3. Time To Grind The Old Fashion Way

I gulped down the rest of the cranberry tea and took off my bow and quiver at the stump of the tree I was sitting on and held on to the handle of my short sword. I excused myself as I prepared my way to the thick woods.

My short sword was about the exact length as my Kodachi before. It has a 3-foot blade with another 8 inches for the handle. The handle was somewhat fascinating, for there's a green stone in one of the sockets. It had a sharp tip for puncturing and the blade was sharpened on one side and blunt on the other. The sharp edge would only be effective if I held the sword with the socket facing up and striking it from the right to the left.

Maybe if I do have an opportunity, I'd like to conduct a blade wash over this short sword and see how it advanced from there. I wonder if the Realm of Mind works on this era or not. However, there would be other opportunities to try it out later.

As I wandered with my short sword in hand, I immediately sighted a pack of Red Foxes and even if they smelled me coming near them, none of them budged to flee. I hit thrice at a Red Fox and it disintegrated in the air, leaving a copper on the ground. The others just sat there waiting to be struck before it even responded.

I sauntered near to a Red Fox and it just stood there as if it was ignorant to my presence. I booted once at it and it scooted a short distance away as if beckoning me to target it once again. The rest of the Red foxes just stood there and it mewed, sounding like a cat.

"Weird... This is something like a fancy pants medieval fantasy kind of game to me. If it isn't, then these animals won't react to this kind of manner. And these so-called Red Foxes isn't actually Red in colour but its more to orangish instead."

"What the hell... I've just got to finish up those 50 Red foxes and return to the elder. She what she got to say about these afterwards." I thought to myself as I began to target each Red fox available and it takes 3 hits before it finally disintegrated into thin air. After the indicator showed that I had completed my task, I had garnered only 6 coppers, 5 foxtails and 2 furs.

"Elder, I have completed the task that you had informed me. The red name above me still remains as it was before. Did I not satisfactorily fulfilled the task?"

"You did exceptionally, child... Exceptionally slow. I guess you hadn't been practising your sword fighting skills before this. I also wonder about your archery too. Since your quiver has less than a dozen arrows, I guess you have to make arrows. Let me take a look at your status first."

"Hmm...what I had inferred is true. Your sword fighting skills are as bad as a child wielding a twig. Go to the forest and kill another 50 Red Foxes once more."

The elder suggested as I went off into the forest at the back of the thatched house in search for these mysterious Red Foxes. If what she said is true regards the word fighting skills, then I have been depending on my spiritual strength instead of my physical strength.

This sword is unique in its own way and if I need to strike thrice just to bring down a so-called inanimate beast, then there must be definitely wrong with my sword skills or my strength.

Once again, the Red Foxes had gathered at the same place in the clearing of some bamboo reed plantation and it took me the same amount of strikes to bring it down as it disintegrated and got swallowed up by the earth. Fancy pants medieval game or not, in a way it also improves my strength, I hope.

After I had completed killing 50 of these Red Foxes, I had collected drops of only 3 coppers, 3 foxtails and 3 furs. I returned to the elder and passed her the foxtails and furs.

"These foxtails are good to be placed at the back of a wagon or cart. It does make a wonderful gift away. Other than that, it serves no purpose at all unless you want to tack it behind your arse and make it look like you had grown a tail. Hahahahaha."

"However, these Red Fox furs could be fashioned into soft indoor slip-on or fox fur caps if you do have the skills, but unfortunately, you don't. You could sell this 10 furs for 1 copper but since you do not have a storage bag...I might as well pass you a starter one. Wait here a minute..."

The elder slowly rose up using her walking stick and I was about to assist her, she refused flatly as she could manage herself as she slowly entered her hut before she said, "I have not been physically touched by a male before and so please keep your hands to yourself, child."

"Here we go again...the right use of a sentence in an awkward way would leave everyone thinking otherwise."

=*=

"Nah...take this. This is a starter storage bag. It's nothing, though. It could be stacked if you want to. It has 5 slots and would be able to carry 25 items per slot. That doesn't mean you could carry 25 swords or 25 bows because this storage bag is not meant to do so. You could, however, store 25 arrows in a slot."

"It's fortunate that you had been found out ahead by me. I wondered how you are going to endure in the wilderness if I did not call out for you. You certainly need to talk to Mr Director regarding this, frankly, you are worse than a child wielding a twig. At least he or she would have a better chance of survival."

