Ch 9 – Killing Wolves and Map

"Huff, puff," Kaleido's figure appeared all of a sudden beside the crystal clear lake. His eyes were shaking while his legs trembled from the remaining fear he felt back then. He almost died… again.

"Crap, I didn't think there would be so many Gu Worms there. It was unbelievable how many they were! But that only serves to give me a harder time getting Gu from there considering they help protect each other," Kaleido shook his head. He patted his chest, feeling his beating heart calming down and he lets out a sigh of relief. All in all, it was still a fortuitous opportunity for him.

Not only did he have access to a cave that allows him to anywhere he wants with enough information about the place he wants to teleport to, but he also has access to the nigh-endless space path Gu and food required to feed them within the cave itself! It directly solved many of his problems, ranging from a lack of Gu to food to feed his Gu Worms!

The value of that cave skyrocketed for Kaleido as it would serve useful for him in the far future. If he were to lose it, Kaleido can't bear to imagine the loss he would suffer. "Still, that solves most of the current problems I have."

After calming down, Kaleido now fixed his gaze on his right hand where a certain Gu struggled. Its body was similar to a firefly but colored mostly black. It emitted a soft black-purple light from its back, and it struggled fiercely from his grasp. Kaleido stared at it with glimmering eyes.

'My second Gu Worm!' Kaleido smiled as he wielded his primeval essence, pouring it directly into the helpless Gu Worm that can't escape his grasp and hastily replaced the will in its body. His primeval essence production rate was beyond normal, to the point that what he expended would instantaneously regenerate the next moment.

A few seconds passed, and under the endless barrage of Kaleido's will, the Gu Worm's movement halted. Its will was finally subverted by Kaleido, and it calmly entered his aperture and laid within the primeval essence sea with his Space Knife Gu. Though weirdly enough, the Gu felt different in a subtle way compared to Space Knife Gu, it felt like he had less of an intimate connection with it.

Kaleido ignored that feeling and instead went to put on some clothing. After doing so, he crouched down and looked through his bag, taking out a book from within it and closing it. He hangs his bag on his back and opened the book. Strangely, he also started to walk, but his eyes were fixated on the contents of the tattered green book.

'Now that I'm here in another world where my life is constantly in danger, I'll have to maximize my time to continuously improve to increase my chances of survival. I have to exploit my innate talents that I myself have no clue where they came from and develop them. I have a sharp mind and spatial awareness to the point that it feels like I have a domain that I can see everything within it, so developing that "domain" of mine would be beneficial.'

Kaleido read the book in his hand with gleaming eyes, a small grin surfaced on his face and he muttered: "Multitasking, that might be another skill that would allow me to live longer. But the most important thing in this endeavor is this book, a book that holds Jie Clan's general knowledge about Gu Masters!"

He read the book, absorbing all of the information it held like a sponge. He made sure to understand them all fundamentally, ingraining the knowledge it had into his heart and soul. This was the foundation he requires to fix one of the biggest problems he currently had, his lack of knowledge! If he knew things, he would be able to solve many of the problems that were brought about by his ignorance.

'Knowledge is power. I must read all of the books I was able to gather and deepen my understanding of this world. Cultivation, Gu, clans; I must learn them all!' Kaleido read and read with fervor. This was his lifeline, this was a valuable asset that could allow him to not just survive, but thrive! 'While ignorance is bliss, recognized ignorance is suffering!'

'Gu Masters cultivate by using their primeval essence to refine and nourish their aperture walls. Each big realm, which are Rank 1 to Rank 5, is divided into four small realms. Those realms are aptly named initial, middle, upper, and peak. Hmm, so this means I'm at Rank 1 initial stage.'

While he was reading, his body mysteriously walked forward without stopping. He avoided any obstacles in front of him without looking, from dense trees to sharp thorns on the ground. It was as if he not just had eyes on the back of his head, but had his eyes everywhere! He was showing abilities beyond what a normal human should be able to do and bordered near the supernatural!

'For a Gu Master to refine Gu, they'll have to force their will into the Gu Worm by using their primeval essence. I already know that by accidental discovery and my general knowledge about diverse power systems gathered by watching anime and reading both manga and novels.' Kaleido's eyes squinted. He continued to read the book, all the while avoiding any sort of obstacle in his path.

"Hmm?" Kaleido's movement stopped, his eyes flashing with surprise and his gaze rapidly swept through the book. "Beasts? Hundred Beast Kings? Thousand Beast Kings? Myriad Beast Kings? Beast Emperors?"

His eyes were engrossed in the book as he learned about beasts. What were beasts? Monsters with strength rivaling Gu Masters! A normal beast has strength rivaling Rank 1 Gu Masters, Hundred Beast Kings rival Rank 2 Gu Masters, and so on and so forth. The book even talked about how beasts have Gu Worms living on their body and how they can indirectly use them for combat, which gave him a deeper insight into how the world of Gu functions.

"So Gu are capable of using the natural energy in the world to activate, but once they are refined, they are unable to do this. Strange, quite strange! So there really is a mystical energy in this world just like mana or qi. But how are beasts born so strong? It truly is a mystery, because are some of these beasts even real? There are even mentions of mutated beasts that when all grown up can rival Rank 4 Gu Masters!"

