After about 10 minutes of swinging, Matthew finally arrived at the new area according to his minimap. Although he didn't see any animals yet, Matthew didn't panic like before because he knew that the animals roamed around the forest and didn't stay in one place.
As per standard when exploring a new area, Matthew changed his skin color to the same green as the grass in the area to camouflage. Matthew knew that he is quite formidable right now, he was able to deal with wolves and crocodiles, what can a group of deers and boars do to him? But just in case he meets other creatures that he hasn't seen before, he doesn't want to be careless and expose himself to the unknown.
'Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen any other insect-type animals around this area. The spider webs are non-existent, the mantises and the beetles are also nowhere to be found, where are they?'
As Matthew tread even deeper into the forest, he finally meets another creature, which is a group of deers that is currently eating leaves from a plant.
Matthew then looked at the group of deer for a second or two and decided to just let them do their things peacefully and not bother them at all. Even though Matthew now could easily kill a deer, especially using his aura ability. He decided to not do that since first, he will be wasting his time and his aura. Second, he already got 100% monster data from the deers and besides, Matthew already has an abundant amount of food back home at his nest waiting for him to eat for the next few days.
If he decides to hunt a deer and bring it back home, not only Matthew will enlarge his food preservation problem back home and he will also have to spend time dragging it to his nest.
Matthew then circled around the deer a little bit to avoid getting their attention because he is currently only using his skin color changing ability, and with his huge body, he is afraid that the deer will notice him if he walks too close to them.
Matthew continued his journey forward expanding his minimap even further. The once small minimap that only showed a small plot of land where Matthew was born, the minimap now already expanded about 20 times larger than when Matthew first found out about the minimap function.
Even though the map now looked like it was elongated sideways rather than expanded outwards evenly because Matthew explored the forest in one direction from the lake to the wolf's den and straight to the new area rather than circling around the lake. And even right now, he is still going in a straight direction in his journey to the new area.
As Matthew continued his journey, he also met a group of boars, but he decided to give them the same ignoring treatment just like he did with the deers and just went on forward.
The forest trail doesn't really look different from one area to the other. The grounds are filled with huge trees and their roots often blocking Matthew's way, Matthew also often found bushes with berries in a lot of places, there are also a lot of tall patches of grass along the forest and Matthew often walked through them since it helped his camouflage to blend in with the environment better.
Matthew walked through the forest with minimal expectations of discovering something interesting other than meeting the deers and the boars. Although Matthew refused to believe that there are only deers and boars in this huge forest, he didn't want to get his hopes up only to be sad when he failed to find anything interesting or even any new creatures that he hadn't seen before.
He continued on walking for another 30 minutes and didn't meet any other creatures besides the boars and deers from earlier, and he started to think that he should end today's exploration and try his luck again tomorrow.
'D*mn it! I regret hyping myself even a little bit hoping to find something at least remotely interesting or even meeting other animals other than the deers or the boars. But so far, it looks like they are the only residents of this forest.' Matthew complained slightly in his mind
But before Matthew wanted to climb up a tree to swing on, he heard a faint noise ahead of him,
'eek eek eek'
'What is that? That surely doesn't sound like the deers or the boars...DID I FINALLY FOUND ANOTHER ANIMAL BESIDE THOSE TWO?'
The sound was quite familiar in Matthew's ear and he felt that he had heard them somewhere before.
'It is certainly something that I have never heard of in this world, but I think I heard a similar sound back when I was still a human living on earth.'
Matthew then heard the sound again and this time, he closed his eyes and tried to search inside of his memories to see if his brain is capable of matching the sound with animals that he knew.
After hearing the sound for the third time, Matthew can finally recall a certain animal that made this type of sound.
If his guess is correct, then it will be quite troublesome for Matthew since this type of animal lived in groups and they are considered smart, even sly among animals.
Rather than playing the guessing game, Matthew decided that he wanted to get closer and see it with his own eyes if the animals that made that sound were the ones that Matthew guessed in his mind.
To make sure that they didn't notice him, Matthew turned on his aura ability, but only until the blur stage to conserve his aura just in case there's an emergency situation. Matthew didn't know how good their eyesight is, but Matthew himself got excellent eyesight that enabled him to see them from quite a distance without having to get too close, and he believed that the blur stage would be enough for a quick peek at them.
