When morning arrived and I woke up, my first thought was that I was moved while sleeping. Not that it would be the first time.

The reason behind this was that I awoke to a lot of sounds that I have not yet heard in this world, chirping, singing, and whistling.

And the source of these sounds, an enormous amount of different birds!

Ornithology was never a passion for me, but I counted at least four different kinds of birds on the tree I had slept on. There were a pair of bright red birds not bigger than my fist, a few even smaller brown ones, a single bird that looked akin to a gull, and a pair of strange-looking crows. The first three looked pretty common, so my attention was grabbed by the latter.

They were eye-catching. Each of the two 'crows' was at least fifty centimeters. And that was in rest!

But even more surprising was the fact that they were golden in color.

After taking a few minutes to observe the birds, and noting that they ignored my movements, I could only think about two options. Either they had never seen a human, or they were not hunted and per se did not feel any danger from me.

The first was more credible, albeit I preferred the second option. After all, if they never saw a human, that meant that there were none around. Which translated into an enormous issue for me, namely crushed the hope of finding any civilization. Still, whatever the reason was, I had no intention to ponder it for long. It was morning, and I was well-rested, so it was time for me to restart my journey.

As a precautionary measure I always used 'Life Radar' before descending from my 'nest', as to call it someway, and today I did the same. This brought me a second surprise, which only reaffirmed my initial thought of being somewhere else... The entire radar zone, all the 900 meters, was full of blips!

Thankfully there was nothing big enough to scare me. The biggest blips except mine were the ones coming from the two 'Golden Crows' as I named them.

This being the case, I decided to ignore the sudden abundance of life and start my day normally. Well, maybe taking a few extra cautions while walking. Small blips were good, but snakes would have a small one as well, would not they? Even if I was immune to poison, at least by Sepyre's words, I had no desire to test it.

Something that I did discover with gratitude during my blip analysis was that, suddenly, there were now fish in the river.

As for the rest of the day, it was pretty much uneventful. Well, except that I saw a different bird, fish, or animal practically with every step I made. I restricted myself from hunting or fishing during the day, mainly because of one thought.

"What if I entered some kind of Elven Sanctuary?"

However unlikely it was for a real fantasy world Elf race to be akin to the one in the fiction books and games, the brief description I had obtained from the books confirmed that our, earthly, fiction was almost right. Elves respected nature, and it was a matter of culture for them to protect it. And even though judging from their customs they were omnivorous and so hunted for meat, they also had places where no one was allowed to shed blood. Which translated into a reserve, or Sanctuary, and made my thought more or less logical.

On the bright side, if I had indeed wandered into such a place, then I would sooner or later meet one of its guardians. And I looked forward to it!

After all, what fantasy geek would not want to meet an Elf? Or better... A female Elf?

A thing of note was that I did not find any sign of predators during the entire day. And with the atmosphere being so relaxed, I, for the first time slept on a bed of leaves directly on the ground.

Surprisingly or not, the next morning I awoke absolutely intact. And amazingly nothing, at all, had disturbed my sleep. Even the insects that had been practically accompanying me lately.

Traveling along the river was unexpectedly pleasant, as there were almost two meters between the water's edge and the forest itself. How something could be so perfect? I could not say. Still, I enjoyed the ease of travel and easily walked for more than 25 kilometers.

With no valuable discoveries and no hunting, I could expect the day to pass dully, but it did not. In fact, every step I made allowed me to discover something new. It could be a common discovery, some new type of rock, a new kind of tree, and new edible, or a beautiful flower.

Indeed, it was like the world was opening more and more to me. Or like someone was adding details to it...

Everything seemed perfect, but for some reason, my intuition prevented me from sleeping on the ground this day.

And it turned to be right.

I would never know what made me sleep on a branch again, even though the previous night spent on the ground was extremely good. But I can only be glad that I listened to whatever it was.

After all, I awoke to the sound of scratching, akin to a cat sharpening its claws on something. But far, far louder!

Still tied to the branch, I looked down and froze in shock.

There was an enormous, easily more than a meter tall and half more than in length creature on the ground below me!

Not only it was the source of that sound, provoked by his forepaws against the trunk, but it was also sniffing the air and looking up.

