20 minutes timer

After thinking for a few minutes, Ryan decided to temporarily put aside the problem of the Chieftain boss. He still needed to focus on rares and elites and it was best to deal with one thing at a time. 

This was also how he usually dealt with and processed diffcult situations, taking it one step at a time. Something he was forced to learn after the accident that changed his life.

And now somehow, yet again his life was changed. Things beyond his wildest imagination was coming true and he was going to deal with all of them by taking one step at a time.

"I first need to understand this bloodlust." Ryan looked around, restricting himself to the areas right beside the town. 

This zone was a little crowded by newbies hunting for rabbits, chickens and goats, doing starter quests but it wasn't too bad. In a couple of minutes, he was able to find a free spot under a tree. A group of three rabbits had spawned here.

Ryan calmly walked over to this spot and sat down there. The rabbits were friendly creatures and they didn't attack unless they were provoked first. So while he sat there, the three rabbits continued munching on some twigs innocently.

A few minutes passed just like this and suddenly the feeling of unquenchable thirst was once again back. Ryan's eyes immediately widened. This was fast! Way too fast! 

He had noted the time between the last attack and this one and it was only half an hour! This meant that he had to keep feeding every half an hour.

Ryan then checked the time again. He wanted to see just how long would he be able to control this thirst and how many minutes he had before he became 'mindless'.

1 minute passed, 2 minutes passed. The feeling of thirst was steadily increasing. A low throbbing headache also started up. However, when then 5th minute mark tickedd, suddenly the thirst became unbearable.

Ryan immediately grabbed the rabbit nearest to him and bit into it hard. Since he was at Level 3, the level 0 beginner beast was no match for him, especially after he started draining the blood.

Immediately the thirst that was burning his insides like fire was doused just like that. Ryan was also feeling satisfied. He dully wiped the blood from his mouth as he tossed the rabbit away.

<Ding. 5 You have gained experience points>

"Hmmm…" He swiped the notification away and started the process all over again. The timing here was very important so he had to be really sure. Things might not necessarily be so simple.

And just like Ryan expected, the next time he started feeling thirsty at 20 minutes mark itself. The time after that it was 40 minutes. However, once he began feeling thirsty he always had five minutes to quench himself. At least that didn't change.

Also, if he fed regularly every 20 mins whether he felt thirsty or not, the feeling was not triggered. It bought him another 20 minutes.

Ryan spent almost three hours experimenting on this before straightening everything out. He now had a bettler handle on his special skills, well at least one of them. As for the curse…

"Time to start hunting." His first target was common beasts. He looked up the town where he was at and the nearby grinding areas. 

All the information was readily available in the forums. This was one of the advantage of having a late start. Now he knew where he had to go. 

There was the Level 5 wild boars zone, Level 10 Dire wolf zone and the Level 30 howling baboons zone. Level 5 wild boars were perfect for him.

Ryan stood up and started walking to the outskirts of the forest that surrounded the town. Not long after he came across three wild boars roaming together.

He was still new to this so he didn't want to go for a 1 vs 3 right from the get go. He looked around in contemplation and his gaze fell upon a nearby rock. 

He picked up the small rock and tossed it at one of the boars. Immediately after that he started sprinting. If he wanted he could easily outrun the aggro range of the three boars as he had a headstart but he turned around to see that only one of them was chasing him.

"Perfect! It worked!"

Ryan stopped running and grinned. He swung his hand at the boar that was rushing towards him in blind rage. Slash! His nails were able to draw some blood, cutting through the thick hide of the boar.

-50

He did not stop there and continued wrestling with the boar. As soon as there was an opening, slash! Another attack landed. 

-50

With this the boar was now severely injured and its movements became slower. Ryan immediately grasped this chance to dig into the boar's neck.

-100

Within seconds, the boar stopped struggling and became limp and lifeless. 

<Ding. 200 You have gained experience points> 

The entire fight lasted less than a minute and the points he added to strength and agility were showing their worth.

"Not bad." Ryan wiped his mouth. It was uncomfortable to fight without any weapon but he was slowly getting used to his new fighting style.

One more common beast down!