Tom slowly climbed up the hill, his eyes scanning everything he could see. When he could finally see the clearing on top of the hill. Sure enough, there the body was. However, its hand was clearly in a different position.
When Tom took another look at the corpse, he noticed that the midriff looked much better than last time. It wasn't entirely rotten and black, nor was it the same wooden brown as the rest of the corpse. It now looked gray, but the wood was clearly alive. Tom could visibly see how the vibrantly brown wood was slowly turning gray. Clearly, something fantastical was happening right before his eyes, and Tom was so very captivated by it.
As Tom stared at the phenomena happening in front of him. He completely forgot about his fears and ignored the fact that the creature was wearing his face and body. This was something truly unique. This was what he had always wanted. Completely new word with new rules just waiting to be explored. This was the proof for him that broke the camel's back. There was something magical in the universe that humanity didn't know anything about, and he was one of the first who had the opportunity to learn more about it. He felt how his worries eased considerably as if an invisible weight had been lifted from his shoulders. This was the proof that he hadn't made a mistake. When he spent almost all of his money to get into the Secverse early.
In his previous encounters with this mystical side of things, he was not yet convinced that it was caused by magic. As it could have been explained with alien plants and animals that were so strange to him that the only thing he could think of was magic. But right before his eyes was his body that had come to life. It was going through some kinda transformation? He wasn't sure what was happening to it. However, he was sure that wood was changing to something else right before his eyes. Of course, he could think that this was also just an alien lifeform that acted this way, but he chose to believe his intuition. He could still believe that there could be a massive carnivore plant that used its roots as tools to kill and trap its prey, but this crossed the line that he could just ignore. He was sure that there had to be some unknown energy or force that enabled all this.
Tom kept staring at the corpse, thinking how great this was and how he must figure out a way to make this power his. When the corpse finally finished transforming, Tom didn't even notice as his mind was already in its own dreamland, celebrating and dreaming of what the future would hold for him.
Tom neither noticed as the corpse started twitching as if it was confused while it looked at its limbs. When the now ex-corpse started trying to get up, Tom finally snapped out of his reveries. But what tom saw left him feeling confused. The body was not getting up to its legs. No, it was slowly trying to get up to the bear walk form. Where his legs and arm were straight and touching the ground. However, the body clearly felt that what it was trying was wrong, as it immediately started trying on other positions. But no matter what it tried, it did not seem to feel right to the corpse. It was like there were two sets of instincts in the body; one wanted to walk on two legs and the other on four.
Tom was gripping his spear extremely tightly, pointing at the body the whole time, as he made his way to the edge of the hill and did his best to hide behind a tree. He finally settled down, lying so that only his head was looking over the hillside. After what felt like whoever, the body seemed to finally come to a conclusion on how it should move. It got on its knees and walked using its knees and arms, sometimes getting up so that it was standing on its knees. It was bizarre to watch. It felt so wrong to watch a human body act that way and do nothing about it. He was sure that if he had a way of recording this, it would be prime horror movie material. All of its movements were almost something that humans would do. However, there was some sort of stiffness to the movements, which screamed off wrongness.
Tom spent good fifteen minutes watching as the body got used to its body. Tom was sure that that was what it was doing, as it was doing all kinds of movements over and over again until it would settle on one. Tom knew that he should have attacked it while it still was confused and trying to get used to its body. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. He was way too curious about this creature in front of him. This was the thing that ignited something in him, a desire to be able to harness the power that made it even possible for this abomination to exist for himself. He just had to keep watching, and maybe he would learn something. At least that was what he kept telling himself. While simultaneously hoping that it wouldn't be aggressive or even notice him.
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The body made its way to the juniper tree and ate a single berry, and just like a rock, it fell to the ground almost immediately. Tom was perplexed. "Did it just kill itself?" Tom thought as he looked at the body lying still next to the juniper tree.
Initially, Tom was unsure if he was seeing things or if it was really happening, as it seemed like the body's color was getting darker and darker. But before he was sure about it. The body moved again, and this time it ate two berries. Tom was now certain that the body was getting darker. "This color must be the result of the core and those berries' energies mixing." Tom took mental notes, as every grum of knowledge was better than what he currently had. He was sure that when the game finally opened up to the public, it would not take long for this to become public knowledge. So many more people would be testing things, and he was sure that the training the old man mentioned would be somehow connected with this. But Tom had to figure it out on his own if he wanted to take full use of the advantage he had created for himself. Or otherwise, this advantage would turn to the thing that cribbled him, as he would not have enough money to buy any training when he could go to the town. So he would be doubly behind if he didn't figure this out or earn enough money during this period.
Ten minutes later, the body was moving again. But this time, it wasn't going for more berries. It started looking around as if it had finally cleared its head and was trying to figure out where it was and what it was doing.
It did not take long for it to look in the direction where Tom was. Tom pulled his head down at the same moment, but the moment Tom moved, he knew that he had made a mistake.
The body started moving in his direction. At first, it was slow, but then it looked like it was getting used to the movement as its speed started picking up. Tom was already going down the hill at his top speed while debating if he should fight it. "It would be really creepy if a creature were running around with my body."Tom thought. Then he thought of an even better reason to fight it. "And there must be a different kinda core in this thing." He wanted to find out how they worked, as he was sure that it would be intimately linked to why the body was even moving, and the tip he got from the system had mentioned 'core.'
So Tom stopped at the bottom of the hill and prepared to skewer the body. He thought it would be much harder for the body to change its direction while it was going downhill, so his chances of hitting it with the spear would be much more significant.
And for once, things went perfectly according to his plan. The body came rushing from the top of the hill, and once it started going downhill, its steps grew unsteady as it was unused to the downhill. It came down almost like a boulder as it was barreling down with no regard for dodging its only goal, reaching him. Tom placed the spear on its path and crouched down at the bottom of the spear, keeping it upright at an angle the base of the spear on the ground. And then there was a thud, and the spear pierced the body's chest. The black liquid was dripping from the hole, but the body was still flailing around on the spear.
The body was not done yet. As it managed to get its feet on the ground, it started madly running towards Tom. But luckily, the spear was keeping it still as it was only pushing it deeper into itself. Tom started to panic once he realized that the spear had fully gone through the body. However, it was still coming toward him, slowly but surely sliding forward through the spear.
Tom tried to figure out how to kill it, and the only thing he could think of was that he had to hit the core as the bear had stopped once the stick had luckily hit it."But where would the core be? The bear had it in the head, but he had eaten it, so would it not be in his stomach? or could it have moved from his stomach to his head?" Tom only had questions with no answers, so he just decided to act.
Tom mustered all his strength, took hold of the spear, and yanked it so that its butt was no longer on the ground. He pushed the spear and, by association, the body forward with all of his strength. The spearhead stabbed into the hillside. Next, Tom kicked at the body, and it slid back down to the ground. Then Tom stepped on the body, yanked the spear out, and stapped it back down immediately at a different angle through the same hole. So he would not have to pierce the tougher wood on the outside of the body. He did this couple of times, and he could feel how the body struggled less and less with each stab, and after the tenth stab, it finally stopped moving.