In the end I decide to try and find a place to rest. There's no guarantee that the wind wolf will come alone or that it will even come at all.
I travel a bit further into the forest, until I find a bush I can rest in. There's still a couple of hours until day time, so I plan to try and get some sleep in the meantime.
A little while later, I woke up and exited the bush. Surprisingly I managed to sleep quite well this time. I half expected to be woken up by another wolf attacking me but luckily nothing like that happened.
The first thing I'm going to do today is find a place to make a new den, but before that I'm going to request a quest. If I request the same quest as before, then I should be able to figure out how safe the area is by looking at the difficulty.
Wanting to get started as soon as possible, I open the quest window and request a quest.
[ding!]
[you failed to build your last den in a safe place and it ended up being destroyed! Learn from your mistake and build a new den in a safe place!]
[time limit:12 hours]
[difficulty: normal]
[rewards: 50 skill points]
[penalty for failure: - 50 skill points]
Why does the way the quests worded make it feel like it's ridiculing me?
Oh well at least this quest is only at normal difficulty. 50 skill points as a reward isn't bad either.
To be honest, I expected the quest to be set at hard difficulty again, especially since there are wind wolves and them black wolves in the area. But since it's normal. I'm guessing there should be an area that the wolves won't go to some place close by.
I set off further into the forest, looking for a suitable place to build my home. If possible, I want to find a small clearing like where my first den was. That place was perfect, not only was it a suitable place for a den, but I could also train and practice my skills in the space outside.
I end up searching for a good few hours before actually finding a clearing. It was a lot bigger than the one I lived at previously and I could see a group of monsters in it, but other than that it was perfect.
On the way here I had seen and killed a couple of monsters I had never seen before, one was called a iron beaked kiwi, which just looked like a little green kiwi bird from earth with a metallic beak, and the other was the same monster that i'm seeing now.
They're called pine deer, and they look like deer but they don't have any fur. Instead they are covered in weird pine cone scales. It did take me a while to kill it but not because the scales were to hard to damage, but because it kept running away!
The thing never even tried to fight me, it just took off running the moment it laid eyes on me. I ended up chasing it for quite a while but it was worth it in the end. Its meat was the best thing I had eaten other than the thumper rabbit and I even managed to level up by killing it.
I'm hoping these ones run away as well. If they do then I'll be able to make my den in peace but I don't think they will. There's one that looks different than all the others, it's bigger and has a single antler on its forehead. I use appraisal on it to see if it's at a level I can fight.
"Appraisal!"
[level 3 pine stag]
[rank: 2]
Oh it's the same level and rank as me! Ever since appraisal levelled up I've been able to see what rank the monsters are. The pine deer that I killed earlier was only a rank 1 monster, so I'm guessing the pine stag is its evolved form.
I use appraisal on all the pine deer swell and sure enough, there all rank 1 monsters at various levels.
I step out of the forest and enter the clearing, making no effort to conceal myself. I do this because I need to find out if they're all going to run away or if they will fight because they're in a group.
As soon as they see me, all the pine deer run behind the pine stag. I had hoped the pine stag would run away as well but it seems like it intends to fight. It's keeps snorting whilst dragging one of its hooves across the ground as if it's preparing to charge.
I stop about 15 meters away and prepare to attack the pine stag. It just stares at me, daring me to come close, while still snorting.
Without giving it any warning, I teleport directly next to it and use void claw, separating its head from its body.
[ding!]
[you killed 1 pine stag and gained 300 xp]
[ding!]
[void claw levelled up to level 4]
This is my new attacking method when I don't have to worry about MP. It only works as the first attack but is incredibly effective. I think space magic should be quite rare, and none of the monsters I've faced seem to expect it. Plus void claw seems to be extremely powerful, I can even cut through rock!
I never expected to be able to kill it in one hit though. Remembering that I could only leave deep groves on the wolves I was even more amazed. The neck of the pine stag must have been its weak spot. Either that or the wolves were stronger than I thought.
As soon as its head hit the ground, all the point deer took off running. I considered chasing them for a bit before deciding it's not worth it.
I came here to build a new den, besides I already have the pine stag to eat if I get hungry so there's no real need to hunt the pine deer.
I look around the clearing and set my sights on a large tree. I head over to it and start digging my den at its base. I'm trying to do it as fast as I can just incase the system deems this place unsafe. I need to have enough time to try again if that happens.
It takes me about an hour to finish and luckily as soon as i'm done, I get the system notification.
[ding!]
[quest complete!]