Sam woke up to the sight of a familiar roof. As he pushed himself up he felt a twang of pain in the back of his head. He lifted his hand to where he felt the pain and realized there was a bandage wrapped around his head. For a moment he was confused until the sight of his bow leaning against the drawers on the other side of the room sparked the memory of what had happened.
The last thing he could remember was that he had fallen from his horse when the wolf had leaped at him, and he had hit the back of his head. But what happened to the wolf that lunged at him, how was he still alive? As the fog covering his mind began to clear he noticed that he had eight system notifications. Sam weighed up whether he should leave his room to tell his family he was okay or to look at the notifications. After a few seconds of consideration, he decided the notifications would give him necessary context that may help him when talking to his family about what had happened.
Sam consciously opened the first system notification. ~Skill Level up: Natural Skill ‘Creature Identification’ level gained. ' Creature Identification' is now Level 26~ Finally gained another level in creature identification, that puts it ahead of the other identification skills Sam thought. Although he better work on leveling up the other identification skills to ensure they don’t get too far behind Sam thought to himself as he opened the next system notification.
The next three system notifications were pretty much the same as each other. ~ Level up. Your general level is now level 14~. ~ Level up. Your general level is now level 15~. ~ Level up. Your general level is now level 16~. He had gained three levels; there was only really one thing that could have caused a triple level up and that was defeating an enemy significantly stronger than yourself. He therefore must have killed the wolf, how he had no idea Sam thought as he checked the next system notification.
~A Blood Skill ‘God of the Reapers’ has activated. You have gained +2 Strength~. Holy crap, Sam thought as he read the notification. He had managed to kill the wolf, his skill had activated, and he had gained not one but two stat points in strength. He gaped at the notification as he truly realized how great his skill would be once had had an opportunity to take on more than just animals in the forest. Before he got lost in his imagination he forced himself to read the next notification.
~Title gained - title “Punch Up” has been gained~ Another title, this was insane. Titles are normally really rare Sam thought. The fact that he had gained two in just over a week was incredibly lucky. Much luckier than his luck stat suggested he was. Sam used ‘General Identification’ on the title to find out what it did. ~ Punch Up (Title) This title provides a 20% bonus to all stats when fighting against an opponent twice or more of the title holder’s strength~. Sam was once again speechless over the title’s bonus provided. A 20% bonus to fighting anything 2 or more times stronger than himself would be incredibly good when fighting within a party he thought.
Having once again fallen into his imagination he pulled himself back together and looked at the next two notifications. Sam opened the first of the last two notifications ~ Natural Skill Gained. ‘Basic Archery’ LV1~. The first one was gaining the basic archery natural skill which made sense since he’d been doing a lot of practice and to hit a killing blow on a stronger enemy clearly pushed the skill over the line. The last of the notifications however was more surprising ~ Natural Skill Gained. ‘Mounted Archery’ LV1~. As he had only shot two arrows from horse back this must solely be due to killing the wolf as his first shot had gone way wide of his target.
Very satisfied with the notifications he finally got out of bed. He didn’t bother to get changed as his family would likely be worried about him and he had already dawdled enough. As he expected his family were very worried about him, the moment he opened the door his mother and father jumped up from the kitchen table and ran over to him giving him a big hug. His little sister soon joined them as she came darting out of her bedroom to join the hug. “Sam are you Okay?” his mother asked as she held his face in her hands and studied him carefully. “Yes, I’m okay mum, my health is back to full” Sam replied. “I was worried sick. I healed you not long after you fell from your horse, but you still didn’t wake up” his mother explained. “I’m okay. Seriously, I’m completely fine” he said again.
“So, what happened with the wolf?” he asked his parents wanting to know what had happened after he was knocked unconscious. “Well, Travis told us the whole thing. He said when the wolf lunged at you, and you fell off the horse you shot an arrow you had been holding and got a lucky shot off which hit the wolf straight through the eye killing it instantly” His father explained. Well, that explained how he had actually managed to kill the wolf but still what a lucky shot, he would be dead without it he thought. “So, what have they done with the wolf?” Sam questioned. “Well, they cut it opened and found human remains inside its stomach. It’s assumed that the remains are those of Andrew, but we can’t confirm until someone with a high-level identification skill is able to visit and confirm them” his father said, “I see” Sam said sullenly. “It was just one of those unfortunate things” his father said as he placed a hand on Sam shoulder to comfort him.
“So, what’s going to happen to the body of the wolf?” Sam questioned. “Well, that’s up to you Sam” his father replied. “What, me?” Sam asked surprised. “Yes, as you were the one who took it down it’s yours to do with as you please. The wolf has been skinned, and its pelt is tanning as we speak, free of charge as a thank you for killing it by the village” his father said. “A wolf pelt that large must be quite expensive no? Why would they just give it to me?” Sam questioned. “As I said, you were the one who killed it so as far as everyone in the village is concerned, it’s yours. It will likely take a couple of days more on the tanning racks before it’s ready to be collected though” his father informed him.
After learning about the final fate of the wolf and that he was the one who would get its pelt he wanted to go outside to keep working on his archery skills. After all it saved his life, and he wanted to get it leveled up as much as possible but alas his mother wouldn’t let him leave the house for the next three days so instead of working on his skills he spent the time at home reading his books.
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A couple of days later, once his mother had decided to let him leave the house he went over to the village tanners to collect the wolf pelt. It was huge and he ended up needing to use a wheelbarrow to transport it home with him. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to keep the pelt or sell it to a merchant that passed through the village so for now he decided to store it away in the top of his wardrobe.
