30 minutes passed quickly ever since Ryan's battle with the large wild pig.

Ryan had removed a horn from the wild boar that he had slaughtered, along with some meat to eat which he tucked away in small pouches hanged around his waist. In Doom Forest, one didn't know when their next meal would come or if that meal wouldn't actually try eating them first.

Ryan once again glanced at the list of beast body parts Wung Dao had given him to get, on the top of the list was the horn of the wild pig beast which Ryan had slaughtered and claimed it's horn, so he could move on to the next thing.

'The arm of a silver haired gorilla, eh? This is going to be a bit difficult.'

Ryan had only found the wild boar beast thanks to the unintentional help of the monster bees; he was even lucky to be able to do so. There were lots of prey and predators in the forest and the bees obviously liked to hunt diverse prey, so the chances of using them to get everything on Ryan's list were rather abysmal since it meant he would have to go with the bees for each and every hunt of theirs.

'But then again, I don't have any other choice. It'll be like looking for multiple needles in a large haystack if I try hunting down everything in the list by myself'

In the end, beggars weren't choosers and Ryan could only helplessly rely on the bees - he just really hoped he wouldn't somehow end up as the bees' next target.

Ryan walked back to the bees' hive, leaning on a nearby tree as usual. He was waiting for the bees next hunt again.

Rummm

Ryan heard his tummy rumble; it had been far too long since he had anything to eat.

'Ah, I am really hungry, but I can't just go on and have a braai right next to the home of crazy predators'

Doing that would be equivalent to walking into a bear's cave blindsided. Ryan had gone through the painful effort of wrapping the meat he carried with various plant leaves in order to mask the scent to make sure he wouldn't attract unwanted guests.

'Hmm, these bees are sure taking their time'

Ryan thought.

30 minutes was more than enough time for the previous group of bees to be done with hunting, shouldn't they have been preparing for their next hunt by now?

Ryan glanced at the position of the sun and noted that it was already sunset, were the bees not willing to hunt when it was dusk?

'Dammit, I'll guess I'll just have to come back tomorrow'

Ryan was no idiot, if even these ruthless and bold bees weren't willing to hunt at night then surely there must have been something more monstrous preventing them, and Ryan was just a lone force - he wouldn't surviving bumping into a dangerous predator in Doom Forest.

Ryan's anxiety hyped as he thought of the possibility of being eaten by a monster in the middle of the night, the quickly setting sun served as a catalyst to his panic.

Ryan plucked out a lot of dried tree bark from the nearby trees before he stealthily started going to a hiding place which would serve as his home for the night.

He chose the same cave where the bees had hunted the snake; it was closer to the entrance of the forest therefore Ryan could quickly find his way back to the hive of the bees, and additionally the cave roof and walls would serve as great heat traps.

The bees had already removed the snake pest, so Ryan didn't have to worry about invading a living predator's home. It was such a shame that the cave didn't have a convenient door, but at least it was better than sleeping in the openness of the forest to be ambushed and mauled by a predator while sleeping.

Ryan arrived at the cave right after the sun had set. He noted the dried snake blood right nearby the entrance.

He went deep into the entrance of the cave. While this would serve as some protection to the coldness of the night, this would primarily give Ryan some time to prepare for a fight or flight response in case a predator entered the cave.

Ryan immediately started setting up the dried-up tree barks, stacking them on top of each other. He then pointed a finger towards the pile before softly muttering.

" Element of fire, - please lend me your power: Fire ball "

In the next moment a small flame erupted from his finger - shooting at the pile. The flame immediately set the pile blazing, bringing into birth an even larger flame.

Ryan had somehow remembered the spell he saw one fire mage cast in the battle against the viper when he had arrived, although the words he spoke weren't exactly the same as that of the mage's. The spell was supposed to cast a giant flame like the one the mage had thrown. Ryan didn't know whether it was because the words of the spell were mismatched or it was because his mana capacity was abysmal, but instead of the large bear sized ball of flames - Ryan could only throw a finger sized one. Basically, he had his own portable fire lighter now.

Ryan took out 3 pieces of meat from 3 of his waist pouches and gently placed them on the red tree bark remnants on the bottom of the fire, the meat immediately made a sizzling sound. Now he just had to wait for 5-7 minutes before turning the flaps of meat over.

' I'll have to eat the meat I haven't cooked now tomorrow, otherwise it's going to smell bad'

Ryan now had 4 pouches of meat left, if he didn't eat them then surely the bacteria would.

Ryan waited 6 minutes before turning the meat over and waiting another 6 minutes.

After the cooking was done, he moved the meat and placed It on an unburnt tree bark right next to him. He then took a bite.

"..!"

