{12 days before the breakdown.}
The sound of birds chirping and fire crackling.
"Ughhh." I rubbed my eyes and felt the throbbing pain at the back of my cranium. Opening my eyes felt like a legitimate hassle, but the fact that I had the ability to felt like a blessing.
My eyelids slowly parted to let the same cave from last night come into sight. It was a lot brighter now from the midday sunlight. The fire in the middle was redundant but still somehow running.
I ran my hands across my body to examine myself just in case. Last night was rough in many accounts, I would be fine even if I was in one complete piece.
Luckily, there was no wound on my chest. and the cuts in my arm seemed to have been healed as well. I was back to full health.
'Regeneration kicked in again.' I thought. This body of mine was turning more ludicrous by the second.
Anyways, no matter how good regeneration was, it was useless when facing psychological damage. The pain from last night was still all there.
"That woman did a real number on me, huh?"
'That woman' in question was nowhere to be seen. But at least she let me live. I hardened my foot and kicked the fire to closure.
Yesterday, after my fight with her, I realised that no matter how strong a normal person was, he would still be useless against an actual adventurer. Or whatever the hell 'that woman' was.
Oh well, I wasn't aspiring to be an adventurer.
It was another day. And because it was still day I had the opportunity to explore while being on the lookout for a guide.
I got out of the cave and started to look around. The sight from last night was no prettier in the morning. The trees were so dark you would mistake them for being burnt. The ground was covered in vile unkept grass that ranged from tiny to as tall as my waist. There were skeletons and carcasses of both humans, monsters, and animals alike.
It didn't look like hell as much as it looked like a decaying swamp.
The pure definition of disgust. Almost every corner of this place would make your stomach empty itself.
Nonetheless, I wandered outside.
Truth be told, it was revolting walking on the soft vile mud barefoot. It was much worse than accidentally stepping in manure. But my shoes fell off when my legs got shattered yesterday so the only thing I had to walk with was my naked feet.
All of a sudden, my left arm started to burn again. And to accompany that, my stomach started to rumble.
My body wanted breakfast.
'Reckon I would get stronger if I eat more monster meat? Or was that a one-time thing?' My mind wandered kind of hoping Liu would answer. 'No. Stop.' The only thing I should be thinking about was finding adventurers and getting out of here! Hunger is secondary!
Or at least that was the ideal. But swiftly the pang in my stomach got unbearable. It was either eat or go insane from hunger.
'Tch. Will I have to do this for every meal?'
Just as I was saying that my eyes fell on easy prey. A rabbit.
I dug my heel into the ground and took off.
I wasn't running for my life anymore, I was running to take another's life.
It quickly came to my attention that I was much faster than what I ran yesterday. Definitely because of the statistics that grimoire showed yesterday. Noticing my presence, the rabbit started running too.
My back bent forwards and my centre of mass was in front of my legs unlike yesterday when my entire body was the subject to my legs.
Looking at the rabbit run with all its strength made me remember myself from yesterday.
Except for the fact that it was a lot quicker than a rabbit and was way more aware of its surroundings than I was.
'A shame that it was dumb.'
I led the rabbit straight into my trap. The one tree from yesterday.
BUT THIS TIME I WAS SURE THAT IT WAS GOING TO WORK!
If it was a rabbit I was sure that I could kill it. There was no doubt in my mind. I had caught and hunted countless rabbits since I was a kid.
There was no way this would fail!
"Hardening!" While running I hardened my hand and pulled a couple of spines off the Silver Tree. I let my left leg do its thing as I rotated while sliding. Holding the spine as a dart, I whiplashed my arm propelling the spike forward at blazing speeds.
I shot the rabbit. One hit was all it took to kill the thing.
Continuing with the momentum, I ran to the rabbit.
I used the spine to tear its body apart before it exploded. I was sure it was a monster with a visible spine.
The reason why I immediately tore it apart was that tiny rabbit bits would have been hard to consume. From that moment on my gluttony took over. My hand started to turn red again.
I was about to consume the whole thing, but as soon as the rabbit lost all its life, my arm drained all its blood. It only looked more appetising dried up. Like aged beef.
I threw the rabbit meat in my mouth, and it tasted like perfectly salted jerky. As expected a grimoire started to float around me again as its pages started to unfold. Then a voice rang in my head.
[Unable to summon (Rabbit - H) due to lack of ****]
[Adding points.]
{ Agility - Eight/Ten - F }
[Due to consumption of meat, skills:
(Heightened Senses - D)
Have been gained.]
{(Heightened Senses - D) and (Night Vision) have combined to form (Natural Predator - C)}
Guess stats really do stack up.
As I gained the skill, the world around me got clearer. And the taste got sharper. I felt more ecstatic with every bite. But every meal came to an end.
I was satiated.
After the hunt, I started walking around aimlessly looking for people. Ideally, I would shout for attention, but that seemed a little dangerous considering that there were bigger, more frightening monsters in the area.
Or at least that's what 'Natural Predator' informed me of. So I just stuck to moving around the less dangerous parts of the woods.
Eventually, the time I spent roaming around came to a pause with no success. Even with my heightened senses, I couldn't find a human in sight. As if they had abandoned this place.
Anyways, it was time for lunch.
I hunted a rabbit again. Well, two of them in succession. And ate them.
[Unable to summon (Rabbit - H) due to lack of ****]
[Adding points.]
{ Agility - Ten/Ten - F }
Turned out that eating the same meat didn't mean that my skills would level up. The skills themselves had a cap. One that I didn't know how to break yet.
After that discovery, the aimless roaming continued. I didn't realise the sheer size of this area. It was offputting that after spending two days here, the only alive human I encountered was that woman in the cave.
I could tell that almost half of the Rottheim fort city's size must have been the training area. Nothing could justify its size otherwise.
With that conclusion, the remaining time I spent looking for people was fruitless. This place was too big after all.
I had dinner.
[Unable to summon (Rabbit - H) due to lack of ****]
[Adding points.]
{ Agility - Two/Ten - E }
I should look for another cave. With nighttime approaching, my next goal was to find shelter again. It should be easier with all the skills I gained.
So tonight I decided that I wanted to sleep without the fear of a bulky woman knocking my lights out.
Of course, little did I know that saying stuff like that was a jinx.
And because of that jinx, when I neared my nearest cave the one thing I didn't want to happen, happened-
"Ah, it's you." The woman with the fire-red hair met me.