Sheila was leading a group of nine young men in the forest right now on their sort of training/initiation hunt for becoming an official hunter of the village. Only those that catch Sheila's eye whether through leading, attacking, stealth, or any other aspect of the art of hunting that was used efficiently by an individual would have the right to become a full-fledged hunter if Sheila deems them worthy. The village did not discriminate based on gender as those who were able-bodied would be given a job that complemented their skills and likes to better help the village and the person themselves.
Now the only bad thing was that once someone had their job given to them they could not change it until they were unable to perform it any longer. These nine had to pass to become hunters for the village and if they failed then they would be given another job like a laborer or something else that needed more people.
Right now the nine were encircling a carnivorous deer and making sure that they were not spotted or were made noticeable through various means. The wind was a major giveaway to them so everyone had rolled in the dirt and had rubbed natural materials on their bodies to mask their smells from any of the animals that they were going to hunt. They were all about to attack when suddenly Alex came rushing out of nowhere at the carnivorous deer.
Now as the name suggests the deer is a meat eater and a dangerous one at that when with its herd so they were all glad that they had found this one by itself in the forest as they generally never left the herd but looking at its horns they realized it was an exiled deer.
The carnivorous deer had a blood-red fur coat with razor-sharp white antlers and black hooves that were used to kill its prey and attackers. Any hunter would have to be careful including the more experienced hunters from the village as they were deadly if not careful. Now, why was Alex here? Simple really he just saw a lone grazing deer and decided to kill it if it was low leveled enough for him to kill it with his new stats he was now stronger than before.
So with one of the daggers in his hand and the other hand holding a fist-sized rock Alex literally charges the deer intending to kill it before it ran off in fright. Contrary to what he thought was going to happen when the deer saw him it actually let out a grunt before running at him with its head down and its antlers pointed at him intending to turn him into a pincushion. Seeing that he was also being charged Alex stops before he takes the rock in his hand and with his precision and strength throws it right at the deer's leg intending to make the deer buckle and fall.
Now what Alex thought was going to happen did not, in fact, the rock flew right at the deer's head and embedded itself in its skull stabbing into its brain and effectively killing it while it was still running. Now this was extremely difficult to do as the head of the carnivorous deer was extremely dense like a rock since its horns grew from the top of its head and fought with other deer for the females so piercing through the skull was extremely tough with stone tools.
[Carnivorous Deer killed +200 exp]
Seeing this happen from a man who was just bedridden made many of the hunters present shocked and angry at what they had seen happen as they took a long time to surround the deer before they were about to attack only to have it taken from them. This some bad feelings directed at Alex since they did not know about the bet between Alex and Sheila so they just assumed that he was making it difficult for them on purpose.
"Hey, why did you do that?!" Someone shouts out prompting Alex to look around only to see that he was suddenly surrounded by nine people
'The other hunters I presume' Alex thinks seeing that he recognized some of the people here from those on the training grounds back at the village
"Where is Sheila?" Alex asks them completely disregarding their inquires
"Answer us first and we might tell you," A snobbish man says from the group
Alex looked at him and recognized him as the self-proclaimed strongest hunter trainee in the group as he was the one who lasts longer when sparring with Sheila. Alex knew though that she was just toying with them whenever they sparred by allowing them to see openings in her attacks only to be viciously brought down and defeated within a few minutes. This guy that Alex never cared to remember his name was able to last the longest because he was a tank for damage and did not care if he was hit by anything and only kept on fighting.
Alex never sparred against anyone else in the group of trainees as he tended to busy or occupied with something else that he did not really pay much attention to the others as he had his own stuff to do. So he had not really made any friends or acquaintances with these people and barely remembered their names if they told him. He had other more important matters to attend to than remembering names of people that he knew nothing about. In fact, in the whole village, Alex could say that he had no relationship with no one other than Sheila and the old man but even then Sheila and he was in a master and student relationship while the old man was more like an acquaintance.
Did Alex feel something for Sheila? He would be lying if he said no but it was nothing romantic but something more of intrigue on her story and how she got to her position as the strongest hunter and how she was able to be so strong on this stone-age planet. He wanted to know because he needed to get stronger too.
