Day 21:
Naruto woke up quickly on his twenty-first day of life. He had to.
After all, he had received a quest yesterday.
Truth be told, though, Naruto did not like his current quest, because if he failed it, he would be given a 50% of suicide thanks to his Depression trait.
...
He fucking regretted taking that trait now.
Regardless, he was nervous and ready to grind his way to the top once more.
Shirou, who just woke up, looked at Naruto confusedly. Unlike Naruto, Shirou was a regular resident of this world. So while he may have the LvL system and the Growth System to recognize and deal with, he did not have the pesky Gamer ability to constantly remind him of how different he was.
Naruto considered that lucky.
He scoffed.
Who was he fooling? While he was constantly irritated by the Gamer power, he benefited from it too much. His progress had to be given to him only thanks to his Gamer power.
Now, he had to get more LvL to prevent his suicide, and he knew three ways to give himself levels.
First, traps would passively give him LvLs as they catch unwary animals.
Second, he would have to actively go out and hunt as well.
Third, and the most thrilling yet draining, he would have to continue his nightly "runs" to get more of his heavy experience.
So he began to plan further and began to act.
Day 22:
"Crap, crap, crap~!" he shouted as he weaved around the tree trunks.
Remember the bear that he lost the other day?
Yeah, it was now chasing him.
The day before, Ruto, as he had decided to call himself now instead of Naruto, had set up traps all around the imp enclave that he stayed in. They were large enough and placed in places where most imps would avoid them with ease. Larger animals, on the other hand, would have a hard time. Then after that he had gone to hunt. He caught a few rabbits before he went on his nightly run.
And then he came across this godforsaken bear.
For the last nine forsaken hours, the bear chased him across the entire forest as he led it in circles.
"You are not a normal bear!" Ruto shouted at the monstrosity behind him as he dodged a tree trunk, only to watch it get torn up by the roots a few seconds later. "Stay the hell away from me, god damn it!"
Now, this was a good thing for Ruto. If he manages to get the bear into several of his traps and kill it, then he would receive so much EXP in return. The problem, though, was that the bear was simply too strong for any one trap to work.
He che'd.
He didn't want to use it, but there was only one trap he could use on the bear.
He flew through the forest as fast as possible.
He raced towards his trump card, not willing to let himself die to a bear of all things.
The bear was right behind him, raging through the forest as it tossed aside boulders and trees like pebbles and leaves. Ruto growled as one of the broken barks flew passed him. It scratched his face, drawing a thin line of blood across his cheek.
He quickly fled the scene, even as the bear caused more damage to the forest as it chased after him.
Eventually, Ruto made it to the trap and looked over his shoulder just in time to watch the bear get caught.
The first thing to get caught was the bear's leg. It was a standard wooden bear trap, actually meant for smaller animals like deer. It was not meant to hold a true bear, so it creaked as it strained under a true bear's might. The second thing is to get caught over the bear's neck. The wooden bear trap was actually connected to another trap, which sprung together. Thick vines dropped down all around the bear and tangled the struggling bear.
That's when the third trap struck home.
It creaked as it showed itself.
A single log, slightly thinner than the bear's own neck, flung down from the canopies. It was wrapped in two places with vines, and it slung forward, promising only death in its wake.
And death it gave ... to the bear's anus.
The bear let out a painful roar as the wooden stake drove in through its rectum and struck its spine with a force that would have killed a man twice over. Even then, the stake kept on going and broke through the backside of the bear, coming out in a spurt of blood, gore, and shit.
It was not a nice sight.
LvL Up!
+1 HP
+2 AGI
+2 END
+1 WIS
+1 INT
LvL Up!
+3 DEX
+2 END
He stared at the LvL Ups and shrugged. 6 more levels to go to prevent suicide.
Day 23
[Five rabbits, one owl, and four snakes killed]
LvL Up!
+4 INT
+1 STR
He stared at the screen blearily, having just returned from a night run. His body was tired, and his stamina was empty. Still, it was nice to see that his traps had gotten him a decent amount of kills and exp.
Oh well, he was going to take a nap.
Another thing that was different about him compared to the rest of the imps was that he was definitely stronger than any of them despite the fact that he had a [Weak] trait. It was confusing for Ruto at first, trying to figure that one out before he came up with a theory.
The [Weak] trait put him at a disadvantage at birth compared to the rest of the imps, but while he may have been disadvantaged, he still grew faster than the other imps whenever he LvL'ed up, in part thanks to his [Genius] trait, which gave him stat points (all of which he still hadn't used).
