And so it begins…joy?

It was supposed to be easy she said, just go deeper into the forest she said, what's the worst that could happen?

"Wooo"

"Shut the fuck up you stupid mut!" Kicking it in the neck, I watch the neck twist itself in a full ninety degree before dislodging from his body and hitting a tree, splattering blood and brain juices all over the place.

"Ahh~ violence is truly the answer to all the worlds problems" muttering to myself I take a look and find my hardcore survivalist friend and resident Tanuki feasting on the remains of his enemies.

I'm starting to think that Tanuki are hardcore in general.

Without much thought I decide to cultivate and recover my lost energy after fighting for what felt like days on end.

Seriously, a wolf horde? Easy. Magical Wolfs? With a horde of a 20 +++++? I'm starting to think the world hates me.

Wow…my depression and apathy just can't give a fuck about my condition.

One small cultivation later and I'm back to full power…energy? Anyway me and Tanuki decide to camp out for the night by using the wolfs pack home.

Going in I find a couple of baby wolfs staring at us in fear.

"Tanuki, would you look at that, they even left us some food?" Tanuki stomach growls in anticipation as he lunges at them.

Thank you for your sacrifice, your hospitality will not be in vain.

<>

"The hell am I even watching?" Asking myself I look at my Tanuki friend and a rabbit going at it, destroying the surroundings in the process.

…you know? Sometimes the world is too beautiful.

And so I cultivate once more, hoping to at least have a noticeable increase in strength but sadly the world isn't so nice.

Two weeks gone by and I'm still stuck at whatever rank I'm in, and since I'm stuck I decided to just focus on efficiency as I know that'll get me far.

How far you ask? Well it's efficiency, do I need to say more?

Alright so I've been looking through my ever so fading memory, trying to find anything useful that can help me and it seems I need a life or death situation to 'awaken' my inner strength or something like that.

I think it comes from the famous quote 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' and there is some truth to this statement. I mean just look at Tanuki for a second, sure he's gotten fatter but cmon, like that ever stoped the ever growing speed demon hardcore survivalist from getting stronger.

Two more weeks gone by and I'm already thinking that maybe just maybe I'm a heavenly genius born once a thousand years.

Why you ask? Well, think about it, the life force thingy magigy that I absorb goes into my heart or core as I like to call it, so since I'm absorbing what can basically be called the energy of the world can't I passively just leave it on to absorb without me having to do anything? The answer is surprisingly yes and unsurprisingly difficult as multitasking is not one of my string suits.

But Lord Almighty did I try, and partially succeed by mistake, which leaves me in my current predicament as I feel the infamous bottleneck that cultivators go through.

"So…what do I do?" Watching leaves fall around and be carried by the wind I start thinking on breaking the so called bottleneck.

I need a rush of life force…Qi, it's annoying calling it life force. So I need a rush of Qi to break through the next rank, but question is how will I do that?

Growl.

Turning I find Tanuki eating the meat of one of his brethren.

"Tanuki are you a genuis?!" Tanuki humbly and cutely tilts its head before continuing on feasting on his species.

A week passes and I regret calling Tanuki a genius.

So me and Tanuki decide to go deeper into the forest since for some strange and inexplicable reason our neighbors run away in fear, strange right?

"Tanuki, I'm telling you man, that once upon a time I tried to beat the binding of Isaac, but instead I got traumatized at a young age and never had the chance to play it ever again" me and Tanuki are having a small talk about stuff before I felt something move and quickly throw myself on the floor to dodge it.

And thank god I did as I hear an explosion behind me. "Okay you son of a bitch who the fuck do you think you…oh…good doggy?" I innocently say as I stare at the monstrous tiger radiating an unending bloodlust.

A quick swipe and countless trees are cut behind us.

Yea I think he's mad.

"Roaaaaaaaaarrr!!!" Oh, he's definitely pissed.

Reinforcing myself I decide to take Tanuki and run away as fast as we can before throwing him up and going back in and slashing his eye with my nails before moving to his ass and having Tanuki discharge his stored power.

And just like that the mighty beats bellows a pitiful cry and falls to the ground, seeing this opportunity I tell Tanuki to do it again and again and again. Over and over till I checked his vitals and rejoiced in his death.

A grumble from Tanuki stomach and we start ripping away it's meat before tearing in on our grand prize, that is until I found a core in its body.

"This is the infamous monster core isn't?" I ask while feeling a good chunk of Qi within it, almost as if representing the beasts life force.

Tanuki grabs it and bites it but fails to bite through it, seeing as it isn't edible he throws it away and continues feasting.

Smiling I pet his fur and pick up the core.

Glory awaits us!

<>

Hmm….can it be…no way…

Why am I surprised? Well, we just hunted down a big doggo and now we see his mate(?) and children approaching through the sound of trees shaking.

At this point me and Tanuki bolt it, leaving our glorious prize half eaten as it's family members carefully approach it and cry at its death.

Of course I still took the monster core for research purposes. But this event…it'll leave a scar on me and Tanuki for our lifetime, for we now fully realized that if we want to satiate our hunger then we must become powerful.

So powerful that the world would offer us food and we would gladly eat it.

Truly, I finally understood the cruelty of this wretched world!