I bid the old man farewell and went outside the shop and I found a nice place to sit because I need to unlock the Special Skill from Bloody Axe Rex. If I remember correctly I should willingly offer some of my blood for it to accept me as its owner. Alright, let's give it a try. I took the Axe out and cut myself using its blade.
*Ouch*
It hurts like hell. The people in Manga and Anime make it seems like it's too easy but in reality, it hurts a lot. After that, I poured some drops of my blood on top of the Axe. Suddenly the familiar Status Screen popped up.
The Hidden condition has been met.
A new skill is being generated. The skill has been Generated Successfully.
Homing Instinct
The Homing Instinct skill bestows upon the weapon a unique and uncanny trait. When activated, the weapon becomes akin to a loyal companion, always finding its way back to the hands of its master, regardless of the circumstances. This skill taps into an ancient connection between the wielder and their weapon, granting them an unbreakable bond that transcends distance and obstacles.
It's a Weapon only Skill, This skill does not have a rank.
Effect: When activated, the weapon gains a supernatural sense of direction. Regardless of the distance or obstacles, the weapon will navigate its way back to the warrior's hand, guided by an innate understanding of its location.
This skill can be employed both defensively and offensively – whether to block an oncoming attack or to surprise an opponent by recalling the weapon mid-flight for a swift counterstrike. Mastery of this skill demands attunement, mental clarity, and trust in the bond between warrior and weapon.
Th-this thing is more awesome than I thought, with this skill I don't have to worry about losing my weapon as expected from a special skill. It feels like having my very own version of Mjölnir. Alright, now that's taken care of let's go to the forest.
I started walking towards the nearby forest called Verdant Grove, It was a few hour's walk from Random Town. If I still had the Truck with me this would have been so much easier. After a few hours of walking, I managed to reach the Forest.
*Huff Huff*
That was a lot more tiring than expected let me rest for some time, I sat down before the entrance of Verdant Grove. Suddenly the Status Screen popped up for some reason.
New Location Discovered.
Verdant Grove has been added to the Map.
Generating Quests
Quest: Gathering
Collect 500 different herbs from Verdant Grove.
Reward: Compendium
Quest: Hunting
Hunt 500 different monsters from the Verdant Grove and collect their Energy stone.
Reward: 1000 P.O.W.E.R Points
Wh-what's this? Quest? I'm already on a quest!
It wants me to collect five hundred herbs and kill five hundred monsters and collect their energy stone. That's a lot. And what's this energy stone thing? Is it something similar to mana stone?
And as for the quest rewards, by Compendium if this is similar to what I know then this thing collects data about herbs, minerals, and monsters. If that's the case it could be very useful to gather information.
As for the second reward, it's 1000 P.O.W.E.R Points! That's a lot considering I only get around 100 for each level up, then it's equal to me leveling up about ten times? With that kind of point, I could get myself some awesome skills. Alright, let's start with the quests.
I woke up from the ground and started looking for the herb, after a few minutes I finally managed to find one. These things are tricky to find because they only grow in shady areas, unlike other plants that prefer sunlight. Then the Status Screen popped up for a second time.
You have found a new type of Flore: Renewmint
This is one of the Key ingredients in making health restorative potions. There are a few more herbs that have the same effect but no one actually prefers them. Potions made using Renewmint are tasty and refreshing.
Renewmint has been added to the Compendium
NOTE: The Compendium is unlocked automatically along with the Auto-gathering skill. However, you cannot access it until you have completed the quest.
Do you want to Enable the Auto-gathering feature to gather Renewmint? Y/N
Hmm… so whenever I find some new ingredients it gets automatically registered to the Compendium just like I thought and it even gives me a small description of the Ingredient. Should I enable the Auto-gathering feature, I think I should.
Then I selected the Y on the screen and then another notification popped up.
Auto-gathering feature enabled, Collecting all the Renewmint within 100 Meter radius.
Suddenly a flurry of notifications started appearing.
*Obtained one Renewmint adding it to the inventory*
*Obtained one Renewmint adding it to the inventory*
*Obtained one Renewmint adding it to the inventory*
Wha-what's happening?
*Obtained one Renewmint adding it to the inventory*
*Obtained one Renewmint adding it to the inventory*
After a few minutes, it stopped, and I got a headache because of all those notifications. What was that all about? Is this what Auto-gathering does? Giving me a headache? I remembered seeing all the notifications from before let's check the inventory.
"Inventory"
I was shocked when I saw it, there were twenty-three Renewmint inside the inventory, I just needed ten to finish my quest. All I did was stand there and enabled Auto-gathering and within a few seconds, I got around twenty-three of them! If this is the power of Auto-gathering then collecting five hundred different herbs won't take much long. Alright, it's settled, let's try gathering as much Renewmint as possible, let's try going a little deeper into the forest.
After a few hours, I was somehow able to gather around 420 Renewmint, ok only had a few more left to finish the quest, then I can access the Compendium.
Then I heard the rustling of leaves, a chill ran down my spine, what could it be? What if it's some kind of strong monster? The Truck is not with me now, he's still on cooldown. What should I do? Then I saw what it was. It was a Small Monkey.
Phew… it's just a small monkey, I have killed a few of those with the Truck. It shouldn't be too hard let's kill this and let's get out of here. It was sitting on top of a branch and was looking at me. I approached it and shook the tree.
"Ah-ah-ah", It made monkey noises and fell down from the tree. Got you, I rushed to kill it with my axe but it dodged me easily and climbed another tree. And it throws something on my face. It hit the dead center of my face.
I wiped it off my face and looked at it, it was brown, gooey, and stinks a lot. Co-could this be? Monkeys are known to throw these kinds of things at others. No no, it should just be mud, yes it's just mud. But unfortunately, it was not mud.
"You little shit! How dare you throw this on my face", I raged and tried to climb the tree.
But the monkey started throwing something else, this time there were rocks. It hit my head again and I fell down from the tree.
"ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh", the monkey was clapping its hands and laughing at me.
Goddammit! That thing is small and fast, wait speed! The Truck has the skill to increase the speed of the user. I stood up and said.
"Skill Share - Acceleration"
But instead of the skill activating, the Status Screen popped up for some reason.
Warning: Cannot use the SumMons Active skills while the SumMon is on cooldown.
What? I can't use the active skill because the Truck is on cooldown. Goddammit, everything's against me today. This little shit was very easy to kill when Truck was with me, why is it very hard now?
*Thud*
Ouch! Something hit me on my head. It was another rock, that little shit is starting to piss me off.
What should I do? Wait, I had a weird skill called Pocket Sand. Let's try it out, I went closer to the tree where the little shit was sitting and activated the skill.
"Pocket Sand"
I said while making a throwing motion with my hand, then suddenly Sand came out of my hand and hit the monkey.
"Ahh-ahh-ahh!" While making monkey noises, it fell down from the tree and was squirming on the ground scratching all over its body.
Wha-what's this, I thought Pocket Sand was just a joke skill. To think it has this kind of power then how powerful will it be if I use it as it's intended and use it on the eyes of the target, Let's try it out.
I approached the little shit that was squirming in the ground and said, "I am gonna put some dirt in your eye"
"Ah-ah-ah", its scream filled the forest. And then a notification Popped up again.
*You Have gained 20XP for killing a Small Monkey*
*Auto-gathering is being activated, collecting Monster Drops. Successfully Collected the Moster Drops.*
Finally, that little shit is dead, then I heard more rustling of trees. I turned back to have a look, what I saw shook me to my core hundreds of Monkeys were looking at me and their dead comrade. Then finally one of them screamed at the top of their lungs.
"Ahh-ahh-ahh!"