Since skinning animals took much longer than he expected yesterday, Leon decided to go hunting again after his breakfast and whittling time. Using the remaining arrows, he went to hunt for birds and was able to catch two.
One of the shots he took got blown off course by a sudden gust of wind, allowing the bird to escape but that was normal. He didn't bother going to retrieve the arrow since it was mostly dead weight, and he got most of what he wanted in the first place... feathers.
The feathers would be used as the fletching and he planned to use the bones and talons of the wolves and birds as the shaft and arrow head respectively. Would the system recognize it? He could only wait and see.
Speaking of the system, the brat had been awfully quiet all day but Leon was happy about that. He despised the dinging sounds that came with every notification as it affected his ability to hear sounds in the real world, rather than what was in his head.
Moving on, he also used up the remaining durability of the hatchet and knife killing animals. As all creatures were now considered monsters, they could instinctively use the system to increase their strength, and he gained more exp off of another deer and two more wolves.
All the animal populations on the mountain side had been increasingly rowdy as of late, most likely the system's doing. He was encountering more and more animals, closer to his camp than normal and increasingly more aggressive.
Deer, which normally run away from humans and wolves, were now actively fighting back. He had come across a deer fighting back against two wolves where he used up his remaining durability. The deer had clear signs of blood on its antlers and when he examined the wolf bodies, they had scratches and puncture wounds.
It was a strange sight to see and it was proof that the world had changed... for most people.
Leon could care less, as there was always the possibility of an animal choosing to fight rather than run. If he got too close to a deer, there was nothing stopping it from attacking him in normal circumstances.
Another strange thing about the deer was that it gave more exp than a 'normal' one. The message he had gotten after killing them said that the deer was Level 2, meaning it had already killed another creature or creatures before.
He had gotten 6 exp from it, which was more than a wolf but slowly and surely the levels of these wild animals would begin to get higher. This would also mean that the dangers would get bigger.
On top of that, its eyes were bloodshot. Whether that was a side effect of leveling up or something else, he could only wait and see as the knowledge he had didn't talk much about red eyes. After all, this specific system was unique to earth.
As he let the birds drain of blood, he got to work on creating clothes for himself using the wolf hides. First he took out one of his crude bone knives to cut the hide to the correct lengths. He held up the hide to himself and then guesstimated where he would need to cut.
Abusing the 'perfectness' of the system, he hoped that as long as he made something wearable, it would end up fitting him perfectly. Once the hide was cut to the desired dimensions, he began to poke holes along the edges where the stitches could tie together.
Using thin strips of hide, muscle, and tendon that he left out overnight to dry by the fire, he then wove the hide together as best he could so that it wouldn't fall apart as he tried to fit it over him.
Once he was done, he tried on his wolf hide shirt. The fur was on the inside for warmth while the leathery skin was for defensive purposes and faced the cold weather outside. The shirt was way too big he quickly realized but that was better than it being too small.
At least this way he could still try it on and see where he could make changes to make it fit better. The stitching held up well and did its job properly, leaving him satisfied. What was more satisfying though, was the string of messages that began to pop up.
*ding!* [You have created 'Grey Wolf Leather Vest' (F) x1!]
*ding!* [Your proficiency in crafting all sorts of creations has earned you a skill! You have learned Creation Mastery (F)!]
Leon was satisfied with just the first message, as that was why he was making this 'Vest' in the first place. He was curious about why it was 'Vest' rather than a shirt but that was something he could ask the system, if it was feeling up for it, after looking at this Creation Mastery.
"I didn't expect to get something like this." he mumbled as he thought of the skill, causing a system window to pop up with its information.
{ Creation Mastery (F) - You are learning to create all sorts of items, regardless of the items used in the process, skills needed to create them, and the functionality of the final product.
- Slight increase in efficiency and quality to all items that have been crafted by your own hands
- 10% effect boost to all crafting/smithing related skills of the same rank
- You can only work with F rank items effectively
Skills effected:
- Woodworking (F)
- Weapon Smithing (F)
Evolution requirements:
- Evolve at least 3 crafting/smithing related skills to E rank
- Craft at least 1 E rank item }
This was quite the generous skill as it seemed to boost the effects of his other crafting skills. Currently only Woodworking and Weapon Smithing were affected by it, and he wasn't sure just how much of that 10% would actually show, but it would surely show its worth later down the line.
It would probably make the current speed of his crafting a bit quicker, which was welcomed, but he was also a bit curious about the Evolution requirements. His other skills didn't have an evolution requirement but it kind of made sense.
Would every skill be equal? No. If a skill could pop out of doing just about anything, then it also meant that getting a skill may require more work to do than for other skills. Take his sensitive hearing skill for example, all he had to do to get that skill was to focus on specific sounds in the distance for a while.
While he couldn't see the exp he currently had on it, it seemed relatively easy to earn exp on. But what if there was a skill for lets say, lifting a giant boulder. If there was such a thing it would seem much harder to do than to just focus on listening for a few minutes. As such, the likelihood of the skill being stronger than Sensitive Hearing, even at the same rank, was high.
He came to this conclusion thanks to some of the knowledge he got from the system but it seemed like a rational conclusion even without his extra knowledge. If running a marathon was easy, everyone would do it. If shooting an arrow at a moving target was easy, everyone would do it.
There were naturally things in this world that were easier to do than others, leading to certain skills also being easier to get than others. The Creation Mastery was an example of a skill harder to get than normal.
It was a skill that seemed to have prerequisites which he completed thanks to having both Woodworking and Weapon Smithing already.
Back to the actual evolution requirements, it would be a while before he could complete it. He currently only had two crafting/smithing related skills so until he got a third one and evolved all three, he would have to put this on the back burner.
He hoped that acquiring that third crafting related skill wouldn't take too long to get, as he was still working on making armor pieces out of the wolf hide. The hide shirt that was too big for him had long shrunk to just the perfect size for him.
The stitches on the sides changed to look professionally done while the hide and fur quality also went up a little, feeling tougher and warmer than before. On top of that, the look of the Vest itself changed and was now designed like leather armor with the edges of it covered in fur found from who knows where.
It was a strange miracle for something so well made to be made out of just one bit of a wolf's hide. It easily looked like it took at least two wolf hides to make. Leon didn't bother questioning it, as he hadn't really been doing so from the get go.
This was just life now and he only needed to adjust slightly to it.
With that out of the way, he continued to work on making pants, boots, a belt, gloves, and also a sheath for his short sword. By the time he was done, the sun had set on the 4th day with him having created a full set of leather armor out of the wolf hides he had and also earning that 3rd crafting skill he was hoping to get.
*ding!* [You have created Grey Wolf Leather Pants (F) x1!]
*ding!* [You have created Grey Wolf Leather Boot (F) x2!]
*ding!* [You have created Grey Wolf Leather Belt (F) x1!]
*ding!* [You have created Grey Wolf Leather Glove (F) x2!]
*ding!* [You have created Grey Wolf Leather Sheath (F) x1!]
*ding!* [Your proficiency in working with Leather has earned you a skill! You have learned Leatherworking (F)!]