Chapter 6

Alex awoke to the sound of birds chirping outside of his shack. He blinked his eyes a few times to get the world to come in focus. He was still experiencing the pain of losing his arm. This body was not just an avatar from a video game it was as if it was his own real body and that meant the pain was as real as it could be. His fur rug was now covered in blood from the stump which used to be his arm. Alex stood up slowly feeling the muscle aches and pains all over his body.

I really was in some serious trouble yesterday.

I found my sword lying on the ground. I picked it up and held it in my right arm.

At least it was my left arm that was wrecked so I still have some chance to fight back. I have to get a fire started so that I can begin eating to take in energy for my nanites to continue healing my injuries and producing more of themselves.

Alex found the scabbard and slid the blade inside then he tied a piece of string around the handle and then around his wrist using his teeth. It took a while but he managed to accomplish it. Now he had a way to draw my sword and just in case something happened an easy way to bring it back to his hand.

“Alice, do I have any enemies nearby?”

“I cannot detect any enemies nearby. There are no heartbeats or movements of any kind near you. That does not mean that there are not any enemies. Remember the snake the attacked you yesterday avoided our detection so be careful.”

“Understood. Do you have any idea of how that occurred?”

"Currently, no but there are some predators that are able to conceal themselves in such a way that they can avoid detection kind of how the chameleon hides in plain sight using camouflage.

"Well, we will have to be more vigilant in the future. That situation nearly killed me."

Alex slowly moved the table out of the way before opening the door of my shack. The sun was already very high in the sky. The area around the shack was illuminated by the brightness of the sun’s rays. As he stepped out, he felt the stifling heat of the day. His body immediately began sweating. he ran as fast as his body could move to the trees nearby where he began using his sword to hack off tree branches so that I could build a fire. After he had a small pile on the ground, he used his rope and wrapped the group of branches up so that he could carry it. Once it was all wrapped, Alex rushed back to his shack to start building my fire.

he put the sticks into the fireplace and then untied his rope. Once he had everything ready he began moving a stick back and forth against another stick that I wedged between my knees and the wall of the shack. He stuffed some dry grass in a hole that he made at the end. He began rubbing the sticks against each other over and over but nothing happened.

This is a lot harder than I thought it would be with one arm but I have no choice. I can’t eat the meat raw so I need a fire. I wish I had a lighter of some sort or some matches. Oh well I guess I gotta get more creative.

Alex continued rubbing the sticks for a while but nothing happened and his stomach was beginning to growl. He continued rubbing the sticks faster and faster trying desperately to create enough heat from friction to ignite the dried grass. His hand started to get raw on the palm from rubbing over and over. Nothing got any results. He couldn’t give up because he had to eat for his nanites to have the energy they needed in order to heal his arm.

Alex took a short break as his arm felt like it was on fire before he went back to attempting to light a fire. He grabbed the stick again and began rubbing and rubbing and rubbing and rubbing. A deep groove began to form in the stick on the ground. As he continued to rub the sticks together he began to feel the heat coming from the wood.

That’s it just a little more. Come on please light.

Feeling the heat brought new life and energy to his endeavor as he rubbed more vigorously. The heat increased until Alex began to see some smoke. He quickly placed some more dry grass on the smoking grass a blew softly to help fan the growing flame. The flame grew slowly. Next, he moved the pile into the fireplace beneath the wooden pieces. After a few moments, a smile crept across his face as he saw a flame begin to climb from the grass onto the pieces of wood. The heat from the growing fire began to warm up the room. Time continued to go by and Alex watched the flame roar to life. Once again his persistence had paid off.

Now that his fire was going well, he quickly used his sword to cut a 1 meter section of the snake. Then he took the blade and cut a long slit down one of the sides so that he could peel off the skin. He placed his knee on the side of the hunk of meat and began peeling the skin back little by little. It was grizzly work and he struggled greatly but in the end, he found success. After a few arduous minutes, Alex was able to get almost all of the skin off of the snake. Then he pushed a long stick through it and placed the snake meat on the makeshift rotisserie. He turned it slowly and watched it as it began to change color from a pinkish color to a brownish-grey color. His mouth had long since begun watering. He took the piece of meat off from his makeshift rotisserie and then placed it on the table. Once there he used his sword to sliced it into pieces like a Christmas ham. a piece of the meat was off using his sword.

