The undead zombie leapt up in a single motion. It's cold, burning eyes which were otherwise clueless looked right at the bush Nathan was hiding in. He gulped.
Skraaaaa!
And the undead dashed at the bush.
"Fuck!" Nathan cursed, instantly stashing the bow into his inventory and pulling out his sword. The undead was upon the bush in an instant, tearing into it with all the ferocity of a bloodthirsty ghoul!
At the last moment before the monster reached him, Nathan jumped out and landed beside a tree! He turned around with his sword at the ready, anticipating a follow through attack.
But the undead was busy attacking the bush...
Bam!
Crash!
Skraaaa!
It hissed as it's claws tore through the foliage, dead set on killing a plant. It punched, it scratched, and in the end, uprooted the bush and threw it to the side.
As the bush's poor corpse lay there on the ground, the undead moved atop it and brought it's arms down in nasty punches!
Nathan watched all of this in abject horror.
It's... fighting the bush? He thought with a strange look on his face. Well, clearly it's not very bright.
As he watched on, the undead threw more and more punches, throwing some dirt into the air and turning the poor bush into a fine paste. Finally, after the bush had been thoroughly destroyed, it thrust its hands into the air, like a victorious cheer and hissed for the world to hear.
Skraaaaaaaaa!!!!!
It puffed out it's chest and pounded on the ground two times again for good measure.
Then, it turned around, ready to continue it's needless wandering. But as it met eyes with Nathan, it stopped.
"Um... I didn't see anything." He tried to bail, but clearly, the bush-fighting maniac was not having it.
With another terrible hiss, the undead threw its body at Nathan. Nathan dodged the attack with nimble grace and backed up, holding his sword out. Only now did he notice that the creature's speed had not increased much when it attacked. It moved with the same stiff gait and it was still terribly slow. At least, slower than a normal person, which was basically slow motion in Nathan's eyes.
But although he was slow in movement, he made up for it in explosive and jerky attacks!
The bush-fighting undead swung it's hand, the speed suddenly increasing! Nathan's eyes widened and he barely managed to duck under it. Taking the chance, he slashed right under the creature's arm, tearing a deep gash in the skin with the celestial bronze! The smell of rot and decay became more prominent, but Nathan didn't care.
He gritted his teeth and turned around, slashing again at the creature's back!
Skraaa!
A painful hiss escaped from it's mouth. He swung his arms around in a flailing motion, the joints snapping right off and swinging all the way towards the back!
"Whoa!" With a surprised yelp, Nathan carved another gash through the creature's back.
Dust began to slowly fall from the creature's back, seeping into the ground below.
Nathan's eyes lit up seeing this. He didn't know which mythology this guy was from, since many mythologies had undead to speak of, but he did know two things.
First - Monsters do not really die. They reform. Whether it be in Tartarus for the Greek ones or whatever the hell else for others, he cared not. He would get points for them all the same!
Second - Any mystical metal was able to harm magical creatures. It mattered little if they came from a different Pantheon; though, he assumed the weapons from the same Pantheon would be more affective since 'same birth place' and all that.
He had gotten a bit nervous seeing the arrow not kill it in a single shot. It was enchanted after all. And so, he had begun to poke and prod first, as a way to see if the monster truly could be killed through his weapons.
With a small grin, Nathan leapt back, dodging another one of the undead's swings and slashed right at it's neck! In that split second, it's head went flying off its body, landing some distance away. The body which was preparing for another lunge froze in it's tracks like a deer caught in headlights.
Twiish!
The body dissolved into dust, as did the head and the long awaited notification sound rang into Nathan's ears.
[You have gained 0.7 Customization Point!]
As the notification sounded, Nathan's head rang with new found knowledge he didn't yet know was there. The Undead was Norse in origin.
