Now we return to the reality our protagonist Johnny is facing...
He was starving.
Since his body reformed on his way to this world, he hadn't eaten anything, and by the looks of it, he didn't start with anything in his stomach either.
"The tiger came from this passageway, so the exit must be that way..."
He thought aloud. It was his fervent wish that the tiger was the only strong monster in this cave. He would be in a great deal of trouble otherwise. He wasn't in any condition to hold off a prolonged encounter, let alone one against something stronger than that cat.
The thought of strength brought the stats screen to his attention. He never paid much attention to it, as most of his focus was directed at the immediate usefulness of the inventory, and the urgent need to find food and water. He selected the "Stats" option on the left side of the screen.
"Hmmm..."
He mulled over the numbers in front of him as he navigated the passageway to the surface. His brows furrowed as his eyes wandered down the list.
"Strength... 0."
"Stamina... 0."
"Agility... 0."
"Intelligence... 0."
"Mana... 0."
So this world has magic. Good to know.
"Durability... 0."
"Regeneration... 0 (+1 x 10000%)."
"Luck... 0."
Johnny nodded his head, now that he fully understood his situation. It made sense now, how he had survived.
"LIKE HELL IT DOES!!!"
"HOW THE HELL AM I STILL ALIVE!!!"
He roared in disbelief at the ceiling of the tunnel. That goddess spared no efforts in ensuring his eternal suffering! Was she mad at him or something? What did he do to deserve zeros on all of his stats?
Of course, she would send him without any good stats! If she left him unconscious in the middle of the god damned wilderness, without food or water or even nearby shelter, then she CERTAINLY wasn't going to give him good stats.
"WHAT WAS I THINKING!"
Johnny halted his progress to beat his head on the cave wall. He couldn't understand why he had to be dumped into this world, with nothing save for a chiseled body, and the ragged, bloody clothes he wore.
Was she angry about how he insulted her back then? He pulled his hair, vexed by the goddess's pettiness, his anger reminiscent of his speedrunning days back in his old world. After letting out his frustration, he further examined the stats screen.
"Oh, what's this?"
Two words at the top of the screen caught his attention. In bold, they both read:
"Hero."
"Apostle."
-
"10000% increase to all stats when death appears certain... and the gift of mana manipulation..."
Johnny read the tooltips for the apostle and hero titles. So this is how he survived.
The plus one that was added to his regeneration was a complete mystery, but apparently, it had been amplified by the effect granted by the Hero title, the "Last Stand" buff, which granted a 10000% increase to all stats when on the brink of death. The effect must have activated when he was dying out on the plains. "Last Stand" would be a lifesaver, for sure.
The effect for the Apostle title, however... was pointless. As he possessed no mana, there wasn't much use for it. Seriously, the goddess had it out for him with these janky buffs and stats, no question about it.
Despite his luck stat, he was rather fortunate, he mused. The fact that he had defeated the tiger, as well as narrowly surviving dehydration and starvation out in the open were both quite the accomplishments, all things considered.
Speaking of, what was the deal with that tiger anyway? It went through all the trouble of bringing him here, and only decided to kill him when he accidentally walked into it. If it wanted to kill him, why not do it in the plains, then bring him back? Did he do something to make it angry?
He stopped pulling his hair to continue along the passageway. He tried to piece together what had happened so far, but he was left stumped at every turn. All he could do was chalk it up to luck, but that assumption contradicted his non-existent luck stat.
There wasn't much time to dwell on the puzzling encounter, as the exit to the cave neared.
-
It was nighttime outside. The sun was setting when he had fallen unconscious, so it followed that the night would be around the corner when he woke up. This world had roughly the same day-night cycle as Johnny's world, or so it seemed.
A prolonged groan from his stomach reminded him of his mission. Food. It was dark, so how was he going to get any. The torch he had dropped from before illuminated a small orb of space about six or so meters around him, but beyond that, the aura of light was stretched too thin to make anything out. If he were to find anything to eat out in the forest, it would be nearly impossible to do so.
Johnny let out a long, anguished sigh. At this point, he stopped asking whether it could get any worse. It was par for the course now, and thanks to the goddess, it didn't seem like it would get better any time soon, what with his abysmally low stats.
