In retrospect, Bharat thought that charging at the rabbit while making such a ruckus wasn’t a smart idea, as rabbits were known for their speed in the first place. So, it came as no surprise when his sudden ‘Sneak attack’ failed horribly and his face was introduced to the hard ground with a force that made him see stars for a moment.

“Come back here you little shit!”, Bharat shouted towards the fleeing figure he could see through the haze of tears while holding his nose in an attempt to alleviate the pain he felt. Thankfully it wasn’t broken but fuck if it didn’t hurt like hell.

Hurriedly getting up from his position, he gave chase to the creature before he could lose sight of it in the dense vegetation around him. It wouldn’t be hard for the little rabbit to hide in some bushes anyway and then he would have to start from scratch.

So this little game of cat and mouse, or rather rabbit and crazy-human continued for a while. And Bharat realized that the system wasn’t exaggerating when it mentioned its speed. And more than speed, the rabbit seems to know the forest like the back of his hand.

It kept on taking sudden turns here and there, running through the bushes and skillfully dodging around the large trees which were placed close together. All this while, Bharat hot on its tail, kept stumbling, finding it hard to keep balance on the uneven forest bed.

It looked that the rabbit was a pro in this game of cat and mouse, likely due to running away from other predators roaming these woods looking for a quick snack.

But somehow, he kept pace with the little critter, likely due to his long strides. Feeling like this was getting nowhere, he decided to improvise a little. While running after the rabbit, he bent down and scooped up a handful of small rocks from the ground.

Now his aim wasn’t medal-worthy by any means but he had a few childhood memories of playing ‘Guli-Danda’ back home, and he wasn’t so incompetent to mess up a 10-foot distance throw. So, while running, he aimed as best as he could and started throwing the rocks in the rabbit's direction one by one with all his strength.

Miss…

Miss…

It was the third rock that made contact with the back of the rabbit which surprised the rabbit enough that it failed to dodge the upcoming tree in his way in time and crashed into it head-first.

‘Payback’s a bitch ain’t it little fellow.’

Not missing the chance for a second time, and to avoid a repeat performance, he approached the downed form of rabbit with quick steps and pinned the rabbit down on the ground leaning his body over the creature to add more weight.

But before he could bask in this feeling of triumph over his ‘opponent’, the rabbit to get out of his grasp, started making erratic movements on the ground almost making him lose his grip but he held on at the last second but lost his dagger in the process.

For a small creature, this rabbit had a lot of strength in him. From the way it was struggling, Bharat felt like he was wrestling a horse rather than a small critter that was barely one fifth his size. He even wondered for a second why the rabbit even bothered to run away from him in the first place. A full-powered tackle from this rabbit at full speed would have left him gasping for breath. But he reckoned that running was in the blood of these meek creatures who were surrounded by predators.

After a brief amount of struggling, during which Bharat felt almost sorry for the creature in his grasp, he managed to secure a firm hold of the rabbits head and with a brutal move, broke its neck. Its dying squeal of pain made him flinch, but he held on, telling himself that it was necessary to move forward.

The moment the creature breathed its last, Bharat heard the familiar sound of system notification, along with a message that he was waiting for since coming here.

*Ding*

<< You have eliminated a Lvl-1 [Swift-foot Rabbit]. Experience is awarded according to your contribution. Bonus experience awarded due to perks of the [Newbie] Title. Additional Experience bonuses from the ‘First Find’ Achievement stacked. >>

‘Finally, some progress! And it looks like being the first to discover a species provides some bonus experience. When it rains it pours indeed’

The next moment, a somewhat familiar alert came in front of him.

*Ding*

>

<< Title Name: Newbie (Temporary)

Description: You are the latest species that has been qualified for entering the nexus. Due to the weak nature of your race, this title is something that’ll assist you in catching up to other stronger species out there. Will provide bonus experience on every kill. Explore for more bonuses.

Remarks: It Will help you become more competent… hopefully. >>

He remembered a similar alert came up when he found out the results of increasing his agility stat and likely get for increasing his other stats as well.

