She picked herself up.

{HP: 274/300}

Reaching for her forehead, she noticed her brows and eyelashes gone.

Numerous burns were present, and her shirt was in a bit of a horrible state.

‘Oh, shit! That was awesome! I can blow stuff up now!’ She laughed out loud, and decided to figure out blowing up anything besides herself later.

Ding!

[Flame manipulation] reaches LV. 5

She reached for fire again, but stopped herself right before doing something stupid again.

The burns stung.

‘Wait. My scorch marks and shirt. Let’s take care of those first.’

The hp regenerated, but much slower than usual.

It was pretty obvious, when she thought about it. All sliced or ripped tissue needs, is getting connected again.

Dead cells have to be rebuilt from the ground up, and that takes time.

Just like sewing two pieces of fabric together is easier than weaving the entire thing from scratch.

That being said, she could do something about it.

She could already feel mana within her body, and outside of it too, a little bit.

She pushed it into wounds, and simultaneously saw her MP and HP change places.

MP: 150/150 > 144/ 150}

HP: 276/300 > 282/300}

Oh, cool. So 1 MP = 1 HP.

Ding!

[Self Regeneration] reaches LV. 3

She pushed more mana in. Mana – Health transmutation went a bit faster this time.

Her HP topped off, she waited for her MP to refill as well.

That was good. Effectively, her regeneration could be like a sum of MP and HP regens together, and that’s just with using excess mana, and without ever going below her max.

When she looked at her clothes, they were no longer tattered.

‘Hmm. I don’t remember fixing those. Was it excess mana that went and did it?’

But she wouldn’t complain about having neat attire.

Irena started to get bored. The greatest method of killing boredom is, of course, sleep.

She made sure no fire will spread, and leaned on a nearby rock.

When she finally began to drift off to sleep, she heard rustling.

Shovel already in hand, she used [identify].

[Hogzilla LV. ??]

Just as she rolled to her feet, a boar walked into the clearing. It reached somewhere above her knee.

‘The rest of that sheep meat won’t last long. I might want to do something about my supplies.’

The pig raised its tail, and rushed her way. It might have been faking that charge, as it tried to stop the moment it saw Irena not running away, but it was too late.

The shovel brought justice, hunger, and desire for pork.

The pig blood colored nearby moss, but the Hogzilla didn’t want to give up on living, as it turned its tail and ran.

Irena looked at the meat of [Battering Ram]

‘That one is stinky anyway.’

She thrown some wet dirt into the fire, and chased after the fleeing animal.

It may have been dark, but with [Hunter’s perception], following its blood trail was as easy as if Irena was a dog.

Ding!

[Hunter’s perception] Reaches level 5.

‘Hmm? Is this thing leveling faster?’

Ding!

{[Giant Longhunter] reaches level 2. Stat points awarded.}

‘Oh, can I get stronger now?’

Irena looked at the blood trail.

‘Nah, let’s look into it after that pig turns into bacon.’

She picked up her pace.

Ding!

[Hunter’s Perception] Reaches level 6

‘Is this skill leveling faster when I hunt something?’

Well, wouldn’t that be a cool thing.

She continued her pursuit, stalking her prey through bushes.

Ding!

[Untouching stride] Reaches LV. 5

That made walking through this tripwire of a forest a bit easier, and it didn’t take long for Irena to arrive at a small clearing, and see the pig.

It was clearly exhausted, and breathed heavily.

She walked near it, charged up [Ethical strike] on her shovel, and hit the creature right on the top of its head.

It made a pig like grunt, and collapsed.

{You have slayed [Hogzilla]} For defeating a creature 10 or more levels above your own, additional experience has been awarded.}

Ding!

[Ethical strike] reaches level 4

Ding!

[Giant Longhunter] reached level 4. stat points awarded.

’Okay, whoever made this system skipped his entire education. Where is level three?’

But she quickly stopped thinking about it, as there was pork to prepare. She regretted not having cabbage. That would be a banger.

There is not many better mixes than marriage of pork and cabbage. Especially the ham hock, or the pork knuckle, if you prefer to call it that.

You boil it with cabbage and spices. The resulting meat soup is healthy, and delicious. Especially when you boil it for a long time. The cartilage gets soft, and the skin gains the texture of noodles, but better.

Once upon a time, some friends asked Irena for her secret to healthy looking skin and hair.

