The cascading waves that Nathan saw at the beach were enough to make him smile; it was a peaceful atmosphere. The reason he was back here was simple: he needed meat, and since the non-mutated animals had decided to avoid him like the plague, Nathan had no other choice but to head to shore. While he wasn't a fisherman in any sense of the word, he fully believed that he could catch a couple of fish.

How hard can it be?

Rolling up his pants, he waded into the sea, his sword by his side, ready to thrust into any fish that was unlucky enough to get within range. The shallow part of the sea was pretty much see-through, so it wasn't that hard for Nathan to conclude that he wasn't going to catch any fish standing at that part simply because he couldn't see any from where he stood.

Unless they have an invisibility skill.

While very much within the realms of this new reality, Nathan wasn't entirely convinced that was the case. The way he viewed it, most of the smaller fish that would have normally dominated the shore had either been picked off by bigger fish, birds like the pelican, or any of the million other things that dominated the surrounding body of water.

I'll have to go deeper.

Even though Nathan was a little scared at the prospect of wading deeper into the sea, he convinced himself that there'd be nothing that could harm him this close to shore. The bigger fish baddies would probably be at the deeper end of the sea.

"Here goes nothing."

Nathan began moving deeper into the sea where his perception of what lay beneath looked murky. Blurry even, he stopped once the water got to his neck, deciding that he'd rather leave the water if he couldn't catch anything at this point than risk himself by going completely underwater.

His feet rested on fine sand beneath the water while his head was above it. Nathan scanned as best as he could, his gaze going from side to side, hoping to catch a fish in action. He didn't.

Something caught him instead or brushed past his leg. Rather, Nathan thrust at the spot with all his strength, but his blade caught nothing. Whatever had brushed past his leg had moved on quickly; it hadn't tried to bite off his leg or harm him in any way—it simply just brushed past his feet.

That's got to be a normal fish.

If Nathan was reading the movement of whatever had brushed against him correctly, he'd say that it had been heading deeper into the sea rather than to the shallower part, which kind of made a little bit of sense as he hadn't seen anything at the shallower part.

There was much to consider before making a move, but Nathan didn't really like going deeper than he already had. Heck, half the reason he'd come this far was only due to the absence of aquatic life in the shallow part. Going deeper meant that he'd have to sacrifice either his head above water or his feet touching the sea bed, and he wasn't comfortable with either option.

With sort of an impasse reached, Nathan decided to stick to his earlier resolve: he'd stay away from the deeper part for now. If he couldn't get fish today, he'd still be alright since he had fruits remaining. With a sigh, he turned his back on the deep sea, just about to start lamenting about how tiring it was becoming to eat the same fruit over and over again when he felt the water current around his legs sway as though something was heading towards him.

His sword at the ready, Nathan timed it as best as thrusting at the direction the sensation came from. His sword felt a minuscule amount of resistance before it pierced through whatever that was, the water at the surface of the area turning red.

In equal parts excitement and wariness, Nathan raised the sword out of the water to see what he'd caught, and to his relief and a rumble in his stomach, he'd caught a salmon. From the looks of it, the salmon hadn't mutated and turned into a fish with human teeth and hair—it was just a regular old salmon.

I better get out of here.

Nathan wasn't an expert on marine life, but he was pretty sure that there were a couple of aquatic animals that were attracted to blood. And if the system had spawned a couple of monsters in the sea, he definitely didn't want to be anywhere near here when they came to investigate.

So with his trophy on his sword—the salmon—Nathan hastily made his way out of the sea, content with his single catch of the day. He sported a grin the moment he'd made it completely out of the sea without any complications. The salmon was right in his face as Nathan stared at it like it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen.

He was about to start heading back to Blood Rock, eager to get cooking, when he stopped mid-stride. He was holding a sword with a dead salmon on it. The smell of blood would probably attract things that Nathan would rather not deal with right about now.

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I could try the bag.

The bag of holding, that is. He didn't know the schematics of how the bag actually worked. Would it affect the salmon negatively if he threw it in the bag? Would the salmon get its blood on the rest of the stuff he had in there?

He had absolutely no idea, but he was willing to try. And that was what Nathan did: he tossed the salmon into the bag, hoping it wouldn't be rejected, and let out a triumphant grin when it disappeared into nothingness. Probably joining the rest of his items in the magical storage space the system linked the bag to.

With that done, Nathan put his sword in the shallow water, washing the blood off of it. When he was satisfied with the outcome of his clean-up, he sheathed the sword and began making his way to Blood Rock, this time he had nothing to worry about. Certain in his abilities to handle anything that'd get close enough to trouble him.

