True to what he thought, the nightmares have lessened their nightly visit and the images of murder have been replaced with images of hunting. Dead deer instead of human corpses. Killing men was indeed a different deed than killing mere animals, he found… far different.
His encounter with the elk herd brought him 91,000 tokens from the harvested meat and the antler and probably more, if he had not held unto the rest of the leather. He decided to store them until he reached the required mastery.
Nevertheless, his token account reached six figures once again.
Pleased with what came out of the hunt, Anthony would, from then on, resume to his normal hunting habit. Every time he would encounter prey worthy enough to be hunted, he would stop the wagon and turn them into tokens.
A herd of deer came next after the elks. Not white-tailed, a bit bigger, but still small enough for the Bowhunter skills to be effective. The haul of meat and gave him another fifty thousand, and once again withholding the leather.
Then elks again, this time a herd of cow elks and their young. A big group that did not convert to a big haul. Due to lesser meat yields, and no antlers, in addition to the fact that he had to chase them because they do not fight back. Nonetheless, he bagged thirty thousand tokens still.
Another forty-thousand he got from slaughtering half of a medium-sized Antelope herd in the succeeding encounter.
Elks, deer, and Antelopes. Their similar appearance and behavior, dampened the thrill of the hunt after quite a while.
Until one night, when he got a taste of something new. Danger had always been preceded by the barking of the pups, and that time too he was thankful that he decided to buy them, though not as thankful when they were sleeping inside the inn.
He was dragged out of his slumber and, as quickly as he could, forced every muscle awake. One peek at the window, and he knew what he was dealing with. Several eyes illuminating in the dark, and he could hear growling and almost inaudible rustling of the leaves.
Ever confidently, he burst through the door wielding a lit torch, quickly close it back again and climbed the roof. His loud movement and the fire, as he had intended, drew their attention to him.
Seeing their prey, boldly announcing his presence, the pack commenced their attack. There was no panic seen in Anthony's movements, all were according to plan, the same plan he used when the Thelessian soldiers stormed the stage.
Using the broken Spear Shot skill, which he could use almost every other second, he rained throwing spears from where he was standing. And suffering the same fate as the men who tried to kill him, the bravest and fiercest of the pack were slaughtered first, even before they could land a scratch on the vehicle.
Then the rest, the not-so-aggressive-members, pulled back with their tails between their legs. But as he had done before, he had always gone for total annihilation if he could. And those who were not fast enough to get out of the vision range provided by the torch, would join the others on the bloody fields.
Irene was woken up by the whimpering but by the time she dared to take a look outside, the brief affair was over, and nine lifeless wolves lay scattered meters away from the wagon.
After skinning and butchering one corpse, Anthony discovered the low wolf meat yield and the low price it fetches from the store. The wolf fur did not compensate for this. Unfortunately, the refining process required the highest mastery of the skill. All in all, he got a meager sum of a little more than twenty thousand tokens, most of which was from the unrefined fur.
The disappointment would be doubled down after realizing, that despite consecutive opportunities, none of them rewarded him with thin leather. Thus, further delaying the much-needed level up of the Leatherworker Occupation.
An idea would cross his mind, while he underwent the daily boring work of a coachman, the next day. Something he considered a stroke of genius, and something he wished he had done earlier. In excitement, they stopped for lunch a little early.
"Can we ta-?" she heard Irene call out to him when he went for the door. It had been the norm for them to eat meals in awkward silence and immediately part ways as soon as the last spoonful was finished. A routine he has gotten used to and could not break that day, and he pretended he wasn't able to hear her.
He immediately regretted the action, but he had shut the door behind him. He waited for a while for her to call on him again, but not another word was heard.
Plagued with guilt, he made his way to the driver seat. Once seated, he took a peek through the opening behind his pack. It did not reveal much. She was laying down on the bed, and he could only see her lower half.
With a heavy sigh, he refocused his attention for the task at hand.
His idea was simple and, in theory, a loophole that could break the system. Buy the raw materials from the shop and then refine them, then resell them back. And he would have an infinite supply of mastery points and tokens.
So, he opened the shop and browsed for thin hide. This he found in the hide section, along with the rest of the variety. It cost him a meager sum of 20 tokens per square feet.
Consistent with what he expected, when he opened the Craft skill, the icons of the craftable materials lit up. From leather bags to leather armor, all leather goods were there listed in the menu.
With high hopes, he started with the arm guards.
[You have crafted Leather Bracers x10]
[No Mastery Points Obtained]
[Are you sure you want to sell Leather Bracers x20?]
[You have obtained 200 Tokens (80% Penalty Applied)]