The three remaining prisoners were pulled out of the cage, Sam had to tighten the knots again to not give things away stealthily, but this seemed to work fine. The corpse of the man who was killed earlier was also carried away by two other men.

Their legs were untied, but their hands were left restrained as they were forcefully led, pushed and punched over to what looked like a pit in the ground which had a makeshift palisade-like fence made around it. It wasn’t hard to guess what would happen in there, and there was no way Sam could let that happen.

Looking around he formulated a simple plan, the man with all his gear was within his Area, and he was walking very contently, not expecting to be attacked. Manifesting 10 of his hands, leaving 6 Energy to spare, he aimed and placed one Psyhand on each eye, two on the hand holding the Moon Blade and two on his crotch. Using the remaining 6 Energy he triggered Force Pulse on all of them at the same time. By the time he reacted to ‘something’ touching his body, it was too late.

The man let out a groan of pain as his hands went to cup his eyes and crotch at the same time, the extra force put into the hand holding the Moon Blade forced him to drop it in the motion. Manifesting the rest of his hands he reached to the man and stole back the things he could, grasping the Moon Blade that now fell on the ground, as well as the two named daggers; the Shadow Fang and Vampiric Blade. He knew there was no need to attack the man as only a critical hit could do anything to him, instead, he pulled them in, going for the men escorting them.

Everyone somewhat dropped to the ground for cover, and in an instant, Sam realised that this was a good idea for him to do as well. Pretending the weapons weren’t being moved by him could make this much easier.

The three weapons went for the closest target to the man he assumed was their boss, and all of them landed.

[ Life Steal 1 triggered, draining 1. ]

Sam was happy, this was a good time for that to trigger, and as the blades dragged their edges across the man’s body he instantly fell to the ground. The man had a crude dagger of his own, which was added to the floating weapons. Some of his free hands were dismissed to free up Energy, which he used to Force Blast people’s eyes, making for an almost guaranteed hit. The next guard was the target of this combo, planting his Psyhands on his eyes and triggering Force Pulse was not an issue, as the man grabbed his eyes in pain he was a sitting duck.

[ Critical hit, double damage. ]

The Shadow Fang landed a Critical hit, the total damage was more than enough to cut him down before he could uncover his eyes. Panic grew between the bandits, the boss could see again and was taking in the scene.

“The fuck is happening?” He looked at his dead companions before seeing the floating weapons, this brought his eyes straight to Sam. But Sam was glad to see that he didn’t seem like he had pieced it together. “You didn’t tell me your weapons were possessed!”

Sam didn’t question it, he assumed that the lack of thinking time had him draw the weird conclusion, so he decided to run with it. “I have no idea what’s going on!” Sam shouted back.

He chose to ignore that he wouldn’t help in this situation, but rather pretend that he didn’t have any clue.

It seemed to work for now.

The boss ran and jumped behind some stacked logs, he picked up a simple meat cleaver on the way. The rest of the bandits went into hiding as well, this was the moment that Sam needed. Picking up two more blades, one from the ground and one from a nearby makeshift table, he got to his feet and ran for the jungle. He used one of the blades to cut the rope holding his hands together, doing the same for the other prisoners.

“Run!” He shouted at them, but they just sat down in fear.

He didn’t have the chance to do more for them, he had to cut down another bandit that popped out, trying to stop him. But two well-placed eye pulses made him into an easy-to-hit target, slicing deep enough into his body to take him out right away.

Running with all his might he disappeared into the jungle soon enough, as the weaponry followed him he knew that the people of the camp would know enough of what was going on to piece together how his abilities worked. But he didn’t have a choice, he kept running, as fast as he could, as far as he could. He saw animals on the way but they were more startled than anything. He didn’t know how well they could track, and he wasn’t good at not getting tracked so the only thing he could do was to run in different directions and not just a straight line. Having seen the mountain from the bandit camp he decided to make for it, returning to his original idea of getting a view of the land.

His weapons trailed after him, if he saw something in the distance which would be a problem to run to, his first thought was to cut it but that would make a very easy path to follow, so he opted to get around it instead.

Lacking in energy still, he hadn’t eaten for at least a whole day, he had gotten an acceptable amount of water and some uncomfortable rest, and he would do almost anything for a burger right now.

As his panic calmed, his speed lowered to a brisk jog and he finally noticed that there was more information in his HUD.

[ Experience gained: +6 000. ]

Mentally sighing at how lucrative it was, XP-wise, to fight in PvP, he couldn’t help himself from considering that perhaps he should do that more often...

Having to stop and take a breather, his upgraded Player stamina was amazing compared to a normal human, especially compared to his pre-Player self, but it still had a limit. He was even more hungry and thirsty now. The water he got in the camp helped tons, but there was a limit to how much something you drank hours ago could help. He needed to find a safe source of water, but since the mountain looked rather big, he might get lucky there. He could also gamble on fruits but... even finding something that looked like things you knew could be dangerous if you were unlucky, even if you did find the correct fruit there were parasites, insects or other weird things to consider. His safest bet was to find something he could cook.