Once his meal was ready Alex sat down at the table and began biting into the meat one piece at a time. The meat was actually quite tasty, as he greedily gulped down each piece with very little chewing. Before he knew it, the entire 1 meter piece was gone. His hunger was sated and he sat back on the chair.

“Alice, can you bring up the message I got when I reached level 3?”

“Yes Spartan”

Congratulation you have reached level 3! You have earned one point that you can use to increase you physical or mental stats.

“So I have an extra point per level. I guess that is good. I wish it would have come with a skill point or an ability point but oh well. Alice, show me my character status screen?”

“Yes Spartan.”

Name: Spartan

Level: 3

Class

Physique: 3

Mental Ability: 2

Physical coordination: 3

Reaction Speed: 3

Speed: 2

AP: 0

Abilities

A.I. Companion

SP:

Skills

Nanite manipulation

“Alice place my point for my increase in level to my physique so that my vitality increases.”

Alice did as she was asked and immediately he could feel some strange things going on within his body. It was as if my muscles were contracting and relaxing all over my body in waves. It felt like he was having muscles spasms all over my body. It wasn’t painful it was just a strange feeling. After it finished he could see that he had a bit more definition in his body but nothing more had changed.”

“Alice status update?”

“Your body is at 56% of your normal fighting capacity. However with your increase to your physique your muscles are 10% more dense and your body’s overall strength, stamina, and vitality have all increased between 15 and 22%. All in all that was a very good choice for your improvement point.”

“How will that effect the regrowth of my arm?”

“Calculating…. With the increased vitality the time for your arm regrowth has been reduced by 12 hours. I am also increasing nanite production so that while you are sleeping I can begin the regrowth process. It will be very painful, mind-numbingly so, if it is done while you are conscious. I will have the nanites place you in a stasis like state to keep you from experiencing too much discomfort while you are asleep.”

“Well I don’t think I will be going out to do any fighting today. I think I will just try to rest for the day then tomorrow I will try to trap something using some of this snake meat.”

“That is the most prudent choice. Your current ability to hunt or fend off attackers has been greatly reduced due to you missing an arm.”

“Thanks for reminding me”, Alex said with a giggle. “I know I’m not at my best today. Tomorrow, I’ll construct a simple trap to see if I can catch something that is trying to get a free meal.”

With that thought, he laid down on the fur rug and rested. Alice placed him in stasis as she began regenerating my arm and creating more nanites.

The day went on until the middle of the night came.

“Spartan wake up your fire is going out. You will need to grab some more wood before it goes all the way out.”

“What! Huh! Oh ok”, I said wiping a bit of drool from my mouth.

A phantom pain in my missing arm registered in his mind. He quickly looked down and saw that Alice was already doing her job quite well. The stump where he had severed his own arm had grown back to his elbow. The joint was working. he could actually bend it. A large smile was plastered over his face.

“Alice you are great! I had some doubts about you being able to regrow my arm but I am truly thankful to you for helping me get back my arm.”

“Spartan, my survival depends on yours. I will only do what I can to keep you alive. Now go the temperature in the room is much colder than it was earlier today. The weather here in this place is rather unforgiving. You do not want that fire to burn out.”

I opened the door and saw nothing but darkness.

“Alice activate night vision.”

“Understood”

Alex's vision lit up and he could see everything. It was in black and white almost like wearing night-vision goggles. It wasn't as clear as daytime but it was much better than it had been before his upgrades. He quickly grabbed his rope and rushed out of his shack. He grabbed up as many pieces of wood as he possibly could. Once he had all he could carry with one arm he rushed back to his shack and threw the wood onto the fire. It once again roared to life before he laid back down and went back to resting.

The next morning Alex awoke to hunger pains. He knew that Alice had continued to make the nanites work through the night as well as make them replicate so that the work could be done even faster. Alex got up from his fur rug and cut some limbs from the surrounding trees before returning so that my fire could be stoked. Once the fire was hot enough he cut another meter of the snake and skinned it so that I had food for breakfast. Once he had eaten enough for his hunger to subside. he cut the leg off of the dead goblin that was currently in the area of his shack near the fireplace. It was time for him to make his trap.

Alex walked outside with the leg and placed it on the ground. Next, he climbed a tree so that he was right above where the leg was so that he could hide from any would-be prey. He knew it was crude and simple but with one arm he didn’t have any options. he had bait to attract any prey and his sword with his new level of strength and the added downward force of gravity should be enough to kill just about anything that came his way. So with his trap set, he rested in the tree and waited and waited and waited. The sun had begun to set before he heard or saw anything come near.

