From the cave, Magnus looked up at the opening up in the cave roof, where the light was coming from. Covering his eyes from the light, Magnus looked around and saw that the once dark cave room was now strangely fairly lit that even without much light he could see well. Across the cave room, Magnus saw a path outside.
Magnus then followed the path he saw and exited the cave.
What greeted him was the beautiful night skies and the stars that twinkled in the sky. The moon that hung above was infinitely gorgeous in his eyes. When he looked across the distance, all he saw was forest trees as far as the eye could see.
Magnus jumped down the cave entrance and a gust of wind blew towards him. He shivered because of the cold and held his shoulders with both hands.
Just as he shivered, Magnus felt that there was something warning him and he quickly turned around.
Above the cave entrance, on the rocks was a horned red tiger locked onto him. Clearly the beast had decided to eat him. Fear instantly gripped his heart and without much thought, Magnus quickly turned around and ran as fast as he could into the forest.
Rustle...
Rustle...
Magnus shrugged the thick foliage before him like he was swimming through the jungle. Behind him was the tiger beast following him, toying with him as he struggled. Magnus wanted to scream for help but had long forgotten the words. He felt helpless and angry for not having strength.
Tears slowly welled up on his eyes when the tiger beast suddenly pounced on him!
Magnus ducked down in reflex and he didn't know why but at the moment the large beast was above him something urged him to punch out.
The beast was right above Magnus while he was beneath the beast because he ducked down. The belly of the beast was open to him but without proper weapon, he wouldn't be able to kill it.
Regardless of this, Magnus followed that echoing whisper in his head and closed his eyes as he punched out. With his eyes closed, he didn't notice that a strange material seeped out of his knuckles and formed a small piercing blade.
Spurt!
Magnus' eyes twitched as he felt something landed on his face. When he opened his eyes he saw that the large beast above him was bleeding and it was caused by his punch.
Roar!
The beast roared in anger and this startled Magnus, he retracted his hand and saw the black blade made the strange material from his body. He quickly rolled out and ran, creating some distance between him and the beast.
The tiger beast was clearly angered from being injured by a small child it thought to be an easy prey. It's eyes looked even more savage and it rushed toward's Magnus.
Again, Magnus felt something urging him to punch back.
This time, a strange feeling of confidence bubbled inside of him. He saw what happened when he followed that instinct and slowly he started to accept and trust that instinct. So this, even though the beast was faster than him, he knew it would attack from the front.
The tiger beast pounced towards him again, with it's paws stretched forward.
Magnus ducked down but it wasn't because he anticipated this but rather fear overcame him and his knees buckled. Luckily, this saved him from the frontal attack of the beast and in that moment, he punched up and the black material formed a blade again.
His fist rose and the blade pierced through the neck of the beast.
Thud...
Blood slowly trickled down onto him and the beast fell to the side, dead.
"Ha...Ha..." Magnus felt weak all of a sudden and fell to his bum, breathing heavily.
He then turned to the dead beast and felt a strange mixture of fear and satisfaction. He looked at his hand and saw the black material retreating inside his body and for a moment he thought that maybe he could control this strange material.
He focused and tried to will the material to continue forming that small blade.
Shh...
Shh...
Slowly the strange black material stopped retreating back into him and reformed the blade. Magnus somehow knew that he could only keep this up for a few moments so he quickly got close to the dead beast and began to skin it.
It didn't take him long enough to open the up the dead beast but he was repulsed by the innards of this dead beast.
Gulp...
Magnus felt like throwing up but he forced it back down. He felt lost at what he should do next, he didn't actually learn this type of thing from the slave trainers. But it was then then he felt a burning sensation on both his chest and his back.
He quickly tossed the rags he was wearing and saw the strange, shark-like mark on his chest. But the burning sensation didn't stop, instead it got hotter.
"Ah!" Magnus cried in pain.
He fell to the ground and squirmed as he arched his back from the pain. Though the burning sensation didn't stop, something else accompanied it...something that slowly gnawed at him to get closer to the dead beast.
Magnus crawled as he tried to ignore the pain and little by little he got close, close enough that the black material that he used earlier, came out of his palms. It formed like a beasts jaw as it began to devour the innards of the beast, including the crystal hidden deep inside.
When the black material finished devouring the flesh of the beast, the burning sensation finally subsided and what replaced it was a soothing sensation. Even his own hunger was appeased. Strength slowly came back to him.
Magnus clenched his fist and was determined more than ever to survive. He decided to ignore the mysterious origin of this strange black material and use it to survive.
He stood up and now that the beast was nothing more than a skin, Magnus crouched down and picked it up, spreading it.
