Adam did not encounter any other animals other than beetles, as he made his way back to the cave. He was lugging about 40lbs of meat on his back and even though the weight didn’t even register due to his stats, the bloody meat made it pointless to even try and move with stealth through the forest, instead Adam opted for more speed and jogged back to his cave. He was reasonably sure that there wouldn’t be any dangerous predators in the outer edges of the forest and throughout his trek he hadn’t spotted any. But as an extra precaution as well in order to gain more skill levels, he kept his Psychic Obfuscation skill still active.

As he made his way back to the cave, Adam did not encounter any animals other than beetles. He dropped his lunch/breakfast a few meters ahead of the cave and went about gathering dry twigs and branches along with dry grass to act as tinder. He selected a spot near his cave and dumbed his gathered load before he removed all the grass in roughly a 4-meter-wide circle and then set about gathering stones scattered on the hill.

He piled up the stones to form a square with only 3 sides forming an almost U shape and continued to pile up the stones till they were almost a meter off the ground, he needed a frame to hold up the boar legs as well as prevent the wind from putting out the fire. Fire that he was going to make soon. He had piled the stones with the open end of the square facing away from the wind and left a hole at the bottom on the side facing the wind. He made the hole to act as an air vent to feed the fire since he needed a steady flow of oxygen. It took Adam the better part of an hour till he was satisfied with his makeshift grill and he had even placed both legs on top to test if it would hold under the weight.

Satisfied that the stone structure wouldn’t collapse, Adam arranged sticks and twigs inside the stone grill and made sure to heap plenty of wooden chips and wood fiber in the bottom. Shit! Almost forgot about needing blocks of wood. Going to need to grill the legs for quite some time and these twigs just won’t do. Adam realized as he was setting up. He quickly made his way to the tree line and found a small tree which he cut down using Penetrate. If I ever make it out of this gauntlet and make it to civilization, I could always work as a woodcutter to make money. Adam chuckled to himself as he cut the felled tree into blocks.

He carried an armful back to the stone grill and set up the blocks nearby and finally started work on making a fire.

At first, he had planned on rubbing two pieces of wood together and creating a spark from the friction but after testing this out using the driest sticks he could find, Adam came up short. Even after spending nearly half an hour rubbing the sticks, he hadn’t had any success. He had used the short stick and rubbed along the length of the bigger one till he had cut straight through and he had only managed to create embers which had quickly died before he could place any kindling inside.

Disappointed Adam decided to try his luck with the rocks and stones scattered inside the cave and on the hill. He was hoping he would something like flint, which he could use to create sparks. Before he left on his search, he whittled down a couple of the twigs using Penetrate and managed to shave them down into long strands of wood, which he further ground to fibers. Should act as better kindling than grass, at least, Adam thought satisfied.

Adam started his search for the Terra equivalent of flint; he searched the cave first hoping he might get lucky in there. He found the small rocks of wolframite, scheelite and sphalerite that made up the walls of the cavern long with some granite. He kept searching and he found a small piece of quartzite which he knew could be used as a substitute for flint. He than grabbed a small rock made of wolframite and headed back out to his make shift grill.

He first grabbed kindling and shaped them into a ball the size of his fist. He then grabbed both stones and struck them together close to the ball of kindling. Adam brought his hands together as hard as he could and was rewarded for his efforts with several sparks of metal chips shooting into the ball of kindling.

He held the kindling with both hands as he slowly blew into it and soon the insides had properly caught fire and he shifted it into the grill. He kept blowing into the small fire which had ignited and kept it up till the wood had properly caught fire. Once the blaze was roaring in full, he fed wooden blocks into it in order make the fire last longer. And then Adam sat down in front of the fire and watched the legs and waited for them to sizzle and cook. He was almost drooling at the thought of eating grilled meat.

It took about an hour before the meat was grilled and cooked enough to turn a juicy dark brown, with Adam helping the process along by regularly flipping the meat. Both legs were each about a meter long and had weighed more than 40lbs before Adam had removed the hide. And now he held one of the legs and bit into the thighs and took a huge bite. A bit tough, could really use seasoning but damn! The meat is fucking juicy! Adam thought with happiness as he repeatedly bit into the meat. The thought of whether he would be able to even finish the meat had never even crossed his mind.

After 30 minutes of Adam turning into a ravenous wolf and attacking the boar legs, there were only bones and tendons left, the rest of the flesh had been devoured by Adam. I can’t believe I just finished off more than 30lbs of meat, and I can still eat more. Adam was surprised as he observed the legs which had been picked clean of flesh. This shouldn’t have been possible but I guess the interface is helping metabolize and store the food in my body? Maybe my stats mean faster digestion, I don’t know how but I’m sure the interface is doing some magic, cause otherwise my stomach should have burst open by now. Adam thought amazed. What’s even more amazing is that I can still eat more, which is just ridiculous.

