Carl knew what he had to do now.

He focused all his righteous anger on the alpha and charged right at it, getting ready to better control the impact. All he really needed to be mindful of was his own throat, everything else could be solved by Arrest Bleeding until the healing came.

The alpha dropped without suspense, falling for the same trick again.

Then, a few other lupines ganged up on the lone vanguard, biting and savagely jerking any limb they could get a hold of, while he fought them off frantically until support arrived.

After all, it was by no means easy on him – each common black wolf was as strong as him, and much, much more agile. But he had a lot going for him as well – for one, his smarts of a human being, and an expert gamer at that; two – the magnificent Damascus blades empowered by well chosen skills, which were further enhanced by his maxed out mental constitution; three – his unyielding spirit, which thrived in adversity; and four – an excellent team helping him and ensuring his survival.

It went really smoothly. The pack this time was significantly smaller, and Carl's attack more vicious than before. His new friends also didn't want to fall behind, and emboldened by his presence, they jumped into the fray as well – first Fleeting Time, then Looming Oak right after, seeing that there was no immediate danger to the girls.

Within seconds, the remaining wolves dispersed, and then fled with tucked tails, chased by a bloodthirsty monster with metal claws.

All things considered, this was merely a tutorial area, meant for acclimatization. The difficulty level was greatly reduced here, otherwise the players would stand little chance and could only move freely in very large gatherings. Because, objectively speaking, how could a regular party of 5 or 6 contend with dozens of feral animals, all of them as physically strong as themselves or even stronger?

If the black wolves forsook all heed, they would easily overrun Carl and his companions. But instead, they behaved just like in nature, allowing themselves to be dominated by mob mentality. As soon as the group felt vulnerability creeping up their ranks, they would cower and act out on survival instinct, like in real life, where it only took one hunter with a gun to chase away a whole pack. They were simply incapable of judging their options with the meager intelligence they had, and even if they could, they were still prone to fear. And the black wolves were already plenty brave and aggressive in comparison.

“Alright, brother Carl, you should do the looting,” Fleeting Time announced. Unlike their previous exuberant selves, the family of four wore solemn expressions, as if they were reluctant to take the first step.

“Are you sure, Uncle Time? You had a good harvest before, so you're probably right about the loot averaging out for the team, and your skills are still better than mine.”

“Let's just see how it goes, test my theory properly. What better chance can we get?” the cleric smiled. All the organizations, gaming workshops, and preexisting guilds were frantically conducting research, but did they have any players who dared fight on maximum realism settings at this stage?

Understanding, that the sooner he trained his own skinning skill to beyond theirs, the better their overall profit would be in the long run, Carl didn't hesitate. He slowly and carefully repeated his first successful attempt on all 7 kills – 4 that he got initially, one that he helped Fleeting Time finishing off with, one that Looming Oak tackled and immobilized, and one albino taken down by Lissome Shot.

The despondent elven archer, who until now was the main damage dealer of the group, was so nonplussed by her newfound insignificance, that she just watched silently as Carl retrieved one pelt after another and handed them to Looming Oak for storage. In the end, Carl added 4 black pelts to their prize, including the alpha.

“Not bad!” Carl smiled with his bloodied hands on his hips, finally done with the work.

“Mhm. More than 50% as a novice, despite the extensive damage you did to them with your attacks, while we were getting 20% with beginner rank. That's really good.”

“I'm a beginner, too.” Carl grinned. “Well, only now, after skinning the alpha, so that result was indeed achieved at the entry level,” he corrected merrily, briefing about his skill progress.

“Oh … yes, that's reasonable. Entry level is just an introductory rank, and the skill gain is very fast to boot,” Fleeting Time concluded. “Still, this success rate is exceedingly high. I'm suspecting it has to do with the low difficulty setting of the instanced dungeons. On your own, you might achieve 100% success rate at advanced rank, maybe even at intermediate, while in the open world there will also likely be the factor of quality introduced into the mix, where each success differs in value,” he speculated.

“Yes, I was thinking the same thing. We'll see about that. And now, onward! While my leather armor is still in one piece!” Carl laughed childishly, very pleased with how things turned out.

Although disconcerted slightly by the gaping disparity between themselves and Carl, the three youngsters recognized the golden opportunity they were given, and avidly made the most of it.

Within an hour they took down 4 more packs, and their storage bags were bursting, as Carl got 18 pelts out of 31 attempts, including an albino and 2 alphas. He also got much faster at skinning, seeing that it didn't affect his success rate any more.

Carl was rampaging like a fox in a hen house, jumping greedily on another prey before he even smothered the one at hand. He was covered entirely in sticky blood, some of his own, but mostly lupine, constantly smelling its unpleasant odor. His armor and apparel were in tatters, and he was covered in many scars, which were gradually getting to him, especially the one on his neck, as a side effect resulting in his max health dropping to 94.

Most importantly, he was getting very tired, to his great dismay. His real body just couldn't keep up with the intense sensations. He only hoped he could improve upon it with some training and accommodation.

Above all, however, he was happy. He felt so alive, that all discomfort in the game and out of it was meaningless. He wished he could remain in Immortal Frontier forever, away from the bleak reality. Here – he was mighty!

“3 gold and 99 silver, right?” Carl grinned like a little kid.

“A big haul, indeed.” Fleeting Time smiled. “Let's wrap it up. It's 5 o'clock already, and I can see you could use some rest.” He patted Carl affectionately. “Your armor is also falling apart. You will have to buy a whole new set after this, as it's not worth repairing any more. And I'm afraid the stores in the city are nowhere near as generous as the system. You might have to pay two or three times more this time.”

“Ouch.”

There was no going around that. Like in every other RCE, making a profit depended on managing income and expenses. Either figure out some high margins and slowly exploit them, or go for low margins and work yourself to the bone generating a large turnaround.

