[You have killed a White-tailed Deer]
[Mastery +20]
[You have reached enough Mastery points]
[Mastery Increased]
[Basic Shot Accuracy increased by 10%]
[Skills Cooldown decreased by 10%]
[Product Quality Increased]
When the next morning came, Anthony as planned, resumed his hunt in the forest. Wanting to have a bigger haul than what he had the day before, he chose another trail and chose one that was the least used. And as he had theorized, he encountered more wildlife with the surrounding area being relatively untouched.
It was only mid-noon when he hunted his fourth prey and his second deer of the day. It was then that a prompt appeared informing him of the occupation upgrade. Though the hunt animals have played a part, he knew it was the two cavaliers he had killed that gave most of the mastery points.
The upgrade reduced cooldowns and increased the buff effects. All were quite self-explanatory, except for one detail.
"Product Quality Increased?" Anthony knew the product meant the game meat, but he wasn't exactly sure what was meant by the quality increased.
[Used 'Butcher']
[You have obtained Good-Quality Venison x28]
He headed directly to the inventory, and it was only then that he noticed something. The icon of the venison, as with other items in his inventory, had a small square in the upper right corner containing a Roman numeral. And all except for the newly harvested venison, which had the Roman numeral for 2, the squares contained the Roman numeral for 1.
This was the same on almost every item in the shop.
Then he made another discovery. In the upper left corner of the shop, he discovered a drop-down menu that gave him the option to choose products in terms of quality. The default was on '1' quality, and it explained why the food and the drinks tasted average.
The price increased as the quality went up, so he concluded that the meat he would be harvesting from that moment onwards, would also be more expensive.
[Are you sure you want to sell Good-Quality Venison x28]
[You have obtained Tokens x1680]
It was as he expected, except that he thought the difference would be much more. The price increased by 20%, equating to an increase of only 10 Tokens for each unit of venison.
His stomach grumbled, reminding him that lunchtime has arrived. As what he had done on the first day, he ate lunch in the wild. He found a big oak tree to sit underneath, and browsed for his lunch.
He went for what he ate yesterday, a cheap chicken sandwich and water. But because of the upgrade, he decided to treat himself and increased the quality by a single notch.
[Are you sure you want to buy Good-Quality Chicken Sandwich x1?]
[You have spent Tokens x10]
[Are you sure you want to buy Good-Quality Waterskin x1?]
[You have spent Tokens x5]
There was no difference in appearance once the food was taken out of the inventory. And for a couple of minutes he wondered if the quality indicator was just a feature to make things interesting, but doesn't really translate in reality.
This was reinforced at his first chews, as there were no blatant differences to be immediately noticed with regard to taste. But as he continued to eat, subtle details surfaced. The bread and the chicken were slightly firmer, and the flavors lasted a little longer in the mouth. Every bite also appeared to be a little more filling.
Still, all in all, he did not find it worth the switch. 'Good-quality' items were better products, but not by any significant margin. Increasing one more notch in quality would probably give substantially better products, but the prices were discouraging. He decided to stick with the default quality, until he had tokens to waste.
He resumed his hunt soon after, unsatisfied with the upgrade, until a little later.
With his growing confidence with his hunting skills, he started leaving the trail and wandered further into the undergrowth. After all, the trail was just supposed to be the guide and not the main hunting ground.
It was this change of strategy that led him to his first encounter with a wild boar.
He first spotted it ten meters away from where he was, digging some root crops with its snout. He tried to tread carefully as he closed in, but a single misstep and a twig snapped, causing it to scamper away.
[Used 'Spear Throw']
The spear outran the swift hog, making its mark in its hind legs. But the tough animal did not go down, even with the weapon clinging to the flesh, although it was slowed down.
[Used Piercing Shot]
Because the other skill was in cooldown, he used the piercing shot. It laughably missed. Though it was strong, it did not have the accuracy of the 'Spear Throw' skill.
With both skills now in Cool down, he resorted to a basic skill shot. It performed better, but only grazed the body and inflicted a shallow wound.
Because of his misses, the boar was able to escape his sight, having ran further into the thickness of the forest.
However, he was already invested, and the adrenaline was already pumping through his veins. Furthermore, his pride was hurt, it was the first time that something had escaped his spear.
Anthony bought another six throwing spears, resolved to finish what he started. He went in the direction of where he had last seen the boar. He noticed a trail of blood, and tried to follow it.
Several moments later, he saw the boar again, having stopped beneath a small tree, bleeding and weakened.
The boar sensed his presence quickly but not after he had already hurled the spear.
[Used 'Spear Throw']
The auto-aiming spear hit the boar again, this time in his abdomen. But against all odds and to his frustration, the animal was still able to run away.
Anthony jumped out of hiding, and tried to chase the boar on foot. It seemed foolish, as the wounded boar could still outmaneuver him, but he had noticed that the other skill's cool down was almost finished.
[Used 'Piercing Shot']