Chapter 6: Chapter 6 – Survival 101

Luke retrieved the sticks from the Gleem’s corpse and grabbed it by its legs. He started dragging it with him. The corpse was quite heavy, but Luke needed it.

‘Can’t let precious materials and food go to waste.’

Luke was also keeping an eye out for a bigger stone piece that was relatively sharp, as he couldn’t harvest anything from this corpse using the tiny stone that he had.

Sadly, Luke couldn’t find such a stone piece.

‘Guess I’ll have to bang some rocks together later…’

Thinking about that, he looked at one of his hands. It still had visible calluses, caused by the tedious stick sharpening process.

‘It was worth it though.’

He turned his head around and took a peek at the Gleem’s corpse. He could make so many useful things using the corpse’s materials, but he needed the right tools to be able to harvest the corpse first.

And so, Luke slowly made his way back to the small house.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

When Luke arrived, it was already late afternoon. He’d have to finish what he wanted to do before nightfall. He had a theory.

‘I think that the giant bird-bastard only comes out during night-time.’

What made him so convinced was the fact that he spent half of his day out in the forest, and the only thing he ran into were regular Gleems.

Yet when he went out during the night, he ran into the giant bird-like creature merely minutes after leaving the house.

‘The area around the house should be relatively safe during day-time.’

Luke left the Gleem’s corpse right in front of the house, and entered the house.

‘Oh Jesus Christ!’

Luke immediately frowned and pinched his nose. The stench was abhorrent. But he had to do what needs to be done.

Luke approached the old man’s corpse and picked it up bridal style, yet again.

He got out of the house, leaving the door open.

‘This house is in dire need of some fresh air.’

Luke walked by the Gleem’s corpse and journeyed deeper into the forest. He had already witnessed a way of getting rid of this corpse.

After walking for nearly 15 minutes, he stopped and dropped the corpse to the ground.

*Thud*

Luke dusted his hands, and took a deep breath. He loudly whistled and then opened his mouth:

“HEY BASTARDS!! DINNER!!!”

Shouting that out, Luke turned away and started running away. He wasn’t ready for a fight. The Gleems would take care of the old man’s corpse in his stead.

‘It looks like I’m a bit faster, and I also feel lighter. It’s probably the effect of the tiny piece of the wind elemental that I’ve absorbed.’

Luke touched his chest, and kept running.

He arrived in front of the house in only a few minutes.

‘Okay, I should have enough time to finish this before night-fall.’

While running back towards the house, Luke picked up a couple of rocks. He needed to bang together two rocks, so that he can make a sharp stone tip.

He would later try banging it into a rough stone blade shape, and then sharpen the blade using an even harder rock as well, thus making a proper stone knife.

‘This is going to be such a pain…’

Luke earnestly started banging together two rocks, as if he were a caveman.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

After banging the two rocks together for nearly an hour, he was getting near his desired result.

He had fashioned one of the rocks into a rough shape of a knife blade. In his other hand was just a regular rock. He was banging this rock against the stone blade, to give it an even better shape.

‘Finally.’

Luke’s hands stopped moving. In his hand was now a dull stone blade, made by his own effort. He needed to first sharpen it, and then proceed to harvest the Gleem’s corpse.

Luke glanced at his callused hands, one of which was bleeding, due to its overuse.

‘Sadly, I think that that’s all I can do for today. I wanted to at least sharpen the stone blade too, but oh well.’

Luke stood up, and made his way to the house. Night-time was approaching.

‘I could’ve sharpened the stone blade inside the house, but I decided not to, because it would get messy, and I don’t wanna mess up the only resting place I got.’

He dragged the Gleem’s corpse to the back of the house, and covered it up with some branches and sticks that were laying around on the ground nearby.

Luke then entered the house, closed the door, and sat down at the table, taking out some dry meat and water.

The stench was finally gone, so he could eat in peace.

After finishing his dinner, he unbuttoned his shirt.

He touched the tattoos on his chest.

‘Even if I strengthen the wind elemental, would I really be able to just control wind like that giant bird-bastard did?’

Contemplating about it, Luke stretched his left hand out, started swinging it around and talked out loud.

“Go wind! Up, up and away! Gather, hurricane! …Ah, what am I even doing?”

Luke gave up on controlling the wind for now.

‘I’ll keep testing it out as I strengthen my wind elemental.’

Luke started thinking about the information that the old man gave him.

[“You are in the forest of N’Gool, one of the monster overlords. This is one of the forbidden areas of the Exul Empire.”]

‘Okay, so first of all, I think that I’ve already met this monster overlord.’

Luke frowned as he remembered the giant bird-like creature.

‘He had also said that this forest is a forbidden area of some Empire? Is that because of N’Gool, the monster overlord, or because the forest is swarming with Gleems?’

Luke didn’t think too hard about this though, simply because of the fact that he barely had any information about this world.

‘I will gather information once I kill that giant bird-bastard, presumably N’Gool, and get out of this forest.’

