Gold-Quality Anchovies!

The distance between the tiger and Ed grew closer and closer. Just as the tiger was about to pounce on Ed...

Suddenly!

An axe materialized out of thin air in Ed's hand. It was the trusty diamond-grade axe that he had relied on each time he cut wood.

Planting his feet, he turned around as he swung it in a large arc. 

His target was not the tiger, but rather the trees in front of it.

A red light emerged from the axe's trail.

The moment it saw the red light, the tiger screeched to a crawl with fear in its eyes. It had felt the aura of death radiating from the red light.

It enveloped the trees surrounding the tiger before disappearing. The trees crashed to the ground, blocking the tiger from Ed.

The fallen trees formed a cross shaped barrier between them.

Ed did pause for long before continuing to run forward. He knew that if he had aimed the light at the tiger, it would definitely have dodged it. Therefore, it was better to cut down the trees.

Roar!

The tiger looked on at Ed, who was getting further and further away, before letting out a disheartened roar.

The food that had almost been in its mouth disappeared without a trace, leaving it in a terrible mood.

However, the tiger did not give chase anymore. The aura from the axe had terrified it.

If it had found its mark on it, it would already be dead or at least crippled. It had some sense of intelligence to understand this.

Seeing that the tiger was no longer chasing after him, Ed concluded that his method had worked.

Even if it were to catch up, there was nothing to be afraid of. He had the axe. If he could not cut down the tiger, he could cut down the trees around it.

He gradually slowed down as he sensed that Little Treasure was nearby.

Sure enough, a little squirrel jumped down from a tree branch, landing steadily on Ed's shoulder. It was the same one who had been teasing the five tigers.

"I'm glad that you're okay."

Ed patted Little Treasure's small head.

Although it had appeared very relaxed and sure of itself as it dashed around, it could have just as easily fallen from the trees if it had not been careful. The result would have been miserable, and it would have become food for the tigers.

Now that Little Treasure had returned, Ed's worried heart was relieved.

It was undeniable that the pair had survived a dangerous encounter.

Finding a place surrounded by dense foliage, Ed shared some food and water with Little Treasure.

The two of them rested for a bit before continuing.

Ed was not in too much of a hurry to count the resources he had obtained from the lake, and furthermore, who knew if there would be any other hidden dangers in the forest?

...

After a while, Ed and Little Treasure returned back to their land.

Along the way on their trek home, Ed would look behind him periodically to check if the tiger was still following him. At the same time, he would use the scattered leaves on the ground to erase any tracks he left behind.

He was picking up on a new skill, the ability to avoid detection.

After returning to the small wooden cabin, Ed patrolled a bit. Only when he was satisfied that he found no trace of a tiger did he relax.

"I'll come and get even with you next time!"

Ed muttered.

If it hadn't been for those tigers, that large lake would've belonged to him, but he was definitely unwilling to give up on it just like that.

When his strength grew enough in the future, the first thing he would do was to go back and look for those tigers. He considered this a small goal that he would set for himself in the future.

He believed that this would be achievable very soon, and the day that it would come to be was too far away. After all, he was a confident person, and there was nothing he could do about that.

"It stinks!"

Ed caught a scent of his own body. The stench of mud and sweat mixed together had almost choked him to death.

It had been a long time since he had taken a good bath.

The main reason had been the lack of water, but now, things were different.

He extracted the large bucket of water that he had collected from the lake from the system. Judging from the amount he had, Ed could finally afford to take a bath.

Of course, the first thing he had wanted to do when he returned to the cabin was to count how many fish he had caught in his net.

Thinking of this, Ed couldn't wait any longer.

He procured the fishing net from the system before turning it back into its original shape of a small hammer.

Plop! Plop!

Small fish fell into the wooden buckets one after another. They didn't feel that they had moved from their environment at all. After all, the water in the buckers had been from the lake.

Watching the small fish swimming freely in the water, Ed smiled.

The harvest this time was pretty good.

At this time, the notifications in his mind also sounded.

[ Notice ] : Carp +1

[ Notice ] : Grass Carp +1

[ Notice ] : Cod +1

...

[ Notice ] : Gold-quality Anchovy +15

Ed slowly sifted through the list before discovering the last one. As he did, he drew in a sharp breath.

What was going on?

Gold-quality fish!

There were a total of 15 of them!

Ed had never expected to catch 15 high-grade fish with just a casual sweep of the net.

His breathing quickened. The impact of this news was large.

In other words, there may be other, higher quality fish in the lake, or even other more precious resources.

Realizing this, Ed thought to himself bitterly that if not for the tigers, he would definitely have thought of a way to bring back more of the things in the lake, including the water source.

The skin of the anchovies seemed to glint perfectly white as they swam around in the water.

Ed's gaze fell on the fish.

[ Gold-quality Anchovy : Its meat is delicious, with a rich taste. Physical fitness will be improved upon consumption of it. ]

After seeing the system's description of it, Ed wanted nothing more than to immediately grab one of these gold-quality fish and eat it.

Improve my physical fitness!

This could be said to be the thing that Ed was lacking the most at the moment.

If I could build my strength to a certain level, why would I be afraid of those tigers?

Ed quietly rejoiced.

He felt fortunate that he had brought back two large buckets of lake water. Otherwise, these fish would probably not have survived the day.

He knew that anchovies would die if left outside their original living conditions for too long. The main impact of this was that the overall taste of them would become much worse.

Apart from them, Ed had also harvested a number of other small fish. Although they didn't have any specific quality, they were still pretty good.

The only drawback was that these fish weren't too big and could only be prepared as barbecued fish.

Ed was still satisfied regardless.

After all, he was probably the only one among all the survivors who had already obtained fish, especially this number of them.

He was going to eat fish tonight!

It would be a change of taste, and anyway, the nutritional value of the fish was more abundant. After all, with his current conditions, occasionally eating something else would be a good thing.

Ed thought to himself that if the other survivors had known what he was up to at the moment, he would definitely be beaten up.

"We're starving, man. You're thinking that the fish are too small?"