on the poor girl, I slowly got up and picked her up to lay her down on the bench with her head resting on the dog's large haunches. The dog did not even twitch in response but simply continued its level breathing. It had instantly gone to sleep.

Now that I was up I could see through the slats in the thin windows set high in the sides of the coach carriage, finding that the time had finally changed from a nice late morning to an early evening and the coach had come to a stop. The three giant creatures called 'horses' pulling the coach were tied up to a tree on the side of the road and the coach drivers were sitting around a fire beside the coach on the roadside.

Silently disembarking from the coach of three other people besides my group, I step down on the opposite side of the carriage from the three drivers and briefly go through my equipment to make sure I was properly dressed. Then, I walked around the carriage as if I had just gone to relieve myself and ask the drivers, "What forest are we in, again?"

"Potlatch Wood," one of the drivers replies almost mechanically. This was the one who rode on top of the large wagon wearing thickly woven padded leather armor under a long shit of mail. "We're only paid to protect this area. If you're going out there to do some night hunting, you'll be on your own out there night hunting."

"I can do a little healing," I assure them with a bored yawn before walking off into the forestry.

Now that I knew the forest name I knew that I was pretty much in the dead center of the continent. This forest only had two cities that divided the greater distribution of the lumber mills scattered about the forestry, one was in the north by one branch of a massive river divided around the higher ground forestry and the other to the south. Considering the rivers themselves, it was an effective system.

The north river continued to flow in a somewhat northerly direction across the upper half of the continent while the southern river dips slowly straight down toward the southern coast two thirds of the way across the continent. With this kind of natural distribution format both cities were fairly large trade hubs with business all around the continent. Either of them were prime starting points with medium-low threat levels in the surrounding region.

Medium-low was a great difficulty rating to work on reaching level thirty in.

Currently, the highest levels in the game were in their thirties and it was expected to take a month of hard quest grinding to reach level fifty. The current max level at the release of the game was two hundred, though, and it had only been two weeks since then. Since I was home-schooled I had few commitments and could easily catch up to most players if I kept at it.

Walking through the forest was not very hard here with two large half-moons in the sky, it also helped that the area had less densely placed trees of large dominant oaks. However, that did not change the fact that it was only a few minutes before my first combat alert. Because I was not even level ten yet the alert was a solid red framing.

Then the branches overhead started rustling and I looked up to find a long and sinuous body making its way along the underside of a branch overhead. The body was in the shadow of the branch but I could tell from the difference in color that it was gray and about three feet long with far spread legs like a ferret despite standing about two feet tall at the shoulder with an oddly feline head and tufted ears.

It looked down at the same time that I looked up and when our eyes met it leaped down from the tree while spreading wide skin flaps between its front and back legs. My walking stick spear was already in my hands so I simply sidestepped and lowered myself to force it into changing direction as it dove by. It did exactly what I wanted it to.

In that moment that it turned to gain distance from me before reaching the ground I stepped forward and thrust at the creature's rear. The worn chitin spearhead at the end of the spear finally broke free of its binding but only after it had sunken into the creature's haunch. Its health bar appeared and showed continually dropping small notches of bleeding damage from the spearhead stuck in its back leg.

Stabbing the now widely split curved end of the staff into the ground so that one side of the split breaks away, I draw my fuller sword from its simple hardened leather scabbard and prepare to face the wounded animal. There were still two thirds of its life left when it turned around to face me but it was favoring its back right leg.

Stepping forward before my combo timer can run out, I force the creature's AI to return the charge instead of attempting to flee with a wounded leg. Once it tried to leap up toward my torso I struck, thrusting my sword almost by reflex toward the creature's widely opened mouth. The weasel-cat thing simply swallowed the sword straight down its body.

[x4 critical: vital strikeS]

[+18XP+.5]

[Acquired Ferecat Pelt]

[Acquired Ferecat Eye x2]

[Acquired Gold x4]

[Acquired Skill: Swordplay]

[+10XP]

"Ferecat… like werecat, but ferret," I mumble after staring at the creature's name for a full ten seconds while wondering what happened to creativity and originality.

I was not that excited about Swordplay, it was a lesser version of Swordsmanship that everybody picks up after fighting with a sword but was one of the few ways for a classless player to get the Swordsmanship skill. On the bright side, it was a really easy skill to level that gained experiences per attack rather than per kill. To someone like me, lesser skills were just experience farms

While they themselves ranged from levels nine to thirteen in this region and vary in size based on level, ferecats were one of the main nocturnal hunters and usually traveled in small packs. However, this one seemed to be both young and alone at level ten. I would probably not be so lucky as to only see them one at a time after this, though.

Aside from ferecats there was a large nocturnal bird like an owl but it was about five feet tall with six-foot wings and dagger-sized talons. They did not usually prey on people but in the game they would attack players every now and then and would often show up while fighting other \wildlife. The actual game was trickier than the tutorial that way.

As I continued traveling and identifying every new plant that I came across, though, I eventually received an interesting notification.