Finally nearing the base of the mountain, he considered what to do from there. Given his angle of approach, the logical way to go was to the right, following the curve of the mountain, with that in mind he decided to go to the left instead. It might prove a waste of thought but at least he was trying.

Growing more and more tired, exhaustion wasn’t lacking before and this didn’t help. He had been looking for hours and the light was slowly fading. His health had regenerated completely, but without his Armour, he would probably be easily one-shot by anything living here, if Goblins could do the amount of damage they did... this was not a fun place to be.

Almost as if sent by a benevolent god, he could almost hear the angelic choir in the back of his head as he heard the sound of moving water. It sounded like a tiny waterfall in the near distance, which hurried his movements considerably!

Barely avoiding tripping as he hurried towards the sound, he found what he was looking for. It was almost too perfect. A small clearing in the jungle connected to the mountain, a small stream of water became a tiny waterfall into a small pool that ran slowly into the distance through a small stream. Hesitantly tasting the water slightly, it was indeed fresh! He knew it was dangerous even if it was running clear like this, but he didn’t care at the moment, drinking his fill there and then he was feeling alive again.

It was growing dark but the low light through the waterfall showed him something he didn’t expect, there was an opening to a cave behind the waterfall! Using the remainder of light from the setting sun he managed to get into it, and having the sun bounce off his pale body he got a softbox-bounce light effect, letting him see into most of the cave. Extending all his Psyhands let him feel around for creatures, spiders, scorpions or whatever things lived in caves, but he couldn’t find anything he didn't think was fine. There were even some bends in the natural walls of the cave entrance so it would hide the light from within it, if he could build a fire in there he would be set!

Leaving the cave briefly he went out into the forest, using his Psyhands he picked dead wood from the floor, breaking off some here and there until he used the Moon Blade to cut up a decently sized log into smaller logs. He knew that lighting a fire was no easy task, but he had an ability few others had. He could rub with 22 hands at the same time, never tiring.

Bringing all this into his cave, he put it down on the floor and prepared to light it, but before he could manage he drifted off into sleep.

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Waking up he felt surprisingly rested. He was exceptionally hungry, but just the thought that he had a relatively safe and hidden place to be, which had water, did so much to his mentality that all the fatigue buildup just hit him at once. Sleeping on the floor of a stone cave wasn’t exactly pleasant, but it was fine for now.

But, his most important thing now was getting food. There were bound to be some animals around, he saw plenty of them as he ran through the jungle but, they were scared, he was scared, it was just an all-around run away from each other moment.

He had plenty of weapons, not much skill in butchering but he had done enough monster core retrieval to at least be fine with things. He knew what was meat and what wasn’t, which in itself was a solid start.

Deciding to secure food before he struggled with a fire, leaving the cave to look around he found that the pool that the waterfall landed in had fish! They weren’t large, but there were a few of them, some freshwater crustations as well. His method of fishing was stupidly simple; pick them up! With his Psyhands that wouldn’t be an issue.

Going back into his cave he started preparing the wood, he had seen some survival shows on the internet, he had zero skills in it properly but he had the theory. And since he could speed-spin wood rather than needing a bow or using his hands, he had an unfair advantage in learning this.

It only took a few moments to prepare the plank, of sorts, and the stick he planned to drill into it. Using one of his knives he made a groove and cut in a V from the side, as he had seen all the people online do. He prepared some tinder and dry moss to make this work before he put the stick in and started spinning it around like a high-speed drill. Putting pressure on it as well as the heat from the spinning speed made this work surprisingly well. He needed a few attempts to figure out the correct pressure, but he had an ember in a surprisingly short time! This turned into a fire with little effort from the preparation.

As the fire grew slowly, due to the not perfect wood it took a bit more coaxing to get it burning properly, but eventually it was burning and he went to fish. Just lowering several Psyhands in the water he could grab the fish. This was a bit harder than expected as they reacted instinctively to the change of current in the water, he found out a good way of doing that soon enough; he just needed to grab their head and gills. There was a technique involved but he found that out soon enough. As the fish was struggling to get free he took the time to cut off its head and butcher it while keeping it in the air. His Psyhands made this very easy. He let the guts and stuff fall into the water, feeding the other creatures in there to become his food later. He did this to a few decent-sized fish, he was starving, after all.

He struggled with cooking it, not because it was a problem or hard process, but in waiting long enough for it to be properly cooked before he wanted to eat it. His stomach growled most of the time until it was done, and when it finally was. They say that hunger is the best spice, and that couldn’t be more true, this felt like the best meal he had ever eaten in his life. Sam knew that he should eat calmly, but no fibre in his body allowed that to happen and he scarfed it down like it was the last food on Earth. Cupping several of his Psyhands together he made a dumb cup that he could fetch water with, letting him drink as he ate, this decadence in his current situation did something to his mind, he felt surprisingly calm at the moment.