Another thing to mention here was that he couldn’t see his progress towards the next level. So, there was no way for him to measure the amount of experience he gained by killing a single rabbit.

Closing his interface, he gazed down at the dead rabbit in morbid curiosity. Truth be told, he had conflicting thoughts about his first kill. He had a slight idea of what he would feel when he took his first life in this new reality, not due to any past experiences but due to reading documentaries of soldiers who described their first time killing in the field. Granted they were talking about human life but he doesn’t see much difference between both of them except slightly higher intelligence in his own species.

‘Really, the only thing i had ever killed that was bigger than a cockroach or mosquito was a lizard once, and I felt like the biggest piece of scum for weeks. Then why is it that I feel nothing now.’, Bharat contemplated for a while. Maybe subconsciously, he was starting to accept his new reality already. After all, it was the only way towards getting experience and levels.

*growl*

Or maybe he was just hungry and didn’t bother to care about such complex shit.

Yeah, that must be it.

Regardless, He was hungry, the rabbit was food and now he’ll eat it. that’s it. No more overthinking.

So, with joined hands, he spoke a small prayer for the dead rabbit and after thanking it for the food it will provide him, picked up the corpse by its neck and went back towards the camp.

‘Sorry little guy, there was no other way.’

-

Returning to the cave, Bharat found himself in a serious dilemma. A question arose in his mind as he sat there and stared at the dead rabbit. A question that should have come to him before.

‘How do I cook this anyway?’

He wasn’t a stranger to cooking. Living alone for the past 3 years, learning cooking was a necessity. But cooking with modern tools with prepared ingredients was a lot different than cooking in a forest with a dead rabbit and a stone knife.

A short video he once watched on social media described in detail the process of skinning and preparing rabbits for their meat, So, he wasn’t completely in dark about the steps involved.

‘Now only if I could remember the actual order in which they did the process. Did they skin it first, or drain it of its blood, or was it after beheading?’

…

“Fuck it, I’ll just go catch another one if this one is wasted.”, he shrugged and started the process.

Placing the dead rabbit on its front, he positioned the dagger on its neck and with a swift motion beheaded it, making its blood pool on the ground. Picking up the carcass by its tail, he held it in the air to let the blood leave the body. After it, he came to the actual skinning process and extracting the meat.

Cutting off the legs and feet, he made a long cut on its body and removed its coat with ease. Next, he made another cut from top to bottom, removed its organs and sliced the final meat into small pieces.

Then he washed the meat of leftover blood, prepared a fire with some rocks and dry branches he found, and roasted the meat over it. Feeling it sufficiently cooked, he brought the leg piece to his mouth and bit into it, making it melt inside his mouth and getting a rush of flavour.

Or that’s what was supposed to happen. Instead, he found himself back in the present, staring at the carcass with an open mouth and drool running down his chin.

His overactive imagination on work again.

‘Well, At least I now know the proper steps to proceed. This will make sure that I won’t make any mistakes.’, he thought embarrassedly and proceeded to do just that by positioning the dagger in the wrong way and only half-beheading the rabbit.

“No worries. I won’t be eating this anyway.”, Bharat muttered nervously, while cutting the still connected neck as if sawing wood. Following which he sliced the feet and positioned the dagger for skinning.

However, he realized his mistake too late, when his nose was assaulted with a foul odour. He accidentally sliced into the muscle instead of just skin and pierced its bowels.

Feeling frustrated beyond belief, he threw the headless carcass outside the cave and kicked the head across the cave.

‘Fucking hell! This is getting ridiculous. How is anyone without a history of living like a Tarzan supposed to survive this? I’ll sooner die of hunger than actual fight at this rate!’

“One last try. I’ll try this one last time otherwise I will… I WILL!... I’ll have to sleep hungry again.” What else was he supposed to say? It's not like he had any choice. And he didn’t see any box for complaints in this forest, so he just had to suck it up.

So, with slumped shoulders and zero enthusiasm, he went back outside in search of food once again.