The tiger beast skin was probably twice as big as him, if he wanted to make some clothes out of it, then it would be more than enough to cover the important places but he needed something to stitch it. So he carried the skin back to the cave he came out of, luckily he ran away in a straight direction so it was easy to get back.
Magnus then left the skin inside and searched for some fibrous trees where he would use the inner bark, cut it into strips then leave it to dry before turning it into strings to be used to stitch the beast skin.
Lady luck seemed to be smiling upon him as he found some, not far from where the cave was. He tried to will the black material to come out and form the blade again, while it did emerged, Magnus seemed to have some trouble willing it form other things.
Magnus frowned but gave up for now, he could experiment on what he can do with this black material later. Forming a small blade the length of a palm from his knuckles, Magnus placed the edge on the bottom and did some sawing motion. He did this for a while and it proved to be more tiring than he thought. Next, the tried to pierce the tree bark, he already saw this blade kill the tiger beast, so it should be more than capable to penetrate this tree bark.
Crack...
The blade made a small hole on the tree, Magnus nodded and was more determined now. He pulled his hands back and the blade with it before punching one more time. Moments later, he already made holes that almost cut the tree and all he needs is a few more holes. He readied himself with his fist pulled back and he punched out.
Bam!
"Mnn...!" Magnus groaned in pain. He grasped his hand with the other as he bit his lip.
When the pain had subsided a bit, he took a look at his knuckles and saw it grazed from punching the skin. He didn't understand why did the black material disappeared.
[it must have a time limit...] He thought.
He turned to the tree and saw the progress he had made, looking at his fist he thought that if he was going to survive here then he would need some proper tools and not depend entirely on this strange black material.
But for now, taking this tree down is his mission. With most of it pierced, the tree itself was only hanging by a strand of tree bark, he could pull or push it to break it.
Magnus grasped the tree with two hands and slowly exerted strength as he pulled it back.
Crack!
He heard the cracking of the tree back but there were still little amount of strands connecting the main tree bark, so Magnus pushed foward, further breaking the tree till it completely broke. As the tree fell, Magnus felt a sense of accomplishment and he carried the tree back to the cave.
By the time he got back, he tried to use the black material again and he could use it again. Looks like he could use it again after a period of time. He then took the end of the tree and formed the blade. Using the point of the blade, he started to poke the bark off the tree but he saw that if he did it this way, it would take a while and the time limit of the black material would kick in again.
So Magnus tried to think of another way to do this...he had to build some tools.
With this decision, Magnus tried to find some usable material to craft into primitive tools. There were plenty of rocks nearby so it was easy picking something out of them. Magnus found some large marble boulders nearby and formed a blade again. Like how he did with the tree, he pierced a hole at the boulder with a punch but once the blade was inside the boulder, Magnus applied some force to twist the blade.
Cracks started to form and soon chunks of marble broke off the large piece. Magnus picked these pieces and went back. Though he didn't actually knew how long would be able to use the black material but he decided to use it as much as he could.
Using the blade the chopped off small pieces of the marble piece that he got and made an edge. Then he used the edged marble to chop the bark off the tree to peel off the inner bark which he will use.
Thud...
Thud...
Thud...
Though it was a tiring process Magnus, persevered and one strike turned to ten and ten turned to a hundred. Magnus kept on going and if the edge of the marble was not sharp anymore he would use the blade again to sharpen.
From the afternoon till night fall, Magnus kept on going and finally he peeled off enough to be used as a simple string to stitch the tiger skin.
But he was tired from an entire day of activity so he left the strips of tree bark near him to dry and since the tiger beast skin was large enough, he used it as both a bed and a blanket.
...
By morning, Magnus woke up and shivered. Even with the tiger beast skin, covering his whole body, it was still cold in the night without a fire. But on the bright side, the strips of inner tree bark that he left to dry was more or less dry.
He then ripped then into extremely thin vertical strips. It took a while but Magnus began to twist these thin strips into a rope. It may be the first time he did this kind of thing but he was satisfied with the quality of the string he had made.
Magnus continued for another three hours and by then he had made almost ten strings the length of his height.
He summoned the black material to form the blade again and used the tip to pierce some small holes into it after marking which parts would he use as clothing. Using a simple wooden needle that he made on the spot, Magnus began to make his clothes out of this tiger beast skin.
Making a vest and pants out of the torso part of the skin, using the limbs to make boots and sleeves. Though it didn't look that good, Magnus was satisfied because at least he had something better to wear than just rags.
In addition, Magnus the teeth of the tiger beast and sharpened into small knives.
With this, he was ready to hunt for something to eat.