Finally, Rogen killed the Stalker Wolf after a few more minutes of fighting it out, and with a nice stab into its eye it fell down and died. After that monster of a wolf was killed the other regular wolves ran off without any other thought. Seeing as how the battle was over Mike sits down and lets out a sigh as he was very tired. Rogen however takes the regular wolves that he killed and the ones Mike killed and puts them into own their respective piles before he takes out a knife from within his cloak and starts skinning his own piled corpses.
Seeing that Rogen was doing something, Mike begrudgingly gets up and goes over to the pile that Rogen made for him. Out of the 15 regular wolves that were in the pack Rogen killed three and Mike killed six. So for the guild quest, Mike has eleven more wolves to go while the system quest is saying that Mike personally needs to kill 14 more. Still, though Mike was glad that they were making progress albeit this hunter almost did kill him with the number of wolves he had to face alone.
Sitting in front of his pile Mike sees that he will have some trouble skinning the wolf with his shortsword so Mike attempts to asks Rogen to teach him how to skin an animal and to borrow a knife.
14
'Really I have to roll in order to ask for something!' Mike screams in his mind as he asks
Thankfully the roll seemed to the trick and is given a dagger and taught the basics of skinning an animal. Eventually as Mike was on his third wolf the system handed him a new skill.
'Ding'
Skill [Basic Skinning] learned
...
[Basic Skinning] - Passive
Allows the user to have a basic understanding of how to skin small and some medium sized animals
+2 skinning
...
'Eh? Skinning points?' Mike was a bout to question further until Abbey chimes in
"Heya bro some skills come with a point increase. Point increases apply to one of your base skills so that you will improve and do better. Your passive skill [Basic Skinning] will increase over time as you do what the skill says before evolving into an upgraded version" Abbey says
'So what can passive skills upgrade into?'
"Oh passive skills just improve, you can't make them choose a different path for them to evolve that only applies to active skills. There are some exceptions to this rule like how your passive [Dash] skill was changed into [Hard to hit] which will then be able to branch out further until eventually it cannot" Abbey explains
'Huh neat'
"Yep!" Abbey says before going quiet once more and leaving Mike to his work
Eventually Mike is done with skinning his wolves even before Rogen was. Now that is not to say that Mike was any better than him, Mike still screwed up and had to have Rogen help him a bit when needed. As for the quality of said pelts, well they could have been done a lot better than probably anyone else with a bit of experience. Still Mike was happy with the results and who wouldn't be after trying something for the first time.
Mike waits for a bit for Rogen to finish up with his own wolves and once done with them he puts the pelts into a sack that he had while just throwing the Stalker Wolf carcas over his shoulders and he starts heading back the way he ran before coming into the forest. Seeing as Mike needed him he just follows behind while holding onto the bundle of pelts in his hands.
Eventually after walking through the forest a bit Mike's hands are not wet and sticky from the blood and flesh of the pelts. Thankfully Mike the fresh blood had yet to attract any sort of animal or worse a monster. When Rogen ran into the forest he did not head in that deep heck even with the distance he ran he barely got into the middle of the outer forest area. This forest was called the Thousand Mile forest which unsurprisingly ran thousands of miles of all sorts of terrain.
Rogen told him the offical name of the forest and how people have even traveled into different climates inside the forest ranging from a damp jungle area to an area that was frozen year round. These strange climate areas were at the border of the middle and center layer of the forest. The weather and climate in that area were pretty normal and not that hard to deal with, the only problem were the monsters that inhabited those areas preventing people from going any further.
So far no one has been able to get to the center of the forest due to the fact that the monsters were extremely powerful so people can only make guesses on what is in the center. Of course people assumed it is a massive pile of treasures that could make a man and his grandchildren set for life if they obtained it but Mike just thought that it was just stupid.
In most campaigns that he played in if a horde of monsters are protectively guarding something then they are doing it for some good reason. It could be to prevent people from entering said area due to the fact that they are trying to prevent something from escaping some sort of confinement. It could be treasure but going off of experience Mike could say that he was about 15% certain it was not the case it would probably be his guess of unleashing something as most DM's would have that be the case so that they can make a new piece of plot or can force the players to play on to correct their mistakes.
Still Mike could not be sure based on rumor and whatnot that could potentially lead to him missing out on some sweet loot. Still Mike would have to wait until he became stronger so he could stand a chance getting there so until then he would shelve that adventure.
