Matthew was about to go into the bear's burrow to borrow the place to get some rest and possibly a nice sleep after the long fight earlier that cost him practically all of his aura reserve. And the fight had also exhausted Matthew both physically and mentally.
For the last 30 to 45 minutes, Matthew had been constantly making important decisions that could cost Matthew his life, and he also made his body jump, run, dodge all over the place. Of course, Matthew's body was already at a point where he would fall asleep right away if he ever rested his head on the ground.
And that's also the reason why, although Matthew's stomach will really appreciate it if Matthew ate some food at this moment, the urge to rest and sleep is even greater than that, that even Matthew was able to forget about his stomach that had only digested two deers earlier in the day and it wasn't nearly enough to replenish his strength from the long fight earlier.
But just when Matthew was about to leave the bear's body unattended to catch some sleep, he suddenly heard the system's voice alerting him that the scanner function had picked up three creatures, 10 meters away from him.
'3 of them!? Is it the boars or the deers? But why did they suddenly appear right after the bear was defeated…? Wait, are they another wolf pack that lives around this part of the forest?'
Matthew was so tired earlier that he didn't have the capabilities to think that something would even try to snatch the bear that he had just hunted with great effort. But now that the scanner function had picked up three creatures near him, Matthew went into alert mode one more time and he wouldn't let the unknown creatures grab even a nibble from his dinner.
At least he would try to do that since he didn't know if he had the capabilities to do that in his current state.
The creatures were coming from the direction where Matthew should be exploring after he defeated the bear, and he still didn't know whether they would be a stronger or a weaker creature since he hadn't done his research about the division of animals in the forest.
If they are clearly a stronger creature than him, then Matthew had to grit his teeth really hard and leave the bear to buy him some time to escape, which means that he will be letting his prey be stolen once again just like before.
'With my exhausted body and mind, I don't even have the strength to properly come up with a solid fighting plan, and even if I do think of one, my body wouldn't be able to exert its full strength when doing it.'
'And if their strength is on the same or similar level with the bear, then without my aura, I wouldn't even be able to put up a decent fight against one of them, let alone three of them at the same time.'
And in a lucky chance where the creatures are weaker than him, then Matthew would only scare or harass them until they run away from the place. He was too tired.
But Matthew didn't dare to hope something good will happen to him. But instead, he prepared for the worst, yet the most realistic option right now, which is to give up on the bear and run away for the time being so that he could live for another day to return the favor that the thieves had given him this time.
'I really hate plotting another revenge like the one I did with the crocodiles since it was so burdensome to my mind, but if they really dare to steal my prey then so be it. I will even return the favors with bonus interest.'
Matthew locked his eyes in the direction where the system had detected the creatures from which was behind him and slightly to the left. Matthew also looked at the minimap on the corner of his vision to see the three red dots that represent the creatures that are still there.
Matthew slightly lowered his body position so that he could be ready to do any movements whichever it is either fight or flight depending on the intruders. Matthew also bent his knees, brought his hands halfway up, and kept his chameleon tail hung slightly above the ground to prepare for sudden movements like turning his tail to run or to instantly get into a pouncing position.
The creatures are currently behind thick bushes where the berries that the deers and the boars usually eat grow.
From the distance of 10 meters, the moment they came out of the bushes, Matthew would be able to identify them immediately.
It had already been about 10 seconds but Matthew hadn't seen anything yet. But Matthew kept his eyes peeled open to see what creature it was.
'It shouldn't be the deers since their antlers would already be sticking out for everyone to see if they were this close… Then they could be either the boars or the wolves, or they could be some animals that I had never seen before...'
'Come on, come out, don't make my heart uncertain by leaving me hanging like this, if you turn out to be a scary wolf or something, just come out and let me remember your faces so that I could give you a visit later on. And if you turn out to be cute little boars then we will have no business with each other and we could continue our own peaceful life.'
'So whatever you are, please just come out quickly, my mind has had enough for today and I just want to catch some sleep quickly.'
After waiting for another 15 seconds, Matthew finally saw the bushes shake slightly as if the creatures were going to go past them.
Matthew started squinting his eyes and focused on every little detail and movement in the bush. And finally, the creature's head is the first to pop out of the bushes.
With brown fur covering its head, and with a dog-like snout and ears, Matthew is sure now that it was a wolf's head. Matthew was about to turn his body 180 degrees and run as fast as he could, but before he even broke his eye contact with the wolf, Matthew saw a hand was also coming out of the bush.
'A hand???'
The hand was also covered in brown fur all over, and Matthew could also see claws at the end of the five fingers that the creature had instead of fingernails. Matthew stayed silent and halted his urge to run to safety so that he could see the creature's full body.
Matthew cautiously watched the wolf-like creature slowly come out of the bush. Starting from freeing its head from the clump of leaves, followed by 2 hands that were covered in brown fur, then a body that looked like a human body that was also covered in fur went along bringing a pair of legs that were also similar to a human's but had sharp claws on its 4 toes.
When the creature is finally out of the bush, Matthew could finally see a very familiar creature that he had seen before. But it wasn't the wolf or any creature in this new world. He had seen a very familiar creature like that back on earth.
Not in the woods nor in the jungles, but he had seen them on TV.
'ISN'T THAT A WEREWOLF!?'