Chapter 4: The hunt is on

The gentle cool morning breeze spread throughout the forest, urging the early risers to start chirping. The sun-beams peeked through the clouds, sending golden light everywhere and basking the vegetation in its glory. 

Matthew woke up in his tent, feeling quite refreshed and ready to finally explore the island. 

'Feels quite nice to have my memories back' with his childhood shown before him in his dream lands, it finally made sense as to why the title was locked.

He picked the book adorned in reddish-brown leather while simultaneously gripping into the shaft of his weapon. Quickly reading through the text, before deciding to try out the second movement today. 

The description was ambiguous to say the least "... Jumping slightly to the side to avoid an incoming attack… Arching my back in a crescent form… thrusting downwards with both hands… f*cking hell"

Not wanting to complain further, he went to his former training location, near the dented tree trunk, before starting his soon-to-be morning routine. 

An hour later, Matthew is seen sat down besides the dented tree, chucking down

A bottle of alcohol. He glanced at his stats feeling quite happy

{ status window:

-Name: Matthew Roberts (23yo). 

-Race: human

-Str: 34 (+12%)

-Agi: 24 (+12%)

-End: 40 (+12%)

-Wis:10 (+2%)

-Luck:????

-Unassigned sp: 00

Current state: short-term memory loss, tired, well fed, happy, cold… 

—--skill: passive—--

Hozoin-ryu (?? rank/ can be further upgraded) :....the art of using a spear in combat…. 

/understanding: 30%... first movement mastered…second movement in progress…}

His agility and endurance went up quite a bit. And that's gonna help him a lot in catching his first prey later on, for lunch, that's what he planned to do. 

Few hours later, Matthew was seen dwelling deeper into the forest, with each step, the vegetation becoming thicker and thicker. At some point he had to use the sharp edge of his spear to trim off the bushes.

"a boar…no, even a rabbit will do…" mattered the lunatic as he made his way towards an upcoming hill.

*oink* *oink* surely enough, an oinking was heard.

 The half-naked Matt peeked through the bushes only to notice a 3 meter tall giant of a boar, with the latter sniffing the ground and surrounding plants like any other pig would do. 

With the prey busy munching on a weird-looking plant, Matthew quickly sneaked behind it, walking slowly but carefully, he tightened his grip around the spear shaft before…

 "Haaa" swiftly stabbing the back of the pig, barely able to pierce through its thick hide. 

*hheuuu* screamed the animal in pain,as it turned around to face the human who dared to attack it. 

"don't look at me like that, you big oaf…" said Matt as he treated 3 steps back with a smirk. Meeting the animal's angry eyes directly with his own challenging gaze, trying to provoke it further….

*charge* and it worked, as the stupid boar charged forwards with incredible speed, putting its two massive tusks in front, meaning to impale the human in through his stomach. 

"…damn" barely managing to avoid the scary looking tusks by bouncing to his right side, Matthew issued a command 'system, scan the wild hog' 

{ Name: //

Race: wild hog 

Str: 45

Agi: 10

End: 49

Wis: 3

Luck:????

Current state: back pain, minor bleeding, agitated. 

—--skills:active—--

Charge (F-rank) : channel enough force around your back and front legs to accelerate forwards. 

/effect: for 5s, increase your speed by 30% with the drawback of not being able to change directions.}

 

"No wonder I could hardly cut through the skin.."Matthew spoke as he got into a basic sojutsu stance,holding the spear with both hands, tilting it slightly to the ground, his back straightened, and leg muscles tightened. He glanced at the pig who seemed to be preparing for another charge…

This time, when the boar approached, Matthew leaped to the side, shoving his spear downwards *pierce*, with the second movement coming into play, he managed to penetrate the neck hide. The poor hog bled from its neck, getting closer and closer to its demise. 

"huu..huu.." releasing tired grunts from its mouth, the animal decided to scream in anger before risking it all with a last charge. 

