Luan rubbed his drowsy eyes and let out a barbaric yawn.
He sat up on his butt and looked around, his eyes still red like that of a crow.
"Huh? How did I get here?"
He tilted his head to the side.
'Oh...' he thought as the memories of his sword severing the thick, fleshy neck of the boar monster flooded his mind.
Not paying attention to the bloody pile of meat beside him, he picked up his cane and walked back outside.
'If I had a bow and arrows, I wouldn't have been half as injured as I was... maybe even not at all.'
As his gaze scanned the branches and the vines in front of the temple, he came to a conclusion.
'I have to make them myself.'
He stood up and dusted his tunic, patting the accumulated dust off them, and stepped outside again.
He climbed a tree, using its branches like a trampoline as he jumped from one branch to another.
He wasn't just doing this for fun though.
The wood he would use to make a bow had to be flexible enough to bend to a satisfactory limit under his weight, while also being strong and durable to withstand being jumped on by someone with the strength of a 28-year-old.
The results of his little branch test was the snapping and cracking of over ten branches that could have been used to make satisfactory firewood.
Luan felt that this was a pity, but when he remembered that he could just gather the branches again for arrows, he smiled contentedly.
'Oh?'
Luan raised a brow after landing on the sixth? seventh? branch of the third tree.
The branch was actually able to bend well enough that it didn't emit any cracking sounds or show any strain from his landing.
He grinned.
'Perfect.'
Unsheathing his austere blade, he spun and cleanly sliced the branch off the stem of the tree.
The separation was so clean sap didn't come out of the cut part for a long while.
On his way down, the bright light reflected off the surface of his blade flashed, and a green vine found its way to his hands.
'For the string.'
Luan landed with his back straight, not caring about the slight boom his feet gave out.
If it was before, he would have bent down or at least rolled to minimize the impact when he landed, but with mana flooding his limbs, he needed no such precaution.
'Very convenient.'
To Luan, mana was a method for him to achieve his revenge and survive the hellhole of a forest he found himself, nothing more, nothing less.
He wouldn't stop training his body or perfecting the sword moves he had no idea how he knew.
When he got back to the temple, he took a look at the bloody pile of meat before him and cringed.
'I should take care of this first...'
He took the pile to the edge of the recovery pool, making sure that none of the blood spilled inside. He knew the pool would wash it away, but it felt like the pool should only be used by him.
'Very selfish of you, Luan.'
He cupped his hands and scooped up the liquid, splashing it on the pile.
This caused the blood to disappear like a lie.
A very simple method to preserve the meat for a longer period of time.
After that, he entered the pool himself and exhaled as he felt all his aches and cuts turn into soothing sensations.
He walked out of the pool, satisfied, before lifting the meat pile and dropping it right beside the branch and vine he had taken from the tree.
Then, he got to carving.
He would have used a knife, but he didn't have one, making him settle for his sword instead.
Luckily, it was a blade, not a sword, which meant that he could hold the blunt side of the blade like a knife.
'Before that though...'
He lifted the blade over his head, then he chopped down four times.
At first, there seemed to be no result, but when the blade returned to Luan's side, four parts of the tall branch fell down to the side, the straight lines left of the main branch revealing the sharpness of the blade the went through it.
'Now, to the carving.'
Zindi stared at the remains of the beast before him, breathing heavily.
Still, he didn't dare to lower his guard until he poked the corpse with the tip of his sword.
Only when the corpse remained unmoving did he let out a breath of relief, followed by the exhaling of the youths behind him.
They had arrived in the cave, expecting an easy battle from the hands of a beast that only followed its instincts, but they had never thought they would be facing a monster instead.
Even worse, this monster had knowledge on par with humans.
Zindi could only shake his head as he ushered the youths inside, recalling the battle.
The monster looked like a cross between a bat and a rat, with long hairs that bordered on disgusting, fleshy wings that connected to the hips, a tail that was strong enough to send a human flying, a rat's face and the canines and ears of a bat, the monster's agility was unparalleled.
At first, it whizzed between the group, leaving deep cuts on anyone too slow to react and shallow ones on those who were fast,making them think it was all it had.
With five wind affinity mages, its speed was lowered to a manageable degree, but then, it suddenly vanished from their sights and started unleashing sound waves that caused the bulk of the group's injuries.
It was a hard fight, but they were alive, and it was nothing but a charred corpse cut all over.
They had won.
Zindi stared at the sun that had now become totally orange.
'Now, we have to survive the night.'
Once the last youth entered, he sealed up the wall using earth magic, his second affinity.
From afar, it looked like someone had made an above with rough edges, but only focused on smoothing the entrance.
And soon enough,
Night descended.