Hunting, one of the things that makes a successful hunt was with both patience and experience. Hunters themselves back on earth hunted by stalking and observing the behaviors of some animals to a point that it a textbook like follow-through.

Examples like how to track a deer, different signs of foot-prints can be left behind, sometimes certain seasons can affect an animal’s behavior, such as the case with mating seasons and dry seasons. These kinds of behavioral changes affects them to a point that its easy to figure out what they plan to do next. All it takes is patience to have a successful hunt.

Here, in the Everdeer River, before we entered, we were given a pamphlet of a description of what or how an Everdeer acts on certain locations. Being that it was a free for all in the dungeon, who ever has made the last attack to kill the Everdeer has every rights to keep it, as long as you have evidence that you did kill it. On most days, the dungeon would be packed with other low-ranked hunters…luckily, today, only about 15 hunters were in the area.

Having learned a new skill, I intend to make full use of it since this is the only effective attack I can make to hunt an Everdeer.

Looking at the pamphlet, an Everdeer was said to have run in groups. Mostly around five to six members…seeing this, its encourage that only about two Everdeers are hunted per that number of groups. Seeing that its less of that, you can only hunt about one. This kind of rule was made to keep in check the value of the everdeer’s meat. Overhunting usually puts a downfall on the price of this animal.

And to avoid overhunting altogether, a single Hunter is only issued about hunting a limited amount of 10 Everdeers per week. Because although Everdeers grow fast in dungeons, its not fast enough to keep up with the numbers of hunts from hunters. Being issued a limit for a hunt is one of the things that keep balance in the dungeons.

With that in mind, I only ever plan to try and hunt what I can today.

“…” here as I lay low in some bush, I looked around to try and find a group of Everdeers that were close by. I’ve already been looking around for about two hours now, and still am not able to find one.

“…Maybe hunters use something to lure in a group?” I asked myself this…but knowing that it was my first time hunting, its probably normal to not find one that easily.

I continued to wait…until finally, I spotted a single Everdeer roaming by itself near river.

“…” I simply stared at it as it drinks from the river, and as it did, I conjured four mana spears directed at any possible direction that it would go forward. Seeing as how I had to wait for hours on end to find an Everdeer, I had to make sure that I can hunt this one well enough.

‘it doesn’t seem like it noticed me…’

And just like that, I fired two mana spears at its direction.

~swoosh~

~swoosh~

Two came flying by and soon, it hits it at its thigh…but the other one missed.

“Hrrrnn!!!” it started to make noise as it ran off from the river. Seeing it still be moving meant that I didn’t do enough damage, but its movements were sluggish enough that I can tell it can’t go that far. I had to move quick and follow the damn thing.

It was spilling blood from its leg Every time it goes farther and farther away. With the blood leading me to it, I had no issue with where it was headed…and soon after, I finally saw it cornered.

There as it stood on its struggling leg, I conjured another single Mana spear.

But before I could fire, the Everdeer continues to scream..

“Hrriinnn!!!” Like a screeching kid, the Everdeer was desperate.

“…Sorry about this.” I said.

And I fired, and it died…

But not long after, before I could even approach the dead body, I heard something rustling from the bushes and trees.

Something was there…something big.

“HROOOOOWWWW!!”

A sound echoed across the forest…one that was loud, mature and more threatening than anything that I have heard in my entire life.

As I turned to where that sound came from, I saw the gaze of a 3 meter tall Everdeer that was fully grown. Compared to the one I hunted which was a simple young ever deer with a maximum weight of about 50 kgs, the one in front of me was three times its size.

“…Shit.”

I can only assume that it was its mother.

“Ehh…so you must be the mama…Eh?” but as I looked down, I saw the dangling view of its member…

“…Ah, so you’re a papa…hmm.”

Without a second to react, the Everdeer with its horns, tackled down to a point that it was able to shovel down on the ground. The moment it raised its head back, a few rocks and dirt was thrown my way, subsiding my view from its attack.

I had to quickly put my shield up to defend myself, with the rocks thrown at such a force, it was like it was raining boulders despite the size of what was thrown. It wasn’t as numbing but still the Adult Everdeer was standing at such a intimidating pose that I had my doubts of winning the fight.

To test out if I can even damage the thing, I threw a single Mana spear at it, but the moment it struck the Everdeer, it simply grazed its fur off.

