Chapter 9: Preparations for the hunt

"Huuuuuuh"

Throughout a small vicinity of a certain forest, a loud and lethargic yawn can be heard lingering in the air.

"Phew"

Following the over-extended yawn came a soft yet relieved sigh which seems to be full of relief and joy.

These contradicting sounds both originated from the same person, who could be seen performing a variation of stretches.

Yes, it was our most adored hero Parth, who was happily sitting on the bushy plane seeming like he was having a picnic.

However if any one else had seen this light-hearted seen, their jaws would plummet chin first into the ground. Throughout the entire continent Parth was on, the forest he was stranded in was considered one of the 3 most dangerous and forbidden to enter places.

However Parth on the other hand who was unaware of this fact could not help but smile like a maniac as he felt his non-existent luck stat sore.

He was overjoyed by the fact that his wishes from the previous night had come true. Although he had a few light scratches on him every here and there, he had woken up injury free for once, which felt amazing.

After some quick stretches to loosen up, he stood up straight and inhaled a vast amount of freshly produced oxygen before shortly returning the favor with a little bit of carbon dioxide.

"Grhhhh"

Parth frantically put up a basic guard stance when he heard what sounded like the growl of a starving beast close by.

"Don't tell me" He was already expecting the worst case scenario.

"Grhhhh"

Hearing the noise for a second time, Parth let his guard down instantaneously while hiding his face with his left hand.

Thankfully for him there was no one around when he realized that the so called "starving beast" was actually his own starving belly.

"Huff... Of course I would be starving my guts out, I had not eaten a single morsel of food in God knows how long." He remembered that he had been out cold shortly after his death match with the ant.

"That being said... Where do I even begin searching for food in the first place?" He said in a monotonous voice.

Of course he had already thought about going in search of fruits, berries and what not but unfortunately he had absolutely zero knowledge about them or if they were poisonous or not. At this point, he allredy had a vague idea about what he needed to do to survive.

"HUNT!"

'Yes, the vile act of murder, plundering and selfishness. I can only depend on myself to survive. Everything else exist only to become part of my nourishment.'

After the life and death battle he had when he was pit up against the ant, Parth's metabolism was slowly distorting from his once pure and innocent mindset. He now knew that he had to become immensely stronger if he wanted to survive in this dog eat dog world. He also knew that if he succumbed to his raw emotions then he would die, this was something he refused to accept.

'That being said, I'm going to need some basic hunting equipment in order to substitute for my low physical stats.'

While he was busy thinking about making some crude yet simple equipment, he simultaneously began searching his surroundings for anything that could be used to craft with as well.

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After what felt like an overly-extended hour, Parth returned seemingly empty handed? No, as a matter of fact, he had quite the haul with him...or rather within his item-box atleast.

'Damn...i don't think I'll ever get used to this sensation.' I mutter while gazing at what reminded of my arm. It really was an eerie feeling seeing half of his arm dissappear into small ripples in space. Even if it was his own skill, it still creeped him out more than any oversized ant could hope to.

Not even 2 breaths later, Parth had dropped a hoard of random items from his inventory like skill onto the ground, causing a ring of dust and dirt to spread out. Lying on the ground was all kinds of stuff, ranging from worn out branches too vines witch looked rather fragile. "Now then...he-he...Can we build it!?" He shouts resembling a certain fictional builder only to get silence in return.

"Yes we can..." He mutters in the most silent voice imaginable.

...

"Iron skin"

After gathering all his supplies in neatly arranged piles, he casts his tier-1 Iron magic, 'iron skin'. Shortly in his vision he could see miniscule particles rise from around him turning a hint of silver as the nostalgic scent of raw iron attacked his sence of smell. The particles then rushed towards his palms and forearms baptizing them in a thin yet sturdy looking sheet of steel. All of this happening in the blink of an eye.

"Awesome sauce!" He yells aloud in amazement seeing his now ionized skin.

With his now reinforced hands, Parth began shaping two of the branches he was working on until it resembled a crude dissatisfying duo of poles.

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After about 90 minutes had passed by, Parth was finally done with all of the remaining poles which were about half the height of the original 2 yet twice the width. Although it wasn't time consuming to accomplish this, he had to wait pretty long for his mana to replenish even with his 'mana regeneration' skill, hence the long time it took. The reason his mana kept dropping continuously was due to him casting iron magic over and over again as if he was opposed with it.

After sharpening the short wooden poles to the point where it looked pretty decent...for an amateur, he placed 2 of the sharpest stones he could locate on the 2 taller poles that he had finished earlier. He secured them on tightly with the thin vines which were surprisingly strong.

"He-he...not bad...not bad at all if I do say so myself.' He said as he admired his first ever creations with a sense of pride, a pride that seemed out of place in him yet a pride that seemed to be enslaved by him. A crude yet simple set of spears were indeed the right choice in a forest.

Using one of his newly made spears, He dug out 3 pit holes near one another as the fragrance of the earth deepened quicker than the hole did. He didn't hate this smell...no...but he didn't like it either...it felt off or so he thought. Taking out the shorter poles he tightly skewered them in the holes evenly before covering them with a layer of Gigantic leaves that had a diameter of half a meter.