Stagnant Water of Apocalypse Chapter 3

I looked at the secondhand black carbon compound bow I had bought. The seller told me that he had given up using it due to his lack of strength to draw its string. And although he was sad, he also handed some aluminum and carbon arrows at a low price.

Out of curiosity, I notched an arrow into the bow and then drew it with all my strength. My muscles were stretched to their fullest, and yet it still feels quite heavy.

“60 pounds draw weight is about this much tension, huh?”

Back in Survival Life, I had plenty of experience of using bow. But since it was a game, I could draw and aim it easily as long as my stats met the minimum required stays for the how. However, in reality, there were many things to care about when using a bow. Aiming it alone was so difficult as the bow shook along with my arm which was exerting power to draw the bowstring. It was truly a big fat lie when games and novels show how a slender girl could easily draw bowstring.

I put my bow down before moving towards my PC. I went to MeTube and put my inquiry in the search column. It was a habit of mine from Survival Life to analyze a problem once I encountered them.

“These days, you can learn many things from the MeTube.” With a little English proficiency, you could literally learn about a lot of things. I was never a bright student back in school. However, with subtitles on, I could interpret the words and roughly understand its meaning.

“This is how you hold your posture.” The western uncle in the video stood with his legs open at the same length as his shoulder. His arms were naturally stretched as he slowly lifted the bow.

The uncle screamed something while looking at the screen. Based on the word 'One more' I guessed he was telling me to try again.

“This, is, surprisingly, hard.” The uncle said it was still too early to notch an arrow at this point. He shouted that at least a thousand times of drawing practice was needed before moving to the next step.

As I was clearly aware that this practice would protect me from any danger in the future, I crammed every single thing the uncle did to my brain. But this is truly no joke. The once light bow gradually became heavier and heavier as beads of sweat formed on my forehead even though all I did was lifting a bow.

“Whoa…” Let's take a break for a few minutes. I had continuously lifted the bow without resting. Admiration blooms in my heart towards the white uncle in the video. I'm sure he'd hunted a lot. On the other hand, I'm just a beginner, a noob. Though, in Survival Life, I was a master of all kinds of weapons.

Just like what was instructed by the uncle on the video, I lifted the bow for a thousand times until my body was bathed in sweat.

And then, as I played the video once again, the uncle said now is the time to practice lifting the bow while changing the direction of my legs. It was a good technique for quick aiming.

“Oh, my gosh.” I groaned.

I swear I will master it. After all, one of my few strengths was that I always finish what I put my mind into. Of course, there were some exceptions like becoming rich or going to a prestigious university.

Trying to imitate the uncle's movement with a straight face, I could slowly feel the cramps in my muscles. When I looked at the clock on the wall, it had been three hours since I started.

I decided to call it a day since the Apocalypse wouldn't happen tomorrow. There's still a month and a day left for me to work hard in mastering it.

“Oh, my gosh. I'm dying.” I fell on the bed as I screamed those words out.

Out of reflex, I almost closed my eyes. Then I jerked up as I remembered I would suffer from muscle pain once I woke up if I fell asleep now. I certainly didn't want to enter the forest in that condition. It's better to do it right now while my muscles were still relaxed.

I slung my backpack to my shoulders and wore everything I needed. Looking at the reflection in the mirror, the bow really makes me remember my days when I was still playing Survival Life.

“I have to do something about the goblins if I want to safely store my supplies.” I don't know how many of them were out there, so this time I just want to check it out.

I opened the dimensional portal and went into the forest. I was instantly greeted by the cold wind that crashed into my body.

“Wow, it's cold.” I mused out loud.

Let's see. For now, let's set the distance to be 15m. The range of a goblin's paralyzing dart was about 10m while the range of a bow clearly exceeds it by miles. However, since I'm only a beginner, I decided to set my bow's range into the minimum.

I drew a target with a marker on a wooden board and hung it on the tree 15m away with an arrow. Then, I notched an arrow before pulling the string.

I had only practiced it for a few hours, but I could feel that I was much better than when I first started.

I aimed carefully at the target before letting the string go. With a hiss, the arrow pierced through the air before hitting the wooden board with a thud. When I approached the tree to check on it, the arrowhead was deeply digging through the tree.

Pretty good.

I couldn't hit the circle, but since it's my first time shooting an arrow, I was pretty satisfied with the result. By the way, my finger hurt quite a bit when I drew the bowstring. Thankfully it was slightly dampened by the gloves I wore.

