Azimuth: The Elden Throne

If you forgot where we were, which I doubt, Dale had decided that it was time for him to start going outside, so after a series of minor actions they are now in the forest teaching Dale how to hunt and survive there.

In the future, Dale will be completely free to act in the forest and farm there, or just fully explore if he has the need to.

There are many secrets in the forest, and I have many things ready...

Be it ruins, mysterious encounters, or just bizarre situations you would encounter within a game.

Normally, everything seems a bit slow for an RPG game, but that is because only 2 full days have passed since the release of the game and Dale so far was almost completely trapped within the village.

Let's see what will happen!

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/SQUEAK!/

Upon noticing that Dale had no intention of retreating and was instead, challenging it, the Moss Rock dashed forward with even greater anger with surprising speed!

"..."

But even as the 2 M long boar rushed at him, Dale remained calm.

He sidestepped to the side, evading the boar at an even higher speed!

/BAM!/

/CRUNCH!/

The boar hit the walls of the cavern, making it tremble.

Its two tusks dug deep into the rock as if it was butter, a testimony of their sharpness and the power behind them.

A small crater formed on the wall.

"Wow!..."

'What destructive power!... For a pig.'

'No, boars are already pretty strong creatures...'

'It's strong, but not as much as I expected...'

Dale inspected the creature's level:

[Moss Rock (Weakened)

Challenge Level: 35-45]

'It's not something I can't take on!'

/FWUSH!/

The boar moved its head to the side, breaking the cavern's walls easily and unlodging its tusks from it.

It once again stared at Dale, this time with even more anger, if that was even possible...

/SQUEAK!/

/Fwoosh!/

"!"

'It's faster than before!'

Slightly surprised by the creature's sudden increase in speed, Dale saw himself trapped.

So he jumped, barely avoiding the creature's sharp tusks.

/BAM!/

/CRUNCH!/

"..."

'I see it now, its body must be slowly recovering its true power due to it being woken up so suddenly by me.'

'Its metabolism is kicking in at high speeds likely due to the adrenaline in its body.'

'I'll make use of that!'

Dale took a step forward and stabbed his spear forward, his target was the creature's back...

/CLANG!/

"What?"

His spear was surprisingly parried by the creature's extremely hard back.

Like a turtle shell, its skin was rock solid, providing not only defense but also a means of camouflage.

"Thicker than I thought..." Dale mumbled as he took a step back once more

'My spear definitely did some damage, but the bad angle made the spear bounce off, even with the difference in strength.'

'There was no problem with my total power, but my technique lacks. I wonder how the damage calculation would've been done if I was a normal player?'

'Still, if I had used everything I had, would I have managed to pierce it, or would the pig just be launched across the cave?'

/CRUNCH!/

The boar unlodged itself from the wall once more, its eyes were now red and this time, it wouldn't hold back at all.

Its front feet dug into the hard stone as if it was mud, this time, it was ready to dash with its life on the line!

"..."

Dale smiled, feeling rejuvenated...

The feeling of being face to face with a fantastical creature, fighting it... Made him feel very excited!

[Fighting Spirit has been activated]

He activated his Skill, giving him a boost to his focus and stats.

"Come!" He exclaimed as he got into a stance, pointing his spear forward

/SQUEAK!/

/BAM!/

This time, the boar hit the ground with everything it had, making it crack due to the power behind it.

As it rushed, its tusks pierced the wind creating a sharp and loud noise as a testimony of its speed.

[Stable Emotions has activated]

Because of how tense Dale was feeling, his skill activated, making him focus even more while abandoning any useless thoughts from his mind.

"HUFF!"

Taking a quick breath, Dale pressed forward and pierced with his spear, aiming at the cranium of the Boar.

It didn't matter to him that the cranium was the hardest part of its body.

At this moment, only the 'feeling' remained...

/BAM!/

/CRUNCH!/

/Pierce!.../

"Good work." Testros said with a smile as he expected the fight

"It's been a while since I've had meat." Misgurd said as he watched the result of the fight

"Phew..."

'I did it.'

[You received 12.5%*2=25% XP]

In the middle of the cavern, it seemed as if time had been frozen.

The boar was still standing, but its legs had stopped moving, frozen in the motion of running...

And Dale was still there, holding his spear and pointing it forward...

But the very tip of his spear was now deep on the ground... Having passed straight through the head of the boar and into the ground in a gruesome display of sharpness.

Blood slowly seeped into the cold hard floor as proof of his context.

/Splurge!/

Dale removed his spear with ease, splattering blood around the place, making Misgurd say:

"Can't you be any more delicate? You'll end up throwing blood at us! Buwahaha!"

"And what a waste of precious blood! We can make some soup out of it, if you can take it!"

"Buwahaha!"

"Sorry..."

'Blood Soup... No thanks...'

But Dale was focused on something else...

'25% Level XP?'

'So if I kill 4 of these boars I can Level up?'

'Finally, the benefits of hunting creatures well beyond my own Level are showing!'

'This boar is around double my Level, so I expected a lot of XP.'

'It wasn't a Boss monster, so the XP it gives is just that of a common fodder, but still...'

