Yin tried to slowly stand up, but his body moved quickly. He felt much lighter than before. He looked at his hands and noticed all muscle on his frame had increased from before. His body felt more powerful and stable. He immediately grabbed his spear and thrusted it in front of him.
The force of the blow caused a gust of wind. It was precise and potent, feeling strong enough to destroy a small tree.
Yin didn't know what the exact cause of his newfound strength was, but wasn't complaining either. He wanted to find out, but there were no clues. A symbol with some words. A pedestal. That's it. He had no way of finding out anything about all of this, so he decided to put that aside for now.
Right now, he needed to get out. He took his shirt which was made of hide off as it had been burnt to a crisp by the markings. Surprisingly, the black cloak didn't have a single scratch or burn mark on it. It still looked brand new. After putting it on, he walked back over to the hole he fell down.
It was a 40 feet hole that was as wide as ten Buffalo Boars - big suckers. He looked around the edges and noticed that there were some he could grab on to, however all of the edges looked quite jagged.
On closer inspection, Yin realized they were all actually razor sharp, almost as though intentionally. However, with his new found strength, climbing out actually seemed possible! After a while of thought, Yin tied his hand with his black cloak and started to climb out. It wasn't hard, but he only feared this his black cloak that took weeks of dying was going to tear.
Once out, he untied the cloak from his hands, only to realize it was completely without tear or scratch. He was pleasantly surprised. Looking around, he noticed the cave hadn't fallen, and of course, the rumbling had stopped. This meant that his salt cove was still available thank god. Near him he saw a pile of bones that were slowly deteriorating.
'Is this the remains of the monkey? I have only been gone for a couple hours no?' Yin thought to himself.
He started to make his way out of the cave and back to the tree. While he ran, he realized how much better he felt in his body. It was as though he was only standing on his toes before, and now he could use his whole foot. He felt he was running on clouds as he leaped throughout the jungle ever so swiftly.
Finally arriving at the tree, he placed his spear next to the other several ones and went to look at himself in a wooden bucket of water.
'Holy shit...'
He had changed. It looked like he had aged an entire year. His face had become slightly different, looking a bit more mature. Even his tattoo that was located on his left cheek seemed to have disappeared. This explained the muscle growth in his body as well. Then, a thought came to his mind, one that excited him quite a bit.
Ever since he was small, he was teased for being short...
Now, as he compared himself to a spear, he could see that he had increased in height by at least 7-9 inches according to his calculations. He was around 5'6 ft. - 5'8 ft. as a boy whos age was around 14 years.
'So it's true. It seems the world has aged with me as well throughout these months, seeing as how the monkey corpse is now a rotting carcass.' He thought to himself as he made his way over to one of the walls of the tree.
Here, he had scratched the amount of days he had spent in the jungle on the wall. 3 months six days.
'My initial plan was to become strong enough to single-handedly take down a transformation rank beast on the higher side in terms of power before leaving the jungle for good. I predicted this would take me a total of two years, but with this time hop and new power, I may be able to take in a high power transformation beast in only a matter of weeks!' He thought to himself.
Leaving the jungle for good was the first plan he came up with. Not when he arrived at the tree or even when his entire village was murdered. No. It was his plan far before that.
6 years ago, when Yin was only 8, he would here constant stories of the New World.
Most of these stories were told by boisterous old men of the village that felt like they had something to prove, so it couldn't be fully trusted. However, listening to these stories of an advanced world that was alien to all present in the village was extremely intriguing for Yin.
As people of the village elderly and young sat around a large fire, the village elders would talk about their experiences in the New World.
According to them, it was as vast as one could imagine. Large kingdoms stretching's thousands of miles that held millions of people and hundreds of thousands of stone buildings. Just hearing about it all made Yin want to jump about in excitement.
Yin remembered himself asking one day. "When can I go to the New world!?"
He was met by laughter from the entire village, but he was completely serious.
He then remembered what the elder's reasonings to stop him from ever going into the New World were.
"It is far too dangerous. Everyone there is powerful, unlike us in our secluded little village. We do not belong in such a paradise Yin."
Yin hated these reasonings. They just felt like excuses.
What did they mean when they said that he and his village-men didn't belong somewhere. What did belonging even mean? Didn't all humans come to this world in the same way? And haven't we all roamed around, making friends and enemies along the way just as everyone else. In what way did Yin not belong in a place where other's did?
Yin's reminiscing ended. He was to go into the New World, the mysterious but ever so intriguing land of paradise; in only a couple of weeks. That is, if he could become strong enough to kill a powerful transformation beast.
Yin couldn't wait any longer. His new and improved body thirsted for a fight, one that could give it a good warm up. He already felt quite confident, and so, he decided to take on the transformation beast he had met months ago. The Iron Jawed Crocodile.
A powerful beast, but when it came to transformation ranks, it was on the weaker side of things. If Yin was to defeat a powerful transformation rank beast in just a few weeks, he had to be able to at least take down a weaker one now.
He arrived to the river. Looking normally, it appeared to house no creature, but Yin knew better. He grabbed a piece of meat jerky and threw it on the floor near the water and readied his spear.
Before the piece of meat could even fall to the ground, the smell teleported into the Iron Jawed Crocodile's mouth, and it sprung out of the water and caught it mid air. Its chomp sounded like a gun blasting. As it ate the meat, It shook its body of water and stared directly at Yin menacingly enough to send chills down ones spine.
"I gave you an appetizer, but unfortunately for you, your going to become a main course as well."