Matthew then stayed still at his current place and connected to the glowing orb. After establishing the connection, Matthew manipulated them to go out of his body but just a little at a time to get the blur effect that he wanted. When he finally felt the aura seeping outside his body, Matthew made sure once again that his body is the same tone of green as the surrounding leaves and grass using his 360 degrees vision.
With the preparations complete, Matthew then finally started to inch closer to the source of the sound.
'If it really what I think it is, then I can finally be relieved knowing that there's not only boars and deers in this vast forest. But if it turns out to be a boar or a deer that for some reason made strange noises like that, I will kill them on the offense of getting my hopes up for nothing.'
When Matthew proceeded forward towards the sound, he saw nothing on the ground below, but after seeing something had been thrown at the ground from above, Matthew shifted his focus on the top of a tree and he finally found what he was looking for,
'YES! I'VE GUESSED IT RIGHT, THEY'RE MONKEYS!'
When Matthew looked up, he has finally seen the monkeys that was making those noises earlier, with some of them seem to be eating some kind of fruit while sitting on top of a tree branch, while the others were either running or jumping from a tree to another and some even just chilling while resting their bodies on the tree branches.
With Matthew's excellent eyesight, he could see that the monkeys are similar to the one that he had seen back on earth, with hair all over their body, 2 hands and 2 feet, and a long tail. But there are also some apparent differences that Matthew noticed. The nails on their limbs are quite long and almost look like claws, they also have 2 teeth that are similar to a fang protruding outside of their mouths, and the most notable difference is their agility and strength.
Matthew didn't really know if such monkeys exist back on earth, the one he remembered was only from the zoo that he visited when he was little and from the animal TV show that he watched, but Matthew is quite sure that he had never seen any monkeys that are able to jump a 10-meter long distance from one tree to the other without breaking a single sweat.
'They will surely be a pain in the backside if I have to deal with them. But with my aura ability active then maybe they won't be too much of a hassle.'
Matthew then stayed there for some time looking at the new creature that he had just discovered before deciding that it's enough for today's journey and it's time to go back and feast on the crocodile.
Matthew then slowly retreated backward and found a tall patch of grass to deactivate his aura ability. But before he controlled the aura to go back inside his body, Matthew noticed something was moving the grass near him.
Seeing that, Matthew quickly canceled the deactivation of the aura ability and stayed still to look at what creature was moving inside the same patch of grass near him.
Matthew waited patiently as he could see that whatever the creature was, it was slowly moving towards him. Before Matthew was able to see the creature, he heard a 'hiss' sound from the creature. By the sound of the creature, he kind of already knew what creature would be appearing in the next few seconds, but he decided to just stay still for now, to see for himself if it's true.
Matthew focuses his eyes on the direction of where the creature will be coming from, and after a few seconds, Matthew is finally able to see the creature's eyes. A pair of two greenish-yellow eyes with a black slit in the middle. And soon, its body also came into Matthew's sight, with a long and slender body, and green scales covering its legless body, Matthew is now 100% sure that the creature walking… or rather slithering in front of him is a snake.
Matthew held his breath as he didn't want the snake to notice him since being this close to a snake is not good for his heart because he never liked snakes ever since his time as a human. But Matthew is depending on his aura ability to cover him from being noticed by the snake, and he trusted that his aura ability won't betray him.
Matthew stayed silent and still when the snake slowly passed by him and when it finally passed by him, Matthew heaved a sigh of relief before he turned off his aura ability and wanted to quickly go back to his nest.
But alas, the moment Matthew turned off his aura ability, the snake stopped moving from his track, and it slowly turned back with its head facing straight into Matthew's direction.
With his 360 degrees and sharp eyes, Matthew of course noticed the pair of yellow eyes staring straight in his direction.
'Is that snake looking at me…? There's no way right? My skin color is still the same as the grasses near me.'
But the snake started to move slowly towards Matthew and it looks like the speed is increasing slowly by the second.
'Impossible! It's not like the snake has a heat sensor or something similar on its face right??'
'RIGHT?'
But the fact that the snake is now getting closer and closer to him said otherwise, and the snake had noticed him.
Matthew then sighed once again, but not of relief, and he commented on his mind,
'Ah shi...Whatever'