The meat was white and tasted like bland chicken meat mixed with a small portion of pork. I cut various parts of the crocodile and tasted them all, my favorite being the ribs and tenderloin. The ribs probably wouldn’t make good jerky, so I decided to smoke the rest of the tenderloin. After about eight hours of keeping other crocodiles at bay, and smoking the tenderloin, the jerky was ready.

I unfortunately could not carry the rest of the two thousand-kilogram beast, so I left the corpse to be taken care of by nature.

Fifteen days had passed since I started the slow journey, and I had finally reached the meeting point of the river I traveled along, which just left me with a flat and straight path to follow. Not that there is actually a path, just an imaginary line.

I checked the map every day at least twice, and in no moment had the point I was headed to move, while I could clearly see the others either moving or already in

pairs. Either they are really lazy to move, or are caught up in some kind of trouble.

Climbing out of the river’s shore, I was met with an unbelievably flat stretch of land, although filled with dense looking bushes in some parts. Not to mention that the ground looked like it actually moved, thanks to the unusual amount of snakes.

I carefully walked along, trying not to step on any snake, and occasionally getting scratched by some random bushes. My pace was starting to get somewhat slow, and this was only halfway through the whole route. At least I didn’t have to weave through valleys and jump over crocodiles now, them being replaced with bushes and snakes respectively.

But it was also nice to see other animals besides the deadly ones, like the gigantic macaws that traveled in big flocks or the mesmerizingly colorful frogs. I guess not having civilization in this world was a bonus, from what I could see, no species around here was endangered, or even close to it.

I could also see some horse-sized deer, with a white-faced capuchin ‘riding’ it. It looked more like it had just latched on to the deer, and was trying to not fall off, but from its position alone, I could tell it had done this at least a few times. Maybe this is how monkeys around here entertain themselves, huh.

The other capuchins were cheering the rider from up on the trees, most of them jumping repeatedly and happily screaming, some throwing stuff like small fruit or poop.

I continued walking, occasionally glancing back to see the critters playing around. They seemed like some of the only animals that didn’t grow to stupid sizes, just like some bugs or fish I had seen earlier.

Another ten days had passed, I was almost without food when I saw smoke rising in the distance. I started running towards it, jumping over and stepping on unlucky snakes, quickly reaching the place of the smoke.

There lay a visibly ill woman, coughing lightly while unconscious, surrounded by small pots either empty or filled with water, some preserved foodstuffs randomly scattered around her. A truly beautiful person, with neck-length dark hair and tan skin, somewhat palid by sickness, a somewhat-tall and slender figure.

“Hey? Are you alright? Are you awake” As I spoke, the woman slightly opened her eyes and tilted her head towards mine.

“... wha-” Before she could finish her sentence, she drifted off into unconsciousness again.

I squatted over to her side, shaking her arm to wake her up.

Current Stats:

[Sanjo, Defender of the Lands]

Age: 15

Classes

Health: 325 (+5)

Endurance: 275 (+5)

[Geologist] I lvl5

Agility: 275 (+10)

[Mason] I lvl10

Intelligence: 275

[Geomancer] I lvl10

Magic: 275

[Spearman] I lvl10

Charisma: 275

[Hunter] I lvl 10

Perks

Personal Perks

Class Perks

[Chosen by Crab] V

[Mineral Kineticism] I

[Earth Child] I (HP+5, EN+5)

[Sixth Sense] I

[Monster Slayer] II (AG+10)

[System Crafting] I

[Food Poisoning Resistance] I

[Mineral Examination] I

[Survival Skills] I

[Further Reinforcement] II

[Instant Heal] II

[Mineral Explosion] II

[Walker] I

[Weightless Spear] II

[Night Vision] I