“I think I’m lost!” Mika frowned, but her posture was relaxed as if everything was under control. Which it was.

She hasn’t lived in this jungle for over a year without getting lost at least once.

With no clear view of the sky and the daily terrain changes due to the rain, it’s nearly impossible for her not to get lost. Of course, she’s done her best to prevent this scenario by marking trees, remembering landmarks, and retracing her steps, but she’s still human at the end of the day.

Nevertheless, she could always find her way back because of her preparations and the fact that she never ventured too far from her shelter.

However, now that Rodney's group chased her into unknown territory, the map she’s formed in her mind has become useless.

“I have two options. I can either try and find my way back to my old shelter or make a new one.”

Mika didn’t think the outcomes were that different, just the process. But going back to her old shelter might be dangerous, considering Rodney and his group weren’t that far away from it, maybe a few kilometers at most.

Fortunately, she hadn’t left anything important back at her old shelter, so there wasn’t much of a reason to return.

The only thing she’d lose if she moved was her progress during her scouting and hunting sessions.

“Well, it’s not like the information I obtained from scouting was all that useful. There are just trees, trees, and more trees in this jungle! But if I can make it back to the clearing those men camped at in the future, not only should I be able to find my original shelter, but I’d be one step closer to making it out of here.” Unfortunately, she couldn’t go back right now.

Ultimately, she shrugged her shoulders and decided to choose the latter.

“Standing here doing nothing isn’t going to help me. I might as well venture out a bit to see what else this jungle has to offer. I’ll come back here after those men have left.”

So that’s exactly what Mika did!

She found a few Centaremors Mushrooms, stuffed them into her kimono to keep all the critters and beasts away, and then marked the base of the trees she passed with a small horizontal groove.

However, there’s a slight problem with carrying around the mushrooms in her clothes. They die within a day or two, halting the production of poisonous spores.

They also aren’t very effective when she’s on the run. The whole reason the Centaremors Mushrooms are so dangerous is because the spores congregate all in one area over a prolonged period of time.

Thus, carrying them with her while she’s running around is more used as a bug repellent than anything else. Still, that reason alone is more than enough to keep them around.

After a few days of walking around, sleeping under giant leaves surrounded by Centaremors Mushrooms, and hunting whatever animals came into view, Mika realized something.

While she always had tense muscles, her ears perked, listening for any predators hunting her, and she was on edge, ensuring she stayed as silent as possible; her eyes were still bright and clear.

“It’s both liberating and frightening, not having a home to return to.”

Now that her strength had grown and she’d fully adapted to life in the jungle, she no longer felt the need to have such a safe and secure place to return to, like her previous shelter.

In fact, she felt it could be a detriment to her growth at this point. As someone who cultivates the Absolute Sword Body, life-and-death battles are essential for her growth, but she won’t be able to experience that if she’s constantly huddled in her safe little home!

Besides that, she hasn’t made much progress in leaving this jungle, despite living here for an entire year, mainly because she had a safe home to return to. She didn’t want to be out past dusk and felt obligated to return to her shelter.

“Now that my strength has grown and I’ve become accustomed to the dangers of the jungle, I should be fine to explore… probably.”

The jungle is a dangerous place, and even with her current strength, there are still dangerous enemies lurking about that she can’t face. Spying on Rodney’s group informed her of this. Her Mana Cultivation might be weak, but even she can sense that most of the beasts they captured were stronger than her.

Stolen story; please report.

This information is crucial to Mika as it tells her this jungle has much more to offer than she initially thought.

“However, it’s only by facing such hardships and danger that I can grow.” Mika’s resolve to head into uncharted lands firmed as it was the most efficient way to increase her strength, harden her mind, and leave this jungle!

At least, that’s what she thought. Yet, it just so happened that the first opponent she came across ended up being one of the weakest yet most feared and dangerous creatures in the jungles of her previous life: frogs!

More specifically, poison frogs!

Although they were quite rare in Japan and nearly impossible to find, if you accidentally touched one, you wouldn’t even know how you died!

That’s why Mika was so scared when a small blue frog with black spots appeared in front of her, sitting on a large, mossy log. She could feel very faint mana fluctuations around it, signifying it as a magical beast with a mana core!

