I got up with the sun and headed to the city center. I took my backpack and the iron knife with me. As I arrived, members of Wuxia were departing to hunt rats. Zhang Yong was among them. He even noticed me and gave me a slight nod. Was he really trying to recruit me? I'm not gonna lie. There was something in that guy. Natural born leader?
Anyway... I went to get some food. Maurício, who was in charge of the device, didn't even look at me. I think he avoided looking at me on purpose. So at least one of my problems was gone for now. Unfortunately, I exchanged it with a potentially worse one.
I bought some food, and sat by the fire to share, and talk. But before I was able to put my ass on the ground, Nobuo Adachi, who was there, spoke to me.
- Your cart is ready. I heard you had some problems with Wuxia, so I waited for you, and kept an eye on it.
- Thanks. That's... thanks. - I didn't know what to say.
This man was probably the most honorable person I ever met. He could be hunting, but instead, he waited and finished the job.
- You paid me for it.
- Yeah. I know. But... never mind. Thanks. Just thanks...
- Come. I'll show you where I put it.
So I left the food with others, who gladly took care of it, and went with Adachi. He led me to the back of the building where they kept firewood. And there it was. Wooden cart on two wheels. Big enough for three people to fit in.
- It's great.
- I think the same. With this, the job is done. Now I'm gonna go, and hunt.
He smiled. This guy was clearly itching to get some crystals on his own. We parted ways. He went to prepare himself for hunting, and I got the cart out and parked it close to the bonfire. I still didn't eat anything, and I was not gonna just pass on my share of meat that I bought.
After that, I went back to my house, packed empty bottles, and the rest of the equipment, and headed straight to my hidden stash by the third gate. Everybody was busy hunting so I had a window to get the crystals out. I packed them on the cart and was on my way back to the device. Face Maurício made while seeing me with so many crystals was precious. I smiled back at him. I was so damn happy. He was not the only one shocked by one guy with so many precious stones. I made a bit of a fuss among craftsmen, scavengers, and the rest.
I sold my score for a nice amount of 317 040 points. Wich combined with what I already had given a total of 330 030 points.
I started with upgrading my dexterity 20 times. It was 11k points, and I could clearly feel my body changing. Then I went for strength. This time 40 upgrades for a total of 16100 points. This one I felt even stronger. Next was the constitution. Something crucial if you wanted to fight all-day. I went a bit nuts on this statistic and invested 100 times in it. That was 75250, and the shock of rapid changes almost knocked me down on my ass. I felt incredible. I had inhuman levels of stamina, and I could clearly feel it. Taken over by the excitement I dumped another 75250 points into strength. Putting it on the same level as my constitution. After, I still had 152 430 points left.
Then I started to wonder if I should put the rest of the points in statistics, or maybe save some. But a different thought struck me, and I bought the house I was sleeping in. It was only 20k points. I soon discovered that I can change it using the device. I could even move objects that were inside. But there was nothing else than my bed. So I put a nice wooden floor inside, fixed walls and ceilings, and got windows made of glass and wood, with wooden shutters opening to the outside. That was a total of 52935 points. So I was still left with 99495 points.
I wanted to keep a safe amount, but greed overtook me, and in the end, I went with another 100 upgrades. This time dexterity. I was left with 24 245. Which was not a bad amount at all, but then I remembered that I also need to buy a lot of wood, and equipment, so the shopping continued.
I went with food worth 1k points. Some bread, a lot of vegetables, and tons of beef jerky. I also wanted to buy some spare weapons. But instead of just going with oak, I went to ask a few craftsmen what they would recommend. In the end, I went with guaiac wood. The single club was 150 points, so pretty pricy, but from what I heard it was a very sturdy kind of wood.
I also bought another five bottles and filled them with water alongside the other I had bought previously. I bought some leather, cut it with a knife, rolled and jammed in the bottlenecks for good measure.
After that, I was ready for departure. I headed to the newly found gate. And for a few hours roaming the woods unable to find anything. I had to go deeper, so I did. At some point, I heard a rustle, and out of the bushes, a big, black wolf emerged. It growled at me showing sharp fangs.
Moved to the side, starting to circle around. I in the meantime prepared the shield and club. The wolf wasn't attacking. I had this strange thought that it's trying to ascertain how strong of an enemy I was. And suddenly it howled. A few seconds later other howls answered. I knew that I need to start moving, so I was the first one to charge.
Wolf didn't try to run away but instead rushed at me, jumping straight at my face. I crouched a bit while blocking with a shield. He slid over it and landed awkwardly on the ground, but I was faster. Kick to the head disoriented the wolf, and a strong hit with the club was enough to finish it.
It turned to smoke and vanished leaving a crystal. A bigger one that rats used to leave behind. Then I heard others approaching from multiple sides. Heavy panting, and multiple paws stomping on the ground.
Another battle started. They came out from everywhere, charging from multiple sides. I had to dodge and block to not get my face bit off. They were clearly aiming for my neck and head. On top of that, there was some strange synchronization to their moves. If I didn't upgrade my body, I would not survive.
But I did, and now I had capabilities that were not possible for a human. I moved quickly enough to avoid any damage and waited for an opportunity to strike while positioning myself to get some cover from nearby trees. They didn't stop for a single moment, coming at me one after another. They realized that jumping is not gonna work, so some of them rushed at my legs. Those attacks I couldn't avoid. So instead I decided to counter. I crouched down and risen the shield above my head to block anything that would jump at me, and just jabbed the first one approaching straight to the nose. It was obviously not enough to kill, but that wolf retreated while whining loudly.
With inhuman reflex, I smacked the other one and stod up throwing of a third who jumped. They couldn't take me down easily, so they tried to wither me down, but my stamina levels were incredible, and I wasn't getting tired at all. They on the other hand did. More and more of them got foam at their mouths. That was my chance, and I took it. Few sharps lunges that allowed just for one attack were enough, because my strikes were so strong, that wolf bones got shattered like glass.
Even though, some escaped. I managed to get 7 of them. It was clear to me, that fighting in this way was stupid. I had to find out better tactic. So I headed back, to set up a camp by the wall.
Day ended with 22 685 points on my account and 7 wolf crystals on the cart.