With that plan in mind, he returned home and spent the next two hours buying what he needed for the hunt. Fortunately, when he came back to the cave with his new equipment, the gnolls were still asleep, because they were beasts that were active during the night.
What he had bought was a gas mask, thick cotton clothes and a firefighter's axe. By the time the gnolls woke up, they would be considerably weaker after breathing smoke in their sleep, and once they came out of the cave, it would be his turn to cut them down. As a sidearm, he had also bought a metal pipe, a heavy one with a coupling at the end.
Because of the thick bushes blocking his view, it was difficult to aim with the bow. For a moment he thought of clearing them, but he decided against it. In the end, he would be the one using the cave, and the bushes would make a splendid first line of defense.
He carried a great many branches, firewood and vines to the entrance of the cave. After nearly an hour of it, he started to pant and felt as if he was going to die.
Jude took out a bottle of gasoline from his backpack and casually scattered it over the pile of branches. At that moment, his eyes fell on one of the gnolls inside the cave. Its yellow eyes shone brightly against fur that looked like the dirtiest towel in the world. Its features were almost the same as a dog's, except that it stood on two feet.
The gnoll stumbled toward him. It seemed to be still half asleep.
Jude swung his axe at its head with all his strength. Surprised by the sudden attack, the gnoll flinched and growled before tumbling to the ground with a thud. He swung the axe once more, and this time, he aimed for its neck.
[Level has risen to 1]
[Acquired three points]
The most important thing when dealing with monsters was to be sure he had killed them, and waiting for the system message to appear was the surest way to know.
Jude moved again at once. He lit a ball of tissue with his lighter and threw it onto the pile he had prepared. When the tissue fell, the gasoline caught fire and burned the twigs underneath. Smoke, dark and noxious, billowed up from the fire and into the cave. Unlike his calculations, the smoke hit him too, but thanks to the gas mask, it did not affect him much.
The smoke soon covered the whole entrance and hid the cave from view. Whimpering and scrambling footsteps could be heard from beyond it. The gnolls must have been confused, choking on the smoke as soon as they woke, but it would be hard for them to jump out, since the entrance was blocked by a furiously burning fire.
He hoped they would just die without fighting him. Sooner rather than later, that hope was crushed. Five gnolls suddenly jumped out through the fire.
Without thinking any further, Jude rushed at the biggest one, which he took to be the alpha, with the axe raised high. It could not even open its eyes, and could only raise its head to sense him. But that was the end of it. His axe came down hard on its crown, and a snapping sound echoed through the trees.
The axe was stuck. Fortunately, Jude had made enough preparations this time. He kicked the gnoll's body away, picked up the metal pipe, and with a shout, swung the heavy coupling into the head of the nearest gnoll.
It growled before it fell, still breathing, so he left it and sprayed pepper into the noses of the rest, who were groveling on the ground, trying to catch their breath. They clawed at their noses with their paws, but it was useless. All he had to do now was beat them with the pipe until they were dead.
After he had swung the pipe more times than he could count, the last gnoll let out its final whimper and dropped to the ground. The once sturdy pipe in his hand was covered in blood and dented in several places.
Jude cursed as he took off the gas mask. His breath was ragged, and his heart was beating wildly in his chest.
"Status window."
[Level: 1]
[Point(s): 21]
[Vitality: 11 / Strength: 14 / Agility: 10 / Dexterity: 11 / Perception: 7]
[Unique Ability: Random Teleportation]
[Skill: None]
[Active Buff: Exhausted]
His stats had dropped drastically. It was not permanent, only the effect of the Exhausted debuff on his status, and they would return to their original values once he rested.
He was finally level one, having gathered twenty-one points in all from one imp and a pack of gnolls. It was truly pitiful. In the beta, no matter what he bought or how many points he spent, his points had never dropped below fourteen thousand.
This was not the beta. This was reality, a place where a single misstep could cost him his life.
He could consider himself lucky that he had found the gnolls' cave during the day. If he had made camp nearby without knowing they were there, he would have been taken into the cave alive and eaten.
The only good monster was a dead monster.
Monster corpses were dangerous, so this time he would burn them with the gasoline he had left.
But why did his back feel so hot?
When he looked back at the entrance of the cave, the scene that greeted him left him baffled. The fire he had set was spreading.
The fire was put out by fire extinguishers, every one he had. The bushes he had kept as the cave's first line of defense had been burnt to a crisp, and he felt his world crumble.
He sat on a nearby rock and looked at the entrance. Gnoll corpses, burnt debris and all kinds of junk were tangled into a giant mess in front of the cave, and it would take at least several hours to clear it all.
His exhausted body wanted to go home and lie in bed, but he held himself back. He had used too much stamina killing the gnolls, and if he did not clean now, he would only suffer worse tomorrow.