Eric stood as still as the rock he was hiding behind, waiting with bated breath for the Primeval Boar to walk away. He was glad he had tested his primal essence infused lungs before this. The knowledge offered a slight comfort and calm.
'Quit sniffing and beat it, pig.'
As if on command, the Primeval Boar instead started heading his direction. It's steps were audible even on the soft riverbank. Eric found himself wondering how much it weighed.
'Focus! You're naked in the middle of nowhere with a beast that's at least at the peak of Strength Training!'
Eric had learned in recent days that the beasts with cultivation levels in this world were not scaled equally. For instance, a first stage Strength Training cultivator could be said to be as strong as two to five healthy mortal men of the same build, depending on how solid their foundations were. A primeval beast however, would apply that same two to five scale whilst in comparison to whatever species of animal they resembled closest.
Each following level widened that margin.
The way humans evened the playing field were through intelligence, weapons, combat techniques, research and personal experience.
Intelligence just came with being a human, it didn't mean one was smart, just capable of slightly more advanced thought than an animal.
It was also the one thing out of five that Eric had possessed in that list.
Weapons? He didn't even have a spoon, let alone a weapon. He wasn't even sure if the neutered clan he had found himself in was allowed by the Lightning Sect to have any.
His short time spent cultivating allowed no luxury for research, especially since he had no reason to believe a circumstance like this would happen this side of the southern river.
His only fighting experience being against humans on earth and the only technique at his disposal being one strictly designed for gathering, meant he had zero options.
All of these things flashed through his mind in seconds while the Primeval Boar slowly approached. It's proximity causing a bead of sweat to travel down his face. He wasn't scared. In fact, he would normally be excited, if it weren't for two things that were stressing him; he was naked, and he had held back from breaking through the first level of Strength Training into the second and beyond, electing to solidify his foundation and thus have a steady rise of power in the future.
'That would have be the one principle I fully agreed with, of all things.'
The Thunder Emperor's Body cultivation scroll he had received from chief Qianggong Zhufu Feng was very obviously a watered down version of the original, with more aspects redacted than visible. It was easy to comprehend and thus to cultivate with, but it also left the reader with no tools for application. The ease of use and it's focus on solidifying one's cultivation foundation were it's only positives.
Eric wasn't sure how much primal essence he had managed to store throughout his body, but it was basically useless at this point, because any advancements he would manage to make at this point would essentially alert the very thing he was trying to avoid.
Not to mention...
'I want to make my advancements as perfect as possible.'
He knew it was a bit naive, but Eric couldn't shake this feeling of wanting to achieve true freedom. A dream he was sure would only come true through hard work and dilligence. To him, every step on his journey was going to matter.
'Let's hope I don't die before I even get a glimpse of that dream.'
He could hear the Primeval Boar sniffing the air then. It couldn't have been more than ten meters away. Eric stopped himself from clenching the fist that wasn't holding his underwear.
'Don't move, don't make a sound. Don't move...'
Eric found himself thanking his luck when the Primeval Boar stopped five meters away, and turned around. He still didn't dare move until it was more that a hundred meters away, heading towards the forest.
Eric realized belatedly that he was upwind from the Primeval Boar, so his freshly river-washed clothes and body were hard for it to smell. What had called it over was his uniform raising slightly in the wind. The Primeval Boar actually had terrible eyesight, so it coming closer to see what amounted to be a stone colored "leaf" was more of a miracle than it not smelling Eric in the first place.
He dressed in a flash, finally remembering to breathe. Albeit, lightly.
He looked down at the cloud shaped badge and sighed at the single red spiral out of the nine that that made up the badge. The other eight circles were still the same dead coal color of before, indicating that he was only at the fist stage of Strength Training. The only thing he could take pride in, was the fact that his first spiral was a much more vibrant red than any he had seen amongst his peers.
'If I keep at it, stepping into Flesh Training should be much easier than normal.'
Eric popped his head out from around the boulder, saw the coast was clear and started to head back to the village. The western wind cut through his shredded uniform, reminding him of his first goal upon returning to the dormitory. A change of clothing.
His pace was steady, but mindful of the terrain. Better to remain quiet and avoid any unnecessary issues.
He could pretty clearly trace the troubles of his current predicament to one person, Pen Yushui. It didn't take a genius to understand that the Primeval Boar that just crossed the river was the mate of the the one Pen Yushi had dragged back to the village and used to feed all who attended his feast.
It must have found the place of its mate's death, followed the smell of its blood and killers to the river and decided to tempt fate by trying to cross.
Unfortunately for the beast, and Eric, it ended up severely downstream from its intended goal, thus causing it to lose it's trail due to the upward moving wind.
'... Ah hell.'
A roar-like squeal resounded through the woods.
The first sun had passed the mountain peak with the second sun barely cresting the horizon. This meant that the temperature had dropped ever so slightly. A change that brought with it a downward wind.
Eric ran immediately.
He knew his sent was now mixed with the ones the Primeval Boar was searching for. A sent that wasn't a part of the group it was hunting, but was at least in the same category.
The worst part however, was that the Primeval Boar was actually closer to him than he had previously thought.
He ran at least fives times faster than he ever had in his previous life. The approaching rolling thunder of hooves motivating his feet to slap the ground with as much force as possible. Unfortunately, it seemed his efforts were in vain, since the noise was closing in on Eric's position.
It was obvious that it was coming straight for him.
Eric looked over his shoulder, there it was, not even ten yards away and coming up on his right side at an angle. He calculated the intercept point it was aiming for and decided, in a moment of desperation, to release the hold he had put on the primal essence stored in his body. An action that resulted in an immediate, smooth and yet, explosive breakthrough.
He felt his entire being filling with power, while an almost irresistible sensation of euphoria, that he suppressed with his will to live alone, passed through his being as another spiral turned a vibrant red on his badge. Not that he could look down to notice.
The sudden breakthrough caused his speed to increase just enough to feel the wind of a giant tusk brush his back as the Primeval Boar barely missed him. It raced right past its target, through the cloud of primeval essence and, before it could realize it's situation, ran right into a tree with a thunderous and solid boom.
Eric looked behind him, remembering to maintain his breathing technique, to see the Primeval Boar dazedly stand back up, after having rebounded off of the tree, and continue to chase after him. Although, admittedly, with a stagger.
It was then that memories of the matadors of Spain and Mexico in his past life came to the forefront of his mind.
'Please don't let me regret this...'
He was currently heading straight north to the village. To go right would be to head east and therefore down the mountain. Left would be west and up.
Deciding that he would blame it on the euphoria later, he stopped dead in his tracks and faced the increasingly lucid Primeval Boar.