'so it's got 3 points in wisdom for a reason' this time, partially sullied in the pig's blood, a scary aura emitted from Matthew's body, and it's slowly getting thicker. The beasts eyes widened in fear in the middle of the charge and tried to stop, as it realized that it's probably facing a much bigger, perhaps scarier beast than itself.

 

"your meat will make for a very delicious barbecue…maybe even a simple soup will do…" the boar's ears, failing to pick up the meaning behind Matthew's words, it looked at him defensively. It seemed like, Despite its fear and wounds, the pig was determined to live this day and kill this human.

"I will pray for your soul, you big unlucky oaf…" looking at its resolve and determination, Matthew had a sour taste in his mouth. After all, this should mark his first kill in this world, and it just happened to be this 3 meter tall boar, as for his former world, he still couldn't remember all the details, so perhaps,this is not the first time he shed blood?

Suddenly, Matthew ran forwards, his speed much higher than the previously charging boar, he lunged his spear, successfully wounding the animal's left eye. 

Blood splattered coating both the beast and Matthew, the latter trying to calm his raging psychopathic-feelings after seeing the red liquid, mainly excitement and ecstasy. 

Truly living up to his title, the 'red beast' stabbed his prey, over and over,*huu* until it released its last, dying breath.

"... finally" said Matthew as he touched the corpse and spoke quietly 'devour'. The process was strange to describe, very bright, ember-colored subtle flames, visible only to Matthew's eyes, radiating no heat whatsoever, engulfed the body before disappearing into the surrounding air, leaving the now dead-boar completely fine…

'huh?' Matthew looked at his half-naked bloodied body, feeling a minuscular surge of power entering him. He quickly checked his stats

{ status window:

-Name: Matthew Roberts (23yo). 

-Race: human

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-Str: 34 +0.45 (+12%)

-Agi: 24  +0.1 (+12%)

-End: 38  +0.49 (+12%)

-Wis:10  +0.03 (+2%)

-Luck:????

-Unassigned sp: 00} 

All his stats went up, including wisdom, something he hasn't managed to increase till now. 'so that's how it works huh' the Devour skill was truly spectacular. but Matthew still didn't see why it would deserve the S-rank, as far as he knows, increasing his stats through training would be way easier, wouldn't it?. He decided not to bother himself any longer. 

—--

A week later, the no-more half-naked Matthew sat around the campfire, a piece of dried fur wrapped around his shoulders and chest, covering them from the cold wind.

*nom* *nom* he was digging his teeth into a piece of delicate meat, the taste was immaculate, and Matthew was quite happy seeing the result of his hard work

{str: 36 +3.2 (+12%)

Agi: 27 +1.07 (+12%)

End: 40 +4.33 (+12%)

Wis: 10 +0.2 (+2%)}

After days of learning, Matthew turned into what someone would call a 'professional' hunter. He no longer wasted time tracking his preys, instead, he lured them towards a set of traps… usually small pitfalls or scuffed wooden bear traps….by using bugs and meat as bait, he hunted rabbits,wolves and mainly boars, unfortunately none of them came close to big oaf's might and strength, he even managed to find a pond and caught a poisonous snake in one of his pitfalls… After carefully extracting some of its tranquilizer-poison, he started using the toxin in his hunts, paired with his spear techniques which improved over the time after successfully mastering the second movement, it made Matthew quite the efficient huntsman. His stats with all bonuses added:

{str: 43.9

Agi: 31.43

End: 49.64

Wis: 10.4

Luck:???}

 However, a hunter's life is never fulfilled unless he hunts the biggest prey he could find, the scariest one. During his stay in the woods, Matthew often heard a peculiar roaring sound, its loudness and sheer dominance washing over the trees, making leaves flutter, and birds fly. Perhaps it is the creature Matthew is searching for.

The young matt has long since realized that this island might be way bigger than he initially thought. The forest was surprisingly made of many layers, with each one varying in moisture, plant types and even animals, making it very complexe and massive in size. Till now he's only been to the outer areas, never dwelling too deep.

