Two months has passed since Lucian started his training with the Unknown man. Within that two months, he was always on the run.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he has been hunted like an animal the past two months, just that this time around he wasn't being hunted to be killed. Within the two months he has been shot and cut countless times.
Although he had learned so many lessons within that period, the other man always found a way to get him. Even now he wasn't able to close in on him, he was still able to shoot at him from long distances.
Sometimes he was able to dodge several shots on time other times too he was taken by surprise. He could show up at anytime, only shooting arrows at him and closing the distance between them.
Anytime he was able to close the distance, he would make sure to leave him a wound with a dagger and always said "Don't allow your enemy a blind spot in a close range or else you'll be dead".
Although his training has proved to be hard, he has come to accept it because not only has he seen improvements in himself, he was also benefiting from the random task feature which allowed him to complete task and receive rewards. He would perform task like evading fifty shots without getting hit, going a whole day without being wounded or survive hours of intense chase without being caught up to.
There were times that his trainer would catch up to him and only say things like "too slow" or "get distracted and you die". Up till now, he still hasn't seen the man behind the mask.
Even though he was always able to escape his chase and not randomly caught off guard like before, the man still found a way to get a fault in him out.
He has also unlocked a new feature called EXP-Experience Points. It allowed him to gain experience daily from his training. This helped increased his survival chances just winthin the two months of training.
Lucian appraised the bow and arrows that lay in front of him. Although he could use it alright, he wasn't sure he would be able to shoot long distance. He only learned archery for peasant hunts like rabbits and squirrels which was a short range work. But If he allowed himself in a closer range to the masked man without proper planning, he believed he would be the one to be on the receive end.
"Let's go with the other plan for now" he said and returned the bow and arrows inside his storage ring.
He has been able to merge the storage ring the God of Games gave him with the one his grandfather gave him, making it look like just the one the old Lord of Frostgate gave him. This allowed him to have wider space for storing items and also allowed him to wear to wear only one ring without question.
"Map, Nexus" Lucian said and a rough map of the forest appeared in front of him.
The yellow dot which was the one hunting him was father away from his location but they were both inside a blue circle which he believed was the barrier that had been erected to prevent him from escaping. But that didn't matter now because he had no plan of escaping.
"Since this has already started, it might as well end" he zoomed into the map which showed only black and white color. "Give me a heat of our recent movements in the last 24 hours" Lucian requested.
The map glowed for a while before shades of red and blue appeared on the map.
[Host: blue]
After studying heat map for a while, Lucian realized that half of the map was covered with both blue and red shade with just a section of it farther south of the map covered in only deep red shade.
"That must be his base. I haven't been down there yet" Lucian said as he pointed the the location on the map with deep shade of red devoid of blue.
"We need to create a favorable grounds where we'll be able to have an upper hand. I've been thinking about it and I don't believe he expects me to beat him with sheer strength to pass this part of the training. I just have to find a way to beat him. That his why it's called survival challenge right?"
[Uhh…yes but I think host is forgetting something] Nexus replied to his master's question.
"And what is that" Lucian asked curiously.
[There is no "we" here. This is you and it is on you]
"Wait, did you just make a joke" Lucian asked finding the System's reply funny.
[If that is how the host will take]
"Alright. That was almost a joke. You should be doing that often" He replied.
[Copy that].
Lucian drew a circle around a particular location on the map and set a direction on it begore closing it. He took out the dagger, VoidPiercer and headed towards the direction on the map. After a few minutes of walking, he began to mark the trees he came across, carving a plus sign on them. He walked for almost three hours, repeatedly doing that on every tree he came across. After that he headed south and walked a for more than two hours and changed the sign to a minus sign and did the same to every tree he came across, walking for almost three hours.
After cross checking on the map and making sure he was on the right path, he made his way back. After walking for an hour, he began to carve an equal sign on all the trees till he came across the first tree with a plus sign which he himself had carved.
What Lucian was doing was simple. The area with the positive sign signified his favorable zone.
He was more familiar with that zone and believed he could move much quicker and easily in that part of the forest. The negative sign zone meant that he was entering an unfamiliar location.
The equal part had no much meaning. It was only a sign that he was entering his favorable zon or unfavorable zone.
The forest was very big and it would take him at least two months to familiarize himself with it excluding the northern part of it where his pursuer was located.
His plan was simple, that was to bring his pursuer to his favorable zone and try to everything in his power to end two months of suffering.
Note: Pursuer, masked man, unknown man and hunter all refers to the man training Lucian.
A|N: Support this book with power stones please