I caught the eye of an important person. This might be a golden opportunity. I need to play my cards right.

  "Where is he?" I asked, ready to go meet this mysterious figure.

  "Not now, if that's alright with you," Frederick said. "He wants to meet you after dark, behind the stables."

  It was sketchy at best, but I had no reason not to trust an official from the village. The worst thing to happen would be me dying, and that, contrary to the real world, was not the end of the line.

  I checked the system time. I have been roughly playing for six hours now. I still had six hours before "cooldown period" would become a problem, and there was still about two hours before sunset.

  "I will be there," I nodded. Frederick nodded back, patted his chainmail and started patrolling the festive grounds.

  I was contemplating what to do next.

  I was level 7, soon level 8, so it would have been good to find stronger monsters to fight. I checked the association's billboard but there were no new quests just yet.

  According to the map, just south of Carpa there was a lake laying at the base of a singular mountain. I looked around and sure enough, the tallest mountain in the vicinity was south of where I was at, and it wasn't too far either.

  The lake was called Dusken Lake, and the lonely mountain was Dusk Peak. It wasn't too high, as most of the actual mountains were located at the northern and western parts of the kingdom, so maybe I could fully discover its secrets in the couple hours that I had.

  The Spring Festival buzzed behind me as I made my way south, the cheerful sounds of laughter and music fading into the distance. With hours to spare before meeting Castiel, I decided it was time to get serious about leveling up.

  After all, although the festival did gain me quite good equipment and other kinds of rewards, at this point I was sure I was getting behind the expert players. I didn't mind having a bit of a level disadvantage, especially if it meant building up my relations with the locals and bettering my equipment, but I didn't want to be caught slacking either.

  Soon enough, the Southern Hills stretched out before me, their greenery dotted with rocks and trees. In the distance, the foothills rose into the base of Dusk Peak, and sunlight reflected off Dusken Lake at its base.

  It was a serene scene, but I decided to be careful nonetheless. Serenity could always mean a feeling of false safety.

  The first creature I encountered was a Lakeside Boar, a bulky animal with coarse fur and tusks that glinted faintly in the sunlight.Not exactly challenging, but good enough for a warm-up.

  I nocked an arrow, pulling the string back smoothly as I aimed for the boar's side. The tension of the bow felt natural now, even at this early stage. I loosed the arrow, and it struck true, embedding itself just behind the creature's shoulder.

  The boar squealed in pain and charged, its hooves kicking up clumps of dirt. I sidestepped its wild lunge, quickly drawing another arrow and firing. A second shot to the chest slowed it, and a final shot to the head finished the job.

  The boar collapsed with a heavy thud, leaving behind its carcass.

  I was incomparably stronger than before, felling a level 6 creature with 3 basic attacks. I started processing it, but to my surprise the process failed almost instantly.

  Maybe it's too hard to skin level 6 animals with level 3 skinning?, I thought. The boar gave 100 experience points, so I only needed to hunt 22 more of them to level up.

  The scenery was getting more and more picturesque as the sun was gradually setting. As I was fighting the level 6 lakeside boars and level 7 duskhounds, I was barely feeling the passing of time as I was looking around me in awe.

  About half an hour later I reached level 8. By putting my new attribute points to strength, my attack power rose above 100.

  Out of the 20 animals I've hunted, I could only skin one of the boars and one of the duskhounds, and both of their hide came out rough. These two successful processes however increased my skill level to 4, so I hoped I would have an easier time in the future.

  As I continued to decimate the wildlife of Dusk Peak and its vicinity, I was getting closer and closer to the lake. I needed to kill around 60 of the boars or hounds to level up to level 9, and according to my calculations that should take a bit more than an hour.

  The air around Dusken Lake was cool, the kind that hinted at a chill creeping in once the sun dipped behind the mountains. It was still early spring after all.

  The water mirrored the foliage of the surrounding forest, and the faint sounds of growling and splashing added quite the ambience.

  It was a wild, untamed place, perfect for leveling up.

  I adjusted the grip on my bow, my eyes scanning the area around the lake for movement. At Level 8, I was already way stronger than the creatures here, mostly thanks to my inflated stats and splendid equipment, but they still gave good enough experience.

  I was killing boars and hounds without hesitation, mostly using my basic attacks to preserve my mana in case anything stronger showed up. After a while I reached a clump of trees and bushes on the coast of the lake.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  From the edge of the trees, low growls echoed, and I turned to see a trio of Duskwolves stalking out of the shadows. Sleek and predatory, their glowing yellow eyes locked onto me with unsettling intelligence. The two wolves on the sides were level 9, and the one in the middle was almost twice as big as them.

  An elite monster! This could be dangerous.

  So far I had only encountered the Lakeside Boars and the Duskhounds, which were ordinary mobs lower leveled than me. This pack however had both the level advantage, and the fact that there was an elite among them going for them. Not to mention, these wolves looked much more intelligent than the simple ones in Fang Forest.

