Ch 3 – Training in a Forest

In a forest of large trees with a towering height of more than 10 meters, a shadowy blur was moving from one place to another high above the trees leaving behind a trail of trees in its wake.

With a hook latching onto a branch, he crouches down on top of it and glances around the forest with a sheen of sweat covering his forehead.

'A few weeks have already passed since I made my base, my training has been going well and my body is slowly getting conditioned to swinging around. But my physical capabilities are still just above average. But my training has only begun.' He thought while not reloading his body back to its peak state so that it can adapt and become stronger than before.

'I still have to find the perfect balance between skill and body training. But every bit of improvement helps me right now, I'm still far from hitting a plateau.' He thought while gas erupts from his waist and he flies to the air, swinging around the forest as he glances around to find a target.

And there it was, a titan he desperately ran away from a few weeks ago but now he considers them as target practice.

With a hook rapidly latching on to its back, a huge amount of gas erupts from his waist shooting him forward to the titan's nape but the titan responded by turning around and swinging its hand towards him which he dodges by shooting more gas on his rights side, shooting him down to the ground while shooting one more hook on his right waist.

With the hook latching onto the titan's right triceps, more gas went to erupt from his waist as he spins in mid-air to chop off the titan's arm while letting go of the hook and retracting it back to the gear.

'NOW!' he thought as both hooks shoot towards the titan's nape and with the left hook letting go so he can spin, both of his blades went to cut the titan's nape open as steam erupted from the opened nape.

And as the titan drops down to the ground with dead eyes, he shoots another hook to a branch and grabs the branch with his arm to hang on it while looking down at the titan below him with ragged breaths.

"Tsk, I made some huge mistakes like cutting the arm or latching on the triceps. Next time I'll latch on to the bicep instead and only use one hook when shooting for the nape for more maneuverability," he mutters while taking his gaze away from the titan and to the other titans rapidly approaching in the distance.

'Remember, avoid using two hooks on one target for more leeway.' He thought as he takes a deep breath, and as he let go of his grip on the branch, he falls to the ground and two hooks shoot from his waist latching on two trees with one on the left and one on the right.

As he nears the group of titans in the distance, the whole world around him slows down, quickly assessing the group in front of him, he hastily makes a plan on how to kill them effectively.

'One is in the front, two in the back, one on the left, and one on the right. The left one is taller so the other two won't reach me when I'm on its nape, rush downwards, latch to the tree right beside the left titan and do a spin, then kill it. Then use one more hook to latch onto the tree right beside the one on the right and kill it, then finally, jump from that tree to reach the nape of the last titan.' With the plan now made, gas erupts from his waist propelling him forwards, and with the left hook releasing its grip from the tree it was on, he shoots it one more time to the tree near the left titan while the other hook also goes back to his waist.

With the force of the right hook propelling him to the left, the gas further pushes him to the left, and with a big wide arc, he reaches the nape of the left titan with a rapid swing, killing her in an instant as the left hook unlatches on the tree propelling him to the right.

"Hup," he grunts, shooting the hook on his right to the right tree while more gas erupts from his waist propelling him further to the right towards the nape of the titan on the right.

"HA!" he shouts, slicing the nape open while his legs land parallel to the tree on his right, standing on the vertical tree like a spider.

Ignoring the shock that courses through his leg, the hook retracts back to his waist while he jumps with all his might forward to the titan that was left standing, and as gas erupts from his waist one more time, he lands on the nape and with a big, rough swing, the nape was cute wide open with steam hitting his face making his long black hair fluttered with the wind.

"Huff, puff," with ragged breaths, a hook shoots to the back hitting a tree behind him, allowing him to get off the dead titan that plops down to the ground.

'Training done, mistakes fixed. New mistakes, landing on a tree with my legs would be detrimental to my legs' condition and would bring unneeded risks and it also made my momentum reach zero which is bad. I should have instead swung around the tree in a loop to launch to the last titan with more force and leeway I could have used to dodge surprise attacks.' He thought, assessing his past mistakes with full objectivity and mentally noting them down in his mental tally.

As he reloads back his gear to a refilled state, he swings back to his base with aching legs and sore muscles that would allow it to grow when he recuperates at night.

Arriving at a series of barricaded trees in a circular manner, he goes above it to the roof of leaves and lands down on a wooden roof made out of planks, and as he opens a hatch below him, he grabs the handle and jumps down the hole where his base was located.

