Chapter 4 Learning the Unknown Forest

  Date: Unknown (Third day of Journey)

  Next morning. Hyoren's third day of being stranded in this middle of an unknown forest came.

  He sat up. His muscles stiff and protesting. The crude leaf bed had done little to cushion his body from the hard stone floor. His mind was not truly rested—but his body had enough rest to st for another day.

  The fire had burned down to a bed of glowing embers. Orange light pulsed faintly in the darkness. He knelt beside it. Fed it a few small branches. Watched the fmes flicker back to life.

  His decision to make fire was indeed the correct one.

  No rabbit or slime seemed to have gone near his cave. Hyoren could see their traces on the wet ground outside—tracks in the mud. But they had not come close enough to rattle his makeshift arm.

  "So, what should I do next?"

  He sat back on his heels. Staring at the fire.

  "This shelter has proven to be safe. Water is secure from the nearby river. Food is abundant from all those sprawling horned rabbits."

  Hyoren contempted his options.

  "This cave is safe, but..."

  He looked around. The stone walls. The narrow entrance. The dying embers of his fire.

  "So cold... and lonely."

  A shiver ran through him. Different from the cool morning air. This was something deeper. Something that settled in his chest rather than his skin.

  "When was the st time I actually spoke with another person?"

  He counted the days in his head.

  "Two days? No... it was three days ago."

  Three days since he had heard another human voice.

  His mind wandered to the possibilities of civilization. Continuing his journey. Finding other people. Roads. Vilges. Cities. Anything to alleviate the crushing loneliness.

  He imagined walking into a vilge. Seeing faces. Hearing voices. Speaking to someone—anyone.

  But he shook his head. Tried to remember his priority.

  "No, I can't rush."

  He shook his head slowly. The fantasy of civilization faded. Repced by the cold reality of his situation.

  "If this truly is another world which works on typical fantasy settings, my enemies are not only horned rabbits. There should be orcs, ogres, or even dragons."

  He looked at the cave walls. The natural shelves. The narrow entrance. The defensible position.

  "I will make this cave my base of operations. A temporary home."

  He decided. He needed to understand more about this world before venturing into the unknown.

  The essence. The level up. How the monsters behaved. Whether there were other monsters besides horned rabbits.

  He needed to become stronger. Not just by absorbing essence—but by honing his skills. Improving his tools.

  Hyoren looked down at his hands. Turned them over. Flexed his fingers.

  Nothing. No surge of power. No visible change. Just the same dirty palms and dirt-caked nails from yesterday.

  "Rome wasn't built in a day. I need to kill more monsters to grow stronger."

  A wry smile tugged at his mouth. He remembered the hours he had spent grinding in games as a child. The repetitive tasks. The slow accumution of experience.

  "Recent RPGs made leveling easy. But when I was young? I had to grind for hours before a single level up. Maybe it's the same here. Effort is needed."

  Seven rabbits. That was all he had killed. He wasn't going to become some mighty warrior from that. But it was a start. A foundation.

  He picked up his spear. Checked the flint tip. Still sharp. Still intact.

  He went down to the river. The cool morning air filled his lungs. The waterfall roared in the background.

  He drank mouthfuls of water. Spshed cold water onto his face. Removing the traces of sleepiness. The shock of the cold cleared his mind.

  He stood. Scanned the surrounding area around his cave.

  "To understand more about this forest, I need to know more about them. The ecology. The monsters. The flora."

  He looked at the dense forest. The trees pressed close together. Shadows pooled between the trunks. The leaves above filtered the dual sunlight into strange, dappled patterns.

  "Time to explore around the cave."

  He looked back at the roaring waterfall. The sound was constant. A marker he could follow even if he lost his way visually.

  "For now, I won't venture too far. I'll use this waterfall's sound as a marker. I'll circle around first. Checking around. Making sure the surroundings of my base are safe."

  He gripped his spear. Adjusted his stance.

  With a new goal, he proceeded into the forest again.

  ***

  Hyoren walked into the forest.

  His steps were steady now. Careful. Each footfall pced deliberately—avoiding dry leaves, avoiding branches that might snap. The lessons from his father had become instinct.

  Horned rabbits never caught him off guard. But they were everywhere.

  He spotted one in the underbrush. Red eyes gleaming from the shadows. It hadn't noticed him yet.

