CHAPTER 4

Jonas was momentarily silenced at what he saw. It was a small boy who couldn’t be any older than six to seven years, was looking at him with glassy blue eyes. Those eyes, despite looking beautiful, was nothing better than a decoration. This even tugged a string in Jonas’ heart, who himself had become a disable. 

“Young Lika, you are awake. Sorry, hunting took this late. Just wait, okay! I will make something for you to eat.” The voice of the female NPC floated from behind the hut. It sounded very gentle, like that of a mother’s. 

“Okay.” The boy nodded but still looked at Jonas’ direction. Giving him a smile, he said, “Big brother, who are you?” the immature voice couldn’t be faked, it's definitely a young boy. 

“Ah! I, I am Jo- I mean Walker. Nice to meet you.” Nearly blurting out his real name, Jonas introduced himself with his in-game name. 

“Hello, Brother Walker. Were you hunting too in the forest?” the child sounded curious as well as friendly. 

“Ah, no. I have come here to deliver you a package sent by that shi- Terka.” Jonas said, after getting over his chaotic emotions. Nothing would come out by sympathizing with a program. 

“I see… so grandpa didn’t come after all. I knew it. Alright, please give that thing to me.” Uttering something, the boy showed his hand towards Jonas, asking him to give him the package. 

As soon as he handed him the parcel, a prompt popped up. 

[You have completed quest 003: Delivery Boy.]

[You got rewards; 5 Relationship points and 50 EXP]

“Finally!” seeing his EXP bar filling to half, a surge of happiness spread across his body. The blind boy NPC has gone silent, holding the package sent by Terka, reminding Jonas that nothing would come out if he stays here. As such, he decided to just roam around the small hut. 

The hut was in the middle of the clearing in this deep forest, surrounded everywhere by thick foliage. While exploring, as he was about to step out of the camp gate, the lady NPC’s voice came again, “You better not step out, lad. The sun is going to set any minute. The forest gonna be especially dangerous at night. Just remain here till morning, I will escort you to the village.” 

‘This NPC is so kind…’ thinking of such, he said, “Thank you… I don’t get your name.” 

“Call me granny Kesh, the young master calls me that too.” The NPC called Granny Kesh had the stature of an elderly lady with faint wrinkles covering her face. Her eyes were green, and her head was filled with grey hair, an appearance of her age. 

After warning him, she returned back with Jonas following her from behind. He had nothing better to do so he could at least observe what she was doing to pass the time. Following her back, he found her skinning a white furry creature. 

Despite being gory, Jonas marveled at how she skinned the animal, which borderline on artistic. He was totally absorbed with the spectacle until the lady suddenly spoke something to him. 

“Hmm! Boy, you seem to express a look of fascination there… do you want to learn how to dismantle?” 

[Ding! Granny Kesh is offering to teach you the art of Dismantling, would you like to learn it?]

“Yes, please teach me.” Jonas had no reason to refuse. 

[Ding! You have learned skill Dismantling Lv 1]

[STR increased by 1]

[Dismantling Lv 1]

- 1% chance of acquiring materials for Cooking and Blacksmithing jobs.

- Proficiency: 0/10

“Here, try it.” The old lady strangely pulled out another of those furry creatures and handed it to Jonas. He accepted it and placed the creature on the ground before placing his hand on the body and activated the skill. 

[Dismantling failure. The material will be destroyed. Player gained 2 Proficiency points(PP).]

“Hmm, the first try will always be a failure. Here, try another.” The lady handed him one more of those creatures. Jonas used Dismantling again and failed, gaining 2 PP, the body was also destroyed, reducing to particles. 

“Here, have another.” Granny Kesh handed another one. 

“Are you a blue cat with a dimensional pocket? Where did all this come from?” Jonas shouted while accepting. Each time he failed, granny Kesh would hand him another by pulling it out form her behind… one ought to wonder from where did she pulling them out…!

[You have successfully dismantled.]

[You have obtained Rocco Rabbit meat x2]

[Dismantling Levelled up]

[STR +1; PHY +1]

“I have succeeded.” Jonas lept up in joy. After continuous failure 4 times, he finally succeeded in perfectly dismantling the creature. 

