Tear A Path

Obviously, Zhao Wei did not consider the toll the climb down would have on him. By the time he reached down it was already half past the 8th hour, after he had scouted his surrounding and marked the area the clock told him nearly ten hours had pa.s.sed in total for the day half. With his hands and feet in the state they were in now he thought he"d at least need 6-8 hours to climb back up compared to the climb down which was only 2 hours or so. This left him with 14 hours down here at best with limited movement so that the wounds don"t get worst and have time to dry up a little.

After thinking for sometime, Zhao Wei stood up. He started pacing around his area and decided on a spot with more compact s.p.a.ces between the tree barks jutting out from the ground. For today, instead of spreading his traps out he decided to use only 3 in this area. When he decided on a place he came over and put his hand on the surface, once he thought of the Wrap Trap a blue Rune with the Wrap Trap symbol would flash before turning invinsible. The reason for this plan change is because in the first place he hadn"t tested his skill, therefore he did not know how strong it was. If he jumped in once something was caught and it broke free, he was unsure if he would even be able to defend himself, much less kill it. Even if he had killed it by struggling it would take too much of a toll on his injuries requiring him to take a longer time climbing if he could even move at all by that point.

Secondly, instead of jumping from above to fight it, Zhao Wei decided he would use a surprise attack. So after he had set 3 Wrap Traps near him Zhao Wei smeared mud allover himself and his stuff, making sure to grab some pebbles and gra.s.s in the process. Once he has satisfied, he sat by one of the tree barks. This way Zhao Wei could observe whatever was caught before making a decision to attack it. Even once he initiated an attack, it"d be too close for a creature to react as he"d be right next to them.

For now he opened some canned food which tasted like slop, finishing most of it he left some bits and pieces in the can and left it in the middle of the trap. He was actually pondering if he should use blood instead but considered that if he used blood, he"d definitely be attracting a carnivore. Although to say that herbivores were weaker than carnivores wouldn"t be true, it was brought down to their instincts. Herbivores, except for those with bad tempers generally run in the face of danger. Carnivores instinctively decide on the opponents strength first to decide whether or not it would fight. Although Zhao Wei wasn"t a weak person, he was pretty sure he was still at the bottom of the food chain in this jungle.

After covering his hands from the smell of canned food with mud, Zhao Wei decided to charge Wrap Traps. However, he didn"t follow his usual routine of putting himself through to exhaustion as he needed to be sharp at any critical moment. If he was mentally unprepared due to exhaustion from charging he might make a flaw which in life and death situations were fatal regardless of how small.

Doing so Zhao Wei was depressed as he had minimized the time to 10 minutes, but his recovery to optimal condition only cut down 1-2 minutes. Although the condition he had to come-back from wasn"t as bad, the charging duration was significantly slowed.

In between he"d dream a little, about his parents, grandparents, siblings and friends. Most of all, he dreamed of that head of black hair for whom his heart yearned. Although he couldn"t push his memories to remember further, he could cherish the little sliver he had left. And although it brought him endless sorrow every time he tried to remember, it also brought him endless strength to go through all the pain he had to face now.

5 hours pa.s.s by and he had restocked on the traps he had used, Zhao Wei was beginning to have a hint of something on the usage but he it still felt so far. There were no guides on how he used his skills or a skill tree like everyone else, there wasn"t even anyone with whom he could trade advice with. For Zhao Wei, this might be a pain he had to bear all his life. For those who got to pick their cla.s.s, Trappers were at the bottom of the list as this wasn"t a game. There were no guides on cla.s.ses given by beta testers to tell a person which cla.s.ses had advantages where. And in game, if you picked a cla.s.s for fun or just to be eccentric, worst comes to worse you delete your character to start a new account. Here, failure to reach a better standing with a cla.s.s meant probable death or forever being under the thumb of stronger people.

In the whole world with billions of people, even with it"s reduced population. There were more or less a 100 trappers, much less after monsters ravaged the human population, but even more-so because of humans. The unfortunate truth is humans were dark in general, the laws and regulations were not meant to guide them but to bind them. That"s why many felt oppressed or burdened under the law. These years of oppressing their inner desire flooded out with the introduction of cla.s.ses. In fact, criminals before the change could be considered a normal person after it as they had already released their urges.

The ones people had to look out for were those who were model citizens before the change. In normal civilization, they were the cream of the crop, the cla.s.s president, the head CEO. Regardless of how humble they acted, this would build a level of superiority in them. Believing everything they did was right, every action was justified so long as they thought so. Bad kids were smart. when they did something, they knew their limit, they knew how to cover for themselves. Good kids when they had a taste, they always went too far.

Another 3 hours pa.s.sed for Zhao Wei, he was beginning to become impatient. Although he gained another 2 traps in this time, he still considered this trip a loss as he could"ve been more productive on top where he could move freely to do other productive activities. He had at most 6 hours left before he had to begin ascending the cliff but besides procuring materials for food he still had to get water. Additionally, seeing how tough the trees were, he had thought to collect some of the fallen branches to make something out of it. The only reason he hadn"t done so was so that he did not leave a lot more tracks that animals would notice and avoid or stalk him with.

Another hour pa.s.sed, finally Zhao Wei was ready to give up. Just as he was about to move he heard a Whoosh! following the sound of crackling as well as an astonished animal"s squeal. He was both dumbfounded and exhilarated, he had his first catch, and yet he wasn"t sure where to go from here. In his head he had practiced the maneuver many times to go straight into the attack, when it was here however, he froze.