Chương 10: Chapter 10

Harry woke with the rising of the sun (at exactly five-thirty in the morning like every morning prior – having long since changed over to the in-game clock rather than remain on London Time due to the awkwardness of the time difference since the game day/night cycle coincided with the game's clock) and stretched out his sleep cramped muscles as he listened to the surrounding area for any threats. He then set about dismantling his traps and unraveling his hammock so he could return to his pit trap in order to spend another day leveling up and gathering Items to sell back in the market,

So far he'd acquired boar tusks, boar meat, boar hide, wolf hide, and wolf teeth in addition to a bronze dagger, two leather helmets, and five decorative feathers. The tusks, hides, teeth, and feathers were all materials that were required to make new clothes and armor while the tusks and teeth could also be used to create weapons. The meat, of course, was intended to be 'eaten'. The quality and rarity of each Item would play a huge part on the value assigned to each Item in addition to affecting the final rating of any clothing, armor, or weapon created from the Item(s).

On the way back to his secluded section of the field, he stumbled across a nest of Vicious Vipers and spent a half an hour fighting against the six venomous Monsters. Grumbling over how much of a nuisance the legless Monsters were, Harry barely bothered to read through the Experience Windows from all six creatures before he continued on his way. Upon reaching his pit trap, the nine year old discovered that he'd caught another pair of wolves during the night and the two Monsters had half ruined the bottom of the trap in their efforts to escape (though they'd obviously failed seeing as how they were still there).

The wolves proved a bit more difficult to snare and remove from the trap than the Frenzy Boars from the previous day and by the time he'd dealt with both creatures, Harry was in a foul mood. The only good thing was that he received double the amount of Trapping Skill Points for successfully holding the wolves in a trap for five hours and he had reached level four. That meant he now only needed another one hundred and twenty Skill Points in order to unlock the lethal pit trap (he had unlocked the hangman's snare during the night; bringing his current trap arsenal up to three).

Sighing, Harry spent an hour repairing his pit trap (enlarging it and making it deeper so that it could hold a higher number of Monsters and would do more damage when they dropped). He then scampered off to track down his next group of prey.

The rest of the day was spent tracking and killing Monsters. He faced at least a dozen Frenzy Boars, another two nests of Vicious Vipers, a pack of Ravenous Wolves he'd disturbed while luring a larger than normal boar towards his trap, and at least six Plains Vultures that had been attracted by his activities of the past two days. He had gained both the spike trap (the lethal pit trap) and the net trap (to catch airborne prey) and his trap efficiency had improved dramatically as he once again reached the five hundred mark in Skill Points for the Trapping Skill.

His Tracking, Searching, Scouting, and Navigation Skills had steadily improved throughout the day as well, as did his Sprint, Escape, and Camping Skills. He still needed to work on his Acrobatics, Detection, Fishing, Hiding, and Research Skills though; since those five had gained the fewest number of Skill Points over the past two days (Research only possible to master by Listening to the gossip and rumors spread by other Players and NPCs within the game or reading through Rare or Archaic Tombs found in hidden Treasure Chests and collected from obscure Quests).

A quick check of his Inventory told him that he was going to have to cut his camping trip short a couple of days as he didn't really have much room left in his Inventory and the last thing he wanted to do was waste any Items. So, Harry dismantled the last of his traps (filling in the pit he'd dug and unraveling his snares) and Sprinted back to the city while there was still plenty of daylight left. He arrived in Hajimari no Machi with the setting of the sun and he headed directly to the inn that he'd stayed at during his first week in the game.

He purchased a hot meal and booked a room for the night within minutes of entering the bustling pub that was part of the inn. He took his time to enjoy his first hot meal in two days (he had only packed bread for his camping trip since he had no in-game Cooking Skills). As he ate, he listened to the conversations of the other Players and was disturbed to learn that another hundred people had died during the two days he'd been gone. He nearly cringed when he learned that two Beta Testers had been driven out of town by angry mobs and actually scowled when he heard that the Aincrad Liberation Force (ALF) was forcefully drafting any Solo Players and small Guild Members that reached level five into their Guild (for their protection, of course).

Thankfully, he was still at level four (just barely) and he fully intended to head towards the next town before he could be forced to join the Guild. Or, at least, that was what he planned to do just as soon as he sold his surplus Items and stocked up on food and supplies. There was a chance that there would be members of the ALF drafting the more active Solo Players in the next town too but because the largest concentration of Players could still be found around Hajimari no Machi, he seriously doubted there would be as many recruiters in the other villages as there were in Hajimari no Machi.

At least, not at this point in the game; once more time had passed and the Players began to spread out more, the reach of the ALF would also spread.

Pushing the matter out of his mind (since he was confident that he could avoid the members of ALF long enough to sneak out of the city), Harry finished his stew before he head up to his room to take a bath and get some rest. After a long soak in the tub, the young gamer reveling in the simulated sensation of floating in a tub of hot water, Harry changed into a set of pajamas and checked the locks on both the door and the windows before he crawled into bed. After two days spent working his Avatar to the bone (figuratively speaking), Harry was asleep before his head touched the pillow.

The nine year old was once again up with the sun the next morning but unlike most mornings, he didn't immediately jump out of bed to start the day. Prior to getting himself trapped in the online gaming world that he considered his true home, Harry had never had the chance to enjoy the simple pleasures in life; such as lying abed in the morning, eating his fill, or playing around all day long just doing what he wanted to do. It was such a novel experience that he tended to take the time to enjoy his new found freedom to the fullest every chance he got; even after being trapped inside the game for twelve days.