Chapter 12 – Moment of Peace

Alex slowly opened his eyes after an undefined amount of time.

At first, Alex shot up in confusion as he saw his unfamiliar surroundings.

However, Alex quickly calmed down as he remembered the last day.

'Right, I'm not on earth anymore,' Alex thought with a sigh.

'I thought all of this had only been a dream, but apparently, it wasn't.'

A wave of melancholy washed over Alex.

He would never see his home again.

He would never see his family again.

However, Alex's thoughts were stopped as his stomach told him that he should eat something.

'Should I eat some of the jerky?' Alex thought. 'No, I don't think so. Jerky stays fresh for longer than raw meat. I should keep it for times when I'm actually lacking food.'

Alex slowly sat up on his branch, and an uncomfortable, stiff pain assaulted him.

'Oh god,' Alex thought as he touched his back and shoulders. 'Everything's stiff!'

Alex moved his muscles around while looking at the surroundings.

It was already pretty bright. Alex guessed that it was probably around 10 am.

After loosening up for a couple of minutes, Alex jumped down and walked over to the corpse of the creature from the past night.

When Alex saw its corpse, he had to take a deep breath again.

'Did I really kill that?' he thought.

Even in death, the creature appeared fearsome and imposing.

'Anyway, I should make use of its corpse. Who knows, such powerful beasts might have some kind of benefit to the body? I'm not on earth anymore, so it's possible.'

Alex moved towards the creature while dragging his heavy but thin sword behind him.

Alex inspected the corpse for a couple of minutes, trying to think of as many ways to use it as possible.

'Meat for food. Hide for warm clothing. Maybe bones for tools?'

Alex nodded.

'Anyways, I should be patient first. I don't know when the next animal will appear in the clearing.'

Alex postponed the butchering of the corpse and went back to the tree.

Then, he simply waited.

It was important to see how many beasts approached this area.

Yet, surprisingly, the next three hours, not a single animal appeared.

Alex furrowed his brows. 'It's nearly afternoon, but I haven't seen a single animal. I saw plenty of animals yesterday, but not a single one appeared. I don't think that they only hunt in the evening.'

Alex had a guess as to why no beasts arrived, but he had to make sure.

Alex left his tree and walked to a different one about 200 meters away.

Then, Alex climbed on top of that tree and kept watch again.

Sure enough, 30 minutes later, Alex saw a stag.

The stag carefully moved forward, watching its surroundings with great care.

It was on its way to the corpse of the creature.

Yet, it suddenly stopped as its nose took several deep whiffs.

Then, the stag turned around and walked in a different direction, silently but with more hurry.

Alex smirked.

'Knew it!'

'The herbivores can probably smell the terrifying odor of the creature, and their instincts tell them to avoid this area.'

Alex looked in the direction of the corpse.

'Does this also work for carnivores? If we were on earth, I would doubt that. A dead animal is a dead animal, but who knows, maybe it's different here?'

Alex decided to wait longer.

And a little more than an hour later, a lone tiger appeared.

Alex took a deep breath when he saw the tiger.

'What are tigers doing here?!' he thought. 'Aren't tigers normally in warmer climates? Although, I've heard of snow leopards. So, maybe there are also big cats in cold climates?'

However, Alex's eyes quickly widened with a gleam when he saw that the tiger also avoided walking towards the corpse.

'Interesting,' Alex thought as he scratched his chin in thought. 'A tiger should be an apex predator on earth. There's nothing on earth that can make a tiger avoid a part of its forest, except for maybe human settlements.'

Alex thought back about his encounter with the creature last night.

He could understand why the tiger avoided this place.

Tigers were powerful, and they could jump for several meters with some preparation.

However, that thing yesterday had immediately jumped nearly five meters straight into the air. On top of that, the power of its forelegs had been so great that it tore apart the branch Alex had been sitting on like it had been nothing.

Tigers were powerful, but not THAT powerful.

'Well, if there are infinite ways to reach supreme power as a human, animals can probably become just as powerful.'

After the tiger left, Alex came down from the tree and walked back to his old location.

The corpse was still there, and no other animal had arrived.

This time, Alex looked at the corpse more closely.

'It should weigh about 200 kilograms. I think a tiger is also about that heavy, maybe even heavier.'

'Yet, the physical power of this creature far outweighs the physical power of a tiger.'

Alex scratched his chin with furrowed brows.

'Is this the difference between the normal animals and this creature? Normal animals are just like normal humans. In comparison, this creature had already stepped onto the path of power.'

Alex also remembered the green lizard, which had the uncanny ability to shoot a fireball.

'I think the lizard had also already stepped onto the path to power. Otherwise, I can't find an explanation for the ability to straight-up shoot a fireball. Even if it had some kind of chemical mixture in its body that allowed it to create fire, just spitting the fire would completely burn its mouth every time.'

'So, either the lizard's body has some kind of illogical heightened fire resistance, or it created fire a different way.'

Alex remembered his conversation with the God of this world.

'The guy said that this world is filled with Mages. Apparently, Mages can manipulate the Mana in the air to harness the destructive forces of nature. Fire should be part of these forces.'

Alex nodded.

'I can imagine the lizard doing something similar.'

Alex's eyes shone with a mixture of curiosity, excitement, and wonder.

'I also want to do that.'

'However, that has to wait for now,' Alex thought as he straightened his body. 'Survival comes first.'

'First, I need water, food, and warmth. I can get a fire going and cook some meat. While the meat is cooking, I can also try to make some kind of long coat out of the creature's fur for warmth. The animals are currently avoiding this area, and I should use the chance.'

Alex looked towards the distance.

'I only hope that no beast walks over here that is interested in the corpse of the creature. I only managed to kill the creature due to luck. If I meet it again, it might tear me apart. After all, yesterday, it hadn't seen my sword since it hadn't actually existed yet. However, now, the creature would be able to see my sword. Avoiding it isn't probably very hard for such a creature.'

Alex gathered some dried twigs and some leaves.

Then, he tried to start a fire.

It definitely wasn't as easy as it appeared on TV, but Alex managed to get a fire going after about an hour of trying.

When he saw the twigs catch fire, Alex felt so incredibly relieved.

Then, Alex took out his sword and carefully cut off the gigantic pelt of the creature.

It was an extremely bloody affair, and the corpse stank to high heaven.

Luckily, Alex's sword was insanely sharp, making the task far easier.

After that, Alex cut off several chunks of the creature's right foreleg and hung them close to the fire on some sticks.

While the meat was being cooked, Alex scraped the remaining blood and meat off his pelt.

'I think the difference between a hide and actual leather is drying, right?' Alex thought.

Alex scratched the back of his neck, uncertain if that was true.

In the end, he made some small holes in the hide and hung it close by the fire with several branches.

It took nearly an hour, and a lot of branches broke, but Alex managed it in the end.

Alex checked on the meat and rotated it.

'That should still take about an hour.'

For a while, Alex only sat beside the fire, listening to its relaxing crackling.

'I could try training my body,' Alex thought. 'However, I don't have anything to drink. I'm already quite thirsty, and training will dry me out even faster.'

Alex scratched his chin for a bit.

Then, he went to a tree and climbed up.

When he reached the crown, Alex scanned the horizon.

'It smells a bit like rain, and I see some dark clouds on the horizon.'

'I don't think water will be an issue in like an hour or so.'

Alex smirked as he quickly descended the tree.

'Well, time to do some training!'