He felt the tingle go through his body once more. He could feel his fingers again. It took great mental effort, but he actually made his index finger wiggle. This was amazing!

“While we’re waiting, let’s see what we can get from the rabbit.” Scarlet pointed at the corpse lying nearby.

Scott squatted down and Scarlet pointed out a few things about looting corpses. “This rabbit has fur, bones, meat, fangs, and a horn that can be harvested. You probably won’t be able to collect much but the meat and the horn this time. We don’t have a skinning knife.”

“We should get one for next time I guess?”

“It would be a good idea. Today was just about you meeting your first monster in combat and seeing what it’s like.”

“Yeah, I saw exactly what it’s like. No wonder you wanted me to gain a few levels first!”

Scarlet grinned at him. He had actually done pretty well for his first time. The rabbit was at least five levels higher than he was. Plus it had its racial modifiers. “You should work on your physical skills more. Agility, vitality, and durability will help you out. All people who fight directly need those attributes to be high, but it is especially necessary for unarmed fighters. Fighting appropriately leveled monsters will improve those stats the most for you right now.”

“Just like the stats from doing other jobs, right? I should probably hunt the critters around here until I don’t gain any stats from it.”

“That’s slow but effective. Most humans just rely on gaining levels then find out later that monsters are often a lot stronger than their natural level would allow for because they gain stats instead of experience points when not dealing with humans.”

“I see. Since monsters only gain experience by killing humans, mating with them, or fighting alongside them, they end up raising their stats more compared to what their level claims.”

“Right, and our natural racial modifiers make things even more difficult for humans. You developed your stamina and vitality by doing work. That sort of work did not increase your stats much because of the difference in effort versus your ability. Fighting monsters is the same way. The easier it becomes to fight that monster, the slower it raises your stats.”

“I suspected something like that. That’s why I was happy to increase my stats while working and training. It makes sense when you think about it. I gain ten points to use for my attributes when I increase my level. If I spend them on a specific attribute it will increase, but it will be a little harder to increase it by training after that.”

“Exactly. You might only gain a handful of attribute points while fighting rabbits and the other monsters around here, but if you wait to use your points from leveling until after the monsters in the area no longer help you gain attributes, you’ll be much stronger.”

“It would be like being several levels higher than my level claims, right?”

“Right! I honestly don’t know why most humans don’t train that way.”

Scott shook his head. That didn’t make sense to him either. Even if he only gained one extra point per level in every attribute, by the time he was level twenty all of his attributes would be twenty points higher. That would be roughly equivalent to an extra eight levels. It was worth a try, and seemed quite doable.

“You know, what I really need is some actual combat training. I was a soldier for a few years back home, but we didn’t train for this kind of fighting.”

“Really? That could still be useful! What kind of weapons did you use?”

He shrugged. “Rifles mostly.”

“Ah, you used guns. They are useful for low level monsters but they become really expensive to upgrade and maintain for higher levels. Even then they are best for soft-bodied monsters and useless against some others even at lower level.”

“I see, so this world really does have guns too?” He was a little excited by the prospect but her dismissal of firearms was disconcerting. They seemed like a specialty item. During the tutorial he had found a .38 pistol but he had not used it. Now he didn’t even have access to it. He had lost all of his items from that time when he had returned to this world.

“Yes, and they could be useful If you heavily specialize in them. The problem is that they can’t really be used with higher level enchantments.”

“Why not?”

Scarlet eyed the rabbit corpse hungrily for a moment then her stomach rumbled. She blushed at Scott then grinned. “Uh, oh guns? Well, it’s extremely costly to enchant ammunition individually.”

“So, why not just enchant the gun itself?”

She shook her head. “Enchantments have a field of effect. Once beyond the effect range the magic stops.”

“Ah, I see. So maybe indirect effects like an increase in accuracy or increased bullet velocity when firing, but once the bullet is fired it’s on its own?”

“Yes. That sounds possible. Powerfully enchanted guns can be very useful weapons, but they are hideously expensive and tend to be less useful in the long run compared to other weapons.”

“Is the same true for bows?”

She thought about it for a moment then shook her head. “It’s a little easier and slightly less expensive to enchant arrows compared to bullets. Bows are more popular at higher levels, too. However, arrows are just like bullets when enchanted. Fire an enchanted bullet or arrow and lose it forever, every time. ”

Scott took her words and carefully considered them. After a moment, he asked, “So, there are no bows or guns that fire energy projectiles?”

