For the next couple of days, Jack set out to learn all that he could about wildlife survival. There are a lot of things that he'll need to get right if he was going to survive.

Firstly, he needed food and he needed it fast. He sure as hell wasn't going to eat those damn berries again, that's for sure. So instead, he stuffed himself with some of the flowers he'd gathered previously, banking on the fact that whatever effects they have on him won't be as bad as the berries. The flowers he ate didn't exactly taste pleasant, but at least they fill his belly up and didn't make him sick.

Wanting to diversify his food source a bit, Jack decided to go hunt for some animals in order to get some meat, as the protein and fat would allow him to stave off hunger for longer. If the last tussle with the rabbit had taught him anything, it's that he'll need to be sufficiently prepared if he's going to be successful in a hunt.

Jack scanned through the Recipes section to see what he could craft to better assist him in his hunting. He found two potential tools that could help: a stone spear and a wooden bow. He tested each of them out to see how effective they were.

The stone spear was fairly easy to wield and could be used as a decent melee weapon in a pinch, but doesn't have nearly as much range or accuracy as the bow. However, the bow required arrows and---according to the Recipes section---one of the ingredients for arrows was feathers for fletching, which he was hard-pressed to find around these areas.

The feathers that he did manage to find only net him a handful of arrows, some of which were lost in the thicket when shot and never found again. He tried experimenting with arrows without fletching, which ended up not being as accurate as he'd wanted. He then tried replacing the feathers with leaves and they ended breaking off from the arrow every now and again when shot, which made it tediously annoying for him as he had to repair the arrow almost every time he used it.

In either case, both weapons were inadequate for catching any rabbit, despite spending the entire day in an attempt to do so. Jack was now in a dilemma. He'll have to decide whether to try the same method over and over again---in the hopes of getting lucky on a catch---or try a different strategy.

After some thinking, he came up with an idea. Taking out strips of leather and bundles of grass from his inventory, he proceeded to craft himself a sling.

Seeing the sling brings back fond memories of his childhood. He remembered that back when he was little, he would visit his grandparents at their ranch every summer. His grandfather would teach him how to make and use a sling. It was a fairly simple tool---essentially just a leather pouch with two strings attached---but was surprisingly effective in the right hands.

"Boy, you need to understand that, in order to be a man, you need to have at least three things," his grandpa had said in his Southern-American accent as he taught Little Jack how to make a sling. "Do you what those three things are?"

"I don't know, Grandpa," Little Jack had said. "What are those three things?"

"Those three things are a sense of honor, a set of cool skills, and a large penis. I can guarantee you that any man who lacks even one of those things is not truly a man."

"Hmm, interesting." As a mere child, Little Jack believed those words to have a profound meaning and that wiser words have never been spoken.

"Now, I am going to teach you one cool skill so that you can take your first step into becoming a man."

His grandpa took him to an area of the ranch that looked like some sort of shooting range---complete with scarecrows with buckets for heads, steel plates of various shapes and sizes, and empty beer bottles to act as practicing targets.

As he stood and faced the range, Jack's grandpa took out his own sling and loaded a small smooth stone in it. He then whirled it several times behind him before swinging it in one graceful motion, letting loose the stone as it flew into the farthest beer bottle at the back, smashing it to pieces. For a little kid like Jack, it was mind-blowingly awesome.

"Cool!" Little Jack had said.

His grandpa displayed the sling in front of him as he spoke. "This right here is a sling. It is perhaps one of mankind's greatest and most underappreciated weapons in ancient history. People nowadays think of it as a children's toy, but back in the day, they could rival the bow and arrow in terms of lethality. You heard about the story of how David defeated Goliath using nothing but a sling. That's just goes to show how powerful they are."

His grandpa then loaded another stone into the sling and launched it at another target, this time a bucket-headed scarecrow at the far side of the range. The impact of that stone hitting that metal bucket made a loud clanging sound. "Not only is it powerful, it's simple to make as well. So if you'd ever find yourself stranded in the wilderness and needed to hunt any sort of small animal, the sling is perhaps your best tool for the job."

"This is so awesome! I wanna try!"

"Alright then. Give it a go."

And so, for the first summer of being introduced to the sling, he'd practiced almost everyday. It took a while for Little Jack to get the hang of it, but eventually, he was able to use the sling to hit his targets with a decent level of accuracy. He was having quite a bit of fun doing it as well, to the point where he had often lost track of time.

As the summer was drawing to a close, his grandpa had given him a challenge.

"They say that the Balearic slingers are perhaps one of the most prominent users of slings in history," his grandpa had told him. "They were so skilled, in fact, that they were once employed by the Romans. That's because they were trained at a very young age and their training was brutal. It was said that one of their tests involve having their food tied to the branches of tall trees and that they were only allowed to eat once they've used their slings to break off the branches and make the food fall to the ground." He then looked at Little Jack with intense eyes. "Now, I am going to give you a similar test."