“Alice, switch to thermal vision.”

“Yes Spartan”

I looked through the forest and saw something that was warmer than the trees moving through the forest near me. It had four legs and it was the size of a medium-sized dog. As he watched, he noticed more than one appeared.

“Could these be?”

“Yes Spartan, they are the rats that you chased to the cave the other day. Rats are known to be scavengers and a rotting piece of meat would be especially attractive to them. Be careful as there are 5 approaching.”

“I will. Be on the lookout for that snake thing that bit me last time. I think it is the natural predator of these rat things and it attacked me because it was hunting them.”

“Understood.”

I waited until the rats began to bite into the arm before making my move.

“Alice return to normal vision and begin hypercognition.”

“3….2….1… engaged”

The world slowed down as I jumped down from my perch. My blade sunk down into the skull of the first rat before it could move. The others reacted in fear but I killed one more before they could attack. The next one jumped towards me but I was able to analyze its path and moved sideways to avoid its attack and then I raised my sword to decapitate it. Another rat, that I was not able to see, bit down on my leg creating a deep wound. It tried to pull me to the ground but I thrust my blade directly into its skull rendering its attempt useless. I heard another rat jump towards me so I jumped backwards to evade. It missed badly and returned to my field of vision. There were 2 rats left and my time in hypercognition was almost up.

The larger of the two remaining rats rushed towards me. As it got close I could see that it was about jump. The muscles in its lower legs dropped down so that the large rodent could explode forward. It leaped up as high as it could and he met it in midair with a spinning roundhouse kick. Alex felt a sickening crunch as his foot met its skull and the rat flew down the ground hard. Alex leaped towards it to deal the final blow but the other rat managed to tackle him to the ground. He placed his stump of an arm in between the two of them as it tried to bite his face off. I stabbed it over and over in its ribs with my sword until it no longer moved. My hypercognition had run out. The world returned to normal speed and my head began to hurt.

I guess this is what Alice meant when she said that there would be consequences for using hypercognition for too long. The pain is not too bad though and I was able to kill four of those things even with my missing arm.

After the world returned to normal speed, Alex rolled the dead rat off himself and looked for the last of them. It was nowhere to be found.

I guess it ran off but I better stay on guard in case it tries again. Well anyway, I’ve got a lot more meat here.

“Alice, speed up nanite production so that I can eat all of these corpses between today and tomorrow.”

“Affirmative Spartan. That will great increase you recovery. With the number of nanites I can produce from this large of a meal your arm should be recovered in 3 more days instead of 7 more.”

“That is great news. Now is there any way that you can do something with my nanites to get me some clothes or something?”

“No not at this time. Your nanite manipulation skill is not high enough to move them outside of your body. It will take time. One way to get some clothes might be to hunt some of the goblins. From my data banks they are a communal creature so they have to have a place where they dwell in some larger numbers. There you may find weapons and armor that they have liberated from other humans.”

“Liberated huh? More like stole from the dead bodies.”

“Yes, that is correct”

“Alright, I will try and track them down after my arm recovers.”

Alex grabbed the corpses of the rats and dragged them inside one by one. Once they were inside he used his sword to hack up a thick hunk of wood from one of the trees.

If I keep using my sword like it is an axe I'm really going to mess it up. Unfortunately, I don't have a choice right now. Maybe when I find the goblins, I will be able to find an axe there that I can use to chop wood.

The tree he found had a diameter of about 40 centimeters and it was about a half a meter in height. He picked it up under his arm and carried it inside. Once inside he placed it on the fire and waited for it to burn. Once it started burning the room’s temperature increased and he began preparing the rats for cooking. He used his dagger to cut off their skin. It was a dirty and bloody process but it was all he could do. He took the intestines and organs and threw them on the fire. Once that was done he began cutting the legs off and separating them from the torsos. After all four were butchered, Alex cooked the remaining piece of the snake meat first as he waited for the blood to drain from the pieces of the rats.

He ate the piece of the snake but it did nothing for my hunger as he felt the pains continue to weigh on him.

Alice is really going crazy with creating these nanites. I guess I’ve got to eat more.

He cooked 4 rat legs and ate them one by one. The meat was considerably tougher than the snake’s but beggars can’t be choosy. After he ate them all his stomach was bloated like he was 8 months pregnant. Alex let out a loud belch before lying back down on the ground. Alice placed him in stasis sleep soon after so that she could continue healing his arm. Alex slept soundly like this for the next 2 days. He only awoke to eat more of the rats.

