Opening his eyes, Yune wasn't graced with the sight of his bedroom. Instead, he was still inside the dark cave on the cold hard ground.
'So, it wasn't a dream, huh?'
Yune would be lying if he said that he wasn't disappointed, but at least he could still feel his body hurting all over…
'Well, looking at it positively, that means I am not dead...'
The bleeding from his wounds wasn't all that bad either, so all in all there was nothing to complain about.
Well, that was a lie. There was a lot to complain about, but Yune spared himself from thinking about this.
Not being able to move yet, fearing that his wounds would reopen and worsen, Yune had a lot of time to think, and he wasn't planning on any of these thought being negative.
The first thing he thought about was what had happened while he was desperately pushing against the bear in a life or death scenario. At that moment, Yune could feel his whole body turning cold, even his mana turned from a comfortable warmth into a terrible frost.
And, after a part of this cold frost in his chest vanished, his whole body suddenly felt heavy.
There was no mistaking it.
"I used my powers to increase the effect gravity had on my body..?"
Concentrating on the mana inside his chest, Yune felt a warm feeling, but when he thought back about the moment he was pushing the bear with his life in imminent danger, the mana suddenly turned cold.
"Yes, that's it!"
Excited, knowing that it wasn't a one-off thing, Yune quickly used his mana. Instantly, Yune's body felt heavier. For the first time, Yune had really increased the effect of gravity on his body. And that gravity increase was several times stronger than when decreasing gravity, almost tripling his weight.
Yune was happy about this, but soon after, a stinging pain could be felt coming from the increased burden on his entire battered body. Immediately his smile disappeared, and for a full minute, he had to wait for his powers to dissipate in pain.
'Ugh, I guess I will have to wait before I can experiment with increasing gravity.'
However, Yune didn't need to do another experiment as it was blatantly obvious. He could really increase gravity! Also, Yune could increase gravity way more than he could decrease it. It seemed like the mana cost for decreasing gravity was way more exponential than it was for increasing it.
Thinking about this for some more time, Yune was satisfied with what he found out. Then, however, Yune returned to the reality he was in as his stomach rumbled. And, for the first time since waking up, Yune couldn't help but have to think about some negative things…
Unlike his thoughts, Yune's hunger and thirst weren't quenched and he was still in a cave with no way out, injured. Thinking about it rationally, he had a solution for most of his problems, but these solutions... weren't the best.
He knew where water was, but there was a crazy monster in that water… And for his hunger he could eat the bear… but it was in a ravine, and he didn't have anything to cook it with. And well, finding a way out and healing was just going to take time, so he didn't want to think about that.
The most imminent danger was thirst. A person can live without food for a pretty long time, but the same couldn't be said about water. Having expanded a lot of energy, Yune needed to hydrate himself fast.
With a heavy sigh, Yune picked up his hurting body and started limping out of the cove and continued walking along the cave wall the way he came from.
This cave still being as long as he remembered, already having walked for a few hours, the only things on Yune's mind were:
'Ouch Ouch, OUCH! Why does every step hurt!' and 'That octopus bastard better not be there! If it is I WILL FU- well, probably die of thirst... So, please almighty octopus, please don't be there, okay? Thanks in advance.'
Trying to ignore the pain in his body, Yune eventually arrived back at the lake. Just seeing a glimpse of water was enough to forget that he was in pain, quickly scurrying over to the lake, Yune began greedily drinking the water.
With the cold water hitting his parched throat, Yune felt close to euphoria. He hadn't felt something that good in a long time, maybe ever.
Drinking as much as he could, and some more, Yune quickly got away from the lake again.
"Haha, take that octopus! I will suck your lake dry!"
Processing what just came out of his own mouth, Yune cringed.
'I must be going crazy. Why would I say that? No, why am I even talking to a monster?'
Sitting down a good distance away from the lake, Yune was planning to stay here until his wounds had healed a little more so that he didn't have to walk a few hours every time he needed to drink some water. And, Yune wasn't really in a hurry as he wasn't that hungry yet.
For what Yune thought to be two days, Yune had stayed put near the lake. Having been bored, Yune had once again tried to activate his powers to increase his gravity, but soon regretted his decision.
But he did learn something useful from this. If increasing his gravity hurt his body, decreasing his gravity lightens the burden on his body and hopefully heal his body faster.
Since coming up with that idea, Yun had continuously been using his powers as much as possible. And now, having rested, after sleeping for two nights at the lake, Yune finally felt like his wounds had healed enough to go and explore the cave again.
Drinking as much water as possible one more time, Yune set out again.
Returning to the cove that he had found the mana gemstones and encountered the bear, Yune made his way to the ravine. Inching his way to the edge, Yune looked down it. Much to his surprise he could now see the bottom of it, his eyesight having gotten more used to the dark.