  "This forest is truly infested with these pests. Is there no other predator to cull them?"

  He moved past it. Silent. The rabbit never turned its head.

  He continued walking with a zig-zagging route. If he stopped hearing the sounds of the waterfall, he would turn and go in a different direction. Always keeping the roar of falling water within earshot.

  The trees were also the same everywhere. Towering ironwood trunks rising toward the tops. The same undergrowth with giant fern-like leaves spreading across the forest floor. He hadn't seen any different trees which produced fruits or underbrush berries.

  Small streams of water appeared here and there—tributaries that seemed to lead to the big river.

  "This forest can easily mess with direction. Same scenery everywhere."

  He paused. Listening to the waterfall in the distance.

  "Now I have waterfall sounds as a marker. But ter, if I'm going to explore deeper, I need better markers."

  Hyoren nodded to himself. He already knew that venturing deeper without markers was suicide. He would create markings on the trees ter. As drilled by his father.

  After hours of walking, he felt his legs start to ache. He was used to running marathons for ten kilometers or more every week with his father. But after his father died and he became busy with university, he rarely did it. His stamina was not as good as before.

  He wiped sweat from his forehead. Looked up.

  Between the dense leaves, he could see the dual suns reaching their zenith. Gold and silver light filtering through the canopy.

  "I think I've already explored enough. Maybe a third? Or at least a quarter of my cave surroundings is completely safe. Time to head back."

  He started going back. Approaching the sounds of the waterfall.

  A growl and the rustle of underbrush stopped him.

  "Rabbit. I haven't defeated any of them today. I should kill that one for today's meal."

  He approached the rabbit. After a few meters, the rabbit noticed him. Its head turned. Growling. Red eyes locked onto him. It prepared to attack.

  He adjusted his grip on the spear. The rabbit lunged. He dodged. And with practiced motions, his spear tip pierced its neck.

  Over in seconds.

  He walked over to the sin creature.

  "Okay, that's enough."

  He pulled the spear free. Wiped the blood on the grass.

  "Time to head back. At least today's meal is secured."

  He grabbed the rabbit carcass and slung it over his shoulder.

  ***

  Arriving at his base, he put down his spoil on the riverside. Ready for the butchering.

  He knelt beside the carcass and drew his obsidian knife.

  The sharp edge sliced through hide and muscle like they were nothing. Within minutes, he had the carcass broken down. Meat wrapped in broad leaves. And the pelt—mostly intact—held up in his hands.

  He looked at the grey hide. Turning it over.

  "This hide... Hmm..."

  He ran his thumb along the edge.

  "It's actually a good pelt. I could make leather with this."

  His dad had already taught him how to make leather from pelts. Using primitive methods.

  He began walking back toward the cave.

  "Training which I hated a lot back then. Now it's going to make my life easier in this unknown forest..."

  He chuckled. The sound felt strange in the empty air.

  Hyoren stepped back into the retive safety of his cave.

  He pced the fresh meat on a cool stone shelf near the back. The rabbit pelt and the severed head went on the floor, fur side down. He stared at them for a moment.

  Tanning. The process was a complex chemical one—but he knew the primitive method. His father had drilled it into him years ago.

  "Animal's brain..."

  He wrinkled his nose at the memory.

  "Yeah... this stinking ingredient is rich in emulsifying oils. Smear it on the processed hide to prevent hardening and rotting."

  He got to work.

  The skull cracked open under a stone. He scooped out the grey matter—foul-smelling, paste-like—and began working it into the hide with his fingers. The smell was every bit as bad as he remembered. But he pushed through. Kneading the brain matter into every inch of the pelt until it was thoroughly coated.

  An hour passed.

  He found four sturdy forked sticks and drove them into the ground just outside the cave entrance. Arranging them into a rectangur frame. Using thin strips of bark, he ced the hide to the frame. Pulling it taut until it formed a ft surface.

  "Now we wait."

  The suns fell. Hyoren checked the hide periodically. As the st sliver of light vanished behind the mountains, the pelt had transformed.

  Dark grey. Supple. Proper leather.

  "Good. It worked."

  He ran his hand across the surface.

  "Monster rabbit leather seems to work the same way as deer pelts."

  A faint smile crossed his face.

  "I still remember my hands covered in animal brains. My nose lost its sensitivity after Dad made me do so many primitive leathers."