'As expected, XP gain is also affected by my privilege of receiving X2 rewards from hunting. Normally, I would've had to hunt 8 of these boars to reach the XP cap, which was already abnormal, but now, only need 4.'

'It may look small, but that is the difference between hitting Level 30 in 3 to 5 days as instead of taking 2 weeks.'

'I may grow even faster, or slower depending on my luck in the forest.'

/Tap/

Misgurd went to his side and gently slapped his shoulders, interrupting his thoughts:

"No need to be sorry, you did well." He said as he kneeled on the ground to look at the creature

"Although this is something to be happy about there are a few things we need to talk about first before we proceed." Testros said with a serious face

"Yes sir!" Dale said with a salute, making Testros smile

"Be serious now."

"First, do you know why I asked you to hunt this?"

"Humm... Because it was a good first opponent?"

"Yes, but that is not all."

"It's because you need to get used to your strength, look at yourself."

"You are strong enough to resist the impact of a charging Moss Rock and yet, not only did you flee from it, you still failed at piercing its back with your spear, a place weaker than its head in terms of hardness."

"Although I do agree with your cautions decision-making if you were to challenge it head on, it's not difficult to say who would've fallen first."

"That last attack you did, I'll give you a point for standing your ground and not cowering, but such stupid face-offs often only end in misery, don't do it again."

"You have the power to face it, but you do not have the ability to do so, you lack confidence in yourself."

"If you had missed the target, the spear might've bounced off like last time and that wouldn't have been pretty."

"... I understand." Dale said with an awkward expression

Testros looked at him and let out a sigh, saying:

"I wanted to show you that yes, you are strong, but that doesn't mean you are STRONG. Do you understand that Dale?"

"Yes, I do." He said with confidence

'I am already aware that my combat power is well below what my current Stats should be able to display, I've said this multiple times over now and that is why I've accepted and brought up the idea of training.'

'If I could bring out 100% of my true strength I would definitely be comparable to a pure Level 100 player, even if I don't have decent Skills.'

'Once I master what I have, it will be about getting and improving my Skills and equipment.'

'Nonetheless, Skills and gear are only a part of me, they shouldn't represent everything I'm capable of.'

'My stats and how well I use them, this is who I am.'

Testros didn't say much after he confirmed Dale had indeed understood what he talked about, so after a few seconds he said:

"Good, so let's proceed to the next part..."

He sat near the boar with Misgurd and said:

"Come here Dale, it's time to teach you how to process the body of the game you hunt..."

"Wait, are we doing it here? This place doesn't seem very safe..."

'It's even a bit unsanitary...'

"We do have the luxury of doing so thanks to your... You know." Misgurd said as he blinked his right eye

"..."

'Are they talking about my inventory? Can he be any less obvious?'

"Okay, I understand, but on a normal hunting day, how would you proceed?"

As he crouched on the ground, Misgurd replied with a thinking gaze:

"Depends on how deep I am in the woods because sometimes, bringing a bleeding carcass with you isn't a very smart choice... Especially in this forest."

"So normally, we simply remove more essential parts that are easier to carry around, like its skin and tusks, and perhaps a few cuts of meat before retreating."

"It's a shame I know, but the rest would be needed to be abandoned unless you're strong enough to move around without it hindering you." He said with a serious expression as he covered the ground with a long brown cloth

"But today! We shall bring everything!... I imagine there is enough space..."

"Yes, there is..." Dale replied with an awkward expression as he opened his inventory

'My inventory doesn't have limitless space but it has more than enough for this...'

'I cleared most of it after selling a lot of items, but I also filled it back up since I bought many things...'

'The way inventory works for each gameplay style is a bit different...'

'And in fact, people who choose the Tourism gameplay actually come with a bit more inventory space than most... Which is rather envious.'

"So sit down and pay attention! Unless... Yeah... Show us what you can do first!" Misgurd said as he pulled him closer to the body

"What?" Dale bluterted, bewildered

"That's a good idea, so go on, don't be shy."

"In any case, we'll be here to help you out in case you make a mistake." Testros replied as he nodded

"I... I can try..." Dale replied weakly as he sat near the boar, grabbing the knife from Misgurds hands

'It's not like I never butchered an animal like this before, there are many games out there and people tend to love simulation games of anything really, me included.'

'But it wasn't something I focused on in the last year... Though I should count myself lucky for not being a complete newbie.'

'It shall work as a background lore for my character, otherwise, it would've been strange for a traveler to be unable to hunt and process his game.'

"Ok, here I go."

'I don't remember much about it all, but the process of skinning a pig/hog was pretty similar.'

'And although it isn't being hanged, which is a problem, I guess I can still do it.'

'It may get a bit messy...'

Dale first went to the hind feet of the hog and made a not-so-deep cut, before turning it around and making a cut going all the way to its chest.

He did this twice for both of the hind legs and before long, he started pulling the skin...

...

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Notes

If you forgot, Dale literally only has 1 active skill and that is his fighting spirit which is more of a morale boost to himself.

It gives him something like an endorphin injection... Not exactly but the effects are the same.

His stats increase temporarily and his mental power increases.

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