NOVEL SIMPLE Ch-8- After The Hunt
Returning home, I slowed down and walked next to the stream into the meadow. Once I was near the shack, I stopped to take off my clothes and bathe in the cold water of the stream.
This was mainly because I had not washed myself off since coming to Astérion, and that I also did not have an easy source of hot water.
With my trait, I was able to stay reasonably clean throughout these past few days, but the feeling of being dirty still accumulated, and it would feel nice to wash my body off and get everything cleaned.
Wading into the stream, I started to clean my body of all the accumulated grime, even though there was not much.
For some reason, I thought that the process of washing my body would be massively different from before, but it was not. The only thing that was truly different was learning how to properly wash a different set of sexual characteristics.
That made the entire process relatively fast, and soon, my body was completely cleaned, with my tail being next.
Pulling my tail in front of me and starting the process of cleaning it, I noticed that, for some reason, the sand from the beach was still trapped in the fluff, along with dirt and leaves from my run earlier. This meant that it took longer than I was hoping for to clean it out.
It was also something I was not thinking about when I asked to be a kitsune. However, even if the fluff of my tail were to trap even more than this, I would not change my choice.
After I finished doing that, I moved on to cleaning my ears.
This was something I thought would be easy until I accidentally let some water through the fluff on the inside of them, and it got stuck behind the water-tight fluff.
The pressure from the water in my ears caused me to splash about in the stream until I could get them to drain out. For some reason, the inside of my ears was far more sensitive than the outside.
Once that was over, I went about cleaning my ears far more carefully while trying not to let any more water get back there.
Soon, my ears were finished, and all I had left to do was wash my hair. That was fairly simple as I already knew roughly what to do, and the rest was easy to figure out.
With my entire body now cleaned to the best of my abilities, I walked out of the stream and onto the bank, where I pulled out a piece of cloth that was like a towel and dried myself off.
Walking back to the shack that I called home, I entered it and walked over to the stove, opening its door.
Pulling out some wood from my inventory, I piled it up in there while I brought out my fire starter to light up the wood and heat the stove.
With the fire lit, I turned around and used the wood floor as a table.
Pulling out some of the kitchenware I had looted from the ship, I got ready to make dinner.
With all the tools in place, I then reached into my inventory and placed some cougar meat, potatoes, and carrots on their own plates.
Next, I started dicing the meat, potatoes, and carrots before setting them aside and pulling out a pot. With the pot in hand, I went outside to the stream to fill it with water from upstream of where I bathed.
Returning to the shack, I placed the pot on the stove and picked up the ingredients from where I prepped them. I then added them to the pot and put a lid on it to let it cook.
With dinner now cooking, I go to the bedroll and sit down. Opening the system, I waited for the notifications that I knew were there from earlier to show themselves.
[Congratulations, your successful hunt has brought you more in tune with your natural hunting instincts. Your skill level in tracking and stealth has increased.] X12
[Congratulations, you have gotten used to the bow and started uncovering your talent. Your skill level in archery has increased.] x5
[Congratulations, you have successfully found multiple Medicinal herbs and wild vegetables. Your skill in foraging has increased.] X14
[Congratulations, you have slain a post-mortal level high beast metal-skinned bear. You have been rewarded +1 (AGI) due to your method of killing a creature over two major realms above you in cultivation and over three major realms above you in strength.] (unclaimed)
[Congratulations, you have slain the local overlord of the forest and taken his position. You have been rewarded the title {Minor Lord of the Forgotten Forest}.]
[Congratulations, you have successfully found a copper deposit. Your skill in geology has increased.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have received the level-up rewards of +2 skill points and +1 tech points.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have received the level-up rewards of +1 skill point and +1 tech point.]
Even knowing that I was going to receive some notifications, I was still quite shocked by the sheer amount of them. This was also the third time I received a stat point.
Originally, I had asked the goddess to keep stat points the same, with the only way to change them being in the traditional ways that the world allowed. But she sat there and argued this point with me, so I set it in the system to allow the goddess to give out stat points only when she deemed it worthy.
Now, I originally thought that the first stat point thing was a fluke. However, the second time that it happened made me think it was a potential glitch with the system, but now, for the third time, I began to think that there was something else going on here.
Regardless, I did not hesitate to claim the point as I felt all the muscles in my body spasm slightly.
Afterward, my body felt like it was a bow pulled taut and ready to snap forward but also entirely under my direct control, to the level that even if I wanted my heart to stop beating, it would. Now, I knew that would not happen, but it still felt like it.
It was a weird sensation, to say the least.
