It was hard to fall asleep without being deadly tired. I kept worrying that the rats might find me and kill me while I was out, in the realm of dreams. There was also this crawling fear of Nacho finding me here. Even though at some point I managed to drift away to dream world. I kept having nightmares and waking up. So when morning finally came, I was still sleepy, but there was no other choice than get my shit together and get up.
I ate a bit, trying to preserve rations, then gathered equipment, and went hunting. I had this strange, and actually pretty risky plan sprouting in my head.
The problem with hunting in the woods as a group was that goblins were not gathered close to each other. Sometimes you had to walk for hours to encounter the next pack. A group of 6-7 people was able to usually bring around 30 crystals per day.
Hunting alone I didn't have to split with anybody, but I also had to pick my fights carefully. It was way more dangerous, but profits, in the end, were better. I wasn't the only one who saw it. With time multiple groups were cut down to 4-5 people. But since there were a lot of groups overall, earnings still didn't go up by much.
Why I'm mentioning this to you, is because I saw an opportunity. Even though I was unable to fully take advantage of it, there still should be a ton of crystals to earn. Since goblins had their patterns in behavior, I counted that it's the same case with rats. There was no way to be sure about most of them because I only encountered them yesterday, but still a few of those patterns I did notice. For example that rats are not gonna fight without the advantage of numbers, and instead will run away.
Goblins rushed out of their cave and kept charging as a horde, but rats showed yesterday a different approach. They scattered in smaller groups to search for me in the woods. If they were to repeat such behavior, I was gonna use it.
So I went and sneaked my way closer to their nest. Just as yesterday, waited for a good opportunity, and killed one of them in front of the others, who ran away to get reinforcements. As soon as they vanished in the tunnels, I bolted deeper into the woods. I've found a decent hideout between thick bushes in about the same distance as yesterday and waited.
The same situation repeated itself. After maybe two hours of waiting a group showed up. It was a bit smaller than previously, but I used the same tactics and murdered them all. Then I shouted on top of my lungs and hid again. Relatively soon another group showed up, and I repeated the process. Again, and again, and again.
By the end of the day, I had 36 more crystals in my backpack. There was one close call when the next group came while I wasn't yet finished with a previous one. Fortunately, it was a small group, and I managed to slaughter them all, getting only a small cut on my forearm.
My tactic proved to work almost perfectly and gave me a ton of precious stones. I abused it for four more days earning a total of 182 rat crystals. It was not without wounds. A got a few cuts and a nasty stab to the thigh. It was painful and occurred on the last day forcing me to stop.
Over time I got slower and slower, to the point I was unable to dodge this fatal strike. It was a deep one and almost made me lose my life because I was pretty much immobilized by pain. Fortunately, after a bit of struggle, I managed to get rid of the two last opponents. Then I quickly bandaged the wound with a piece of cloth I riped off my, now not so new, pants.
I limped to the bushes, where my backpack was hidden and took it out to collect the crystals. It was a hard, and slow process, but I was too greedy to just leave precious points. Bleeding only got worse, which made me panic a bit. I had to stop it, but there was nothing to work with. A shitty bandage made of a trouser leg was way too inefficient.
I couldn't see any other way than using the device. I just had to get there. The walk was long, and I had my doubts that I might not make it, and there was also Nacho and his group, but what other choices I had?
I went diagonally heading towards city walls. Using trees, and trying to jump on one leg as much as I could. The first hour of travel made me a bit optimistic. The bleeding of course didn't stop, but my tempo was not terrible, and I still had plenty of energy.
I managed to get to the wall and using it to support myself, started to head straight to the gate. After another hour I had to take a break. I ate the remaining food and waited a bit while trying to bandage myself a bit better with more cloth, this time cut off with a flint knife, from the pants. Pain in the leg was terrible and bleeding continued, so I decided to get up, and start walking.
It was the middle of the night when I approached the gate. Nobody was there. It gave me a bit of hope, that maybe Nacho stopped looking for me. I limped to the city center using building walls as support.
By the device only firekeepers were awake. Some of them. To be exact Boris and Mbeki. The second one didn't get up and stayed sitting, but Boris stood to check who I was. I put my bag on the symbol, next to the device, and quickly took out one of the goblin crystals. I gave it, to him. He just nodded in response. There was no need for words.
I sold all the crystals immediately for 29 560 total. A big score. Amount indicated that rat crystals were worth more, but I didn't have time for math then. Sometime later I discovered they were 120 points each.
I had a total of 30 368 points back then. The deep cut on my thigh costed 5k points to heal instantly. I bought it, along with 700 for exhaustion, and 400 for minor wounds, ending with a nice sum of 24 268. If there was something I learned from my endeavors, it was that I need emergency points for healing in case just like this one. I decided to keep ten thousand points for such a situation.
Then I started to invest in myself. I upgraded my constitution 38 times for a total of 5985 points. Then I also invested 40 times in dexterity for a total of 8100 points. When I was done, I felt incredible, like on top of the world. It was an illusory feeling created by my physicality changing rapidly. Still an incredible feeling.
I was left with 10183 points.
Last time I took 80 points worth of fruits and vegetables. It was a sufficient amount for five days of hunting, so I bought it, like before, and stuffed my backpack. Then I also bought several straps of bacon for 20 points and went to sit with firekeepers. We shared the meat. I asked them not to mention that they saw me. It was probably pointless, because by now probably several people peaked from ruins around us.
I didn't doubt that Nacho was offering a crystal, or two for information about me. After the finished meal, I borrowed a bowl from Boris and purchased two portions of water. I drank them one after another. I needed to fix my shield, but there was no time for that, so in the end, I just picked up the equipment and was on my way.
Day ended with 10 081 points on my account.