Erin fixated his attention on the knife lying on the ground, his gaze avoiding the jewel embedded in his right hand. The entire situation, including the jewel, sent shivers down his spine.

He picked up a nearby rock and cautiously tapped the knife, hoping for any tangible response from this cursed object.

*ting*

To his relief, it responded just like any ordinary metal knife would.

He prodded it with his foot and felt the familiar cold, metallic sensation he would expect from any regular iron tool.

Summoning his courage, Erin extended his left hand towards the knife, deliberately avoiding contact with his jeweled right hand. As he expected, the seemingly simplistic black metal knife felt too light, almost as if it were made of aluminum or hollow inside. Its resounding clink exposed this deceptive appearance.

‘Perhaps it's very weak?’

Determined to test its durability, he retrieved the stone from earlier and struck the knife's handle with moderate force, ensuring not to damage the blade.

*ting*

To his astonishment, the knife remained unscathed, devoid of even a single scratch.

“I don’t believe it.”

*TANG*

“AGH”

A dull thud denounced his defiant strike, but all he achieved was a broken stone in his hand and a painful sensation in his palm.

‘There’s a scratch’

But then, he was hit by a mix of disappointment and awe, realizing that the apparent scratch consisted of stone particles from the knife's previous abuse.

Curiosity piqued, he picked up the knife with his jeweled hand, but once again, there was no reaction. He then approached the nearest tree, eager to test its sharpness. To his amazement, a deep gash, resembling the work of a sword, was revealed.

"It's sharp! But perhaps the tree is unusually soft?"

*thunk*

"Nope."

He struck the tree with his left hand and felt the expected hardness of regular wood.

Without a doubt, the culprit was in his hand, quite literally.

In his quest for further exploration, Erin decided to test his knife-throwing skills. He aimed carefully and successfully hit the target twice out of three attempts. However, an astonishing revelation awaited him when he missed the tree on his final throw. To his astonishment, the knife, just moments away from reaching a certain distance, disintegrated into minuscule particles. These particles swiftly reassembled themselves in his hand, resembling a swarm of microscopic bees.

“Wow, that’s so…”

Abruptly, a wave of weakness and hunger engulfed Erin, and he instinctively understood that the morphing, deconstruction, and reconstruction of the metal carried a cost.

"Damn, couldn't you have mentioned that earlier?"

Although he muttered, there was no response.

Despite the unforeseen consequence, a flicker of hope ignited within Erin. This newfound ability sparked a multitude of ideas in his mind, fueling his determination to explore its potential further.

"Now food is really becoming a problem"

Erin admitted, taking a moment to steady himself. Sustenance was now his utmost concern.

Under certain circumstances, a regular child could, at most, survive for over a week without food. However, considering his weakened state, the urgency of finding nourishment intensified drastically. What had initially seemed like a non-critical concern for at least two days now felt like it would haunt him within a mere two hours.

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"What are my options?"

Hunting seemed unrealistic in his current childlike body, and fishing without a fishing pole appeared equally challenging. The only possibility would be setting traps, although that might take hours, and he lacked knowledge about the local flora and fauna in this unfamiliar place.

‘Traps it is…’

Looking around, his desire to just gnaw at the trees seemed to be intensifying as the hunger dominated over him. Of course, he wouldn’t do it… yet.

In search of relief, Erin made his way back to the creek, hoping to quench his thirst. The sensation of the relentless pebbles under his soles served as a constant reminder of his dire predicament. Crouching down, he readied himself to scoop water into his cupped hands.

However, as he extended his hand towards the water's surface, his eyes widened at the sight of a pair of deep yellow eyes staring back at him from below. The menacing laughter of death seemed to reverberate in his ears, causing his hand to freeze in mid-air.

Erin quickly realized that he was not the sole victim of hunger in this desolate place.

*SPLASH*

Without warning, an enormous eel-like creature lunged towards him, its target set on his vulnerable neck. Reacting purely on instinct, he agilely sidestepped the attack, narrowly escaping the jaws of the serpent-like beast. In the process, the creature's sharp teeth grazed his ear, inflicting a deep and painful cut.