Come to think of it, there was also a glove item in Survival Life. It was a pretty useful item which shortened the reload time.

“Let's practice a little bit more.” I nock the arrows and shot a few more arrows. My accuracy obviously did not go up in such a short time, but I felt that the trajectory itself was satisfactory.

I was pretty sure I wouldn't miss any goblin within 15 meters away. Though, I don't know where the arrow would land.

“Let's see, where's the dung?”

I wrapped up my practice and dived towards my memory trying to remember the place I found the goblin's dung yesterday.

When I finally found it, I didn't want to get close, but I still needed to check the information. Well, it looks like it's the dung of a single goblin.

“Was there anyone else beside you?” Since Goblins live in groups, when a goblin's dung was found in one place, several other dung piles could also be found nearby.

I rummaged through the dung with a tree branch while trying to push down the rising acid in my stomach.

“Why did you eat so much fruit?” To my eyes it seems like the goblin didn't have any strength to hunt an animal. Moreover, the dung's color was completely black, it didn't look healthy at all.

“Did this guy perhaps get kicked out of the group?“

There was no guarantee that goblins from Survival Life were the same kind as the goblins in this forest. But basing my judgement through the traces I found, they seem to be quite similar. My gut was also telling me that this guy was kicked out of the group. If my perception stats were high enough, I would've seen its footprints right away. But, because I'm still no different from an ordinary person, I had no choice but to look around for it.

After several minutes of rummaging, I finally found its footprints. It was leading out into the dark forest,

“This isn't a trap.”

Goblins were crafty monsters who knew how to set a trap. If the opponent was mistaken and blindly attacked the trace they left behind, they would soon be surrounded by the goblin and fall because of their paralyzing attack.

Of course, even though the goblins were cunning creatures, they weren't very smart. They were often killed because they couldn't grasp the difference in power between them and their opponent.

However, I'm alone in this forest. If I make a mistake, I would be the one who was killed by the goblin.

“You must kill him.” I patted my cheek with my hand before following the goblin's trail. I didn't think I'd be able to work comfortably until I killed the lone goblin.

In the meantime, if I meet another monster or carnivorous animal, I would quickly run away,

My rank in this forest was just that low.

As I walked carefully through the forest, my surroundings become visibly darker. Pushing all my senses to the limit, I constantly checked my surroundings.

Goblins were a very difficult monster to find in the forest because of its unique green skin. They were already short, and yet, they walked with their body slightly bent forward.

As I walked through the forest, I could hear cries of various animals echoed around me. As expected, this forest was full of life, If only I could make it mine, I wouldn't have to worry about starving to death.

“Is there a valley nearby?” The sound of flowing water was getting louder and louder. It was such a good sign because when the Apocalypse began, procuring drinking water was a difficult thing to do. Having a valley like this means at least I won't be thirsty.

It's time to forget about the zombie information again and focus on the traces of the goblin.

As I continued to mark the tree with white markers, I finally arrived near the valley.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

The loud sound of the water going down the valley echoed through the surroundings.

“Oh, my gosh.” I lowered my body and hid myself behind a nearby rock. I was so out of breath because of my poor physical strength. But looking at the bright side, wandering through a forest like this would certainly increase my endurance stats, which will also eventually increase my health.

Looking around, I finally found it, no, him.

“Are you thirsty?” The goblin was drinking water with his back turned against me. The thick hair which grows on top of his green skin was truly a bizarre sight. His limbs were scrawny and his lower body was covered with a piece of leather cloth, making his 'rod' completely hidden away. All he had with him was an old pocket hanging on his waist.

Looking closely, his hair was gray. Moreover, there's so many deep wrinkles around his body.

“You must have really been kicked out.” I was certain now. The guy was kicked out of the group because he had become too old. And as he slightly moved his head, I could see his eyes were dry and weak. I don't think he will last long even if I leave him alone.

“I'm sorry, but I'm going to kill you and turn your death into points.”

If I could, I want to unlock the Store before the zombie crisis breaks out. My goal was to buy a blackwood club, a weapon without any special options but was extremely sturdy. With it, I could easily kill anything by simply swinging it around.

I picked up an arrow from my bag, notching it to the bow just like how I practiced earlier, and drew the bowstrings.

My aim was the body of the old goblin. Normally, I would have aimed at his head, but since he was weak, an arrow to his body would be enough to kill him.