  He ran his thumb along the edge. Feeling the strength of it.

  "Now I can make a proper bnket. Satchel. Even clothing."

  He held the leather up to the fading light.

  "This is nice leather."

  He unstrapped the hide from the frame. Carried it into the cave. Laid it carefully on the stone shelf beside the meat.

  Exhaustion settled over him. His shoulders ached. His hands were raw from the work.

  "Today was productive."

  He sat by the fire pit. Staring at the embers.

  "Tomorrow, I focus on hunting. Gathering enough leather to make bags. A bed. Maybe..."

  He looked down at his torn clothes.

  "A change of clothes."

  He fed the fire. Making the embers bigger. The fmes grew. Casting warmth across the stone walls.

  Hyoren y down on his bed of leaves. He pulled a piece of the unfinished hide over himself like a bnket. It smelled of smoke and animal fat—not pleasant, but better than nothing.

  He closed his eyes. His body ached, but his mind was calm.

  ***

  The morning light roused him from his soldier's sleep.

  Hyoren woke with a gradual awareness of his surroundings. The transition from half-aware rest to full alertness was smooth. Practiced. His eyes opened. His ears tuned to the sounds around him. His body ready to move at the first sign of danger.

  He looked out from the cave entrance. The forest stretched before him—shrouded in early morning mist. The waterfall roared beside the cave.

  "No horned rabbits. No slimes. Two days in a row."

  He scanned the treeline. Searching for any sign of threat. Movement between the trees. Shadows that didn't belong. Unnatural sounds.

  "No rattle from my arm either."

  Nothing. The cave was truly secure. The fire kept monsters away. And the arm would alert him if anything tried to climb the rocky staircase. He knew he would still need his soldier's sleep though. The forest was never truly safe.

  "I'll use this cave for a while. Hunting. Preparing myself for the journey ter."

  He flexed his fingers. Feeling the strength in his hands. The calluses already forming from days of work.

  "I still need to test my theory about essence. About experience points. Whether I can truly level up from absorbing those essences."

  He decided. He would try to kill more rabbits today instead of ignoring them.

  He stepped back inside and gathered his gear. Spear. Knife. Checked the bindings on the flint tip. Still secure.

  Hyoren descended his stone staircase. The forest floor was damp with morning dew. He continued hunting around his cave.

  The horned rabbits were everywhere. Grazing. Nibbling at glowing moss. Drinking from a small stream. A seemingly endless supply of weak, aggressive prey.

  He spotted one near the river. Its back turned. Horns glinting in the dappled light. He adjusted his grip. And with the same practiced motion, he killed the creature.

  "First rabbit today."

  He pulled his spear free. Wiped it clean.

  "I will continue to hunt them. For essence. For the meat and leather."

  Deeper into the woods. His senses open. His steps quiet. Another rabbit. Another kill.

  His muscles started to ache. His arms screamed in protest after consecutive fights. His legs shuddered after walking for half a day.

  He looked at the sky. The dual suns had climbed high. Gold and silver light filtering through the leaves. Checking the time.

  "Midday already, and I already got nine rabbits. Maybe I should head back."

  He wasn't just hunting for food anymore. He was grinding. Absorbing their essence. Waiting for something to change.

  He wiped the sweat from his brow and looked up.

  "I haven't seen any change after all these rabbits. But I trust something will happen when I keep accumuting essence. So I need to persist."

  Hyoren walked back toward his cave. The morning's haul weighed heavy on his shoulder. Nine rabbit carcasses. A good haul.

  But suddenly, a movement caught his eye.

  "Another horned rabbit. Yeah..."

  The creature hunched in a clearing ahead. Munching on short grass. Oblivious. An easy kill.

  He lowered his shoulder load quietly. Crept closer. Spear in hand. His feet found their positions. His grip adjusted.

  Then the ground moved.

  "What in the world..."

  Vines erupted from the earth. Three of them—thick and sinewy—whipping through the air with terrifying speed. They shed around the rabbit's neck, body, and hind legs before the creature could react.

  The rabbit thrashed. Its legs kicked wildly. It tried to twist—to gore the vines with its horns—but the angle was wrong. The vines held it just out of reach. Slowly. Deliberately. They tightened.

  A strangled squeal. Then silence.

  "A pnt monster… a Creeping Vines..."