Little Jack felt mildly apprehensive about what's to come next. "Are you going to tie my food up a tree, Grandpa?"

His grandpa chuckled. "Oh, no. I'm not going to do that." He then pointed to a nearby tree. On that tree, there was a small box tied to one of its branches with a piece of thin rope. "You see that box hanging up at that tree?"

Little Jack nodded.

"That right there...is a Nintendo Switch. With a copy of 'Breath of the Wild'." That very statement made Little Jack's brain tingle with unimaginable excitement. "You manage to get that box down with your sling and it's yours."

Little Jack gasped. "Really?!"

"Yep! Have at it, boy!"

At that moment, Little Jack was invigorated with a unparalleled sense of motivation. There was nothing he wanted more than that Nintendo Switch hanging atop of that tree and he's going to do whatever it takes to obtain it.

Day in and day out, he tried slinging rocks at that tree branch to try to get that box to fall down. Every time he tried, he failed; and every time he failed, he tried again. It was a grueling process of failing countless times and having your self-esteem repeatedly beaten into a pulp. In other words, it almost felt like playing a Dark Souls game.

At certain times, he felt like giving up. He had tried so many times that his muscles were becoming incredibly sore. However, in the end, he didn't give up. He didn't want to give up. After all the effort he'd put in, it's no longer about the Switch anymore. It's about his pride. That tree thought it could taunt him into giving up like a wimpy loser? Like hell it could!

After many more painstaking hours, Little Jack had finally landed the shot that broke the tree branch, causing the box to fall to the ground. That moment came so unexpectedly that he had to take a minute to collect himself.

As he reached out to pick up the box from the ground, a sense of overwhelming triumph had ignited inside him. He finally did it. He'd finally accomplished what he set his mind to do and he could hardly believe his own eyes.

"I DID IT! YEAH!" Little Jack yelled in joy as he ran back into the house to tell his family. "I finally got the Switch! Next, I'm going to take my next step into becoming a man! I am going to get myself a large penis! Grandpa, which one of your bulls needs castrating?!"

Ahh...those were good times.

Jack held his self-made sling in his hands as he reminisced his childhood with a warm-hearted fondness. Then, his moment of reminiscence was interrupted by a small ringing sound and an icon of a yellow exclamation mark at the corner of his view.

He checked the menu to see what new information had popped up. It turned out that, on the Recipes section, there appeared to be a new recipe for crafting that was not there before. A crafting recipe for...a sling.

[Sling]

Ingredients:

* 1 Leather

* 2 Grass

Crafting Time:

* 2.0 seconds

Jack stared at this new feature with amazement.

So I can make new items that were not on the Recipes section and it would automatically add them to that section, he thought. So next time, if I want to craft another one, I wouldn't have to do it manually. I could just have the menu do it for me. Sweet!

Afterwards, he went to the riverside to collect a bunch of small round stones to use as ammo. Upon picking up a good enough stone to use as ammo, he immediately got another notification.

[Sling Stone Ammo]

Ingredients:

* 1 Stone

Crafting Time:

* 0.2 seconds

So, for some recipes, I don't even have to necessary craft the item. I just need to recognize certain items to have certain uses and it would automatically register them as such. Very sweet!

Using the menu, Jack was able to convert a small supply of the stone he gathered into sling ammo---all of which were automatically adjusted to be nearly uniform in size and weight, which was very convenient for him.

Next, he tried taking a few practice swings with his new sling just to be on the safe side. He was out of practice for a a long time so it took some getting used to. However, after a couple hours of practicing, he was confident that he'd reached the same level of skill that he had before.

While holding the sling and some stone ammo in his hands, Jack patiently prowled the grass fields until he could find himself a rabbit. After a while, he finally spotted one.

He quickly ducked into the grasses to hide his presence before slowly approaching the rabbit. His eyes were dead set on his prey. Every movement he made was as quiet as possible as to not alert the small animal of his presence.

He carefully loaded a stone into his sling and, in one fluid motion, swung the sling and hurled the stone directly towards the rabbit.

It missed by just barely a centimeter and had spooked the rabbit into running. Jack cursed himself as he chased the rabbit in a rushing sprint. The rabbit kept leaping away as he gave chase, his veins pumped full of adrenaline.

Eventually, Jack could see a burrow in the far distance and noticed that the rabbit was heading towards it to use as an escape route, a tactic that it had used before.

Once that rabbit goes in the burrow, it's all over. He must get that rabbit before it escapes. It's now or never.

Jack quickly loaded another stone in his sling and started whirling it behind him to gather the maximum momentum he could achieve. Then, after clearing his mind and gathering his focus into one single moment of time, he swung the sling and let the stone soar.

That stone slammed into the rabbit right before it was about to enter the burrow, impacting it with a powerful blow of blunt force trauma. The rabbit lied still on the ground, indicating to Jack that he was triumphant once again.

"YEAH!!! WOOH!!!" Jack pumped his two fists in the sky as he let out a victorious roar, for this had signified his first successful hunt in this new world.