It was a Draugr. A reanimated semi-corporeal undead creature from many norse sagas, which rose from the bodies of people lost in nature; generally in the sea. Being creatures who had one foot set in Helheim and the other in Midgard, their bodies contained a certain chill and could be killed if they were decapitated, burnt into ash and then have their ashes scattered to the sea. Such a practice was believed to destroy the connection the dead held to the living world, thereby returning them to their rightful place in Helheim.
Fuuu~
Breathing out in relief, Nathan felt his senses receding to a manageable state as he plopped to the ground in exhaustion. Fighting actually took a lot more stamina than people think it does. And fighting magical creatures who could kill you within a few hits? That took more. The fight was not only physical, but also psychological.
Nathan wisped the sword back into the inventory, feeling giddy inside. At that moment, a cold glint caught his eye and he looked to the ground before him. There, a small ball was quietly laying amid the dirt and withered grass, exuding a cold blue chill.
A shiver ran down Nathan's spine as he realized what this was.
My first trophy! He exclaimed in his mind and crawled to it. As he took the object into his hands, he realized what this was.
The eye of the Draugr.
"Um... well, that was a mood killer." He said untastefully. He put the eye into his inventory and cracked his neck.
Although the Draugr needed to be burnt and scattered, the Celestial Bronze seemed to have done it's job well. Nathan remembered there being more metals like Stygian Iron, Imperial Gold and another metal from Norse Mythology that he couldn't remember the name of.
Maybe the burning and scattering is something humans with normal weapons are supposed to do? But shouldn't the Draugr be magical and hence, immune to mortal weaponry? Or it is something in-between like demigods? Food for thought.
Nathan didn't really care how or why he was able to kill the Draugr. Since he had received his points, he was satisfied.
And it was a full 0.7 too!
"The Draugr looked about the same difficulty as the Laestrygonian, but because it was harder to kill, it gave me 0.2 points extra." He mused.
Nathan got up and moved along.
His spirits had been renewed. More hunting was yet to be done.
...
Nathan drew back the bowstring, his eyes trailed onto a large golden deer grazing amid the trees. It's antlers were large and shining in a golden glimmer and it's mane was similarly so.
Nathan licked his lower lip, a trail of sweat going down his brow.
He had never expected to find something like this here. Since he was in the West and the most prominent mythologies were Greek and Norse, it was more than likely the deer originated from them.
And well... he knew of a certain golden deer.
The Cerynitian Hind, or the Golden Deer which Herakles was tasked to capture alive. Having read about Herakles' twelve labours, Nathan knew that the deer was said to be unbelievably fast; fast enough that it could outrun arrows. The hero himself chased it for over a year, going who knew where to catch it; and finally, when the deer had stopped to drink from a river, Herakles had succeeded.
Of course, Nathan wasn't very confident about killing it. It was said to outrun arrows and that could be taken as pure speed, or just an inability to be wounded through them. You never knew when mythology was involved.
And not to mention it was a sacred deer belonging to Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt.
Being a man as he was, Nathan wasn't very keen on meeting her. He admired the moon as beautiful, but that didn't mean he found the goddess pertaining to it as appealing. But...
Since the Cerynitian Hind had presented itself, and it was the center focus of one of Herakles' twelve labours, Nathan knew if he managed to kill it, the reward would be astronomically huge. Just thinking of all those points made him salivate.
And well, it wasn't as if he would use foul play. So long as Nathan hunted the deer in the traditional way, using arrows and all, tracking it on foot, the Goddess of the Hunt surely wouldn't mind... He hoped.
There were certainly dangers with going for it, but he felt that the risk wasn't as huge as the reward. And so, here he was, pulling back his bowstring, waiting for what he felt was the right opportunity.
The sun had begun to sink and he would soon begin to lose daylight. If he managed to get the deer here, he would end the day with a bang.
Nathan didn't even dare to breathe too loud. Hiding in a bush, he aimed the arrow at the deer's golden body.
And then, he loosened the string.
Fwish!
The arrow flew like lightning, ripping through the air and right for the deer!
But then-
Whoosh!
