The Forest

Walking back over to the bush he opened his storage space and removed the trail mix he had saved there.

"Well it certainly looks the same…"

The blue berries on the bush were the same strange triangle shape as the ones in his trail mix, he could clearly see by holding the two next to each other that one was simply the dried version of the other.

"I don't know if they have to be prepared first but I may need to find out in the future; best to stock up now while I have the chance"

Using his storage space as he picked them stripping the whole bush was easy and profitable, his confidence in the idea of taking on a boar at this stage having been completely shot he was well motivated in his work.

"Ok, I don't think I'd be able to fit another bushes yield in to my storage space even if I found one and I don't really want to put them in my pouch but maybe I can make this a little easier for the future…"

On the off chance and simply to satisfy his curiosity he also took 3 cuttings from the bush in hopes of having a stable food supply in the future.

"Though I imagine I'll be zipping back and forth to Earth before they're ready to harvest"

While he had been harvesting time had not stood still, the grey clouds on the horizon were only getting darker and nearer and as relatively comfortable as he was in these basic cloth clothes compared to his original situation he sincerely doubted they would stand up to even the lightest rain, his shoes were already getting damp just from the soil.

"I need a new plan, the creatures here are too strong for me to simply plough through but I don't have the money for fire fuel or shelter"

His water skin was almost empty and he hadn't found any wood other than a few twigs around the bushes.

"I need to gather a little wood at least, if anything comes out of the forest while I'm there I'll just run."

Eyeing the treeline suspiciously and resolving to give the fruit bushes a wide berth he replaced his sword with his hammer and walked with his spear in the other hand.

Nearing the trees he could hear plenty of strange animal sounds and see plenty of deadfall from the very edge. Advancing with his guard up he entered the forest and prepared to gather what he could carry bound in the rope he'd brought for the purpose.

After a couple of minutes he had plenty of twigs and moss in his pouch and was binding up the first bushel of sticks he had gathered; by this point he was feeling much more comfortable in the abundant and untouched forest when he realised something was wrong.

"It's that same bird call again"

He had heard the exact same call a few times now but the strange thing was it was EXACTLY the same each time and coming from different directions. The call was being made from 3 different areas around him and were getting closer each time.

And then he realised these weren't the only calls that were exactly the same each time; much closer by, in the thick brambles to his right was a similar call he had heard a few times.

Cold realisation hit him and with forced nonchalance he finished binding up this first bundle of sticks and moved his body to be able to look subtly at the bramble patch.

He couldn't see anything but clearly whatever was in there could see him and see through his acting as he once again heard the same call twice in quick succession.

Immediately he bolted, leaving the rope and sticks he had prepared for bundling where they lay, taking only the bundle in his hand and the pouch on his shoulder.

Sprinting blindly he heard more sharp whistles and the sound of struggling from the bramble thicket as whatever was hiding there tried to get out.

As he broke the treeline making a beeline for the open plains he heard the movement getting further from him and high pitched but guttural voices.

Chancing a look over his shoulder as he ran he saw two Goblins half his height squabbling where he had been, one with a crude wooden spear and another with a rough looking scimitar. He couldn't tell if they were arguing over the rope he'd left or over the fact he'd got away but seeing they had no ranged weapons or intent to follow was a huge relief to him.

Stopping to catch his breath he watched the two goblins for a minute more and saw another group joining them, similarly equipped but with a couple of crude bows amongst them, his suspicions confirmed and the forest currently out of his reach he moved on before they decided he was worth chasing after all.

"At least this should be enough for fire, doubt it'll last long though"

Looking ruefully at the rat he was somehow going to have to skin and cook he wondered how much more dangerous it was to eat undercooked rat meat than his haul of blue berries.

"Well, let's say fire and food is sorted, time to head over to the river and then head back before it rains"

Walking parallel to the Beachhead towards the river he was heading back through Slime territory with only sparse bushes around him, as he walked he killed all the Slimes reasonably within his path and poked the bushes to tempt out any rats inside.

"God clearly chose this place so I could level up safely before taking on anything I couldn't handle, as embarrassing as it is to run away from goblins I think I need to level up before I take on anything unknown"

The memory of his performance against the rat was still affecting him and he realised how much he was taking his safety for granted before then.

"I need to learn how these stats work and change my mind set, I can't keep thinking of this like I would an Earth based survival situation"

As he said this his stomach growled and his legs ached, he'd been active for a few hours now and knew he had a lot to do before he could actually rest. Plodding on and getting more and more accurate with his spear as he harvested the slimes he thought about how long he might be here before he could take his first trip home. Realistically he could transfer back to Earth at any time but if he did that he would basically be dooming his race to an even worse low level grind in much harsher conditions when the convergence happened.

"It's not like I'll die of exposure in one night after all…"

Thunder rumbled.

The bush he was approaching suddenly trembled and he heard the familiar movement from inside.

"Okay, okay, this time I'm ready"

The rat burst from the bush with a screech, its little red eyes filled with territorial fury for the split second before it was skewered on the end of Daniels spear.

"Eh?"

[3 exp received]

"Just like that?"

Using his wooden sword to scrape the rats' body off his spear he could be confident it was dead from the exp alert in the corner of his vision.

"It's smaller than this one, the exp received was less too"

Comparing the two rats he could tell that they were both larger than a normal rat but this latest addition was the inferior of the two.

"Their level maybe? That would explain the exp difference."

Trying to decide whether to feel blessed or cheated by this encounter he tied the corpse to his belt along with the first one and continued his journey.

By the time he reached the river bank he had a very respectable 4 rat corpses and a pouch full of Slime cores. His exp had also been steadily rising needing only 12 more until his next level up.

Although he had wanted to save it for comparison purposes he hadn't been able to resist eating the trail mix in the end and would just have to buy more later.

"I'll definitely be able to level up again before I get back to my base and maybe I'll be able to shorten that cool down some, for now I'm parched"

As he moved towards the river bank he could see plenty of reeds and some good solid banks.

"The water looks clean, and those reeds look like good tinder, it also doesn't look deep enough for me to worry about anything crazy happening"

Moving to the bank half expecting to see something hideous and tentacle covered staring back at him he looked into the water.

"It's absolutely clear, I'd prefer to boil it first but I can't imagine how I'd manage to do that even if I could be sure of starting a fire"

Resigning himself to having to risk it he finished off the little he had left in his water skin and refilled it directly from the river, tasting it and feeling immediately refreshed he decided to drink his fill before leaving.

"Maybe the mana keeps everything clean or something? Whatever the case, first thing I'm bringing back here with me is a life straw"

Just then he heard a sound he hadn't expected in this entirely foreign world.