"Look did Sheila tell you all about the bet between the two of us?" Alex asks just wanting to know what she did
"What is the bull that you are spewing?!" The same guy as before says
"Alright then don't pay attention but for those wondering here you go, Sheila and I are having a bet to see who can hunt the most animals and beasts, it is me versus you guys, I win she helps me with something and if she wins I owe her a favor," Alex says telling them
This shuts everyone up as they try to comprehend the implications of Alex's words about the bet. Their thought process was this, win the bet curry more favor and a bigger impression on Sheila making it more likely that she will say that they passed the training session. That went through every one of the trainee's heads as they thought about how they can win over this guy in front of them. His lack of skill was painfully obvious but his strength was something to be reckoned with if they are not careful then Alex could snatch their prey before they could take action so they needed a plan on how to deal with him.
They were so engrossed in their thoughts that they did not realize that Alex had already left as he had seen another animal to hunt and kill.
'Weak-willed huh?' Alex thinks to himself recalling the words that Sheila used to describe him before he went to practice the art of the hunt
Alex went on his hunting spree killing any animal that he came across by throwing rocks at them intending to kill them from a distance. Now Alex had the strength to contend against normal animals but beasts were something else entirely that he could not deal with if he was caught unprepared. He was lucky enough to not die when he faced off against the Leopard since it underestimated him and that allowed Alex to fight and kill it before getting out alive.
Now just because Alex had the strength to kill a regular animal with a throw did not mean that he had the dexterity of finesse to throw it accurately causing him to miss hitting the smaller animals such as rabbits at times but completely eradicating when he hit them. Still, they only gave a pitiful amount of exp for Alex with the highest amount being that 100 exp from the first carnivorous deer he killed and snatched from the trainees. Still, Alex spent a lot of time not just killing them but also dragging them out of the forest and dumping the bodies of the animals in a pile so that no animals would eat them.
Still, Alex had not seen Sheila even once throughout the entire time that he had been doing his own version of hunting. Still, he assumed that she was just hiding and sticking with the group of trainees to make sure that they are not going too far into the forest or having to deal with something that they have no chance against like a beast.
Looking at the pile of animal corpses Alex can't help but grin at the amount he has gained up from over the past few hours. He had around ten corpses of varying animals ranging from, Forest Bunnies, Carnivorous Deer, and Peeker Birds all of which he was lucky enough to kill with a stone throw. Still, Alex thought that this would not be enough as he wasted too much time chasing after these animals through the outer edges of the forest that Alex was tempted to go deeper into the forest to find tougher animals and heck he might even try to kill a weak beast.
Still, Alex knew that he had to be careful so after picking up a few more rocks and putting them in his inventory Alex walked with careful steps into the inner area of the forest.
From what Alex knew there were three regions in the forest consisting of the Outer area, inner area, and Core area with each having its own respective beasts and animals that were deadlier the deeper one went. Now Alex was going to just go to the outer rim of the Inner area and no further as he did not want to encounter anything he could not deal with so this was safer this way to get more animals in his pile. Alex respected the privacy of the group of hunter trainees and was trying his best to avoid them whenever possible to make sure that nothing like before happened again, he also would not steal from their pile as well since Alex knew that they would not do the same lest they incur Sheila's wrath.
With these two factors Alex knew he could not do anything shady or else it would just bring him more troubles than anything.
Now Alex was at the boundary of the outer and inner area of the forest. As for how he knew this well there was a sign put in the ground that Alex was assuming said that as he had never seen any written words before in the village he assumed that they had not invented a written language and only passed things down from mouth to mouth through the generations. Seeing the sign Alex knew that he knew he had to pay more attention to any beasts as beast generally showed up here from the old man's lectures and Sheila's teachings.
The outer area of the forest generally housed regular animals, while the inner had both beasts and animals living there, and the core area was just beasts. Now there was no limit to where the animals or monsters lived in the forest hence why Alex encountered that Leopard before, but they most of the time stay in their respective areas of the forest with only a few weaker ones moving down while the stronger ones went up in the rankings.
No one knew why the animals and beasts did this but the people did not complain as they would rarely have to deal with such creatures often which they were thankful for.
Alex now looked around and saw another Carnivorous Deer eating its fill from the corpse of a Plain Bunny. Seeing it Alex takes out another rock and throws it at the deer at its side intending to kill it swiftly. The rock sails through the air before striking the deer and... bouncing off. Seeing this Alex's eyes go wide a bit as the deer looked at him before charging him with its head down intending to skewer Alex just like the others he faced.