Still yawning he headed out of town shortly after showing the old coot, whose name was Gregory of all things, his new spear. Gregory was a dumpy gentleman who appeared to be in his sixties. White hair with a large bald spot he looked the role of a traditional fantasy mayor. After showing off his hard earned abilities the old coot had reached up to clap him on the shoulder and said simply "Sael I knew you could do it!" Sael… that had been the name he started using the day he arrived. He was determined not to use his real name. After all, this was a fantasy world and his normal name just wouldn't do… Gamers and Heroes always had odd names right? No one ever heard of Jacob or Carl or Frank the hero right?
And right now he was going to do what he did in every game. Try and find the most effective method of advancing with the least effort possible. Put simply, break the game. Even though the first quest he received was the quest to kill the Antger, after seeing how difficult it was going to be he had tried a few other things to level up. Right now he was off to test one of the methods again. The ultra-secret technique he was going to employ was grinding off easier monsters until the challenging content was trivial. In this case a meadow full of what he referred to as boars was his chosen grinding spot. That said other than the pig snout they didn't really look like boars. Instead, they were four to six foot long two foot wide caterpillar-like creatures covered in thick fur but yes with a pig snout. They weren't very aggressive by nature and despite their size weren't all that dangerous… but they were tough.
He'd managed to kill a few and drag them back in the past to net himself a supply of food from the village butcher in exchange for the corpses. But he'd never managed to acquire any experience or other loot. He was hoping after unlocking his class he could start grinding properly.
Finally arriving at "Boar Meadow" he stopped to count nearly a score of the beasts inch-worming their way across the field eating what looked like giant stalks of milkweed. Picking out one of the beasts off on its own he scooped up a rock. Taking his best pitching stance he chunked it with all his might. Sadly, his rock throw didn't explode the enemy into particles and in fact, seemed to do no damage at all as the rock just bounced off with a soft thud sound. He was still rewarded though with an annoyed squeal as the beast turned in his direction and more surprisingly a new system message.
[Skill unlocked] [Throwing]
He didn't have too much time to celebrate but instead quickly snatched up another rock and launched it at the angered boar before he lost its attention. This time his rock smacked into its head with a much louder thud and just as he had wanted it began its charge. He'd figured out a pretty easy way to kill them before. Once angered they would start a wild charge which was actually pretty comical to watch. Picture a giant caterpillar making its way across the field, its back rising up before thrusting itself forward while squealing and oinking. That said, as funny as it might look the things could move at a ridiculous pace once they got started. He was glad they didn't have tusks like actual boars or he probably wouldn't have had the guts to use this method the first time.
Taking a solid stance he braced himself spear at the ready. The simple minded creature barreled across the field and then when only a few yards away bunched itself up and launched forward like a spring. Such a simple straight forward charge was easy to meet. Thrusting his spear forward he let the creature's momentum impale itself face first on the spear. After that he just had to hold on and not get barreled over, something he found much easier to do this time around. One last squeal and the creature died on his spear. It had been so much harder before, now it was truly a trivial hunt killing the creature. Unfortunately, no message appeared giving him any experience. Frowning he wrenched the spear free of the carcass and summoned in his knife.
Without hesitation, he made a quick slashing motion and was relieved to see the corpse begin disappearing as a new message rolled across his mind.
Catepig butchered!
Catepig meat x 5 acquired!
Catepig hide acquired!
He felt his eye twitch as he read the message. "Catepig? Really… What idiot came up with that name? Lame. But…" He eyed the hide and felt a slight smile forming. "Oh, Beth… I'm going to have some work for you."
Grinning as he looked out at the remaining boars, he refused to call them Catepigs, before scrambling to gather up plenty of rocks. While he hadn't gotten any experience from killing the thing he had managed to gain a skill so hopefully he could raise his skills on them as well. Tossing one of the rocks up and catching it he grinned "Let the farming begin!"
**********
The morning proved quite successful as far as he was concerned. In the span of a few hours he'd managed to slaughter all the boars… yes boars! And while he hadn't gotten a single experience point or attribute increase he had managed to level up a few of his skills. He had even tried a few things to unlock more skills since it seemed he only had to perform a related activity. But so far he hadn't managed to figure out any others. He was particularly upset that he hadn't unlocked some sort of sprinting skill even after making several laps around the field once he was done killing the last boar in sight.
Still with ninety seven boar meat and twenty one hides he thought it was a grand start. 'I wonder if meat spoils stored in my inventory? Hmm, guess there is one way to find out.' Another thing he had discovered or better put discovered missing was some sort of appraisal skill. He got no information about the hides, meat, or even his spear. Not even damage or durability, just a mental image of the item when he focused on it and a sense of being able to pull it out of wherever his inventory stored things.
Once back in town his first stop was going to be the butcher to see if he could pawn off the meat from his farming session, but found himself waylaid by a grinning Beth. "There you are. Where have you been?"
"I went out hunting. I am a warrior you know! Since when have I had to check in with you? What are you my mom now?" He couldn't help but grin as he poked at her. He was just in too good a mood and after the last few weeks of feeling rather down, it was a fun way to let off some steam.
She just rolled her eyes and tossed him a small bundle of familiar green leather attached to an equally familiar scythe blade. Looking down at the bit of leather he found it had a number of thin leather strands laced through it. He glanced at the bundle then down at Beth. "So…what is it?"