Luke heaved out a sigh.

‘I think that’s it for today. I’ll rest now, and work on sharpening the stone blade tomorrow.’ Luke walked over to the bed, and lay down on it.

He fell asleep soon after.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

*Crash!!*

*Boom*

“Argh… What is that noise?”

Some loud noises woke Luke up, and he sat up on the bed, still in a daze.

He rubbed his eyes and noticed that something was weird. The roof of the house was missing.

Luke’s eyes opened wide as he started at what was above him.

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Angry, red eyes glared at him.

It was the monster overlord, N’Gool.

Luke felt a gust of wind passing him by and heard a maddening whisper.

“How. Dare. You?!”

Luke gulped, and stood up. He grabbed his supplies in a flash, and ran out of the house.

A gust of wind passed by Luke, making fun of him.

“Yes… Try. Running. Away.”

‘I really need to get out of here! Beating that bastard is impossible right now!’

As N’Gool was in front of the house, Luke made his way to the backside of the house.

‘N-no… but how?!’

Behind the house lay a Gleem’s corpse, and around it stood around two dozen Gleems. They all turned their heads towards Luke.

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!*

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!*

They started screeching at the same time, making Luke’s head ring.

Luke was now starting to panic.

‘No, calm down, it’s not the same as the last time. I may have a chance now.’

Luke turned to his left, which was clear of any monsters. He started sprinting as fast as he could.

The pure white tattoo on his chest started glowing and gave him a little speed boost.

He ran and then ran some more. The wind elemental made him run faster and also provided a bit more stamina to him.

After running for a few minutes, he turned his head around, and he could no longer see any monsters.

Feeling relieved, Luke kept running, but as he turned his head back around, he could feel a gust of wind.

“Useless. Give. Up.”

His heart drooped.

‘No, no, no, this can’t be happening! Why did it even come to the house? Wait… Could it be the Gleem's corpse?!’

Realizing he made a grave mistake, he kept running.

*Swooosh*

He heard something above him, and was about to look upwards.

But just as he was about to rise his head…

*Crunch, splatter*

A giant talon stepped on Luke, crushing him whole. He died instantly without even realizing that he died.

A small silver light appeared from under the giant talon, and started shining in a bright blue hue…

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Luke gasped, opening his eyes wide and staring at his surroundings.

‘Did I… die? How?!’

The last thing he remembers was running from N’Gool in the middle of the night.

He then heard something above him, and was about to look upwards.

However, he was now sitting on the ground, sharpening a stick.

‘I went back in time. I have indeed died.’

Luke stood up and clenched his fists. He walked to a tree next to him and started punching it with his bare hands.

“ARRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMN IT!! I SAID I WON’T EVER LET THAT BASTARD KILL ME AGAIN!!!!”

His knuckles started bleeding and Luke stopped hitting the tree, lowering his arms, and slumping his head down.

He turned around and looked at the stick he was previously busy sharpening.

‘I just need to kill more Gleems to get stronger right?!’

He hurriedly unbuttoned his shirt, his eyes bloodshot.

The pure white tattoo under the silver hourglass was still on his chest, even though he couldn’t have absorbed the wind elemental yet at this point in time, since he hasn’t killed any Gleems yet.

Luke grabbed his hair and started laughing.

‘This! This is perfect! I can get stronger even if I die over and over!’

As if going mad, Luke sat back down and started sharpening the stick at an even faster pace than ever before, not even buttoning his shirt back up.

‘Just you wait, N’Gool… I’m going to show you just who you’re messing with! Luke’s eyes ignited with a blue light as he sharpened the stick.

He finished up pretty soon and stood up.

Luke opened his arms wide, and grinned.

“HEY!!! BIRD-FUCKERS!! COME AND MAKE ME STRONGER, WILL YA?!”

He could soon see a Gleem running towards him from some distance away.

“Come get some!”

Luke was holding a thick stick behind his back.

The Gleem charged directly at Luke and found itself facing off against a thick, sharp stick, right in front of its face.

*Scree…!*

The Gleem couldn’t even fully utter a screech, as the stick made one of its eyes into a mushy mess, penetrating all the way into its brain.

Luke dodged the Gleem’s limp corpse this time, and ran after it.

As the Gleem’s corpse stopped rolling around, Luke reached his hand out towards the pure white speck of light that was calmly floating above the corpse.

The pure white speck of light was absorbed by Luke, and he started feeling even lighter than before. He noticed his field of vision also widen by a little bit.

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!*

Luke turned around.

There was another Gleem charging at him.

He yanked the thick stick out of the corpse, and hid it behind his back.

Luke then smirked.

“Like cattle to a slaughter…”

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

As another bitter battle came to an end, there were now two Gleem corpses, both missing an eye each…

Luke sharply glared at the two corpses.

“Just you wait N’Gool. You’re next.”

‘Although I’m gonna need a bigger stick for that bastard…’

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