The first few hours of me and the hog gang following down the river turned out to be one of my most arduous and boring jogging exercises. The scenery did change from time to time, first only some trees and bushes, then more rock and different trees, then more trees…

Yeah, I can see how getting lost is a given without prior knowledge or the proper Skills. We often diverted from the river, crossing a small hill, and getting around a cliff, I’m no longer even sure we’re following the same stream I first fell into. My respect for the goofy and simple-minded hogs almost grew, courtesy of their navigating skills, but one of them just had to run face-first into a tree as they playfully pushed each other around.

Yeah, let’s just stick with using them as grunting wayfinders.

Around lunch time I discovered the hogs have another unique talent; finding edible plants and mushrooms. My biggest fear with their finds is that the food isn’t poisonous, for them. If I turn up my toes because of some weird mushroom I ate I’ll haunt the stupid beasts for life, their life, not mine obviously.

“Man… Every adult told me to learn how to survive in the wilderness all alone and this sucks for real.” A little sob talk is okay. “Learn to find your own food, make shelter blah blah blah. Why not teach us how to fly the hell out of here?” The simple and clear conclusion. “Fly above the tree line and get out or destroy anything that dares attack you, burning your way out from high up in the sky and so many other options. Aghhh.”

Get yourself together Eli, you’re almost out.

Considering how unprepared I arrived and how dire my situation was when I first woke up on the riverbank I’d say I did pretty darn good. I may have lost a little weight and that’s sure as hell wasn’t for the lack of exercise, quite the opposite, I ran around way more than I’d prefer to. It would add to my charm if only my skin wasn’t covered in dirt and sweat again, almost as if I hadn’t washed myself yesterday.

***

The first few hours or so with the herd might’ve painted the wrong image of the forest, as nothing tried to attack us and I didn’t feel like my life was on the line. Reality came knocking on the door pretty quickly when the lead hog squealed and ran towards a nearby cliffside, the rest following after him. I had no clue whatsoever about the danger they were running from, yet neither was I foolish enough to question the decision. I didn’t hear or see anything for a few seconds after taking cover, then the danger revealed itself.

The entire group of it.

Lizards, a bit above human size, running on two legs with tiny front… arms? Or are those front legs they have? Whatever. The weapons mother nature blessed them with were sharp and pointy enough, so the danger they presented was clear, even just a single one of them. There were about twenty.

I threw Identify at one of them.

[Raptor lvl ???]

What a reassuring name.

Since I’m pretty weak even compared to my companions, the weakest of whom is level 72, this could’ve meant the lizard things were just around level 150 or 300 even, more than enough to kill any of us. I was pretty sure we were fucked back then with predators that close and ready to murder us that deep in the forest… I've never been able to fathom how they didn’t notice us but it's more likely they did and decided we weren’t worth any effort.

That wasn’t our only weird or dangerous encounter that day. First, it was birds with four wings, orangish feathers, and blue beaks flying pretty high so I only saw the rough outline of them, yet even that rough estimate told me they weighed around as much as a bigger hog with me on its back. Evading the sight of the aerial predators wasn’t too difficult; walk beneath thick foliage.

The last encounter was the least dangerous and most bonkers. Seeing dog-sized snails… reproduce? The sound they made… and let’s not even talk about the sight. I’m sure nightmares of this will haunt me for months.

Currently, we're resting on a small clearing not too far from the river, or a river. I gave up on trying to keep track of whether it was the same one or not after the second detour we took. The food detector instinct of the hogs kicked in and they soon found dinner. Yet again the menu lacked meat and many other things like butter, pastries, or anything sweet, nevertheless food is food. Mushrooms and nuts can also be roasted, berries are nice and juicy and at the end of the day, it's way better than starving.

My traveling companions decided to catch some sleep right away, instincts likely older than me telling them to rest while they can. Some just flop on their back while others gather in a pile, using each other as pillows, rolling around and scratching the others’ backs with their tusks, making satisfied grunting noises. Maybe it’s not instincts, maybe they’re just full and lazy.

“Oh well, who am I to reject some easy sleep,” I mutter to mostly the boars since no one else is around. “I’ll have to work with quantity instead of quality.”

Talking to myself is a habit I’ll never be able to shed but at least the listener never gets bored.

