After defeating the Ippikiōkami I was relieved that everything went good. Although it is a special race and more powerful than a normal wolf over the time the special bloodline of these wolfs lost their power, because there were almost no direct descendants, so the blood running in these creatures wasn't pure anymore, strongly limiting the power of the special bloodline that resulted from the forbidden magic.
They weren't as powerful, but now they could live longer, so it was basically like the wolves were reverting back to their original form.
"Now let's see."
I cut off the flesh from the body of the Ippikiōkami and made a fire, it wasn't really risky to do so, because it was a very bright day, so you wouldn't see it as easily as in the dark.
Luckily for me I had a phase, when I was about 12 years old, where I was really into watching survival videos, imagining myself in such a situation was one of the things I loved to do. Well I couldn't have known that I would really be in such a situation in my lifetime.
"First let's skin it."
I took my knife and used it to carefully and slowly cut open the wolf. I cleanly cut it off off the bones of the wolf and put it on a stone near me. When I had enough meat for a good meal I quickly took the rest of the wolf and walked away from my place until I found a suitable place.
I dug a whole big enough and then I threw the rest of the wolf into it. I closed the hole and got back to the place I put the meat down. I don't want any monster to smell the corpse and come here until I am done, that would be bothersome.
"Now let's quickly make a fire."
I took a few stones and placed them in a way to form a circle, then I quickly grabbed some sticks from the ground and put them into the circle.
Now the basics was done.
I picked up a rather thick, suitable stick and put it down in the middle of the campfire. With the strength and speed I gained it was easy to get a fire started, then got the meat and held it over the campfire. After a few minutes it was done and while the second part was also getting heated up I started eating.
"Hm I guess it's okay."
Nothing out of the ordinary it tasted worse than the meat made at home in my previous world. But that was only to be expected I mean I am lucky enough to even just know a little bit about surviving in the wild by myself.
"I'm full."
I ate all of the meat I prepared and was completely full. I am probably going to get used to the taste if I stay here for a few weeks or months.
After finishing everything and getting ready to continue going deeper into the forest I was walking down in a direction, where I didn't know what would await me.
I walked around the forest for a few weeks and while I was honing my skills with the bow and sword I was fighting with monsters every day. I didn't meet any special creatures like the Ippikiōkami I met on the first day in the forest, but I was able to eat meat every day.
I was walking along a river for a while now and I was hoping to get to a mountain range.
"This is fun."
I was happy, although it wasn't something anyone would normally ever describe as happy I found myself in situations, where I had to hide, fight for my life and explore the forest.
Over the time I had been hurt a few times, but it wasn't anything serious. I wasn't really careless I just didn't have enough experience when fighting against new kinds of monsters.
The deeper I got into the forest the more I felt like I was getting lost. I know that if I were to follow the river back to where I came from I would be able to get back to the part near Raiken, but other than that it was really hard to see anything really special.
As my skill with the bow rose I was also getting more accurate with the bow, my basic tactic was to shoot the monsters in one of their limbs as to limit their movements as much as possible and then kill them with the sword.
I could have probably had a way easier time just aiming at their head, but that would be exactly against the rules I set myself, wouldn't it? I mean one of my biggest wishes I have is to have fun and while fighting I feel an adrenaline rush, that let's me feel like I am really doing something productive.
I am not some madman who get's crazy from killing people and I am also not emotionless, but just having the ability to live like this is so nice that I am getting happy, just by thinking about it.
Maybe in the future I'll have to fight for some bigger purpose, but right now I don't want to think about the future, I am just thinking about the present. As long as I am able to get stronger and explore this world I think I definitely made the right decision to come here, even when thinking of all my friends and my family.
While walking alongside the river I looked in front irritated by the shadow that was appearing to get bigger and bigger although it was still in the middle of the day.
"Wait!?"
In front of me I saw a mountain range, I didn't notice it until now, but I was seemingly nearing the end of this endless forest. It was still a few days away, but it was really interesting to finally see something other than trees all day long. At that moment I had a weird feeling and followed my instincts pulling my sword and getting ready to block a hit from behind.
"Huhhh."
I was able to block the attack, but I had been thrown a few meters away from where I just stood. In front of me, there was a huge bear, it was about 3 meters tall and was just standing there, menacingly.