Sensing the slimy poison covering its skin made her cringe as she recounted memories of eating Centaremors Mushrooms. The thought of adapting to the frog’s poison entered her mind, but she immediately rejected it.

“I’ve heard these things have enough poison to kill up to 20 grown humans in under five minutes, and that’s before mana comes into play! Hell no, I’m not putting that stuff in my stomach!” Mika muttered as she slowly backed away.

*Crunch*

Mika stepped on a stick, cracking it, causing the frog to turn toward her. The two stared at each other for a few seconds before mana circulated around the frog’s legs, and it leaped at her!

“Shit! Why is it so aggressive?!” Mika cursed and didn’t remember frogs being so bloodthirsty.

Luckily, she already had her sword out and immediately slashed at the incoming frog, seamlessly cutting it in two.

Both halves fell to the ground a few centimeters away from her feet.

*Psssshhhhh*

She hurriedly jumped back when she heard the sound of leaves and tree branches melting from the toxic poison leaking out of its dead body.

“Holy-! Jeez. Even the frogs here are so deadly. It’s truly as that young man in Rodney’s group said. Who in their right mind would willingly enter this place?” Mika expressed while slowly tiptoeing around the frog’s corpse.

This encounter was quick, but it was yet another lesson not to underestimate any creature in the jungle.

After killing the frog, Mika never let her guard down for even a second as she traversed the jungle. She kept her eyes on the ground and the trees to ensure she didn’t walk under or over something. Her ears twitched at the slightest noise, and she avoided places that smelled like dead fish. The waters here can be unusually deep and are home to many creatures.

Maybe when she gets a bit stronger, she’ll explore the murky waters more, but it’s a death wish to even think about entering them right now.

Mika spent her days walking through the jungle and occasionally spending a few hours hunting. She stopped training her swordsmanship and meditating as she needed to focus completely on her surroundings. Because of this, she felt like she was finally making significant progress toward leaving the jungle.

“As long as I keep walking in one direction, eventually, I’ll make it out of here!”

It didn’t matter which direction she walked now! She just needed to walk in A direction.

***

After a few days and over 100 kilometers of walking, Mika’s journey was halted by something she’d only caught glimpses of in over a year.

The sun!

She could see the sun and its blinding light! She had to close her eyes to prevent herself from going blind, but that couldn’t stop the smile from creeping up on her face. The rays hitting her pale skin were warm and gentle, like she was back in her mother’s embrace.

“Mmmm.” A moan unconsciously left her mouth as she basked in the sunlight.

It took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust to this unfamiliar sensation, and when she could finally open them, she was shocked!

“What… What is this place…?” Her mouth hung open, unable to express her disbelief.

She stepped forward and felt the odd sensation of solid ground and fresh grass below her feet, which sent a strange shiver up her spine. A light, cool, crisp breeze blew past her, but she was far from feeling pleasant. Instead, her hair stood on end as she got the chills.

This climate was far from the usual muddy ground, overcast, and high-humidity weather she usually felt.

Rather, it felt more like…

“...An oasis,” Mika muttered in amazement.

In front of her was a plot of land with no trees for about 100 meters in all directions. Furthermore, there were no clouds above this piece of land. Above the rest of the jungle, dark clouds hovered above, but not here.

Right in the middle was a small pond filled with clear blue water, cleaner than anything Mika had seen in either of her lives. On a small island in the middle of this pond stood a sapling, only two to three meters tall, yet a few fruits were already hanging from its branches.

There were no signs of bugs, moss, or poisonous mushrooms as if it was forbidden to be here. The grass seemed a shade brighter, and even the air was easier to breathe.

Everything looked so magical that Mika wanted nothing more than to dive into the pond and relax, but her instincts stopped her from doing that. Something deep inside her had awoken and was now screaming at her to get the hell out of there!

But Mika couldn’t move. She was currently stuck, frozen in the complex emotions and unfamiliar sensations coursing through her mind and body.

However, when she saw a large head pop out from within the pond, her heart dropped to the pits of her stomach, leaving only a single emotion to envelop her body like a cold bucket of water.

Fear! She felt a primal fear from the creature that had just exited the water!