Days went by normally with Yanz's training. After the experiment on the worms, it was time to step it up. This time, Yanz needed an animal to do the same experiment on. Since he couldn't catch any big animals, he decided to catch small ones. He went to the trees to catch some birds. *Rustle.* Yanz heard rustling in the bushes. He slowly sneaked to peek and saw a squirrel biting on some nuts under a tree.
"There are nuts here?" Yanz thought to himself. He was tired of eating meat jerky every day and craved something else. Although he wanted to hunt the squirrel, the desire to eat anything other than unseasoned dry meat was stronger. So he kept hidden, watching the squirrel. The squirrel was nibbling on the nuts, making little *nibble nibble* sounds as it ate. It finally finished and went up the tree it was standing under. Yanz's eyes followed the squirrel climbing up the tree. The squirrel reached a branch and started picking nuts. It took two nuts, came back to the ground, and started digging. Then it buried the nuts.
Yanz, watching all this, accidentally made some noise as he moved a little, causing the bushes to rustle. The squirrel got startled and ran away. Yanz wanted the nuts. He went below the tree and looked up; it was very high. Yanz was an old man in his previous life, and it had been ages since he last climbed a tree. He was scared, knowing that if he fell, he could get serious injuries due to his weak body. He thought for a bit and, despite his nervousness, decided to climb the tree. He really wanted diversity in his food.
He held the tree and started climbing very slowly. His palms were sweaty, but he kept climbing. He finally reached a branch and slowly let go with both hands to hold the branch with his legs hugging the tree. He finally climbed up the branch and stood on it. He looked up; it was still a bit high, but the nuts were reachable. The tree was a chestnut tree. He went on his tiptoes to catch some. One, two, three. He caught a couple of chestnuts. He reached for another chestnut when *squeak!* the squirrel came back, angry that someone was stealing its chestnuts.
Yanz was really concentrated because he didn't want to fall, but the squeak startled him. He lost his balance and fell from the tree. *Thud, crack, thump!* "Ouch!!" Yanz fell on his arms, avoiding head injuries, but all the bones in his arms were crushed. He immediately lost consciousness from the impact.
*Woosh.* The cool wind blew. "Mmm...." Yanz woke up and opened his eyes to see a starry sky. He suddenly felt the pain and looked at his arms. Both were broken badly. He was barely conscious. There was a huge puddle of blood on the ground, and a bone was sticking out of one of his arms. The pain was excruciating. "AAAAAAAAAAhh!!" Yanz screamed as soon as he saw the bone sticking out. Tears streamed down his face as he chanted, "HEAL! HEAL! HEALLL!!!" His arms started regenerating. It was like time was reversing; all the injuries healed, and even the shattered bones went back to normal. All the pain went away.
Yanz was breathing heavily. *Pant, pant.* It was very painful. He just lay there for some time to recover mentally. After a while, he stood up, using his arms for support. He felt a little sharp pain in his arms; they hadn't fully healed yet. He sat on the ground away from the puddle of blood and leaned against a tree. He remembered that he used the magic three times on himself but didn't lose all his mana; he still had some to spare. "Maybe while I was doing the experiments, it raised my mana," he thought to himself.
*Growl...* He was hungry, especially since he had passed out near morning and it was now night. He looked for the chestnuts on the ground. There were only three left, although he had picked way more than that. Maybe the squirrel took them. Yanz stood up, took the three chestnuts, and went back to the library. The library was at a distance from the little forest. He went back, ate the chestnuts, and was so happy that he finally got to eat something other than just meat. Then he slept.