[Learned Skill: Appraisal]

Now, whenever I identified a plant a grade would come up with the name. Most plants had a minimum F grade that meant they were basic plants while plants that could be eaten also showed the icon of a fork and mouth. One berry bush had the same icon but in a circle with a line across it that obviously meant poison. However, since the bush was E grade I cut a few sprigs of berries and stored them in my player inventory.

Likewise, whenever I found a plant or anything higher than F I would collect samples and store them in the nearly limitless player inventory. Up until I found some trees of edible fruits that were D grade. When I went to approach the trees with large red fruits tagged edible and rank D, my vision once again flashed solid red.

This time the front three trees all had rustling branches and suddenly three ferecats were dropping on the ground a few yards away from me. The largest was probably level twelve or thirteen and around the size of a small pit bull despite being almost four feet in length and came toward me head-on while the other two went around the sides to flank. I did not even bother with my staff but instead drew my sword as soon as they showed up.

Once my sword was out and the gently grind-polished blade gleamed in the moonlight, the three ferecats started running in as one and quickly closed the distance. I just stood there with the sword gripped in both hands and held up at the ready from the side almost like a baseball bat. However, when the lead ferecat went to pounce I abruptly snap-kicked.

The other two animals were in the air as soon as my foot connected, stopping the biggest ferecat in its tracks in midair before I finally slashed out while putting my foot back down. I missed the ferecat on my right at the beginning of the swing but when the sword got around the my left side it smoothly caught the left flanking ferecat in the side of its head and shoulder. There was an audible spray of dark fluids in the air.

[x2 critical: vital strike]

[Swordplay Leveled Up]

[+10XP]

Diving in behind the arc of my sword, though, was the right side ferecat who landed with back legs on my right thigh to start clawing into both my back and front while sinking its teeth into my shoulder. My own health bar finally appeared in the top of my field of view and ten percent faded away as I watched. Then three percent as the ferecat kept gnawing.

Even though the pain sensory in this game was supposedly only half of that in reality, the sheer crushing force on my shoulder and clavicle was nearly unbearable and my right arm was as good as useless. However, the other two were distanced so I had plenty of time to switch to a one-handed grip in my left and stab the sword around into the ferecat's ribs.

[x2 critical: vital strike]

[Swordplay Leveled Up]

[+10XP]

Both of the ferecats I had slashed or stabbed were dropped to half healthy by bleeding damage or were still losing health to bleeding damage but the one I had kicked was only down about ten percent of its health bar while I was down about fifteen. However, I had more health and defense and definitely a lot more attack potential than these E grade enemies. I just needed to keep making openings.

Because I was not up against an overwhelmingly strong opponent I did not worry about relying on my combo damage but instead kept moving in and out of pouncing range. The ferecats kept trying to move around for different angles but one of them had a bad right leg and the other had taken a wounded lung that had bled it out to only one third of its HP. The main ferecat could only keep herding around me to try and make openings of its own.

However, a feinted sidestep was all it took to make the lead ferecat who was trying to compensate for its weakened companions to jump ahead and away from me. When the other ferecats also moved to keep up with the changing situation I turn and stabbed into the air. The ferecat I had slashed earlier who was jumping around me was impaled through its lower stomach area.

[x2 critical: vital strike]

[+20XP*.5]

[Swordplay Leveled Up]

[+10XP]

Leaving the dead ferecat on my sword even as it starts dragging to the ground with the weight, I turn and swing it like a club upward from the ground while stepping forward. The dying ferecat that had yet to completely land was caught across the haunches and sent spinning.

[+20XP*.25]

By the time the lead ferecat had landed, turned around, and stopped sliding to start forward again, his two companions were gone and the only thing left on my sword was blood. Sidestepping into a spin, I carry the momentum from my spin into a backhanded slash of my sword after evading the next tackling pounce of the ferecat. My sword whistled softly from the wind passing over and through its numerous fullers before meeting the lead ferecat's body in the air to cleave into its side.

Half of its health was gone with the one attack and it hit the ground roughly on its side while taking a few seconds and ten percent of bleeding damage. If I had thought to stop at a proper store or something in Olton I might have had the healing items necessary to try taming this creature. As it was, I already had the dog and I had no heals besides First-Aid.

Pressing my advantage by chasing after the wounded ferecat, I reach them soon after they came to a stop and just after they turned around my sword was swinging down.

[x2 critical: Decapitation]

[+22XP*2]

[Acquired Ferecat Pelt x2]

[Acquired Ferecat Meat x2]

[Acquired Ferecat Eye x3]

[Acquire Ferecat Tendon x5]

[Acquired Slimy Monster Core]

[Acquired Gold x11]

[Swordplay Leveled Up]

[+10XP]

Opening my player inventory, I look at the description for the monster core but all it says is that it is an E grade earth monster and not to worry about why it was slimy. Out of curiosity, I also examined the ferecat eye to find that it was an alchemy ingredient said to contain strengths of the ferecat. Obviously, it was part of a night vision potion recipe.