Over two months later, in the outskirts of the forest near Foosha Village...
A bloody lump of meat sat in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by complete silence.
Suddenly, a faint rustling echoed from the depths of the forest.
Strong paws emerged from the underbrush. A forest wolf slowly crept forward, drawn by the scent of blood in the air. Its sharp fangs could tear through a throat in an instant, and its eyes gleamed with a cold, deadly light.
Sensing no other presence nearby, the wolf cautiously approached the meat, sniffing carefully.
Even with its heightened animal instincts, it couldn't comprehend why a chunk of meat had just been left here. But food was food, there was no reason not to eat.
After confirming the area was safe, the wolf began to feast greedily.
What it didn't know, and would never understand, was that somewhere in this world, there existed a terrifying species called "humans", cunning, intelligent beings who used tools, traps, and poison.
After devouring the entire bait, the wolf turned to head back to its territory. But it had barely taken two steps before its body felt light... as if it were floating.
Thud!
It collapsed to the ground.
"Phew! I thought I was gonna suffocate!"
A child's voice rang out as a small figure stood up nearby.
It was Luffy.
He wore a crude green hat made from wild grass, his face smeared with green plant sap for camouflage. His body was clad in a patterned beast-hide vest, with a dagger and bone spear tied to either side of his waist. Dark trousers and a pair of adorable tiger-faced shoes completed the look.
Looking at the wolf, now perfectly still and at his mercy, Luffy couldn't hold back a grin, thinking back on everything he'd gone through these past two months.
Every day, he'd wake up before dawn and spend the entire day in the forest, constantly moving and changing hunting grounds.
There were days when he came back empty-handed, and plenty of times when he was attacked by wild beasts. If it weren't for his digitized body, he'd probably be covered in scars by now.
Just a few days ago, he'd even been chased by a wild boar.
He never expected such a clumsy-looking creature to have such a powerful sense of smell, strong enough to ignore the bait and come straight for him.
Thankfully, the boar was just dumb enough to chase him all the way into Foosha Village. Once it reached the edge of town, the adults teamed up and took it down.
The village chief, terrified after seeing Luffy nearly trampled to death, adamantly refused to let him go hunting again.
It wasn't until Luffy threatened to sneak out anyway that the chief reluctantly agreed.
The compromise? He took Luffy to the village apothecary to buy tranquilizers and poison, then had someone help Luffy sharpen his weapons and craft some protective armor.
Shhhk.
Luffy pulled the beast-bone spear from the wolf's neck, a stream of blood flowing freely onto the ground.
[Ding! You have slain a regular beast. Gained 7 EXP.]
[Ding! Congratulations. Experience maxed. Beginning level-up process.]
[Ding! Level up complete. You are now Level 2.]
Three consecutive system messages echoed in Luffy's mind.
"Finally! I leveled up!" Luffy's face lit up with joy, his cheeks flushed red, even under all the green paint.
"System, show me my stats!"
[Affirmative.]
The status panel appeared before him:
─────────🏴☠️─────────
Name: Monkey D. Luffy
Level: 2
EXP: 2/200
HP: 150
Stamina: 15
Strength: 12
Agility: 14
Mental Power: 95
Free Stat Points: 10
─────────🏴☠️─────────
"Hah!"
Feeling the real, tangible change in his body, backed up by the numbers on the screen, Luffy was so overwhelmed he nearly cried.
He clenched his fists. "That was not easy."
He threw a punch just to test his strength. It wasn't some earth-shattering blow, but compared to the helplessness he'd felt before, the difference was night and day.
"System, put all my free points into Stamina."
[Confirmed. Points allocated. Updated stats below.]
─────────🏴☠️─────────
Name: Monkey D. Luffy
Level: 2
EXP: 2/200
HP: 250
Stamina: 25
Strength: 12
Agility: 14
Mental Power: 95
─────────🏴☠️─────────
"Ugh... 250 HP, huh?" Luffy stared at the awkward-looking number with a twitchy expression.
"Well... whatever. Even if I'm a 'two-fifty,' I got stronger, that's what matters."
Leveling up to 3 required 200 EXP. That would've seemed impossible before, but with his newly upgraded body, Luffy felt like he could hit that in no time.
"Anyway, time to head home."
He grabbed the dead wolf by the tail and began dragging it back toward the village, his little tiger shoes thudding against the ground.
Looking down at those ridiculous shoes, his face twitched again.
During one of his earlier hunts, he realized flip-flops weren't great for running and begged Makino to find him proper footwear for the forest.
After three days in "seclusion," Makino proudly presented him with a pair of tiger-faced shoes, glowing with pride.
Her beaming smile was so bright that Luffy couldn't bring himself to say no. And so, he'd been stuck wearing these toddler-sized tiger shoes ever since.
Makino even said, "These have the Mental Power of a tiger in them. Wild animals will sense it and be too scared to hurt you!"
─────────🏴☠️─────────
As Luffy returned to the village gates, he immediately caught everyone's attention.
It wasn't hard to see why.
A child barely half a meter tall, strolling confidently with a fearless grin, wearing the cutest little tiger shoes…
And dragging behind him, a giant, nearly two-meter-long forest wolf, its massive fangs and sharp claws on full display, even in death. Its lifeless eyes are still wide open, enough to send a chill down anyone's spine.
Luffy strolled all the way to the bar and, without even stepping inside, yelled at the top of his lungs:
"Makino-san! Uncle! Come help me! Quick!"
He looked just like an excited little kid begging for praise.
─────────🏴☠️─────────
"Luffy's back!"
Makino, who had been cleaning, dropped everything and ran out.
"Makino-san, help me carry this inside! It's too heavy for me alone!" Luffy called out happily to the girl who had cared for him for two months.
Truth was, he wasn't really tired, while dragging it was difficult, his digitized body no longer registered fatigue.
He just wanted the people who had been kind to him to see how much he'd grown.
After two months of being treated like a child, even his adult heart had become a little softer.
─────────🏴☠️─────────
"All right, Luffy. Go rest for now…"
Makino stared at the enormous wolf in stunned silence before snapping out of it and rushing to the back to get her father.
"This is… really something," her father muttered, equally shocked by Luffy's latest catch.
Watching the boy walk into the bar with a proud grin, he quietly murmured:
"Looks like a new storm is coming."
---------------------
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