  Alright, let's do this, I muttered, raising my bow.

  The wolves wasted no time. The smaller two darted toward me while the leader circled wide, its movements calculated. I drew back the string, activating Piercing Shot, hitting both of the small ones at once.

  The arrow struck true, slowing their advance as they limped forward. A quick follow-up Flaming Arrow also hit both of them and the DoT finished them off. I was pleasantly surprised that just by using my two skills I could finish off level 9 mobs, but I knew I couldn't spam them mindlessly, as my mana was still lacking.

  The pack leader growled, clearly unimpressed by its fallen packmates. It charged, faster than the others, and I barely had time to dodge as its claws raked across my side, taking a chunk out of my health bar.

  As if that wasn't enough, the alpha's eyes started to glow red as it jumped in the air. If not for Quick Step, it would have landed on me and could have likely caused a lot of trouble.

  I started to generate a bit of distance while checking my health bar. One attack from the wolf took around 20% of my health despite the equipment I was wearing.

  I stood my ground, activating Flaming Arrow again. The glowing arrow embedded itself in the hound's side, flames erupting and dealing steady damage. But the beast kept coming, snapping at me with ferocious speed.

  Come on, come on, I thought, backpedaling as I fired a Piercing Shot. The arrow punched through its chest, and the beast yelped, finally staggering from my attack. I didn't hesitate as I started shooting arrow after arrow at my maximum speed.

  The elite's defense and health pool was nothing to scoff at. Despite hitting it with two skills and a couple basic attacks, it still had around 50% of its health left. I chugged down a health potion before having to retreat once again.

  I took every opportunity I could to shoot at the monster, waiting for my skills to come off cooldown. Dodging the wolf's attacks took all of my concentration, and even then I couldn't get out unscathed. My armor's passive ability triggered twice, dealing a bit of damage, but I knew I had to land both of my skills to finish the pack leader off.

  As soon as I could, I fired a Flaming Arrow, but it looked like the monster was ready for it, as it used its jump ability once again, dodging effortlessly. Thankfully since it used the jump for dodging, it meant I didn't have to worry about that skill for a while.

  I used Piercing Shot to send an arrow right into its skull, which staggered the wolf once again. I used this time to drink another health potion and then I kept shooting and increasing the distance between us.

  When the monster had about 10% health left, it let out a bone-chilling howl. At first I was worried that the other wolves in the vicinity will come help their master, but no other movement was to be seen.

  However after the howl, the alpha became even faster and stronger, and at this point I wasn't able to keep up with it completely. I had to stop shooting to retreat full speed, but the distance was slowly decreasing.

  When it reached me, I had no choice but to trade blows with it. Its claws hurt more than before, and I could only land two shots. In turn, I had to suffer both of its attacks, which brought my health down to 20%.

  When I looked at the wolf's health bar, my hope started to dwindle for a second, but I quickly pulled myself together. It looked like the Howl gave it a lifesteal effect, as it was now back to about 15%. Just about as much as a critical Flaming Arrow could deal.

  A plan started to outline in my mind. I suddenly stopped, focusing on dodging instead of retreating, and I waited. If I didn't shoot or turn my back to it, I could still dodge all of its attacks if I was careful.

  It tried to hit me for about five seconds and then its eyes started to glow red once again. It jumped right at me, and right at that moment I used both Quick Step and Flaming Arrow simultaneously. It was a pretty hard maneuver, but I pulled it off perfectly.

  I sidestepped from where the wolf landed and turned in its direction just as Flaming Arrow set off, hitting the alpha in its skull from point blank range. The critical hit immediately finished off the elite. It gave me a whopping 1000 experience points.

  As I was standing next to its carcass, I realized I was insanely tense from the battle. I relaxed my body and sat on the ground. None of my other fights were even remotely as intense as this was before, and I couldn't remember the last time I felt this way after a fight in Valhalla either.

  After I caught my breath and downed another health potion I slowly backtracked my way to the other two wolf bodies. To my surprise I managed to process both of them, despite my low skinning level.

  I only succeeded 1 out of 3 times with the Lakeside Boars and 1 out of 4 times with the Duskhounds, so this was either incredible luck, or these wolves were just easier to process. My Skinning&Processing skill increased to 5.

  I went back to the body of the Duskwolf Alpha, and carefully started the skinning process. I was focusing so hard I didn't even realize I started to sweat. After a terrifyingly long time, I heard the system announcement of a successful attempt. I checked my inventory.

  A perfect hide from an elite monster! I wonder what I could make from this!

  I couldn't believe how lucky I was with this. My exp bar was at half, but I was tempted to go back to the village and try my luck with my new materials.

  I decided I still wanted to grind to level 9, but as I was setting off to find more mobs, I noticed a small, round object that reflected the light in the tall grass. I picked it up and my face lit up. I couldn't believe my eyes.