The Earth Online

10 Professional Skill…？

Thaleos immediately signaled the other two men to crouch down. It seemed like the smell of fire ashes attracted fellow fire sprites and white rats.

“Damn, looks like we need to finish them off before we attract other stronger beasts.” Haya breathed out quietly. Kedrick steadily took out his sword while waiting for further instructions.

Thaleos nodded his head in agreement, and then took a couple of seconds to think about a plan.

“Yeah, let’s quietly kill them off for now. After that, I have something planned.” The bearded man remarked after carefully assessing their situation. They silently walked out of the cave’s entrance and scouted the area.

They saw about five more white critters and two fire sprites. Kedrick gulped at the number of the enemies. Thaleos knew that this was harder from the fight that happened inside the cave, because, aside from the number of the creatures, the beasts’ group also had both melee and long-range attackers.

“Haya, I need you to go back inside the cave and get all the steel arrows that you can find.” Thaleos instructed as he knew Haya was the fastest and quietest out of the three of them.

The tan man agreed and quickly went on his way inside the cave. Meanwhile, the creatures seemed to just stop nearby the river and moved in circles. The bearded man then ordered Kedrick in a hushed tone,

“Kedrick. We’ll split into two and hide in the bushes. Once one of the white critters approaches you, pull it inside the bushes and slit its neck. When Haya gets back, make sure to wait for my signal to directly attack one of the fire sprites.” 

The dark-skinned man agreed, and then they slowly walked towards their designated bush in muffled steps.

Upon settling in their own bushes, one white rat coincidentally moved towards Thaleos’ direction. Once the rat was within arm’s reach, Thaleos immediately clamped his hand over its long snout and pulled it towards his direction. The white critter wildly thrashed around, to which the bearded man responded by skillfully slitting its throat.

After a couple of minutes, another one approached Thaleos. He merely repeated the same process — immediately ending its life. Kedrick felt himself sweating as he watched out for the fire sprites that were still circling around the river.

It was terrifying and fascinating, at the same time, since the fire sprites looked like they were floating and dancing around the river.

Inside the cave, Haya took all the steel arrows he could see and quickly scurried out of the cave. Once he was outside of the cave, using his night-vision glasses, he spotted the other two men hiding in the bushes.

He wasn’t quite sure which of the two crouching figures was Thaleos, so he decided to rely on his gut instinct instead. This has never failed him before — especially in high risk situations, where they had to steal from people to survive.

Haya decided to sprint towards the right bush and was happy to find Thaleos there and two dead white rats. Thaleos gave him a small nod and took all the steel arrows that Haya handed him. The bearded man whispered to the other man,

“Once I hit the two fire sprites with a couple of arrows, attack the fire sprite nearer to us.” Haya acknowledged his words with an eager nod.

Thaleos drew one of the arrows and aimed it at one of the fire sprites. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Thaleos concentrated on the fire sprite’s mana center, once he was sure of his aim, he released the arrow.

The fire sprite immediately crouched in pain on the floor — Thaleos’ attack seemed to be more effective, since the distance heightened the damage of his arrow. It seemed like killing all those rats and fire sprites helped in increasing his strength and stealth.

Once the other fire nymph reacted, Thaleos kept swiftly drawing and releasing arrows. Within just three minutes, he was successfully aiming and shooting his arrows straight into his targets. Although, not as effective in damaging the first sprite, it did considerably slow them down.

After finishing all his arrows, he quickly charged towards the creatures’ location — signaling the two other men to follow suit.

They spent the next couple of minutes just slashing and hacking with all their might. As blood splattered across Haya’s face, he suddenly went crazy with the killing. He took out most of the remaining rats, as Thaleos and Kedrick focused on finishing the two fire sprites.

As soon as the last white rat dropped dead, they felt the fatigue kicking in.

“Wow, okay, whew.” Kedrick panted out as he washed his blood-drenched face using the river water. Thaleos and Haya followed after his footsteps in desperation, as they knew they smelt terrible.

While washing his face, Thaleos noticed that something was shining under the riverbed.

