Chapter 3

Day 25,

I can't really tell if it has been exactly 25 days or not. There is no sun here. No night either. The dreamy light is eternal and unsettling. I didn't mind it at first but slowly I am getting sick of it. At least I can see clearly now and my cave is dark enough to sleep in.

Living alone has its benefits and disadvantages. With all the entertainment of earth in your palm, living alone is not bad on earth. I even preferred it that way. But living alone without anything to do seriously sucks. You get bored out of your mind. You can only workout so much without any equipment. So I tried to keep myself busy these days by making things.

That didn't work as planned. I don't have tools or any kind of metals. I just have a bunch of bones. So as a last resort I kept myself busy in hunting thus discovering a few things.

I can not use magic. I have tried a bunch of different things like shouting, water bending, feeling the pulse and materializing it into something. Human magic works differently perhaps!

You get more powerful when you eat the heart of a new species of animal for the first time. The subsequent times you do that for the same species of animals the power gain gets lower. There may exist a saturation point but I have not encountered any soft cap yet.

I have become a fit boy. Not buff yet but my muscles are growing fast. Raw protein is at work!

This place is huge. Almost as big as my town and I am yet to discover all of it.

No other animal lives here but the tigers and the deers. Some moss here and there, more on the places where the deers hang out that's about it. Not even a rodent or ant is to be found in this place.

Tigers eat the antlers of deer for some reason. I have yet to test that myself.

Deers mostly stay in packs and if a tiger attacks them while they are in a group they can kill it easily. For some reason it was not surprising. I have suffered by their hoofs too and resorted to running for my life.

Nothing rots in this place, dead beings kept unchecked will slowly be absorbed by the walls. It creeped me out at first but I got used to it fast. It's really convenient too.

All animals have red eyes. Like red LEDs.

Pillars and walls fix themselves over time. Pebbles of rocks scattered on the ground will not.

I heal fast. Not w*lverine fast but fast enough to not die after getting hit by 7 ice shards.

I get angry just before the pulse becomes violent in my body.

Lastly, I myself have become much more violent.

The last point worries me. Sometimes I just want to kill everything. I even saw bloody mist around me when I went into a rampage. It happened after killing a few of these animals that I noticed the pattern of me getting angry for no reason just before the level up. My mind craves for violence. Living alone like a barbarian, eating raw meats likely contributed to this whole ordeal a lot. I fear that if this continues I will lose my sanity soon.

" I wish there were some baby animals I could take in"

But I found none. Isn't it wired? How do they reproduce? They have the regular reproductive organ though. They always attack the other animals on site. Yes, even the deers. Though it looks like they move in a pack it's a bit different than what it looks like. They move in close proximity to other deer and feed on different places but they will fight to death the moment another deer gets very close to them. Tigers just kill each other on site. I don't know how they increase their population but I hope they don't go extinct. Back to the real issue.

As irascible as I was before, this is a whole new level even for me. People don't get angry at nothing. So there must be a reason. Insecurity can be one of them but I am pretty powerful now. I can end the tigers in one hit if I get a jump on them, if not I can still kill them in a few hits. Sure I get hit sometimes but that is inevitable in a fight.

I know there are other insecurities I face but they are not as bad as it used to be. Even if they were I would know why I am getting angry. And what's up with the blood lust? It's not like the animals are looking for trouble with me. It is I who is doing so. And then there is the anger right before the pulse.

I know it takes some time for the pulse to come yet I get angry. I tried to get angry on my own violation but nothing happened. Moments after that I got really angry and pulse came. Sometimes I feel like I am turning into those red eyed monsters.

Wait a moment, 'red eyed monster', 'attacking everything that moves'. Shit, it's a curse isn't it! It definitely is. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Now I am actually worried about it.

"Not like I can do anything about it, even if it is a curse I still have to hunt for food"

So today I am practicing meditation. I know meditation calms people down. I have some experience with it too.

There are 4 things that calm my turbulent thoughts. Cute pets, hug, a good story and meditation. 1st 3 things are just, cute things curing depression. Meditation is a bit forced but it works the best too.

Sitting in lotus position I focused my mind on an imaginary flame. A flickering candle flame. My technique was to relax and focus on the flame hard enough to make it still.

Time passed slowly and I calmed down. The flame was still flickering a little. I concentrated harder to make it completely still. Then came the part of holding it still as long as possible. At this point I saw a few beasts moving around the light. They appeared to be searching for something. I heard loud booms of clash and my concentration broke.

"Are they fighting outside?"

Looking outside I found nothing, no sign of fight. What was that sound then? And why am I seeing those beasts while meditating? Am I thinking too much about them? I had a lot of questions but no logical answer for them.

"Food's running out"

I have to hunt again. I will kill one deer and anything that attacks me, nothing more than that.

