by Pegaz
Nearby, Tom was working with some other staff members at one of counters. He was looking through some papers and items when he noticed John. Putting the papers down, Tom reassured the person standing behind him and then proceeded to head toward the second floor, where he just so happened to "notice" John. Playing the part to a T, Tom smiled down at the Sider.
"How was the training course last night?"
John looked up and saw it was Tom. Forcing a smile, he said, "It was fine. I knew most of the stuff, just not how to skin a hide or how to cook the meat. Still worth the £100, though!"
Tom nodded his head at that answer. "As long as you learnt something. You're back early, though, aren’t you? I know they don't usually get back for another hour or so. Are the others back, too?"
"No, I came back last night,” John felt his skin crawl under Tom’s gaze, not sure why. “It would’ve been a waste of time to stay for the rest, so... I came back to the inn for some proper sleep. Now, I'm just trying to figure out how to earn some money for a piece of equipment I need."
"Oh?” Tom raised an eyebrow, maintaining his friendly guise. “How much do you need? I could lend some out, interest-free if it's not too much."
John looked at Tom, keeping a poker face.
Now, I know something is wrong. What's that old saying? ‘Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.’ This guy is being too nice for mere friendliness—he’s got to be up to something. He either wants something from me, or he's the most generous guy to walk this planet. Bollocks, what does he want from me? Hmn... Let’s give him a little test.
"It’s £150,000, and even then, I might not be able to pay it back for years," John made sure to emphasise the years. He paid extra attention to Tom’s reaction, who looked like he was struggling with an answer.
Tom was actually considering lending him the money.
John silently confirmed his suspicions, while doing his best to maintain his poker-face.
"Doesn't matter, was only joking,” he added a chuckle for good measure. “While I appreciate the thought, it's too much to borrow from someone. That's why I'm trying to think of how to make more money."
‘Ding!’
Congratulations for thinking up a valid add-on skill, we have included the add-on.
John was getting used to this system trying to sneak up on him. He lowered his head to break eye contact with Tom, pretending to be depressed. Discreetly, he opened the system up and checked the new skill.
Storage - Idlers 0/99, 1x - 0/1, 10x - 0/1, 100x - 0/1
Storage:
1x - Unlocks the 27,000 cubic foot sized space (30x30x30 foot)
10x - Unlocks the 1,000,000 cubic yard sized space (100x100x100 yards)
100x - Unlocks the one cubic mile sized space (1x1x1 mile)
Bonus for maxing all skill levels: Freeze's time completely inside the storage space.
Perfect timing, yet again. He was only one more skill away from maxing out the system.
What was he supposed to do when he reached that point?
I need to wait nine days now for the Maximum Idlers skill to finish levelling. If these skills still cost six days each, then with half the time and all fifteen of my Idlers working at ten seconds per second, they should finish each one in about twenty-eight or twenty-nine minutes! I think I can get the Absorption skill completed, Life Aura, and the 1x Storage Space all done in an hour and a half. By the time I finish walking to Loose Forest, I could get the 10x Storage Space, too, maybe! Nine days... just nine days of waiting...
John calmed himself down, taking in a shallow breath. For all his excitement, he wanted to go over and start his journey today, but he knew he would lose a lot of money with his current lack of storage.
The only problem now is how do I explain it when I pull all the items out of nowhere...? I'm going to have to come to town and borrow a bag big enough to carry it all, and then pretend I brought it all the way from Loose Forest like that.
He closed the system and looked up at Tom, whom he’d almost forgotten about.
"It's okay, and I think I've thought of something,” He stood up from his seat, a genuine smile painted across his face. “I need to go talk to someone. Thanks for considering lending me money at least!"
Tom’s smile was a bit clouded, this time. Behind the gloss of his cool and unassuming eyes, a storm raged.
"No problem,” he said without the slightest hint of anything other than goodwill. “If you need anything else, don’t be afraid to ask. Helping juniors has become the most exciting part of this job, now, so I really don’t mind. To be honest, part of me wants to quit and go back out into the field. I miss the old days, sometimes—hunting with friends I've trusted my back to for so many years... There's no better feeling than knowing full well that the men on your side would do anything to save your life at a moment's notice."
John just smiled politely in return and walked away, shouting his thanks yet again.
He headed right to the inn, where he searched out the manager to strike up a deal.
In exchange for nine days free board and meals, John offered the inn manager a whopping five percent of whatever he made on his next ‘big’ hunt. The only condition was that John couldn't tell the manager what it was he was hunting. Of course, the manager's curiosity was peaked, but no matter how he asked he wouldn't get an answer out of the Sider. Deciding it was worth the risk, he agreed anyway.
John smiled genuinely this time. He was actually happy for this deal. Shaking the manager's hand, he left the inn to strike another deal with someone else.
Steeling his courage, John went back to the Speciality shop.
"Hello again," the woman greeted him just as curtly as before.
"Hello,” John cleared his throat. “I was just wondering, are you the owner of these items? Or do you work here and sell them to someone else?"