“…not enough.”

Soon as it was intimidated by my attack, it began trot in place, feeling like there was a charging attack coming my way, I had to prepare. The Everdeer, without hints of attacking, it suddenly lunges itself at me like that of car hitting a child near the kindergarten. Seeing its size I had no chance of ever blocking it…so I dodge. Jumping to the side, I rolled like a pig on a blanket and stood back up with graze on my skin, While the Everdeer simply continued to ram down on one direction until finally he stops as he crashed over a tree.

*Boom*

The Everdeer was stopped but the tree was crushed and it fell. Yet the Everdeer simply turned his way back to me with the same intent to kill. I felt the pressure of his attack and his intentfull bloodlust. When I looked at him eye to eye, his gaze simply reminded me of that goblin I fought in the simulation, But compared to the simulation the pressure of his body was much bigger…like a truck making its way to me.

With my heart racing at the sight of its gaze, I knew I didn’t want to die… I had no intention to be killed so I began to prepare creating more mana spear’s for the Everdeer. It didn’t take about two seconds and already, five spears were ready to be fired.

It was the only thing I can do to fight at a long range…

The instance to fire…the will to survive…and being able to experience this life and death situation, my heart was surely racing and my adrenaline was pumping…so much so that the I reacted to this essence of being cornered.

I had the intent to throw with the sense of desperation that until I kill him, my desperation was never going away…in a sense, my desperation proved to willfully force myself to act at an adrenaline filled emotion to survive.

My hand was as stiff as a board…but it wasn’t because of my fear, no, it was more of a sense that I wanted to kill the bastard so that this nightmare would be over. I swung my finger with the stiffness and intent to kill to his direction, to command the spears to fly with desperation…

I didn’t notice it…but as I fired…

~Swish~

“!?”

I heard its sound as it flew at the Everdeer to be more sharper than my recent attacks…

It was faster…

And as it collided with the monster, it somehow made him flinch on the spot…

‘…!?’ I was blank to the idea of what happened but the Everdeer continues to glare at me.

“HROOOOOWWWW!!” it screamed and ran up to me, but instead of ramming me down, it simply made its way to me and started swinging its horns around.

~Fooshh~

~Fooshh~

~Fooshh~

~Fooshh~

With each swing of its neck, the pressure behind his horns were so powerful that it caused a lot of wind to blow the dirt off and unto my way. A foggy mess was made and it seeing so, I had a hard time figuring out what was going to happen next.

By the next second, all of a sudden, thorned horns came lunging from the fog of dirt.

“!!” with my instinct to shield, I blocked him…but it wasn’t effective enough as by the moment it crashed at me, I already noticed the numbness of my bones as they began to pop out from my skin.

And what followed that was my body being thrown like a rag-doll across a dozen trees.

Landing by and rolling down the dirt and water, only to be stopped by a boulder at the middle of the a flowing river.

My hand that held the shield was hanging by like a piece of meat sold at the markets.

“…” I stared at it, unable to realize what pain I was going through…

Everything in my body was numb to the feeling of pain…all I knew was that right after this, I could still see the blood-filled gaze of the Everdeer.

‘…’ I couldn’t think…I couldn’t…

But my body, out of the desperation of everything that I knew…

I raised my hand and I made it rain.

“…die.”

With my eyes ever so slowly drifting into sleep, I still looked to see as the crystal view of a raining blue shard fell on the Everdeer…and only on the Everdeer.

By then…I lost consciousness at the fifth second of my hazy sight.

And not a second later, I heard something pop in my head.

“..hn?”

Out in the open view, the System was out and about with a message.

[Congratulations, You’ve Leveled Up for the First Time!]

[With The Benefits Of Being the Chosen Candidate, You will be rewarded with 5 Stat points. And Your Body Will Be Restored.]

“..Ah, thank God.”

By then, I didn’t fully lost my consciousness. I remained awake, until I finally felt that I was able to regain my strength.

When I was able to open my eyes fully, I realized that my body was fully healed. I didn’t believed it when I was half-dead, but seeing the results of leveling up, I was shocked that this benefit was made.

“…Does this mean that I’ll get fully healed each time I level up? And what’s a Stat point? ” I asked myself.

And looking at my profile stats, I was amazed to see the growth of me leveling up.