The food was consumed and did its magic in his stomach, he was regaining energy by the second, and his thirst quenched. He felt amazing, but this moment of bliss was soured as he started to consider his situation. Still being very naked, the bandit boss had his armour, rings and shoes. With that armour, he had no chance of actually hurting him properly. The only chance he had to do any damage was for the Moon Blade to critically hit. Not to mention the surprise movement, either aggressively or defensively, from using his shoes.

This was a problematic thing to consider, he couldn’t do enough damage to take him out, based on the others he had fought, who put points in Vitality, he was super outmatched. His massive health pool of 35 didn’t match anyone he had fought here so far. He needed an overview of where he was, he needed to brave the mountain, but doing so without, at the very least, shoes, would be a problem. He didn’t like walking about naked, it was a bit chilly now that he was relaxing and not running around or stressing, so anything would be good. He could try to steal something from the camp, but that would mean going back there and... that was quite unsafe. He was fine as long as the fire heated his cave and he was surprisingly protected by the water. The only downside was the constant sound of the waterfall, though since that was a stable, static sound it would drown itself out soon enough.

Taking the chance to rest he put some larger logs on the fire before he lay down on the stone floor, he fell asleep almost instantly. Though he had slept long from last night it didn’t have the comfort of a full stomach, nor the comfort of the fire.

Waking up sometime later, he found that the fire had died out, even though he put on a larger log before he fell asleep. Leaving the comfort of his cave he needed a solid toilet break, taking the time to carefully pick the leaves he used afterwards he didn’t want to end up in a... situation... He also made sure to do his business far away from the cave, just in case someone were to find it. He ended up using tree leaves after testing them on his skin over a longer period, just in case, but it all ended up fine. Returning to the cave he had some time to think as he wandered around.

The System moved him here for a reason, the solo dungeon, the Rental and other shit, the Ascendancy system... There was something weird about all of this, nothing he had heard about before. So either it was unique to him, or there were others in the same situation keeping the information to themselves. It gave him access to special upgrades, or at least he assumed as much as the first boon upgraded an existing ability, something he had never heard about before, the second gave him a new one, which wasn’t unheard of but not exactly common.

Grabbing another fish, he butchered it properly before reigniting the fire using the embers, he continued considering things as he prepared whatever meal this would be, dinner?

Having no real choice at the moment, he had to decide if he wanted to live on the run, be afraid of being hunted, or become the hunter. Having managed to re-obtain his named weapons, as well as three cheap daggers from the camp, it seemed that he could instantly shoot down the others that didn’t have his Armour. But he wanted that back. A problem, if he started hunting them down one by one, was that the boss probably would never take it off again, so if he were to do this, he might have to take him out first... if he took it off when sleeping or something. Given how he left the camp the chance of this was low, so he needed to find another way of doing this.

Deciding that he needed to brave the mountain, he needed shoes at the very least, as the unknown mountain would most likely shred his feet. Optimally he would need gloves as well but... The only thing he could do now was to find some shoe stand-in and hold it in place around his feet with his Psyhands. Folded leaves could work but weren’t exactly sturdy enough to survive repeat use, certain flexible bark could work but... he didn’t exactly have the knowledge to even begin to find that. However... A thought popped into his head. Having seen survival videos on the internet during random autoplay moments he remembered something that could work.

He set out into the jungle, weapons trailing him in the air as he went looking. He didn’t have to look long before he found tall palm trees with coconuts. Getting them down was hardly an issue, though he did have to extend his Area’s range to reach some of them. Though heavy he managed to get back to his cave with several coconuts in his hands. He had seen a video where someone made the simplest of shoes of the husks, as they were surprisingly tough to get into without tools. Now, he had tools, and he could even cheat with the ‘bindings’ keeping things to his feet as he could just hold them in place. Opening the coconuts was hardly a problem, the Moonblade made this an easy task. However, getting the fibrous husks off the inner shell took a bit more effort. Not that he didn’t have time, but it was kind of annoying. His physical strength wasn’t enough to just tear it off, so he needed to use a dagger and time.

Failing several times, though getting some snacks and a high-nutrition drink on the way, he ended up with several husk pieces large enough to cover his feet. He had some hard shells and some softer outer husk pieces. He didn’t know what they were called but it didn’t matter. Having what he needed he felt surprisingly happy. It didn’t do anything to cover his nude body, but it would allow him to climb at least. Now, since it was growing dark he just needed to wait before he started climbing. Not feeling tired at the moment, he decided to use the time to improve his living situation.

Heading back into the jungle, he started gathering materials to try and make a simple bed. Not wanting it full of insects was the main problem, thinking that it was probably fine as long as he dried things before using them. He didn’t have much choice and started gathering longer sticks for the frame, moss and similarly ‘soft things’ for bedding and some lianes for rope. Making some simple drinking containers from coconuts was also on his list.

Tomorrow he was going to brave the mountain.