With surprising agility, the monstrous beast sailed past Erin, landing in a grassy area beneath the tree he had just slashed. It began to slither menacingly towards him, closing the distance with an unfair speed. It was then that realization struck him: his knife was nowhere to be found. Unknowingly, he had set it aside while preparing to scoop water.

The beast came into full view, its appearance, nightmarish. Its scaly dark green body, accompanied by sharp teeth, instilled fear in Erin's heart. The creature measured approximately three meters in length, boasting a robust build and a dorsal fin resembling that of an eel, albeit much sturdier. It was nearly as thick as Erin himself.

Without warning, the serpent-like enemy launched another attack, but this time it was easier for Erin to evade. The beast seemed determined to make him its meal. Dodging towards the forest, Erin seized a couple of stones and hurled one at the creature, hoping to ward it off. However, his action only served to infuriate the beast further.

*SWISH*

To his astonishment, instead of launching another attack, the creature opened its mouth and forcefully expelled a jet of pressurized water towards Erin.

"ARRRRGH, YOU FUCKING..."

He grimaced with pain as the water felt like a punch delivered to his stomach. Seizing the opportunity, the giant eel closed in on him, attempting to have a piece of human meat as an appetizer. Reacting swiftly, the defenseless Erin leaped to the side once again, but this time he landed awkwardly on his side, grazing his ribs against the rough terrain.

With death looming ever closer, he made a daring decision to seize the moment and go all in.

Focusing intensely, he visualized the knife transforming back into a protective glove just as the creature lunged towards his vulnerable arm. Willingly surrendering his hand, a swarm of particles crowded in from the side, coinciding with the giant eel's attempt to bite down.

*THONK*

A dull thud echoed, providing reassurance of the glove's protective nature and resistance he had just doubted.

The thrashing beast exerted immense brute force, nearly tearing off Erin's arm. Yet, suddenly, it came to an abrupt halt, blood trickling from its mouth.

"You..."

Erin gasped for breath, his voice filled with exhaustion.

"Should have aimed for the neck."

As his vision blurred and his weakening body faltered, he withdrew his hand from the creature's mouth.

His hand remained shielded by the glove, except for a small portion that exposed his middle finger. In a do-or-die moment, Erin willed that portion to transform into an elongated pick, a simple yet lethal weapon. With a surge of determination, he thrust the improvised weapon deep into the beast's head.

He quickly withdrew his hand from the creature's head, inspecting his middle finger. It throbbed with pain, but he couldn't tell if it was broken or simply injured.

Erin's head was assaulted by pain as if razor blades had been thrust inside and vigorously shaken. Although it was a far cry from the excruciating pain that he had experienced upon awakening at the creek bank, he now had a faint understanding of what had subjected him to such torment.

Feeling feeble and disoriented, his gaze landed on the lifeless body of the beast before him, while his stomach screamed for nourishment.

Kneeling down, Erin discarded his modern sensibilities and utilized the still-intact elongated pick to tear through the scales on the beast's back. With his fleeting strength, the task seemed insurmountable, but his cockroach's undying will guided him through the grueling ordeal.

After exerting enough effort, he finally punctured a hole through the creature's natural armor. Suppressing his remaining shreds of humanity and awakening his primal instincts, he lunged at the raw meat before him. The warmth of the creature's body made him nearly retch, and he would have if his stomach contained anything other than gastric juices.

“Looks like shit and tastes just as it looks.”

It had a strong taste of spoiled fish. But he assumed it tasted better than the tree bark, grass, leaves, or the possibly poisonous fruit in the distance. Well, the raw thing he was eating could also be unsafe, but his options had dwindled.

To his surprise, with each bite he took, a semblance of strength returned to him, almost instantaneously, as the sustenance entered his system. The rancid metallic smell of the meat induced waves of nausea, but Erin knew that perseverance was his only path to survival.

With each bite, Erin consumed the creature, persevering through the limits of his endurance. He pushed himself beyond what he thought was possible.

When he could no longer bear to consume another morsel, he transformed the tool back into a knife, feeling a surge of renewed energy coursing through his veins. The nourishment he had gained had replenished a portion of his depleted strength.

"No five-star review for this place”

With a touch of dark humor, he acknowledged the harsh and unforgiving nature of his surroundings.