“Health at 87%. Not bad.
Looks like those people on TV who keep moving after being turned into pincushions by arrows aren't total bullshit.”
Wu Shuang muttered softly, finding a broken silver mirror in the room and pulling out the arrows from his back one by one.
They hadn't pierced too deeply. His canvas backpack, coat, and undershirt had helped him immensely; one arrow was even just snagged on his coat. Only four stone arrowheads carried blood, but he didn't feel much pain. The reason lay in... Humanity.
His current Humanity was 128. Its color had turned red, and it now came with an additional explanation.
(Red Humanity: Represents anger, courage, and destruction. When over 100, every 20 points of Red Humanity increases Strength by +2, Constitution by +1, and Agility by +1, while dulling pain and fatigue.)
So that was where his sudden burst of strength had come from.
Different colors of Humanity seemed to grant different bonuses, with white appearing to be a neutral baseline.
However, the price of gaining power...
Wu Shuang felt a restless fire burning in his chest, making him crave a release, an urge to destroy something.
He knew this wasn't right, but the impulse persisted, like a powder keg ready to explode at the slightest spark.
It took him nearly three minutes to calm his mood before he began inspecting the items he had looted from the corpse earlier.
These included 11 Kingdom Gold Coins, a dagger, a longbow, and a quiver containing five stone arrows—the very ones he had pulled from his back. He stuffed them all into his backpack without appraising them one by one.
Because his Mana was limited, he only cast the Appraisal Spell on the arrows to confirm whether they were poisoned. Fortunately, they were just ordinary stone arrows.
As for the villager he had killed, the Appraisal Spell result suggested he was a hunter named Evan. Luckily, he had turned into a living corpse; otherwise, his aim might have been even sharper.
"...I hope the wounds don't get infected, or else I'm in big trouble. I wonder if I can find any medicine here."
Wu Shuang muttered to himself. After all, this was not a civilized world with modern medicine—one could tell just by looking at the architecture. He didn't even know if guns existed here, and there was a high probability there were no antibiotics. A minor infection could prove fatal by causing sepsis; it was just a matter of time.
He glanced at his Stamina, which was down to 38%. He decided to hurry up and complete the side quest to "take" items during this window before fatigue set in, then return to rest.
It would be best if he could also find a ladder to take back, as he wasn't confident he could scale the wall again.
Climbing down earlier had depended entirely on sheer courage; as for now...
Wu Shuang looked down at his hands. The fingernail on his left index finger was torn raw, showing just how much force he had exerted.
His palms were covered in cuts and bruises, with wood splinters embedded beneath his fingers and nails. It looked excruciating, yet he barely felt any pain.
After briefly cleaning his wounds and wiping the stale blood off his face with a piece of linen he had brought, Wu Shuang began searching the room to gather valuable items. He aimed to collect ten items first and appraise them after returning, as his Mana was down to 5, recovering at a rate of only 1 point every two hours or so.
"A shovel... as expected!"
In the room, Wu Shuang found plenty of blacksmithing tools like hammers, pincers, and whetstones, as well as woodworking tools including chisels, a broad-bladed long axe, a crowbar, a hand saw, and a hand plane.
There was also an iron shovel, a hoe, and a folding ladder, but most were heavily rusted and severely decayed; it was unclear if they were still usable.
The fragile hand saw in particular was thoroughly rusted through, its blade crumbling at the lightest touch.
He casually stuffed these tools into his backpack. Counting the shovel, he quickly gathered ten items. The backpack grew quite heavy, but luckily, his strength had increased considerably, allowing him to carry it.
The craftsman named Paul seemed to have been a jack-of-all-trades, skilled in both blacksmithing and carpentry. It was hard to judge the quality of his craftsmanship now, but he certainly possessed a complete set of tools, which was a massive help to Wu Shuang.
"Alright, I'll take these first... I can make a few more trips later since I know the way..."
Wu Shuang muttered. He also took a look around the second floor, which contained two bedrooms and a kitchen—evidently the living quarters. There, he found a large water vat containing swollen human body parts soaking inside. More were on the cutting board and inside the pot, giving off a pungent stench.
The craftsman named Paul had clearly gone completely mad. Wu Shuang felt thoroughly disgusted, but he didn't vomit this time, perhaps having grown accustomed to it.
On the second floor, he only took a relatively clean bedsheet, as well as what appeared to be the shed skin left behind by Paul's mutation on the bedroom bed—it might prove useful.
These items filled his tattered backpack to the brim. Wu Shuang prepared to leave; counting the folding ladder and shovel, it was already quite a heavy burden.
As for the cellar...
He looked around but found no place resembling a cellar, deciding to come back and search later. Staying in this place for too long felt extremely unsafe, and he urgently wanted to go back and tend to his injuries.
Returning to the first floor, Wu Shuang picked up the shovel leaning against the wall corner. He hadn't expected its quality to be so poor—before he could even use it, the shovel head detached and fell to the ground with a loud clatter.
It was somewhat sudden.
Wu Shuang instantly became alert, paying special attention to the windows and the entrance door. Tensing his body, he listened closely for any potential disturbance.
After remaining still for about thirty seconds and confirming that everything was calm with no strange creatures rushing out, he relaxed his nerves, feeling he might be overly paranoid.
He couldn't help it; he had been ambushed twice right after arriving. To still be alive was already a stroke of immense luck...
Clatter, clatter~~~~~
A clear metallic friction sound interrupted Wu Shuang's thoughts, causing him to instantly switch into combat mode. He raised the wooden stick in his hand as a defensive weapon.
There was no one in the room. Listening closely, the sound seemed to come from underground, like iron chains being dragged across the floor, moving bit by bit.
"Is there something in the cellar?"
Wu Shuang's eyes widened. Looking at his feet, he felt as if the creature had walked right beneath him. Following the sound, he moved along with it until he came to a wooden crate. Inside was a crowbar stuck vertically, as well as two crafted wooden iron-rimmed wheels...
Thump!
A fairly heavy thud rang out from underground, startling Wu Shuang into taking two steps back. Immediately, he realized something.
Hidden beneath this wooden crate seemed to be a trapdoor, which had to be the entrance to the cellar!
Thump, thump!
Two more thuds sounded, quite loud. Wu Shuang even glanced toward the window, debating whether to leave or stay.
It was unclear what kind of monster was locked in the cellar. Rashly opening it carried immense risk, especially since he was injured and in no condition to continue fighting.
Wu Shuang made up his mind almost instantly, planning to leave.
Opening the cellar directly to check—that was something only death-seeking horror movie protagonists would do, and he certainly wasn't going to do it!
Yet just as he turned around and took two steps, another thought suddenly crossed his mind.
The side quest required him to infiltrate a residence and take property without being noticed by the occupants. So... did this count as being discovered?
Wu Shuang began to hesitate, recalling the two different types of stealth described in the Hero's Insights.
"Hungry..."
A weak voice filtered up from beneath the floorboards, sounding like a female.
Upon hearing it, Wu Shuang's face darkened. Setting down his backpack, he looked toward the fiercely imposing broad-bladed long axe in the corner and walked over.
Rate on N.U.