I find myself in an empty corner and raise a less uncomfortable-looking pile of earth. Soft soil to compensate for the lack of a proper bed and pillows. There’s nothing I could use as a blanket… at least I don’t have to undress to keep the bed clean.

I find myself an empty spot far enough from the boars so their stench doesn’t bother me as much yet close enough in case anything attacks I’m not the first one to get eaten in my sleep. Creating a bed of soft and fluffy soil is all the comfort I can afford, raising a little platform and just laying flat on it. No pillows and no blanket or even proper clothes so every gentle breeze is like a mosquito while sleeping in the wilds.

I crash onto my dirt pile and doze off moments after my head hits the ‘pillow’. The constant alertness and tension the entire day finally catch up and take their toll both on my mind and my body. At least my sleep is dreamless, no snails

***

I’m rudely woken by the sound of stumbling hooves, panicked squeals and most importantly a thundering roar way before I’d prefer. The sky is still starry and dark, the three moons hanging lazily above our heads, however, the quiet night is no longer peaceful. The hogs scramble into a haphazard group, aiming for strength in numbers, although, judging by the sound, whatever that roar came from won't give a rat’s ass about the show of force.

i push myself out of the dirt pile and regroup with the hogs. The footfalls of the approaching monster sound heavy and loud despite the clear distance between it and us.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I quickly use the earth I’m lying on to launch myself to my feet and seek shelter behind the boars as the sound of heavy footfalls grows ever closer. Whatever that thing is, I can tell it’s heavy just by the way the earth shakes beneath our feet with every step.

“We have to run...” I conclude.

The pause between steps is more than 3 seconds so hopefully the creature is big and slow enough for us to shake it off if we start running now. Fighting would be suicide.

“We have to run!” I shout at the large hog who acted as pack leader along the way here.

It looks my way and huffs, standing still and sturdy against the ever-encroaching adversary.

“Uhhh, come, move, run, quick feet!” I shout and start sprinting in the opposite direction the stomps are coming from.

I wave my arm towards them to follow, while repeatedly shouting come, Run, Flee!

My efforts pay off surprisingly fast. A bunch of the hairy pigs look just as restless as I am and break formation pretty fast, urging their stubborn leader to start the retreat and pick up the pace. Everyone starts running like crazy since we wasted a lot of time being difficult like a child during a spring festival. Or I usually was.

Earlier today I struggled to keep up with my four-legged friends and now that they’re running head over heels, even my full sprint can’t keep up with them. I’m being left ever further behind while none of them notice it, being preoccupied with saving their own lives and I can’t really fault them.

How could I move faster? The hogs might manage to get away, while I can hear the thing behind me slowly lose distance. If things continue like this then being left behind is the least of my problems, I’ll be fucking eaten by that… thing.

Curiosity has its way and I peek behind me to see a massive scaled head poking out of the seven-meter tall treetops. It has two horns curving around the head like a crown before pointing skyward, two orange eyes sweeping its surroundings in search of prey and one ugly maw adorned by countless teeth, hungry for tiny fleeing me. I am no lizard expert or a beast freak like Kayla so right now I’ll just call the thing a Big ugly get the fuck out of there.

“C’mon Eli, you gotta move faster, you have magic, use it!” I encourage myself.

I could use earth magic to move the ground beneath my feet like that weird wave gliding thing the idiots did back in Meliorport, except that probably wouldn’t be fast enough and sounds crazy expensive. Water is… nope and fire… could work and burning the forest behind me might deter the ugly monster but let’s face it, it can only be wind, the element representing speed and freedom.

My first idea is to just give myself a little push on the back to simply increase my speed and I give it a quick try.

“Whoaa!” I cry out in surprise and abort the attempt right away.

The little push on the back was just gentle enough, yet way above my center of gravity and since I’m no ship and my back is not a sail the outcome is a spectacular stumble. I save it, I have experience with having my legs kicked out and falling head first, but still, I lose a few valuable seconds. A larger, uniform gust could be a solution, albeit a costly one.

“No, I need to get more value out of each step, constant speed is just not gonna work.” I come to a conclusion.