"Haish...I guess you are going to be here for quite some time, child. By looking at your stats, you won't even survive even for a few days. Keep these fox furs and tails with you. Go to the market place along the river here about 2 hours journey and you can sell them to any of the 5 or 6 merchants there."

"Is there such a marketplace here? I was thinking that you are the only person here right after I left the marketplace downstream. Is there any other settlement there besides these 2?"

"There's one every 4 to 6 hours journey. Most of these settlements and marketplace would be near a water source, so either you move upstream to get to bigger settlements as you go on or downstream where the settlements get less populated."

"However, with that red name of yours above your head, it might take longer than 24 or 48 hours to revert back to green. You may go back and kill some more Red Foxes if you want. There are several kinds of foxes, Red ones, Grey ones, and Black ones. They are also classed as Dull, Normal, Wild, Sly and Ferocious."

"Dull and Normal Foxes won't attack back and normally would run off a few meters after being encountered by you. Wild ones would retaliate about 30% of the time, Sly ones would retaliate about 60% of the time and the Ferocious ones would retaliate about 80% of the time."

"If you meet a pack Wild ones, chances that you may meet some Sly ones. However, if you chanced upon a pack of Sly ones, be prepared to be attacked by the Ferocious ones. With the set of skills you have, you may even have difficulties dealing with some Wild ones."

"I would prepare myself in building my Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom and Essence if I were you right now."

"Elder, please forgive this child for being ignorant. Could you explain to me in detail what those stands for?" I asked her and I find that it's truly fortunate for ne being discovered by her even when I was lurking around.

"So useless at this age after being around for so long...Sigh...I'm going to explain to you once, so listen well."

"Strength is the primary attribute of all characters with a melee build. Strength is the primary requirement for most weapons.

Strength increases physical Damage and Defense."

"Wisdom is the primary attribute for anyone using an Internal Chi Energy.

Wisdom increases Internal Chi Attack Rating and Dodge."

"Constitution is not the primary attribute for any builds, and it is not a requirement for any weapons. Constitution increases the Maximum HP that a character has."

"Dexterity is the secondary attribute for characters using a melee build, and it is the secondary requirement for most weapons.

Dexterity increases Attack Rating and Dodge."

"Essence is not the primary attribute for any builds. Essence increases Internal Chi Energy Damage and Defense."

"Have you got all that, child? The only good thing is that you have a poor level of Essense and Wisdom. The rest of them...Pffftttt..."

"Your skill levels are being set as Unknown, Very Poor, Poor, Average, Normal, Good, Very Good, Best and Extraordinary. Even if you are being evaluated at having Intermediate Levels, in this world, it is deemed as Poor."

"Elder, if Intermediate is deemed as Poor, then Basic would be Unknown or Very Poor then. At yai yai yai yaiiii....this is not good notifications at all for me. Elder, if I may ask a favour from you...Could you be a tutoring light in this adventure of mine?"

"Are you ready to be here and relearn all that you had known before and add more points to the current stats that you own? It won't be a simple path for you and it might tire you to death, or turns you into a homebody and living the life like mine?"

"I am inclined to relearn what I have comprehended but would I be eligible to quit whenever I wished to? There won't be a binding pact, am I right?" I asked since I won't want to end up like a recluse herself.

"Alright, in this case...go and kill as many dull red foxes you can discover in the forest and once there are no drops, that implies you had surpassed the minimum requirements and look for normal red, grey or black foxes instead. Come back here for lunch. I've brought out a few items from your fruit basket to prepare a meal."

I deliberately drank up on the refreshing cranberry tea and decided to hunt those dull foxes until I ceased to pick up any drops before raising up to another kind.

Off I went again to the forest and looking for the dull foxes to kill and then I would be able to gain some experience points or something. The dull foxes were still congregating at the same place I've been twice today, and I still needed to strike thrice before the animal would disintegrate and vanish into the ground and leaves behind the spoils of war.

It had been close to midday when I realized that the dull foxes had stopped dropping their spoils and I decided to head back for lunch. I wonder what kind of dish that the elder managed to whip up with the abysmal amount of vegetables from the basket. I had only managed to get 3 coins, 1 foxtail and 1 fur.

"Ah...you're back in time. There are some gruel and some vegetables with some fox meat I had gathered from all the foxtails that you had brought back. Go eat some and replenish your energy. Rest if you wish and continue to grind those foxes. How was your progress, child?"

I answered that the dull foxes had stopped dropping their spoils and would be hunting the normal knew instead. I informed her that I still require 3 strikes before taking the animal down.