*zzz*
One of the wolves laid down on its side as it quite fully slept. A short distance away near a tree you could see some grass rustling. If you came closer and looked down, you could see a baby the size of an adult's head staring at the wolf's den with a vicious look in his eyes.
This baby was Marlin.
Marlin looked on at the large stone cave that was in front of him. The forest tree surrounding the cave seemed as ancient as the cave itself. Moss hanged down the front of the cave entrance. The trees were as tall as 10 full grown adults stack up on each other. Their wood as hard as stone and their aura as strong as a warrior.
The cave's stone was very chiselled and multiple claw marks could be seen along the wall. As if the wolves had used them to sharpen their claws. The cave seemed like a bottomless pit in the dead of night.
The moon light illuminated the forest he was in shining light on the wolves laying down on the stone in front of the cave. Their pitch-black fur seemed even more magnificent in the night than the day.
Marlin lipped his lips in anticipation as he slowly crawled further towards the bright green mushroom seeming even more impatient the closer, he got. The area around the wolf's den became more and more clear the closer he got. The grass seemed to be trimmed down by these wolves which made Marlin move back in surprise. These wolves were damn clever.
He thought that these wolves might be even smarter than humans in some ways. Marlin kept his head down as he crawled towards that mushroom. There was only one mushroom so he could only pull this off once.
Marlin has already died over 5 times trying to reach this mushroom. That was because shortly after reaching 5 meters from the mushroom one of the wolves would always wake up. These wolves were as smart as humans, had the tracking skills of a veteran hunter and as alert as an owl. What else were they going to do now? Start flying like a bird?
Well if they did that Marlin felt that his eyes would probably pop out. Marlin carefully lifted his limbs off the ground slowly one by one. He took his sweet time crawling towards this mushroom. As he crawled through the grass, he sticked to the ground like bacon. He tried to go through spots which shaded the grass with its tall body.
Little by little he managed to make it to the cursed 5-meter mark. The funny thing was that it was the same wolf that got him every time. It seemed as if it had 2 pairs of eyes. He knew that was not true, but it seemed like it did.
Marlin took in a deep breath and took the first step over this 5-meter mark. He stared at the wolf as he took this step as he anticipated it to wake up but after a minute of waiting it didn't seem to notice.
Marlin celebrated internally but then snapped himself out of it. Although, he had successfully taken the first step it wasn't time to celebrate. Marlin while even being more alert crawled even slower as he got closer.
After an hour of crawling he was finally in arm reach of the mushroom. The bright green glow of the mushroom stood out even more as he got closer. The slim stem of the mushroom looked even smaller up closely.
Marlin looked at the closest wolf once again and reached out towards the mushroom with his very small white hand. Marlin reached the bottom of the stem and pulled with all his strength. His strength was negligible, but it was still enough to pluck this mushroom.
The sound of the mushroom being plucked was quite loud and Marlin saw one of the wolf's ears twitch in surprise. The Wolf which was asleep stood up at stared at Marlin with a death stare.
*WOOF*
Shortly after the other 2 wolves woke up and stood behind the wolf.
Suddenly, the wolf in lead jumped forward towards and as if predicting it Marlin shoved the mushroom into his mouth. Marlin swallowed the mushroom whole with no time to chew. He was barely able to swallow it down and almost choked.
As the wolf was in the air ready to eat this baby its eyes were suddenly filled with surprise. When this wolf landed in front of Marlin it just looked at him.
"YES, EAT ME! I AM READY"
Marlin was filled with excitement as he laid down with his hands out on the ground ready to be eaten. Marlin closed his eyes with anticipation and waited for a bit, but he still didn't feel any pain. Marlin opened his eyes and he saw the wolf and its 2 companions just staring at him.
"What's going on with you guys? Just eat me already!"
Marlin screamed internally with rage as he wondered why they weren't attacking him. But then he realized something.
"Wait, are they that smart to know what I'm up to?"
Marlin then looked back at the wolves who weren't eating him and saw one of them turn around and go back to sleep.
