Exploring and Gaining Ep 5

"Good, this is good." whispered Faust as he tightly gripped his spear" With the two of the Boar-man gone we can definitely take out the one remaining. We just have to hurry up, the time of expulsion is almost upon us."

"That is correct, but the two Boar-men that just left with also be upon us as soon as they hear the coll from the gods chosen. Do you think we can finnish his fast enough for them to not be a nuisance for us." said Bale as he readied his crossbow, and dipped his bolts in his concoction.

".....it's not impossible." Faust furrowed his brows and then thought for a second." Indeed the dark gods chosen is a formidable opponent , but a simultaneous attack from the both of us and the effect of your coated bolts into play, the battle shouldn't last long."

"Because it should, it doesn't mean that it will. We need assurance that we won't get flanked as we are battling the dark gods chosen....we need some kind assurance."

"Assurance....

Faust stopped talking and looked at Vali with the corner of his eye, but Bale on the other hand was straight staring at him. He smiled like a friendly old man as he patted Vali's shoulder, but it only made Vali shudder.

 " It is indeed as you say , and fortunately we have such an assurance."

Vali was left speechless and looked at Vali , but he couldn't look at him in the eyes. Of course he wasn't going to do as someone else wished, his life was on the line after all.

"Haha, it's a good joke I'll admit, but I'm not about to risk death so close to the 'expulsion'. You know I'm clearly not strong enough to contest against a boar-man. You're just sending me to my death."

Faust clenched his fist and was about to speak up when the old man motioned for him to stop. 

"Lad....you think to lowly of yourself, and also to lowly of me. I'm sure that taking head on something like a boar-man is not something that you can handle, but I'm not talking of physical fighting. 

You seem like a smart young man, you should know something about traps don't you?"

"What does that have to do with this situation?" said vali as he remembered something from the previous owner of the body. One of his friends was a hunter and he often bragged to Vali about his hunts. His most used weapon was a bow, but it was not the most effective hunting tool. Most of his catches were small game and they were caught by laying traps.

"Of course it does." said Bale as he once again rummaged in his backpack and took out some small and square pieces of wood. They were small, about five cm wide , and all had some kind of iron nails sticking out of them. " This is also something of my own creation, but I can't take full credit for its creation. It's a simple wounding trap to incapacitate large humanoids such as the boar-man. It's placed on the ground on a known path the boar-man will most likely pass, and it's quite a vile trap at that." Bale explained as he pointed at the nails sticking out of the wooden board. "These nails are also designed to easily pierce flesh and hard to take out....and even if it comes out it will leave a big gaping wound."

Vali was about to say no as he of course wasn't going to risk his life for either of them, but he also understood he wasn't in a good position. If he flat out refused he would definitely paint himself as the one who let this opportunity slip by, but if he accepted he would pain himself as the weak one, and he wasn't about to let himself be bossed around. So, he came to the next best conclusion.

"Sigh...I'll agree to do it, 'but' only if I get 10% more of the loot we find in the cabin. There's no more room for negotiation...."

"Hah,lad...you really drive a hard bargain. "

........

The three of them agreed to that, and Vali was left to go put the traps into the path of the boar-men . He was afraid and somehwat shaking , turning his head at every single sound, but fortunately he also had some wine he had borrowed from Faust. With big sips he drank his fill and not less than one minute after his fear seemed to subside. He had experienced this feeling before, and he quite enjoyed it as it soothed his nerves, but it was strange. Both in his old world and this one he didn't think that alcohol had such kind of effect, but he stopped in his tracks as he remembered his skill. He thought about the blue window and as on command it materialized in his field of vision.

Name

Vali

Health 

Good 

Physique 

28

Mental

12

Skills 

Cobbler lv4 : Drunken Stupor lv1

 DRUNKEN STUPOR LV1

When you drink a certain amount of alcohol this skill takes effect. 

Mental -15%

Flexibility +10%

Reaction time -5%

Resistance to mind based magic and skills +10%

Pain Resistance +5%

Vali carefully read the status and saw something had changed. Both his Physique and Mental had changed.' So it wasn't the alcohol after all.'