The Anti-Heat Protein produced by the tentacle had allowed Jack to barely feel any significant pain, only gentle brushes over his skin alongside the enveloping warmth of the flame on his hand.
He rushed to the nearby river and drenched his tentacle and hands with cold water. Though apparently, it didn't stop the kerosene getting constantly secreted with the mucus, keeping the flame alive right after it came in contact with oxygen.
He then attempted to remove the fire by retreating his tentacle back to the digital storage of Sephiroth. But when he deployed it again, his face shifted into a deadpan as the flames were still there.
Jack could control the kerosene adulteration so that the flame on his tentacle was weaker, but he wasn't able to fully extinguish it. Perhaps there was some chemical mixture that could interrupt the combustion from happening but Jack didn't know any. He hardly even remembered the periodic table.
He kneeled to the ground, as he said a good bye to his primal style of traveling.
"Wait! Maybe if I constantly experiment on it, I'll learn how to extinguish it eventually as time passes by!"
Just like that, he got his motivation back.
[As simple minded as an actual monkey, Jack.]
"Hey! It's all in the mindset!"
As his tentacle burned like an eternal torch, he managed to keep it on low heat as he kept it back to his tailbone, trying to constantly experiment with the adulteration of the kerosene.
At one point, he turned the mucus into an explosive instead. The forest coughed up another cloud of smoke as Jack felt his butt burn as repercussions.
[Petra Tentacle's Health> 90%(-10)]
Thankfully, the Anti-Heat Protein prevented any further damage. His life was saved, but his improvised clothes weren't.
"Right, I'm naked again." Jack just went along with the flow as he patted his rear from soot. "There was nothing to hide anyway."
With a dissatisfied stare into the emptiness, he was forced to walk by land and always kept his tentacle up and not touch the ground, and basically from anything that could be set aflame, or else he would cause a severe deforestation.
After a prolonged and depressing walk, he finally reached the same glade again. Most of the materials were still there except the ones that got wrecked by the fight of the Cube Slime and the Players back then.
"Well, this rejuvenates my mood for a little bit." He grinned in content as he was reunited with his tools again. "The pork meat is spoiled but at least I got the tusks."
With the safest route mapped within his head, he traveled back and forth twice while transporting his belongings and resources into the ruins in front of the mysterious giant entrance east from where he was. Before dusk had arrived, he hunted another forest boar to sate his black hole of stomach. Preferably, to replenish his stamina.
"I still haven't got the species name of the boar I killed because it was already dead, even before realizing that it had been attacked."
[I bet that the name would be something funny again.]
Jack then remembered that there was a notification on his first boar hunt, he was just too distracted by Sephiroth's remarks.
"Oh right, we did get the notification." Jack wryly sneered. "It's Boara if I'm not wrong."
[Oh, I didn't catch that either. My processor is too preoccupied on reconfirming your sentence back then.]
"I think that is the sign. You're old."
[I shall keep this as a lesson in the future.]
Jack gave the effort to get back and transported the skinned body and went back to his camp twice. There was supposed to be more material and meat left behind but when he got back for the third time, another large predator had stolen his prey's remains.
With everything set, Jack created another bonfire. This time, the process of kindling the flame was a lot easier with the abilities of Petra Tentacle to just set things ablaze.
Strangely, a lot less creatures roamed within the vicinity of the ruin. As Jack slowly roasted his pork meat with plentiful herbs and spices that he tasted raw one by one on his travels, he decided to finally make use of the large pelt for something.
With pride and satisfaction, he was able to turn it into wearable pants and a warm cloak. Jack's creativity was at its peak.
So in the pursuit for his artistic sense, he added the tusks as an armament and accessory, making it more intimidating and also telling the people who saw him wearing the cloak to immediately think of a child barbarian.
[You're having fun, Jack.]
"I am?" Jack snuggled in his leather cloak as the deployed Petra Tentacle was still aflame in the background. "Maybe I am. Although, I don't think I'll be having fun for long if that damn specter bigger than the damned mountains pays me a visit like last time."
[You don't look like you're worried about it though.]
With a laxed expression, he tilted his head. "Mostly because I have nothing to lose. If it does appear again, I'll just act accordingly to survive.
"Tomorrow we will be exploring the mysterious cave if nothing significant happens. There could be a relic or hidden treasure of this world that I could utilize or use as a Mutagen."
[It has only been two days since you've awakened. Most people would probably freak out or die. A scenario where it would usually take a normal person somewhere around a week or a month even to adapt, you did it in just two days.]
Jack stared at the bonfire in front of him for a moment, hearing the crackling and popping before breaking out into howling laughter.
"Hahahaha! Oh, Sephiroth, you don't get it, don't you?" Despite his child-like appearance, the way Jack laughed was rather reminiscent of a grandfather cackling over an innocent question his grandchild asked. "Well, let me tell ya a little something that I learned from my time before meeting you.
"Living beings, whether it is people, animals. Haah, they don't really realize their eyes, ears, everything in their head, it's all just going apeshit and chaotic because nothing is really going their way exactly as they planned.
"They care for the outside, which is reasonable but not if they forgot their own body part that was desperate to grasp onto something.
"If only those types of lads and lass realize that every second matters, that everything personal, like your health and mental well-being matters. Most terrible things could've been prevented. Not all, of course. But, it could increase the probability.
"You need to convince yourself before diving into the lake that you'll hit the shallow water, eventually crushing your skull. But most of the time? Heh, it's the lake that dives into you.
"Obviously, you can't convince yourself to do this and that when there is only a short amount of time. It's only when you realize that you're going to struggle, and perhaps put in more effort than what you're comfortable with, everything that's going inside your head will slowly calm down.
"By then, they would try to figure out a solution before you try and make that jump. Faster than what they truly thought.
"And most of the time, the solution is to cool your head down." Jack chuckled at the end of his speech. Sephiroth audibly grunted inside Jack's brain.
[Your message was lost in translation, Jack.]
"Or maybe you just got really dumb after losing most of your core processors." He playfully pointed his forefinger into the air.
[Don't make me regret saving you, Jack.]
"Heh, too bad, Sephiroth. Too bad."
After Jack was sure that the pork was done, he assembled a buffet for himself. He, who appeared like a rabid child in the woods, dined like a fine king. It may not have been the most luxurious meal to the richest aristocrat, but to Jack who had forgotten how it felt to chew anything but his spit in the white void, it felt like he was in heaven.
Jack rested for a while before working out to see if he could use the consumed material to strengthen himself. He did a burst of long reps of push ups, sit ups, and pull ups with some other calisthenics workout until he was dead tired.
"Yup," said Jack as he was laid helplessly on the floor. "That is enough exercise for today."
Having two sources of light within the vicinity, he tried to fall asleep, calling it the end of the day.