As I let the string go, the arrow sprang and dug towards the body of the green monster. The goblin jumped once before falling down.

“One more shot.”

I aimed once again carefully and shot another arrow. With one last shudder, the goblin drops to the ground, lifeless.

[You have gained two points.]

Zombies in the early stages give one point while goblins give two.

With the amount I currently have, there's nothing I could buy. But I'll happily collect even a speck of dust for future use.

I drew my bow and carefully approached him. In Survival Life, corpses were an everyday thing. Countless monsters were being hunted either by other monsters or by the bored stagnant waters. I could say that back then I didn't really care about goblin's corpse. But now seeing it with my own eyes, it felt different.

“It's the first time I've ever killed an animal this big…” If the Apocalypse comes, I have to kill more monsters…maybe even some humans.

The goblin's blood splattered towards the water. Maybe because of it, something was swimming close to the ground. Because of the light reflected on the water I couldn't clearly see it, though.

Red trout? Let's catch that next time.

I turned the goblin's corpse upside down with my foot.

“Let's see what you have.”

Goblins have a habit of collecting what they like. It's not that good, though. Because most of it was junk. But sometimes, a rare goblin called golden goblin would appear. They carried a sack full of good items and made people like me satisfied after hunting it.

With those thoughts, I cut off the rope wrapping on the goblin's waist with my knife.

“Huh?”

I exclaimed as I saw something strange. It was a knife that was so dull to the point I doubted it was created by pounding it in repeat. It was just like a collection of numerous beads of iron slapped together haphazardly.

“You are carrying something useless.” I sighed.

It might be considered as a weapon for a goblin since it will still hurt if someone was poked by it thanks to the fact it was made from metal, but not for me. Other than that, the leaf pocket contained some oily fruit and a white powder.

“This is guaca powder.” If it was well covered in oil and hardened, it would become a healing ointment. The effect was quite good, it would quickly stop any bleeding and heal the wound. Of course, it wasn't the usual healing potion you could find in any game, since there's no way a hellish game like Survival Life would have it.

“There's guaca and a source of vegetable oils nearby.” I gained some good information out of this. Nodding for a moment, I recovered the arrow stuck on the goblin's body, took out a shovel from my bag, and started digging.

The goblin's group shouldn't be made aware of the corpse. Or else, they would track me down wherever I go because they were a persistent little bastard.

“It's really tiring….” It was not easy to dig a big enough pit for the goblin's corpse. Even more so when I did it in the state of exhaustion.

My HP bar dropped considerably. It was still tolerable when the MP bar was the one which drops, but for the HP bar to drop, that's dangerous.

For a remedy, I took out one of the solar apples from my bag and ate it.

[Effect: Endurance Recovery]

[The effects of the solar apple restored a lot of endurance.]

I noticed my HP bar had been filled once again. I should be okay now. It was now time to continue digging deep before I could push the old goblin's body in.

Wook wook wook- wook-

The cry of an owl could be heard in the distance.

My eyes darted towards the surroundings as my body started to shake. The cry was far too dull for a bird. Which means…

An Owlbear.

I hurriedly pushed the goblin's body into the pit and ran without looking back.

“Come on!” I screamed.

Koo Woo-wook-

The cry echoed through the forest once again.

“Huh huh Huh Huh Huh!”

I ran as quickly as I could and followed the markers I had left on the trees.

When I finally arrived at the area where I entered from, I sat down with my back leaning against the tree. My lungs were still busy pumping hot air through my mouth.

“Oh, my God, an Owlbear!” It was a monster only a level lower than an Ogre. If I ran into it in my current state, I wouldn't even last for three full seconds.

Just when I managed to find and kill a goblin, a real monster popped out. Should I just give up this forest?

“Never!” I said weakly. I realized the forest was more dangerous than I initially thought. But still, I couldn't give it up. After all, the outside world would be far messier than this place.

Anyway, I couldn't face an Owlbear right away, so I had to run away. And now, it's time to go home. I opened the dimensional portal and walked through it into my room.

I had a lot of work left to do, but I didn't want to pay any attention to it because my body was sore all over as if someone had beaten me up.

I can't believe I'm in this stage just after walking through the forest for several hours.

Just what should I do with this wretched body? Looks like the consequences of eating so many unhealthy snacks have finally caught up to me. But I can't help it since I need to try a variety of snacks to research more on the market.

I buried my head and closed my eyes. At the moment, I don't care whether the black suits guys would come or not.

I was just that tired.

Chapter end