"Wait come back! I'm really yummy"
After thinking that the other two turned around and went back to sleep completely ignoring Marlin.
"Well what am I going to do no- "
Marlin was quickly interrupted by some pain in his legs and arms.
"What's going on?"
Marlin tried moving his body but there was no response and shortly after he felt his heart slowing down and his breathing more difficult. Marlin looked around and felt his vision become more and more blurry. The sound around him became equivalent to ringing in his ears and felt blood escaping from his ears, nose and mouth.
"W-What the hell is this mushroom?"
Then his heart rate and breathing slowed down even more as Marlin could feel a hand grasp his heart. As the hand grasped onto his small beating heart his heart ever so slowly.
Stopped.
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"There is no hope to beat these wolves"
These are Marlin thoughts currently after failing to kill these wolves even after so many lives. Despite all his hard work and effort, it was still not enough. If a divine being were the one to reincarnate into this baby's body, they could beat those wolves but not him. He was just him.
He wasn't some master of warfare. The only thing he knew how to do was be a hunter. But the truth was that he wasn't that good of a hunter. He relied on his extremely strong body to hunt down those animals. His tracking skills as a hunter? He had none. He just had such an incredibly good nose. He just pretended to learn how to track animals down.
His body could run for days without any water or food in his past life. But he could do this without doing exercise. Although all of that sounded awesome there was one thing that was a big problem.
Throughout his whole life he had almost put in no effort. His body did everything for him and there was no need to train or gain any new knowledge. He had merely gained the position as the chief hunter in his village due to his monstrous body that even the best hunters from other tribes would cower in fear from.
Although he had lived for over 20 years in his life, he had not actually learnt any skills in his life that were not related to fighting. His actual medicine making skills was a joke. He didn't have a clue to how to weave even a basket. Plus, the only reason he knew that that type of berry bush next to him every time he is born was safe is because that bush is a very common bush that could be seen everywhere.
It seemed even more and more apparent over time that his learning skills were abysmal. He was lucky that he was at least knew how to throw a spear and fire a bow or otherwise he would probably just be a potato with no way to think for itself.
One thing Marlin hated about himself was that if he didn't have such a strong body what would've happened to him?
His parents both died when he was just a little kid and what sucks is that his tribe operated off of the rules of 'every man for himself'. This meant that whatever you hunted you owned and that meant that you didn't have to share with anyone.
Marlin wondered how this tribe had continued to survive with these rules but that didn't matter. What had mattered at the time to him was how to find food. Only by stumbling upon wolves chasing down a deer in a grass field did he see how these wolves hunt. He then used this hunting technique that no one else in the tribe used and managed to hunt game for himself without help from anyone else.
Marlin knew something was up with his body when he saw his first prey fall when he didn't even feel tired. This continued for a while but when his prey tried to fight back, he just punched them. He didn't feel scared at all or nervous he just did it.
Many people have been killed by wild boar in his tribe, but he could kill one with his bare hands at the age of 12. That is the moment his tribe was starting to fear his strength.
He just lived his normal life of killing, eating, sleeping then repeating the whole process again. People would die every so often, invaders would come, people would be born, there would be fights and many other things but the thing that hurt the most was his lack of friends.
Everybody feared him. Although he had never hurt any of them or gone out of his way to be a bully but had mostly been avoided by the people of his tribe. The only time they talked to him is when there were invaders or when there was a fight that people think would get out of hand.
And now he was in this baby's body being killed by wolves constantly without any way of fighting back or escape. After witnessing all these events Marlin had basically confirmed there was god in this world. Not some good god that was omniscient and helped everyone but a horrible one that decided to send him to this hell to torture him.
After that incident with the mushroom there was no hope in his eyes anymore. Every so often when he died, he would fight back but the fire that was oh so strong at the start had nearly extinguished.
After dying again at the hands of these wolves a sound suddenly ringed in his head.
[Achievement unlocked! Die 100 times]
[User is granted 1000 Points]
[Shop is now available]