The jungle devoid of animals and sounds was replaced by a dense forest filled with life. Birds, critters and tiny bugs all were making noise. That was so until their home was invaded by a band of monsters, spiders bigger than they had any right to be. At the sight of a new predator, the forest grew quiet.

“Oh come on!” He was eager to meet an animal, or anything at all. “I guess we are just too noisy.”

A nearby bush rustled followed by an angry roar. A black four-legged beast jumped out of it. It was big, the size of a horse, and it was muscular like an ox, but quite obviously it wasn’t a herbivore since Its maw was filled with sharp fangs.

For whatever reason it was enraged by the mere presence of these spiders. It was ready and roaring for a fight so it went and snatched a spider much smaller than himself. With a sickening crunch, it was crushed between its fangs and then spat out. All of this happened in a blink of a second.

“No!” He wasn’t all too happy about the development.

His little spiders shared the sentiment.

“Attack!” He made a roar of his own.

In his hand, he had only a stone spear. His mind was clouded by anger and a sense of loss.

The forest beast leapt fearlessly right towards him. The two roared at each other, and then he jabbed at the murderer. The beast sidestepped to a side and swiped its paw at him. His scale armour deflected the blow no problem but the force sent him stumbling back.

He wasn’t the only one to be enraged enough to engage this beast, his spiders jumped into the fray; quite literally. They were only little compared to this forest beast but still, they were the size of large dogs. The forest beast got more than it had bargained for. It snapped and swiped its claws at the jumping spiders but all too soon it was swarmed from all sides. The spiders grabbed at the beast, mandibles locking on whatever they could and then they pulled.

The beast roared in defiance and shook a few spiders off its body and turned to run, but it was all too late. The spider who so much loved to clear the jungle bit the beast's leg off with its wide and powerful mandibles. The beast stumbled and the spiders coming from all sides ripped at its flesh once again. Overwhelmed the beast came apart in large chunks like a shattered puzzle piece.

“Take that!” He jabbed the spear at the motionless remains needlessly.

[Fighting +5 exp]

With the knowledge it was over he directed his look at disassembled parts, there wasn’t much of the beast left. Its once black and pristine fur was now full of holes and slashes made by mandibles. If anything useful was left it was only its fangs, but it wasn’t a time for looting.

“This is more than we bargained for.” He had finally realised the dangers. “Should we turn back?” He looked for advice.

The spiders chirped at him in high tunes which were oddly jubilant.

“No, we can’t celebrate now…” He looked anxiously at the forest. “But you are right it’s too early to turn our tail and run. Into formation!”

The spiders surrounded him obediently, two of their kind offered to act as the scouts and skittered further in front of the group.

“So then you want to, you can understand…” He smiled feeling more secure being surrounded by his creatures. “Let me just take this as a trophy.” With great effort, he managed to pull a fang from the severed head, and then he pulled another; the two were the size of a dagger.

[Apex Fang] x 2.

The fangs seemed to be significant.

“Loot?” He wondered.

There was still so much he was unfamiliar with about this world, and if he stayed on his farm he would remain ignorant.

“Okay, let's be careful about this. We will probe slowly.” He directed the group.

As they moved further into the forest they met several animals, but nothing like that fanged beast. Actually, there wasn’t any fighting, the animals opted out to run most of the time. If they didn’t run they did other things, things like…

A white squirrel with two tails was laying on the floor with its belly exposed and its paws high in the air; pretending to be dead.

“What are you doing?” He approached the critter. “I know you aren’t dead.” He shrugged.

Then he stabbed at the squirrel with his spear. He was quick about it and it didn’t even have time to make a sound.

[Fighting +1000exp]

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For some reason, it gave him an obscene amount of exp. He shrugged at the mysteries of the system.

“Sorry, you are my dinner.” Humans were a part of nature and nature was cruel like that; also, he was hungry.

His stomach rumbled giddy at the prospect of meat. He couldn’t rush this, it had to be done properly. He used the tools he had prepared just for this and meticulously cleaned and skinned the white squirrel.

[Guardian’s Pelt].

The pelt had an odd name, but despite that little detail, the fur was snow white and silky smooth. It would make a perfect hat or a set of gloves. He tucked it into the sack for safekeeping.

Then he skewered a cleaned squired using a stick and began roasting it over the fire. By the way, he had learned how to do it through numerous days of practice, it’s just that he didn’t really need it; there was nothing to cook.

A pleasant aroma filled the air. There was a rustle coming from a nearby tree. He looked up – cautions.

“Someone wants to steal my food?” He pointed in the general direction of the disturbance.

A spider went up a tree to investigate. Whatever it was, it was already gone.

The first bite of meat was divine. He didn’t know he had missed protein so much.

“You want some?” He offered to one of his companions.

