The tiger could not fully comprehend human language but it did understand that Daren was mocking it. The tiger knew that this skinny-looking human was definitely making fun of him.
The tiger was furious as it had not a single meal all day and the first pray it finds really had the nerves to mock him.
The tiger takes one step forward, stops, and then takes a full-blown dash towards Daren. Anger and the slight hunger had taken control over his senses.
Daren just stood in his spot with both his hands behind his back. The tiger was accelerating fast from his original position that originally was over 100 meters.
Daren just stared the tiger right in its eyes until the moment it was only 1 meter away from him. Daren sidestepped with all his strength and speed and knocked himself right onto the ground.
The tiger was surprised by the sudden movement of his prey but before he could realize it, his own face had smacked into a tree with full force. His own speed and the hardness of the tree had caused him to almost lose consciousness.
Before the tiger could recover his stability, Daren jumped up and took Alex's family dagger, which was in his back pocket, and stabbed the tiger straight through the skull.
The brain of the tiger had stopped functioning the next second as Daren had pulled out the dagger with the same swiftness as he had stuck it in with.
The tiger had thought that Daren was underestimating him but the reality was much crueler to him. It was the tiger underestimating Daren the entire time.
'I should have been more patient and tried to play with my pray like I usually do. Why was I so foolish and agitated.' These were the last thoughts of our friend, the tiger, also known as the first meal of our MC in this world.
Now how did our MC pull off such an upset? It's not because of plot armor but the personal skills that Daren had honed through his 6969 years and the newfound knowledge.
As soon as Daren had gotten sight of the tiger, he went through the memories of our dear Alex and found out that this tiger was known as a Blupa Tiger. The Blupa Tiger species were not that smart and had very obvious behavior patterns. When the tiger would find prey that was intimidated by him, he would always take it slow and play with it before eating.
If the prey was arrogant, the tigers would feel insulted and attack without hesitation as they did not think an arrogant prey deserved to live any longer.
Daren also learned that the trees with the Googoon Lagoon Forest were insanely hard and would not even chip unless a high-quality sword hit it with immense force. There was also the dagger that Melina buried Alex with since for some reason she felt that she was still deserving to be part of his family.
All of this information, plus the fact that one of Daren's 69 lives was that off an assassin with 78 years of endless killings under his belt had honed his battle sense and situational decision making.
"So much juicy meat-looking meat!" said Daren while slicing apart the beast. Good thing he had a life where could be a butcher for 17 years. "Whoa. What is this thing ."
Daren pulled out a ball-shaped crystal from the heart of the tiger. It shined with a blue and purple luster and looked like a fancy treasure of sorts. It was the size of a tennis ball.
That's when another of Alex's memories kicked. Being a scholar did truly make Alex very knowledgeable about the things on this continent.
'So this is what a 'Force Core '. Absorbing it makes you increase the number of forces in your body and helps you gain physical strength or magical capacity at a higher rate.'
Daren put the core onto the ground and kept a note in his mind on what he was planning to do with it. Daren goes around finding dry sticks and some stones. He uses it to make a makeshift campfire.
By rubbing stones and dry branches together, Daren starts a spark and uses that to start his mini roasting station. While he was scouring for branches, Daren has scouted the nearby area and made sure there were no more beats near.
'It's a good thing that all these beasts are very territorial and don't invade the hunting ground of each other until days later to make sure there are not any threats. This order is maintained by the smarter beasts that are also stronger than others.'
As the meat starts cooking, Daren sits down next to the fire to warm up and wait. He starts settling his thoughts and starts to make plans for himself in a world that is inherently different from his original one.
In his original world, he had a goal of destroying everything and setting forth chaos. Now that the original goal had been finished. He had to create a new goal for himself or else he would just live uselessly. Daren didn't want that.
Daren wanted to contribute in whatever way he could. Whether it was creation or destruction, he didn't want to be a burden to existence itself. When he was in his original world, Daren often asked what his subordinates had before going to the dark side.
They had always replied with wanting to live a happy life with family, for fame, for success, for riches. Some had wanted to help poor people and others wanted to build an empire for themselves to rule.
At that time, Daren had many people to talk to. Many would ask him for life advice but he would usually not give any since he knew that a man like him should not advise others.
Now Daren felt alone. He did not have anyone to confide in or ask for some simple advice for life goals.
Daren always felt a small bit of guilt when he saw what he was doing to the universe. At the end of the day, he had accepted his evil nature and decided to continue with his plan.
As a joke, Daren decides to system his question as he remembered that it sounded quite human-like. He wasn't expected the response he received though.
"Should we build a massive empire and conquer all the lands or should I rule the world in the shadows using money and a league of assassins? What do you suggest system?"
The voice as sweet as honey once again resounded in Daren's ear and said "I don't really care what you do. My job is just to help you get stronger but I don't mind giving suggestions."
Daren: "0_0"
Daren's pause surprised face did not faze the system at all as she continued to speak.
"Logically speaking, the empires on this continent have been established for a long time so it should be too much of a headache to topple them. They have countless political talents keeping them stable and many strong individuals serving as deterrents for enemies and many allies that they built strong ties with over the years. I would suggest you go with building a shadow organization since it's easier to form and maintain."
Daren was surprised once again on this first day of his but he didn't remain like that for long since he now felt less lonely than a few moments ago.