“HOOOWWWLLL”

Max was startled awake from his dreamless slumber.

‘Am I hearing things? Is this a dream?’

Just as those thoughts passed through his mind, a second howl sounded out. It was coming from outside the cave. Max wasn’t sure, but it sounded like it was from the clearing at the bottom of the path.

‘Okay, definitely heard that one.’

Opening up the character sheet, he was able to read through it without struggling or losing focus. Whenever Max was unsure if it was a dream or not, he would find something to read. In the past, when it was a dream, it would always be hard for him to read. It would go in one eye and out the other, leaving him thoroughly confused. They became just words on a page. While his sheet was still pulled up, Max checked on Greater Enhance Regeneration.

Status effect - Greater Enhance Regeneration

For consuming the Midnight Dew (x7), gain a 500% increase in health, stamina, and chi regeneration for the next 17 hours.

‘It’s been 3 hours since I fell asleep, which means it should still be nighttime. This status is so convenient for keeping track of time. Actually, I don’t even know if this world runs on a 24-hour day cycle.’

Quietly standing up from the hole, he felt pretty confident that whatever was howling was too far to hear his movements, but as always, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Peering over the top of the hole and not seeing any sunlight leaking through the cracks of the formation told him that it was likely still night.

After a few more minutes of silence, Max strained his ears and could hear yelps. There were overlapping yelps and each sounded different, some higher pitched than others and some faster than others. Max wasn’t sure how many of them there were, but he could make out at least four different tones. They were likely the same type of beast since they sounded so similar. He could faintly hear what they were saying.

Max knew it would be dangerous, but decided to very gently ascend from the hole and slowly crawl to the entrance. From there he could barely make out what they were saying.

“Food, I found, I Eat”

“No, I big, you puny, I finish, you eat”

“Runt, boss first, we second, you last”

Max wasn’t surprised but by this new development, on the way crawling over he thought this might happen. He was finally getting some use out of the “Common Tongue” skill.

Common Tongue - You can communicate with all intelligent species.

The argument went on for some time. From the tone of the speech, Max was able to distinguish five different voices. One of them was the “boss”, there was a “puny” one and the other three sounded to be the boss’s lackeys.

“Enough, Attack the puny”

After that declaration, a fight broke out. From here, Max wasn’t sure what was happening, just could faintly hear some scuffs and yelping then a cry of pain followed by another. It all ended so quickly.

“Haha, yes run puny run”

“Chase?”

“No. Get food”

At this point Max knew what they were referring to when they said food, it was his hawk. These fuckers were taking his kill. Max had half a mind to run out there and confront them. But could he take on four unknown beasts? That was probably not possible for him. At least not right now. He had to get stronger.

After some more shuffling, the sounds grew distant.

‘Should I go check? But what if they come back?’

Slowly Max crawled back into his hole. He checked his bowl with Analyze and as expected there was an extra Moonlight Dew, bringing him to three drops. Just sitting in his hole, Max wasn’t sure of his next steps. It was by all likelihood still dark outside so even if he went out there, there was no way for him to see.

Max wanted to kick himself for not hiding the hawk’s body, or at the very least slice a few extra strips off the hawk. In the end, there was no one to blame beside this shitty situation. No matter how many survival posts or videos he read and watched on earth, he wasn’t a survival expert. And even if he was, this was a totally different world and could be played by completely different rules.

All these thoughts and more ran through his mind. He started to get anxious. Although Max only had three hours of sleep, with the help of the Midnight Dew, he was physically feeling great. His body felt like it was bursting with energy. The extra energy wasn’t doing him any favors though, he wanted to go out there and show them a piece of his mind. How dare they steal his kill. But Max knew better, that would be idiotic and extremely reckless and would more likely get himself killed than achieve anything.

Max started to shake his leg, it was a nervous tick that had followed him for as long as he could remember. His mom had yelled at him countless times for it. She would always say “If you keep shaking your leg like that, you’re going to shake away all your money.” Even as a superstition it never made any sense, but the thought of his mom yelling at him brought a smile to his face. What he would give to get yelled at again. More memories trickled in. They were all mundane, coming home to a home-cooked meal, staying up all night studying with his dorm mates, playing board games with his friends. All these memories instilled calmness into him.