"I'm the owner,” the woman answered slowly, once more drawing her words out in a fashion that made the skin on John’s arms crawl. “Why? No, allow me to guess. You're going hunting and want to borrow one of the bags for the course of your journey. Am I correct?"
"Yes and no,” John shook off the woman’s condescending tone with a tilt of his head. “I want to borrow the bag, but it will be for a few hours. The furthest I'll go is about a mile outside the city. After that, whatever price I get from selling it all, I'll give you five percent."
The woman sat completely still, seemingly unconvinced. John kept trying his argument.
"You can even come and stand at the entrance of the city to watch,” he insisted. “If I go out of your line of sight, you can come get the bag back. I don't know when it will be, though. I'll be leaving in nine days, but it could take weeks or possibly even a few months for me to come back and ask for the bag." John walked up and took a seat at the woman’s counter as he explained the deal.
"Now this has intrigued me,” the woman chuckled in a stiff, almost charmingly creepy manner. “Normally people ask to borrow it for days on end, then they go off to God knows where. But you... You only want such a short amount of time and so little distance." Beneath her mask, her eyes sparkled anew, as if something had clicked in the back of her mind.
"If you only need it for that,” her words were heavy and oozing with suspense. “Why do you need the bag at all? If all you're hunting goods are only a mile away, that is.” John could feel her gaze even though her eyes were hidden beneath her mask. There was something unreadable about her aura that made John want to ask questions that he didn’t even know the wording to.
"Sorry, I… can't tell you the reason. Just the conditions,” John swallowed, stiffening his resolve. He looked directly into where he thought her eyes must have been behind the mask. “Yes or no?"
There was a pause during which John thought his heart would beat out of his chest.
"Very well,” the woman finally said. “But I'll only lend you the small bag, not the big one." The woman nodded her head and stuck her hand out.
With the agreement made, he left the shop and went back to the Guild Hall where he purchased a map of Loose Forest for £10. When he unfolded the map to have a look at it, he heard the system.
Scanning...
Uploaded Loose Forest onto World Map. The area has been unlocked.
Curious, John opened the system up again while still looking at the map. In the third tab at the top, a map indicator popped up. In the top right corner, there was an arrow pointing upwards.
He looked at it for a few seconds, and it turned into a World Map. Only the Newbie Town and Loose Forest areas were unlocked. During his time here, he had walked all around Newbie Town and mapped it 100%. Now, because of the map he had bought, he had the Loose Forest area, too! Unfortunately, the areas between the two landmarks still remained blank.
System, can you point out all Continuous Bears in this area?
‘Ding!’
A pop-up came up in front of the display.
ToolTip - When in an area you have unlocked, you can scan for all living beings inside. You can then use the Icon's Map skill to turn one creature into an enemy and other animals into neutral. (To do this you must have mapped 100% of the area.)
Chapter 20
Let the Massacre Begin
John smiled at the ToolTip. It was the best news he could have hoped for at the time.
And so, for the next nine days, he returned to Robert's for more practice. He focused on eliminating the time needed to go from a resting position to exerting his full strength into any action, as well as showing less tell signs in his movements. He knew better than to ever get cocky in a fight. He decided then and there that he would always give his one hundred percent effort for each and every battle, even small encounters with Jumbo Rabbits. That's how accidents happened, after all.
‘Ding!’
It's here!!!
Idlers: 15/23
Maximum Idlers - Idlers 0/99, +1 Max Idlers - 22/2159
He kept the Continue option switched to off, and proceeded to put all fifteen of his now-free Idlers into the Absorption skill. The timer came up at 28m 40s. As this time ticked to zero, his body began to feel fresh and rejuvenated. I must have been more dehydrated than I thought!
Pleased with the results, he continued on and put all fifteen of his free Idlers into the Vision's Life skill next. The timer appeared at 28m 40s again.
When it completed, he put the Idlers into Storage, again 28m 40s.
When the first tier skill of Storage was complete, he put the Idlers back into storage to work toward getting the 10x tier. He needed to complete this skill for the time to freeze inside the container, or else the meat would eventually rot inside his space. Since it was the second part of the skill, the time needed showed up as 14h 25m. It was now 2 pm.
John said goodbye to Robert and the inn manager, but didn't go to see Tom. After that last encounter, he was still suspicious of him.
Finally ready to depart, John left through the city gate and headed toward Loose Forest. At this point, he knew the way without even checking his compass.
Six uneventful hours later, he arrived at Loose Forest at last.
He opened up the area map and asked the system to scan the area, setting Continuous Bears as enemies and everything else as neutral. Just by searching through the map, John could tell that Loose Forest was massive. According to the display, the area was three hundred sixty by four hundred fifty-eight miles large, which was over 160,000 square miles total. It was only now that he realised just how much bigger this planet was compared to Earth.
His old country England, if you include Scotland and Wales, was almost half the size of this forest alone! And this was just one newbie area. John couldn’t even imagine the size of the Capital or of any of the larger city areas.
The scan completed the scan forty minutes later and in his sight, on the world map, the area Loose Forest was now covered in red. There are so many bears that he couldn't even separate the red dots on the map without having to zoom in a lot.
Scanning Complete:
Continuous Bear count - 326,967.
