It has been three days since Alex had started training his body, and he had made quite a lot of progress.
The masochistic training had been hard to handle in the beginning, but Alex slowly got used to it after literally jumping over his shadow multiple times.
After the first couple of jumps, Alex didn't want to feel any more pain.
It was just too much.
However, after he saw a visible improvement in his strength, he forced himself to continue.
The taste of power was just too enticing.
However, on this day, he would have to abort his training.
Alex had run out of water, and the beast he had killed had started to get infested by insects. Due to the cold climate, the meat was still edible, but the insects inside the corpse were simply too disgusting.
On top of that, the smell of the beast was slowly vanishing, and Alex had already seen a deer coming into his visual range before it fled after seeing him.
Three days ago, no animals had appeared close to this place.
This meant that Alex was no longer safe.
Thunk! Thunk!
Alex jumped to the tree and shot himself upward again with his legs, grabbing the lowest branch.
Three days ago, Alex wouldn't have been able to do something like this.
The growth of his physical power was terrifying!
Right now, Alex's body was even more powerful than his old body had been at its peak.
Mana made a huge difference in the speed of Alex's improvement.
Alex quickly climbed the tree and looked around. There were so many animals in this forest, so there had to be some kind of water source.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ However, due to the trees, Alex couldn't see the ground from up here, making it difficult to spot any water source.
Alex could only check for spots with fewer trees.
Alex found a couple of them and decided to investigate.
At the same time, Alex would also search for more food.
BANG!
Alex climbed down from the tree and jumped the last bit, not receiving an injury.
'Well, I guess it's time to investigate,' Alex thought with a frown.
This would be the first time he would truly leave this place, and he didn't know what would wait for him.
He only hoped that similarly powerful creatures like that monster he had killed by luck were rare.
Otherwise, he might die.
Alex grabbed his dirty clothes, his backpack, and his sword.
Lastly, he put a gigantic, black coat around his body, hiding his sword.
This coat was made of the creature's fur, and it had been dried multiple times by now. The coat was basically made of the entire hide of the creature, making it rather sizable.
Alex grabbed some grass from the ground and put it through some holes at the edge of the coat, creating a seam.
After doing that a couple of times, the coat completely enveloped Alex's body, keeping him warm. Additionally, the coat did quite a good job at hiding his sword.
At the front, the coat was a bit shorter to allow Alex to sprint without getting in the way.
Alex tied his sword to his back with some makeshift rope made out of grass, hiding it behind his back and coat.
Sadly, Alex wasn't good enough at sewing to create a permanent holding for his sword. If Alex wanted to use his sword, he would need to cut through the entire rope, which would require him to make a new one after that.
Alex also put the holder of his backpack around his torso, making it rest to the left side of his thigh. Luckily the strap was long enough.
Alex had put the bag to his left because, when he grabbed his sword, he would swing it to the right. The bag would only be in the way if it were on the right.
In the end, Alex stood there, completely cloaked in black.
His unkempt and dirty black hair seemed to perfectly fit the coat he was wearing, making him appear like a mysterious wild man.
If one saw him like this, one wouldn't think that he was technically still a minor.
Then, Alex quickly stepped forward into the forest, his hands empty.
Why didn't Alex carry his sword in his hands?
Two reasons.
First of all, he wanted to hide it. Animals weren't stupid. If they saw a long, black object in his hand, they would become wary of it.
Second of all, if anyone attacked him from behind, his sword would be between them. However, since the sword was hidden, the attacker wouldn't know.
If Alex got attacked from behind, the attacker might die very quickly since the sword would already be between their teeth.
At that point, Alex would only need to move his sword in the attacker's mouth.
Alex's sword was terrifyingly sharp, and he wouldn't need to use much power to kill his attacker.
Alex had thought of everything while suiting up.
He had to be careful in this forest.
Alex jogged out of his area with quite some speed.
Why?
Because, if he walked slowly, an ambusher would have more time to plan their ambush. Sure, Alex might be able to get by without being noticed if he walked slower, but an ambush would be that more devastating.
Alex didn't bet on not being ambushed.
Alex didn't see any other animals after silently jogging for nearly ten minutes.
However, he found some food.
Chestnuts!
Alex quickly stopped as he saw the chestnut tree and climbed it.
For the next 30 minutes, Alex gathered chestnuts and ate a ton of them.
'Hope that's not the poisonous kind,' Alex thought as he crunched down.
It definitely didn't taste good.
However, they, at least, tasted edible as far as he could tell.
'Well, worst-case scenario, I just get a case of the runs,' he thought.
Grunt, Grunt!
Alex heard some grunting and looked at the origin of the sound.
Some meters away from the tree was a sizable hog.
It wasn't as big as the other one Alex saw, but it was still quite a bit heavier than a wolf.
When Alex saw the hog, his eyes narrowed.
'I didn't attack the last hog since I didn't have a good weapon, but things have changed now!' he thought.
The hog was eyeing the tree warily.
It had seen and heard Alex since he hadn't been very stealthy.
However, it didn't leave.
This was its chestnut tree, and it had munched on the chestnuts quite a bit.
Alex looked quite a bit bigger than he actually was, thanks to his black coat, which intimidated the hog a bit.
Seeing a big black creature in a tree was quite terrifying.
The black creature, Alex, slowly and silently moved around the branches on the tree with practiced ease, vanishing as he moved upwards.
Crack, crack!
A lot of the chestnuts got shaken off by his movement, dropping to the floor.
Then, some branches behind the chestnut tree moved.
After that, some more rustling could be heard, but even further away.
Had the creature left?
The hog was uncertain.
After some minutes of hesitating, the hog moved around the tree from a distance, trying to find the black creature.
After several minutes of searching for the creature, the hog quickly took one of the chestnuts and retreated again.
It quickly ate the chestnut and looked at its surroundings.
This process repeated a couple of times until the hog was finally no longer nervous.
The creature had left.
Ssshh!
Some silent rustling was heard from the tree above the hog, and it looked upward.
Alex was falling down, his sword in both of his hands. His right hand held the handle while his left hand held the edge of the sword.
Alex already knew that his sword couldn't injure himself for some reason. This meant that he could grab the sword like a staff.
Alex fell down on the hog's neck like a guillotine.
BANG!
The sword was so insanely sharp that it cut through the entire neck of the fat hog with ease, creating the sound of an explosion as it hit the ground below the hog.
The hog had died in an instant.
Alex was sprayed with blood as his abdomen hit the severed head of the hog.
Alex grimaced in disgust as he saw all the blood.
'I either need to wash this off, or I'm going to get crusty and stinky quite quickly,' he thought.
The image of a decapitated pig sent some shivers down Alex's spine, but he knew that he had to get used to something like this.
He would have to kill way more animals in the near future, and he might even need to kill humans when he rejoined their society.
Alex wasn't so naïve that he believed that a human society based on power would be a kind place.
Alex looked at his kill for quite some time, just trying to take the scene in.
The decapitated body of the pig bled like crazy, and it was still twitching.
Meanwhile, the empty eyes of the decapitated pig-head seemingly looked at Alex, asking him why he had killed it.
Alex took a deep breath, instantly being assaulted by the rancid stench of fresh pig blood.
However, Alex gnashed his teeth.
'The issue of food and water has been solved for now,' Alex thought as he looked at the corpse.
'My sword is quite sharp, which should allow me to carve some tools out of wood, stuff like buckets and bowls.'
'For now, I could drink distilled water made out of pig blood. It will be a bit disgusting and not super healthy, but that's not high up on my list of priorities.'
'Let's get a fire going!'