He still felt a deep sadness when he thought about them, but now more than that was also a deep-rooted determination to get back to them. For all they know, Max was already dead. If he made it back to them, he could imagine the surprise and the joy on all their faces. The anxiety lessened.

He reminded himself that it was no use to go out right now, it was probably too dark for him to see anything.

‘If they do come back and discover the cave, I’ll at least have the element of surprise. It’s better for me to check in the morning when I can actually see.’

With his mind made up, Max resituated himself in the hole and started the waiting game. With nothing to do and no sign of the beasts, it was easy for him to occasionally doze off, but would be jolted back awake. After the initial three hours of sleep, it was a restless night.

…

…

…

Max kept an eye on the timer for Greater Enhance Regeneration. Another three hours had passed, and he now had five drops of Midnight Dew in his makeshift bowl. He got up from his position and looked towards the cave entrance. Just like yesterday, he saw the light streaming through the Formation.

Readying himself, Max put on his poncho shirt and climbed out of the hole.

Max wolfed down five skewers before leaving the cave. Although the Minor Enhance Regeneration was a nice buff, it wasn’t actually needed, he just didn’t want to have to fight on an empty stomach. Looking at the rest, he planned on saving for the future. Now that his food source was likely stolen, he’ll have to start rationing it.

Holding tight to the Chi-Infused Rocks, Max quietly exited the cave. It was slightly past dawn, but the sight was still beautiful. He didn’t think this scenery could get old for him. It was too bad he couldn’t spare the time for it today.

Max slowly moved towards the edge of the path. Getting close to the edge, he got down on his stomach and started to crawl the last couple of feet. Looking down and not seeing any beast, he let out a small breath. But at the same time, the hawk was also gone. Before starting his hike downwards, he checked the sky for any signs of another ambush. Not seeing anything from above, he took his first step downwards. Wearing his poncho shirt also helped him blend into the rocks a bit more.

From the top of the path, he wasn’t able to see if there were any beasts lurking in the forest; he had to be ready if there was. If it was facing away from him, he might even get lucky. Once the treeline was in view, Max let out a sigh, there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. With his experience from the day prior; and Greater Enhance Regeneration, Max made short work of the climb.

Looking at the clearing, there was only one word on his mind.

“Fuck.”

He already knew that the hawk’s body was gone, the beasts from last night didn’t even leave a feather for him. Looking at where the hawk was, he could clearly see tracks. It looked like the hawk was dragged off, which was good news for Max. If whatever beast had to drag the hawk, it meant they likely weren’t that big. On top of the drag marks, there were also footprints, or more accurately, paw prints. Max wasn’t a dog owner, but he had friends with pets. The prints that he was looking at were very similar to the paws of a dog. The prints also didn’t seem to be outrageously large, probably half the size of his hands. Whatever these beasts are, they’re probably smaller than the hawk.

Scanning the clearing, there was another set of prints going in the opposite direction of the way the hawk was dragged. Getting closer to it, he also noticed that there was some blood on the ground and the tracks looked uneven. Some prints were deeper and more pronounced than others. Coupling that clue with the blood, Max concluded that he was the one that the “boss” called “puny”. It was definitely injured and could be limping.

Max needed to decide if he would follow the tracks and which set. He quickly made up his mind to not pursue the tracks that took the hawk. There seemed to be multiple sets of paw prints and they had likely already eaten the hawk. That set of tracks was too dangerous and not worth the effort.

But the other set had blood and that beast looked to be injured. He needed another source of protein and killing it could also net him some easy experience.

Max quickly stopped himself from going down that line of thinking. This was not a game. Basing his decisions on getting experience could get him killed. He had read stories of characters falling into the trap of the leveling high, where they were addicted to the feeling of getting stronger and would throw themselves into dangerous situations one right after another just so they could get a hit. Besides, Max wasn’t sure he could stomach killing something for no reason. For all that had happened, he was raised in the 21st century. The only things he had killed prior to yesterday were rodents and that was with a trap not with his bare hands.

‘No, I am not following these tracks for the experience. But for survival. The beasts took my only source of food and if I want to survive, I need to find another one soon. With this one being injured, I have an opening.’

With his mind made up, Max began his first foray into the forest.