Asher jumped back trying to create as much distance from the bear as possible while also not leaving the confines of the cave. Asher drew his dagger from the waist of his makeshift skirt, he had luckily stored it there so it would be easier to access than having to open his inventory just to get it. With his knife in hand and fear thoroughly in his heart he managed to jump off to the right side as the black bear once again charged forward, stomping on the campfire teepee Asher had spent way too much time on. The bear lashed out, swiping at Asher with its huge claws, trying to take a chunk of flesh from Asher as a souvenir.

Luckily for Asher his sideways jump managed to avoid the bear and its swipe with little to no issues, the only downside was that the bear and himself had ended up changing places, leaving the only exit to the cave behind a 400-pound behemoth with nasty breath. Asher looked down at his small knife and then back at the bear, he knew fighting this thing was stupid, but he couldn’t see a way out of this without trying something, and now that his only path of escape was gone, he had to try.

Slowly without taking his eyes off the beast, Asher reached down and picked up a sharp-looking rock, he thought that he had read somewhere that the forehead of a bear was its weak point, and if he was going to get out of this alive, he was going to need a distraction. Asher reared his arm back and with all the strength he launched the stone right at the forehead. Asher couldn’t believe the speed the rock traveled; the bear barely had any time to react before the stone was upon it. The beast tried to turn away from the stone, but as it began to turn its massive head the rock smashed into the large unsuspecting eye of the beast. Blood flew from the eye of the beast, landing all over the right side of the cave, the beast roared in agony as it stumbled from one side of the cave to the other.

Asher couldn’t believe his luck, he had thrown the rock in hopes of distracting the beast, he had never thought that the stone would do actual damage. Asher had to take full advantage of this, and with newfound hope, he sprung forward as fast as he could. Asher was on top of the beast in under a second, then with a huge upward arch, Asher brought the dagger down on the beast stabbing the dagger down into its other eye as it regained any sense of focus.

As Asher had begun bringing the dagger down, the beast had managed to find some of its lost orientation, straightening its head and opening its one good eye right in time to catch a glimpse of Asher’s dagger right before it got lodged into the beast's other eye. The poor bear didn’t know what hit him, all it could do was roar in agonizing pain as it swung its front paws furiously, trying desperately to hit its attacker. Asher managed to avoid each paw with a hair's width of room barely escaping the claws of death, then with all his strength plus the help of gravity, Asher pushed down and twisted on the dagger, causing blood to rush out the mouth of the poor beast. Then with a few last wild swings that only managed to hit the cave walls the bear collapsed.

[Killed: Mutated Black Bear]

[Level: 5]

[Reward: +2 Levels, Title: Bear Slayer, Flint and Steel]

[Extra Reward: Bear Core]

“Holy Shit,” Asher sputtered, falling on his ass as the bear collapsed, this encounter had been too close, of course, something was living in the only cave on this god-forsaken hill. How could Asher not have thought that far ahead? Just as Asher’s body began to shutter in the realization of how close he had been to death once again today; the increasingly familiar feeling of strength entered his body. The last time this happened Asher had felt like he could climb to the tips of the world and still be energized. This time though was considerably tamer, while he did feel like a large chunk of stamina was being refueled, the immense exhaustion Asher felt was hardly improved.

After taking about ten to fifteen minutes to rest and reset his campfire, Asher looked at his still-open system screen and gave in. “Accept,” he knew that the system most likely was giving him a second before forcing the rewards on him, or maybe he was allowed to reject them, but right now wasn’t the time he wished to find out. Instead, a small brown box appeared in his hands, this time the box was considerably smaller than the last, and only contained two items neither of which was what Asher was expecting.

Asher knew he wasn’t good at camping and knew that what he was looking at was most certainly a flint and steel, it just wasn’t what he was expecting it to look like. In the box was a piece of rock similar to the one he had launched at the now-dead bear and the other was a chunk of steel that was fashioned into the shape of a handle. As Asher lifted the two items out of the small box he noticed a small square piece of paper was also in the box, he assumed that someone had left him a message, maybe he was finally being given a proper explanation for why he got taken from his home and randomly dropped in a forest.

Asher grabbed at the paper and with a little effort turned it around to read what might be written on the other side. Instantly rage filled Asher’s heart, on the paper were two little cartoon-like drawings, one was depicting a hand holding the flint high above the other hand with the steel firmly grasped and the other picture was the first hand smashing the rock into the steel.

“No fucking shit that's how this works,” Asher screamed while tearing up the small paper and throwing it into the non-lit fire. Asher’s rage bubbled within him as he knelt down and started smashing the rock against the piece of steel, causing sparks to fly off. After a few tries the paper finally caught on fire and quickly spread to the wood, leaving Asher with a roaring fire. With the fire roaring Asher opened up his inventory and began cooking the cubes of meat he had extracted from the Mimic Wolf earlier. When they had been cooked, he sat down and while eating brought up his status page.

[Name: Asher Gentry]

[Level: 4]

[Race: Human, Rank: F]

[Titles: Bear Slayer]

[Core 1: None]

[Core 2: None]

[Core 3: None]

[Core 4: None]

[Core 5: None]

[Core 6: None]

[Abilities: None]

[Overall Rank: F]

Asher sat in silence for a long time going over the limited information again and again, he knew that the system had given him what he assumed was a core, but he didn’t want to rush into using it, he didn’t know if the core he received would either turn him into a bear or would cause some other unknown side effects. For now, it was better for him to keep it and worry about it later.

“Bear Slayer,” Asher said around a mouthful of wolf meat, he knew that the system would likely explain the titles he got if he asked it to. The only thing Asher was certain about the system that lay in front of him was that it didn’t do any handholding. If you wanted or needed to know something, then it was up to you to figure it out. The big window with all of his stats disappeared and was replaced by a new much smaller window.

[Title: Bear Slayer]

[Effect: Gives +5% Damage to All Bear Like Enemies]

“That's it?” Asher exclaimed, he knew that the main point of the quest had been to escape and survive, killing the beast was just extra, but he assumed that a title would give him more than just a small boost against a very specific enemy type. With a sigh, Asher dropped to the ground pulled out the remains of his toga, and used it to fashion a pillow before he placed his head down trying to get some sleep. He could only assume that the bear had been alive in this cave because it had killed off anything else that tried to live there. But if he was wrong then he most likely wouldn’t have to worry about it for long. With one last look at his stats and the only two quests that he had available to him, Asher began the long process of trying to fall asleep, the only thought left as his consciousness faded was, "fucking system".