On the third day, his arm was completely recovered. It was a slightly lighter in complexion and a lot weaker than the other arm but it was back. Alex clenched his new hand into a fist feeling the difference in strength between his two hands. Now that he had two arms again it was time to resume his training. He walked outside of his shack and began with jumping jacks to warm up his body. He followed up with more calisthenics. His one-legged squats were still pretty good but his one-arm pushups were terrible on the side where the arm had been regrown. It was to be expected as the arm really hadn’t gotten any use yet. Surprisingly though, his fingers and hand had plenty of dexterity. He followed up his calisthenics by running as fast as he could around the area outside of his shack for as long as he could.

Once he couldn’t run anymore he said, “Alice, give me a summary of my workout.”

“Your top speed was 19mph. You ran at 15 mph for nearly 5 minutes which would make you faster than 95% of all humans in your world. Your endurance level is far beyond nearly all of them except the most extremely gifted athletes. You maxed out at 25 one armed pushups on your good arm but your weaker one you were only able to accomplish 3. Each leg was equal in doing 22 one legged squats. This gives you an elite athlete level of strength, flexibility, and explosiveness.”

“Good now I have to work on strengthening this arm and honing my fighting skills with this sword.”

“Yes, that would be prudent as you do not and may never possess anything resembling a gun in this world.”

“Ok well, the first thing I remember when learning to fight with a knife was to familiarize myself with the weapon by repeating the same attack over and over so that my body became acclimated to it. Once I did that I had to learn to chain the simple attacks together. The next step was to learn to defend using the weapon or avoid attacks with the weapon in hand. The last step was learning to put offense and defense together in sparring. Since I have no sparring partner all I can do is gain more fighting experience with the things that live here.”

“This is a good plan Spartan. I will analyze your movements and give you feedback to help you in training such as ways to maximize your speed and power through your movements.”

“Excellent well let’s get started.

Alex grabbed his sword in his weak hand and began thrusting it towards a tree that was in front of him. He did this until his arm could no longer hold the sword then he switched hands and repeated the process. Next, he switched back and began using vertical downward slashes followed by horizontal slashes from the left then from the right and ended with diagonal slashes. By the time he finished, both of his arms felt heavy and sweat was pouring off him.

I haven’t bathed in days. I think it is about time that I make it back to the waterfall and take a bath as well as refill my water skins.

Alex took a brief rest before placing his sword across his back with the rope and tying more rope around his waist. Once he had his equipment, he threw all the rat fur and snakeskin in his fire along with placing another large hunk of wood onto the fire to keep it going while he was away. Then he headed out for the waterfall.

The trip was much faster this time around with Alice keeping watch using his enhanced senses. There were numerous animals around but none close enough to be dangerous. Once he finally reached the waterfall, he found that there were a few of those carnivorous rabbit looking, creatures. He had confidence in defeating one maybe two of them but 5 of them were far too many. Without a way to fight at range this was something that he knew he should not undertake. He decided to wait for them to drink their fill and leave. It took a while but eventually, all of them did except one.

“How far away are all of the others?”, Alex asked.

“Currently, they are still moving away, and based on your hearing I would say they are nearly 150 meters away.”

“Perfect, that will give me more than enough time to get dinner.”

“Do you wish for me to activate the hypercognition?”

“No not this time. I need to gain some fighting experience without it because I will not always be able to use it. If I have to fight more than two at a time then we will activate it.”

“Understood.”

Alex walked out from the cover of the trees onto the flat grassy area where the rabbit looking creature was resting. He walked slowly and cautiously trying not to disturb so that he could get at least one blow in before it realized that he was coming. Unfortunately, with its long ears it must have heard the human predator coming. When Alex came within 4 meters its head spun around and it stared at him. As he moved closer with his sword ready to strike, it began to bare its rows of sharp teeth and move its bodyweight towards its hind legs ready to jump at me. The battle had begun.

Alex dashed forward no longer willing to simply defend.

I will no longer be the prey here. I am going to be the predator! All of you monsters better take note, humans are no longer the bottom of the food chain here.

