That day, he did not hunt for food. Going straight back to his tree, he fell asleep. This made for a poor sleeping cycle, but this time he was thankful for it. He woke up some time later in the afternoon, mostly rested but still feeling tired.

Staring up at the vast forest helped him relax. The glow of the sun breaking over the edge of green and yellow leaves was simply breathtaking, and he spent a moment just staring, not thinking about anything.

His nose tingled a bit, but when he tried to focus on that feeling, it disappeared like it was never there to begin with. For a moment he thought it was allergies, but remembered where he was and what'd happened yesterday and his daydreaming instantly evaporated.

No matter what he tried to evoke that feeling again, it didn't work. He tried meditating, but excited as he was about the prospect of magic, it was hard to sit still for more than two seconds.

Even when he managed to calm down, meditating didn't work.

Checking his status, the skill was still noted at level zero. The rest of the night until he slept he practiced meditation, trying to sense something he had no idea about but was positive existed somewhere.

Unfortunately even after he fell asleep the skill was at level zero.

He walked through the forest distracted, which could have been dangerous, but thankfully nothing happened. Three lizards escaped his hunt though, which spoke leagues in and of itself.

The possibility for magic was right there, at the tip of his tongue. He could almost taste it, which made it all the worse when he couldn't feel anything. He saw what that weak goblin did to the poor bear, and even if he never got that kind of power, the sheer versatility would make for a world of difference when hunting.

Though if he was being honest, he didn't like what he was doing currently. Sure, he needed to hunt to survive, but his foremost goal as a cat was to relax. Instead he was stressing over more and more things.

When he saw magic as a tool to help him kill other monsters, he realized that wasn't how he wanted to continue. He spent the rest of his day strolling in the forest, and letting his mind wander. It wasn't exactly safe, but he loved every second of it.

He walked slowly, letting his paws fall to the ground quietly in a simple rhythm of falling footsteps. He didn't walk far from the river, and he avoided areas where the forest began to quiet. When sound covered everything, where there was none was suspicious.

He found another such strange zone a few minutes into his path where he could have sworn the place was perfectly normal just a few minutes ago.

Something didn't feel right, yet he opted to continue for a while longer, curiosity getting the better of him. He didn't walk for more than ten paw-steps when his instincts went haywire. Something was wrong about this place and while he couldn't recognize it consciously, his brain went into fight or flight mode, heavily leaning on flight.

He began to slowly back away, paying attention to every detail of his surroundings.

The uneasiness didn't disappear, but his heart stopped trying to beat the inside of his chest black and blue. When he could hear the rustle of the leaves, he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. It was like air didn't blow past the trees the same, and worse yet it was hard to tell where the quiet zones began and where they ended.

Looking at the trees around him, he noticed that the further inside the quiet zone he looked, the more likely the trees were to have small signs of damage. Nothing too unnatural, but he could have sworn these weren't there before.

Thoroughly spooked, he made sure not to wander too far inside one of those zones. The trip back didn't take too long, but there was no daydreaming this time. On the way he snagged a small lizard that wasn't paying attention. It was faster than most of the ones he normally caught, but that mattered all the same when it met a claw to the face. What he didn't expect was for his claw to cut its head off.

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He looked at the headless lizard, then back at his paws and back at the lizard. He couldn't help but smile at the very obvious growth in strength. He almost forgot the massive increase in strength compared to just a few days ago.

Overall he tripled his body attribute compared to what he had at the first day he found himself here. That didn't translate to three times his original strength, but he was still finding out how much stronger he was. That quirk of the attributes, of course, was something that bothered him to no end, but he was learning more and more every passing day.

Though you wouldn't find him complaining, after leveling twice again, hunting similarly leveled opponents would be impossible if he had to rely purely on his strength. Unfortunately, it seemed like to find out more about magic he would need some help from the only other monsters he'd seen use it.

He reached his usual tree by the river after a while and slowly ate his lizard tail. Not all of the lizard was good for eating, but likewise, some parts tasted divine! Or as close to it he would get with uncooked food.

After he finished eating, he practiced again trying to sense the ether in the air or himself. In his efforts he fell asleep twice and managed to level his skill a grand total of zero times.

Expecting to progress every single day was unreasonable of him, but being stuck at level zero of the same skill with his level of effort was annoying to say the least.

He imagined the problem was in the lack of direction. If he was focusing on the wrong thing he may as well be blowing on a fire to put it out.

In that regard the goblins were an opportunity as much as they were a threat. He'd seen how they acted against the monsters they encountered, and he wasn't going to say he was different. From a lizard's point of view, he must be the harbinger of the end. And it wasn't like he ate the spider he attacked so many days ago.

He shook his head, the idea of similarity disgusting but not enough to change his plans. He wanted to grow strong, and the goblins were too much of a threat. Though in that regard he decided to refrain from killing monsters he didn't plan on eating, or weren't going to attack him. He was used to spiders as mindless insects to kill if he found inside his house, but being in somewhat of a similar situation now brought a different perspective to him.

He remembered a time his father yelled at him when he tried to kill a large spider inside their house. It probably wasn't for the act of trying to kill the spider but for the shards of broken glass. Still, his father scooped up the spider in a piece of paper and a plastic cup, escorting it safely outside the house.

"I'm sorry li- big spider."

Though he was making an exception for goblins in regards to that decision. At the very least, he wouldn't feel bad for goblin stalking. This was also something he learned from his father. Talking about the exception to the rules, not the stalking, that would be weird.

Thinking about his parents brought only bad memories, so he took his mind off the subject by focusing on his stealth skills, which was admittedly pretty fun. He didn't have any magical skills for stealth, and trying to camouflage himself got boring after a while, so for the few hours before the night fell he terrorized a fairly large badger he found somewhat close to his tree. He doubted they grew this large back on Earth, but it made him wonder about the similarities.

Nevertheless, it was an encounter meant to be. Just when he'd started getting bored and considered stopping for the day, the badger appeared.

At first he simply tried following it without letting it realize he was doing so. That was easier in some areas than others. His relatively small size made it easy to hide in tall grass or small shrubs, but the forest wasn't the same everywhere and he had to follow the badger at the same time. And despite spending every waking hour of the past few days inside the forest, he betrayed his position quite a few times by stepping on dried leaves or making too much noise when moving too fast and too close to the badger. Admittedly it had better hearing than he expected.

After the badger realized someone was following it, it begun scanning the area much more actively, and running.

He kept it up for another half an hour before judging he'd gone too far and the night had already started. Thankfully the badger was moving on the opposite side of the goblin's camp and he could see relatively well in the dark of the night considering the only source of light was a small moon in the sky.

When he reached his familiar tree, he was ready to call it a day. He'd let his guard down, an unfortunate habit he'd developed lately, so he was thankful for the diminished visibility of the night as he saw his tree had company.

It was a lone wolf, no more than twice his size, which he'd learned not to consider indicative of someone's strength. But it did clue him in about its age. His first instinct was to attack the intruder of his home. His second was himself reminding him there was nothing marking this area as his own, and his third was the decision he'd made. Also, he kind of liked wolves. Considering he was a cat, that was a little ironic.

Looking back at the sleeping wolf, he considered his options until he landed on, "Didn't see, wasn't there."

If it was still here by tomorrow, he would come back to it then. Now, he was going to sleep.

He picked a tree close to the one he called his own and climbed up. The branches weren't as thick, but he didn't expect any other random tree to beat his favorite. Still, he could make do. After another hour of staring at the sleeping wolf, he too fell asleep.