Chapter 4

As I was saying, this mountain is not safe at all. From what I know, the little fox, whom I can't even defeat, is not even in the upper echelons in this zone.

Which means that if I tried to go outside in an adventure, I would get eaten even before putting up a fight.

It's like getting in a game and appearing in the middle of the history with just beginner stats and loot. You'll get killed even if you have some bonuses.

The good thing, my bonus is enough to get me to live.

So, I'll try to catch up to the little fox in cultivation, and then help her gain more territory.

That way we would have prey in more quantity and diversity.

While thinking about our future, the little fox approached me.

And in the next moment, we are running for our lives.

I already said it, but the little fox is at the lowest rung of the food chain.

At least in the middle zone of this mountain, we need to always keep an eye out for potential danger.

As it has already happened during the past eight or so years, we beelined towards the lowest part of the mountain, at least there we dont need to run for our lives.

I seem that those much higher in the food chain disdain to step down the mountain, so we would be waiting until the thing that is pursuing us leaves for other pray.

It stopped pursuing us just near the limit of the middle section, I already calculated where the predators stop trying to pursue us with the years, and we decided to watch it till it leaves.

It appears to be some kind of reptile.

- What? This bastard is growing some wings!!-

Maybe it wants to evolve into something similar to a dragon. But it still reassembles too much to a lizard, its body touching the soil, with legs on the sides and awkwardly short.

The only redeeming point about this lizard is its golden scales, and black pattern resembling some kind of runes whose glow is discernible even during the day.

Still, the pressure it emanates is no joke, it seems that it's at least twice as powerful as the little fox.

It seems that the little fox has a valid reason to escape.

With me here, the little fox tends to lure in our territory those enemies that overwhelm her for me to kill stealthy or be some kind of punchbag.

But that thing would just rip both of us in mere seconds. I wouldn't be able to even react to whatever attack that thing can make.

- Hey little fox, what kind of thing is that??? -

The little fox just titled its head to the side, as if asking what I meant with that question.

- I mean how can it be so powerful; it doesn't make sense at all. -

The little fox then just snorted at me. It seems that the lizard is at the next stage of evolution as that of the little fox.

It seems to say to me that she could get to that realm the next year and that we would have some tasty reptile meat to eat.

I dont know about the last part, because all the reptiles that the little fox have carried home were pretty tasteless, at least compared to the meat of those animals that seems like mammals.

But, nevertheless, it's good news that the little fox is evolving the next year. We would not be running every time a powerful foe appears in front of our house.

But it's also my fault that this happens, as I'm not progressing fast enough.

Let's remove this thought from my mind, last thing i would want is to damage my body or to not have enough foundations for future evolutions.

Maybe, this lizard appears as a formidable foe today, but the next year we would be surely using it to boil soup or to have it as roasted meat.

And, if the runes in the back of the lizard are real, I could replicate them into my body. Even if they don't do anything, they could serve as a good tattoo. I just need to reduce the glow it produces as it is too eye catching.

For now, let's just accept that we can't compare to that lizard and search some place to settle down. Maybe the little fox has some companions here, as she seems to have come up on her own to the middle section from the lower section.

And while searching for a place to stay we should also search for some food.

The little fox just threw me an odd look the moment I thought of that. Like knowing that I want food.

Then it just went ahead ignoring me in search of a good place to settle. temporarily.

- Hey! You know that every time I try to catch something it doesn't get to the camp in a appropriate form. -

The problem is that I do know how to fight and catch pray, but they are much powerful than me. This in turns transforms the hunt into a fight of life and death, where every time the animal I'm hunting ends up in a sorry state where you couldn't even discern it was a living being just moments ago.

That is how rude, and savage is my method of fighting, but I couldn't do much except for trying to learn in the go as I dont have a good instructor.

Fighting while my life is on the line is fun, the only thing that resembles a distractor for this monotonous life in the mountain.

One day I tried to learn how to hunt from the little fox, but all it did was to one-shot every prey it appeared with a massive claw attack to the head.

It's annoying to replicate movements that belong to an entirely different species. It meses up my entire body trying to replicate moves that the body isn't made to do.

For now, it's alright for me to just have some instinctual moves and my armament of qi. But if I want to have better chances at surviving in the long run, then I would need to know some actual moves.

Maybe I could get some moves trying to replicate the intent and concept behind every move that the little fox has, and then, trough observation of every animal, try to learn moves from them as well.