Thankfully Mike thinking about the prospect of going to the center of the forest in the future Mike was able to speed up the journey to the town and before he realized it he was back at the town gate and waiting to be allowed in. Going through the whole process again Mike and Rogen appeared back at the Hunter's guild. Once there his pelts were taken away and cleaned for him so that the blood and bits of flesh that were still attached were no longer there while Mike went some place to wash his hands.
With that taken care of and having paid the people who cleaned up the pelts Mike and Rogen went back to Wendel's erm... Guild Hall. Once there they both turn in the regular wolf pelts and the quest is updated for Mike saying that all that he needs is nine more pelts and then he is done.
Now wolf pelts are pretty expensive in their own right and Mike could probably get more money from just selling them off the bat however the Adventurers guild also has its own benefits. Through these tasks Mike could increase his adventurer rank and then gain more rewarding quests. Plus it did not really matter as Mike had to personally kill a few more wolves so that he could level up, gain more money, and get better gear then what he had.
Now Mike was happy with his shortsword since it suited him almost perfectly but he could not use it that well or better yet terribly so either he ask's Dike to see if he can train him or he might have to buy some lessons from an expert. Still the second option cost funds so doing that would only happen unless necessary. Everything has a price and since Mike had no money this would not go well and having to rely on his Dike for funds would lead to debt and quiet possibly interest.
Still Mike knew that with the way everything was going he would be able to gain more funds... hopefully. Back to Mikes quest it was mid afternoon by the time everything was finished with turning in the stuff so Mike pays Rogen what he is owed and a bit extra for dealing with the Stalker wolf earlier. After that Mike makes an excuse that he had something else to do and left Rogen.
Mike left the city and re-entered the forest and this time he was not going to deal with a whole pack of wolves like last time and instead take this on like a true hunter. In the forest Mike decides to take some precations by not going in the same general area where Mike fought the wolves before since by now there would be something there wanting to find something to eat and the smell of blood would attract it.
'Wait blood?'
Mike looks at his clothes and takes a whiff before realizing that he also smells like a dead or wounded meal for some hungry animal. So Mike does the best thing he could think of which was roll around the dirt like a dog to attempt at masking the smell he had had. Eventually after doing that for a bit Mike considers his smell masked and proceeds to complete his quest.
Walking through the forest Mike found it very peaceful and relaxing like those nature hikes that his parent's forced him to take as a kid. Walking around for a bit Mike realises that he is getting nowhere since he has yet to see any sort of wildlife at all. Realizing this Mike tries his luck at attempting to find some animal tracks preferably wolf tracks. A few minutes of looking and mike finally finds something that resembles a paw print on the ground and as if to reward him for his efforts the system sends him a skill.
'Ding'
Skill [Beginner Animal Tracking] learned
...
[Beginner Animal Tracking] - Passive
Allows the user to be able to more easily identify animal tracks
+2 tracking
...
As Mike finished reading the skill and looked back at the set of paw prints Mike was able to more clearly see that prints in the ground in fact he was able to see the rough trail that that they made leading further into the forest. Following these closely Mike ends up going into the middle area of the forest without even knowing it. The middle area is the majority of the forest which spanned for about 800 miles with the smallest patch of it being 750 miles while the outer layer only was about 10 through 15 miles, and since no one can really get into the center of the forest people only assume it is the rest of the 1000 miles that the other parts of the forest don't count for.
Still Mike moves through slowly at first but soon he gets a lot better with tracking not just from marks on the ground but from details in the surrounding area. A crushed branch or leaves that are on the floor from a bush that has new leaves, these indicators were also considered tracks that Mike learned to follow. There were a few hicupps from following the tracks such as losing them, getting mixed up about where they are going, and other things that happened along the way. Still Mike was able to get his stuff together and before he knew it his system informed him that [Beginning Animal Tracking] could now upgrade.
'Ding'
[Beginner Animal Tracking] has evolved into [Experienced Animal Tracking]
With the upgrade Mike did not get lost as often as before and was able to pick up the pace a bit more. Still walking through the forest and being focused on the ground was not that great in fact Mike did not see the shadow that was fallowing behind him at a distance ever since he re-entered the forest.
Eventually Mike ended up stopped fallowing the wolf tracks and tried to find some place to hide as right before him was a large cave that appeared out of place in the forest and for the fact that there had been little change in the environment in the surrounding area at all so far. As Mike looked at the cave the shadow that had been fallowing him at a distance came closer slowly while moving from tree to tree. Eventually the shadow was right behind him and as Mike was trying to decided what to do next a figure appeared from inside the shadow.
They drew a dagger from inside their clothes and stabbed at Mike.