"Ow..." Alex lets out as he is grazed by the charging Carnivorous Deer
Alex had to jump out of the way of its path before it could turn him into a shish kebab still though it managed to graze him still. Alex was surprised to see the difference between the regular animals in this part of the forest is so hard to kill while in the other area they dropped like flies if he could find them. Plus this is only a few feet away from the outer area it was like these animals here were on a different level than the other ones he faced.
Complaining about it would not help as Alex moves close to the deer with his dagger in hand once more hoping to kill the deer before it could harm him anymore through its sharp body parts. Getting close enough now the deer suddenly bucks its hind legs at Alex which he has to dodge as well as he knew that they were as sharp as the antlers on their heads. So Alex backs off and tries to think of something to do now that he has gotten himself into this situation.
Sighing Alex pulls up the information on the Carnivorous Deer in front of him.
[Carnivorous Deer
Lvl: 9
Health: 187/203
Stamina: 300/312
Stats: Strength 120, Endurance 141, Luck 0, Intelligence 9, Charisma 9, Mysticism 0
Skills: Charge and Stamina Reduction]
'You got to be kidding me' Alex thinks to himself seeing the stats if this thing
It looks to be just as strong as the Leopard that attacked Alex before in the Outer Area, if those two fought Alex was undecided on who would win because they have their own strengths and weaknesses. Still, there would be a problem with fighting this thing as Alex was lower leveled so he would have to play it smart and safe for this fight. Alex drew back to reality to that the deer was almost upon him with its head down and charging Alex once again so he dives out of the way quickly to make sure that he does not get impaled.
Thwap!
A loud sound rings out through the forest and Alex looks to see that the deer had gotten its horns stuck in the tree that was behind Alex. So Alex being the one to act upon opportunities when given and also learning from past mistakes with his dagger in hand approaches the stuck deer from the side so it will have more difficulty hitting him with its hooves now that its antlers are stuck. Still, the deer tried to attack Alex by moving its body but it was difficult to do so as its head was stuck and the deer was not used to moving sideways so it was slow to respond.
By the time it would have been able to kick Alex it is already too late as he was able to start stabbing into the deers flank. Alex had to really get into it unfortunately as the entirety of the deer's hide was as tough as stone that Alex was afraid that he might break the knife with little damage dealt with the deer. So Alex does what he did with the Leopard and stabs the deer in the eyes and effectively killing it instantly as it gave way. The deer's body slumps to the ground dead but the head is still stuck in the tree causing Alex to figure out how to free it.
[Carnivorous Deer killed +321 exp]
He has to hurry as he believes that some other animals here may attack him during this time because of the smell of blood. So Alex instead of pulling the deer antlers out of the tree Alex instead takes his stone dagger and begins to chip away at the tree to allow for the deer's head to be pulled out easily. It works and Alex is relieved to see that no animals or beasts are rushing over to him to take his fresh kill off his hands. Alex hefts the corpse up and starts dragging it while thinking more about his skills and their implications.
Alex's class could be considered as a necromancer who raises the dead, but it specifically says infect corpses making it seem like Alex is going to be doing something other than infecting corpses of beasts and people maybe. But what exactly can he infect besides living things? Infecting machinery might be possible as there are viruses in every piece of hardware and tech as nothing is perfect but there is still something he does not get about everything.
When he first got the system and it gave him his life quest it said he was infected but what does that mean? Alex had a lot of questions about this system but they would not be given if he asked as it seemed like the system was only equipped with a few pre-programmed responses to use which is something that Ale felt frustrated with.
Still, complaining about something that he has no control over is not going to help so Alex knew that he was just going to have to find those answers himself if possible and if not then he will just have to mark off being infected as stated by the system as a sort of joke made by it. Alex brings his thoughts back to the present as he takes a look now and can see that he is now at the edge of the forest once again.
Alex checks his pile to see that everything is the same as before and dumps the new corpse onto the pile and heads back in to collect more from the hunt.
A few more hours pass by and the sun is now setting marking the end of the trainee's hunt as the forest gets dangerous in the night due to the number of nocturnal beasts that prowl through the forest for a meal. Night hunting is something that only the veteran hunters do but even then they only stay out for about two through three hours before coming back and calling it done there. If they got anything then that is considered as a good omen but if not and they lose some people it is considered as a bad omen.
