He felt the fresh bile escape his lips as he spewed a vile stream of vomit that could rival a fountain across the golden stalks of grain.
And though the feeling was unpleasant, a strange cleansing energy filled him that made it to where this expungement of liquid from his stomach felt much better than a typical day in barf town.
It was almost... refreshing.
After finishing emptying his stomach contents he stood up and took in a deep inhale of breath.
"It seems like I have been reborn once again!" He said in an exciting tone as he felt his muscles had increased in mass and a strange uncontrollable amount of force filled his being.
He flexed gently and found that his body was filled with limitless potential that was definitely not their moments before.
After a moment of giddy from the sudden influx in energy, he finally managed to calm down thanks to the strange calming energy that flooded his mind every time he got too excited.
"Now... what to do?" Drew pondered aloud as he swept his gaze around him.
In the distance, there were farmers hard at work but in his immediate surroundings, it was rather desolate.
'An abandoned farm...'
'It might be a good place to hide out if there are any buildings on the premise...'
Drew stretched gently with renewed energy and scoured the surrounding area while trying to remain stealthy from those next to this rather large plot of desolate land.
It wasn't long when Drew found what he considered the motherload of finds that could have been possible.
It was a small shack that was on the edge of the property near the forest that bordered Rickten.
It looked to be some sort of hunting shack as there were still some leftover knives, though they hadn't aged well they should be of some sort of use.
There was also a set of hunting attire that was stained a strange color of green and yellow that blended in with its surroundings better than any clothes he had seen before. Even better than camo for the most part.
Except for that, there were only scraps of rotting meat and old and forgotten rations that had long expired.
'Hunting should be a good way to increase my combat skills... as well as increase my outdoor survival capabilities,' Drew thought as he sized up the small storage closet that was not nearly large enough to live comfortably in.
'It has enough room for maybe a cot or sleeping bag... but I don't think I have those things,' Drew thought before remembering the pack of supplies that Atun had left him to use before sending the city guards after him.
He rolled off the pack to the only table in the room that still stunk of grease and animal fat. He opened it and methodically laid everything out upon it in an organized fashion and counted what sort of supplies he had to live off of while he was off the grid.
'I should lay low until the heat moves off of me, it's likely that there is some sort of bounty on my head, and knowledge of me being a 'criminal' has probably spread throughout the town by word of mouth by now seeing as how the guards found out so quickly,' Drew thought as he methodically detailed everything he found in the pack.
He counted out the list of objects he had thrice to confirm his situation and found that he would probably have easy living for at least a month if he made everything stretch and didn't hunt a single day that he stayed in the shack.
He had 30 rations that would last a day each if spread sparingly. He had two water flasks that were filled with clean and fresh water that seemed to have a minor healing ability to them. There was a set of flint and steel that could be used for quite a while to create fires that could help sustain him from the weather and help him cook any food that he hunted(Though that may draw unwanted attention his way and he noted that so.). There were even a few books that seemed to be magically enchanted so that he could understand them despite them being written in an entirely different script than what he was used to.
'Strange that I can speak and understand their language when spoken but not on paper... must be another function of having the system,'
'But I could read the words on the glass panes back at the church...'
In total there were three books that were rather large in size.
'Two on history, one for each of the kingdoms in Lyre and one for the fundamentals of combat and fighting with scythes,'
'It seems like Atun didn't totally forsake me!' Drew thought as a smile flashed across his now rather handsome face.
'At least he sent me off with a rather good gift before putting a bounty on his head and making him wanted,'
"Now... time to settle down and lay low,"
-
Drew spent the next week reading over the training manual he had received and the two books on history. The two books on history were rather large and even after a week, he hadn't managed to put a sizable dent in their contents. But it was a different story entirely for the combat manual.
He was able to read it quickly and efficiently while being able to digest everything he read almost the instant that it entered his mind.
It was almost as if he was made for battle and reading this book was like jogging his memory of the proper practices of using weapons.
He finished the manual within 3 days while the others collected dust until the latter half of the week. But instead of devoting his entire time to studying, he instead decided it was time to start practicing his newfound knowledge and consolidate it into actual skill instead of theoretical knowledge.
He spent the early mornings practicing in the forest with his scythes and the evening napping and reading through the books leisurely.
After the week, however, Drew found something amiss.
He counted his rations thrice over and found that he had been going through them at a rate that he hadn't expected.
'This new body of mine really does require quite a bit of energy compared to before... training sure does take quite a bit out of you,' Drew thought with a sigh as he found he had about half the remaining supplies he expected to have.
'It should last me another week... however, if I start hunting I should be able to preserve them for more desperate times, they are far better for traveling as they preserve for longer periods of time compared to newly caught gain,'
There was just one thing he wanted to do before he went hunting, however... and that was to comprehend a warrior skill.
It was something the training guide said with a little amount of detail in the latter half of the book and it listed a few common skills that could be learned through training and detailed the basic training regimens to awaken the skills.
'If I get another skill I might be able to trade it for energy... or if it is useful enough I could keep it and use it to hunt with,' Drew thought as he stared at the long list of common skills that could be learned by basic training.
He quickly cut most of them out as the way to get them was so intense that almost anyone on earth would call the training methods 'Brutal and Inhuman'.
And then he cut some of the skills that were rather useless, such as basic mental resistance and other situational resistance skills. They were too situation and not worth wasting time on as he was in his current predicament. There were a few more skills that stood out, but they would take up more time than he had at the moment and would be much more similar to long-term investment skills.
One of such was a skill called [Endurance] that just seemed like a mad man's skill that required someone to have balls of steel and a body just as sturdy as their courage. For example:
---
Toughness: Lv: 1:
Requirements to learn: You must be able to take a beating and must come close to death at least 5 times and get back up to live another day.
Training regimen: Endurance Runs until you are sick to the stomach(Running is important to one's survival). Body Endurance Training, Hit yourself until blood shows up, rest, and then do it again.
Description: Increases your body's natural resistance to all types of damage and status effects.
Flaws: A strong skill but only really reliable for masochists that love pain and adrenaline junkies who don't fear death.
---
'The requirements were insane and not something a normal human would subject themselves to,'
'Though the power level is quite high and it might be something I get naturally seeing as how I have already had two near-death encounters technically if you count my previous life,'
'So what to choose?' Drew thought as he stared at the depressingly large amounts of skill in front of him to choose from.