Stepping in through the southern gate, he carefully observed for any sign of yesterday's tourist, trying to see if whatever had visited Blood Rock when he was gone was currently here or had returned. But from what he could see, only the old tracks remained.

Can't be too sure.

Unsheathing his sword, he walked towards his cabin calmly. There wasn't anywhere to hide, so it meant that for the most part, he was left looking at only one building—the cabin. It also meant that the only other place the beast could be was the other side of the cabin, which Nathan couldn't see from this angle.

He walked on anyway, eager to allay his fears or at the very least put the beast to the sword. He'd reached the point where he didn't fear anything on land; on water, he was a little bit cautious as he wasn't experienced, but on land, he didn't care what it was—it would fall to his blade.

Nathan chuckled once he got to the front part of the cabin, which had been obscured from the angle he'd walked in from. There was nothing there, and all the motivational monologue he'd given to himself just felt a little bit silly at the moment.

It was a dope monologue though.

Shaking his head, he made his way into the cabin, staring at the blazing fireplace with joy. Somehow it wasn't too hot or too meh—it was just the right temperature no matter what time of the day it was, which Nathan thought was pretty neat from the system. It was like the thing had its own personal thermostat to regulate the temperature of the room.

Something that made Nathan's life a lot easier in the wilderness than he'd initially thought it'd have been, and if he was being honest with himself, he kind of dug the entire apocalypse vibe. It gave him a feeling of joy that he had forgotten he could feel. The monsters, the quests, the skills, everything about the system made Nathan feel a rush of dopamine.

Compared to standing around and flipping signs, this was the real way to go. He felt like he was making a difference with every monster he killed, and he could actually see himself making progress with every quest he completed, every monster he bested.

He'd begun living life to what seemed to be the fullest: a cabin in the middle of nowhere, a forest, a sea with plenty of fish, and a mountain too he could relax on. Call him crazy, but Nathan would call this a great vacation—the kind he'd have rushed to write an essay about before his English teacher could even dump that century-old routine task.

Plus, the system had given him a sword, a freaking sword which by any stretch of his imagination was pretty cool.

Nathan twirled the sword in his palm, content to move it back and forth as his mind pieced together his thoughts on his new reality. Something kept bugging him even as he stood by idly watching the fireplace as he moved his sword from hand to hand.

The fish!

Nathan's stomach rumbled at the thought, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes at how dramatic his body was being in regard to some fish. With a start, he shook himself out of his stupor as he tried to decide the best course of action.

He could skewer the fish with his sword and thrust it into the magical crackling fireplace, or he could go with setting up a fire outside the house and using the dungeon-given skillet to get cooking. The former had a lot of question marks on it as he wasn't sure if the fire could actually roast the fish or if it was just for show by the system. The second issue was that he didn't know how durable his sword was, and sticking it in fire—magical or not—was most certainly going to have an adverse effect on the lifespan of his sword.

A sword that was already dull and of inferior quality to begin with, so with that in mind, it only left the latter option—the skillet. Nathan made his way outside, cursing himself for forgetting where he left the black tar. It certainly would've come in handy right about now. The last he'd seen it, he'd pulled it far away from the fire and kept it somewhere near the forest, but he didn't just know where exactly.

Oh well, guess I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way.

Nathan set about chopping up his leftover logs into firewood and then taking a couple of them and arranging them in a rough circle. Taking two with him into the cabin, he made his way to the fireplace, watching in fascination as the two pieces of wood immediately caught fire.

Pinching off the intriguing scene, Nathan pulled out the two pieces of wood just before they burned into nothingness, hurriedly making his way out of the cabin in hopes of avoiding a house fire.

Gently dropping the burning pieces of wood on opposite sides in the rough circle, he watched with satisfaction as the fire began to spread, and soon enough the whole circle was on fire.

Time for the skillet.

Nathan took out the skillet and held it above the fire for a couple of moments before tossing the salmon into the hot pan, his mouth salivating as the meat sizzled. He flipped it with his sword when he felt like enough time had passed, as he didn't necessarily have kitchen utensils on hand.

Soon enough, the fish was ready, and within moments there was nothing but an empty skillet and a burnt piece of land where the fire used to be. Nathan's body rumbled in appreciation rather than hunger this time, and he had to admit actual food had an impact on him. Finally having sated his need for protein, he decided it was high time he got his arse up and off to do some actual work.

Time to hit that E-ranked dungeon.