Arun woke up early that day. As he sat up, he saw that the sun was just about to peek from the horizon. Near the campsite was Suzie, tending to fire silently. He got up, stretched his body, and then sat down right next to her.
"Good Morning," He said.
"You should sleep more. We have plenty of time before the sun rises," Suzie said.
"No can do," he said while sipping some water, "I have to get going. The journey to the place where I want to go is very long,"
Suzie stared at him, "You are going? Aren't you going to wait for others to get up?"
He shook his head, "No. I am sorry but the journey is just too long,"
"Which Quadrant are you going to?" she asked.
Arun had forgotten that he was supposed to find out what Quadrant meant. "Well, I am going up North. Towards the mountains."
"Spawn City quadrant? That is just wild land. I hope you know what you are doing," he nodded slowly. Chatting with her, he soon realized what the quadrants meant.
From the map of the first floor, he knew that many lives were going through the place. The interesting part was, that the rivers had led to the formation of several islands on the floor. He was unsure whether these lands could be considered an Island, considering one of them was surrounded by rivers from all sides. But these islands were what people refer to as quadrants. At least that is what he thinks, it means.
As he could not just ask Suzie about the stuff, he pushed it at the back of his mind and started preparing himself. He strapped the sandals on his feet and tied the shield on his back with a small rope that he took from Suzie. With a sword in his hands, he got up, ready to leave. Suzie also got up and gave him a hug.
"Thank you once again for saving us," she said, "Which also reminds me, I have to do one more thing," She then gave him, her right hand, "Friends?"
A message appeared before his eyes,
_______________________________________
Shizuka Minamoto has sent you a friend request.
______________________________________
Would you like to accept her friend request?
Y/N
___________________________________
He was taken aback by the messages. He didnt know that a player can send friend requests to each other like this. But now as he was thinking about it, this did make sense considering that there is a Friend List option in his status menu.
Arun accepted the request. Bade her farewell and started heading his way…
***
As the sun rose in the sky, Arun had made a considerable distance between him and the Earthlings that he had saved. While making the distance, he made sure that he didnt leave any trace behind, as a precaution. He didnt want anyone to follow him while he was going his way.
For now, his plan was simple. He wanted to find a way to get to the next floor while leveling up. From the way he sees it, in order to find the key he needs to travel all around the map. As far as his theory about City Lords of Great Cities having the keys is concerned, he won't be investigating that. After all, it was pointless to pursue them considering how weak he was. So he planned to travel all around the map, leveling up and looking for the clues for the keys.
He figured out that even if he didnt find any clue about the keys, roaming around and leveling up would help him one way or the another. So if the time comes when he would have to take the keys from the City Lords, he would be ready.
Which is why, his first destination is a remote island, just south of Lando. The idea of Key being on a remote island made sense to him. Maybe it was his inner fanboy for Indiana Jones talking, but he figured that it would be worth checking the place out.
Thus, he was also heading towards Lando, but he would be taking a long route there. Instead of going through the straight path, he would be traveling from one coastline to another. For survival and for ease of not taking out the map often, he figured that going along a water source would be the trick here…
While living in Sleetrest, Arun heard from several adventurers that the farther one goes from the city limits, the denser the forests get. And a higher probability it would be find beasts or monsters. It made sense to him because Adventurers are tasked to clear out monsters from the vicinity of the cities from time to time. But what he didnt expect was how untouched the forest outside city limits was.
There came a time when he was traveling from such a dense forest, that the canopy of trees had hidden the sun from him. Based on the mushy soil underneath his feet, he realized that leaves from the trees had decomposed out in the open. And now the whole ground was covered in this mushy soil. This was a classic sign that no animal, beast, or wind had ever disturbed the ground of the forest.
Only moving a little bit further deeper, Arun came across a pair of prints. The good thing was, unlike the prints of the goblins, which he didnt recognize at first, he recognized these prints in an instant. Based on the depth of the prints, he figured that he was dealing with boar here. More specifically a Peccary, a type of pig that is usually found in low tropical areas.
These creatures are small and have a great sense of smell. This is why, in order to dampen his smell, he picked up some part of the mud around and rubbed it all over his body.
The prospect of getting to hunt excited him, making him smile. He sent his shield and sword back into the Quick Access and took out his Bow and Arrow. It was time to test out his archery.
It didnt take him a lot of time, and eventually, he spotted a creature to whom those prints belonged. But this one was very different from what he had imagined. Instead of resembling the Peccary, this one was more like a Warthog. From what he knew, typically Warthogs were pig-like creatures, who had two small tusks coming out of their mouth. They are normally found in desert-like areas.
This creature was brown, and just like a Warthog, it had two tusks coming out of its mouth. The only difference between this one and Warthog from Earth was its tusks. This one had tusks that were shining under the spotlight of the sun, and it took Arun a few seconds to realize that these tusks were made of metal. That is why they were shining. He understood that if this creature was slam into him, those tusks would surely give him wounds that wouldd bleed him to death.
Those tusks did make him rethink his plan. Which is why, instead of confronting the creature head-on, Arun started climbing a nearby tree. As slowly and as quietly as he could. As this one was a very small creature, he only climbed to the branch, only a few feet up the ground, giving him ample vantage sight of the target.
After getting on the branch, he took his bow and knocked an arrow. Breathing slowly he pulled the string, stopping his breathing he concentrated on the target, 10 feet away from him. He let go of the arrow, and to his surprise, the arrow teared the air and went straight for the stomach of the pig.
The creature started squealing with pain and started squirming in its place.
Yes!
Arun knocked another arrow to end its suffering. He was about to shoot, when from nearby bushes two more pigs came around. Both of them were around the same size as the previous one. Seeing more shooting targets, he pulled the string once again. But it was then, that one of the pigs turned towards him. And he felt that the pig was staring straight at him. Then the pig squealed and shot something towards him.
With his instincts alone, he fell backward. From the ground, he looked up to see the knife-like tusk of the creature lodged into the tree behind him.
What the fuck! Those little things can send their tusks a projectile?
Immediately he pushed himself up and started running. He started hearing squealing noises from behind him, they were chasing after him.