[Profile:]

Candidate: NPC

Mission Status: In Progress

Level: [6] [ >10,034 exp until to the next level…]

Strength: 10 [+]

Endurance: 7 [+]

Intelligence: 10 [+]

Agility: 6 [+]

Mana: 16/60

Skills:

Mana Spear [?]

[Points]

Stat Points: 5 [?]

System Points: 0.5 [?]

Looking at its added feature, I tried to read the question mark about the Stat Point.

[Stat Points – points used by the candidate to personalize his status as hunter. Being the chosen candidate, you have the benefit to freely choose which of your status profile get to be improved. Stat points cannot be used on the SPS (system point store) as a replacement to insufficient System Points.]

And pressing on the question mark on the system points.

[System Points – Points used on the SPS (system point store) to buy items that my help the candidate on his journey. A System point is only achieved when the candidate is able to complete a mission. It can be used as an Alternative to the Stat Points]

“…Hmm?” thinking about the description of the stat points, I was curious on compared to when I level up, I get to receive stat points, but how about the rest of the Hunters? How do they get stronger from leveling up?

Thinking back on the book, I remembered that when Jason was able to level up, only when he went to check on his card did his stats grow. But it was automatically shown that it grew without his acknowledgement.

After thinking deeper on this, I realized a few things.

A hunter can grow by leveling up, and they can grow this way by simply letting the points of those hunters go into their status. They don’t have a choice on whether or not it goes to their strength or their agility status, it is simply placed their…

But as well as that, a hunter can also grow by training. If a hunter runs as part of his training, he’s agility and endurance will grow. If he has a lot of weight training, then his strength will grow. This much is pretty understandable, but what I wonder on is the fact that Hunter’s level up automatically. How is it distributed?

And then I had a theory…

Knowing how some people are mages, if they level up, it mostly benefits their aptitude towards using magic. In other words, their intelligence. They don’t need for any application towards the strength status…the leveling system might be allowing the hunters to grow simply by the roles that they picked. In other words, their talent….their inner talent. This world might be made by god with the intention of giving someone a talent that they might fulfill as they grow up. Maybe God already knows what kind of future they have as they grow and because of that, he allowed to simply assign their growth as they level up more and more.

But this is just a speculation. If I can speak to God again, maybe I can ask him this question.

Now, looking back. I was still standing on a shallow flowing river.

Looking in front of me, I saw the body of the Adult Everdeer dead on the grounds.

“…” I know for a fact that I did this…and the damage I did was pretty noticeable.

A part of his leg was cut and his left eye is popped out of his head. It’s horn is broken, and most of his fur was torn off…

This is what raining down a dozen mana spears will do to a monster.

“Well, time to bring this back. I can proably sell this for three times the amount of the first Everdeer I hunted.”

With that said, I had to use my card to signal an assist from the handlers of this dungeon. It’s the same as asking for an emergency call by pressing a button. But when asking for an assist regarding towards a hunt, mostly the handlers will get about 10 percent of what I hunted in return. Its good deal seeing as how I can’t bring this big body to the butcher shop on my own.

“…” I waited for the handlers to come to my direction, and not long after, they did come. And they brought a truck. Big enough to fit at least seven Everdeers.

As they loaded the Everdeer, I had them go to the other Everdeer that was left behind.

As I rode in the back, one of them talked to me.

“So, you hunted this all on your own?” he asked.

“…” but all I did was simply keep quiet about the situation. I don’t want to make a big mess by things.

“…I’m only asking because it mostly takes about three people to bring something this big down.” he said.

“…”

“Well, its not that rare to find someone talented at being able to take one down. For every hundred hunters that comes to hunt in here, at least one is able to hunt one Adult Everdeer by themselves. Seeing as how most of what this thing went through, you probably used a lot of your magic on this thing. Your sword isn’t good enough to slice down on it thick hide.”

“…Yeah, you’re right.” I answered, but after that, it went back to silence.

The day ended with me earning more than 20,000 qoril. Its good enough to pay back the money I used to register…but right now, I have different plans for tis money.

In the end, I had to register a second bank account in my name. Same name, but this time, the bank I’m registering to is managed by the Hunter’s association, so that every time I get to earn from my hunt, I can easily have the money be put under the bank of the hunter’s association.

Anyway, I spent most of my days registering in my new bank account…