Chapter 36 - New Encounters
Jem spent his days in hiding.
Since he was inside the forest, he was having difficulty finding a good hiding spot. In this kind of place, danger lies everywhere. And they might be coming from all sides. So Jem decided to build a temporary camp.
Although he called it a camp, it\'s more like a small horse stable surrounded by a defensive fence. Thanks to his condition, he could not build it properly. Though, it was better than nothing.
He didn\'t do any laborious jobs these past days to avoid straining his body while he was recovering, except in building his camp.
He also laid some traps in the surroundings. In case some hostile entities would wander nearby.
While he was waiting for his wounds and injury to recover, he never forgot to collect materials that had an equivalent value to the system.
After trading the proper amount necessary, he unlocked more categories in his Trading Shop. One of them was the Medicine category.
In this world, night and day were difficult to differentiate. So he sleeps when he feels sleepy and eats when he gets hungry.
After several days of hiding, his complexion had finally returned to normal. And his strength was at most 80 percent recovered.
The wounds that usually took a month or two to heal only took several days for him to clot them entirely. But he didn\'t go searching immediately.
To clear any misunderstanding, his days while recovering weren\'t easy. He suffered as much as he was fighting the beasts. Jem was sick for days and suffered a great cold.
He couldn\'t even eat properly because of it. Regardless, he forced himself to stuff his stomach even for a little.
Fortunately, he survived those ordeals.
More days went by.
Jem stood outside of the stable, observing his body condition. He noticed that it seemed his body was lighter than usual. Perhaps it\'s because of weight loss.
Right, his body has lost some weight. With all that happened to him, it was understandable to lose weight.
However, although he lost weight, he noticed his body developed some muscles. He looked thin, yet he was muscular in a different sense.
Moreover, it seemed it wasn\'t only the case that he felt so light. There was a weird feeling that every muscle fiber in his body was ripping with strength.
He glanced around him and noticed his reliable protector leaped out from the bushes.
Through its mouth, it was dragging a dead animal. These past days, it was this beast who hunted for food. Thanks to it, he didn\'t need to waste his Trade Points.
Since it was bringing him different kinds of animals and beasts, he unlocked many kinds of items in his Trading Shop after trading their leftovers. He also gained a good amount of trading points.
Looking at the beast, he noticed that it grew bigger. It began to look like that powerful beast back to the bushy plain. Though, it was still walking on its four legs, unlike its wellspring.
"Good job, Solos!"
Jem decided to give it a name as it would be weird to call it beast or baby beast all the time.
The word Solos was more pointed to him. He was suffering alone in this place. He wanted to turn it into his strength by remembering this event of his life and made it his inspiration to survive.
Of course, he never forgot his grandfather. He was one of the reasons why he was still persevering up until now.
Using his knife, he butchered the lying deer with greyish furs. Then he grilled the meats on the ever-burning fire of the bonfire. He traded the bones and other parts.
While he was waiting for the meat to cook, his fingers were busy fiddling with his System Interface.
On his Status Screen, there was a new addition to his Race.
"What? Did I become a vampire subspecies myself after acquiring the Blood Oath skill?"
Jem mumbled.
<That may be the case, host.>
He heard the trader\'s reply.
Then, he sighed.
Hah~!
"I see."
Jem was already used to getting surprised, so he accepted it like it was natural, without further question anymore.
In his Exo Points, there were still 3 out of 10. His lips curled upward when he noticed his Ex-Energy was now 290 over 290.
No wonder he felt so powerful at the moment. It must be the reason. Jem thought to himself.
His Ascendance Points is now 29 over 100; he was behind 71 points to ascend to level 1.
His eyes narrowed a bit when he noticed he had 770 Trade Points. Just a little more, then he could promote his Exo Points again. If that is going to happen, his breakthrough would be faster.
In his skill category, there were two new passive skills, the Poison Resistance and Blood Oath.
These two skills were both related to the fangs. Maybe an item from a higher ranking beast grants more benefits? Though it was only his speculation.
After stuffing his stomach, he experimented a little on Solos. He wondered if this beast had a chance to attack him one day.
He tried to make it angry by throwing something on it and physically hurting it, though not excessively.
However, Solos only scowled like a bullied coward without showing a sign of fighting back. It cried in pain like a puppy every time he hit it with the stick.
"What a p*ssy," Jem muttered.
<That\'s useless, host. The familiar had only one goal, to serve their master.>
Well, he was just cautious. He already suffered a betrayal from a friend. So Jem could not put his trust in anyone this time, not anymore.
He sighed then threw the stick away.
Jem stood up and declared. "Let\'s go, Solos."
Gyar!
It made a cute-sounding reply before it followed at him skeptically. It was looking at him warily, but it never had an ounce of anger within its teary red eyes.
He needed to investigate this forest.
Getting out of here must be impossible at his current level. Jem believed it. The trader didn\'t mention that there\'s no way out in this place. So he was hopeful that there was.
While he was investigating the forest, he encountered not only beasts but also monsters.
Meanwhile, he was observing a group of creatures passing below him.
Their bodies were similar to humans. However, their height was only comparable to a human kid.
If not because of the trader\'s warning, he already jumped off of the tree and tried to converse with them. Seeing another human did excite him a little.
On a second look, he noticed they have grayish blue skin and wicked faces. Their figures alone could intimidate any human.
He also noticed different types of weapons in their hands.
One more thing, they exuded a murderous aura. Just by it, he could identify that they were hostile creatures.
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