Making up my mind I took my ever trusty unga bunga bonk and 2 water pouches. Oh I forgot to mention. I have made some water holding bags. It turned out good, if I say so myself. Making them was a challenge. It's easy to make if I could stitch them tightly but that is out of question. So I took a raw deer hide, shaped it like a flask, put some soil inside it so it won't change its shape then hardened it on the floor directly and it worked like a charm.

Though it was shaped like a water droplet, it held water, so it was all good. The cap was made out of bone and tied to a cord with the flask's neck, so there was no fear of losing it in a hurry either. I replaced the bone hammer's handle wrap with the comfy leather wrap too.

Gear equipped I started the quest of securing food. I had yet to find any end to either side of the wall. But the general map of my explored area was something like this.

On the left we have the tiger area, my cave is located in this area too. Right after a few hundred meters the deers starts to show up. After a kilometer the deer area truly starts. You can find a lot of them there.

The best strategy to hunt the deers in a pack is to throw a stone at it, and run for a few minutes showing yourself then hide. When the deer is alone strike it on the head to kill it easily.

The massacre strategy is a bit different. Killing one by one is a bit inefficient so You want to run up to one at your highest speed then grab its legs and throw it to the other deers. Try to cover most number of deer agro ranges and they will start a battle royal. Now you join up with them to win the deer dinner. No two tigers can be found in one place but bait generally works.

As I had killed a lot of deers in recent days, the deer population near my cave had gone extinct. Nowadays I had to walk for about 3 to 4 kilometers to get near them. So hunting just one deer won't be worth the effort. I would hunt 2 to 3 deer then tie them up and drag them to my cave. I wish I had a cart of some kind to make life a little bit easier. It was good exercise but it is exhausting.

So I developed a way to rest in the middle of my journey. It took about 4 to 5 days for a pillar to fully restore itself. Breaking the top half of the pillar and hammering it for a bit made for a good place to rest. It was in no way comfortable. You had to be on your guard all the time but it could recharge your energy. In this hellhole, that was good enough.

__________

Few hours went by quickly. I covered most of the distance I needed for the deers to show up but I could not find a single deer.

"where are they?"

Asking myself this I started making my way ahead. 'Maybe I miscalculated the distance.' I walked and walked some more. It felt like I had covered double the distance than I should have. At this moment I felt a sense of danger. Quickly ducking under a cover I looked around. There was nothing in my close vicinity.

"Why did it feel like I am about to die?"

Calming my mind I looked around again to find the culprit.

I saw something incomprehensible. In the distance there was a small mountain. Light shining from some parts of it and other parts were blood red. Focusing on it more I realised what it really was.

" It's a mountain of dead deer?"

The hell is going on in this place? Who hoarded all the deers? No wonder I could not find even one. They were all killed. I grew angry again. But I had no idea who did this, and for what purpose!

"I will wait and see who you are"

I soon did. And that encounter changed the course of my life in a major way. You see I was confident that tigers were my biggest enemy in this place. I was wrong. Every level has its own boss and level 20 is the first checkpoint.

After waiting for about an hour or so I started questioning my sanity again. I see that mountain of deer right in front of me but is that really real? I am not just seeing some mirage kind of things right? When I first came to this place, I forgot about what really happened the previous day and thought everything was just the way it used to be. Now I have this lingering fear that everything is a lie.

Suddenly a gust of wind came and almost knocked me out of my sitting position. That dreadful feeling came back making my eye instinctively look up. I was scared shitless seeing the tiger for the first time but this was different. Sure death. 'No amount of luck will save me from that thing.'

I saw a lion, flying. Fire the colour of setting sun for its mane, amber for its eye. Dark metallic claws encasing its whole paw. Size of a mountain, flying leisurely through the air. It's presence alone was enough to make living things forget how to breathe. It was so big that the tigers looked like babies next to it. It was biting down on four deers in its mouth and flying toward the hill.

Holy fucking shit. I held my breath and stayed as quiet as possible. 'I will not make the same mistake again.' When it reached the mountain brilliant light lit up on the wall near it and the rocks started to part.

There was something under the rocks. A huge door. The door opened with an ancient 'kacha' sound and I ran. I removed all my restraints. Not caring about the cost I used all my power my leg could master and run. The deer speed boost technique was truly fast but it did not give me much confidence. I was getting tired but I did not dare to stop. 'Stopping means death.' Sweating profusely I ran.

Now is not the time to think about to think. If that thing notices me and decides to chase me I will be dead before I know it. The only safe place is the cave. No matter how much I beat on it I could not even make a scratch. Even if the lion finds me there it won't be able to enter. That is the only place I can be safe, even if for a few moments.

I had covered a much longer distance than it seemed. Huffing and puffing, running on fumes. Legs spasming uncontrollably. Breathing ragged I could have fallen at any moment, but luck was with me that day. The lion did not give chase and I reached the hole in the wall in one piece. Bursting inside the room I lost my footing and fell down. I had over exhausted my body. I closed my eyes and passed out.