‘Well, the answer is actual health. You eat a lot, and move even more.

As for meat, it’s an excellent source of building materials for your body, but most people commit one fatal mistake that makes it less healthy.

They don’t eat all of it. They stuff themselves with meat, specifically muscle tissue, leaving all the delicious rest on the plate.

And that’s where slow boiling comes with aid. It lets you eat skin, tendons, cartilage, and sometimes even bones.’

That train of thought made Irena salivate.

‘Okay, let’s do it. Tonight we feast!’

She grabbed her machete, and approached the carcass.

She knew how pigs are built already, and was familiar with turning them into meat, but this time, she was exactly aware of where she should start, and where she would end.

She got to gutting the thing.

Ding!

[Dismantle] Reaches LV. 2

‘Nice!’

That one made her happy.

She continued to cut, and arrived at the liver.

Curiously, she knew exactly how o remove the gallbladder without breaking it.

[Dismantle] Immediately became one of her favorite skills.

She would need to figure out how to cook this, because simply roasting everything could get old quickly.

But for now, she was left with a pig carcass, and immediately knew what she had to do with it.

She pulled out a match, and lit it. She pushed her mana into it, and made something quite usefull when processing hairy pigs.

A flamethrower.

No one likes eating pig hair, but pig skin is delicious. Answer? Remove hair. You can shave it, but there is a simpler way.

With fire, obviously.

She had already shaven most bristles, courtesy of mana sharpened machete, but it couldn’t reach everywhere. Fire could.

Ding!

[Flame manipulation] reaches level 6

She looked forward to her meal.

In the end, the pig was slung over her shoulder, as she made her way back to the stream.

Ding!

{You have proven great strength and endurance. + 5 strength, + 4 endurance}

Irena shrugged.

She started the fire anew, and thrown her hogzilla carcass into the stream, to cool down and get cleaner.

It wouldn’t get taken by the current. The stream was too shallow for that.

She had time, so she sat down, and opened her status.

Name: Irena Bestla

Class 1: [Giant Longunter] LV. 4

Stat points:12

Class skills:

[Hunter’s perception] LV. 6

[Untouching stride] LV. 5

[Ethical strike]LV. 4

Innate skills:

{Size manipulation} LV. 1

{Faes’ shyness} LV. 1

{Self regeneration} LV. 3

General skills:

{Identify} LV. 1

{Maata Standard language, LV 3.}

{Linguistic Leap, LV 5}

{Flame manipulation. LV. 6}

{Dismantle LV. 2}

{Biological poison resistance} LV. 1

Stats:

Vitality: 30

Endurance: 20

Strength: 65

Intelligence: 18

Dexterity: 16

Wisdom: 15

Health : 300/300

Mana 150/150

Stamina 200/200]

If she understood correctly, stat points would help her immensely, if she distributed them correctly.

‘Frankly, pouring them all into strength seems a bit wasteful. That particular stat climbs like crazy on its own. Then again, That’s maybe because I need it. Same with endurance, but to a lesser degree.’

‘I would like to get more vitality, but then again, I can refill it quickly with mana.’

‘Speaking of mana. I use it for so many things, and I have a precious little of it. Wisdom must be raised.’

‘But it’s not the only thing that needs raising. I’m not sure what intelligence means in this context, but if it would only help me interpret all the information I get from [Hunter’s perception], then it would be well worth the investment.’.

‘As for dexterity, I could use some quicker moves. Those dire wolves earlier could run circles around me, literally.’

In the end, Wisdom, dexterity and intelligence were brought to 20.

The remaining point got dumped into strength, because hey, you never know when you have to hit something harder. Or haul whatever you hit off your property.

Stats:

Vitality: 30

Endurance: 20

Strength: 66

Intelligence: 20

Dexterity: 20

Wisdom: 20

Health : 300/300

Mana 200/200

Stamina 200/200]

‘Nice and even.’

But her self-satisfaction was quickly interrupted.

She didn’t hear any noises, nor smelled anything. Instead, she got a feeling of something looking at her.

She turned around, hand on her machete, and looked at the source of it.

There it stood, little thing shaped like a green woman, barely tall enough to reach halfway up Irena’s calf.

“Hello.” The visitor made its greeting. “I wasn’t aware that your kind still lingers around here. Was it hunting that brought you to the Hugeass Forest?”

Irena identified the green girl.

[Driad LV. ???]