A phantom wind swept through the woods, and the deer jerked back, the arrow slipping past it by a hair's breath!
"Wha-!" Nathan unconsciously exclaimed as he saw the deer dash right into the trees!
"Shit!" He cursed, hurriedly dashing out and following after it! But as he tried to give chase, the deer had already disappeared, gone like the wind!
Nathan wasn't discouraged. He still followed the trail. His instincts guided him along the trail that the deer may have taken. His nostrils flared, taking in the scent it left behind, his eyes scanned the ground, looking at the tracks, his ears twitched, listening in for any sound.
The world seemed to slow down as he darted through the trees.
Alas, he was only so fast. His senses eventually began to mellow down as the deer got farther and farther away. Eventually, his senses returned to normal.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Nathan followed along the trail for some more time. His senses had dulled again, but his instincts still guided him to track the deer. He wasn't sure how accurate his tracking was, but it was better than nothing.
Eventually, the sky entered twilight and Nathan knew it was time for to set up camp. He had stacked up a month's worth of rations in his inventory, so he wasn't afraid of going thirsty or hungry for any amount of time. It was also the reason he had ignored any normal animals or any water source in his time here.
Nathan opened his status and took another look at the amount of points he had gotten. 0.7, from killing a single Draugr.
He contemplated for some time as he sat before the fire. Should he save up? Or should he invest in Fitness?
In many aspects, he had been restless and unwilling to fight more powerful monsters. He knew he could easily be killed if he came across a stronger foe. It would barely take any time. Even with his Celestial Bronze sword, he would always be one step away from death if his physical fitness wasn't up to par.
Percy was only able to wrestle with monsters because of his superior strength gained as being a son of Poseidon. Every other demigod was the same. Their training affected the outcome of course, but as a general rule, every demi-god was in some way physically superior to normal people. It was just a matter of by how much.
Spirit and Insight won't help me yet. Although I'm certain upgrading Insight will make Hunter's Instincts even more powerful, that's not the main concern yet. I have to be able to properly use my body to it's full capacity if I want to fight monsters comfortably.
There was no hesitation. He opened up his status, and directly invested points into Fitness.
The upgrade took 0.5 points.
And as the + symbol appeared beside the Fitness bar, Nathan felt a strange tingling in his body. His muscles rapidly contracted and relaxed, leading his body to undergo rapid spasms. It wasn't very severe, but it made him very uncomfortable.
The sound all around him seemed to have stopped. His lungs seemed like they were dead tired. His heart pumped with a bit too much force. His muscles heated up rapidly as if he had just hit a 3 hour full body workout in the gym.
"Whoa..." He marvelled. Standing up from his seat, he moved a bit away from the crackling flame and threw a punch.
Whoosh!
His fist rippled the air, faster than he could have seen himself throwing a punch. He swept up one of his legs and threw a sweeping high kick. Stabalizing, he jumped into the air, leaping a whole 3 meters high! His body seemed perfectly poised for any sort of work, any sort of fight.
He had never felt stronger.
His eyes gleamed dangerously and he opened up the system panel again. He tried to upgrade Fitness again, just to see how much points it would take.
5 points. The number came onto the translucent screen and Nathan instantly reeled in his greed.
He clenched and unclenched his fist many times, feeling the almost boundless stamina and power coursing through his body.
It feels like I could lift a mountain... heh. Maybe I'll be able to one day if I just keep upgrading.
With a satisfied smile, Nathan headed into his tent, eager to wake up tomorrow and see the limits of his new strength.
And so, as Nyx established her domain in the sky, Nathan camped below the stars and the moon, vowing to hunt more monsters tomorrow.
...
[Name: Nathan Hill
Occupation: Hunter
Earned Titles: None
Perks: Monster Lore; Hunter's Instincts(+); Blessing of Mana-Yood-Sushai
Skills: Swordplay; Archery; Mist(+)
Physical Condition:
Fitness: +
Spirit: 0
Insight: 0]
...
A/N: Donate some stones~