Desolate Contact

I butchered the carcass. Now, I had two sets of cait pelts, the first one might not be in the best condition but it was something.

And just like the day before, my training carried on. I grit my teeth and bent my body in painful angles. The tension in my muscles built as I slowly stretched past my limits. I could hear cracking and popping sounds from my bones. Each time feeling a little better than previously. I kept going until it became physically impossible to move onwards anymore.

Aaaand release. I let all tension go as I laid on the ground facing the sky. The flexibility training was painful.

Then came the physical training. Starting with a run and ending with lifting up and putting down heavy things. I might have hated my larger build wehn I was still in the orphanage, but it was something crucial to my revenge. There was no chance I would be mistaken for being a sixteen year old. My body and face would make people think I was in my early twenties at least. So, no one could expect me to be a part of the orphanage and I could get into places which have age-restrictions.

After completing the sets for the physical training, I started the movement training. Jumping dodging, side-stepping, rolling. I did them all.

I followed this up with more mental simulations. I imagined every fight I had until now and reimagined it with different decisions I could have taken. I did that until I could confidently believe that if I could redo those fights, the outcome would always be in my favor and I took minimal damage from any source.

I took a break and just sat on the entrance to the Jager. I had a lot on my plate, a lot of things I needed to achieve but at that moment, I felt at peace. My mind was calm. I just sat and stared at everything around me. Not thinking about revenge, or the next fight, or anything for that matter. The fresh air made me actively choose to breathe and the vibrant green of the trees and the calm blue of the sky was extremely easy on the eyes. 

I didn't know much about the situation I might be in the future or who I might have to face, but at this moment I was free.

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I shocked myself.

Again and again.

"Just a little bit of pain." I thought to myself. But it was a bad attempt at convinving myself. It hurt. A lot.

But I kept going, I needed results or at least I needed to go at it long enough for me to accept defeat and move onto other methods.

I grunted as the electricity coursed through my body. I was slowly forming a mental pathway to my hands. The process was a slow one, having done this three times for hours each time I felt like once I formed this pathway, I could do exactly what I set out to. Achieve remote control over my body.

There was still the possibility that my controlled movement might be slower than straightforward normal movement. Even then, if I was in a situation that stopped me from moving my body normally, this could help.

I also thought of things I could do while circulating the electricity or lightning through my body one idea stood out. It had been on my mind for a while. I had not gotten into the logistics of that yet but if it worked as intended, I would have the greatest hidden weapon.

Completing the shocking session, I went back to exploring the surroundings and mapping out the jungle to hopefully find a cave large enough to check all the boxes on my list. 

I made my way to the stream and refilled my water. No creature made its way into the area this time. So, I was pretty safe for now. Then came my exploration and adventuring. Walking past the stream, I decided to start from the area I had been seeing almost daily during my stay here. Walking into a new area, I couldn't let my guard down. 

I had no allies here. Every creature out there was ready to kill me. The first of which I spotted instantly. An insect. No these were not insects. A spider. Spara Hunter. A spider the size of my palm when fully stretched out. They were relatively harmless to humans before the Cosmic Radiance, but now, they were dangerous. They were one of the larger species prior to evolving, but evolution had failed them in the size department. What they missed out in size they gained in speed and poison. They also started sticking closer to other spara. Like veteran hunters, these creatures latch onto unsuspecting beasts and constantly poison them till they die. It was common for a few of these creatures tolatch onto the same prey. Larger or smaller creatures both could and would fall to them.

Their poison came with a mild anaesthetic, masking the bite and the injection of posion. The way one could identify these spara was through the bright yellow line across their heads. The brighter the yellow, the older the spara was and the more potent its poison was.

The one in front of me was a female, the line across is head was horizontal. Females of the species were not poisonous and just ate whatever was procured by the males of the species.

I had run into something annoying. After a few seconds of thinking I let a steady flow of current pass through me. I toned it down compared to my training attempts. I didn't hurt a lot and just work as an invisible armor that would prevent any spara from latching onto me.

This was not as tiring as I expected. I explored further but found nothing substantial. No edible food either.

And I made my way back. 

Again, there was no evidence of any animal on the journey back either. I did a thorough check through all my stuff before I put it into the Jager. I couldn't risk a spara making its way into the truck.I checked myself as well. I frisked myself after stripping bare. 

Nothing.

I let out a sigh of relief.

The world didn't work out the way I wanted it to. Preparation for any situation would always put me on top and prevention from any situation was allmost always better than fighting through the situation.

The sun had started to set.