Alex was not one to believe in omens but he was not going to say anything about it as he was now standing near his pile of animals he killed and re-counting them in the waning sunlight to see if all of them are accounted for. Alex had killed 14 different animals and no beasts as he was not that confident in taking them down by himself for now if most of the beasts were in the inner area. The only beasts in the outer area that Alex had encountered so far were the beast guarding the blue flower and the Leopard that sneak attacked him before. That was only two beasts but that was considered to be rare by the people as usually there is only one beast that is encountered every year at the very least but Alex met with two in about two days. His luck was changing after dying to say the very least.
Still, because Alex's luck was improving so was his luck stat at least that is what Alex is thinking as it was going down after negative 100 which seemed to be the limit that stuck with him after he died though it started going down. Probably once it reached 0 or 1 then it would stop and Alex would have to increase it through the system.
Still, that stuff could wait for later as Alex was now waiting for the trainee hunters to get back as Alex had returned early to line up the corpses of the animals to showcase his hard work to everyone. After waiting for a few minutes some figures come out of the forest and are heading to the training field where Alex was at. Sheila was at the front of the group while the group of trainees seemed to be depressed for some reason which left Alex confused. Then as the group saw Alex they all looked at him with hate in their eyes as if he did something to them making Alex more confused at what they think he did.
What happened was that Alex had caused the number of animals in the forest to dwindle not from hunting them but by running around the outer area for the fun of it as he was not trying to be stealthy it caused the trainees more difficulty in finding the animals as they started hiding and going back to their homes to wait out the humans on the hunt. Hence the sour mood as they were only able to get a few animals through the entirety of the hunt which was not the best for them as they expected this to be a lot easier with Alex just running around, but reality proved different than what they thought.
The group did not say anything as they just moved over to the other end of the field where a large piece of animal skin was kept over a pile and under the skin where all the animals that the group had killed and brought over. Tonight there was defiantly going to be a feast, to say the least as Alex got a look at their pile and saw that they had also hunted similar animals to him. Still, the group starts dragging out the corpses and placing them in a line in an orderly fashion to Alex's pile and both the group and Alex are surprised at what they are seeing.
They both had killed the same number of animals.
'Well this is awkward' Alex thinks to himself seeing as how the winner of the bet cannot be determined based on quantity alone
They can't just go back into the forest again as the sun had practically set leaving on the torchlight as a viable means to see now that there was no sun.
"Sheila since both of us have got the same amount of animals how about we grade them based on quality now?" Alex asks her
"I agree with that but who will judge?" She asks
"Well could the old man do it he seems to be quite knowledgeable so he might have an idea on which group got the better quality kills," Alex offers
Sheila nods her head before sending off one of the trainees into the village to bring over the elder to check the quality of the kills. Alex was not that confident in his kills because of the rabbits that he killed since they were small they were hard to hit with his stone-throwing but when he did hit them the rabbits tended to end up in a bloody mess that only left Alex half a rabbit at times. Still, he took the best parts of the rabbits and placed them into the pile and called them a corpse.
As everyone waited Alex put back the two crappy stone daggers that he took from the weapons racks and promised himself to never use them again as they almost broke on multiple occasions when he was killing the animals of the forest. Everyone waits a few minutes before the boy who left to get the village elder returned with the old man who was walking behind him at a slower pace.
"Alright alright, I am here what is it you need me for?" The old man asks as he looks at the lines of animal corpses
"Tell us who do you think has the better quality corpses," Sheila asks him
"Hm... well if I were to go off of experience I would say that group," The old man says while pointing at the hunter trainees
This led to them all grinning like idiots and look at Alex like they were better than him, but he did not care for how they viewed him as he felt that the old man had something more to say.
"However, I have yet to fully look at all of them," He says causing the trainees to frown collectively at his words as they feel like they had won
Still, they cannot complain and only let the village elder inspect the various animal corpses under the torchlight with no facial expressions giving away anything he felt throughout the process. It took a long time just for the old man to inspect the trainee's animal corpses before he moved to Alex's and started his own inspection. After about half an hour of looking the old man stands up and walks a bit away from everyone so that they can see him and that he has everyone is paying attention.
"Now then I have decided who has the better quality items from this hunt," The old man says
"The winner is..."
Alex gets a notification from his system