  The rabbit's struggles grew weaker. Its eyes bulged. A final twitch—and then it went limp. Dangling from the vines like a puppet with cut strings.

  "Damn. So this forest isn't just infested with rabbits."

  He pressed his back against a thick tree trunk. Watching from the safety of distance. Heart pounding. Adrenaline flooding his veins.

  "I need to be careful of pnt monsters too."

  The shrubs near the base of the vines shuddered. A bundle of smaller vines emerged from the undergrowth—a core-like mass that split open to reveal a dark hollow throat. The rger vines dragged the rabbit carcass toward it. Feeding it into the opening.

  "It ambushes prey by mimicking normal pnts. Then eats them for sustenance."

  The rabbit disappeared into the core. The core closed. The vines settled back into the undergrowth. Indistinguishable from the surrounding vegetation.

  "Scary. This forest is scary..."

  He exhaled slowly. His breath shaky.

  "Horned rabbits are everywhere, and there are slimes and creeping vines too."

  Hyoren remained still. His back pressed against the massive tree trunk. His eyes scanned the clearing. Watching the now-dormant creeping vines. His brow furrowed in thought.

  "Should I prod it? Or leave it alone?"

  He put his hand on his chin. Thinking.

  "How do I deal with a pnt monster, anyway?"

  His father's training was useless here. No pnt monsters on Earth. No teaching for fighting vines that ate rabbits the size of dogs. He fell back on the only other knowledge he had.

  Fantasy. RPGs. Games.

  Pnt monsters. If this were a usual RPG, the weak point would be fire magic. Something he didn't have currently.

  His mind worked through options.

  "Should I bring a fire torch from my camp? No... The shrubs aren't dry. Hard to light. And the vines would strangle me while I tried."

  He scanned the ground around him. His eyes nded on a handful of stones—fist-sized, scattered near the tree's roots.

  "Let's see how it reacts. Sound? Movement? Heat?"

  He picked up a stone and threw it. The rock nded near the core. One meter away in the shrubs.

  Nothing. No movement.

  "So it doesn't react to sound."

  He picked up another stone. This time, he aimed directly at the bundle of vines hidden in the shrubs.

  The stone struck home.

  The shrubs shuddered. The core appeared. The vines whipped outward—searching for the attacker. They found nothing. After a few moments, they retreated.

  "It reacts when attacked."

  He watched the vines settle back into stillness.

  "And I assume it reacts to heat sources too... that's how it detected the rabbit nearby."

  He crouched behind the tree. Thinking. Weighing the risks.

  "I should risk it here."

  He tightened his grip on his spear.

  "The risk is manageable. No other monsters around. It would be bad if I got strangled by these vines while battling something else. I need to know how to deal with it now."

  Hyoren checked his gear. Spear grip, secure. Knife at his belt, within reach.

  "My knife should deal with the vines if they try to catch me."

  He flexed his fingers around the spear shaft.

  "And I'll stab the core with my spear. If that doesn't work... then I can only avoid this monster from now on."

  He moved forward. Slow. Deliberate. His footsteps silent on the forest floor.

  Two meters from the shrubs, the ground erupted.

  Vines shot upward—fast. Faster than he'd expected. Two of them lunged for his legs. He sidestepped the first. Hopped over the second. But a third vine snaked through the grass—low and hidden—and wrapped around his ankle.

  His leg jerked out from under him.

  "Fuck!"

  He hit the ground hard. The impact drove the air from his lungs.

  "These vines are fast!"

  The vine on his ankle pulled. Trying to drag him toward the core. He ignored it—there wasn't time to cut it free yet. Two more vines were coming.

  He thrust his spear out. Catching one of the attacking vines against the shaft. It coiled around the wood immediately. Binding tight.

  That left him one free hand.

  He drew his obsidian knife. The third vine whipped toward his torso. He sshed—a quick, brutal stroke—and the sharp bde severed the vine cleanly.

  Green sap spurted from the wound. The shrubs shuddered. The severed vine retreated. Twitching.

  "This thing only has three arms, it seems..."

  He let out a shaky breath.

  "Now that's manageable."

  He turned his attention to the vine still wrapped around his ankle. One clean cut and it fell away—still writhing on the ground. He kicked it aside.

  The creeping vines had one st appendage remaining. The one still coiled around his spear shaft. He gripped the weapon with both hands and yanked. But it held fast.