Sam spent the next few days working on leveling up his skills. He set up an archery range on his land and worked on leveling up the basic archery skill. After 3 days of practice activating the skill and firing arrow after arrow at various targets he leveled the basic archery skill up to level 4. While he was taking breaks from archery he spent time fishing. He caught many fish but none of them activated his Reaper of Strength ability however he did manage to gain the ‘Reeling’ and ‘Baiting’ skills as well as level up the casting skill as few times.
These were some quite productive days, but he felt like he needed to work harder on leveling his skills and trying to level his Strength Reaper skill fragment as much as possible before the start of the academy in just over 4 weeks’ time. Once he was at the academy he wouldn’t have much time to work on these skills. The academy in town focused on noble tutelage as well as bettering students in mathematics, writing, domain management and other noble practices which he wouldn’t need. But once again it was mandatory for the sons of any nobles no matter how low rank they were.
Sam lay in bed planning out what he wanted to do over the next couple of days. He had decided to see if he could borrow Carrot from Travis so that he could practice his ‘Mounted Archery’ skill but knew he would likely only be able to borrow the horse for a couple of hours. Looking for inspiration he decided to take a look at his status to see what skills he wanted to work on alongside the ‘Mounted Archery skill’.
Samuel Holdridge:
System Date: 23/08/12076
Age: 13
Level 16
Status:
Strength: 51
Agility: 16
Intelligence:32
Wisdom: 32
Perception: 16
Endurance: 16
Luck: 16
Resources:
Health: 20/20
Mana: 6/6
Stamina: 15/15
Blood Skills: God of the Reapers
Skill Fragments 1/10 - Reaper of Strength Lv 1.
Natural Skills: Farming Lv 25, First Aid Lv 25, Cleaning Lv 25, Cooking Lv 26, General Identification Lv 25, Item Identification Lv 25, Creature Identification Lv 26, Skill Identification Lv 25, Long Jump LV 2, Casting LV 6, Reeling LV 2, Baiting LV 1, Basic Archery LV 4, Mounted Archery LV 1
Titles: Rodent Killer (Plus 10% Damage done to Rodents) 110/1000, Punch Up (20% Stat bonus when fighting opponents twice or more as strong as you)
After looking over his status he decided he wanted to at least get the ‘High Jump’ skill and wanted to do some more fishing. Fishing was a better way of trying to get his ‘Reaper of Strength’ ability to activate than that of hunting rats as he didn’t have to run around chasing fish and he could eat the fish after catching them whereas he couldn’t or more accurately didn’t want to eat the rats he caught. He had also found a better spot to fish further into the forest where he was catching more of the larger fish which increased his chances of activating his ability, which he now saw as a priority.
Sam spent most of the next morning practicing his ‘Long Jump’ skill in the yard. He didn’t gain a level, but he felt like he would the next time he activated it. He had to cut the practice just before the level up as he was running low on stamina and would need to recuperate a bit before his mounted archery practice. It was around 10am when he left his house for the stables. He hadn’t seen Travis since the wolf patrols and was feeling slightly guilty about not coming by to let him know he was doing okay.
Sam arrived at the stables and looked around for Travis. He eventually found him in one of the paddocks fixing a fence. “Hi Travis, how have you been?” Sam called out to the man. “Sam, I’m glad to see you’re okay” Travis replied as he got up off his knees to come and greet him. “Sorry I haven’t been around sooner. I was resting for a few days and assumed the news had reached you” Sam replied guiltily. “Aye it did, so since you’re not here to let me know you’re okay you must want something from me” Travis questioned. Sam smiled sheepishly “Yes, I was actually wondering if I could borrow Carrot for a couple of hours. I gained the ‘Mounted Archery’ skill and was wanting to see if I could borrow Carrot for some practice. I was also hoping I could try and gain the ‘horse riding’ skill as well. It’s strange that I got the ‘mounted archery’ skill before horse riding considering how much riding I’ve done recently”. “It’s not really a surprise you don’t have the skill yet. You need to get Carrot to do a few jumps before it will give you the skill. I suppose I can let you borrow Carrot for a couple of hours, but I will need him back for 2:30pm as I have to go into town tomorrow and want to finish up early for the day” Travis offered. “Okay, I can have him back here before for 2:30pm” Sam promised. “Alright then sounds like a deal. I’m going to get back to fixing this fence as I don’t want anyone escaping while I’m not looking” Travis chuckled as her turned back towards the fence. “Alright, see you later then” Sam said as he turned around and headed towards the stables.
Sam saddled the horse and headed for his plot of land where he had set up his archery course. He had to make a stop by home on the way as he had forgotten to actually bring his bow and quiver with him. Once he arrived he spent a few minutes practicing basic archery before moving back onto Carrots back for the mounted archery. He decided to do this to get the feel for it back. He had only been using a bow for just over a week, so he felt like it was good preparation. He had to make sure he could hit the targets while standing still before trying to shoot off of Carrots’ back.
Sam started off having Carrot walk back and forth while he shot arrows from his back. It wasn’t too difficult to time as he wasn’t going too fast however as he got Carrot to pick up the pace he struggled to hit the targets. He spent around two hours practicing on Carrots back including having him jump over the stream. This resulted in him finally getting the ‘Horse Riding’ natural skill and 3 levels in ‘Mounted Archery’ and 1 level in ‘Basic Archery’.
Sam returned Carrot to Travis’ stables and returned home for some lunch before he headed back out to his land to do some fishing. He caught a total of 10 of the small fish and 7 of the larger ones in his new spot in the forest. It was a pretty impressive haul that would last his family a couple of days for dinner. He even had his ‘Reaper of Strength’ ability activate when he killed one of the small fish. Overall, it was a very satisfying day, and Sam was quite pleased with the progress he had made with his skills. He went to bed smiling oblivious to the upheaval that was coming the next morning.
