Another World Story

Day Three: Gathering

"Awwoooo!!"

"!!"

John was alerted. He looked around him with caution. The howl was something John didn't expect to hear so early on his journey. It hadn't even been 10 minutes since he had started, but he had already heard the sounds of danger.

John hesitated whether to continue forward or not. The howl he heard definitely came from somewhere in front of him. He didn't know how far it was or what kind of creature it came from. But he was sure that he'd die the moment he encountered them. John was not an athletic type of person, much more a fighter. He would surely suffer in the hands... or claws of those creatures if he were to fight them.

But he couldn't go back either. For him, the unknown is much more dangerous.

If he went back and went to the opposite side of the pond, he wouldn't know what other dangers were there. But in his current path, he knew there was danger. Precisely because he knows that he could prepare himself.

Thus, after deliberating for a little more, John decided to continue moving forward.

But this time...

*Thug* *Snap!*

John decided to at least gather something he could use to fight. The thick vines on the trees around could be perfect armor for the current him. Though he didn't know whether it was poisonous or not, he had a gut feeling that it wasn't. So, trusting this feeling, he pulled on the thick vines and snapped them, before coiling them around his arms and legs, over his uniform.

He then picked up a reddish branch with a sharp point, before continuing to march forward.

On his way, he gathered all the small things he could gather. Mainly those he felt could be beneficial to him. Like one of those big round fruits he saw the rabbits were carrying. He gathered 3 of them, tying the vines around them and hanging them to his waist. He wanted to get more to reserve food, so he decided do it.

More would be detrimental to his movements. He was already not athletic, so adding more weight would, of course, slow him down. But it was necessary if he wanted to survive. God knows whether he could find edible fruits deeper in the area where he was going.

Others were berries that resembled black-berries and dew berries. There were also green jelly-like plants, and some small sharp bones he decided to tie to the tip of the branch he was holding.

Now, the two pockets of John's pants were now filled with berries and jelly-like plants.

"I hope I don't accidentally crush them..." With that wish in his heart, John stopped his gathering of resources and cautiously marched forward.

Time passed slowly. Throughout John's short journey, he saw many things he had not seen before.

There were not many bodies of water in the direction he was going, but whenever he saw one. They were all crystal clear and refreshing to the mouth and body. Though there were also some fish lifeforms inside, they were mostly harmless.

John even tried to catch him a few fish to eat, but alas! He was nothing more than an ignorant pleb who didn't even know the principles of fish hunting using a spear. Almost always his spear would miss the fish. The refraction of light into the water made it hard for him to catch the fish. But through tries, he was able to catch one fish that had the shape of a liver. John named it the Liver Fish.

But here comes another problem.

Cooking.

Cooking for John was no problem at all, as he managed to learn to cook for himself, but the thing is, he lacked the main ingredient for cooking, which was fire. John had read from some books the simple mechanics of how to produce fire using sticks and leaves, but no matter how much he tried, it just wouldn't light up. It would produce smoke, but that's the best it could do. The moment he blew into it, it would extinguish. Thus, John was helpless and decided to go vegetarian. He decided to eat the berries for now to somehow sate his hunger. Food was limited, so he had to preserve them.

John estimated the distance he had walked, and it was approximately ten kilometers. With rest in between his journey and the treacherous forest preventing his smooth journey, although 6 hours had already passed since he had moved from where he had woken up, that's still how far he had gone. Being on alert had really slowed him down so much.

"Just how big is this forest..." John mumbled one time as he rested atop a big stone boulder. Overlooking another small pond that he encountered. Just like the previous ponds he saw, it was crystal clear and full of lively fishes.

*Munch* *Munch*

"It's almost night, I need to find a safe hobbit hole, to hide myself." John said as he threw another berry into his mouth. He had yet to produce fire and cooked the fishes that looked to be bewitching him as they swam. It's like they were saying and whispering in his ears; "Come, eat me. I'm delicious. You'll find nothing more delicious than me." or something.

Trying to produce fire was mainly the main reason he hadn't gone far. He wasted so much time trying to produce fire that his hands started hurting.

John surveyed his surroundings, mainly the big trees, to see if they had any holes big enough that he could fit in. Though John knew if he saw one, there might be other inhabitants inside, it could either be him or them. That is assuming it was something he could take on.

After a few minutes of looking around, John managed to find a hole inside one of the trees. It was being covered by the thick vines that coiled around the tree. It was the perfect hiding spot!

John didn't waste time and decided to climb up. There were a lot of hanging vines, so it was easy for him to use them as ropes to pull himself up. But even so, the moment he climbed up,

"F*ck, my strength and stamina!" John cursed. He had used all his strength just to climb up, and now he was panting heavily due to exhausting himself.

"I need to increase my strength ASAP! Do I even have any of those golden fingers? Or systems? C'mon! If you're going to summon me, atleast give me something!" John continued cursing, to alleviate his exhaustion, and after a few minutes of rest, he got up and inspected the insides of the hole.

Surprisingly, it was not cramped inside, and there were no signs of any creatures having lived inside either. Thus, John placed all his gathered resources inside one of the corners. There were still a few hours before it got dark, so John wanted to get more food as well as drinkable water. He used a hallowed out branch he found while on his journey to gather the water. Convenient right?

After an hour of collecting, John deemed it enough and went back to his hidey hole. He inspected it and, thankfully, no changes could be seen.

John, crouched down and entered the hole. It was just enough for him to lay down sideways like a cooked shrimp. But it was better than nothing!

John felt hungry due to all the travel he had done, so he looked at the three big round fruits he had picked up earlier. It was round like a watermelon, but its outer skin was like that of a mango. John, using his self-made bone spear, pierced the fruit and sliced it down. He wanted to see what was inside first, to prevent any problems.

What greeted him was the bright color red, the flesh of the fruit was so red, that he mistook it to be that of blood. But it didn't smell so. John used his index finger and scooped a part of the fruit. It was quite easy and the feeling of the fruit's flesh was soft.

John smelled it once again.

"... It smells delicious." He said, before nearing it to his mouth and took a bite.