He decided to walk towards the same place he encountered the previous rabbit. Eventually reaching the location, he looked around the area and found some bushes to hide. His reason for coming here was due to his previous encounters with other fauna of this forest and the conclusion he came up with.

While he was searching the forest for some easy prey, there were times where he found himself walking in circles and came upon the previous animals he encountered. That brought him the realization that these animals had fixed territories of their own as he never saw two different animals in one location.

Therefore, while hiding in the bushes, he inwardly hoped that his theory was true, and that he had stumbled across a territory of rabbits earlier. This will serve two purposes.

One he would have a reliable source of food and experience without risking his life over much. And two, he could create a map for himself denoting safe areas and dangerous areas for him, solving the issue of navigation in the process as well.

And it looked like fate was smiling upon him because just like he had theorized, he saw a rabbit strolling across the forest.

Remembering his earlier encounter with the little critter, he decided to change up his strategy to confront them. So instead of charging at it head-on, he trailed behind the creature, making sure to avoid making any loud noises to alert it, all the while waiting for the right opportunity to strike and kill it one blow.

Suddenly he halted in his movements when he saw the rabbit come to a stop at some bushes a few feet ahead. It looked to be eating some berries growing on the bushes. In fact, he could see many such bushes in this section of the forest.

Looking back at the rabbit, he observed that it still hasn’t had its fill of these berries. Slowly, his gaze shifted from the rabbit and the berries it was eating without a care in life and he slowly came to a realization that made him want to kick his own ass.

‘Wait.’

‘Wait a damn fucking second.’

‘I’m in a forest. Forests have trees. Trees bear fruits. So why the fuck I’m only now realizing this and that too when this fact is shoved right in the front of my eyes!’, he raged in his head. Thinking of his earlier attempts to ‘cook’ only made him angrier and more embarrassed. Angry at himself and embarrassed of himself.

He got so immersed in this whole caveman experience that he even started to think like a caveman and not even bothered thinking about other sources of food.

Bharat exited his hiding spot and went towards one of the bushes, all thoughts of the rabbit he was trailing forgotten. Plucking a handful of them, he used his appraise on them. He didn’t believe they would be poisonous as the rabbit was just eating them, but he used it nonetheless as a precaution.

*Ding*

<< Consumable: Mysterious Purple fruit

Description: A mysterious fruit of unknown origins that grows in this part of the forest. Primary food source for creatures who are unable to hunt for food in these dangerous parts.

Remark: Perfect for those too lazy to cook their own food. >>

More and more he was starting to believe that these remarks were less a part of description and more of an insult aimed at him in particular. Anyhow, as was becoming customary of him, he didn’t give the remark any more than a passing glance and confirmed that the berries were not poisonous.

He would be a bit sceptical of eating these colourful fruits if something like ‘Explore for more’ was present at the end of the description. He didn’t fancy ‘exploring’ if something was poisonous to him or not.

So without further delay, he gobbled up all of the berries in his hand at once, instantly tasting the juices entering his mouth as he chewed them. Considering that he hadn’t had eaten anything since the last two and a half days, he thought he might just finish off all the berries on this particular bush and probably the next one too just to feel sated but surprisingly he was full only after eating 6 of these berries.

That made him wonder how the little rabbit, which had long fled the area at his sudden appearance, managed to eat more than double what he could.

‘Mysterious indeed’

At least, Bharat considered, he won't have to worry about death by starvation anymore as the berries in this sector could sustain him for a long time. So, removing his tunic, he got to work and started putting as many berries as he could, using it as a makeshift bag. Following this, he returned to his camp in a happier mood than he left it earlier.

‘Now the problem of food is solved, and I already have a source of freshwater. Finally, I can focus on actual training and growing stronger.’

Eating two more Berries, he went to sleep early because tomorrow would symbolize the start of his ‘Training montage’.

Unknown to him, a few minutes after he fell asleep, the air in a meter radius around him moved inwardly on his position and rustled his hair slightly before settling down.