It was truly shocking to see how unique the world of Gu was compared to his previous world. Not only are there beasts, those rockmen, Gu, Gu Masters, but so much more! There was so much mystical stuff in this world that didn't exist back on Earth, but it also made Kaleido realize the uniqueness of Earth in retrospect.

Earth didn't have Gu, Gu Masters, or powerful beasts. It had technology and science, in fact, perhaps science was the Gu of Earth and his home universe. 'So this proves the fact that different universes operate on different fundamental laws. And also perhaps they each have their respective path of development like how Earth's humanity developed due to science, and how this world has its living beings develop and grow through Gu.'

Kaleido then grinned, as if realizing a profound fact: "Gu Masters nurture, use, and refine Gu. It is the same as humans back on Earth studying the profundities of science. In this world, Gu cultivation is the development of science, and the Great Dao is science!"

Kaleido lets out a sigh. It was as if he has realized something about the two universes he has found himself in and couldn't help but see the parallels between them. 'What am I doing? This is just useless at this point. Science and Gu, those are pointless if I'm dead!'

He shook his head, clearing his mind and continuing to walk. Finally, Kaleido arrives near his cave and was about to close his book when…

"Grrr."

Kaleido widened his eyes as right in front of him, he saw a pack of three wolves surrounding the entrance of his cave. It made his step halt and his mind accelerate to an insane degree. 'Fuck. Why are wolves here?! Shit! What do I do?'

It was his first time encountering wolves, and these wolves looked more ferocious than the online images he found back on Earth about wolves. Their fur was dark gray, and through the fur, he saw their muscular bodies. Their eyes were full of bloodlust; their sharp claws and teeth only served to give them a more deadly appearance.

'If I use Space Knife GU, then with my rough control, it would cause cataclysmic damage to the cave and destroy it. Even if I drag them away from the cave, just a single slash from my space knife would prove fatal and create a ginormous disturbance in the forest. Shit, do I have to use that?' Kaleido's eyes stared at his waist. There, he saw a small sheathed butcher knife and felt his blood turn cold.

Does he risk it and fight them, or will he make his escape and wait for them to go away?

'Fuck it! If I want to live in this world, then I'll have to hone my combat skills!'

Run. His body moved like it was the most sluggish thing in the world while his mind calculated at immense speeds. The wolf at the very front barely noticed him approaching, and when it finally turned its head when it heard the sound of thumps on the ground…

"AWOOOO!" A knife stabbed deeply into one of its eyes as Kaleido fiercely plunged his hand deeper into the wolf's head. His heart pounded rapidly, his mind felt exhilarated and thrilled, and adrenaline flooded his system.

Kaleido wasn't a dumb fool who only kept one knife in their hand. Without stopping his movement, he rushed forward while grabbing another one of his knives, this time, it was relatively smaller compared to the butcher knife he used to stab into the forefront wolf's eyes. But he was confident.

From his perspective, everything moved so slowly that it was almost like a cheat code. His body moved the way he wanted it to with very precise movements as if he was doing TAS, but for a fight against three wolves.

The knife he unsheathed flew out of his hand, flying towards the wolf that jumped towards him. He continued his movements dynamically, grabbing his third knife and crouching to the ground, dodging the wolf that jumped forward while the knife stabbed its throat.

'One left.' Kaleido charged fearlessly at the last remaining wolf, each of his steps was light but powerful. His arm reared to the back, and the knife he held glimmered with a cold light that scared the remaining wolf shitless.

From its perspective, Kaleido randomly appeared and killed one of its fellow wolves in less than 2 seconds. Then not only did it kill another wolf in a second, but now he was charging toward it! The wolf wanted to run away, but unfortunately…

Slash. It died.

***

"A celebratory feast to me! Thank you for the knowledge and wisdom gathered by Jie Clan. Due to the books I stole, I can not just identify which fruit is edible, but I can also dissect a wolf corpse to be eaten! Hahaha! How wonderful!" Kaleido stared at the juicy pile of food in front of him with a rumbling stomach.

He went all out for this feast, even using the limited amount of seasoning he had stolen from Jie Clan to maximize the flavor of the wolf meat. Without reserve, he underwent a feast full of flavor and pleasure.

When he finally finished, his stomach bulged and ache with pain from being full. He lay on his back and rested his head on his bag, sighing lightly with a satisfied smile. 'Killing and eating, this is probably why those adventurers in fantasy novels love killing monsters, the taste is just marvelous.'

'But… it's time to finally see what this scroll holds.' Kaleido's eyes turned hopeful as he grabs a scroll from his bag. It was a relatively fine scroll with tears here and there, but Kaleido ignored them. No, what he felt excited about was what this scroll might possibly be.

Carefully unraveling the scroll, Kaleido saw…

"A map!"

AN: This chapter has 2100 words.

Dun dun dun! A map?!

Maybe it's a map that leads to their heart? Sigh, did you know your author got rejected? Yes, share ko lang to dahil masyadong traumatizing yung experiences.

Yes, I'm also filipino, now you know.

Anywho, send power stones and bla bla bla, my stockpile is running low so I'll have to make up for it quick now that the deadline for my school reqs are delayed.

(December 22, 2022 – 392nd day of writing)