'Gloomclaw' was the name that my Status Screen immediately showed me. My mind raced as I recalled everything that I had read on this beast. Indeed, it was a beast. And a dangerous one.

Regretfully the books about beasts that I was provided before were what could be hardly called an encyclopedia, but at least I managed to recall a few passages on 'Gloomclaws'. Something about the lines of a big beast covered in very durable, dark-colored, furless skin. Considered an apex predator in any environment. Prefers to hunt in the dark where his color and ability to see in the dark grants advantage, but will attack anything in its territory even during the day. The main means of attack are the foreclaws, which can be as long as a grown foot. Mute, has no means to produce any sound.

Obviously, such information did not help calm me, but thankfully another passage did - Ground-based, avoids heights, its stomach area is very vulnerable.

While my mind worked as crazy, I somehow untied myself and backed against the trunk. If the beast does not like heights, then most probably it will not scale the tree.

"So let's hope it goes away by itself" Even though I muttered that I knew that I was deceiving myself. It was a territorial beast, and judging from the fact that the sun was rising already, I was an intruder in its eyes.

Time passed slowly, but it passed. And at some moment, I noticed that the sun had already reached its zenith.

"Fuck, is that beast intending to keep me here forever?" I could only internally ask myself. And regretfully for my mental state, I knew the answer.

Suddenly I was hit by an idea, well, not so suddenly if we consider that I spent more than four hours sitting on a branch while watching beast claws continuously scratch at the tree.

Anyways, the idea was as simple as it was feasible. The beast was an apex predator, so it was obviously carnivorous. I did not hope for it to eat and leave me alone, but...

"Storage"

It took me an entire hour before I dropped down a capybara corpse, right on the beast's dog-like snout.

Well, at least that was the intention, as the 'Gloomclaw' reaction was extremely quick, stepping back and avoiding it.

"And now... let's hope it likes the seasoning" I told myself.

The thing that I had been doing during this hour was to dry a pair of leaves from the 'Poisonous Broadfern' with the help of 'Flint' and to grind them into something resembling powder with my hands. So obviously, the seasoning I mentioned... Was poison.

As expected, the beast launched itself at the corpse immediately. Most probably taking it for live prey, after all, my storage prevented any change in condition. Which meant that it was not only fresh but even warm as at the moment I stored it.

I tried my best to forget the image of the capybara being torn in shreds by the enormous claws, as it was something that I would like to never see again. And again as expected the beast began to eat. I did not know if it would work, as even normal animals could identify what was dangerous to them, but it did eat it.

"Hmm, I wonder what effect it will have on it" These words were not vague, as I indeed had no idea of what would happen to the beast. I knew that the 'Poisonous Broadfern' poison would make humans feel nausea, vomit, etc. And in the dried, powdered version it could even lead to death. But how much of that was true for a beast?

...

....

.....

"Well, somehow it worked" Were my exact words an hour later. I could not know if my drying and manual shredding did the trick as to be counted, but the beast certainly was affected.

For the last half hour it had been constantly vomiting, and judging from the smell, was defecating without stop. And right now, it lay in a pool of vomit and... other things without moving at all.

My current problem was that I did not know if this would lead to death, or if the beast would recuperate. And so waiting was not a good idea. Neither was to go down and check, but... why did I store rocks in my inventory? Right, to use them as projectiles.

"Storage" Taking one out, I carefully aimed and threw it at the unmoving beast.

With the distance being hardly more than ten meters and having the advantage of height, and against an unmoving target? The result was obvious...

With a loud thump, the stone hit the beast's back, somewhere near what would be considered a shoulder.

...

....

.....

Seeing no reaction, I repeated the process. This time hitting it squarely in the head.

...

....

.....

And for safety reasons, not for fun, I repeated it for the third time.

Only then, after seeing that the beast did not react to the stone impact on its back leg and using my 'Life Radar' to check that there was nothing close to me, I slowly descended from the tree. Ready at any moment to climb back.

But I did not need to, as the beast did not react at all. It was alive, at least judging by the spell, and... then it wasn't.

"Storage" Even though storing a beast's corpse covered in vomit, feces, and whatever else was by far not a nice thing to do, beast materials were supposedly very valuable. And if, when I found some kind of civilization, I would require all the money I could get.