Talking out loud while thinking can help come up with brilliant solutions, or stupid ones…

What I need is for my steps to carry me further with less effort and my tool for the task is still going to be wind magic, obviously, just used more precisely. The trick is going to be to use a strong gust and try to push the ground away from my feet while leaning forward to compensate and make sure the momentum is concentrated forward. The idea of pushing the world away sounds crazy, however, it's the Savant kind of crazy.

With my new plan ready and hogs almost out of sight, I work my magic, quite literally.

The first burst results in a clear increase in speed and a slight sideways nudge. The second gives even more of a boost while also being more stable and the third is close to perfection.

My steps carry me further, faster, and with less strength needed. I feel the cooling night air blowing through my hair like never before, the trees passing beside me, every step making me fly for a second or two. With that said, I have to pay close attention not to run into anything because that would result in a nasty broken nose.

Besides the danger, this feeling is… it's liberating.

As my pursuer admits defeat and abandons the chase so does the tension and fear crawl back to the distant corners of my mind. My poor overworked little heart finally gets to rest and my breathing returns to normal as I close in on the hogs. I won this game of tag.

We continue moving for about another half an hour before stopping in another clearing. I’m almost certain we’re lost at this point, except navigation is not my job and as long as we are not eaten we can always find a new river. Sleep takes me even faster this time, hopefully lasting all the way until the morning.

[Your class Skill [Arcane Affinity] has reached lvl 63.]

[Your class Skill [Elemental Influence] has reached lvl 58.]

[Your class Skill [Mana Burst] has reached lvl 23 ->24.]

[Your class Skill [Manaconduit] has reached lvl 18.]

[The general Skill [Savant] has reached lvl 62.]

Dangerous, exciting, and without any injuries, just the way I like it.

***

I indeed get a full night's sleep, or at least the rest of what I missed, before being nudged awake. I gobble down a quick breakfast, as poor as ever although I’m kinda getting used to it, before moving out. The hogs don’t hesitate much on the direction we should be heading in, they just trample forward with unwavering confidence and I follow without much other choice.

I don’t use my wind magic speed boost… I should name it. Wind Running? Nah, that’s basic as hell. Air Boost? Not too bad. Tempest Sprint, yeah I’ll take that. Anyway, I try to conserve my mana for now, who knows when we’ll run into something again that wants to take a bite?

I hadn't even noticed yesterday night while running… in the pitch dark, but the forest around us has changed quite drastically. The trees are a lot thinner and more numerous. The trunks are more reddish and orange, while also being shorter while the foliage took on a slightly blueish color. This would mean something to the experienced wanderer but not for me, I only see less cover and less obstacles to maneuver around.

The day goes on with a lot less flurry and danger, as it should. My guess was that we were getting further away from the central regions of the forest where the beasts lurking around are a lot more careful with their approach since they’re no longer at the top of the local food chain. I cursed my luck with the choice I made when dumping Running, swapping the Skill out seemed like a no-brainer back then.

Regretting past decisions… classic.

***

For hours we just run, then have a little lunch break, then more running, crossing a shallow river and lastly a few more hours of travel before going to sleep. This repeats for a third day before the pack halts in the early afternoon and the lead boar turns towards me.

I don’t speak pig and neither of us can use the same feeling-based communication the Sentinel Elk did, so pointing and noises are our way of understanding each other.

He grunts, nods upward in my direction and points right with his head. I am no Kayla but it seems like our ways part here and I’m supposed to head that way to leave this green hell behind and finally find some actual food. Others might question the validity of his instructions, I on the other hand have learned to trust the inhabitants of the forest. Animals aren’t as cunning or malicious as people, they do what’s on their minds without any ulterior motive.

“I am grateful for the guidance and protection.” I tell the hog and bow slightly, even though they can’t understand me and didn’t do all that much for me…

This seems to be a universal gesture between more mature beasts to show respect and the hogs deserve my respect despite their simplemindedness. They return the bow in their own way before trampling on towards their own destination.

“Okay Eli, it's only you now. Let’s make our way home so mom and dad don’t stay miserable for too long.” I tell myself, eager to leave nature behind.

I should still reserve my mana but anticipation wins out against common sense. I run and run some more, accompanied by the winds, and notice the foliage thinning above me and the underbrush disappearing until the last line of trees comes into sight.

A goofy and relieved smile appears on my face.

I made it.