What about the water ?

Mana attuned spring: This shallow pool of water originates from a Mana attuned reservoir deep underground. The water has been attuned due to the presence of a Mana crystal in the reservoir. Ingesting the water provides a 200% boost to Mana regeneration for 12 hours and provides improved clarity for the duration. Has a number of other uses.

It’s like Gatorade but magic. Neat. I’m going to need to make a container to carry some with me. It’s great that the buff lasts for so long! Too bad I don’t have any skills that actually use mana right now. Adam drank some water and it tasted just like normal mineral water but as soon as he drank some, he started to feel a noticeable change in his thoughts and an improved, for a lack of better words, clarity. Once he was done with drinking the mountain dew he proceeded to walk out of the cave, finally ready to start his journey.

Adam made his way out of the cave at a slow walk and continued to scan ahead of him as he walked through the forest and always making sure to stick from tree to tree in order to mask his movements and have a place to hide when needed. He would always stop and look around him every few minutes and use analyze on everything he could spot.

It was slow going but it was better to err on the side of caution than have something ambush him. A few minutes into the forest he found his first forest critter. It was on a tree trunk just ahead of him, 5 meters above the forest floor and it was munching on the tree bark, most likely snacking on the tree sao. It looked like a giant stag beetle but from the tip of the horn to the end of its abdomen it was a little more than a meter long and its horn looked dangerous. Its carapace was a brown so dark it was almost black and to Adam it looked extremely heavy and solid, the bug was facing away from him and was busy gorging on the tree sap. Those are some strong mandibles to be able to strip tree back so easily. Lucky for me the thing’s busy trying to feed and I’m out of its line of sight.

You can tell a lot about animals from their exterior and their behavior. The stag beetles on earth were awkward fliers at best and couldn’t fly for long or make acrobatic maneuvers in the air. In fact they were slow and relied on their hard carapace and horn to deter would be predators. Judging the Terra counterpart based on earth counterparts would be foolish and could lead to false assumptions. Analyze.

Forest Long horn Beetle (3): A common omnivorous insect found on Terra. It’s a solitary creature that prefers to drink tree sap but it would not turn down feasting on carrion remains left by predators. They are cowardly by nature and would not attack unless provoked. As user has observed the mandibles of the Long horn beetle are strong enough to penetrate the toughest tree bark and their carapace is hard enough to resist Penetration by creatures of the same level and horns strong enough and sharp enough to penetrate the carapace of other beetles. They are weak to blunt damage due to soft innards and resistant to most elements except fire, which they are weak against. When provoked the beetle will charge at the aggressor and will use its horn to gore them. Has a deceptively fast straight-line charge but slow to turn.

Should I try and kill it? No. It’s too high up and I doubt my stick would generate enough force to cause enough damage. It can fly and it’s got that wicked horn, one mistake and it’s going to go through me like a knife through hot butter. Besides there’s no way I can reach it while it’s that high up and not like its going to attack me if I ignore it. He thought about the pros and cons and decided there was too much to lose for so little a chance to gain. That and the fact that the beetle wasn’t aggressive made his decision for him. He moved on towards the pond. Now that he knew what to look for he could see even more of those beetles , some as high as level 6 but nothing below level 3. They were all staying above ground where land predators couldn’t get to them and low enough that avian predators would have difficulty spotting them.

There were animal tracks on the ground as well. He couldn’t tell what sort of animals they were but the animals were small judging by the size of the paw prints. He couldn’t find any other traces of them except for the tracks and they led towards the pond. He slowed down and became even more careful as he walked toward the pond. He didn’t encounter anything and saw only beetles as he grew closer and closer to the pond. He was close enough to see that he was mistaken about the size of the pond. He crouched and walked close and finally hid behind a large pine tree to observe the pond. It was about a 50 meters across and was fed by small stream that was coming from deep inside the forest. The pool was covered in what looked like algae and water plants so it was difficult to judge just how deep it was. Analyze

Algae Pond: This freshwater pond has been covered in Algae which prevents any aquatic organism from living in the pond. The algae uses sunlight and oxygen in the water to bloom. This water from the pond is drinkable provided that you filter out the algae but will have no negative effects on user.

