With my lunch fully consumed, and my latest creations fully underway churning away at producing more charcoal in the newly built kilns, while the original continues to cool down slowly.
My afternoon is freed up to continue doing what i always do, so after doing a once over of my body i kitted myself up with my usual assortment of weapons, a pair of hand axes, and a belt with many stone knives tucked inside.
I set off into the forest depths once more, in search of materials to stock up my newly grow storage, and perhaps to come across some monster i can fight to earn experience and gain new materials i can use in crafting.
As i was running through the densely packed trees my mind began to wander thinking about what all i could try to create with the contents of my inventory so far.
Granted that most of my inventory is filled with soil at the moment due to digging out all of the kilns, but even still i only really have wood, and stone in ample supply.
Followed by a small amount of wool, and leaves.
and least of all would be the meager amount of copper and iron i've saved up thanks to the selling of my creation back in the city and the coins i was paid reverting into their raw ore forms.
Lastly would be the 6 marble sized gems, that look more like a really faint sort of red that dropped the same time the monsters i killed dropped their loot.
I don't know what it is, but im calling it a monster core, or monster stone for now.
As i was running i made sure to stop by the places i sighted various herbs growing or to run over and lay my hands on larger stones i came across to "auto-collect" them into my inventory.
While i was doing this i noticed a change though, it's almost like my perception has gotten better or someone loaded a mod into my visual centers as when im looking at the herbs if i look at them long enough i'll get a sort of message in my head telling me what the herb is, and roughly what it does.
I don't have the time to rest and check my status so I'll assume I've gained some sort of appraisal skill for now, not that it's amazing or anything since when i tried to use it on a tree, and some stones nothing happened.
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The distance i ran from my base camp increased, but strangely enough the view of the surrounding around me didn't seem all that different.
Just how large is this forest?
"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!"
A scream rang out through the air a blood curdling one at that, which made my running pace come to a complete halt.
In this world where death is permanent well in game that is, the level of caution i've developed has approached roughly the same of what i'd think i had if not even more so than my instinct to survive back in the real world.
As i stood there cold sweat covering my back, lost in my own mind as to whether or not to check out what is going on, or to just run for the hills.
My curiosity won out in the end, and i crept my way towards where i heard the scream come from.
Staying as close to the shadows and as low to the ground as i can, until i came upon a similar clearing to the one i fought the Bareep in.
Within it stood the signs of one or possibly multiple battles, craters could be seen scattered throughout, with broken and discarded weapons also littering the field, strangely though no bodies or blood.
Is the gore filter turned off or something?
Cause the Bareep all bled out at least until they died when the body disappeared but the blood on the ground and me still remained.
Aside from the scattered signs of battle, were only two figures.
One looked to be a young adult human who was laying on the ground clearly shaking in fear unable to move, the other looked to be roughly the height and build of an adult but it's form was clearly monstrous.
I mean it looked like the creation if a wolfman, mated with a swamp monster.
I think i'll call this a Forest Kobold.
But even still the feeling i get is bad, this thing is many time stronger than the goblin i fought before.
If the goblin was a 1 in the power scale, then this Kobold feels more like a 10, and while i had a relatively easy time there, my stats are only about triple what they were back then, so my own ranking would be probably a 5 or so.
Gaming knowledge means i should always have a margin of safety when playing on hell mode where death is just that, but this ratio cannot be met, im clearly weaker, not stronger.
But i do have some clear advantages, first being the beasts attention is not on me but the person at it's feet, and while i would feel bad about leaving them to die there's no guarantee that that thing doesn't know that im here, i mean it is part dog it can probably sniff me out.
Second is that if i can switch it's attention to me and gain the downed persons help it'll be a 2-1 fight even if both of us are weaker than our opponent we can close the gap or even wind up with a slim advantage.
"Kya!!!"
Another scream resounds as the Kobold stepped on the prone figure.
It's clearly provoking the downed person, but is this just to get me to react since it knows im here, or is it just being a sadist before killing its prey.
But still if it knows im here it's hiding it really well, not once has it turned to look in my direction and even it's moss cover ears atop its head havent turned even halfway in my direction.
"Guah!"
'Tsk'
Clicking my tongue i made my choice.
With limited fight choices i opted to go with the same one i used so far.
Grabbing up handfulls of knives with both hands, Launching a furious mid-ranged assault as countless stone blades shot through the air silently.
As soon as the last one left my hand i re-gripped my twin axes, and followed in their pursuit.
Twack Twack Twack Twack
Of all the knives i threw only four managed to hit the target, the rest were either dodged or deflected by the creatures sword.
I got lucky my aim was to reduce the beasts mobility, and with two in one leg, and one in the other that should be enough to do just that.
The last blades aim was a little high but also was the first to land, striking in the small of it's back.
The beasts body rounded on me, snarling with drool dripping from it's gaping maw.
Both the beast, and it's prey's attention was now fully fixed upon my form, as i continued my charge into the frey.
Two weapons vs one, i hold the advantage but conversely i'm using stone equipment whereas that sword looks to be iron at the very least so i lose out in terms of quality.
If i can settle this early great otherwise my weapon durability will come to bite me in the end.
In a flash as we closed in on one another, i quickly hurled both axes as hard as i could, aiming for the beasts sides.
But as soon as the axes left my hands a 2nd set appeared out of thin air.
At least it would look that way from the outside, in actuality i dove into my storage skill as soon as i threw then to re-equip myself with another pair of spares i had stowed away.
The beast didn't even really react to my first set of axes just letting them whiz right by, causing barely even superficial wounds, landing deeply into the ground behind it.
Clash!
For our first meeting of blades i used both axes to stop the beasts swing.
Ugh
It's strength stat is clearly greater than mine, if i hadn't used both hands for this block i'd have been blown away.
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The struggle between life and death carried on for what felt like an eternity.
I'm a low-level crafter so this is to be expected i guess, but the result of the battle before i got here always nagged at my mind.
But the battle luckily ended in my favor, but i did have to pull out all the stops to achieve that win, as i stood over it's dying form, numerous cuts and deep wounds coated my body, clutched in hand was my final stone axe which was barely holding itself together likely to fall apart after one more swing.
I was in this state, in no small thanks to the beasts prey who just sat there the entire time watching out fight never once making a move to try and use the axes i had launched back at the start of our fight for their use.
Eventually having to run over and reclaim them to use for myself.
Eh what does it matter I'm alive, and if this persons a player next time they need help, I'll know better than to stick my neck out for them, and if their an NPC... oh well you were never really alive to begin with.