Compared to the fast food back on earth, what he was having for dinner was rather disgusting; the meat wasn't sauced, spiced or even dipped in cooking oil whatsoever, the bitterness from the various leaves he had covered the meat with made the taste even more atrocious to the tongue. Ryan was no different from the cavemen in history books. When Ryan had eaten his first meal after transmigrating months ago, he had to stop himself from vomiting all of the meat, however, after eating the meal repeatedly, he no longer felt like vomiting and the meat would simply leave an unpleasant aftertaste.

Ryan quickly ate the remainder of his meat before he sat cross legged next to the flames.

This was the typical position for meditating, Ryan then began absorbing mana from the atmosphere and began circulating it to parts of his body and some into his mana core.

Each day Ryan absorbed mana, this was what one had to do in order to advance. By absorbing mana continuously into the body then into the mana core before refining it, one could advance. Ryan with his C grade talent had a black mana core , the lowest grade to ever exist.

Ryan of course had learnt all of this from the books Wung Dao had scribed, but he was basically bridging the knowledge since he already had a bit of it from reading manga back on earth.

Ryan continued meditating for 2 more hours before stopping, the fire he had lit was long diminished

'I've been doing this for months now, yet I still have a black mana core, what a disgrace. I would have probably advanced like a shooting star if I had an A grade aptitude. And using 'that' to get rid of this problem will get me killed. Sigh, villains sure have it hard.'

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

That was Ryan's last thought as he fell asleep on the hard and cold cave floor.

***

Ryan woke up at dawn. in Doom forest - sleeping for two long as a guest was a guaranteed death.

Ryan quickly looked around the cave for any signs of danger and relaxing when he found that he was still alone in the cave. He buried the ash from the fire he had lit during the night under rocks and soil before cautiously walking out of the cave.

'Now then, what do I from here on?'

Ryan began speculating, he was supposed to be looking for a silver haired gorilla and could use the bees just like last time to find it or alternatively he could try hunting it by himself.

Using the bees was no doubt the simple and straight forward way.

'yeah, it's the simple, straight forward and easy way alright...'

Ryan bit his lower lip.

How could he hope to get stronger if all he did was take short cuts and detours around thorny paths. He wasn't graced with the hero title like those MCs in manga - easy way outs could only work out for them. They could slack off, have a harem or simply play around and things ended up working out fine for them in the end.

'Sooner or later someone is going to be after my head, the least I can do is gain some extra skills which might improve my chances of surviving'

Ryan finally decided on tracking the silver armed gorilla on his own and then resorting to the shortcut if it didn't work out.

Ryan finally walked into the entrance of the forest, stealthily hiding near a tree while being careful not to step on any object that stood out - in Doom Forest, even a rock could be a malevolent carnivorous monster.

'What do I know about the gorillas back on earth again? Hmm... they obviously have big muscles, hair all over their body and ugly faces'

Ryan tried remembering facts about gorillas and almost ended up laughing at how pathetic his knowledge was.

'No Ryan think - the knowledge is there; it always has been. It's just located in the deeper parts of your brain and you have to start digging vigorously for it. '

Ryan decided on closing his eyes and thinking deeply on what he knew about gorillas. He had read in some article that closing your eyes would help you remember better.

Ryan remembered that gorillas chose their leaders based on strength and dominance, the most powerful and domineering male would protect and guide the gorilla group up until it was time for it to be replaced. Ryan was amazed at how gorillas also had a complex system.

'Gorillas aren't that hard to figure out now that I think about it.'

Ryan finally opened his eyes and looked around the forest, noting how moist everything was.

'Gorillas like to live in moist areas, as moist areas with dense vegetation usually have various nutritious fruits.'

Even though Ryan had been in the dangerous forest for 6 days, he was more than certain he hadn't combed even half of the forest yet so his search would become pretty much lengthy.

'Unfortunately, this is a thorny path I must take.'

Ryan thought, he picked a broken stick and started drawing a map on the bare ground.

'Hmm , let me map every path and place I've been to or at least have seen ever since I arrived at the deeper part of this forest.'

Ryan drew a rectangle; this was a representation of his house. He then drew a vertical line with a circle on top, this was a representation of a tree. There were less trees surrounding the house and the area all around the house which it was still inside the forest but in a less dense part of the forest. He then drew two lines of equal length starting from his house and into an area with increasingly more dense trees, the two lines obviously represented a path.

There was an immediate detour around a large area after entering 5 metres into the deeper part of the forest, this was the area with vines which would launch themselves to entangle you before dragging you to who knew where if you stepped on them. Ryan marked this place with a huge oval marked with the words VINE. After the detour one just had to walk for 6 more minutes before they met the large bee hives hosting the monstrous bees. Ryan drew another oval and marked it with HIVE In the place of the hive.

