Being not able to bear any longer the hunger, I decided to began to venture farther from my shelter in hope to find something to eat.

And it was more stressful and frightening than I would’ve expected.

The fact that I had no idea where I was going was extremely unsettling, as was the fear of not being able to find my way back to my shelter.

It may be a very rudimentary and temporary shelter, but I've already grown quite attached to it in these possibly two days.

I always have this lingering impression that if I venture too far I might lose track of where it was, well at this pôint it’s no longer an impression but rather a reality.

The only way I found to deal with it was to always travel in a straight line, regardless of the obstacle, so that I didn't lose track of where I was coming from.

In my hand and my wrist was two wooden stick, the one on my wrist was just a random wooden stick while the other in my hand was shaped like a cane which one of its ends was shaped like a door handle.

The first wooden stick had a stabbing end; it would be useful for self-defense, and when enhanced with aina, it would make a good truncheon or stake if necessary. I'm not sure what kind of monstrosity I'll come across here, but I'd rather not test its jaw strength with my bare hand and even less body.

The cane-shaped wooden stick served as a cane for me, but its primary purpose lies elsewhere; if I ever get entangled in a fight, the first thing I would do is to anchor that piece of wood to the ground while ensuring that it's handle indicated where I came from.

In a situation like this, I can see why wolves and other animals mark their territory with piss; in my case, that method would be very useful and practical for finding my way back, but... I even considered it for a while, but my last ounce of human pride convinced me to abandon the idea.

Truth to be said what I was doing wasn’t really hunting, but rather baiting.

And I was the bait.

My survival hopes here lies in one thing: hibernation.

From what I’ve read, this area should be inhabited by relatively strong high beasts and occasionally by magical beasts who come here from the deeper part of the forest for easy food.

I'm not sure, but I believe there was a saying that said sleep is for the weak, but here it's the inverse sleep is for the strong, monsters that consider themselves to be the dominant monster in an area tend to hibernate for the winter, allowing the weaker one to proliferate as much as they can.

I'm not saying I'll be able to deal with any monsters that are still awake that I come across, but even if I do, there's a good chance it won't be the strongest in the area.

But these are only probabilities; there are obvious exceptions to this rule, and I was well placed to know that, for example, the monsters who attacked us that night had no reason to be awake, let alone in that area, yet they were.

There was something weird going on in this forest. First, it was beast and high beasts venturing even so close to the barrier, and now that.

To be honest I must also admit that the book the I got all this information about the forest were for the most, old of at least six centuries, enough time for the thing to change.

But if one thing should haven’t changed it should be geography and the topography of the forest.

The forest can be divided into pretty much three great parts, the first, yet won’t be accounted part is naturally the first five-kilometer.

Beyond the first 5 km, is the first layer which is referred to as the “Ivohy”, it encompasses the next 250km of the Iharana forest mainly dwelled by every type of monster imaginable but mainly dwelled by high beast and beast.

The "Rona," which translates as "glacial hell," is the area beyond the 250km separating the "Ivohy" and the third layer. The "Rona" is a bottomless ravine with a width of 2km and an unknown depth. It is said to be bottomless, but there is actually a bottom to this ravine; it's just its bottom is such a hellish place that it would be better if it had never existed. This ravine is naturally like any other area in this forest, inhabited by monsters, but there is one thing that distinguishes it from any other place known to a human, a third of the monsters dwelling the “Rona” are flying-type magical beasts, and the other third are swimming-type magical beasts and the monster habiting that place was one of the primary reasons humanity has definitively given up on the forest.

The third and final known area to humanity is known as the "Vao-vao" or "vaoao", which literally means "hell in hell." The name speaks for itself; between the hellish environment and the monsters that inhabit the area, ranging from insanely strong magical beasts to everlasting Mythical beasts, that location truly deserves the moniker "hell in hell."

Almost every record I've read so far has indicated that this forest is literally hell on earth. I'm not sure how I could have thought that this forest would be a safe place to hide.

I could have run anywhere, and it would have been a much better option than here.

Now that I think about it, it was pretty understandable that I felt there was no longer any place for me in the human continent; when I saw all of them, all of their so different faces, all of their eyes, especially those of the one who should have been there to protect me, looking at me like I was some sort of aberration.

“I hope you enjoy yourselves while you can; you may think I'm dead, but I'm not; I will eventually return to the human continent and make you all pay for everything you've done and taken away from me. But first-”

I anchored the cane-shaped wooden stick firmly on the ground making sure that it pointed in directions of where I came from, distanced myself at a safe distance from it, and equipped my second wooden stick.

I had just heard a muffled footfall on the snowy ground a few seconds before. I had heard that sound many reprises lately.

I knew I had been very paranoid lately, and I had every reason to be, but this time I had the feeling it was really a monster, not just my imagination messing with me.

My guess was confirmed a few moments later, though slightly off the mark; it was indeed a monster, but it wasn’t just only a monster but rather several of them.

Their footsteps and the noises seem to indicate that there were at least five of them, their growl were very similar to those of a fangwolf, but I was too acquainted with fangwolf to know that it wasn’t quite the same.

I had no idea what I was up against, but I was pretty sure it was a wolf-like monster that was slowly encircling me like a pack of fangwolf would.

Size? Weight?

I had no idea, and I don’t like it. But I knew that it was too late to even consider running away.

It began.

One of the monsters leaped on me from behind, I instinctively trusted my wooden stick from below its muzzle that if the monster was relatively the same size as an adult fangwolf, the wooden stick wounded the monster, for I heard a pained groan from it and the feel of passing through flesh with my stake, With all my strength I pinned it on the ground.

From the feel could finally confirm that it was really a wolf-like monster and it ...

Enormous.

That thing was enormous, standing on its four legs it was definitely taller than me.

I heard the noise of the other monster charging at me, so I stabbed the monster repeatedly where his eyes should be, then I put the stake in my mouth, and with the wolf still dying body, I slammed into where the others were charging at me, from the noise I think it hit two of the others wolf but I already heard the sound of the footstep of two other wolves charging at me from two different directions.

I sent out a kick onto one of the wolves charging at me, and I think I hit him in the head for I heard a bone-breaking from my blow. Not even a fraction of a second after I was blown away from my right by something that I assume to be a headbutt.

I was a little bit taken aback by what happened but I immediately gathered myself, the wolf attacked me from my right, with my right hand missing, my right side is my second biggest weak spot, I should be thankful that it didn’t take advantage of that.

Three left… I can do this.

Where are they?… the other is here … the … other there ..; and the last one… missing...

I heard the sound of a charging wolf approaching from behind, unmistakably aiming from my right and unprotected side.

“Ah~ shit.”