[Copper Coin: A universal currency accepted by all races.]
Red used the Appraisal on the copper coin, hoping the coin was something useful for him. He didn't understand what it meant by universal currency. He didn't even understand what currency was. The thought of throwing it away crossed his mind, but he decided to keep it. He had an idea to determine the value of the copper coin and decided to keep it.
Red shook his head, leaning back against the three, taking a rest to recover his Stamina that had depleted to 29. He thought he was finishing the fight quickly, but he didn't realize he had drained his stamina so quickly in that fight.
He wrapped the two copper coins with the marget's bloody leather. In his attempt to skin the marget, he only managed to get a small part that was undamaged. That was what he used to keep the coin.
The best thing was that his belly was full after eating one marget by himself. The taste was bad, the meat was quite tough, but that didn't really matter to him. He just wanted to feel full for the first time.
After putting away the coin, he focused his attention on the four next to him. He took the Magic Core first and absorbed it. He closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling. Then he absorbed the rest of the Might Core while savoring the warm sensation.
Name: ???
Level: 0
Health: 21 Stamina: 60 Mana: 100
[Tier 0 Might]
Strength: 9.4 Endurance: 6 Vitality: 3.4 Dexterity: 5.4
[Tier 0 Magic]
Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Arcane Perception: 8.2 Mind: 8.4
Skills:
Tier 1 Skill: Mana Sense - Level 1, Levelheaded (Passive) - Level 10, Appraisal - Level 1
Tier 5 Skill: Infernal Berserk - Level 1
Negative Status:
Curse of the Hunter - Level 1
Red kept track of his status each time he absorbed the core. His Mind attribute increased by 0.4, his Strength increased by 0.4, and then his Dexterity increased by 0.2 and 0.4 consecutively.
He was pleased that the Strength increased. He needed more strength, so he could kill marget in one punch. That feeling would be satisfying, killing his prey in one strike.
However, things didn't go exactly as he wanted; he was a little upset with the consecutive Dexterity increase. He hoped to get more Vitality from the three Might Cores. He even hoped the three cores would increase his Vitality.
He would feel more secure with more health. That upset him a little bit, but he was not disheartened. He could just hunt more prey and get more cores. He rested for another ten minutes before picking up his bait and going to a new area.
Red had found a way to hunt without putting his life at risk. He was not here to fight the beast, but to hunt them. With his new method and a determination to increase his health, Red gained a new spirit to hunt more beasts.
*** ***
Hah… Hah… Hah… Hah…
Red leaned his back against the tree, catching up his breath. He felt tight on his chest, having a hard time moving his hand at the same time. He felt weak, with no energy to move around. This was the result of his greediness, underestimating the value of Stamina.
He opened the status and found his Stamina was at 3. It was better now as his Stamina hit 0 before. He was relieved that he could recover his Stamina faster than his health.
Despite being weak, a smile formed on his lips. Today was his first experience, and it was a huge success. Not only did he manage to hunt ten prey, but he surpassed his target, successfully hunting seventeen marget. He managed to hunt twelve more marget after his initial success.
His trick using the bait was the most important part of his success. At first, it was an accident where he accidentally lured a marget with his indecision. But that ended up becoming the key to his hunting.
Out of twelve marget he hunted, he exchanged ten of them for loot. From those ten exchanges, he got 15 cores and 35 copper coins. He was quite unlucky with his last five exchanges, where he only got one core, but he got more copper coins from that.
When he got one core from the loot, he would get 6 coins along with it. When he got two cores, he would get 1 copper coin. It was consistent like that, and there was no skill scroll, which was a total disappointment.
Another disappointment was the fact that he got 10 Magic Cores out of 15 cores. He wanted the Might Cores the most, increasing his vitality further. He absorbed those 5 Might Cores and 6 Magic Cores. The five Might Cores spread evenly to his four Might attributes.
[Tier 0 Might]
Strength: 10 Endurance: 6.4 Vitality: 3.6 Dexterity: 5.8
[Tier 0 Magic]
Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Arcane Perception: 8.8 Mind: 9.4
He checked his stats once more, not entirely satisfied with them, but that was better than before. His Strength reached 10, which was the biggest gain, increasing his Strength by 1 in a day of hunting.
The important thing he noticed was the fact that the Magic Core only increased his Arcane Perception and Mind. He didn't know why his Intelligence and Wisdom didn't go up. He absorbed 8 Magic Cores, but his Intelligence and Mind never went up.
"Is it because 10 is the highest I can get to?" He asked himself.
If that was the case, it meant his Strength was at max value. It was bad, but also good at the same time. It was bad because he could not get stronger. It was good because the chance of increasing his Vitality was higher with his Strength maxed.
There were so many things he didn't understand that frustrated him. He hoped that he had someone to answer his confusion. No one wanted to socialize with him, let alone teach him about the Awakening.
Red shook his head, trying his best to calm down. He got irritated easily today, maybe because of the adrenaline rush. He took a deep breath and grabbed the bloody leather where he had saved the Copper Coins.
He untied the bulging copper coins, 38 copper coins in total. The value of these copper coins was still unknown to Red. He didn't know what to do with these coins at first, but he had an idea what to do about them: to find out the value of the coins. He took out two copper coins and placed them next to the four Magic Cores.
Red then dug a hole and buried the copper coins. Then he placed a unique-shaped stone on top of it and stuck it to the ground. Then he got up to mark the tree.
Since he tracked back to the tribe's direction, he was actually not far from the tribe. He hid 36 copper coins and would bring back 2 coins with him. He would hand them to the tribe and see their reaction. If they kept it, the coins might be valuable, but if they threw them, then the coins were not valuable. Observing their reaction to gain information.
After everything was done, he checked his Stamina. His Stamina was at 8 now, and he decided to rest longer. The sun was almost down, and it was completely dark here because of the thick canopies. Again, he was not worried because he knew he was close to the tribe.
Red stayed for another fifteen minutes, and his stamina went up to 21. It was time to get back now. As he expected, it didn't take him that long to get back to the tribe, around a twenty-minute walk.
The warriors on guard raised their shield and blade at him when they saw his silhouette.
"It's me!" Red raised the two marget in his hand, telling them it was him, not an invader.
The four warriors walked toward him with their shields up and immediately lowered them the moment they spotted him. They had a frown at first, and seemed to be annoyed by his return, but that expression changed into surprise when they saw what was in his hand.
"Bring your prey to the storage and make sure to announce your name when you return at this time. Unless you want to get shot by an arrow!" One of the warriors reminded Red, but said nothing otherwise.
Red was relieved. He thought the warrior would beat him and take the prey from him. But he realized that these prey actually went to the storage. The warrior enjoyed the most luxurious meal in the tribe, after all.
He nodded and scurried into the tribe. His tense body relaxed the moment he entered the tribe. Even though he received harsh treatment, the tribe was still home, after all. It gave him comfort in all kinds of situations he experienced today.
He quickly ran to the storage room and found one of the eight Matrons behind a table. He slowed down when he got closer and raised his prey, gaining the Matron's attention.
"You are still alive!?" The Matron sounded surprised, but then her expression changed into a pleasant surprise when she found the two marget in Red's hand. She tapped the table thrice, "Bring it here!"
Red complied and put the two marget on the table. She was quick with her hand and grabbed one, inspecting the marget one by one. She nodded pleasantly, satisfied that the coat was intact.
However, he was not done yet, as he took the bloody leather that was tied to his loincloth and placed it on the table.
"What is this?" The Matron in charge questioned him, but she opened it before hearing the answer.
Her eyes went wide with what she found underneath the bloody leather.