And while he may hate this death quest, he had to appreciate it as well; it was forcing him to push himself to more than he had ever done in this new body.
But ...
Ugh, didn't mean he had to like it.
"Goddamn it!" Ruto shouted as he glared at one of his traps, which lay broken. It was as if someone was intentionally breaking it. The cuts in the vines were too clean to be from an animal or an imp (they weren't strong enough for the most part to break a thick vine). It had to be a human who was breaking his trap!
But why?
Quest Alert:
Find out who is breaking your traps!
Objectives:
-Find out who is breaking your traps.
-Find out the motive behind the trap breaking.
Hidden Objectives:
-?
-?
Success:
-(A) grade EXP
-(C) local human currency loot
Naruto raised an eyebrow.
Loot, eh? It had been a while since he had looted anything... But considering that there was going to be loot, did he have to kill the humans? It only made sense that a human would be the perpetrator if the loot was human currency, the perpetrator probably had on his/her body.
After a second or two spent in thought, he shrugged. It's not like he cared if any of the humans died. If they died, they died, and if they lived, they lived. Nothing more to be said.
And on that thought, he should make more traps.
Day 24
When Ruto came back to the traps he had set up, he found a human dangling upside down with his throat ripped out. In his hand was a rabbit that had been caught in his trap, if the blood and wound hole said anything.
"Huh. Well, would you look at that," he said as he looted the man. "You were stealing from me!" He looked over the man. "Well, you deserved it."
Quest Complete!
Objectives Complete:
Perpetrator Identity, Reason of Perpetrator, Kill the Perpetrator(Hidden)
Reward:
A-rank EXP
19 copper coins
1 Rusty Iron Dagger
Ruto grinned at the dagger. "Cool."
With looting and the quest complete, he left the body there to be eaten by the wild animals while he went on to check his other traps.
End of Day Report:
1 quest complete
5 rabbits trapped
1 wolf trapped
5 large lizards caught
Total EXP gained: A+ EXP (in relation to LvL)
LvL Up!
2+ STR
2+ WIS
2+ DEX
Day 25
"Damn it!" Ruto roared as he ran as far as he could. Behind him were wolves, remnants of the pack that he had been hunting in the night. Unlike the first two packs he had hunted down, this pack of wolves was fighting back. The other two packs had left the forest area before they took more casualties in his traps.
Apparently, they had gotten extremely angry. From what he could gather, one of his traps had activated on a pair of cubs that had left their den for the first time.
Suffice it to say, they didn't live.
Wolves were not too different from people in the regard of their retaliation.
So he flew and ran around the trees, activating trap after trap.
One wolf howled as it bit at Naruto's ankle, only to meet its end by falling into a spike trap. Wolves behind it jumped over the pit, only to get their head smashed by a pair of rotting logs.
Ruto turned around and watched the trail of destruction he had prepared and activated. Then he whistled. "That's about twenty wolves right there."
It was the biggest wolf pack he had seen yet.
And they were now all dead.
Ruto grinned as he pulled out the rusty iron dagger from the sack he had been carrying. "Time to start skinning, eh?"
End of Day Report:
1 Quest Complete
20 wolves killed
Total EXP Gained: S+ (LvL Up! x2)
LvL Up!
3+ DEX
2+ WIS
LvL Up!
1+ STR
3+ DEX
1+ WIS
Day 26
... Ruto felt scared.
There was only one reason for it: the forest was silent. It was like the calm before the storm.
He had to be really thankful for his high WIS, because so far, it has been doing him good. Just the other day, he had the thought to set up traps early in the morning, which had helped him greatly in taking out the wolves.
But now, it was like something else was going on. It was nothing natural in this forest.
It was like ... something was coming into the forest.
Ping!
New Skill!
Clairvoyance (LvL 1)
How, why, when, what, and who?
*Situational mana drain (0 ~ -max per use)
*The detail and depth of each usage will depend on LvL, the higher the better
Ruto blinked. "Sweet."
And he used it.
He gasped as his mana disappeared in one go, and even took ten points off his HP. His vision swam before sharpening and focusing. He screamed as he saw -even with his eyes closed!- the forest around him.
It expanded and expanded and expanded without stop until ...
What were those?
He could see them on the edge of the forest. They were big and thick. They had pig-like noses and ears.
These were orcs!
They carried weapons, most of them makeshift but strong nonetheless. He saw them hack and slash at the edge of the forest while several parties of them moved in.