“Energy projectiles?”

“Yeah, you know, like a bow that fires bolts of lightning instead of an arrow, or a gun that shoots beams of light?”

“Oh! You mean artifact weapons! Yes, those exist but they are rare to find in stores. Few people can make them and they tend to be discovered in ancient ruins more often than they are found up for sale.”

“If I wanted to use guns or bows I’d probably need to find an artifact weapon to be able to fight with them at high levels?”

“I’d say so. Normal bows have the same issues as guns. Once the arrow or bullet has left the effective spell range of the weapon it can’t add the enchantment to the arrow anymore. This isn’t a problem for something like a sword. If you’re in range of being hit by a sword, then you’re within the spell range.”

“I see. So melee weapons are more popular, then?”

“Yes, but professional militaries still use a lot of gunners and archers. Even without enchantments they can be highly effective when multiple gunners or archers fire on the same enemy.”

Scott filed that tidbit of information away for later. He squatted down and touched the rabbit’s corpse. This was his first time really putting his hands on such a creature. The overly large rodent could feed a single family for weeks!

After running his working hand over the fur for a few seconds a menu screen popped up.

Would you like to loot the corpse of deceased Horned Rabbit?

Yes | No

“Weird.”

“What’s weird master?”

“I’m being asked if I want to loot the corpse.”

“Why is that weird? When you kill an enemy you should always loot their corpse unless you have specialty skills to work on.”

“Seriously?” Scott clicked ‘yes’ then pulled his head back when a bright light flared from the body of the rabbit. It disappeared instantly. In its place were several coins, a horn, and a small square section of meat. The various bits of loot were neatly arranged on a piece of skin roughly the size of his chest.

“What the hell.” He could not believe what had just happened. The hundred pound beast had disappeared only to be replaced by a handful of things.

“Not bad. I’m not sure what all of that is worth in town, but there was a silver coin among the loose change.”

“Silver coin! We had to pull weeds for half a day to get that much money.” Scott stared at the coin like it was some sort of eldritch abomination.

“Ha ha, Mama’s gonna eat tonight!” Scarlet started to dance around like a happy idiot. Scott grinned at her antics. She was a certain kind of special, no matter how you looked at it.

Scott thought about the situation for a moment then asked. “Why would a rabbit need money?”

“Horn polishing?” Scarlet looked at Scott then grinned like an idiot. He could not help but laugh at the stupidity of her answer. It helped the mood a lot.

The dragon girl raised one finger into the air. “Loot does not really have to make sense. It’s a reward for defeating an opponent.”

“I suppose, but what if I had preferred to just butcher the rabbit to have more meat?”

She shook her head. “Don’t loot the corpse if you want to use specialty skills. Looting simplifies the process.”

Scott looked down at the neatly packaged stuff sitting on the rabbit fur. He had to admit that looting was convenient, even if he had lost a lot of potential meat that he could have sold. “Maybe.”

“You know, this is ridiculous.” He scooped up the coins and sighed.

“How so?”

He looked at Scarlet. “One horned rabbit paid almost as much as a half day’s work pulling weeds.”

She laughed at his sour expression. “Yes, hunting is much more lucrative than simple jobs like that. Quests can provide a lot of experience and coin, though. Once we’ve developed your skills enough for taking on monster hunting quests, we can really earn some money.”

“That sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Hopefully, I’ll be strong enough not to die horribly when that day comes.”

“I believe you will, master. You’re already healing nicely from your fight earlier.”

Scott felt the electric tingle run through his body again. His fingers moved a little more easily now. This really was a strange and interesting world. He started to believe that he really could survive, even thrive, here. He wanted to become strong and see more of this wonderful place.

The lack of pain in his extremities was bizarre, but useful. After discussing it with Scarlet, he learned that when regeneration kicked in, all pain would be numbed. His had kicked in when the rabbit was taken beyond his reach for a few seconds. He had effectively ended his part of that battle then entered a new fight when he killed the rabbit. Between those two actions his regeneration had kicked in full-swing. The new fight had not lasted long enough to end his regeneration effect, so the pain had not returned.