“Good. Today we shall eat Rocco stew.” Granny Kesh announced, taking the two lumps of pink flesh on the wooden table on which he was trying dismantling in her hands and returning to the hut. 

Several minutes later, with no targets to dismantle, Jonas sat on the wooden chair on the outside, feeling bored. He could have logged out, but there would be no one in that cold and lonely place to give him company. As such, he could only spend his time here. 

He opened his status menu; 

The numbers were definitely increased, making him happy. There was also a new panel generated under the name of Skills, where his Dismantling was registered, which now increased to 2. Even while still being a level 0 peasant, his stats were already closing on a level 6 or level 7 player. 

Soon he got bored at looking at his status menu, there was not much to look at there anyway. As such, to pass his time, he decided to do something else…

[Dismantling failed. +5 PP. Item will be destroyed]

[Dismantling failed. +1 PP. Item will be destroyed]

[Dismantling failed. +3 PP. Item will be destroyed]

He started using his only skill randomly on everything he saw. Stone! Dismantled to sands, plants! Dismantled… no matter what ley on the floor, they were dismantled and eventually led to destruction by the skill. There was nothing mentioned on the skill that it couldn’t be used on random items, and it was a pure coincidence that Jonas found this out. 

The game time to the outside world was 1:3, which was each hour equivalent to 3 on the outside. When he logged on to the game, it was 2 PM. He had more than 5 hours until his dinner, making it 15 hours of total gameplay. Completing the Terka quests and dying 50 times took 5 hours in total, so he still had 10 hours of gameplay left. If he spends the night here, it would mean he will be staying here for at least six hours. 

“Well, whatever. I will continue to level up this skill I have got.” Muttering to himself, Jonas continued using dismantling everywhere. 

[Dismantling Levelled up]

[STR +1; PHY +1]

“Wow, it level upped again!! Continue! Continue!” leaping in joy, Jonas took in the excitement if his strength and HP increasing once again and continued to do what he was doing… dismantling the ground, he stood upon. By now, it had become a large ditch with a meter deep. He was crouching within that ditch and continued to dismantle. Although not a single a time dismantling succeeded since there was nothing to succeed, the level of the skill rose rapidly one point at a time. 

[Dismantling Lv 3]

- 1.5% chance of acquiring materials for Cooking and Blacksmithing jobs.

- Proficiency: 90/1000

A few hours later, granny Kesh called Jonas from within the hut. After entering, he found the blind boy whose name he couldn’t see was sitting on the bed while granny Kesh was feeding him. A steaming bowl of stew was placed on the table to the corner of the bed; it was meant for him. 

“thank you, granny Kesh.” Thanking the old lady, Jonas went ahead and took a spoonful. 

[You have eaten a very vitalizing food. All stats increased by 1 for 1 hour.]

“Wow!” of course, it wasn’t surprising as cooking buffs were fairly common in RPG games. From what he had read form forums, in comparison to truly high-leveled players who could give buffs compared to 100 levels for more than a month on end… this meager buff was nothing. But still, in this life-like game, it was his first time seeing it. 

He took another spoonful. 

[You have eaten a very vitalizing food. All stats increased by 1 for 1 hour.]

Another…

[You have eaten a very vitalizing food. All stats increased by 1 for 1 hour.]

“What the!!” every spoonful would buff him with one stat point, and duration would increase for 1 hour. When he finally finished the soup, all his stats had increased by 20 for 20 hours. Seeing this, Jonas couldn’t help but sigh in wonder, thinking, ‘maybe I should learn cooking too…’

After finishing off the soup, Jonas took a step out of the hut and… started Dismantle on everything on his sight. If there were any other players in place of him, they would have immediately raised their weapons and went for about monster grinding to perfectly implement the buff. But, Jonas thought nothing of it and instead concentrated on using dismantle on everything in his sight. 

He would often play games like this, more than his own level, he would try to level up his skills, weapons, or items he possesses if possible. Leveling up his own level was just the byproduct of the process. He struck the same practice even in this game. 

For some reason, while he was busy digging a hole just in front of camp gate, no monster came to kill him.