Before this sensation ended, though, I pulled out enough cultivation cores so that the Qi sparks would equal around one thousand and converted them to experience.
The cores that I pulled out were from the other sailors and not the captain, as I still felt some trepidation about using that one.
[You have leveled up.]
[You have received the level-up rewards of +3 skill points and +3 tech points.]
[Congratulations, you have completed the hidden quest [Speedrun] for reaching level five in under seven days. You have been rewarded +1 (END) with the message, "You must be tired from how fast you've been running, so here is a pick me up. Now go to bed."]
As the level-up message hit, I felt what seemed to be a well of energy and stamina open up and flow through me.
The slight exhaustion I felt from being active the whole day lessened, and my body relaxed as I sat there and just steadied my breathing.
Then I looked at the third message and saw why I felt that while I was breathing steadily and slowly, calming my mind.
I was about to call up my status panel when I saw a flash of yellowish-white light zip past me.
Following its path, I saw multiple other lights appearing in the air, ranging from red to violet, with white and black mixed in.
Already having an idea of what these are, I ignore them as I planned to wait before playing with cultivation.
Then, continuing with what I was previously doing, I bring up my status panel to see the change in it since the last time I looked.
Name: Not Yet Chosen
Race: One-Tailed Kitsune (unaspected)
Height: 1.8288 Meters (6' Ft)
Physique: Primordial Empress Body
Spiritual Root: Heavenly Ten Element Revolving Spiritual Root
Realm: Mortal
Survival Level: 5
Stats:
STR: 6
END: 9
AGI: 10 (Limit)
INT: 10 (Limit)
SEN: 10 (Limit)
ENE: 10 (Limit)
Traits:
[Genius Mind: With an intellect nearing the limits of the mortal world, you can learn any information with relative ease. Increases (INT) to a minimum of 9.]
[Martial and Qi Origin: You can create new techniques, martial arts, and even completely new cultivation methods with relative ease. Increases (ENE) to a minimum of 9.]
[Evolving Bloodline: You are the start of your own bloodline, which will evolve with you and grow more powerful while you gain new traits as you grow stronger. There is no current bonus.]
[Body Blessed by Virgo: Your body naturally seeks to be in its cleanest state. This might, however, cause you to have a slight amount of obsessive-compulsive disorder when it comes to keeping things clean, on top of a slight perfectionist mindset.]
[Retractable Claws: The natural physical weapon of many beast or beast-adjacent species.]
[Enhanced Lowlight Vision: You can naturally see in places with minimal light as if it were as bright as under noonday sun.]
[Enhanced Elemental Compatibility: Since your race is already one of the beloved children of the elements and you have even greater compatibility than your kin, the elements may randomly decide to help you out in whatever way they decide.]
[Natural Hunter: The hunt is engrained into your blood. You will always be quieter and more careful with your movements, even when you are not trying to. You are always moving in a form of stealth.]
Blessings:
[???]
Seeing four of the six stats I have at the world's limit and one on the cusp of reaching it, I suddenly get the urge to get all my stats at max before cultivating.
Stupid completionist mentality.
So, holding myself back from going and doing stupid things to try and get hidden quests, I change the tab to the tech tree.
There, I immediately placed one point into materials refining and looked at the currently available options to buy.
Directly connected to materials refining is the anvil that I would need to move on to the Iron Age proper.
Connected to materials refining and, the two different building sets are the refined wooden construction set and the stone construction set.
Finally, connected to materials refining, the two bedding sets and stone kitchenware set is furniture making.
I then buy everything but the furniture and primitive bedding that has yet to be bought.
When buying the two new building sets and the anvil, I asked the system to delay the information upload until after dinner, when I would go to bed. This way, I would at least save my brain from some of the torture it was about to go through.
{Information upload delayed until host rests.}
With the system message for confirmation that it would happen, I got up and checked the stew to see if it was ready.
Smelling the delicious scent that came out, I grabbed a bowl from my inventory and filled it up before sitting down in the middle of the floor to eat.
The stew itself was not as flavorful as I would have liked, but I did not have any spices at this point, so I could only do with what I had on hand. Though the scent of the stew nearly made up for that loss.
When I finished the meal, I cleaned up the dishes and checked the fire in the stove to see if it needed more wood.
Adding a few logs to it, I closed the door again before moving over to my bedroll and sitting down.
Now that I was here and had nothing more to do for the day, I called it a night and went to bed.
Crawling into my bedroll, I realized that sleeping in one would not be as easy as I had thought, mainly because my tail kept getting in the way.
Knowing this would not change any time soon, and I would have to get used to it, I made the note to make a new bed in the morning to fix this as soon as possible.