Neutral Targets: 15,769,204
Buried Treasure: 16
???: 3
Wow, there's much more here than I thought. That's almost one bear every half a mile, there must be multiple nests of them all over the place. This area just has much less, which is why it took me so long to encounter the bear last time.
If each bear gives me 1 hour in the Time Pool... 326,967 hours is 13,621 days… That converts to... Ah! 486 months, or 40 years of time. If, on average, I get £80 per bear—that's £26 million, too! Hah, I hope the guild master can afford that.
The thought of driving Tom to bankruptcy strangely made him smile, albeit a little evilly.
The Photographic Memory and Thinking Speed skills sure helped with calculating numbers. At a level twenty, he found he could do maths like this with ease. He wondered how god-like he would be if he could ever reach the level cap.
Right then, the nearest bear to me is just over a mile to the West of here. I've still got eight hours till the 10x tier of the Storage skill is completed. Then I've got to wait for the 100x to complete, too.
Hopefully, the meat won't rot, John frowned at the thought. I'll have to get everything out and check it all as soon as the skill finishes completing. I’ll go through and keep everything that's fine, and throw everything that's rotten.
And so, John walked in the direction of the nearest bear. He kept his cool, feeling there was nothing to worry about meeting with this old foe. After all the training and preparation he’d gone through, he felt confident. After twenty minutes of his brisk pace, he was getting near to where the bear was supposed to be.
It was then that the bear saw him and charged.
Without much warning, a Continuous Bear made itself known by standing up only a few feet away from where John stood. It swung its right paw down, but John’s reactions were faster. In a fluid stream of motion, John smacked the claw with his right palm, aiming for the centre as it was coming down. The bears swing was put to a complete halt!
Not losing any of his momentum, John pushed forward while closing his right elbow and pointing it at the bear. He smashed his elbow right into the middle of the bear's stomach, tearing the flesh and dislodging some of the bone. With the elbow still in the bear, John stepped to his right and hit his right hand with his left palm, adding another shock wave through his arm and into the bear. As he completed his movements, John quickly dashed a few feet back.
The bear stood no chance. It caved in and started falling forwards, at which point John sprinted forward again. He lifted his right knee and smashed it against the bear's bottom jaw just as the creature was dropping. With a resounding ‘CRACK!’, the bear’s entire set of teeth, its jaw, and its nose all shattered in mere seconds.
It was knocked unconscious.
The entire fight had lasted 3 seconds.
What a difference training does, John went over the fight in his head. I can counter now, instead of just panicking. He sighed at the thought of the pain he had to go through to kill a bear compared to now.
Even though I'm going to slaughter all these bears, I still can't bring myself to torture the innocent. If it were the bear that caused me all the pain, then I’d gladly torture the bastard for days... But this bear deserves a quick death.
With that in mind, John grabbed the creature’s neck and used the Crush Grip to end its life instantly. Remembering Gavin’s instruction, he then tore the skin on its neck to bleed the animal out before he sat down to start skinning it.
After eight hours, he had already killed forty-eight bears, each of them only lasting a few seconds against him in battle. All the bears he killed were also converted into one hour each for the Time Pool. It now accumulated at over two days’ worth of time.
Putting all Idlers back into the skill to get 100x Storage, the timer ca
me up as 2d 17h. Seeing it as the perfect opportunity, John used all of his Time Pool funds and got the clock down to 12h.
John was excited and hunted all throughout the night. Although he couldn't even see the trees in the dark, he could see any surrounding wildlife by using his Life Vision skill.
At 4:30am, John found himself physically drained. Ready to call it a night, he felt around for a tree where he could buckle down for some sleep. Finding a sturdy-enough tree, he punched the bark ever-so-slightly. Repeating this process, he fashioned a foot ladder of some kind, to help him scale the tree.
The branches that connected to the actual trunk were very thick and tightly woven together; he could rest in them comfortably without having to worry about falling out.
Feeling the exhaustion setting into his bones, John laid his head onto his leafy bed and drifted to sleep.
When he woke up it was 2pm. He’d slept in later than usual. Checking over the Idle System, there was about an hour and a half left for the 100x Storage skill to be completed. Wiping the tiredness out of his eyes, he figured that he might as well kill a couple of bears to get the clock to finish quicker.
The closest bear was right under the tree, sniffing at his makeshift ladder. John smiled and quietly thanked the gods before proceeding to climbed down. At about twenty feet above the bear, he leaped down, performing an axe kick and driving his heel hit into the bears head.
The creature’s skull exploded on impact.
Not much time passed before John felled another bear and collected enough in his Time Pool to complete the 100x Storage skill. Now with the added bonus for reaching the level cap, all the items he placed into the container would freeze in time. As planned, he removed his items from the storage slot, inspecting any for signs of rot or decay.
Smiling at the lack of any spoiled meat, he put everything back in.
Now that he'd completed that skill, he had nothing left to worry about! Putting all fifteen of his Idlers into the Vision skill, he figured it would come in handy during his night-time hunts. He didn’t want to have to feel around in the dark for a tree to sleep in ever again.