A furnace by the side, a net to catch fish, a bed, and even a multitude of weighted equipment were there made out of clay he dug out of the ground.

As he drops down the hatch while closing it along with his falling body, he lets go of the handle to drop straight down to the ground, and just as he was about to hit the dirt ground, gas erupts once more on his waist halting his fall like any other time.

He was already able to master that technique with how many times he has used it, and without having to worry about his gear's maintenance and gas, he can keep repeating his training at any time he wants.

As he lands down on a patch of grass on the ground, he grunts and takes off his clothes and looks at his cramped legs, and as he walks near the clear river, he looks at his body that was now more muscular and athletic than before.

Rippled with muscles and a more muscular set of legs, he cracks his neck and grabs his long black hair that was covered in sweat.

"Sigh, I'll just cut my hair later," he mutters while dipping his body into the cold river to wash off the sweat and felt his body calming down from the adrenaline and soon, the soreness went away while he meditated on the raging river.

'I'm still far away from my desired level. My skills aren't that great, my sense of danger is only considered good, sigh, this would take me a few years to achieve but as long as I endure, I'll reach a level considered to be near the peak of humanity if I train hard enough and increase my skills to levels beyond what I attained right now.' As he sighs, he dunks his head under the water and started to train his lung capacity and pressure resistance.

'A skill so masterful no man would hope to defeat me in one-on-one combat. A power so great no titans would be able to oppose me. And a mind so great I can outsmart any man in this world.' He thought, closing his eyes to reach the deepest parts of his mind.

As he lies down on the rocky ground of the river, his mind drifts off into the recesses of his mind that hold valuable memories for him.

But soon, he opens his eyes wide as he gets out of the river with the oxygen in his lungs fully expended.

After shaking his head from left to right to dispel the water on his hair, he walks towards his living quarters while grabbing a set of clothes he got from the man he received his swinging thing from.

Using the clothes to wipe off the water from his body, he resets them to a clean state while lying down on the ground on his naked butt and with a pop, a piece of cooked bird meat appears in his hand which he wolfs down while a wooden cup of water appears in his left hand which he puts down on the ground to drink later.

'This power is really useful for a lot of things than I first thought. If I want, I can even summon a whole tree out of nowhere as a secret trump card.' He thought, chewing on the meat, he summons another one while the bones were thrown inside a wooden trash can beside him and with a load, the inside of the chicken went to the shadow realm never to be seen again which means he could also use it to instantly kill anyone theoretically if they are inside a saved item and once he loads it back, the inside would be theoretically reloaded back to the time it was empty.

"Why not," he mutters while making another save and putting his arm inside the trash can, and as he loads it back, a sharp jolt of pain shoots up from his right arm that was inside the trash can and as he takes it out, he was greeted by the sight of a stump with blood spewing out.

'Another application to Save and Load, Container Annihilation.' He thought, reloading his arm back with a blank stare, completely ignoring the pain as if it was nothing.

'If this was the video game save and load where I can go to another point in time, it would have been better. But the new things I constantly find I can do with it have been quite appealing lately, total erasure, summoning a whole tree, or loading a sword or an object that could pierce through anything inside its loading space, this power is more practical for a lot of things really compared to save and load. But the singular ability temporal save and load holds is just much more powerful compared to the one I have, like precognition, endless training time, etc. Sigh, there's no use lamenting on something I can't change. Instead, I should be grateful that I even received a cheat in the first place.' He thought, continuing to eat the piece of cooked bird meat in his hands.

After a while, he discards the last piece of meat he will eat today and grab the wooden cup on the ground beside him and drink the water to reinvigorate his body for optimal recovering sessions.

'Even if I was stuck in a forest, I was still able to build all of this all on my own with the help of my cheat. This truly shows what a changed mindset and unending will brings to a person, as long as you do enough, you can turn your life around with enough luck and skill.' He thought, letting out a yawn as he walks to his bed and pats the pillow made out of clothes, and as he lies down on his back, he glances to the wooden ceiling above him and closed his eyes, for more rigorous training awaits him tomorrow.

AN: This is 2076 words, you're welcome.

So I spent 3+ hours writing 6k words, and another 30 minutes finding some covers, that's literally 4 hours of my life gone in one day for your entertainment, now give me my fucking powerstones you leech! Also give me a 5 star review to receive this quality content.

(May 16, 2022 – 173rd day of writing)