"Duh, it's a bracer." She was working up a pretty good scowl all of the sudden. So he took a moment to look it over again. After she explained what it was he could see where it was basically a tub of leather with the scythe attached along the length. Sticking his arm through it he started lacing it along the inside of his forearm. It didn't fit perfectly and he noticed more than a few holes in it but he couldn't deny he felt more protected… or at least one forearm did. Plus the curved blade looked rather wicked like a razor sharp crescent moon running along the side of his forearm. Flexing his arm a bit he figured he could block or maybe even slash an opponent in melee.
"So… where is the rest of it? Is it supposed to fit like this? It's kinda loose." He wiggled the bracer around a bit.
"You only gave me one ratty hide! And it was my first attempt. Stop your bitching… in fact give it back!" With a huff, she reached out for his arm which he quickly snatched away raising it above his head and well out of her reach. Glowering up at him "Oh now you want it? Well, pay up… I don't work for free you know!" She had a bit of a smirk forming, she knew he didn't have any money. Not that she had made any yet either.
"Alright then!" With a few thoughts, he summoned in the stack of ca…boar hides and shoved the whole stack towards her. She scrambled to balance them in her arms and gave him a questioning look. "I told you I went out hunting. Oh and I expect more than a bracer from all that!" Smirking and knowing her hands were full he patted her on the head before skipping out of reach in case she decided to drop the hides and take a swing at him. She hated it when he did that and it brought him nothing but joy. This time though he got nothing but a glare as she turned and hurried in the direction of her shop.
He rubbed his hands together in anticipation at the thought of a full set of armor no matter how basic. Finally, he'd start looking like a proper adventurer… even if a low level one.
*********
He had wanted to head out and at least try battling the Antgers again but selling the meat he acquired turned out to be more work than he expected. The biggest problem was that nearly all trade was done with bartering, very little coin was used. Gregory said it was more common in the bigger cities but in a small village like this one it was mostly bartering. So, he'd tried to barter with the butcher who in turn didn't know what to offer for so much meat so had made a deal with the baker and the tavern keeper. The butcher would give him back some of the meat cured as jerky, the baker would give him bread over the next few weeks and the tavern keeper would provide him with proper meals in the evening. It wasn't what he had hoped for but after a meal of fresh bread and a meaty stew, he found he wasn't as fond of eating just smoked meat as he had been forced to for the last month.
The next day he checked his inventory which now included a single piece of raw meat for testing purposes, a wedge of cheese, a loaf of bread, several things of smoked meat, and a skin filled with a watered down wine that was the most common drink in the area. So far nothing looked to have spoiled but he'd have to wait a while longer to truly see. After he finished his preparations he once again headed towards the meadow but found only a few boars wandering around. Worried that he might over hunt them he left them to their grazing. It wouldn't do to wipe out a valuable resource and he hadn't considered that despite being like a game things didn't seem to respawn like one. Instead, he headed off in the direction the Antgers roamed.
*********
He stomped back into town shortly before nightfall cursing as he went. He'd spent most of the day trying to kill another Antger but hadn't managed even one single kill. Each time it looked like he was close to killing one the entire group would flee with the others covering the most wounded ones retreat. On top of that, his clothes were little more than bloody rags at this point. Though his recovery skill had ranked up enough that after a short rest most of his wounds would heal up unless they were particularly deep. Such as one particularly savage cut across his chest that had taken nearly two hours to heal enough that he could fight without it opening back up. His down time between fights was too long and the fact he hadn't managed to kill a single one was grating on his nerves. He tried to be happy with the fact he'd once again raised his base attributes and ranked up more skills. Repeatedly he told himself he was getting stronger and making progress but every time he did the phase weakest of the weak popped into his head.
"Geez at this rate you're going to come back naked tomorrow. You know maybe you should learn to dodge or get a shield or something." Beth popped out from behind the pile of rocks that surrounded the village as a sort of fence with a smirk.
"Shouldn't you be working? You've finally got materials so you don't have an excuse to be lazing around. And maybe if I had some decent armor I'd not be in such bad shape. Maybe I'd even actually succeed for a change." He growled out at the tiny armorer. She actually looked hurt by his words and he bit his tongue before cursing himself 'Damn it. There I go slipping to being an actual ass again.'
"Sorry… I'm just frustrated and didn't mean to take it out on you." He raised his armored right arm and gave her a bit of a grin "Look it actually helped a lot… probably the only part of me not covered in cuts or bruises!"
Her more normal rueful smirk seemed to revive as she stood a bit straighter "Well duh. It is armor made by the best armor in all of Little Well!" She gave him another once over with a look he hadn't seen before and couldn't quite place before she let out an exaggerated sigh "I guess I can give you the new armor I made… It would be a shame for you to go off and get killed before you brought me anything good to work with. But you will owe me! I don't work for free!"
Now it was his turn to give her an odd look. Hadn't it taken her like half a day to make just a bracer? She couldn't have finished a full set of armor in a single day right? Actually thinking on it he didn't feel like questioning it and instead a hungry grin spread across his face. Rubbing his hands together as his eyes lit up with greed he switched to his friendliest voice "Well what are we doing out here! Let's go see this most magnificent masterpiece. I know it will be the finest, best, most exquisite armor ever fashioned. After all with such a beautiful armorer it has to be a work of art right?" He started searching for more compliments and flattery to throw out but she cut him off rolling her eyes yet again.
"Stop goofing off just come see what I've made." Despite her attitude her tone was more than a little excited. So, without another word he followed after her just as excited.