Plus, who says I can not wash it in the river? Speaking of washing something, I also needed to bathe. I did not piss myself in fear as I expected at first, but I did spend these hours sweating like crazy...

***

It was only a few hours later when I settled myself on another tree a few kilometers down the current of the river that I felt like an idiot. Why the holy tits I did not activate the scan of the status screen? It was literally only a single thought (with no cost or effort whatsoever) to see the status of anything, alive, in front of me! Granted, beasts had no skills and such, but... I would see its fucking health and status! Knowing for sure if it was affected, and how much it was by my super-seasoning attack!

To be fair, I simply forgot. I simply did not consider my previous hunting targets dangerous, and never actually checked it.

I thought it worked perfectly (because of the ID part working on itself), but forgot that I, myself, had asked Sepyre to help me modify the other options to be callable. Because if I didn't, I would be constantly seeing bars and numbers everywhere...

"Well... I am an idiot. But at least one that will learn from his mistakes" Deciding to finish recording what had happened during these 3 days on such a note and feeling no need to check my own status, I tied myself and slowly descended into sleep.

Thankfully the morning was peaceful. Everything around was peaceful. Birds flew and sang, small animals moved around, and fish swam in the clear water of the river.

After my unwanted acquaintance with a beast, I could now say that this was definitively not an Elven Sanctuary. The book on their customs clearly said that no carnivorous beings were allowed into them, and so this meant that I did not need to worry about hunting or fishing. With the latter matter being the important one, as I was craving for a fish, even if simply cooked over a campfire.

And fishing was fairly easy, at least for someone with magic.

***

"Shaped Mana"

"Shaped Mana"

"Shaped Mana"

I used the spell three times, and albeit I missed once, the other two were right on the mark, creating a square, box-like construct around each of my targets, some carp-like fishes.

***

And apart from eating fish, the day passed normally, with me following the current of the river towards what I considered the 'North'.

I should also note that the river has been becoming slightly wider, and albeit I did not see any tributaries (at least while walking), it has been getting deeper as well. During today's pre-sleeping bath, I did not even need to duck for the water to reach my chin. Thankfully, the current has been weak as before.

Both of these facts made me think that I am possibly reaching the river's destination.

My last thought before sleeping turned out to be right, as this day, my 5th day of following the river made me reach an enormous lake.

I could not see either of the other shores, and everything to the horizon was covered in water. Unexpectedly I did not have any new incidents, but the vivid image of the 'Gloomclaw' made me move far more cautiously. Especially now that I arrived at a 'new location'.

***

I could not say how much time I spent there dumbly staring at the enormous expanse of water in front, but it wasn't a small one. Still, I had to decide what to do next. I did have no boat, and could not make one. And even if I could, there was no real reason for it. After all, I could not see any of the other shores, so... Where I would sail to?

I had come along the right side of the river, and so if I decided to go to what I considered the 'East', I would need to cross it before doing so. Which I wasn't too keen to do. Granted, it was neither wide nor deep enough to pose any real threat, and the lake seemed calm enough but, my intuition (to call it somehow) was telling me to ignore the option. Which I did do in the end, deciding to go towards my left, or 'West'.

Moving along the lakeshore turned out to be even easier than I expected, with at least 3 meters of it being a sandy beach. And so, I traveled for 2 entire days. Nothing occurred, and so I did not even feel compelled to record my routine. One of waking up, walking, eating, resting, walking some more, fishing (magicking?) some fish, bathing, and finishing it by sleeping on one of the trees that started a few meters from the beach.

The third day brought some changes, as the forest began to thin and the sandy beach I was using to advance began to slowly turn into a craggy coast.

At first, the changes were minimal, but at the end of the day, the small rocks that began to appear on the beach turned into genuine boulders and I was forced to circle each of them. As for the forest, it was not just a few random trees and bushes growing on a grass-covered plain.

I could not say if these changes were for the good or the bad, but anyway, when I was searching for a suitable tree to sleep on, I had another lucky find. It was a poisonous plant, called 'Assassin's Bloom'.

Albeit the flowers which gave it its effect, and the name, were not blooming, the herb was still extremely valuable. After all, it was a genuine sleeping drug. Even a small drop of plant juice was enough to knock out an adult for over three hours! Or at least that was what the books said. On second thought, the fact that it was not blooming was very good. The pollen was a special kind of sleeping poison, one that affected practically everything. And I did not want to test my supposed poison enduring body against something rumored to be able to knock out even enormous monsters, or dragons which were used as an example in the book.

