Chapter 3
20 years later
Jak can be seen sitting in his hut, on his bed, in a crossed leg sitting position with his eyes closed, trying to feel the mana in his surroundings. After a few hours, he sighs and stops, as he gets up from his position, planning to go out into the woods. Only this time, he had decided to go farther out than he usual. He had always hunted in a 2-mile radius of his camp, where there are mostly small and medium sized predators like wolves, boars, and others. He had not met any magical beasts that one would see in a fantasy world, at least like the ones he read about. Other than hunting and trying to feel the mana in the air, he's also been practicing his crafting whether it be stone tools, clothes, and weapons.
Now, he could be seen wearing some wolf hide on his shoulders, and a skirt that made it to his thighs around his waist. He also had some wrapped around his forearms and his shins. His hair has also grown out some more, both on his head and his face. He had tried to keep his beard short by cutting it with his stone knives, but they could only do so much short of cutting himself. He then makes his way out of his makeshift house and to a nearby bin made of wood. He then opens the lid to see a bow, a quiver with arrows in it, a stone knife about 10 inches long, and a makeshift bag. He grabs each of them, placing the knife on his side, the quiver on the back of his waist, the bag on his back, and lastly the bow which he held in his hands.
He then begins to walk through the forest, causing his mind to wander a bit to what he had learned about while hunting in the forest. In the 2-mile radius, he could only find beast like wolves and rabbits, and he had never been attacked while at his camp. He had tried leading a wolf to his camp to see the effect, and the wolf just seemed to lose track of him as he made it to his camp. When Jak learned this, he felt a lot more secure, so when he was out and got attack by more wolves than he could handle, he would always run back to camp, his little safe zone.
Coming out of his thoughts, Jak walks through the forest stealthily, as he doesn't make a sound with his bow at the ready, arrow nocked. He then makes it to the 2-mile mark, he had placed earlier on, and passes it. He then walks through the woods for a good half an hour or so, but with no movement or noise around him, causing him to become confused. Usually, when he would walk into the wolf's territory, they would at least try to scare him away with howls. Now, however, he couldn't even hear the birds chirping or crickets croaking.
He walks for a few more minutes till a bush nearby begins to rustle, causing Jak to pull back the arrow on his bow and aim it at the bush. He stares the bush down for a minute, but nothing comes out. He sighs, believing he might be a bit paranoid, seeing he was scared by the wind, but then he feels danger behind him. After hunting for so long, he had acquired a sense when something was about to attack him. He quickly turns around to see a wolf pouncing in his direction. Jak instinctively blocks the wolfs mouth with his bow as he is tackled to the ground by the wolf.
He then kicks the wolf a good shove, causing it to fly backwards a few feet landing on its feet. Jak then stands up and nocks an arrow pulling it back quickly, aiming at the wolf when he sees 2 more wolves come out from the bushes behind the one that just attacked. This causes Jak to grimace a bit, as he begins to think on a plan to take the 3 of them on, but is startled out of his thoughts as the 3 wolves bark at him. This causes Jak to be confused till he is hit by an invisible force that sends him flying. He drops his bow, and the arrow, as he flies backwards till he hits a tree, knocking the breath out of him as he lands on the ground face first. He quickly begins to try and regain his breath as he hears the wolves' steps coming closer.
He could even hear his heart beating in his ears, as he moves one of his hands to his waist, grabbing his stone knife. He waits for a few seconds, while catching his breath, till he could hear the wolves breathing, before he quickly used his hands to bounce off the ground while aiming his knife at the nearest wolf. He plunges the knife into its neck, while moving his other arm around its neck, trying to lock it into position. Sadly, this gave the wolf the opportunity to bite into Jaks shoulder, causing Jak to cry out in pain.
Through the pain, Jak clenches his teeth and begins to stab the neck of the wolf over and over again. At the sight of this, the other 2 wolves seemed to be stunned, as they didn't make a move and just watched from a few feet away. As he stabbed the wolf, the pain in his shoulder started to slowly fade away as he and the wolf both fell to the ground, causing him to stop stabbing the wolf. He then pushes the wolf off him as he slowly stands up, covered in his own blood, mixed with the wolves. The 2 wolves whine at the sight of this before dashing off into the woods. This causes Jak to sigh with relief as he falls on his butt, and begins to catch his breath while the pain from his shoulder comes back.