*roar!!* Matthew is seen strolling around the forest, trying to find the source of the deafening noise, the closer he gets to the noise the more the area changes in color leaning towards the savanna type… until he finds himself in front of a massive body of grassland, a 5 meter tall black bear walking in circles around the body of a fainted girl and sniffing it from time to time, bulging muscles and a strong looking jaw, it quickly noticed Matthew approaching it. 

{name: //

Race: giant black bear. 

Str: 80

Agi: 34

End: 55

Wis: 5

Current state: curious, hungry, perfectly warm, cautious.

—--skills: passive—--

Abnormal strength (C-rank): black bears are well known for their muscle strength, which gives them the power to crush bones and take down trees. 

/effect: +20 to strength

Bear jaw (D-rank): bears in general have enough bite force to mash stone and thick wood. 

/effect: +5 to strength, applies bleeding effect which makes the wounds suffered by biting unable to easily get cauterized}

'hoh? impressive' Matthew exclaimed as he eyed the beast while shifting his body to the side and quickly getting into a combat stance.

*ROAR!* the beast's roaring, even more booming than before, got louder as it swung its claw at matthew. 

*scratch* he almost got his neck severed as he dodged the incoming claw, getting a small red line on the cheek.

 

With a clean replication of the first movement, Matthew was now holding onto the spear with his left hand.

He shut down his eyes as he concentrated, trying to 'feel' His beloved spear, imagining the silhouette of the bright full moon on top of his head, and the invisible life energy floating around the atmosphere in slow motion, his vision getting clearer and eyes sharper, "Haaa!" he sent a white concentrated straight wave towards the bear successfully hitting its upper stomach area. 

*roar!* and the damage was devastating, as the whole area got seriously wounded, fur scorched and skin torn, blood flowing down like a river, the bear retreated in confusion as it patted its own injury, trying to ease the pain.

 

This was the third movement in the manual, and Matthew still has yet to perfect the technique. 'Crescent strike' he called it. It resembled a variation of the rakuyaku technique ,albeit deadlier in certain situations because of the wider area-of-effect damage, compared to the more precise wind-attack. as soon as the beam lands, the force of impact spreads through the injury, damaging near-by organs and tearing off skin to further intensify the bleeding….

"houh, houh.." another interesting thing to note is that it takes quite a toll on Matthew's body, because of his low endurance, that's why he can't use it as much as he wishes to…

Spinning the spear above his head with both hands, and now holding it in his other dominant one, he repeated the process…3 seconds later another white beam launched from Matthew's spear head, and made its way towards the bear's face. 

*...!* the bear widened its eyes before taking a defensive position, by covering his vulnerable head with his hands… 

*ROAR!* this time the damage was a lot less overwhelming for the beast, as its front limbs managed to absorb some of the shock wave, leaving a few red lines on its face. 

Matthew charged onwards, not leaving any time for the black bear to recover, this time using the second motion of jumping to the side while arching the back to dodge the claws and jaw bites, 'crescent step' he decided to name it, as he sent a couple piercing spear shots here and there, barely scratching the skin of the beast. 

The bear, seeing its jaw not being effective, was no longer on all fours, it got up on its two 2 back legs, it's height now quadrupling Matthew's, and it resumed engaging with its claws once again.

Matthew had an easy time dodging. 'damn, these Hozoin-ryu bizarre techniques are  quite convenient' his expression never changing from its coldness, only to curiosity his eyes land on the young girl's unconscious body from time to time… 

Seeing the animal's pathetic attempts to hit him, took 5 steps back and instantly began channeling his 'crescent wave' attack. 

*shuu* the white light, absorbing the surrounding air to further enhance its power, the beast was hit in his chest, the force behind the attack crushing his rib cage and possibly fracturing the heart tendons…. 

" I will pray for you…" as soon as the sentence was uttered, the bear's giant body fell to the front looking completely still and red from blood. 

reaching his hand to the corpse and yet again, the bright orange-red flames surrounded the body before quickly disappearing, signaling the end of the hunt… 

'there's still this kid' he glanced at the unconscious body in the distance…

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