A Warlock's Ascent

Chapter 6 Towards The Hill

?While walking back, Sanjay and Dave eventually started talking to each other, they both had concerns about the weird world they have come into, they might have been very different people back on Earth, but now they were two peas in the same pod. Talking to each other also helped them voice out their concerns about this place.

As they talked, they also shared things about each other classes, and Dave had several questions about Sanjay's abilities. He was very interested in how he was able to make that barrier, also he was curious about the explosions that he heard. they didn't sound like something to be caused by the rampage of that creature, it sounded as though someone was doing field testing of hand grenades.

"Oh, that was my skill," Sanjay said.

Sanjay was a Newbie Magician, with that class, he got the staff and three skills, of which one was the common tongue skill. Out of the other two, one of the skills helps him fire a blue color ball from his staff, which exploded on impact. And the other one is the barrier that he saw him casting.

Dave realized that the magician class has offensive as well as defensive abilities, it is a pretty good class considering the situation they are in. But it also has a lot of drawbacks. And the most lethal drawback was the fact that Sanjay was physically very weak.

When they compared each other stats, he found out that none of his Indian friend's physical stats were higher than two. The only stat that stands out in his stat window was his Intellect and Arcane. Sanjay's intellect was 5 while his Arcane was 3.

His level was the same as Dave's, he was a level-3 magician. But now that Dave has leveled up. He figured out from the messages that if he invests stats points that are available to him in his stats menu, he can become more powerful than he is now. For now, he decided that he would just wait for some time before investing his stats points, gather more information, and then invest them.

Eventually, Dave had the idea to try Sanjay's staff himself. He wanted to see whether he could wield it and do some magic as well. But his plans were foiled, as he touched Sanjay's staff, a blue color message appeared before his eyes…

...…..

You need 5 Intellect to wield the Beginner Magician's Staff.

....

"Hmm… It seems like I won't be able to use the staff after all" He mumbled as he read the message, Sanjay who was walking turned towards him…

"Why?"

"Well according to the message that I have received, it says that I need 5 intellect to use the staff."

"How much do you have?"

"I have 3 intellects."

"So if you invest 2 stat points in the intellect stat then you could use the staff?"

"Seems like it."

"Well, that is good news. If someone regrets their initial class choice, then they would be able to change it afterward by later on investing their stat points."

"Right… But you know, it is very strange that one could simply hunt these monsters and get strong. What physical training and what not, are they not relevant here?"

"Seems like it."

"And you don't even have to be there physically present there to hunt a creature. I may have thrust my sword into that creature's neck, but I didn't kill it. Most probably that creature would have died from blood loss. But still, I was rewarded for its death."

"But you were the one that inflicted that nasty wound on him, didn't you?"

"Yeah… But what if… Okay, hear me out. If suppose I am hunting a creature. And I inflicted a lot of damage to it, that it is on the verge of dying. And then suddenly some other guy swoops in and delivers the final blow to it. So then what would happen then? Will I get the points for it, or would that person who got the last blow would get the point?"

"I don't know…" Sanjay said while thinking about what Dave had said.

The duo walked for 10 mins more and they reach the rock formation where they encountered the creature. It was then, Dave couldn't help but notice that Sanjay was sweating after the walk, his breaths were heavy as if he was standing here after a session of power walking. While he, on the other hand, was completely fine, he didn't feel fatigued at all. Seeing this he realized that the stats menu is pretty accurate.

Not too far away from the rock formation was the body of the creature itself. By the time they had got to the body, flies were humming around the body. While the body itself was lying in a pool of blood.

Dave straight away went for the sword that was stuck in the neck of the creature. It took a lot of strength to pull it out. But as the creature was not moving, it became fairly easy for him to pull the thing out…

"This was a very big monster," Sanjay said.

"That it is… So what should we do with it?" Dave asked.

"Well, after killing an animal, one should usually pry open its stomach and take out all the organs like the intestine, heart, stomach, etc. And while doing so, one should also drain blood out of the animal's body."

"So do you think you can butcher it?"

"With the tools we have? I really don't know. I have never used a sword before to gut an animal before. Also, your sword looks pretty heavy and long to use it a skinning knife." Sanjay gave his honest opinion.

"Do you think we could store a body this huge in our inventory?"

"Inventory? You mean the one the tab we got in the system interface?"

"Yeah."

"We can store items in there?" Sanjay asked with astonishment. Hearing this, Dave understood that this idiot didn't even try to use and understand the different functions of the weird holographic system. And according to his stat, his intelligence is supposed to be 5…

Dave then ignored Sanjay for a second and put his hands on the creature's carcass. And he tried sending it to his inventory. Hearing his will, his system's response came quickly in the form of a blue color window…

...

Sending the carcass into the inventory will use 25 boxes worth of storage.

Do you want to proceed?

Y/N

...…..

Dave instantly answered 'yes' and the carcass of the creature vanished from the ground. Seeing this, Sanjay was very astonished and started bombarding Dave with a question about the system…

***

After securing the food, Dave and Sanjay were stuck in a very familiar situation once again. They may have food but they don't have water or shelter. Also, they don't even know where they are. After Dave shared his concerns, Sanjay told him that everything will be fine…

"Don't worry. I used to watch the Discovery Channel while back in India. So I will get you out of here." Sanjay said with a proud and confident smile.

"How is your watching a science channel gonna help us?"

"Let me show you…"

It is then Sanjay did what Dave failed in doing previously. He climbed up a tree. It was pretty spectacular to see the technique that Sanjay used. He unbuttoned his shirt, and wrapped it around the tree, while using his shirt to support him, he started climbing. According to him, he was used to climbing up the tree to pluck mangoes that used to grow on his grandfather's farm.

Seeing his skillful ascent and descent up and down the tree, Dave was fairly impressed, this man had its strength. After he got down, he told him about the geography of the terrain around them…

"Well, we are surrounded by trees in every single direction. But I spotted a few hills north of our position. While I also spotted a range of mountains in the east. I think we should move towards the hills in the north. They are close to where we are. Also, there is a better chance of finding a lake or a cave in the hills."

"A lake or a cave? How do you know that?" Dave asked.

"Well, I used to watch survival series called Man vs Wild a lot. And the anchor used to tell a lot of crazy things about survival. And he used to say that three things are essential for survival. And those are food, water, and shelter. We already have food. Now we are left with water as our main concern, we may be able to find some in the hills. But even without water, we could still survive for two days at least. Also, the hills would provide us with a good view of the area that could help is located a nearby water source."

"Amazing… You are a genius."

Both of them started their journey toward the hills. According to Sanjay, they would reach the hills after a 3-4 hour walk. And as the sun is over their head then it could mean that they will be able to reach the hills before nightfall. And that was a good thing.

While walking towards the hills, Dave noticed that his sword had been damaged. The part of the sword that collided with the thick and strong bones of creatures had chipped the sword, but he could still use it.

***

With his sword in his sheath and shield in his inventory, Dave walked quietly beside Sanjay. He didn't look tired at all, while Sanjay was huffing and puffing as if they were hiking on a mountain. As Dave looked at his pathetic condition, he felt pity for the man and insisted that they should take a break to cool off. And Sanjay agreed to it instantly.

It was probably a good thing that they had not encountered another creature till now. And their journey had been a quiet one. While resting for a while, Dave started thinking that maybe other people that he saw back in the facility may had have the same idea of going to the hill. So there was a high chance that they would encounter more humans on the hills.

After resting for a while, Dave and Sanjay eventually started moving again. As they got closer to hills, they eventually came across something that made them stop…