“Hey, I think something’s in there.” The bearded man uttered in curiosity. The three of them stood up from their crouched positions and approached the shining object.

Upon closer inspection, they noticed that it was a small treasure chest. Haya tried opening it but noticed that it was locked.

“Well, that sucks. Seems like it’s locked.” Kedrick said, and immediately lost interest in the treasure chest. Although he knew that it was valuable, he was just too tired to care about one tiny treasure chest.

“I’m sure there’s a way to unlock it.” Thaleos reasoned out as he dug out the box from the riverbed. Haya took out a black hair pin from his pocket and said, “I knew that this was gonna be useful. All those hours of playing open-world games have taught me the importance of lockpicking.” He said with a slight smirk on his face.

“Let’s try it out!” Thaleos applauded Haya’s level of preparation. The islander took the treasure box from the other man and attempted to open the lock using a couple of twists and turns.

After a number of failed attempts, they finally heard it click. All the three men looked inside the chest, and were delighted, also slightly disappointed, to find regular potions of health and stamina.

While they were checking out the potions, they heard crackling and squeaking noises again.

“Ugh, when will this end?” Haya cried out in exhaustion. The three of them hid the potions on their utility belt and took out their weapons again.

~ ~ ~

After a couple of hours of just constantly killing dozens of white rats and fire sprites, they finally decided that the coast was clear. They were incredibly tired but finding all those potions hidden under the riverbed helped them maintain their health and strength.

“I’ve got to admit, the slashing and hacking part is insanely fun, but also incredibly tiring.” Haya croaked out while drinking down big gulps of water from his bottle. Kedrick drank from his water bottle as well and decided to sit against one of the oak trees.

“Screw this, going at it for hours is hella tiring. Forget about going to the gym, killing all these rats is an amazing way to get those gains.” The gentle giant said as he wiped the sweat and blood of his face using the back of his hand.

Suddenly, two white critters appeared behind them. Thaleos immediately reacted by pulling out two daggers and stabbing them straight into their mana centers — rendering the two white rats dead.

After the nasty critters dropped dead, a blue pop up suddenly appeared before Thaleos. On the middle of the screen was an androgynous elf’s face, its delicate features and oozing pheromones left the three men in a slight daze.

“Congratulations, you are the first person to reach the high tier point for level 1! I am Ur, the deities’ main messenger. Your stamina and health have now increased by 50 points. Do you wish to remain as a Beast Tamer, or do you wish to select another profession?” Ur prompted in a soft and low voice.

“Can we know what these other occupations are?” Thaleos questioned the delicate looking elf.

Thaleos took the chance to ask all his questions, since he knew that he’d probably never get this chance. James mostly mentioned all these things, but not on the same level of detail as the deities’ announcements.

As Ur blinked slowly in agreement, Ur’s long lashes slightly kissed the bottom of his lashes.

“We have five categories with four professions under each category. The five categories are Warrior, Assassin, Archer, Mage, and Summoner. Your current occupation is categorized as one of the options under Summoner.” Ur said as he showed them the different occupations.

“What does a Beast Tamer specifically do?” Thaleos queried as he scratched his beard in deep thought.

“Well, as a Summoner, your Beast Tamer occupation allows you to train domesticated beasts to become warrior familiars.” Ur explained while waving his hands, as if drawing a tiger with awkward but sincere movements.

“Can I give my decision after my last question?” He wondered; Ur responded by gently nodding his head.

“Alright, can you explain what the player stat system is?” The stubbled man prodded, to which the elf responded with,

“Every profession has two types of skills. The first one is the General Skill Tree, and the second one is the Professional Skill Tree. Under the General Skill Tree, your stats are as follows,” Then Ur started listing out the words slowly,

“Health, Stamina, Skin, Resistance, Attack, Strength, Agility, Will, Induction, and Energy. All of these ten specific stat bars are dedicated to your physical fitness.” Haya profusely wrote everything down on his notes, even going as far as writing everything in verbatim.

“For the Professional Skill Tree, this differs for each profession. This skill tree specifically focuses on unique attributes. You can—” Ur was suddenly cut off as another face appeared on the screen.