Using the hive as a reference point as he stared at the map, to the left of it was a quiet pathway which eventually led to an exit out of the forest, there was a cave just 12 metres away from the entrance which Ryan had used for his night camping. Ryan drew another oval and marked it with CAVE where the cave was. To the right of the hive there was a pathway which led to the wild pig's resting place, a place that was once a habitat for their corpses. Trees in that part of the forest were more spread apart and Ryan had noted that the soil was moist enough to form mud puddles in some areas while dry in some. He left this area unmarked since it no longer hosted the pigs, he instead left an X

To the south of the hive, Ryan remembered meeting some sloths hidden in some of trees which ran for their lives from the crazed bees, the trees the sloths were hiding in looking very similar to palm trees but far larger. The sloths had evacuated from the place therefore it was less likely that they would come back for it , unless there were things of great sentimental value left behind or food, so Ryan marked this place with an X as well.

'Now then, I think that summarizes every place I've visited so far.'

Ryan glanced at his self-made map one last time before erasing it, unfortunately he couldn't just rip a chunk of the ground to allow him to conveniently carry the map with him - he just hadn't reached that level of power and skill yet.

'But at least I've managed to completely memorize it'

Ryan was rather happy with himself, the only thing that he was truly proud of ever since transmigrating was his memory. He was so good at remembering stuff that he thought his ability to remember was close to perfect recall. His senses had gradually improved too, meaning he could thoroughly pay more attention to detail when it came to absorbing information around him.

'The only good thing I have so far is probably my memory, I'll make sure to not just use but exhaust it, Hehe !'

Ryan remarked.

He immediately then started heading to the unexplored north of the hive, there was a silver haired monkey that needed to be hunted after all.

* * *

Doom forest had always been a place associated with death, murders and just simply otherworldly monsters people had once thought to only appear in nightmares.

Walking into doom forest was rather a task for the suicidal and people who even supported that idea were already locked up behind psychiatric hospitals.

In the rumors and many deaths that surrounded the place, people had died in quite several creatively brutal ways - from being dragged and torn apart by vines, to being eaten alive by predators. Human corpses that were left uneaten nearer to the outer parts of the forest were left in a bloodied and disfigured mess, that often it was hard to tell their face from their rest of their body - if the body was found in once piece.

One would think that with such an ominous and terrifying place around, surely the ones in lead of citizen protection would have done something about it by now. The truth was that not even knights and army forces dared to approach Doom Forest. There was however a time when knights and soldiers weren't so cautious, they had attempted raiding the place.

Mankind was rather a curious and greedy creature; with just the rumor of there being an area in the middle of doom forest covered with dense mana, artifacts and hidden skills - it was enough for the government of Eldoria to attempt a raid in hopes of attaining great treasures.

It had ended in a tragedy.

Of the 80 soldiers that had been sent to comb the small-mountain sized Doom forest - only one came back alive, and even he had survived by being lucky enough to be sent back to deliver a message before the Doom Forest raid began.

That man was named Almezo , and immediately after the horrific event Almezo had abandoned his soldier duties to work as a guard under a rich family of nobles.

Almezo on that particular day had been given the task of escorting and protecting two children from a crude village and into the noble house of the Winchesters.

Almezo as a guard didn't like to pry to the scandals of nobles, but he couldn't help overhearing from the gossiping maids that the two children he was escorting back were infact the illegitimate children of the cheating head of Winchesters.

One of them, was a boy named Damian, and the other was a sweet looking girl named Charlotte.

The two didn't seem quite elated to be there with him.

" Brother, are you sure we should have followed these men? what if they aren't nice but mean and plan to do cruel stuff to us later?"

Charlotte whispered to her brother, Damian, who simply rolled an eye hearing his sister's concerned remark.

" If they wanted to do something bad to us, they would have done so a long ago. And do you actually think thieves and bad people would own a good-looking carriage as this? "

Damian, the blonde questioned, pointing at the wagon they were currently in which had streaks of gold and silver artistically blended into it. There was also something painted on the outside of the wagon which looked similar to what the knights had in their chests in the stories Damian had once read. Why would thieves go through the trouble of specifically getting them when they lived in a faraway village?

Before his sister could say something to refute, Damian swiftly dealt the finishing blow.

" Plus, that other strong looking guy knew exactly what our names were and who our mother was... "

Damian said, a bit of bitterness lingering with the mention of his mother.

Their mother had died just a month ago and Damian and his sister were forced to survive by stealing and begging on the streets. They wouldn't have managed to last long when cold winter came.

" I know that you're scared of going to the big and busy city, I am scared too you know. "

Damian said words of encouragement to his sister as he patted her on the head -

" But don't worry, I'll always be by your side so you can trust your big brother to beat up the bad guys if the time comes. "

Damian bravely said with a big smile, pointing at his chest where his ribcage could be traced with the naked eye.

Charlotte finally smiled hearing her brother's words, deciding to place her trust in him.

Damian looked outside as the wagon passed a cave which had visible dried blood splattered nearby its entrance, possibly a human's.

He just hoped that the dark and gloomy forest didn't brutally claim their lives before the big city could be given the chance to.