Hunger

'I wonder how strong the Killer Instinct System can actually make me. From what the body remembers I should now be slightly stronger than the average kid my age. It seems like their average would be around 3 for weaker kids, and about 4 for stronger kids.' Evan was contemplating his plan of action. He knew relying on his parents were pointless. His memories told him they started using Spirit Crystals about 2 years ago. They were originally using them to increase their strength. That was until they accidentally used to much one day and the euphoric effects took hold.

It was similar to heroin in the way that his parents would act and were addicted from the first time it took hold on them. So, for the past year and a half of his life he has been slowly forgotten about, withering away a small amount at a time. The original body owner had died from dehydration after his parents had been on a 4-day bender. They still weren't home.

Now that Evan was here though, he could survive. This isn't the first time he has been in this situation, and he knew how to handle himself. He had plenty of experience that he was sure he could use in this world. I mean he had 29 years of life experience before his death and rebirth.

*Deep gurgling sounds. *

'God I'm hungry.' Evan could finally feel his stomach cramping from lack of food. He put the book into a small bag that was laying at the foot of his bed and headed for the large door at the front of the room. It turned out that his room was the main room of the house. His parents had traded rooms with him after the drug problem started. They wanted a private place to stay away from their kid and do their drugs without being bothered.

His parent's home was located just outside of the village they were from. They had originally moved there in order to advance in their respective Creative Arts. There could be a lot of dangers in case one of their projects doesn't work properly. Explosions are common, so they moved out of the village onto a large property where they could stay far away from the village and their son in their practice.

'Well, since I have forest all around, I guess hunting for food would work best, right? I mean even though it's a different world, I should still need protein.' Evan was trying to figure the best way to get some food before his stamina would run out, that's when the pain would become unbearable in his gut.

He started to search for something he could use as a weapon. After about 10 minutes of not finding anything, he started to think about primitive weapons he could make. He had taken a few history classes in collage which would go into detail about the weapons used in different points in history. With no way to make a proper bow and arrows, he thought an old-fashioned sling and rock would work for a small animal.

So, back into the house he went looking for a piece of leather or long cloth that he could make a small pocket out of, in order to fling a rock at high speed. This should work for killing a rabbit or squirrel. He was willing to drink out of a chamber pot before, a squirrel for dinner doesn't seem so bad now.

He found a leather vest that was far too small for him and ripped a few long strips and made a nice little sling. Rocks were all around, so ammo was easy to take care of. He loaded his small bag with ammo from around the house and set out.

It was an absolute disaster. For one, after searching his memories, the animals he knows of are extremely rare. They are usually prey for spirit beasts. He discovered that the way people here on Fortis, the new planet he was on, gained strength was the use of something called inner spirit. It was a powerful energy source that was gathered from the space around, into bodies at different rates. It would grant each person, beast, or even plants, with amazing abilities. The abilities would range in strength or usefulness, meaning some people on the same level of strength would actually be much stronger, or useful in the right situation. Beasts on the other hand were basically attuned to one type of ability for their species. Which basically made hunting impossible.

His first attempt had been a small weasel-like creature known as a Verret. It looked like a mix between a weasel and a green snake. No, a snake is wrong it looks like it was a plant that could run around with a small weasel face. As soon as a rock got close to it there would always be a small flower or something that would completely negate the force behind the throw.

His second attempt was just as bad. He had found another Verret and he couldn't even get close to it with a rock. Seems he had used his good luck to not hit the last one.

'Ok if I can't kill this one, I quit.' Evan was over the hunting thing. He was almost out of stamina and would eat grass if he had to, in order to fill his stomach.

As he was trying to sneak up on this Verret, he stepped on a stick, completely giving away his position and element of surprise.

[Aggressive opponent detected. Information needed. Creating technique to infer data.]

[Implementing inner spirit search.]

[Task completed.]

[Deploying technique.]

[Spirit search deployed. Data Tab Function.]

As he heard this sound his vision changed. Everything now had a blue tint and next to the Verret a small screen of data was shown

Beast: Verret

Rank: Weak F rank Warrior

Innate Ability: Green Control-Allows control of small plants in 12-foot radius. (F rank ability)

Variants: None

Strength: 10

Speed: 40

Stamina: 1

Agility: 160

Intelligence: 44

Spirit Pool: 38/49

Soul: 0

'Ok, so it's fast agile and smart. The stamina is low so it should be cautious. It is still twice as strong as me though. There is no way I can kill anything out here then.' Evan knew it was pointless to attack the Verrets now, but the thing is now he had to escape from something much faster and stronger than himself. The intelligence was quite high too so the chance of tricking it was pretty low.

Luckily for Evan, a Skwirk swept down from the sky and grabbed the Verret while he was staring at Evan. The Skwirk is a bird like animal that was about the size of a bald eagle. It looked like a cat with wings, its tail was odd how it would close to look like a thin cat tail and open like a Chinese fan, turning into a sail as well as guiding direction. The tail could even flap like a fan, moving straight up and down, to add extra speed. It had no feathers, but had fur instead. The wings resembled a bats' but were much larger and had a thin layer of fur.

Evan knew time was running out. The only option he could think of in order to eat quickly was to steal food.