Ben circled around through the trees back toward the road he was following earlier. With the thought of needing to get stronger, he used Whirlwind Maneuver to continue his journey through the darkness.
He could feel the soreness setting in from where the bandit's sword blows had landed on his chain-mail earlier and he was now relieved he spent the money to buy this armor.
The chain-mail had saved him from being heavily slashed by the bandit's sword but it could do nothing to protect him from the swords blunt force.
The flashing notification icon in his peripheral vision pulled his attention away from the pain and provided him with a distraction. He opened them to see what changes had happened from the fight until now and to get his mind off of the throbbing pain.
[Notice] [You have learned a new skill! Sneak Skill Level 1!]
[Notice] [You have learned a new skill! Stealth Level 1!]
[Notice] [Skill: Pain Tolerance has increased. Pain Tolerance Level 2!]
[Notice] [Skill: Sword Proficiency has increased. Sword Proficiency Level 2!]
[Notice] [Skill: Sword Proficiency has increased. Sword Proficiency Level 3!]
Ben stopped in the road when he saw the new skills he had received
'It looks like I made a few good gains from that fight with the bandit. [Sneak] and [Stealth] must have been learned from when I was quietly moving around in the vegetation and observing the attackers. I should start to raise these two skills they will be useful in many situations.'
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Ben decided as he closed out his notice windows to begin training [Stealth] and [Sneak].
He opened his map and stepped off the road into the undergrowth of the surrounding trees and activated Stealth and Sneak. While using the map he remained parallel with the road and slowly and quietly made his way toward his destination using the trees and bushes as cover to hide his outline.
Ben took his time training his skills for the next few days. While he made his way west toward his map waypoint. His two new skills began to increase the further, He traveled from constant use. He had the system also mark every regular animal and profound beast in his path of travel and used his new bow to try and bag some game.
If he discovered a profound beast on his Map, Ben used his stealth and sneak to move far away from it. He might be a cultivator now but he was woken up to how weak he still is compared to the people and creatures of this world who had been naturally strengthened from birth by the ever present QI energy of this world. It didn't seem to matter if a person was a cultivator or not, their body could still inadvertently benefit from Qi.
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Ben had his simple wooden bow without an Archery skill so he figured this would be a good opportunity to create an Archery skill as he crept through the forest.
Also, knowing that the meat he had bought in the city wouldn't last forever this would be a great way to increase his supplies.
The first few animals Ben came across were blown chances due to his lack of an archery skill. Not allowing himself to get discouraged he continued on. Even if he wasn't hitting anything at first his archery performance was steadily increasing as he advanced toward his destination.
A few hours later he was finally beginning to shoot small game.
Not only was he increasing his proficiency with a bow and gaining food, but it allowed him to get a better look at the different animals of this world who were all so strange to him.
Hunting throughout the day brought him some increases in his skills and a new supply of meat to help him survive. He had also purchased a skinning knife from the System Store and practiced cleaning and skinning any game he had hunted down.
[Notice] [You have learned a new skill! Field Dress Skill Level 1!]
[Notice] [You have learned a new skill! Archery Skill Level 1!]
[Notice] [Skill: Stealth has increased. Archery Level 3!]
[Notice] [Skill: Field Dress has increased. Field Dress Level 4!]
[Notice] [Skill: Stealth has increased. Stealth Level 8!]
[Notice] Skill: Sneak has increased. Sneak Level 9!
'System, what happens if a skill reaches level 10? Will it continue to increase in level?'
*Ding!* [It will depend on each skill. Most skills can evolve into an upgraded version, continue to level up, or they may peak out at level 10.]
'Oh? So they can even evolve into a better skill then. That gives me even more incentive to max my skills out just so I can see what they might turn into.'
He thought that he should find a place to set up camp before it got too dark so he used his map to look around.
After having the system check for people in the area and finding that there wasn't anyone in the general area he decided to set up in a little clearing in the woods away from the road. He wasn't in the mood for a repeat of last night and chose to stay in an area where no one would bother him.
Ben put up his small tent and made a small shielded fire that he used to heat up the pot of stew he made the night before. There was still a good amount left since he had been interrupted during his meal.
While his meal slowly began to heat up, Ben went through the new notices.
[Notice] [Skill: Enhanced Hearing has increased. Enhanced Hearing Level 5!]
[Notice] [Skill: Archery has increased. Archery Level 5!]
[Notice] [Skill: Field Dress has increased. Field Dress Level 7!]
[Notice] [Skill: Stealth has Evolved into Chameleon Level 1!]
[Notice] [Skill: Sneak has Evolved into Silent Walk Level 1!]
'They both ended up evolving into a new skill! Let me see what these two new skills are capable of now.'
Ben clicked on each of the new skills and a small window with a description opened.
[Chameleon]: This skill changes the colors of the host's body, clothing, and equipment to blend in with his surroundings. You will be camouflaged to blend in with your surrounding.
[Silent Walk]: Allows the host to walk on any solid surface without making any sound at all. If, the host begins to jog or run Silent Walk will be deactivated. [Higher levels will allow the host to move around quicker without deactivating.]
[Field Dress]: Allows the host to gain skins, furs, pelts, scales, bones, meat, and organs from the hunted game. [Higher skill levels will help produce higher quality materials.] [Skinning and butchering times will also decrease with higher levels.]
[Archery]: The ability to understand and use any and all bows with increasing mastery with each level gained. [The host will also shoot further and with greater accuracy with higher levels.]
Ben decided to try out the two evolved skills after walking over to a patch of crispy dry leaves he activated [Silent Walk] and could walk across the crunchy dead leaves as if he were walking on a plush carpet. Even while using his Advanced Hearing, he couldn't hear any sound as he strolled along across dried twigs and leaves.
Then he walked over to a large bush as tall as him and stepped inside it while activating [Chameleon]. His skin, clothes, and chain-mail armor began to look like a highly advanced version of camouflage which Earth's militaries would kill to have for their troops. He could see detailed life-like branches and leaves covering his entire body. The Chameleon skill had the capability to mirror the look and color of the bush he was standing in making him appear as if he were an extension of it.
Happy with his new gains Ben went back over to his tent and scooped up large bowl of stew from the pot and sat down to eat. After his meal, he was full and feeling tired now that he had been going for so long without much sleep.
He decided to skip out on cultivating tonight and went into his tent, laid down on his bedroll, and pulled his blanket over him. In a matter of minutes, he was peacefully sleeping.