One of the parties was heading straight for the imp colony. His home colony.
He cut off the flow of mana and gasped as he felt his body protest.
'Definitely not trying that any time soon...!' he hissed mentally.
Then it struck him again.
Orcs! Orcs were heading towards his home!
He turned and immediately flew towards the imp colony, hoping that nothing had happened so far and that the orcs would trigger some of the traps he had laid down earlier this morning.
He weaved through the trees' branches and trunks, his speed going at its max. He ignored the messages that were popping up about his skill leveling up.
He crashed into a tree, and felt his HP bar take a dip. He shook himself awake and flew again.
He had to warn them!
The nervousness in him finally managed to get him into trouble; he didn't see a tree branch in the way in his frantic search for his colony, and ran into it.
He flipped backward and landed on the ground, bouncing a few times.
He blacked out.
Groaning -after having lain on the ground for who knows how long- as he got up, his wings still flapped in his adrenaline-driven urgency. He shook his head in an attempt to clear his head, but it only made it worse.
He touched his head and felt warm moisture.
'Blood.'
He groaned even as he took flight again.
However, he did not have to move for long.
The colony had come into sight, and he had been too late.
There was already a fire in the small clearing leading into the entrance of the colony's cave. There were two or three orcs in the clearing itself with a dead imp or two in their hands. Their bloodied mouth said much and enough.
There were also more orcs by the entrance, shoving their colony family into small cages, filling them almost to the brim. That wasn't all. He saw the orcs drag out the unconscious human women and men -caught by his parent generation, he was told- and -.
"Damn it!" he hissed.
One of the orcs heard him.
"Gyuyu tha!"
Whatever that meant.
Ruto hesitated before he fled the scene. He knew that he would not be able to do anything, yet to run away from here was heartbreaking.
Shirou and the kind elder imp. They were probably still in there, and he was abandoning them.
He looked over his shoulder as he watched two orcs chase after him. He weaved and flew around and over tree branches and trunks. The orcs barreled through them without much care, knocking aside branches that broke in their stampede, and scarred tree trunks with their slams.
What could he do if he stayed? Get caught like the others? Then get eaten?
No. It was selfish, but this was the only choice.
He shrieked as the closer orc swiped at him, barely missing his foot. He sped forward as much as his Fairy Flying could muster, and he sped forward.
He fled from the orcs, but they were damn persistent. He didn't know how much time had passed since he fled the colony, but he knew it had been for some time. His mana was barely back up to its quarter reserve, even with his Fairy Flying draining it.
He dodged the swipes as they often got close to him.
He dodged another one, but this time, he hadn't looked forward quickly enough. His head struck a tree branch, and he bounced over it like a ball thrown at an edge. He twirled in the air and landed square on his back before bouncing on the ground itself.
The orcs caught up to him.
They grabbed his leg, and he was almost unconscious.
By the time he shook himself awake, Ruto was staring into the gaping mouth of an orc and the smell accompanying it.
He shrieked and let his Fairy Flight, which was a wild tug, sending him away, generally, from the mouth.
The orc stumbled forward, forgetting that it was holding Ruto by his leg, with its mouth snapping.
Then snap.
The orc stopped and looked around. What had that noise been-?
Ruto flinched as one of his traps activated, and a very sharp, wooden pole was slingshotted from a makeshift crossbow (one use only), and pierced straight through the orc's head.
Blood and grey matter splattered him in the face.
"...Fucking gross."
[Orc Grunt slain!]
LvL Up!
2+ END
3+ STR
LvL Up!
6+ AGI
Ping!
[Evolution Conditions met: LvL 20, Special Condition (Hunter)
Would you like to rank up?
Yes No]
Character Status by the end of Day 26
Naruto [Imp Ruto]
LvL 20
The Gamer
HP: 61.5 (+1.5 Max HP per day until a month old)(+1.5 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 590 (+5.9 per minute regen)
STR: 16
DEX: 23
AGI: 18
END: 17
INT: 32
WIS: 27
CHA: 8
Unused Points: 93
Spirit: 6
Magic: 13
Power: 4
Traits Taken + Earned:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Weak, Cynical, Depressed, Content, Teacher[Neutral]
Focus:
Growing
Skills:
Baiting (LvL 11)
Fairy Flying (LvL 10(max))
Fishing (LvL 2)
Trapping (LvL 9)
Intimidation (LvL 2)
Listening (LvL 6)
Rock Throwing (LvL 7)