Edward woke up groggily after a bad night of sleep. He hadn’t really fully fallen asleep after seeing that monster, instead, he dozed on and off. At one point he wasn’t sure if that monster had appeared again or if he had only dreamed of it. It was still early morning, but he had been woken up by the cold, the temperature was quite fresh, and he hadn’t even used his blanket as he had left it at the base. The only thing protecting him from the cold apart from his clothes was a thin layer of dirt and leaves.

Umpff, it is not the best night I had. I guess I should be happy that I survived the night instead of complaining. That thing was really too creepy, it didn’t even make a sound. If I had stayed in the open, it could have appeared just behind my back without me even noticing. Edward shuddered at the thought. Luckily for me, I already have the perfect technique to counter it. If I can keep sensing the auras around me at all times, I should be able to notice the moment it appears near me. Maybe I could even ambush it? It didn’t notice me when I had my aura repressed. But that means more training, I don’t have full mastery over my aura yet. Training is not the most exciting thing, but such a creepy monster is enough of a motivation to do it.

How does this thing even choose where to teleport? It should be able to sense its environment to choose the teleporting location. Is it relying on aura too? I wanted to explore the forest, but I should keep training my aura control before getting back here. It is too dangerous otherwise if I get ambushed by one of these things I won’t even know how I die. However, once my aura control is good enough, I should be enough to ambush them instead. We will see then who will jump scared who. But first I need to get back to the base.

Edward’s mood immediately turned sour. He still didn’t know in which direction was the way back, moreover, after everything that happened last night, he wasn’t even sure of the direction he had chosen to walk toward the day before. I can’t go on like this, I’m in the exact same situation as yesterday. I didn’t make any progress. Edward got up and cleaned himself of all the dirt, before picking up his backpack, he opened it to eat the few mushrooms he had brought with him as breakfast. The inside of his backpack was a bit of a mess, he removed the rope to access the mushrooms. The rope was entangled in itself, he shook it to sort it out, but it was starting to make knots. Edward stopped in his tracks before facepalming.

I’m stupid, I should have made a knot yesterday when I tried to climb that tree. If I had tied up the rope to the tree, the rope would have been secured and tense enough for me to climb it. I could even have tied the rope around me. If the rope was secured and short enough to avoid touching the soil, it wouldn’t even matter if I fell, I would be maintained in mid-air instead of crashing to the ground.

He stood straight away feeling a lot more motivated, he quickly chose a tree to try his new climbing technique. After a few attempts he managed to throw the rope over a branch, this time he didn’t hesitate, he pulled the roped around the tree making a good knot and drawing on the rope a few times to be sure that it would hold. He then pulled the rope around himself, he got on the top of his feet before making a knot, so that the knot holding him was as far away from the ground as possible. If he fell, as long as he didn’t extend his legs to the full length he should avoid falling on the ground, and instead be held in the air by the rope. Everything seems ok, now time to climb.

Edward began to climb the rope with the strength of his arms, putting his feet against the trunk of the tree to serve as support. He felt it was surprisingly easy to climb that way, he wasn’t sure if he would have been able to do that back on earth but he had already gained some strength with the dark wolves he had killed. With the height of the tree, he had at least eight meters to climb just to reach the first branch and it wasn’t something that anybody was able to do. Once he reached the branch, he pulled himself up on top of it, however, he still wasn’t high enough to see above the canopy of the trees, he had to climb higher.

He wasn’t on the top of the tree yet, but he was situated in an area where branches were abundant, he just had to climb on a few more branches to reach the top. He managed to do it without much difficulty, realizing that it was more his fears that were holding him down rather than his physical capacities. He parted the leaves to be able to see the horizon, he looked around and quickly found the mountain where his hideout was located. A mountain is hard to miss, now that I have this climbing technique I won’t get lost as easily next time I go into this forest.

To come down from the tree, he used the rope to abseil down, it was much easier than trying to climb down from the tree’s trunk. Edward was actually glad he had this rope, even if he had managed to climb the tree without the rope it would have been tricky to go down afterward. Ok, now I know where to go, I don’t have time to lose. I spend almost a full day walking to reach this point, so I have a day of walking in front of me before reaching the base. I don’t want to spend another night in here. Not now, I’m not ready yet.