It came closer to inspect the morsel in the palm, it rolled it in between its mandibles getting a good feel, but it never went into its mouth. The spider, content with its investigation, stepped away.

“I knew you were vegetarians! Good.” He exclaimed in relief. “I reckon we can find fruits and roots for you to eat. Let's have a look.”

…

After an intense search, much digging and harvesting he had a few sacks full of forest bounty. However, it was no surprise that his spiders didn’t want to eat that either. By now it was obvious that their preferred food was TomGrape and its derivatives unless he found something full of sugars.

So was the expedition a success? – Perhaps, but the day wasn’t over yet, so he pushed forward.

His forces didn’t have another worthy challenger. That was until he found himself in the clearing. The cleared space was of significant length and at the end of it was a sturdy palisade with towers and a gate. The wood making the walls was thick, and the individual timbers twisted around each other as if they were hugging. The trees weren’t chopped to make this palisade, they were grown to form a wall.

“Civilisation!” He had found the first people.

He looked at the towers. They weren’t the towers of a conventional design. A few sturdy trees towered above the wall and on their top weren’t the tree crown but a nest of branches. The nest was hollow and inside it there were people. From the distance, he couldn’t tell their exact appearance but they looked human enough.

There were numerous guards in the towers, keeping a keen eye on the clearing. The place seemed to be on high alert.

“Do they expect trouble?” He worried for a moment.

He wanted to run to them and finally make some friends. But then he realized that his spiders would follow and that probably would lead to a misunderstanding. He watched the wooden gate while hiding in a bush and wondered how to proceed.

“I might need to come another time. Maybe prepare some gifts.”

Maybe he should have trusted these people more and just went to say hello. Regardless, he’d decided to go home this time.

On his trip back a small event had happened. A pack of what resembled boars crossed his exploration party’s path. The forest animals had their young with them and must have panicked, so they attacked. The numbers were roughly equal on each side.

A large boar, likely the leader of the pack charged at him. He had planted his feet firmly into the ground and raised his spear to break the charge. The Boar slammed into the spear and the stone tip sunk deep into its side and the spear shaft shattered, however, it wasn’t too bothered by it and completed the charge. He felt the slam and was sent flying landing on his back slightly winded.

“Uhh…” He let out a groan.

Nothing seemed to be broken. The Boar was glaring at him in agitation, its front hoof ripped the green moss out of the ground; it was readying itself for another charge.

“No, you don’t.” He quickly stuffed his arm in his backpack looking for something to defend himself with.

Of course, he still had the two of [Apex Fang]. He wielded both like daggers in his hands. The Boar charged and he was able to dodge it just barely. That’s when he jumped at the boar’s back and sunk his daggers into its sides. The boar squealed and trashed trying to throw him off its back. By luck his right dagger must have hit something and was firmly wedged inside the boar, that was why he was able to hold on while The Boar dragged him all around the forest floor. It wasn’t pleasant, but that was it; the scale armour protected him from scratches and abrasions.

The left dagger was loose, but only for a while. He used it to repeatedly stab into the animal's flesh. The animal was very resilient but in the end it tired and collapsed onto the ground.

“Phew.” He breathed out in relief. “Hunting boars is difficult!”

[Fighting +50 exp].

He had finally had a chance to look at how the rest of his party was faring. One of the spiders was flung into the air by a fat boar but as soon as it landed it didn’t seem to be damaged at all; all thanks to the sturdy carapace. Similar scenes repeated all over. The pack of boars was energetic but in the end, they failed to do any meaningful damage to his spiders and were mercilessly wiped out. A few of his spiders were limping but that was it.

“Well, done guys!” He cheered proudly.

The spiders chirped in unison celebrating their victory. They were the giddiest he had ever seen them to be.

Six of the young survived the slaughter and were running confused while squealing sharply out of fear. It was good that spiders didn’t see them as a treat so he was able to capture little boars. It was sad that their parents had to die, but it was the way of nature where the strong eat the weak.

“Now, it’s looting time!” He gathered his tools.

They were too far from their farm to have use of all of the meat; It would just spoil before they came back. The spiders weren’t interested in it so he only took a few chunks for his dinner. The pelts were a different story because he could take them. By skinning them he had obtained [Boar Pelt], now he understood the classification, the blue meant that it was a crafting material.

The furry pelts had a lot of thick skin in them, and would likely make good leather. He had some knowledge of how to do it. For leather making, he will need bark, some brain from the boars, other minor things, and plenty of time.

By the time he had finished, it was already dark. Walking through the forest in darkness was a sure way to get lost. So he made a camp nearby. He had laid in his cloth sleeping bag for a good sleep but the spiders must have had other plans. For some reason, they picked him up in his sleeping bag and began carrying him towards the jungle.

“I didn’t know this was an option.”

The spiders just chirped as if to say not to worry.