The Berry Woods(1)
Deep in the low-level hunting grounds known as the berry woods, the goblin Dílis was scouring the bushes and trees in search of something to eat.
So far his search had bore him a handful of red berries and what looked to be an apple.
Luckily, his decrease in size led to a decrease in appetite, so after eating the berries he had found his stomach was full.
He started licking his fingers, cleaning up the leftover berry juice, pricking his tongue with his sharp nails by accident.
Dílis had found finding the berries in his wolf form to be much easier than in his goblin, as his sense of smell and even his eyesight was a lot better in comparison.
The one problem was that the wolf form couldn't harvest the berries, this is where the goblin came into play.
Once transformed into his goblin form, his fingers became much more nimble, he would even go as far as to say that he had better control over his goblin hands than he had over his human.
Thanks to the search for food which he had gone on, he had managed to raise the proficiency of his 'quadrupedalism' skill to 52%.
He could now walk whilst feeling comfortable, however, he still preferred his goblin form as it felt much more natural to walk on two legs than four, at his skills current proficiency.
Now that Dílis had eaten his fill he started worrying about clothing, his wolf form was fine since it was a beast but his goblin form was still very much like that of a human.
He had only noticed it recently, but he was stark naked, his 'little gobu', was flowing majestically in the wind unperturbed.
Dílis hadn't paid it much mind as he had been switching between his two monster forms quite frequently but now he was feeling a bit uncomfortable.
"Let's see...erm," Dílis began looking around him, searching for something to wear before his eyes landed on some leaves, scattered at the base of a tree.
At that moment, an idea crossed Dílis' mind.
If he couldn't find any clothes, why not make some.
Dílis began collecting any leaves of a good size until he had his arms full of them.
He then started climbing the tree in front of him for some of the vines which were hanging off the branches.
Dílis would have been able to just regularly grab the branches if he were still in his human form but due to his current body, he had to climb all the way up to collect them from the branches themselves.
Once he had gathered a few he made his way back down carefully before adding them to his pile of leaves.
Dílis stopped in front of his pile as he realised, he didn't actually know how to make anything out of the materials in front of him.
In survival games and anime when the main character would get abandoned in a forest or something they would always wear a leaf loincloth of sorts but he never got to see how it was actually done.
He lowered his body as he sat down next to his pile of leaves and vines and began tying it together.
The result was a very loose string with some leaves hanging off of it.
This wasn't going to do.
Dílis redid his actions, trying to get them more evenly spaced out while still making sure it covered the important parts.
After the second attempt, he had started to get the idea of what he needed to do.
After the fourth try it was completed, a leaf loincloth which covered all of his important parts, unfortunately, it did kind of look like a skirt as he used all of his materials which might have been a bit much but at least it worked.
Dílis was fastening it around his waist when he got interrupted by a familiar sound.
*Bing*
[Goblins' Craftmanship]
[Rank Common] [Proficiency 0.5%]
-Assists in the creation of higher quality items
"Oh," Dílis exclaimed, "I wasn't expecting that."
It did make sense though, Goblins were known for their trap making and their makeshift weapons.
Now Dílis had two skills, one he earned through trying to walk on four legs and one for successfully creating an item.
Maybe the conditions for earning a skill, changes depending on the skill.
Dílis began mulling it over whilst he continued his walk in the forest.
Dílis started thinking about how to gain other skills.
'Running?'
No, he had been doing plenty of that.
'What about foraging?'
No, he had been doing a lot of that as well.
'Maybe they need different conditions, like maybe I need to do a specific action or find something rare?'
Dílis' thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rustling to his right.
"Huh?," Dílis jumped back instinctively and attempted to draw his sword, a habit of his from when he played Soulkin Online, his hand grabbed at empty air as the rustling continued.
shr, shr
shr, shr
Dílis waited in anticipation ready to run at a moments notice, he was level one, but if he encountered a goblin he may have been able to talk with it.
Whatever was in the bush started to emerge, Dílis began taking steps backwards.
Slowly the bushes parted to reveal a wild boar about three feet in height.
This was strange, The Berry Woods Dílis knew of only spawned wolves and goblins so what was a wild boar doing here.
No
That line of thinking was wrong.
If you think about it, a wild boar being in a place like the berry woods wouldn't be that strange, this wasn't a game anymore so monsters are allowed to wander anywhere they please.
Luckily the boar itself didn't seem to have much of an interest in Dílis and decided to keep sniffing around.
Dílis let out a sigh of relief at the fact that he had been ignored.
A regular wild boar wasn't a strong monster, about on par with a wolf.
Theoretically, his wolf form would be able to take it on, the only problem was that he still couldn't run freely while in his wolf form never mind fight in it.
Dílis realised just how precarious the situation he currently faced truly was.
If he wanted to survive here, he would need weapons and a safe zone.
