*BONUS* Barney's good progress

John just had a severe yet not lasting headache, it was fixed in mere seconds on its own. And it was not a simple headache at all.

Information about basic trap-making was in his mind that he did not know he had ever seen before.

Ideas from metallic traps to small-scale traps, he knew some of all. Yet they were all for small-scale creatures. The skill was only level 1 and after experiencing before, John knew that after a level up, he will be getting more information.

But that was not what was boggling his mind, He was looking at Lucas with disbelief.

'The information I gained was not on the level of what Lucas gained, I know that for sure... Just how much pain did he suffer from?' The question was making him shiver.

John decided to not say about it and mentioned the skill's name and description to everyone.

"So now you can make more types of traps?" Lucas asked curiously.

Yet John's eyes became sad as he said, "No... we can't make any of them aside from these two for now. We don't have any tools or even any type of metal. And even if they were, I don't know how to smith my way and make the traps. So sorry but it's impossible for now..."

"Na... it's okay. Haha... I was just getting greedy, if our work's done here, let's go back."

Just like that, everyone returned to the shelter with reassurance that their safety had yet increased and that if everything goes fine, there will be some meat in their stomachs too.

Only 3 days and some hours were left till the first phase was going to complete. Lucas had butterflies in his stomach at the thought of meeting his parents.

At this point, his sense of concern had lessened from before. He knew in his heart that they would be okay, but the concern couldn't go away completely, it was his family, the people who he had lived with his whole life and the only people he loved with the purest of heart.

Now that the traps were done, everyone went on to spread time within their small formed groups. Lucas and Sarah together and John's family together.

After some hours of dilly-dallying, everyone went back to doing their work of making the left 40 planks so that only the mana cores part was left.

Night fell soon and they all went inside the shelter like always. John was the first one to take the shift and he had the knack of doing extra.

It was decided that the shift would only be three hours but he always did it for more making it less taxing on Lucas. But Lucas knew about it and in turn, told him to rest in the afternoon when everyone is up and if anything were to happen, they would just scream. John agreed but was reluctant after being pestered by literally everyone.

Sean and Barney may be careless and irresponsible, but they still had a soft heart for their father and mother.

-

In a certain area, a small silhouette was found moving around while sniffing the ground until it got a whiff. It went toward the slab's shadow and smelt a good fragrance, something that it could eat to its heart's content.

Its small arms before reaching the fruit stepped on the small twig on the right side.

THUD!

The slab within seconds fell on the creature and it didn't even get to know what happened, when the slab fell, it was an instant kill...

At the same time, John got the notification of getting EXP alas he was sleeping and it vanished after being present for half an hour.

-

The morning was livelier than always and the reason was big too.

Everyone made a circle with a single person inside it. The young man was making an axe head hover in the air and making it move in circles around him, his face was not that constipated now but there were still creases.

It was Barney.

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

Ella started clapping and then John, later everyone started clapping with smiles on their face.

"Did the skill level up, Barney?" Lucas asked while looking at the hovering axe head in the air, the axe head was by no means lightweight but it was not very heavy too. It was 500 grams on average in weight.

"No, my control got better by getting used to it. Now get a side everyone, let me show you this." Barney said and made the axe head hover toward him until it landed on his hand.

Everyone got on the side and gave Barney a lot of space. Barney looked at the axe head in his hand with seriousness until it started floating in his hand. He gave a side glance to everyone making sure everyone was looking.

His hand made a curve making the axe head spin horizontally, the V-shaped part pointed toward the front.

"Huuuu..." He took a breather making Lucas annoyed, the guy was making more suspense than a professional storyteller.

"HAAAGH!!" He shouted and pushed his hand ahead, the axe head went flying at great speed in a forward trajectory. Everyone looked at it going speedy until it fell on the ground about 4 meters ahead.

"That's... my range...*Thud*," Barney said slowly and fell on his knees, his face was sweating heavily.

"I can't believe you did it, my baby!!" Ella came briskly to his side and hugged him.

"M-Mom, you are embarrassing me..." Barney said while he was still limping down.

John came toward him and patted his shoulder, Barney mustered all his strength to look him in the eye, teeth gritted to show how much pressure he was placing on himself right now.

John ruffled his hair and smiled, he gave him just four simple words, "I am proud of you..." yet it was all Barney wanted. He fell unconscious while his mother kept him sitting.

"Oh mannn... I wanted to tease call him a baby..."

"Sean! Shut up!"

"Okay Okay, don't get mad."

John picked Barney up and took him to the shelter to rest after checking if he was alright, turned out he was only unconscious from fatigue or something.

----

Thanks for reading!