***

After gathering it, I also managed to spot a lonely standing tree with a few branches that should be able to support my weight. Which was immediately decided to use as a sleeping spot.

Seeing that I was about to enter another new location, with nothing except my sense and the boulders from the lake to guide me, I decided to check my status and inventory. Especially the latter, as I needed to plan my supplies. I could not know if I would meet anything edible during the next days, and hunting in a plain would be (supposedly) harder than in a forest...

There are a few changes, so I decided to organize them neatly, again.

Changes to Status, Equip and Inventory, 20th day on ?????

Basic Stats (Attributes)

NAME BEFORE → NOW DESCRIPTION (NEW) NOTES Mana 28/?→30/? - Did progress slow down? Or it is because I have stopped getting to 0 before resting? Strenght 13/?→14/? - Still do not feel any difference. Body (Constitution) 22/?→25/? - I noticed that my body does not ache anymore after any of the exercise, labor, or rough sleeping. It may have happened before, but the change is far more noticeable now. Willpower 100/?→99/? - It can decrease?! Why?! How?!

Stats (Skills or Abilities)

NAME BEFORE → NOW DESCRIPTION (NEW) NOTES Terrain: Forest 7/100→8/100 - - Terrain: Waterside 0/100→1/100 How well one can understand the environment (Beach, Coast, and Riverside). Seems that I was right about there being separate stats per terrain. Still, this one is responsible for 3 different ones? Orientation 11/100→12/100 - - Camping 8/100→9/100 - My improvised tree 'nests'? Fishing 0/100→3/100 Ability to locate, obtain, and process fish. So using magic counts as normal fishing, at least it seems so. Poisons & Antidotes 4/100→6/100 - One for poisoning the 'Gloomclaw' and one for the 'Assasin's Bloom'? Planning 4/100→5/100 - So my panic-stricken plan of poisoning a beast is considered a real plan!

Magic & Spells

NAME BEFORE → NOW DESCRIPTION (NEW) NOTES Utilitarian (Common) 18/100→19/100 - - Life-Radar 5/100→6/100 Sense living beings in a zone. Mastery affects the zone's size (1000 mt). - Shaped Mana 6/100→7/100 Simple and transparent mana construct. Can take any form. Mastery increases size and durability (<35000 cubic cm, =Bronze). - Filter 2/10→3/10 Separating dirt and impurities from any liquid substance. Mastery affects speed (80 seconds per liter). Another decrease, nice!

Equipment

No changes except for

"Throwing" Rocks From six to seven (Replaced the bloodied ones and found a shiny new one!)

Inventory

NAME NOTES Fresh Fish Not alive, but practically just caught. The average weight is a little less than a kg.

x11 Roasted Fish Each one is about 500 grams

x4 Edible Berries A combination of what looks like cloudberries and gooseberries. The survival book I remembered called them Chamas and Elvenberries respectively.

About 10 cupped hands in total. Poisonous Plants Three sets of 'Poisonous Broad-Fern' stalk and roots. Only two sets of leaves.

A fully grown plant of 'Assasin's Bloom'. Flowers not bloomed, so only the juice extracted from the stalk counts. Animal Corpses Local capybaras

Adult x1 Cub x1 Beast Corpses 'Gloomclaw' x1 (!!!)

My purified water remains at the same level of 20 liters. Actually, I caught myself at the thought that nothing would happen, supposedly, to me if I drank it without filtering, but... I do not want to risk it. Plus drinking water with sand or dirt it in would not be so nice.

I am down to zero for meat (both cooked and fresh), so I may be forced to butcher that capybaras.

I am down to zero for edible fruits, have not seen any. Still, I hope that the new berries will be enough to somehow balance my diet.

Anyway, my reserves seem decent enough to risk a three or four-day journey without finding anything. And if that continues, then I maybe should attempt to reach the lake. 'Life Radar' has been indicating that there are fish in there as well. But that will be something for the next, or the one after that, day.

Man, just how I wish I had at least a pack of cigarettes on me. All this is simply killing me, killing far more than smoking...