If he couldn't enter a town, he would have to make his own safe zone, he was a goblin, he could do this.
After making sure the boar had left, Dílis began searching for what he would need to craft a suitable weapon for himself.
It didn't take long for Dílis to find what he needed.
Once again, his arms were filled with various items as he sat down at the base of a tree, ready to get to work.
In the pile Dílis had brought over, there contained a stone, a few sticks and some more vines.
After a bit of trial and error, Dílis succeeded in making his new weapon.
A stone dagger, it wasn't much, just a rock tied onto a stick with a bit of vine.
It wasn't much but for Dílis it was the difference between life and death.
As he was admiring his newly crafted dagger, he decided to check it out with his skill, 'eyes of the demon king'.
[Poorly crafted Stone Dagger]
Category: Weapon [Dagger]
Rank: -
-A stone dagger crafted by someone with very little skill
-Poor materials were used in the creation of this dagger
Dílis was slightly annoyed at the fact the game told him he had very little skill.
He tried inspecting again but this time thought about checking its stats.
[Poorly crafted Stone Dagger]
-Durability: 12%
-Atk: 1
-Attributes: None
"Oh...I see," it really was poorly crafted, the dagger would add another one to his base attack but even still that wasn't much.
Dílis thought of something to improve the quality of his weapons but wondered whether or not it would actually work.
He turned around and his eyes locked on a stone of similar size to the one he had used to make the dagger and inspected it.
[Brittle stone]
Category: Stone
Rank: -
- A weak stone filled with cracks invisible to the naked eye.
Dílis was once again impressed at the ability of his new skill, it was much better than the, 'inspect', skill you would get from completing the tutorial.
After completing his inspection, Dílis began searching for good quality materials to craft another dagger.
About twenty minutes had passed and Dílis finally managed to gather what seemed like some good quality materials to use.
[Sharp Stone]
Category: Stone
Rank: -
- A sharp stone capable of making a small cut
[Smooth stick]
Category: Wood
Rank: -
- A smooth twig from the branches of the berry trees of The Berry Woods
[Berry Vine]
Category: Vine
Rank: -
- A Vine found hanging from the branches of the berry trees of The Berry Woods
Dílis gathered his newly acquired materials and began working on his new dagger.
Dílis' concentration was high, the process made easier by the existence of his old knife but still, Dílis wanted to make the best possible weapon he could at that moment.
His nimble fingers secured the stone blade to the handle made from the smooth sticks, wrapping the vine tight, making sure nothing would budge, he activated his, 'Goblin's craftmanship', skill and without break managed to finish.
Dílis wiped the sweat from his brow, it was surprisingly taxing on him, especially after activating, 'Goblin's craftmanship', however, the effect was amazing.
After activating it he felt his concentration had increased and he felt as if he had a better understanding of how to put together the different materials.
Dílis checked his skill window and selected Goblin's Craftmanship.
[Goblins' Craftmanship]
[Rank Common] [Proficiency 2%]
-Assists in the creation of higher quality items
The skills proficiency had risen by a further two percent since the last time he checked.
His loincloth had risen the skills proficiency by point five, he could only assume that his previous dagger had done the same.
This meant that his new dagger had risen the proficiency by one instead of point five.
Dílis had some ideas as to why this was, he guessed that by creating higher quality items he could raise his skills proficiency, in turn raising the quality of the items as well.
Speaking of daggers, Dílis decided to check out his newly created dagger.
[Sharp Stone Dagger]
Category: Weapon [Dagger]
Rank: -
-A stone dagger crafted by someone with very little skill
-Good quality materials were used in the creation of this dagger
-This dagger was created with care
The information had changed, it was now called a 'Sharp Stone Dagger', and the description had changed a little as well.
Dílis decided to check out its stats after reading the description.
[Sharp Stone Dagger]
-Durability: 30%
-Atk: 2
-Attributes: None
The durability had more than doubled and the attack had also risen, it was only one point but that could mean the difference between life and death for him.
He was satisfied by the stats of his new weapon.
He swung it around a bit, the knife cleanly cut through the air and, despite its rugged appearance, looked very majestic to him at that moment.
Dílis took a break from swinging as he checked the sky.
The sun was beginning to set and the bright light was reduced to a soft glow as the suns power waned.
He decided he would set up camp for the night, as the woods would only become more dangerous in the dark.
His stomach was still plenty full from his previous meal so he didn't need to worry about that.
He would need a place to rest for the night, but after much consideration decided against making any sort of bed.
Dílis didn't want to get surprise attacked in the middle of the night so instead of sleeping on the ground, he decided to climb the nearest tree and rest on the branches, tying himself to it with a vine to make sure he didn't fall off while he was asleep.
As the sun set and the cold light of the moon covered the trees and grass of The Berry Woods.
Dílis' first day in Athos came to a close.