Fleeting Time went for the first option with his grandchildren – the two men held the wolves at bay, while Lissome Shot slayed them losing arrows in the process, as some broke, while others were carried away. They had a guaranteed margin with such tiny costs, but they also didn't get many kills that way.

What Carl was doing, on the other hand, was a serious operation, and his expenses were going to reflect that. After all, there wasn't just the equipment to repair, but also his body – and the system already said that temple services weren't cheap.

But one thing was obvious to everyone – this was an investment. In time, Carl would rapidly get better, improve his gear, and their net income would skyrocket.

All of Carl's skills were already at the beginner level. While Arrest Bleeding improved greatly to stopping 2 milliliters of blood loss per second for 1 point of mana, all three combat skills now facilitated 2.5 times momentum boost. Carl also figured out, that these numbers were merely the best possible outcome, and in practice they would be lower, depending on how well he executed the skills. In particular, poor concentration or being attacked and yanked while performing them would diminish their efficiency.

“I have to admit, Brother Carl, I'm surprised your avatar hasn't fainted yet. People are complaining left and right about the threshold being too harsh, and that it's unrealistic, since adventurers shouldn't be such wimps. But you've surely suffered way more than they did, and you're still standing strong …” Lissome Shot remarked with curiosity, prompting Fleeting Time to smile knowingly.

“That's because he has chosen pain resistance perks. Let me guess, Pain Aficionado? Or no, wait–”

“Pain Fanatic.”

“Of course, I should have know better.” The old man belittled himself with a laugh. “With you it's all or nothing, after all, brother Carl.”

“Wait, I only chose Pain Enthusiast for 4 points. Just how much did it cost you to purchase all three?” the startled girl inquired.

“4, 8 and 16, that's 28,” Fleeting Time answered for Carl, to which Lissome Shot gaped, and Looming Oak shook his head.

How extravagant!

“You do know you could have attained the other two for free with pain exposure, right?” the robust man asked.

“Oh, you reminded me of something,” Carl suddenly revealed.

“System, show me Pain Freak progress tree.”

[Pain Freak] (passive, requirements: 25 willpower, exposure to pain 10 374/1 000 000)

“Mhm, it's not so bad. I have already acquired over 10 thousand points of progress towards Pain Freak. Shouldn't take too long.”

This revelation, however, caused the air to chill. Carl looked around at the morose faces. “What's wrong?”

“We need a quarter million points for Pain Aficionado …” Looming Oak admitted glumly.

“And half a million for Pain Fanatic …” Fleeting Time added.

And that would only be after they turned up their realism settings! Just how much would they have to endure to reach Pain Freak one day? Although they had chosen many useful proficiencies instead, they now realized, that they might just need to redo the selection when the full version opens.

“By the way, the polish of this game is truly insane,” Carl praised, oblivious to their plight. “At first it was hard gauging the damage I do without pop-ups and health bars, but everything resembles reality so well, that I can now instinctively judge the remaining health of the mobs.”

“That's because you play on full realism, brother Carl,” Fleeting Time informed. “We can see both damage numbers popping up and the remaining health with the system's aid. But from what I hear, there's many spells that integrate magical interfaces into player vision, so there might be something for you there. They're not free, nor as transparent and clear-cut like the system HUD, depending heavily on the player's skillful interpretation, but they grant a variety of extremely useful insights.”

“Oh, that's good to hear. I'll look into that later, thanks. And one more thing, before we go back – I've noticed, that we were running around that deeply forested area while moving away from the portal. Is it because of restricted vision? What's out there?”

“Yes, lack of vision and forewarning is the main reason we only skim the peripheries,” the cleric confirmed. “Another one is – that's where the actual dens themselves are. There's also a much higher chance of encountering large packs led by prowlers there. They seem to have some mental buffing effect on their kin, and if you don't take them down quick, you will be overrun, and you've seen how strong and aggressive those beasts are. Even worse, the prowlers can have multiple alphas under their command.”

“Yeah, no point risking it. If I had a mana potion I wouldn't worry, but as it is, it might be too much. Another time,” Carl conceded.

“Heh, I'm not so sure a single mana potion would make a difference, brother Carl.” Fleeting Time voiced his doubts.

“I don't know. I have 200 mana and 4 mana regeneration per second. With an inferior potion, I would have 14 per second, giving me additional 280 mana in 20 seconds. That's 480 in total, enough for 24 attacks. Let's say 20, including Arrest Bleeding. Wouldn't they scatter by that time?”

“Whoa, wait a minute. 4 mana per second? How? And I'm sorry, but the inferior potion only grants 5 mana per second for 20 seconds,” the cleric corrected.

“Normally, yes, but I have Mana Conduit, which boosts my regeneration by 100%.” Carl smiled.

Fleeting Time burst out with laughter, lifting the mood a bit. “Another luxurious perk, I should have thought of that.”

“I have an extra mana potion I could give you, brother Carl, it's not bound to me.” The ever so silent Merciful Breeze stepped forward shyly.

“And it's not even a detour, as we have to run back to the portal in an arch anyway, so we might as well go through the thicket.” Lissome Shot seconded.

The old man gaped at his granddaughters, stunned.

“You girls …”

He then looked at Looming Oak, who in turn glanced at the big-eyed Lissome Shot.

“I don't see why not.” He shrugged.

“Oh well,” Fleeting Time sighed. “You only live once, right? We'll have to depend on you for protection, brother Carl.”

Carl raised his brows at the unexpected development, then fell into deep thought, perplexing the team with his unusual lack of initiative. They only saw him go through some intimately personal motions, as evidenced by his grievous expression.

“Like I said. I will give it my all!”