Morning came, and my furry murder-neighbors were somehow still loitering around. Talk about overstaying your welcome.
A few stretched, a few yawned, but the alpha? Nah… he was glaring at me like I'd personally deleted his save file.
His nails were cracked, his teeth chipped, and yet he still paced outside the barrier like a salaryman refusing to go home after overtime. Persistent bastard.
However, it did not seem like they wanted to be bothered with me anymore, so, after spitting their anger away, they moved on with their lives. Read full story at NoveI-Fire.ɴet
'The pack had let go of their feelings of attachment pretty quickly, but it seemed like they had a personal grudge against me.'
It had lost a little too much trying to deal with this safe zone, but despite the nails breaking, the creature was still trying.
'The persistence was commendable.'
However big the grudge of the creature may have been, the pack did not stay here for too long.
I can tell they had sensed danger approaching, like I had, so they mourned for the three bodies still hanging on the spike trap, and by the afternoon, they moved deeper inside the forest.
'I'm no fool, so I waited right inside my safe zone.'
For the rest of the day, I read the black guide, read about the world, the currency denominations, the basics of how money and economy worked here, and especially, about the dungeons.
'That part was the most fascinating.'
Dungeons were described as the backbone of the economy. Monsters, resources, energy cores— basically Wall Street, but with fangs.
Not only did they produce monsters that contained 'cores' of energy, which were used as energy cores for most of the things in this world, but there were a plethora of resources in these dungeons.
'The dungeons were seen as natural structures that manifest naturally; however, the guide mentioned that this was only the surface-level idea.'
The dungeons were, in fact, created by certain individuals who possessed extraordinary abilities.
'The guide had a separate section on the Dungeon Architects, the hidden moulders of the world.'
Standing as a class so rare that there were barely two dozen of them known by the people in power, these individuals were the sole power holders who could construct the backbones of the economy.
'So basically, they were the IT admins of reality. Guess I traded AWS clusters for hellspawn clusters.'
Through the guide, I learned there were three continents in this world and also that I was in the third continent, which was furthest from the [First Dungeon] or the [Flying Castle of Divinity].
But more on the world lore later…
"Seems like it's fine to go out now."
There were all kinds of useful things written in the guide, and even though it was not detailed enough, having even some idea of a few things will help me find my way in this world.
My stomach was growling.
The last meal I had was my last dinner in my previous world. Since then, I have been living off of whatever fat and muscles were left in my body.
And losing all that blood did not help… the safe zone only healed; it did nothing else. Hunger was driving me nuts all night long.
'I don't know how many times I've had the thought of eating the damn wolves who had wanted me as their meal for so long.'
But now the water had gone over the bridge.
My hunger was fogging my mind, and since there were three big, dead bodies before me, I just had to do something about them.
'The wolves looked less like enemies now and more like kebabs on nature's barbecue. Hunger does things to a person. Terrible things.'
It makes humans do all kinds of inhuman things. Things that… are simply not comprehensible.
"According to the guide and the system's details, the skills I have should be useful here."
My job skills were Creation (Novice), Dismantle (Novice), Material Collection (Novice), Material Appraisal (Novice), and Blueprint Mapping (Novice).
The creation skill worked alongside the blueprints that I had, creating things according to my Creativity as well imagination. The dismantle skill, however, worked on its own.
'I can use it to dismantle various existing structures like the safe zone or the trap that I had just created.'
Dismantling did not require any CP, but when you dismantle something, you can get more than half of the resources you had spent in the creation of that thing.'
Material collection and Material Appraisal worked alongside each other.
When used, the appraisal skill gives details of different objects, something I've tried already, and the collection skill collects everything I can at my level from the designated target.
'Blueprint mapping is the skill that allows for the creation of different blueprints that I can use with the creation skill.'
But since we don't have any CP right now, let's focus on what's in front of us.
"Since they are only a couple of days old, they shouldn't be all that bad. Let's see."
After using Material collection and Appraisal, I somewhat know how they work, but this will be my first time using them on a dead being's body.
"The system instructions said to just use the skill normally." You use the skills by thinking of using them or by instinct, so I thought of Material Appraisal first.
[Appraisal targets have been identified.]
[Mana Direwolves (Inferior) [Corpse] have been identified.]
Race: Mana Direwolves (Inferior)
Skills: Bite, Sharp Claws, Mana infusion, Pack loyalty.
[Note: Material collection available.]
'Wow. So their stats are basically Wellmart-tier compared to mine… and they still almost killed me. Great. Fantastic. Love this for me.'
But then again, there was (inferior) in their very name to contradict things. What more can we expect from these dogs who almost made a pet food out of me?
"Let's do the main thing now."
I tested it on the things inside the safe zone, like the plants and soil. Also, the {Pocket space} I have is an inventory that can hold a boatload of things!
'Just having that skill feels like a cheat!'
Of my three innate skills, that one was the easiest to understand as well. And since my profession requires a lot of storage capacity, this is just perfect.
[Do you want to collect from the appraised targets?]
"Yes, gimme their meat."
The things that I can collect using this skill are pretty random, but according to the skill descriptions, it should work…
[Skill: Material collection (Novice) will be used on the targets.]
-Oooooooooooooooooong!
Once again, something magical happened.
The three wolf corpses that were just hanging dead until now turned blue. A subtle blue light covered them completelyand then transformed them into three small orbs.
These three orbs descended down from the talk spikes, what used to be a truck-sized creature, now something I can hold in my hand.
Then, as the three orbs landed on the ground, they split into different fragments and materialised as different things completely.
[You have obtained Direwolf Hide*3.]
[You have obtained Direwolf meat*1.]
[You have obtained an (Energy Core) from the Mana Direwolves (Inferior).]
[You have obtained Direwolf fang*3.]
[You have obtained EP:1.]
[You have obtained: 10 coins.]
"Direwolf meat, hides, fangs… even coins. Amazing. I just mugged three corpses. Welcome to fantasy capitalism~."
The materials were placed on the ground neatly, along with the slab of meat, which seemed to be around eight or nine kilograms.
That much must have come only from a single wolf, but that was enough for more than a week for me!
'And yes, it's edible. The guide said it's a common staple in some of the bigger cities around the world.'
I'll still need some water, though, so I cannot cook it here.
'Which means it's time to move as well.'
First of all, I stored everything I got in my pocket space. Then, I dismantled both the safe zone and the spike trap.
[Spike trap (Novice) has been dismantled.]
[You have obtained: Mana wood fragments*3.]
[Safe zone (Novice) has been dismantled.]
[You have obtained: 1CU.]
[You have obtained: Cumulative Energy fragment (Unstable).]
I guess the unstable energy fragment was obtained from all the energy the wolves expended on the safe zone.
The impact energy was stored, and I got it in the form of this fragment. How amazing was that~?
'But then again, it's not a good thing.'
Since the energy is unstable, it's pretty much like a bomb. A powerful enough impact and Boom!
"I want to see how explosive this thing is, but for now, we shall hold onto it."
Getting out of this forest was the goal, and since I am done with the collection, the next step is finding water.
It shouldn't be all that difficult, but I guess I should skip that as well and just make a run for it, go out of the forest first, and look for a better place.
'Running into another group of deadly beasts would be pretty dangerous this time… we don't even have enough CU to create another safe zone, so…'
Getting out was the priority.
"Food can wait," I muttered, stepping past the barrier's fading glow.
Then my gut rumbled louder. "…But if the next monster I meet is remotely edible, I'm not asking too many questions."