I set up a fire outside the Jager. A campfire. One I hadn't set up before, so as to not attract any unwaunted attention to myself at night. But now I wanted to attract attention. I wanted to establish contact with the creature. I sat in front of the campfire leaning both my hands crossed around my spear.

As the night began, I pushed my concentration to the max. If the creature took my action as a provocation and launched an attack from far, I needed to be able to react to it. I waited and waited.

Nothing.

The Jager's alarms went off.

Behind the Jager!

I leapt onto the Jager and looked around.

A large creature, almost human stared back at me, its eyes glowing brown. It slowly placed the 'gifts' it brought on the ground without breaking eye contact with me. The alarms from the Jager stopped.

It waited.

I did the same, placing my spear down on top of the Jager. Slowly and calmly, I jumped down from the Jager and walked up to the creature. My body was fully tensed. I had the skill to react to anything the creature would do right now. I had a nagging feeling telling me that this guy was harmless. But first I had to show acceptance. I grabbed one of the fruits it had placed on the ground and bit into it. 

I followed that up with a smile.

The ape looked at me, the glow in its eyes fading. Its orange fur shining in the moonlight. Its face broke out into a smile. This creature had a very human face. Its face sported a ton of wrinkles as well.

"N..... Nice to M....Meet You." It said with broken english.

My eyes widened in shock.

"NIcE... ahem cough... Nice to meet you too." I pushed out the rest of the greeting.

Speaking felt weird. I hadn't spoken a word for close to two months at this point, my voice cracking as I spoke proving that. 

The creature nodded at me.

"No fight." 

"Yes, no fIGht." Darn, my voice cracked again.

Its arms were disproportionate, longer than his torso reaching his knees. "Eat food good. After meet king."

"Who is your king and wHeRe is he?" I continued despite my voice cracking again. I should train my throat a little. Maybe I should leave voice logs, would keep a collection of data and reminds me to speak a little, so as to not lose my voice completely. Speaking still fel weird.

"King is strong and king is....." Its hands pointed in a direction. The direction was completely opposite to the direction of the stream. 

"Okay, tomorrow we go." I said.

"I come for you." After saying that, it walked back into the jungle. 

My eyes didn't leave the creature, even as its back vanished into the confines of the night. Monster with the ability to speak. There were none. It was theorised but it was never proved. The consequences revealing this information would be immense. Explorers, scientists and numerous machines would instantly arrive at the outskirts of the forest. This was my home for now and I, for sure was not going to let this information slip.

It also was the source of intervention in my battle against the caits. Those long arms could release stones at immense speeds. It also towered over me. I was also probably pretty agile, apes weren't exactly known for their agility but their strength.

It had also provided information about a 'King'. Assuming that was the supposed ruler of this jungle, this creature was probably the envoy for that monster. Considering this ape could speak and was capable to intelligent thoughts, the 'King' was probably also similar. It was also probably a similar species as this one.

A species I had no clue about.

There were no records about creatures with these features. All creatures I had met till this point were commonly spotted by wildlife enthusiasts. Had I actually discovered a new species? That meant I got the rights to name it. I felt a little smug.

And then a thought occured. What if it was a trap? What if I was being lured away from my territory and then attacked in a new area with new enemies? The creature seemed smart enough to think and plan, it had even gave me gifts to increase the likelihood of me listening to it instead of blindly attacking.

This would be interesting.

I had previously made up my mind, the only traps I would face were the ones I willingly walked into. And I wanted to check this out, trap or not.

So, I needed to prepare an escape. And I knew exactly what would work.

Picking up the fruits, I walked back into the Jager, kicking dirt onto the campfire to extinguish it. I stored the fruits, eating the one I had already bit into.

Pulling out the tools I had in my storage, I brought out a bunch of nails. These nails were metal and hence conductive. I could transform into lightning and instantly dash toward any metal in my vicinity.

If I left a nail every few meters on my travel, I would have a near instant transport system back to the Jager.

I spent a few hours mentally preparing myself for any upcoming fights and also made comprehensive voice notes about the creature I had just come into contact with. The creature was also a Waking. Like me. I knew animals could also be Waking, the mooselk from before was one for sure. Normal mooselk didn't have extending horns. And this creature could disable alarms and stop cameras. A creature that was not able to be captured on camera.

Laying onto the Jager, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, hoping for a dreamless night.

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Hello gang, Manager here. Hope things are well with you all. Stuff hasn't been sorted out yet but things are looking up. Hope you enjoy the chapter. Leave a comment with any input. Anything to help this story get a little better. 

Thanks for reading.

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