  He pnted his feet. Pulled with everything he had. The vine stretched. Strained.

  He swung the spear like a club—bringing the bde down near the base. The st vine severed with a wet snap.

  "Okay... haah... haah..."

  He stepped back. Breathing hard. Heart racing.

  "All vines taken care of. Now, how to kill this thing."

  The shrubs shuddered and convulsed. Severed vines shed blindly at the air—harmless now—unable to reach him.

  He circled the mass. Scanning for the core.

  There.

  Buried inside the tangle of smaller vines, something glowed. A seed pulsing with faint light. The heart of the monster.

  He raised his spear and thrust.

  The tip slid in easily—like piercing an overripe fruit. Sap oozed around the wound. The convulsing vines stiffened. Trembled. Then fell still.

  And there it was.

  That familiar sensation. Hyoren felt like he absorbed the essence. The same warm trickle he had felt after killing the rabbits.

  "So even pnt monsters have essence."

  He pulled his spear free. Examining the sap-covered tip.

  "The same sensation as the horned rabbit. One essence."

  He put his right hand on his chin. Digesting this information.

  "Creeping vines and horned rabbits are the weakest monsters, it seems. They all provide the same essence. Their difficulty is also simir. Dangerous when unprepared. But once I know their habits, they're easy to deal with."

  ***

  Hyoren's adrenaline faded.

  His heartbeat slowed. The tension in his shoulders loosened. The fight was over. He was still alive.

  "Now..."

  He approached the sin monster. Crouching beside the mass of shriveled vegetation.

  "What can I harvest from this thing? I get leather and meat from rabbits. This pnt monster should give something too, right?"

  He examined the shrubs. His spear still jutted from the core—impaling the faintly glowing seed. But something else caught his attention.

  A thick brown fluid leaking from the wound.

  It oozed slowly. And where it touched the air, it began to harden. Forming a crust over the surface.

  He touched it with his fingertip. Sticky at first. Then firm.

  "This is resin."

  He rubbed the substance between his fingers. Feeling it tack against his skin. The familiar texture triggered memories of camping trips with his father. Of makeshift repairs and improvised tools.

  "And good quality too, from the way it hardens. This kind of resin works as an adhesive. And it makes a waterproof seant for containers."

  His mind raced with possibilities. The flint tip on his spear—secured only with vines. If he applied resin, the binding would be stronger. More permanent. He could waterproof his carrying pouches. Seal containers for water storage.

  He gnced at the seed. The resin was still leaking. Pooling slowly.

  "I should bring this back."

  His eyebrows furrowed.

  "But how do I carry it without losing everything?"

  He looked around. Searching. His eyes nded on a cluster of broad, wet leaves growing near the base of a nearby tree. The same kind of shrubs where the core had been hiding.

  "These wet leaves should work."

  He plucked several. Examining their waxy surface. Thick. Flexible. Water-resistant.

  "Good for sealing the crack."

  He pulled his spear free from the seed with a wet sucking sound. Resin dribbled from the wound. Working quickly, he pstered the wet leaves over the hole. Pressing them into the sticky surface.

  The sap held them in pce. Within moments, the small ball-sized seed was sealed. Its contents secured.

  He tucked it carefully into his pouch.

  "My spearhead will be more secure with this resin."

  He straightened up. Satisfied.

  "Now, what else does this pnt give?"

  He turned his attention to the vines. They y coiled on the ground. Severed. Still. No longer the whipping tendrils that had tried to strangle him.

  He picked one up. Tested it between his hands. Pulled. Twisted.

  Sturdy. The vine didn't snap. Didn't fray.

  "This vine is sturdy. I could make rope with this."

  He examined it more closely. The color was unusual.

  "And now that I look carefully... These vines are a different color from normal pnts. Bright green versus deep green."

  He gathered the usable vines. Wrapping them into a bundle. The resin-sealed seed went into his pouch. His earlier kills—the nine rabbits—still waited where he'd left them.

  "Time to head back."

  He muttered to himself. Hoisting his spoils onto his shoulder.

  He began the walk back to his cave. Stepping carefully through the underbrush. Eyes scanning for any more movement in the shadows.

  The forest turned out to be poputed with more than just rabbits. He needed to be more careful. Another lurking predator could be hiding in the undergrowth. Waiting for him to drop his guard.

  He touched his pouch which held the resin. New material. New possibilities.