While he was walking toward the exit of the forest, Edward didn’t spot a single big animal. He only saw small beasts, things looking like squirrels or shrews. That’s strange, this forest aura is almost thrumming with lives and yet I can’t see any big mammals. Are they hiding from me? Thinking of it, I must look like those monsters as a humanoid figure. Well, it means less trouble for me, as long as they think I am a predator they won’t come to bother me. In contrast, he again saw several of the flowers’ trees, he avoided them carefully. Once he finally left the forest, Edward felt a lot more relaxed, the night was already falling, but this time he would be able to spend it in a safe place.

******

After this event, Edward resumed his training on aura technique. He was already able to sense his own aura easily but now he went to the next step. Every day he walked to the edge of the forest and sat on a rock trying not only to sense his own aura but also the auras around him, including the one behind his back. The next time one of those monsters popped up behind his back he wanted to be able to sense them. The training was dull, but now that he saw the danger of this forest by himself, it kept him motivated. It was one thing to know theoretically that it was a good thing to train and another altogether to have met face to face with the reason why you had to train.

Other than sensing aura, he mostly focused on restraining his aura to hide. In this context being able to increase his aura output wouldn’t help him much, but being able to hide and ambushed those beasts instead of being ambushed was crucial. He didn’t have a partner to test his aura shrouding, but he could sense when his aura was retracted in his body or when it was still leaking out. Once he felt confident enough, he even went inside the forest to surprise some shrews. At first, he had some difficulties because his aura control wasn’t perfect yet, but more importantly because he was making noise while moving in the forest. It was only once he managed to make less noise while moving and with his aura masked that he was able to take a shrew by surprise and catch it barehanded.

Even with all this aura training, Edward didn’t forget to also maintain his physical shape. It was actually a good break to alternate between useful but somewhat dull aura training and physical exercises. He was quite amazed by all the progress he had made, he was sportive even before coming into this world but he wasn’t able to do such physical prowess. To be able to estimate the physical improvement he got from the beast blood he did a series of push-ups until he wasn’t able to continue and had to rest. Before, he was able to do a series of fifty push-ups until he got exhausted, but now he was able to continue until he reached eighty push-ups.

He hadn’t exercised more than usual since he came into this world, which means that all this improvement was made only by absorbing the blood of the two dark wolves he had slain. Those were quite impressive and above all fast results, however one had to remember that doing physical exercises to improve one’s capacity was totally safe. In contrast hunting and killing monsters was quite a dangerous task, one where you could lose your life easily, even if you were prepared.

Apart from his training Edward also tried to eat the strange berries he had harvested in the forest. At first, he cut one in half with his dagger and tasted one of the halves. The taste was a bit sour but still edible, he waited for half a day, to see if anything unexpected occurred but he was fine even after all this time. He then gladly ate the rest, adding one more ingredient to his, for now, only mushrooms diet. He was appreciating the beauty of the landscape and the quiet tranquillity of the surrounding, but he certainly missed cooked food.

Once he was able to regularly catch shrews by surprise in the forest, Edward estimated himself ready. Sure, a shrew wasn’t the same as a monster, but if he was able to take one by surprise he should be able to do the same with the monsters. Even when he had reached the safety of his base, he had nightmares for several nights, dreaming that one of those monsters was looking at him without a sound. They didn’t look like the most dangerous monster that Edward could imagine but their eeriness made up for it. Now, it would be payback time.

******

Today, was the day, it was time to go back to the forest to hunt those monsters. Edward spent the morning preparing himself, he took his rope and more mushrooms that he needed in his backpack. With his previous experience, he knew that it was better to plan more than not enough, one’s plan could easily go down the drain. He admired his dagger under the rays of the sun, its edge seemed as sharp as when he found it. He didn’t know what it was made of, but he was happy that its durability was great and that he didn’t need to sharpen it.

He also took some time to calm his state of mind and review how he would proceed. I didn’t see that monster before nightfall. I do not need to leave too early, I can just go to the forest in the late afternoon. It’s also better not to go too deep into the forest, I don’t know if there are other types of monsters. I should stay for a few hours with my aura active before nightfall, and once the night is falling, I will hide under leaves with my aura repressed just like last time. If those things find their prey with aura, they should be attracted by my lingering aura, at least I hope so… And this time I will be ready, once I see one of them teleport near it, then I will jump on it and killed it with the dagger. Then I will have to store its blood to absorb later on. It’s too dangerous to do it in the forest and I don’t want to bring its corpse near the base, who knows what it could attract.