Jak sits there for a few minutes, as he feels the pain in his shoulder slowly fade away. After all this time, Jak knew that his wish for not dying gave him an unprecedented healing ability. Though it didn't come with a pian dampener, as he so wished he had asked for one, but it did help him a whole lot. When he was done healing, he then moved to grab his bow and then went up to the now dead wolf. He then picks it up and carries it on his shoulders, as he then treks his way back the way he came. While walking, he couldn't help but feel a bit excited as he remembered the fight with the wolves. 'That was magic.' is what he was thinking as he had finally confirmed there is magic in this world. He had nearly thought that he was placed in a world without magic, seeing that his training had no effect on him.
Making his way back to camp, with no incident, he then begins to cut up the wolf he killed. This time though, he cut every part of the wolf off, not just the meat and hide, as he seemed to be looking for something. In the books he read, beast that could use magic has something called a core, which allowed them to use magic. Jak was hoping that maybe the core would help him to feel magic more easily. So, when he finished cutting the wolf up, he finally found a bead like object inside the wolfs heart. It was very small, but Jak didn't care as a smile was plastered on his face. He then washed up, saved the usable parts of the wolf before rushing into his house, hoping the core could help him.
He then sits crossed legged on his bed, and holds the core in his hand as he once again tries to feel the magic in the core. Sadly, this had no effect, as Jak stopped after 3 hours of nothing. He sighs as he places the core by his bed and goes out to cook him some food. He then eats then heads to bed, planning on going to hunt some more wolves as he thinks 'Maybe with more cores will help.'. What he didn't know was that there was a small trace energy seeping out of the core and making its way into Jaks body. He had been in this new world for a while now, but what he didn't know is that his movements and strength were far more than the regular man.
Right now, he could move as fast and as long as an Olympic runner. His strength could beat nearly any average man. He had always thought his strength, stamina and speed were average, but that was the furthest from the truth. He had been eating the world life of this new world, and even though they didn't have magic cores, they had been in this world long enough where they had a small amount of magic in their bodies, to which Jaks body unconsciously absorbed over time. That is what caused his increase in strength, speed, and stamina. Now, an even purer source of energy that was nearby, causing his body to unconsciously absorb the energy from it.
Jak then wakes up the next morning feeling refreshed, as he sits up on his bed and begins to stretch his arms as he yawns. He then gets up and looks next to his bed to see the core still there. He nods as he walks out of the house, grabbing his supplies, plus some raw met, and then heading out. This time, being a bit more cautious as he passes the 2-mile mark. He then places the 3 pieces of ram meat on the ground, before climbing up a tree nearby. He then nocks an arrow and pulls it back as he keeps watch on the 3 pieces of meat.
An hour later, Jak sees movement near the meat, as he looks over with his eyes, keeping his arrow aimed at the meat. He sees a wolf slowly walking around the meat, being quite careful not to make a sound as it walked around the meat for a few minutes. After seeing no danger nearby, it then made its way to the meat. It then sniffed the meat a bit before licking it then standing still. A minute later, it raised its head and opened its mouth, but no noise came out. Then, the nearby by bushes began to rustle causing Jak to look over to see 2 more wolves coming out.
This causes Jak to breath in a deep, silent breath as he aims his arrow at the first wolf. He then waits for the other 2 wolves to get to the meat, as the 3 of them begin to eat the meat, before releasing the first arrow, while quickly nocking the next arrow, moving the bow to aim at one of the other wolves, then releasing the arrow again. He goes to nock the third arrow, as the first pierce through the first wolf head, making it fall down instantly, causing the other wolves to startle and move a bit, making the second arrow hit the wolfs in it front shoulder. The uninjured wolf runs off at the sight of the second wolf being hit, as the second wolf whines as it also tries to run, but stumbles and falls.
Jak aims the arrow at the wolf, finishing it off with the third arrow, before heading down and grabbing the two wolves, after retrieving what's left of his arrows, and then quickly leaving the area. After seeing how cautious the wolf was, and how it made no sound, plus his first encounter with the wolves, he began to think that these wolves had some kind of intelligence. He didn't want to stick around and wait for the other wolf to call reinforcements, so he lifts each wolf on each a shoulder and then he begins runs back the way he came.
He then makes it to base, as the sun begins to set, as he begins to cut open the 2 wolves. He was surprised to find only 1 of the wolves has a core in them. He then realized that not all the wolves he would kill would have a core, so he would have to work a lot harder if he wanted more cores. He then brings the core to his room, after saving the good parts of the wolfs, and takes a core in each hand, as he tries to feel the magic in the air. Once again, he wasn't able to feel anything, causing him to sigh, placing the cores to the side, as he lays down, planning to take an early rest so he could get up and go hunting earlier in the morning.