Going against the direction of the current, I dashed like a madman,

The splashing sound of the not-so-deep water stream beneath my feet was accompanied by loud and heavy footsteps comparable to earthquakes behind me.

Behind me was a magical beast resembling a bear, or so I presume it is.

In my dash, I grabbed a spear that I'd planted there beforehand; once grabbed, I abruptly returned to myself, threw my lance in the direction of the monster, and dashed after it.

I heard a dissatisfied growl but no blood splash or flesh wound sound, so I retrieved the homemade ax I had on my waist and summoned my Reality Figer as a shield, then I heard something scorching coming at me, so I made myself as small as possible behind the reality figer, and not even two seconds later I felt something solid crashing at my Book and the temperature around me rising. Fire was engulfing the area I was in, and the only reason I was able to survive was because I was shielded behind the Reality figer and my feet which couldn't be covered by the Reality figer were submerged in water.

I resumed my dash toward the monster that had been chasing me a few moments earlier, once it had calmed down. When I was relatively close to it, I heard a whistling sound like massive claws flying onto me from my right, so I summoned the reality figer to shield me, while sending an ax blow to where the bear's warm and stinky breath came from.

My shielding was just a book floating on its own, so I still received a relatively strong force behind that claws attack; it should've knocked me, but I was firmly anchored, my axe was firmly anchored in the bear's cheek.

The bears let out a pained screech and a growl that I couldn't make out. In an attempt to shake me off, he began to agitate madly its head.

Knowing that he would soon use its arms to get me off, I tried something risky: once he let out one of its utterances, I transformed my reality figer into its sphere form, then sent it inside the bear's mouth to retransform it in, the book immediately turned into a muselière restraining from closing its mouth, I quickly positioned myself so that my feet were against its upper jaw and my hand was holding its lower jaw, leaving in position where my entire body.

When I tried to separate its lower jaw from its upper jaw with all the strength I could muster from my feet and hand, I could hear a bone-cracking and flesh-tearing noise from its mouth. He fought back, and with me attached to his mouth like a parasite, he tried to squish me by slamming my body against the ground repeatedly.

I bent my body in such a way that its attempt to fight back would only cause me to land on my back rather than my head.

If that monster had been smarter, it would have used its arm, as I was in a very vulnerable position; what a shame for him, but a blessing for me.

I not only dislocated its jaw, but also completely ripped it with my last and final effort. When I was done with it, I immediately retracted my parasitic grip on the monster.

I quickly retrieved my ax, which was still buried in its wound, and carried it in my mouth so I could easily sneak behind the monster's neck.

With only one hand, it was difficult to maintain balance, but the fact that the monster was facing the ground, lamenting and in pain over the loss of its jaws made it a lot easier.

Once there, I delivered several ax blows to its skull, or more precisely, where his eyeballs should be. Unable to growl in pain, it simply let out a desperate utterance, my blows had for effect of instantly bathing me in blood and squishy brain.

After a few seconds, the bear’s body fell lifeless on the ground.

Without wasting any time, I dragged the monster out of the water stream.

Once done, I pressed its back against the ground, its chest facing me, and struck where the chest should be with my ax. Hot blood splattered profusely on me, but I simply ignored it and continued to axe blow its chest. After several repetitions, I finally broke through its thoracic cage.

Roaming blindly through its organs, I finally reached something that felt like its heart. I ripped it while it was still warm and somewhat beating and proceeded to eat it.

Needless to say, it didn’t taste particularly great, but compared to what I’ve eaten lately it tasted pretty decent.

I wasn't particularly hungry, at least not enough to eat a monster heart raw, but I just felt like doing it, as I always do.

I know it was a strange thing to do, but it had become a ritual for me over the last month. Eating the still-warm monster's heart gives me for a moment a strange sensation of warmth and rest that I can't quite explain.

Sleep is something I've recently abandoned; all I did while sleeping was create nightmares; the most depressing part isn't even the nightmares themselves, but rather how colored they are, at least in comparison to my new reality, in which all I see is mostly darkness. Since I was no longer able to afford the cost of sleep, this was the only method that could give me a semblance of rest and energy-recovery.

