Chapter 8: Bloodied Knife and Katana in action

The first animals I encountered were 2 rabbit like creatures. They were neither white nor brown but pink in color (haih!) and had piercing purple eyes with a silver horn protruding from their forehead. Normally you expect anything pink and purple to look cute, but these two creatures had a dangerous aura to them and were staring at me like one would stare at food in extreme starvation state. I immediately held the Katana in my hand tightly and got battle ready.

I don’t know if these rabbits were underestimating me or were lazy creatures, one stayed still while the other hissed and ran towards me. I tried to slash the sword but missed it by a mile and the rabbit’s claw like hand landed on my chest. I felt a burning sensation but didn’t have the time to worry about the injury just yet. So long as the injury is not fatal and I am still capable of attacking, diverting attention seemed like the easiest way to die. As the rabbit’s claw landed, the proximity between me and rabbit reduced by a lot, and taking advantage of this close distance, I awkwardly slashed with the knife in my left hand. The knife sliced through one of the rabbit ears and resulting damage caused the ear to flop on one side. Rabbit tried to open its mouth and take a bite at my hand but in this time my katana was ready and without giving it a chance to retreat or run away, my Katana slash opened a deep wound behind rabbit’s neck. It wasn’t dead yet, but it fell on the ground bleeding and near-death state.

The second rabbit ran towards the injured one – maybe they were mates but taking advantage of the inattention, my katana struck again and caused a minor scratch on its face. I am not proficient with using Katana and my perception of the enemy distance is quite off as well. Second rabbit sensing danger tried to ram me with its horn in my knee, when I stabbed the knife directly in its skull causing the second rabbit to die immediately. Horn still stuck my knee causing a bruise and intense pain. I realized that if I focus on killing the enemy quickly chances of success is much higher versus if I try to defend against them, as my defense is weak as this point. But then these rabbits were probably the lowest level creatures.

With the two rabbits dead and dying around me, I fell on the ground trying to catch my breath and drank some water. Both my knife and Katana were bloody and glinting dangerously in the sun light that was peeking through the trees. Strangely, this time the corpse of the two rabbits didn’t disappear and no loot appeared either. Damn, this world is strange.

I have never butchered anything before, but I was short on food and I didn’t want to eat up all my bread and sausages as they are a familiar taste from earth, thus wanting me to save some of them for later. I picked up the rabbits by ears and realized that they both weighted probably around 6 kg together. Relying on my theoretical knowledge, I decided to put them in inventory for now and wash them when I come across a water source. I left the bloodied area quickly; in case the smell attracts predators that I can’t defend against.

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In my haste I ended up running on the side of the hill and found myself on the east side, further away from the dungeon where I was planning to head to. I could still climb up the hill and correct the direction, but for now, I am going to explore this new area and check my system notifications. I realized that screen was quite considerate of my battle state and remained in the background unless I was safe again.

Notification

“Killed rabbit (level 1) exp 50”

Notification

“Killed rabbit (level 1) exp 50”

So, these rabbits were deemed less dangerous than the wolf I had encountered the previous day, which made sense, thus the corresponding exp was less as well. 400 more exp required before I reach level 2.

I looked around the area I was at and saw that I seemed to have arrived at a canopy type area, with three massive trees restricting the light with their branches. It was cooler here due to the shade and the grass was sparser due to the lack of sunlight. Suddenly I felt someone behind me and with an immediate reflexive action I stabbed using all of my strength with my knife as I turned around. I noticed a monkey like creature had fallen near my feet and was bleeding from its chest with a long deep cut that was obviously caused by my knife. The shock of this scene was unimaginable – when did I become so fast with my reaction or was it this scenario which was keeping me on the edge that caused such an extreme reaction. I slashed the monkey’s neck completely killing it, before it could recover or use its claws against me.

Notification

“Killed monkey (level 1) exp 75”

I kept the corpse in my inventory and used my shoes to cover some of the blood with the mud to reduce the stench. I didn’t fancy being attacked by a troop of monkeys in a state of revenge. I left in a hurry and decided to walk down the hill and back towards the safe room. I want to get stronger, but I also don’t want to die. At this moment, though I had been in the unprotected area for only 2 hours, I was bleeding and exhausted and there was no place to rest.

As I walked down the hill the light opened bit by bit and I started noticing different plants and shrubs coming in my view, which were different from the ones I had discovered the previous day. On my way down, I found flowers like dandelion (confirmed by the appraisal), spinach growing at the foot of some tall trees, 3 sweet potato roots (I wish there were more) and a lush fruit bearing apple tree. I harvested all of them and kept the plant and the trees in my inventory as well. Sincerely prayed in my heart that these plants would survive until I could replant them and not die out of me. I had been collecting all fallen dry branches and a few fallen tree trunks in my inventory as well – after all I still needed to cook food.

My today’s fresh water was running out and I wanted to look for a stream or something similar before reaching the white safe area. As per the map, there was no water source near me. Maybe I had used up all my luck in fighting or maybe I was too close to the foothills. Once I entered the safe area my pace slowed down and as the adrenalin rush of the adventure subsided, the pain intensified. I had the low-level potion but there was only one, I was quite conflicted about using it.