He checked his inventory once more, hoping that a miracle had blessed him with a four-course meal for him to satisfy his hunger. His clothes, sword, torch, and the ten stacks of grass he had gathered from some time ago stared blankly back at him.
For now, all he could do was try to make a fire. It wasn't very cold at night, so it wasn't entirely necessary, but since he had a lit torch, it wasn't too much of a problem to do, and a good idea to begin with.
The forest provided ample firewood, as one would expect. He went to work in gathering as much as he could. Most of his previous life as a child was spent in seclusion. In high school, he never did anything in the way of clubs, and any time there was a school trip, he would stay home and read, or play games. The bugs, hard work, and companionship that came along with the field trip didn't interest him, as he was too preoccupied moping about his inadequacy.
He regrets doing that, of course, now that he was in the wild outdoors, with nothing for food, and even less for fire starting.
Within half an hour, a pile of small branches and twigs lay at Johnny's feet. He had to remove the sword from his inventory, otherwise, the twigs he gathered would merely slip out of his hands from the weight limit effect. The sword stood near the entrance to the cave, driven into the ground. On the crosstrees hung his slimy clothes, which were still coated in the green liquid from the cave.
"Okay, now let's throw all this grass onto it... and light it..." He thought aloud.
Minutes later, the smoking grass caught fire, as did the twigs. The little fire illuminated his nearly naked form. He still wore his boxers, but he had taken off the rest to relieve himself of the close, slimy feel of the fabric against his skin.
After several minutes in this state, Johnny had quickly come to a conclusion.
Being naked in the middle of a dark forest is pretty nice, he thought to himself.
The freedom to do what he wanted was certainly enviable. Other than the twinges of pain from the hunger pangs, it wasn't too bad. It could be worse, though he desperately hoped that nothing else came along to add to his convoluted tangle of misery...
-
The body that laid deep inside the cave stirred.
Igrud had awakened from her dream. Her head pounded from the massive lump the sword had left on her forehead. Her vision was blurred from the impact, and it was somewhat difficult to keep her balance as she stood up from the cave floor.
Where did the human go? The last thing she remembered was a stinging sensation in her eye and the sword that had disappeared into a wisp of smoke, moments before impacting her head.
She drew the other sword from the sheath on her back. She had to kill the human. If he made it back to the master, it would be the end of her secluded life in the forest. They would come for her and take her back to the darkness of the pens.
The tigerkin staggered towards the entrance, dragging her spare long sword along in one hand as she clutched her head with the other.
-
Johnny awoke from his slumber. As there wasn't any food to be had, he tried to sleep through his hunger. Fortunately, he made it through the night, and into the morning without waking up.
"Uggggh, it's even worse today."
He doubled over on his side from the pain in his stomach.
"Something, anything, just a little food to ease this pain." He groaned.
He opened his eyes and turned over to lay flat on his back.
"???"
A sword point was mere centimeters away from his face. The tiger was back. Its eyes were narrowed, completely intent on the task of driving the sword point directly between his.
"Well, shit."
-
Johnny laid there, almost completely naked as the tiger held him at sword point. How long had it been there! Johnny was unsure of what to do. He was defenseless, and while he was on his back, there was no way he could escape. He was done for this time.
Several tense minutes passed, and there was no movement between the two of them.
"Is it... not going to kill me?"
Johnny was confused. He examined the tiger closely. It was trembling. Was it scared? No, its face doesn't look that way... that is, its fuzzy face didn't anyway.
He slowly pushed himself backward away from the sword. There was no response. The only detectable movements Johnny could see were the trembling of the tiger's legs and arms. It remained motionless, though its eyes followed his retreat. They were red, bloodshot from lack of sleep.
"Ahaa!"
He exclaimed. It was the settings he changed on the collar! It must have tried to kill him, and it stopped it from moving before it could finish the deed! That had to be what happened!
Wait, but if it's trembling, that must mean... oh, it's been standing there for a very long time. Possibly... all night long?
Johnny empathized with the tiger. How many hours did it have to stand over him with that heavy sword? And... how long had it spent looking at his naked body? He had mixed feelings about that idea. He felt terrible for putting it in this situation but was equally creeped out by the idea that it had watched him the entire time, still as a statue, staring at him with those piercing, bloodshot eyes, while it held him at sword point, all while he slept.
"So... uh... how the hell do I release the collar's effect..."