Waking up, the first thing he noticed was the light. It seemed like he had been asleep for roughly two hours. The second thing he noticed was his depleted ether pool; he had none left. Even his natural absorption over the two-hour period hadn't been enough to fully heal him. The third thing he noticed was the pain. Oh, the pain! It was the most intense ache he had ever felt, as if multiple injections of lactic acid had been administered to his entire body.
Sitting up, he felt his bag still on his back, surprisingly unharmed. It was made of sturdier stuff than he was, that was for sure. Slowly getting to his feet, he stumbled, feeling as if he had a new foot. His left foot was still just a stub; his ether must have run out before it had regrown. A darker thought quickly crawled into his mind: maybe he couldn't regrow limbs. "No point in worrying, I guess," he said aloud. Crawling towards the bear that had slapped him, he quickly took out the squirrels and rabbits he had caught before the fight. Skinning them, he grabbed a suitable stick from the ground and skewered the first of the creatures, spit-roasting them on the still-flaming bear. Although the true flames had sputtered out along with the bear's life, the ridge of the beast's back was still alight with ether fire, kept continuously burning by the natural ether absorption abilities of the soon-to-be pelt.
After he had completely consumed the three creatures, he grabbed all of the fungi from the first location he had marked. It would be a bit risky, but he could have sworn that the fungus was edible. With the amount of ether contained in the plant, along with the extra calories from the small game, it might just be enough to fix up the rest of his body. Quickly wolfing the fungus down, ether slowly accumulated in his pool, his natural absorption from the atmospheric ether a trickle in comparison.
Roughly 15 minutes passed, but he managed to heal almost all of his wounds, including, to his great relief, his missing left foot. Standing up, he gathered his strength. With his not-yet-fully-healed body groaning in protest, he quickly managed to roll the smaller of the two bears onto its back. Previously, he had thought the bear's size meant it could be no more than a ton and a half, but just as ether had made him more dense, so had it made the flame bear. To his best estimate, it was roughly three tons, double his original estimate.
Grabbing his short sword and skinning knife, he got to work skinning the bear. Although he was an amateur, he managed to skin the beast, leaving the hide intact. Ripping the claws out was a bit more difficult but much less time-consuming. Then came the truly grotesque work. Soon, he found himself elbow-deep in bear guts, removing the heart, liver, kidneys, and gallbladder, placing them in Rubbermaid containers he had filling up his bag. Then came the butchering of the meat, in which he took the most prized cuts, including the back loin, ribs, and haunches of the beast, removing what bones he could along the way. With all of the valuable parts of the beast stored, he took most of the leftover meat, which he proceeded to roast over the second bear. He ate close to 20 pounds of meat.
With his meal finished and bear butchering experience gained, he managed to butcher the larger of the two bears in about half the time it took for the first. Overall, it had taken him roughly three hours of grueling work, in which he managed to fill up the whole four-by-four space of his bag along with four of the other foot-by-foot pouches. In total, he had only four of the foot-by-foot pouches left. With the sun indicating a time of about 7:00 PM, he decided he would spend a couple more hours finding and hunting goblins.
Pulling out his compass to discern his general location, he decided on going for the same spot he was heading to before he got distracted by the bears. The details were a bit vague, but by the looks of the X on the map, it seemed to be just another Giant Minuva Tree, and he was excited at the possibility of a couple more Minuva Fruit.
Putting on the speed, it took him roughly 10 minutes before he saw the tree towering over the others in the area, and another minute before he was close enough to spot monster activity. There seemed to be only about five or so goblins this time. However, it wasn't time to be reckless; he had learned his lesson with the flame bears. Recklessly getting into fights would eventually lead him six feet under, and today was not going to be his final rest.
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With his senses heightened from the Minuva fruit he had eaten earlier that day, stealth was more of an option. Creeping closer to the base of the tree, he could hear the telltale signs of a fire and the acute smell of something being roasted, probably some small game the little menaces had managed to hunt down. Getting closer to the base of the tree, he finally caught a glimpse of the goblin camp, and surprisingly, the goblins actually had a bit of a camp set up. There was a crude-looking tent with a small fire and spit-roasting setup, with what looked to be a couple of rabbits roasting. However, the most intriguing part of the camp was the goblins themselves. Just as he had estimated by the tracks around the camp, there were five of them sitting around. Contrary to his expectations, they were actually a bit taller than the first goblins he had encountered, which could only mean one thing: they had gotten to the fruits before him.
"Shit," he muttered under his breath. Realistically, there was nothing he could do about it. The goblins might be a bit stronger now, but what did it really matter? He had gotten stronger too. Retreating, he repeated the same process as with the flame bears, creating crude spears from trees, making a total of four. Returning to the camp, he found the goblins still in the same place as before. Setting his weapons down, he prepared his first spear. Throwing it with all his might, there was only a sharp whistling sound to warn the goblins of their impending doom.
With his full power behind the seven-foot spear, it went straight through the first goblin's chest, pinning it to the ground in a gruesome display of violence. Just as the goblins started reaching for their discarded weapons, a second spear, slightly off target, took a second goblin in the head, killing it in a spray of blood and gray matter. With the three remaining goblins on high alert, his next two spears completely missed their intended targets, instead burying themselves four feet into the ground. With his projectiles used, he quickly grabbed his poleaxe from the ground, rushing the remaining goblins. With his speed, he reached them in only a second, but they were already on high alert, reacting instantaneously. His first swing targeted the rightmost short sword-wielding goblin. Rushing the goblin, he wound up a brutal two-hand overhead strike. However, the goblin knew what it was doing, deflecting his blade to the side. Even this strengthened goblin couldn't fully deflect his monstrous blow. Instead of a fatal strike, his blade was directed into its shoulder, shearing through bone and sinew. His poleaxe cleaved through its arm, shoulder to hand, half of it sloughing off in a grotesque squelch.
After the gruesome injury, he quickly pulled back and thrust the spear tip into the goblin's throat, ending its suffering. The remaining goblins, both wielding spears, were much more careful now that they had seen their companions butchered in front of them. Encircling him, the two goblins probed him with their spears, trying to take advantage of their numbers. He would not let them. When the goblin to his left jabbed at him, he grabbed the spear, dragging the lighter goblin into a deadly sweeping strike, which took its head off. Dragging the spear from the dead goblin's grasp, he retreated towards the body, evading the last goblin's strike. In the same moment, he chucked the dead goblin's spear, which ripped through the creature's leg, shearing off a good chunk. With it momentarily distracted, he twirled his poleaxe, cutting down the distracted creature in one foul swoop.
When all was done, he collected the loot: 10 ears, a good quality short sword, which he strapped on his belt with his original short sword, along with a few random ether-dense plants. With all of the loot successfully stored in his bag, he climbed the Giant Minuva Tree the same way as before, only gathering a total of two fruits this time, as the goblins had most likely taken and eaten the others. Another day, another goblin dead.
With these last kills, it was time to head back. Thankfully, he hadn't been injured in this fight; however, his clothes were quite literally nonexistent at the moment. He hadn't really noticed before, but his shirt was gone, probably burned to ash before getting ripped off by the trees he had smashed into when fighting the bear. At least he still had his underwear. Hopefully, he would not get arrested for public indecency, especially if he explained his situation.