Free Web NovelChapter 4: Step 4 to Greatness: Learn About Your Skills
"Tsk, what’s taking the guy so long?" A tanned-skin brute clicked his tongue in frustration.
"Will you relax? It’s a new guy. Obviously, he would take his time," the blonde woman next to him replied.
There were three more guys hiding in the tall grass, watching the two argue. They were a small group of like-minded individuals. Like-minded because instead of grinding like others, they had found a shortcut.
Why bother farming resources when you could farm the newbies?
Instead of going out to hunt and scavenge for resources, they looked around the regional chat for newbies. As soon as the counter increased, they knew a new guy had spawned.
Then they spent the time going through the player rankings to find the profile of the newcomer. Then Sera, the Femme fatale of the group, would send the newbie a distress signal. freēwēbnovel.com
Given her charm, the fools were bound to fall, and as long as they did, their start packs would belong to them. It was the easiest way to get weapons, food rations, and basic shelter materials.
Thanks to that, all of them had starter weapons, and their shelter had already been upgraded once.
"What if he comes with people?" the second man, with a stocky body and shaved head, asked.
"Do you take me for a fool?" Sera shot back. "I checked his profile before I sent the message. The boy has no tribe or friends. He’s completely alone. You know, the perfect prey."
Suddenly, they heard footsteps, and everyone immediately went to their places. Sera slipped into the river without making a noise while two of her men remained near the riverbank.
It was the classic scene of a beautiful woman being preyed upon by two brutes. All that remained was for the hero to appear and save her.
However, instead of a hero, the one who appeared was a naked freak.
***
Adrian walked past the tall grass and stood there with his hammer and two massive balls on full display.
Sera’s gaze was fixed between his legs. She had only seen such things in animated stuff, not even regular adult entertainment. She then looked at her own body.
Would it even fit...? No, what am I even thinking!
"The fuck are you staring at?" Sera’s boyfriend, Junito, growled at her.
"Wait, an NPC?" another guy said.
There were two kinds of humans on the Savage Earth. Ones who were brought there, a.k.a. the players, and others were the natives whom the players simply called the NPCs.
Unlike in a game, these so-called NPCs weren’t actual NPCs. They lived and breathed just like any other player, but had an inherent advantage of knowing their world and having tribes. freёwebnovel.com
Naturally, the NPCs didn’t wear clothes like the players did. More importantly, the players had a distinct icon above their heads. Adrian didn’t have one and was naked without a thing to his name. Even freshies would get a basic set of clothes.
Naturally, the group thought he was an NPC.
"Is it him?" Junito asked Sera, poking her with the back of his stone axe.
"Y-Yeah," she replied, her gaze still fixed on something she shouldn’t have.
Junito noticed it and was furious. He knew he was lacking in a certain department, but no man liked his woman drooling over someone else’s manhood.
What he didn’t know was that it wasn’t Sera’s fault. Adrian’s blessing made it so that the woman would have to feel a certain way towards him if they didn’t have high enough fortitude.
"Are you sure, Sera? He’s clearly not a player—"
"Doesn’t matter," Junito cut him off. "Let’s just kill this bastard and be done with it."
"Oi, you insecure fuck," the stocky guy protested. "Did you forget what happened to those guys who attacked an NPC yesterday?"
It was the biggest drama they had seen. Someone attacked a female NPC since she wasn’t reciprocating the man’s advances. Instead of hurting her, the NPC assembled her tribe, and within seconds, the man’s shelter was destroyed.
Since the ’game’ revolved around shelter survival, the man died without his shelter. Hence, not attacking an NPC became an unwritten rule to survive on the Savage Earth.
And Junito wanted to break that rule?
"Are you stupid?" Junito barked back. "Didn’t Sera say he didn’t have a tribe? Besides, he’s naked and without a weapon. Just think of the rewards we might get for becoming the first players to kill an NPC!"
As soon as he said those words, the group’s hesitation disappeared. They had seen people in the world chat getting rewarded for achieving strange goals.
Being the first to kill an NPC certainly would grant them rewards as well. However, none of them made a move. They weren’t scared of Adrian’s NPC status, but his calm gaze frightened them.
Little did they know, Adrian’s calmness was because of his [Fearless] passive. Thanks to that, he could calmly think of ways to handle the situation.
Well... I kind of expected this to happen. But now what? Skills! Right.
First was the [Apex Predator]. He had already read about it, but in this case, it wasn’t worth much. Sure, it made him stronger, but what would he do with that strength when he didn’t have a weapon, and his opponents did!
Next came [Basic Hunting], but it wasn’t much either.
Basically, he could now track small and medium-sized animals and set primitive traps. Also, his accuracy with long-range and throwing weapons was increased by 5%. The more he hunted, the sooner the skill would upgrade.
At last was [Scavenge]. Adrian didn’t have much hope from it either, but read the description nonetheless. As he did, his expression visibly lightened. The seemingly worthless skill was like a second ace in his arsenal!
This is it!
He looked up and saw Junito charging at him, his stone axe raised high above his head.
"Yargh!" Junito yelled, about to swing the blade.
Adrian didn’t panic, just took a breath and raised his hand towards the stone axe.
"Scavenge!"
