TBE Chapter 23
Ezekiel and his two brothers entered the forest around 6 a.m. and he was planning for the three of them to spend all day inside there hunting animals. It was a bit easier for them since the only one who would really be walking was him since Robert and Luke would be on top of Tenser’s Floating Disk and if they get hungry or thirsty, they could stop and take a break anytime.
As a matter of fact, Ezekiel’s brothers were enjoying the journey since they were so noisy pointing at the different things that they could see amongst the trees.
Ezekiel would have scolded the boys for being too loud. Still, unfortunately, since he wasn’t well-versed in traveling inside a forest, just his regular movement alone was also loud so it didn’t matter if his brothers were talking loudly to each other.
Besides, the main purpose of hunting inside the forest was for him to level up and according to the rules set by his system, only aggressive animals would be able to provide him with experience points. That meant that ambushing something wouldn’t be part of their adventure. He wasn’t even planning to kill non-aggressive animals like pheasants or young deer. He would only kill those animals that would try to attack them.
Their speed wasn’t fast almost leisurely and after a couple of hours, they took a break and ate some of the food that Ezekiel cooked as well as drank water that tasted like fruit juice. He was so glad that time didn’t move inside his 4th tab space since the water that he purchased from his system shopping site was still very cold and because of that the drink was so refreshing after a long walk.
The first animal that attacked them was a small boar and Ezekiel killed it with one Magic Missile. He stored the corpse in his space and checked the experience points that he had earned. It moved up 10 percent to 11 percent. That meant he had to kill the same animal 89 times more before he reached level 3 and they only encountered the boar after two hours of walking.
At least Ezekiel had cheerleaders since Robert and Luke cheered when he killed the small boar. After 30 minutes of walking, the three siblings encountered something dangerous. A couple of cougars appeared.
Luke shouted “Big cats! Big cats!” and the cougars looked at them as if they looked delicious which made Ezekiel nervous. The good thing about them looking tiny was that all predators in the forest would probably not avoid but attack them which meant earning experience points could be easier than he imagined.
Ezekiel didn’t stop but immediately cast two Magic Missiles from the cantrip slot and six magical bolts appeared. Each of the cats was hit by three glowing bolts in their heads causing their heads to explode.
He immediately checked how many experience points he earned and each of the cats gave him 3 points each so now, the experience bar climbed to 17 percent. That made Ezekiel happy since he was now closer to level 3 and the spells Galder’s Tower and Fly. One of his favorite spells could also be purchased once he hit level 3 which was Fire Ball but that one was a dangerous spell and he didn’t want to cause some sort of forest fire.
After he stored the cats’ corpses, they continued their journey. They encountered a family of deer but since they were not aggressive Ezekiel didn’t touch them. An hour went by and they encountered a huge snake and Ezekiel wondered what kind of snake it was. He thought that huge snakes like that could only be found in jungles but then again more aggressive animals meant more experience.
The huge snake was on a tree and it wasn’t attacking them. Ezekiel was worried that if he killed it without the snake attacking them first, he wouldn’t earn any experience points so he provoked it by casting Prestidigitation on it in the form of a shower of sparks on its head. That did the job and the snake climbed down and based on the direction it was moving, which was towards them, it had the intention of attacking them so Ezekiel cast Magic Missile and the three glowing bolts unerringly hit the snake's head causing it to explode.
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Ezekiel checked how much experience he earned and it was a whopping 4 points which made him happy. His total experience points were now 21 percent till he reached level 3. He then wondered if he could sell the snakes. He did store it since it’s [possible that he could sell it and even if he couldn’t, he would just give it to the butcher for free.
They continued their journey and soon, noon arrived so they stopped and ate a huge lunch. He served beef stew on top of rice and soda that he purchased before. The three of them ate a lot, especially Ezekiel since he had been walking non-stop.
He decided to cast the Healing Elixir spell three times once its cooldown ended and after three vials appeared, he gave each one to his brothers and told them to drink it after he opened the vials. Robert and Luke said they didn’t feel anything meaning that they were in full health before they drank the potion but the one he drank relieved his muscle soreness caused by walking in the forest terrain.
During their rest after lunch, Ezekiel refreshed the Mage Armor spell on each of them just to make sure they had a good defense then he cast Tenser’s Floating Disk again as he had been doing every hour. He then checked his spells to make sure that he was prepared for any dangerous encounter then they continued on their journey.
They had been walking since 6 o'clock this morning so Ezekiel decided to circle back using a different route when journeying back home so they would encounter more animals.
The three brothers did find a lot of berries and fruits but Ezekiel decided not to pick any of them since he wasn’t sure if they were poisonous or not, even with Robert telling him that they could be eaten.
Robert kept on insisting that Ezekiel spent a copper coin to purchase different fruits from his system shopping site and gave an apple and a banana each to Robert and Luke.
“What are those?!” Robert asked and even Luke was gaping at the fruits.
Ezekiel was startled. He didn’t know how to react when he saw that his brothers didn’t know what an apple or a banana was.
“This huge red fruit is called an apple and this long yellow fruit is a banana. You can eat the apple directly by biting it but the banana has to be peeled to be eaten,” Ezekiel then showed the kids how to eat the fruits.
The boys ate the apple first and both of them said it was delicious but since the apple made them full, they kept the banana and said they would eat it later.
Soon they arrived near the river and since this was deep inside the forest, Ezekiel knew that it was dangerous for them to stay near a water source. He also noticed that his two brothers ate the banana and based on their expression, they found the exotic fruit delicious.
“Big lizard! Big lizard!” Luke suddenly shouted while pointing at the two alligators in the water.
That made Ezekiel’s hackles rise since they had bathed in the river before and wondered if there were alligators there but Robert said that there were no such animals near the village since if the villagers found one, the animals would immediately be hunted since their skin was valuable.
Ezekiel stood near the river bank and provoked the two alligators with a spell and when the water lizards noticed him they began swimming towards him. He was glad that he looked tiny and malnourished since predators didn’t hesitate to go after him and his brothers the moment they saw them.
He immediately cast two Magic Missiles towards the alligators and the six magical glowing darts hit the heads of the alligators causing them to explode. The corpses of the alligators remained in the water but Ezekiel didn’t go into the water to retrieve them even though Robert said their skins were valuable since he didn’t know if there were any monsters in the water. What if there were eels or leeches? Ezekiel shuddered at the thought.
Ezekiel immediately checked the experience points that he earned and according to his experience bar, each of the alligators gave him 4 experience points so his experience climbed to 29 percent.
The three siblings then walked towards the direction of their home but stayed near the river since Ezekiel wanted to encounter more alligators and they did so. During the journey, he killed 4 more alligators and managed to store two of them since two managed to get in range of his 4th tab space item retrieval.
That encounter gave him 16 experience points so now Ezekiel’s total experience was 45 points which made him excited.
After a few more minutes of traveling, they were forced to leave the river since following it would take them deeper into the forest based on his system map.
They also needed to stop so the two boys could eat some snacks and relieve themselves. Ezekiel couldn’t help but thank his system for his Prestidigitation spell since it allowed him to clean up after the boys without any problems.