Adam observed the surroundings and saw that the banks of the pond had thick growths of vegetation and the far bank was covered in water reeds. A plan was starting to take shape in his head. The spot was perfect for an ambush. The pond had a multitude of animal tracks near it from what he could see. There wasn’t anything dangerous in the pond and the reeds would provide cover as he observed the near bank and hide his movements as he went under water. He couldn’t have asked for a better setting. It was still afternoon and he had plenty of time to get back to the safety of the cave before dusk, he decided to set up an ambush. He had to get stronger and from what he had seen so far the area he was in didn’t have any large predators or anything above level 6. He hadn’t spent enough time in the area to be completely sure that it was a low level zone but if he did follow through with this plan he would have a chance to observe the wildlife and make a better assessment of the dangers and still be in the perfect spot for an ambush if anything suitable comes along. The pond was perfect. I can’t get a better spot than this to hunt and observe and there’s very little risk. Let’s just go ahead and do this before I start having doubts.

He started moving towards far bank towards the reeds but he made sure to not get close to the banks as he moved in a wide arc to reach the far bank. He didn’t rush or lower his vigilance as he slowly made his way towards his goal. A mistake on his part would end up getting him killed and even though he could revive during the trial , he had already suffered a permanent loss of attributes, he didn’t want to add any more negative effects of on top of that.

My attributes are crippled as it is and I need to keep that in mind. It’s difficult to move this deliberately and its sapping my stamina and this heightened state of awareness is sapping my mental energy. I need to rest every few minutes if I want to last long enough to reach that bank. It’s easier to slip up when exhausted and a slip up is all it will take for some forest critter to make a meal out of me.

After almost an hour of slow going, he managed to reach his destination. He picked a spot to enter the reeds and slowly crawled forward till he reached the water and then held his breathe and submerged himself. He crawled along the bottom which was soft sediment, dragging himself through the reeds in the water. He reached a place where the reeds had stopped and pushed himself back so he was just inside the reeds and then ever so slowly he raised his head out of the water. His lungs were on fire at this point, their need for oxygen so great that he barely held himself back from breathing in the water and yet Adam held firm and he slowly breathed in and out while hidden in the reeds.

He was crouched down and only his head was above the algae filled water. I shouldn’t be surprised that the lowered attributes affect my lung capacity, probably affect a whole lot of other shit too. No use for regrets now. This spot is perfect. The pool is shallow enough for me to keep my head above water but deep enough for me to drown whatever prey I decide to ambush. It was the right decision to leave the staff on the bank and just go Rambo but without a knife. And now its just a waiting game.

He had stayed hidden in the reeds and continued to observe the wildlife that visited the pond. And he was thanking his lucky stars that he made the decision to stay hidden and observe from the far bank. Not only did a lot of animals visit the pond to drink water, everything was a higher level than him, ranging from level 8 to 15 and most were herd animals like Forest Boar and Dwarf deer except for the bear that showed up.

It was a Forest Honey Bear (23)and like its name implied it ate honey but it wasn’t anything like Winnie the pooh. The creature was downright terrifying. On all fours it was almost as tall he was and had a jaw big enough to bite him in half and limbs the size of tree trunks with paws fitted with dagger length claws, but even the bear had to walk away from the pond when a pack of what looked like mottled wolves pumped up on steroids showed up.

They were called Lesser Wargs and they all ranged from levels 18 to 20. The biggest and meanest looking one was level 20 and it was most likely the Alpha and it was sniffing the air like its caught the scent of something. Shit. He immediately ducked his head under water and kept praying that the scent doesn’t lead them to his hiding place.

He stayed under for as long as he could until finally he reached a point where he either took a breath or passed out and so he slowly came up and saw that the monster wolves were gone. Luckily he had enough wits to cast a quick Analyze before he hid himself.