And there, Yune saw a sight that made the corners of his mouth curl upwards, but his eyebrows furrow at the same time. At the bottom of the ravine Yune saw the bear impaled by a sharp rock rising from the cave's floor. Next to it were more bodies… human bodies.
The only thing that remained from them were bones and their belongings… catching his eyes, Yune saw a sword and a bag of some sorts among the bones.
If Yune wanted to have a meal and get stuff that might help him out of this cave and survive, Yune had to go down in the ravine.
Looking down the wall of the ravine, Yune's head tilted.
'I could make it down there and back up, most likely.'
The drop down wasn't perfectly vertical, so, it suddenly didn't seem so impossible of an idea anymore. The plan was simple:
'Slide down the slanted wall and scale up it again after having grabbed the things he needed, simple as that!'
Yune wasn't normally an impulsive person- well… if his inquisitive nature took over, he was impulsive, very much so… And his curiosity was getting the better of him.
So, without much hesitation, Yune decreased his gravity as much as possible and didn't waste another second before he began sliding down into the ravine.
Even though Yune had decreased his gravity, he was picking up speed fast, but it was manageable. Gritting his teeth, waiting for the impact, Yune's legs took the brunt of the landing, and then he suddenly came to a stop when his but hit something soft.
'That wasn't so bad.'
Opening his eyes, Yune had landed on top of the bear, softening his landing. He was glad that the bear had softened his landing, but the bear still made him feel uneasy even though it had already become a lifeless carcass.
With cold sweat running down his forehead, Yune started gathering the belongings of the corpses' bodies, picking up two short swords and gathering all the belongings that could possibly be useful.
Putting all the useful items in the least damaged backpack from the three corpses, the loot wasn't as good as he had hoped. The only remotely useful things were a rope and a lighter… without lighter fuel.
As if mocking him, Yune's stomach growled again. Turning his head towards the bear, disgust filled Yune's eyes. If he wanted something to eat, he would have to eat the bear.
And worse, Not only did he not have a working lighter, but even if he did, he wouldn't have anything to keep the fire burning, so he had to eat the bear meat raw.
'I won't die from eating raw bear meat, right?'
Thinking back to what things he learned at the orphanage, not all, but most monsters were safe to eat raw, so he would most likely be fine.
'Only one way to find out, I guess…'
With one of the short swords, Yune walked up to the carcass of the bear and poked the sword at it. Once again, a shudder ran down Yune's spine as he couldn't even pierce it even when he used all his strength to push the sword.
'… I survived something like that…'
Shaking of this harrowing thought, Yune climbed on top of the bear and speared the sword down. But once again, Yune couldn't pierce the bear's hide. It was only after Yune activated his powers and increased his weight that he could barely cut through its hide.
While cutting some pieces of meat to eat, Yune his something hard with his sword. From the sound of it, it wasn't a bone. Yune knew that this could only one thing, instantly forming a smile in this bitter situation.
Yune had came across the thing he was looking for: the bear's mana stone. As he pulled it out, Yune couldn't believe what he saw, and not in a positive wat. The mana stone that was in his hand was only the size of his fist.
'A small mana stone…?'
This monster, which Yune was struggling to even pierce its hide after it had died, only had a small mana stone… That meant that it was only a level 2 monster. Looking at the bear and experiencing its strength first-hand, Yune had thought that it would at least be a level 3 monster, so he was shocked to find out this fact.
'If that was only a level 2 monster, I can't imagine how strong a level 3 monster would be.'
Well, it was still not the lowest level monster at least. If it was, Yune might have had a mental breakdown there and then.
After having waited for his mana to have fully recovered, Yune began absorbing the mana stone of the bear. Much to his surprise, it gave him the same amount of mana as the mana gemstones, maybe even less.
Thinking about this for a little bit, Yune couldn't come up with the reason for this and his mind went blank.
Yune couldn't postpone eating the raw bear meat any longer.
Grabbing a piece of red, bloody meat, Yune held his nose as he sunk his teeth into it. It tasted so bad that Yune could barely keep it in his mouth, becoming as pale as one could be.
The meat being as tough as it looked also didn't help one bit, having to chew it like a piece of rubber. After a minute of torturous chewing, Yune finally swallowed one mouthful.
Even though he would rather not, Yune went in for seconds, and then for thirds until his body and mind wouldn't allow it anymore. After this self-inflicted, but needed, torture, Yune regretfully began stuffing his backpack full of raw bear meat.
Tossing the backpack over his shoulders, Yune walked toward the cliff wall, activated his powers to decrease his weight, and started to scale back up the ravine.
But it didn't even take him a second before realizing that he would never be able to scale it again. Let alone a slanted wall, what he thought it was from looking at it from the top, it suddenly seemed like an overhang.
Feelings of dread filling Yune's body, he threw his backpack to the ground, increased the output of his powers as much as he could, and desperately tried, and tried to climb up the wall.
But no matter how many times Yune tried, he couldn't even make it off the ground.
There was no way Yune was able to get back up anymore.