The blue boxes hadn't stopped forming and Arne thought he must have hit his head real good. He hit his head from the right side, as if a new hit would reverse the original hit. The blue boxes were still there. For now, he decided to ignore them.
He needed a new shoe and new arrows. But, he only had 10 coppers. A new shoe would have to wait, but arrows couldn't! He remembered his hero saying that arrows are the most important part of an archer. He walked through the small town, towards the combat merchant to buy arrows.
The town had a fresh feeling to it. Green trees were spread all around the buildings. It had only recently become a town. Roads of hardened roads connected the buildings to each other. Most of the buildings had a stone foundation with wooden walls and thatched roofs. The ground was buckled causing quite a height discrepancy between the buildings.
The combat merchants store was amid many other merchants. The store was a carriage. On its front there was many flashy swords, bows, maces, axes, and shields hanging colourfully off the front. In the middle stood an old man with a scarred face, he greeted Arne with a smile.
"Here's your twenty arrows. That'll be 7 copper." The old man said.
"Here you go. And here's a slime core." Arne said.
"I'll only take 6 copper in that case."
Arne took the arrows and placed them inside his quiver, and one of the copper he placed on the counter and walked away. The sun was still out, he couldn't rest yet.
----
The green bush littered with red berries moved slowly to the wind. Crouching behind it Arne was completely focused on his target. Three slimes rolled in front of him. He silently and stealthily readied his bow even though they couldn't hear, nor see.
He gripped one of the cheap arrows, and aligned it with the rough string, he pulled it backwards and steadied his shot. The arrows stumbled through the air, and pierced through one of the slimes cores.
Arne jumped up in the air in happiness and shouted, "Yes!" The two slimes noticed him and began rolling towards him, menacingly. He ran away, saying, "you'll never catch me!" An archer had to be strategic, that's what his hero always said.
"+1 Xp"
"+1 Perception"
"Bow mastery -0.3/1000"
The slimes were stupid, and forgot of him and their friend after a minute of running. They returned to peacefully rolling around. The windows had continued showing, he stopped and thought about it, 'why won't they disappear.'
Another window appeared, answering his question.
"The system will not just simply disappear."
'Wait, it heard me.' Arne thought and another window popped up.
"Please do not call the system, it. The system has a name called ███████."
Arne stumbled and fell on his back, 'how, how do you hear me?' This time he got no response. He shook his head, his mind must have spoken back to him somehow. He cleared his mind and got back to fighting.
Arne crouched and moved through the bushes towards the slimes, careful not to step on a stick. He rolled past some bushes, and crawled past others. The smell of fresh dirt permeated the air, and his clothes got dirty.
He readied his bow for another shot. A miss. He started running. He'd missed 9 arrows now, and hit one. Suddenly, he heard a whimper.
On the floor was a little wolf cub, it looked starved and helpless. Arne wanted to continue running but couldn't leave the wolf cub to the menacing slimes, he picked it up and continued running. The cub bit into Arne's arm and passed out as Arne ran. The cub was so weak that he barely felt anything.
After the slimes had stopped chasing them, Arne thought about putting the wolf down but thought against it, he felt like he'd abandon the wolf cub and he didn't want that.
He ran back to town with the wolf, and ran into the adventure guild. The old man was nowhere to be seen, Arne ran to the butcher store and gave his final 4 copper coins to the merchant, which in return gave him a small slab of stinky bear meat.
He put the bear meat beside the wolf, but the wolf didn't move. He grabbed the wolf and shook him, the wolf's eyes opened slightly, Arne put him on the meat. The wolf cub bit into the meat and slowly began eating.
Arne sat down, he felt relieved. "That's a cute little wolf you've got there. How did you get him? "
"I just found him, outside."
"You just found him?"
"Yeah."
"You do know they travel in packs?"
"Yeah but I didn't see his pack and he looked starved so I think he got separated from them."
"hmmm, interesting. I'll tell you one thing kid, wolves are real predators, proper savages. Be careful around it."
"This little thing won't hurt me." Arne gave a large smile.
After the wolf had finished his meal he fell asleep. It had a different expression now, it looked more at peace. The wolf had light-greyish fur and small, perky ears, it had a small tail and four small legs. It had black lines running down alongside its nose, its nose was black and small. Arne would describe it as adorable.
"I'll name you… I'll name you Shadow. Yeah, I think that's a cool name."
After eating, the cub fell asleep. He picked up the cub and walked back to the adventure guild. Even though it was still day time and the sun was out, he couldn't go slaying slimes with the cub right now, and he didn't know where he could leave it so he'd have to wait for tomorrow. As he walked his stomach rumbled, he'd have to go the day hungry.
In a few days he'd officially turn 16 and then he could be officially recognized as an adventurer, and he'd be allowed to take real quests. The insides of the adventure guild was quite empty, without the old man there was only the clerk. The adventure guild had the layout of an average bar with few exceptions.
"Hey Martha." Martha was the name of the clerk, and she'd known Arne for at least two years now. She was cold hearted, stern, and serious all the time. Arne disliked talking with Martha for too long.
"Hello Arne."
Arne put the wolf cub bar rail. It quickly caught the attention of Martha, but she looked away pretending not to notice the wolf. Arne's stomach growled real loudly. On lucky days he'd kill a few slimes and be able to eat more.