Nathan woke up before the alarm.
For a brief moment, he lay there staring at the ceiling fighting the most dangerous battle. The battle of getting out of bed.
'Another day another run.' He thought to himself.
He pushed himself out of bed with a sudden burst of energy. Yesterday, the soreness in his body had surprised him but today, he expected it.
He stretched lightly, rolled his shoulders and then putting his arms high in the air and stretching his back.
"I won't mess up," he muttered to himself as if repeating a mantra.
After washing up and getting dressed, Nathan stepped out into the living room. The smell of breakfast greeted him as the sound of eggs sizzling faintly entered his ear.
Ethan and Lena were already at the table.
"You're up early," Lena said through a yawn, poking at her food.
"Yeah," Nathan replied. "Heading out."
Ethan glanced up at him, the bruise still under his eye. "You good?"
Nathan nodded. "Yeah, planning to get as much done today as I can."
Ethan smiled faintly. "Sounds good, just make sure to be safe."
"Saying that with a black eye is crazy..." Nathan replied.
"Wait what," Lena hearing the mention of black eye turned her gaze towards Ethan's face.
"What the hell, I hadn't noticed it."
"It's pretty hard to miss," Nathan replied chuckling after hearing her say this.
"Well, Ethan look dull everyday so it doesn't really stand out," Lena replies taking a jab at Ethan.
Ethan gave her a look, "Do you want to die?"
Soon the sound of bickering filled the house as Ethan and Lena started roasting each other with insults.
Looking at this interaction, Nathan smiled but then grabbed his bag, and gave a short wave before stepping out the door.
"Bye, have a good day both of you!"
***
Entering the rift, the familiar feeling of being pulled washed over him.
'Here we go again…'
The chamber reformed around him, solid and bright after the distortion. The soldiers stood at their posts as hunters moved in and out of tunnels.
Nathan didn't waste any time lingering. He adjusted the straps of his backpack, tightened his grip on the spear and started moving.
For the next five hours, his world narrowed to tunnels, goblins, and repetition. He would enter, listen for sound, hunt the goblins, exit the tunnel and then repeat the process all over again.
At first, he consciously followed every step like hugging walls, controlling his breathing, counting footsteps but as time passed, something shifted in him. His movement became smoother and more quieter.
Where yesterday it had taken him nearly thirty minutes to clear a tunnel, today he had gotten the time down to twenty minutes, sometimes even less as he slipped into the rhythm of hunting.
When he would locate lone scout in a tunnel he would quickly ambush it, killing and then collect the the marked ear. When it would be two scouts, he would bait the first and finish it quickly then sprinting forward to intercept the second before it could flee.
By the third hour, Nathan realized something that made him pause briefly.
His movements weren't perfect, but they had become decisive. His spear found vital spots more consistently now which made goblins fall faster.
'That's probably because my precision has gone up,' he realized.
He hadn't checked his system window yet but he could tell from how smooth his movements had become.
Not everything went smoothly though. At some point, a goblin scout had lunged at him unexpectedly, its cleaver grazing across Nathan's chest as pain flared sharply, and he stumbled back.
He had looked down at the blood seeping through the torn leather. Luckily, the blade hadn't gone deep as the vest had did it's job perfectly.
Nathan didn't hesitate, recovering his position and killing the goblin quickly, right after which he retreated, drank his remaining regeneration potion, and waited through the burning regeneration process which made him more exhausted then he had been before.
By the time he finished his fifteenth rotation, his arms felt heavy as the exhaustion had compounded.
'Fifteen tunnel clears and twenty one goblins killed.'
'That's good enough for today,' he decided to end his hunt for today as he shifted his eyes to the system notifications.
[Goblin Scout Slain, +0.1 STR]
[Goblin Scout Slain, +0.1 AWR]
[Goblin Scout Slain, +0.1 PRE]
...
Turning his gaze towards the system window he saw all of his progress for today.
--------------------------------
Status Window
Name: Nathan Hale
Tier: Unawakened
STATS
Strength (STR): 5 (+0.7)
Agility (AGI): 6
Precision (PRE): 5 (+0.9)
Endurance (END): 4.5 (+0.4)
Awareness (AWR): 5.5 (+0.1)
Focus (FOC): 6
--------------------------------
'That's why my attacks felt a little more precise,' he thought to himself as he walked towards to the rift to exist out.
Walking through the rift, the administrated building welcomed him back with bright lights, the contrast of which made his eyes sting.
He spotted Elliot immediately, still stationed at the counter. Nathan started to walk over, slipping his bag off his shoulder, and setting it down.
"Hey, Elliot," he called. "Could you exchange these ears for money?"
Elliot turned, already frowning.
"You know, standard protocol says you should at least bring them in a plastic bag. You can't keep dirtying my counter with goblin blood every time."
Nathan winced. "Sorry, man. This is all I've got for now so help a brother out?"
Elliot sighed theatrically, then smiled. He pulled out a metal tray from beneath the counter and set it down.
"Go on, you know the drill."
Nathan opened his bag and began laying the ears out one by one, counting under his breath.
"…Eighteen. Nineteen. Twenty. Twenty-one."
Elliot watched closely.
"Twenty-one?" he said, impressed.
"That's very impressive, pretty hard to believe that you awakened just a few days ago."
Nathan scratched the back of his head. "I just… stuck to killing scouts."
Elliot picked up the tray and slid it to the side, dumping the ears into a deep built-in box.
Nathan watched curiously. "What do you do with them?"
"Dispose them. Once I log the kills, they're useless. Cleaners go into the rift every hour or so to collect bodies." Elliot replied.
'That explains it,' Nathan thought, remembering how some corpses vanished while others lingered.
"Can you send the payment to my bank account?" Nathan asked.
Elliot nodded. "Sure. Details?"
Nathan gave them, and the transaction was done after which he started making his way back home.
***
By the time Nathan got home, the sun was already low. He opened the door quietly and spotted Lena in her room, curled up on her bed with a tablet.
"Hey," she said without looking away. "How was hunting today?"
Nathan smiled. "Great."
"Nice," she replied. "You'll be joining for dinner?"
"Yep, I'll be in my room," Nathan said. "Call me when it's ready."
He closed his door behind him and dropped onto his bed.
A notification buzzed on his phone.
Bank Transfer: 42$ Received.
Nathan stared at it for a moment, taking a deep breath and getting up to clean up. After that he sat down on his chair cracked his knuckles, opening a new tab on his computer and searching for the Hunter Forums.
'Let's see what I can find-'