Once Tom exited the area cleared for the city's development, he walked straight into the forest.

He saw how multiple paths were forming in the forest. People had clearly excitedly studied all of these new plants. He could see multiple spots from where plants had been dug out, leaving behind clear holes in the forest floor. Most likely, the culprits were people trying their luck and seeing if any of them were worth anything.

The forest was full of plants, trees, and brushes he couldn't identify. He was quite sure that he had never seen any of them before. Sure, they were mostly green like on Earth, but that was where the similarities ended.

One plant stuck out to him more than the others, it had just a single leaf and its stem was circling upwards. It was like spring with a leaf inside of it. He poked at it, and it acted almost like a spring, always coming back up and keeping itself upright and protecting the leaf.

After that, he studied a couple of more fascinating plants, and then he kept on walking. There were multiple paths, most going diagonally along with the city's border, and only some going deeper into the forest. Tom kept on following the paths that led him further away from the city, slowly but surely closing the distance between him and the river.

The closer he got to the river, the denser the forest got, and he saw more and more different plants. The biodiversity was just mind-boggling. He could imagine how countless biologists could spend years just studying this small part of the forest.

There were countless new plants, all there just waiting for someone to study them, giving humanity a chance to learn from superior ecosystems.

Tom had seen multiple people doing just that, carefully studying plants and collecting some of them. It was like the wild west. Everything was up for grasp, just waiting for the first person who saw it, to claim it. But then again, Tom couldn't blame them. Because that was exactly what he was doing, he was just going after a bigger and deadlier prey.

Soon enough, he started hearing the rushing water, he knew he had to be close. And sure enough, after couple more minutes of walking, he saw it. The path had led him to the bank of the river. The river was around seven meters wide, and the water was rushing by at a speed that would surely take any man with it.

Clearly, this was one of the spots where one of the brave souls had a vent to explore the other side of the river, as there was a tree felled over it, forming a makeshift bridge. However, onto its surface was carved. "STOP!" " ONLY DEATH AWAITS!" "DANGER!".

The message was quite clear, he was about to do something exceptionally stupid. Sure he was better than the average Joe, but could that make him capable of competing with the monsters that invoke only despair in the adventurers that came before him?

He shoved his doubts away and stepped onto the tree's trunk. He knew that nothing was truly free. All he had gained in the Secverse had come with a price paid in blood and pain. And sadly, he didn't see any changes happening to this trend anytime soon.

Tom slowly walked across the felled tree. Noticing that with all of his body's upgrades, his balance had increased without him even realizing it. This more than anything, made him realize that he had no idea what was his current limit, or what all he could do.

Once he started thinking of this as an opportunity to find out what was the culmination of all of his efforts in the Secverse, this dangerous undertaking didn't seem so bleak anymore.

Would he be just another poor soul who would be driven out of the forest in pieces, or would he be able to thrive in there, unlocking his full potential?

Once he was on the other side of the river, he could clearly tell that the air was much heavier. He could feel how it was already pressuring him. This was something he had never felt before. Sure beneath the mountain in the lower chamber, the air had been full of earth mana, but this was somehow different. The air wasn't just full of one type of mana. No, this was a beautiful mix of countless different types of mana dancing among each other. And the mana he felt most in the air, felt neutral? Like it was there just waiting to influence anything that it came in contact with.

He almost shuddered once it hit him. The mountain that had just one room with this kind of concentration of mana had produced that many strong golems, then just what would wait for him in a who knows how big of a forest, just bathing in mana.

Tom drew his swords, holding them like they were the only thing between him and certain death, and started making his way forward. This time he could feel a fear creeping up on him, but he forced himself to continue.

The stories of the monster attacking from the trees, just like a predator, claiming their prices in a hearth beat, put him on the edge. He was scanning all of his surroundings, his head spinning like it had a mind of its own.

Once he was somewhat deep inside the forest, he hid his backpack in the underbrush, deciding to scout things out first before fully committing. If the stories of this place were even remotely real, he would need every advantage he could give himself.

Oh, how he hoped for a better form of storage. He was sure that there had to be one, as he had personally witnessed how a smaller object had much more space inside of it, like the traders' ship. However, the list of things he had to spend credits on was already too long, so he could only mark it as another thing he should look into.

As he walked, he did his best to be as quiet as possible. However, he wasn't that good at it. He would periodically step on some leaves or sticks, making some noise. He couldn't concentrate on it, as most of his focus was on everything else than what he was stepping on, and that was the only thing that saved his life.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Just as Tom accidentally stepped on another stick, that made a cracking noise, making Tom grind his teeth and freeze on the spot, listening to his surroundings, making sure that some creature wasn't just rushing towards him. However, before he could look at his feet and plan out his next steps, he saw in his peripheral vision as a shadow dropped from a tree coming toward him.

He didn't even have time to register what was happening, his mind jumped into upper gear on its own. He started dropping down, falling away from it, while placing his swords in front of his head to protect it.

His fast reaction barely saved him. The shadow shot through the spot where his head had been just moments before. As Tom turned around to look at what had attacked him, the shadow was already gone. It had disappeared faster than Tom could even turn his head.

He could clearly see why most humans had perished without knowing what had gotten them. As even he couldn't get a good look at it, even when he was boosting his mental functions.