Still, I don’t feel like I’m starving anymore. But that begs the question, would my hunger grow with how powerful I become? It kind of makes sense that my enhanced stats and attributes are going to need more energy to support them and I’m going to need to eat more to supply that energy. Adam reasoned as he dug a small pit near his make shift grill.

It’s still late afternoon, though from the looks of it, going to get dark soon. Maybe an hour or two of daylight left. Enough time to earn the last bit of essence I need for my next level and maybe I’ll get lucky and hunt something I can eat. Adam hoped as he finished placing the bones and the hide inside the pit and covered them in dirt.

Adam had wanted to use the hide but sadly he didn’t know much about curing or tanning hides and he was sure he needed salt to cure it but he had none available. So, he had no choice but to discard the hide since it was going to putrefy in the coming days.

Adam settled down in front of the cave and decided to check out his notifications. He had ignored them and made the decision to eat before he went through them. He was just that hungry. And I tend to lose track of time whenever I go through my interface, my hunger just wouldn’t stand for it. Adam mused as he opened up his first notification.

User has killed Juvenile Forest Boar (13)

Due to level difference essence gained has been increased.

Even with the increased essence gain, the kill wasn’t enough to gain a level and it still wasn’t enough to push me over the line even after I devoured most of it. Adam thought feeling a bit disappointed. Next.

User has Devoured Juvenile Forest Boar (13).

User has gained increased essence due to level difference.

User has recovered stamina, mana and health.

User has gained +1 to Vitality and Endurance

User has learned Robust Vitality*(Un) and Wild Rush*(C)

Psychic Obfuscation*(E) Lvl 15 -> Lvl 19

Penetrate*(Un) Lvl 09 -> Lvl 15

Bolster*(R) Lvl 09 -> Lvl 12

This is really nice. It’s a shame about the level but this more than makes up for the disappointment. 2 attribute points and 2 skills. And a lot of skill levels. Sweet! Adam was happy that he had gained attributes and skills from the Boar.

He had killed a few beetles before the boar and they hadn’t given him anything for the trouble, although the beetles were little more than easy pickings at this point, but still he was glad that he had earned a lot from his foray into woods and from the boar he had killed.

Adam was had already decided that he was going to go out and hunt after his meal, he was on the cusp of his next level and he was sure 2-3 beetles’ worth of essence would push him over, but before he went hunting, he wanted to get familiar with his new skills. He still had time before the day turned dark and he wasn’t going to spend more than a few minutes getting familiar with his new skills.

Robust Vitality*(Un): An uncommon passive ability possessed by most creatures with high endurance and vitality. The ability passively boosts health and stamina regeneration. Increases recovery speed of wounds and decreases the effects of physical ailments and debilitations. Slightly increased regeneration and recovery with increasing proficiency.

Increases Health regeneration by 10%

Good! Always happy to get passives that can help my regen. Adam felt happy with the ability. The permanent buff to recovery and resistance to physical debuffs are going to come through in a clutch.

Wild Rush*(C): A common skill possessed by most 4 legged bovines and similar creatures. The skill requires the user to run forward in a straight line and makes use of kinetic energy to deliver damage. To further amplify the effect, mana is channeled through out the user’s body which increases speed and decreases damage taken while running forward. Damage increases with speed and distance covered.

Costs 10 mana to activate and uses 10 mana/sec for the duration of the skill.

Damage dealt, damage reduction to user, speed and mana cost are slightly increased with skill level.

Adam stared at his new skill. It wasn’t a bad skill though it was Common ranked. What stumped Adam was the fact that his entire M.O depended on stealth and dealing a lethal hit. The skill clashed badly with his hunting strategy and the terrain and try as he might, he couldn’t think of a way to make use of the skill. Maybe it would be useful when my stealth is compromised and I need to run away. Adam thought optimistically. You can’t always get useful skills and besides maybe it will turn out to be useful once I get out of this forest. Maybe there’ll be a plain area or something where I might actually need to run down my prey.

A bit disappointed with the skill but otherwise feeling happy with his gains, Adam prepared to set off to hunt once more.

Adam went inside his cave and used water from the pool to wash off the grease and fat that had smeared across his body during his meal. Animal fat and grease were like a homing beacon for predators and he would have been stupid to go out without removing the grease. Satisfied, Adam went ahead and made a mud slurry and lathered it all over himself before once more heading out. This time on a full stomach and with the intention to hunt for levels instead of just food. Though it would be nice if one of those Bicorn bunnies showed up. Adam mused as he wondered what roasted hare would taste like.