They generally don’t last long, I mean this warmth and resting sensation I got from eating monster hearts didn't last long, usually three to five minutes.

But these short three minutes …

“These are more than enough.”

Besides that, it is also my way of honoring the beast I've slain, but I know deep down that I'm doing it to fool myself into thinking that I'm getting stronger, that I’m the one who hunts instead of the one being hunted.

Once done with the monster’s heart, I went back to the water stream.

I washed off all the blood on me and descended in the direction of the water stream.

It has been one months or maybe two since I woke up from that nofo, and a lot of things have changed during that span of time.

Winter was gradually giving way to spring, but the temperature remained cold for a reason; I was mistaken when I assumed I was somewhere between the first layer of the forest and the frozen hell.

Sometime after that confrontation with the ashwolf, I realized that I was overly vulnerable due to my lack of knowledge of my surroundings, so I pushed my exploration forward, beyond my zone of comfort, in order to become familiar with my surroundings.

To move around in the forest, I developed a technique that involves using my reality to sweep whatever is in front or around me, much like a cane would, but without the inconvenience of having to hold it or have it attached to my body. It wasn't as precise as sight, but it allowed me to run without fear of colliding with a tree that I hadn't noticed was in front of me.

During one of these early expeditions, I happened upon the location that has now become my new shelter.

It was then that I realized one of the many drawbacks of my new mode of transportation; it assured me that there was no obstacle in front of me, but I had no way of knowing what I was walking on.

That day, while exploring, I fell inside a cavity on the ground; the cavity wasn't deep, so I was simply surprised when I fell in it; it was the size of one large room, and the inside of the cavity appeared completely spared by the snow except for a giant pillar of ice in its center. there was even grass growing in it, the place had two entrances, one of which I fell upon and another on the level of the ground inside the cavity, it appeared that this cavity was made through erosion, there was a water stream that was passing through the cavity, and the winter, which had iced the water stream, transformed the stream which came to pour inside this cave from the below entrance and to exit from the other one, into the pillar ice in the middle.

It didn't take me long to realize that that location was ideal for relocating my shelter.

The cavity has nothing to be envious of.my old shelter, It was warmer, I could even start a fire in it now and then, water was easily accessible, if I had something to complain about it would be noise from the unfrozen stream passing by.

The cavity was a hundredth of the size of my old shelter., and the only thing I could complain about was the noise from the unfrozen stream passing by.

It was such a perfect place especially for winter that I wondered why no monster had chosen it as their home, and I soon found out why;

Not long after relocating there, I was ambushed by a pack of wolves-monsters, presumably the same kind that attacked me the day before.

Due to the fact that I was already familiar with the cave, it wasn't very hard for me to fend off my ambushers.

But that ambush, It didn't happen just once, but several times; at first, I thought it was because this place was misplaced, but soon realized that it wasn't; this place appears to have been used by the wolves as their den; my guess is that during the winter, when the stronger monsters are sleeping, they split up into small groups like the one I met to hunt more efficiently. I can only imagine their dismay when they discovered that something had hijacked their den upon their return.

As the winter gradually faded away, and the stream pouring inside the cavity slowly recovered its usual course in liquid state, I went venturing following the waterflow direction and it led me to this place.

As I previously stated, I was mistaken in thinking that I was somewhere between the first layer of the forest and the frozen hell.

Following the current, I arrived at a certain place.

The current that poured into my shelter and exited through its second entrance came to an end here.

To be more specific, the water stream did not end here; rather, it came to pour itself in a cascade-like fashion straight into the frozen hell.

That was right, all this time, I was right next to it.

And that was what explained why the climate felt so cold despite it being the end of the winter.

Suddenly from afar coming from the frozen hell I heard the vicious cry of some vicious monster, I knew it surely wasn’t directed to me but I nonetheless decided to go back off.

I've made some breakthrough with my way of using Aina, but it's just good enough to be effective against high beasts; it doesn't do much for magical beasts like that bear, and even with it, I'm still far from being close enough to match the monster inhabiting that place; if I could, I'd like to flee as far as possible from the frozen hell, but I’ve made the promise to never flee ever again.