Tom stayed still for a good five minutes looking everywhere, scanning each and every tree and brush, trying to caths a glimpse of the monster. He just spun around on the spot, holding his swords up and reacting to every sound he heard.

But alas, he became a target of a true ambush predator, in whose veins ran tirelessly stalking their prey, only striking when it was advantageous to them.

Tom was trying to figure out what could he do? He was in a disadvantageous situation. His opponent was in its natural habitat, slowly waiting for him to make a mistake, and meanwhile, he didn't even know what it looked it. He was fighting a losing battle by staying still. He was constantly wasting his willpower, keeping his mind on high alert, just in case the monster made its move.

He needed to do something else, but he couldn't think of any way to turn the tables on this monster, as he couldn't keep on staying still and waiting for his willpower to run out. However, neither could he keep on moving forwards, as he had no idea what kind of environment he would run into, and he was clearly in the creature's natural habitat.

Tom quickly waived all of his options and concluded that his only way to beat this monster was somehow bait it to attack him. He started making his way backwards, hoping that the monster didn't wish to lose its meal. He roughly knew what kind of environment he could expect, even if he didn't remember it that clearly, as he had spent most of his time looking for anything that was moving.

He was making his way back toward the river, anxiously looking around, doing his best to preserve as much willpower as he could. The creature had been much more devious than Tom had given it credit for. The first five minutes of his retreat, it had periodically shoved itself, jumping from tree to tree. Other times it just made some noise behind a brush keeping Tom on the edge. After that, while he had retreated, the nearer he got to the river, the creatures' appearances lessened, and once he had reached the halfway point, they had stopped.

This didn't give him any hope. No, on the contrary, he was even more worried. The creature was clearly smart, as it had made each moment of his retreat a pure torment, wearing Tom out.

But now that he saw nor heard nothing, it was thousand times worst. At least before, he was sure he was still being stalked, but now, he had no idea if the creature had given up, or if this was just another of its sick tricks.

After another five minutes, Tom wanted that the creature would attack, as the pressure was getting to him, making him ridiculously jumpy, reacting each time the wind rustled the leaves, or he heard another suspicious sound.

Tom had tried multiple times to fake the creature into attacking him by stumbling down on roots or just not looking in the direction he heard a sound from, but it hadn't worked. The creature was clearly more than willing to just wait.

Then he heard another rustle of leaves from above, and he immediately looked upwards, but at the same, he stepped into a hole covered by the underbrush, tripping him. And this time, it wasn't a controlled fall where he immediately spun onto his back while brandishing his swords upwards, blocking anyone that would be taking advantage of his misfortune. No, this time he stumbled forwards, catching his fall with his other leg, stopping himself from falling over. However, he was crouched over, trying to stay upright, both of his hands down, ready to catch his fall. And like the creature had planned the whole thing, it attacked. Tom just heard a small swish from behind him. He didn't see it, but he knew that the sound could be nothing else than the creature coming to finish him.

He stopped trying to stop his fall, hoping that the creature was aiming for his head once again, doing his best to spin around while falling. But the best he could manage was to fall on his side, bringing one of his blades between his head and the monster. However, it wasn't aiming for his head. He saw how it landed on his leg, and he felt how something sharp pierced his leg and only stopped once it hit his bone, and then the creature was already jumping away. But before it could escape, Tom kicked at it with his other leg.

And to his surprise, the half-meter-long dark green creature that had the front part of a badger and the back legs of a rabbit on steroids, its front legs both had one ten-centimeter long razor-sharp blade, and one of them was still firmly in his flesh, grinding against his bone.

Tom had finally got his lucky break, as its nail was inside of him, so when he kicked at it its jump was foiled, and it didn't go anywhere, his own flesh stopping its sideways momentum. At the same time, his sword was already swinging toward it, and it cleanly cut through its front leg which was firmly lodged into his flesh.

However, the creature didn't let out any sound, almost like evolution had created an ambush predator so good that it had even taken away its ability to make any sound. Then the creature shot towards the forest, disappearing back into its kingdom.

Tom looked at his leg, where the creature's front leg still was lodged in, a black liquid leaking out of it. It had easily cut through his leather armor and muscles, only his bone had managed to stop its momentum. He didn't dare to spend any time checking on the wound, he trusted that the blade would stop most of his blood from leaking out.

After a minute of just waiting and listening, Tom knew he had to do something to his leg to stop himself from bleeding out, so he decided to risk it. He yanked the arm out of his leg and placed his hand on the wound and the other in his pocket where he kept the bigger golems core, where it was waiting for him, as it was only a bit larger than a golf ball once all the ore had been cleaned of it.

He quickly drew energy from it and guided it into his leg. The trader had sold him some healing potions, as it had explained to Tom how wasteful it was to use a core just to fix his injuries, especially once his body had been transformed, as the energy requirements naturally went up with the complexity of the organism.

However, at the moment, Tom didn't care about mid-maxing his finances, he only wanted to fix his leg as fast as he could, but no attack came. He waited another five minutes before he finally got up, and he saw a trail of black blood leading back toward the place he had retreated from, the blood nicely staining the pristine green leaves with it, clearly sticking out.

Tom muttered, "The hunter becomes the hunted." and started moving.