The rabbit dashed towards Alex propelling itself forward on its powerful hind legs. He rushed toward it with every bit of speed he could muster. As Alex was about to strike the carnivorous bunny jumped sideways and then tried to attack his flank. Alex was stunned by its agility but he managed to roll on the ground to avoid the sudden attack. He quickly made it back to his feet before the monster to could gain the upper hand. Alex followed up by slashing with his sword. His blade went through its fur deep into its skin leaving a 50 cm wound through its side causing blood to pour out. Alex let out a wry smile before readying himself for their next exchange.

Its fur was a bit weaker than I remember from the last time. Maybe this is the result of the increase in my physique. Either way it is more agile than me but with my increased reach from the sword and my fighting skills I should be able to deal with it relatively easy.

Alex dashed towards the rabbit like creature again. This time he charged forward but it was considerably slower so that the rabbit-like creature didn't surprise him again.

That wound I gave it must really be hampering its movements because now it looks like it can barely move.

As he closed in for the kill, he saw the rabbit remain still. It didn’t look like it wasn’t even going to try defending.

Is it ready to die?

When I got within a meter the rabbit opened its mouth and something flew out and hit me in the chest knocking me off my feet. I heard a crack when it hit me.

“Alice, status?”

“You have suffered blunt force trauma to your torso from some sort of mana-based attack. It has caused some internal bleeding and you have 3 cracked ribs on your left side.”

“You sneaky punk, you were hiding such a powerful attack. That wasn't bad”. Alex said spitting some blood out of his mouth.

Alex stood up just as it charged towards him. Clearly the rabbit thought that that attack would stun its foe long enough for it finish him off. Alex got a chance to put his blade in front of him just as it rammed into him with its head. His blade took the brunt of its attack but Alex was still knocked to the ground hard. He coughed up some more blood before standing on his feet. It struggled to get to its feet as well.

The blood loss from that wound I gave it must be finally wearing it down. Once more attack should finish it off.

Alex took a stance with my left arm in front as he walked slowly toward the monstrous bunny. He was struggling to stand and if he was not mistaken the creature was afraid.

Maybe that was actually its last attack. Since it didn’t kill me it has no choice but to accept its death. I still better watch out in case it has the mana attack again.

Alex continued stalking closer to what would become his dinner. Step by step he got closer. When he got within striking distance it showed its teeth and rose up on its hind legs. Alex backed up a step but he could sense it could not really move. It tried to lunged forward at him but it was too weak and simply just fell to the ground. Alex moved quickly and ended the creature's pain by landing a deep thrust into the side of its skull. His blade easily pierced through and into its brain. The monster’s body went limp. Alex yanked his sword out and pieces of it brain were on the tip of his blade. He raised it to the sky and yelled out a war cry into the sky.

“Spartan the nanites are already repairing your injuries. Your ribs will take about 6 hours while your internal bleeding has nearly been stopped already. The external bruising will heal in minutes. If you wish you can leave the rabbit here until you finish at the waterfall. I would suggest that you tie the rabbit monster up and carry it with you on your way back instead of trying to cut it up here. It will be heavy but it is within your ability with your physique.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence Alice.”

Alex quickly rushed over to the waterfall and rinsed off the filth, blood, and dirt that had accumulated on his body over the last few days. As he washed himself, his spirit felt rejuvenated.

“Move behind the waterfall!”

Alex did as she commanded then asked, “What is going on?”

“I have detected 6 distinct humanoid voices. Two seem like they are female. They seem like they are in distress. I also believe the rest are goblins based on the grunting type sounds and the scent coming from them.”

“Hmm… so the goblins have abducted some females. Well, I can only imagine what they are going to do with them.”

“My databanks say that goblins abduct females of other races in order to mate with them. Goblins impregnate the other species so that they can bolster their population. Goblin races produce one female in 100 births which causes a large problem in increasing their population.”

“So they have kidnapped them to rape them and get them to have goblin children. That’s harsh. I don’t think I can take them all at once in broad daylight so unfortunately, I will have to let the females be taken. I will try to save them later but now I need to improve my strength and skills”

“Spartan, with hypercognition and a surprise attack your chance of defeating those orcs is over 75%.”

“Yes that is true but I still don’t know if I wish to risk dying over some people I do not know.”

“That is a normal reaction Spartan but common wisdom says that there is safety in numbers. The more humans you have in your party the more likely you are to survive.”

“So what you are saying is that helping them is helping me?”

“Affirmative. In addition to having two more companions, they may also bring skills that you do not currently possess.”

“Hmm… now what should I do?”