A couple of months before Evelyn appeared, Michael was alone in Teremarae. He had Bob with him but at the time, Bob wasn’t very proficient in sign language yet so he was basically a very adorable house pet that did nothing but make cute noises, eat his stores of food, poop everywhere, and take a long sleep. It took some time before Bob could give Michael any semblance of human-like companionship.

For a long time, Michael was incredibly lonely. It didn’t help that he was surrounded by monsters that want to eat him and the looming threat of the Draco’s territorial expansion.

To offset this overwhelming isolation, Michael poured all of his energy into expanding and improving his home.

Creating a home from nothing without any proper tools or experience was nothing short of an impossible task. An average person doesn’t have the physical ability or the knowledge to create a home in a forest or jungle, much less in a completely untamed world like Teremarae.

Fortunately, Michael was neither physically incapable nor lacking in knowledge.

His first order of business was to gather building materials. Luckily enough, Michael was sent into a forest. He had an abundance of building materials.

Cutting trees would usually take a large amount of time for normal people, even if they were to have tools but at this point in time, Michael was already a superhuman. If needed, he could forgo sleep and focus his efforts on working.

Michael didn’t like the lonesome feeling of staring at his room’s ceiling while lying in bed so he devoted all of his time to working. He worked from dawn to dawn, with only three to four hours of sleep in between. When he’s feeling particularly lonely, he would work for two days straight and sleeps the next day.

At dawn, Michael wakes up and works out. After working up a sweat, he would quickly clean himself then he would prepare food for Bob and teach him sign language. Once Bob is done with his daily pavlovian-taught lessons, Michael then checked his tools for maintenance. After maintaining all of his tools, he then does a perimeter check to ensure that no creature entered his home’s territory.

At this point, the sun rises and it’s morning. Once the sun is up, the dangerous nocturnal ambush-type creatures that prowl in Teremarae’s forests go into hiding. Without the unnecessary danger of facing nocturnal hunters, Michael goes down the waterfall to forage the nearby area for fruits, herbs, and mushrooms. And if possible, he also tries to gather rare animal material for his drug creation.

After a hefty haul, Michael returns to the waterfalls to properly store everything. Before lunch, Michael rushes back down to go for a hunt. At this point in time, the Draco’s territory was mostly the same as when it recently finished its spontaneous evolution. Due to that, he didn’t have to avoid specific areas of the forest.

When it was noon, Michael was usually still outside hunting. If he felt tired, he would look for a safe and secluded area in the forest to take a nap. His superhuman senses would warn him if something dangerous was about to attack him. The only time his senses would fail him was when his enemy was faster than him.

After a quick power nap, Michael would stretch to remove all the sleepiness in his body. At this point, Michael had two choices. If he didn’t hunt enough animals for his and Bob’s needs, he would spend a few more hours looking for edible creatures. If he was satisfied with his haul, he would instead explore the area to chart it down with the log. At this point in time, Michael hasn’t memorized the forest and needed a way to navigate it.

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He also made sure to log down any new animal, plant, or material he encountered. But this was a very hard task because there were times that Michael would find an evolved creature or inadvertently cause an evolution. When he finds a dangerous evolved creature, he hunts it down, kills it, and erases its very existence. After all, a creature that evolves can cause other creatures of the same species to evolve as well.

Michael had to make sure that there would never be another Draco.

Fortunately enough, Michael’s unfettered determination to commit genocide on evolving creatures was impeccable and he managed to reduce the number of creatures that reached the superspecies category.

But despite all of his efforts, Michael couldn’t be everywhere all the time.

Unable to watch every part of the forest, Michael realized too late that a creature has evolved into the superspecies stage.

The Batan titan.

Michael accidentally saw the Batan during one of his hunts. He recognized it as an abnormal creature that was clearly above every other animal hunted. He immediately tried to kill it but the result was broken tools and an almost shattered body.

In addition to the Batan titan’s unbelievable strength, Michael was clearly unprepared. He lost miserably against the superspecies.

The Batan titan was a four-limbed creature that stood taller than the Draco on all four legs. Its body had a tough carapace that could weather a storm of powerful attacks delivered by Michael’s strength. And without the strength of steel, Michael had no way of harming the Batan titan.

Other than its unbelievable toughness, the Batan titan’s body housed a secret weapon. The Draco’s powerful limbs were able to shatter stone and rend wood but it didn't have the flexibility or grace of fingers. Inside the Batan titan’s body were dozens of meaty tentacles that were used to grab flowers, leaves, and fruits to feed its massive appetite.

Michael had to learn the hard way that the Batan titan not only used its tentacles to eat but also defend itself from would-be predators. The tentacles were used to batter Michael into the ground, into the trees, and into a nearby lake. It didn’t help that the Batan titan was a naturally curious creature and didn’t hold back against Michael who had to suffer both physical trauma and humiliation. After realizing that the Batan titan was inherently peaceful, Michael left it alone.

Once the moon started rising and the light was starting to disappear, Michael made the trek back home.

On the way home, Michael would visit areas that had rare night-time only materials. If he was lucky, he would be able to bring home some rare game or unique herbs. Once he was back home, Michael would prepare food for himself and Bob. He would also do a quick sweep of their home’s perimeter.

Non-superspecies are terrified of Michael’s territory so they leave Bob and Michael alone.

At dinner time, Michael and Bob would eat whatever food Michael prepared that night. It could be cooked vegetables, roasted meat, or sliced fruits. Once they were done eating, Michael would teach Bob again to reinforce whatever he taught in the morning.

Once Bob managed to memorize some signs, even one or two, Michael would tuck him to sleep. Bob still liked being tucked into bed even now.

Michael does this routine every day.

He made sure to keep himself busy but even if he worked every second, he was always unsatisfied. Despite pushing himself, Michael felt restless.

Instead of trying to sleep, Michael would rather do other things. Instead of resting, he would exercise. Instead of meditating, he would make more weapons. Instead of sitting down, he would practice fighting. Only after completely exhausting everything he could do, Michael would finally go to sleep.

Even when he falls asleep, Michael’s dreams were plagued by a form of training. He would be inside a forest that had large trees and a looming dark sky. Shadowy creatures roamed the forest, hunting down Michael, in the hopes of slaughtering him. Michael constantly fought these creatures just so he could wake up.

He could never fully relax, his body wouldn’t give him the chance. It was as if he feared being idle.

This lifestyle continued for Michael. He woke up, taught Bob, hunted for food, killed evolving creatures, hunting for rare ingredients, cooked dinner, fed Bob, tired himself out, and eventually fell asleep.

Then Evelyn came.

Michael was constantly working and while it was tiring, he didn’t inherently dislike it. Evelyn’s sudden appearance in his life changed a lot of things. He had to consider training her, feeding her, and most importantly, socializing with another human.

With her watching his back, Michael could afford to rest a bit more. They shared their burdens and responsibilities. Evelyn made life a bit easier. He welcomed the change.

For the first time in a while, Michael could sleep without having to fight the shadowy creatures of his mind.

His life was more peaceful and relaxing. While he was more productive alone, he was definitely saner with Evelyn around.

As of late, the only time Michael returned to being restless was when they both confessed to each other. He stayed up an entire night because of that.

But he was happy. He wanted this far more than his previous life.

And he’s using this as his reason to fight.