(Jokul’s POV)

Alright, I’m midway to the mountains, a week after going off the lake. And I’ve discovered two problems. One, there’s a fuckton of monsters on this forest the more I approach the mountains. Giant white wolves, bears, small bitch aggressive monster squirrels that attack in swarm.

Of course, I survived unharmed, even when the wolves attacked by surprise. Their fangs didn’t pierce my skin. One of the boons of defeating monsters is that I feel my body actively turning more powerful each time I reap a life, just a bit by each monster. The amount of monster isn’t that much of a problem, more to a bother.

The other one is a real problem. It’s bloodlust. I was never a battle addict. I liked fighting during high school, but I calmed down when I reached adulthood, but even than I wasn’t this thirsty for blood. But now, for some reason, I can smell when there’s a fight going on, and the distance is quite big.

And the end result is me being attracted like a fly to a carnivorous plant, except that the fly kills the plant, skin it, drinks the nectar and uses the skin to make a nice pair of wing-warmers. You can take that analogy the way you want.

For some reason, when there’s fight, I start wanting to join, and resulting in the death of both sides. That’s not even the worst part, the worst part is as the fight gets bloody. I can smell blood from even farther away than I can smell a fight.

As more blood comes into play, more violent I get, making me more reckless and vicious. Once, one of the wolves from the ten that attacked me tried to run away, and threw the axe, severing one of its legs after it had already run a good distance. I didn’t even know that I had such a good aim.

This is a real problem, this is starting to hinder my progress in my journey. I need to learn some self-control, or this might end badly in human society. After all, I can’t go cutting off heads if a fistfight between drunkards break out.

I’ll try some meditation, and take a bigger effort to resist the urge to go and start killing. Yep, let’s do that. It’ll make my journey even slower, but there’s no problem, since I’m doing this to enjoy scenery.

On that note, I’ll set up camp here. I take out my shelter on the shore of the river. Surprisingly, it’s flowing. It has some ice here and there, but it’s mostly flowing, being almost four meters wide and almost two meters deep.

I can see some fish, but I haven’t tried fishing yet. I also should take a bath, I’m covered in dried blood from the constant battles. My clothes are in scraps too, torn to almost shreds. I rip off my clothes, discarding them, as they can’t do what they were made to be anymore. Goodbye clothes, you won’t be remembered.

I should make some new clothes. Of course, I’ve kept the leather straps. Oh, I don’t have underwear, so I’m going command now. I take off the belts and thro the axe to the ground. I can recall it anytime I want after all.

I jump into the river, the chilly water covering my body. Oh, it’s such a comfortable cold! Just like a refreshing bath on a cold day. There’s something wrong with that phrase… anyway, I scrub the dirt out of my body and hair vigorously, becoming clean again. Ah, it’s so good to be clean!

After enjoying the water for some time, I decide to catch dinner. I’m a bit tired of from eating monster meat. It tastes good, but I want to vary my diet. I stand still where the water hits my waist, waiting patiently with both my hands ready.

Eventually, as the water on my body freezes in contact with the wind, creating an ice layer over my body, the fishes approach unsuspecting. Wow, they’re big, as big as one my arms. They’re fat and full of meat, after taking off the guts I should be able to eat well with only two of them.

They get close to my legs, and I quickly move my arms, the ice breaking from my arms. My hand pierces the water, grabbing the tils of the fishes, and I take them from water, flailing like… fishes… out of… water… I should have though better on that phrase.

I get out of the river and throw them into the snow and recall my axe. They will die eventually. Meanwhile, I break the ice on my hair and skin and take out my shelter. Going inside, I throw some charcoal on the hole and light it. I have a lot of firewood on my inventory, so I’ll use it instead of charcoal.

I let the hole at the top open but take out the door. It isn’t snowing so I’ll enjoy that. The sky here is always clouded, so there isn’t much daylight when the sunset comes. I go out of the shelter and take the dead and slightly frozen fish. At the edge of the hole, I use the axe to take off their scales.

I go back to the river and take out the guts and wash the fish, taking out the sticks of wood that I made from hard wood and putting the fish on them. going back inside, I let the fish roast while I make some new clothes.

I’ve met some animals, such as normal bears here, and skinned them, curing the leather with the brain method. I also made strings from the guts from the monsters and animals, so I have a lot of that.

Making clothes shouldn’t be too hard. I don’t need anything complicated, just something to cover my dangling leg. I shave off the fur from one of the pelts and cut the leather in the needed shape. To hold it all together, I punch holes with the back of the axe head and take out the gut string.

With that, I tie everything together, several strings per hole to give some extra security. The shorts are real short, like boxers. I should make a few more while I’m at it. I can make three per bear pelt, leaving behind scraps that I can use for later.

After I’m done with the third shorts, I take a look at the fish. Yeah, it should be ready. I bite it, the skin cracking and the fat coming out of the meat, the great taste flooding my mouth. Tasty, tasty fishy.

I enjoy my meal with leisure and put on my new and surprisingly comfortable leather shorts. I also make gloves to put on my forearms, covering from my elbow to the back of my hand, tied with string made from guts.

I also make something to cover from the back of my foot to my knee, also tied with skin, just to give me some warmth. I also take a pelt and tie it around my waist, making a skirt that covers only my right leg, leaving my left leg exposed. It’s just for style, as walking around in shorts would be bad.

I tie it with leather straps this time, made from the leftover leather. I also put on the belts from my axe and hang the axe on my back. Getting outside, I take out my axe. I should start practicing in wielding it instead of swinging it with brute strength. Even Kratos had some technique on him.

I start practicing combos and swings with both hands. After all, I can’t rely only in one hand after all. As I practice my swings, I start to feel the smell of battle. A bloody and violent battle. The enticing smell fills my mind and body.

I stop swinging the axe and sit on the ground with my legs crossed, closing my eyes. I should meditate in times like there. I try to clean my mind, resisting the smell of battle. I’m sure that the opponents are a pack of monster wolves and a horned bear, after some time I can tell the difference.

After some time meditating, giving my best to ignore the smell and cleaning my mind, I start to relax, getting into the flow of meditation. Eventually, a warmth starts to spread on my body starting from my navel, and I feel the same warmth coming from the axe on my back, as if responding to me.

This… seems interesting…