Like a beggar who hadn't eaten anything for days, Mark ate the green fruit deliciously, which tasted woody, but he did not mind, as the moment he was done eating, a notification rang in his head.
[Fledgling Tree Essence eaten, permanently increasing 0.1 Vitality stat]
Making the itch that was happening all over his wounds become even itchier.
Whimpering in agony, next Mark pulled the cooked fish meat out of his space, two chunks of meat he held in both hands, as like a beast he started gnawing down the meat, making him moan in deliciousness.
As the blood of the fish filled his mouth with every bite, making him gulp both blood and meat, filling his hunger and thirst at the same time.
[Cooked Fish eaten, permanently increasing 0.1 Agility stat]
[Cooked Fish eaten, permanently increasing 0.1 Vitality stat]
Even though he wasn't completely satiated, Mark stood up to run, as he put his bow, quiver, gun with no bullets, and slingshot in his space.
Watching the slingshot, he felt like slapping himself, as he could just kill those fishes from afar if he wanted, then eat them to satiate his hunger and thirst, but at that time, he had no idea about the space, plus, the thirst had clouded his judgment, making him forget about everything.
But as they say, better late than never, and he made his way towards the other end of the lake where the fishes weren't hiding, while the red dots were getting closer and closer.
At first, he had thought they would reach him in no time, but the truth was, most of the red dots disappeared, obviously attacked by other monsters, while others got slowed down as the sounds of the firing rang everywhere.
Even then, there were twelve dots who were following him like a leech, and he somewhat knew who these people were, and if he was right, then the hardest battle would be between these people and him, and he could not fight them unless he was in his best condition.
So he needed to heal, and only these fishes that gave him either agility or vitality stat could heal him.
They would satiate his hunger and thirst, and they would even heal the wounds they gave him; he would make sure of that.
For the next five minutes, Mark ran, and with each passing moment, he could feel his wounds closing, yet the pain was horrendous. The only good thing was that no monster came to attack him, maybe because he was running close to the lake, away from the trees, not giving anyone a chance.
As finally he reached his destination. Here, all the fishes were swimming as if they were the most innocent beings in the forest, just like the previous ones who wounded him, making him nearly pick up the stone and start his barrage, but controlling himself, one by one, he selected the stones and put them in the space.
He realized that as long as he put the same item into the same box, he could infinitely stuff them to no end.
Or maybe there was an end, but even after putting close to a hundred stones, the end hadn't reached him.
Collecting close to three hundred stones and making sure that he had enough of them, Mark pulled his slingshot, as out of nowhere a stone came into his hand, and woosh, he shot.
Like a laser, the stone went, piercing the swimming fish, without giving it even a chance to dodge, as the fish flailed in agony.
Seeing this, the other fishes swam everywhere to hide themselves, but the barrage that came made their hiding literally impossible.
It was as if the stones knew where they wanted to go, where they wanted to hide, and before they could reach their destination, they got pierced by one stone after another.
After killing fifteen fishes, Mark stopped as he ran in a different direction, while the notification kept ringing inside his mind.
[Killer gift activated, permanently stealing 0.1*8 Vitality stat.]
[Killer gift activated, permanently stealing 0.1*7 Agility stat.]
And like a disaster, he hit the fishes, he ran everywhere, slaughtering a few, then going to a new location to slaughter some more, and then going to another location to slaughter even more.
As he watched his vitality and agility stats rising madly, and finally he stopped when his stamina was exhausted to the brim.
Holding the branch, Mark went up to the tree, as his hawk-like eyes looked everywhere.
Taking deep breaths, he waited, waited for one of the dots that was close to reaching him.
Knowing he still had two to three minutes, he pulled two pieces of fish meat and started eating them to fill his hunger and thirst.
The moment he was done eating, two more notifications rang in his mind.
[Cooked Fish eaten, permanently increasing 0.1 Agility stat]
[Cooked Fish eaten, permanently increasing 0.1 Vitality stat]
Seeing that the red dot was about to reach him in a few seconds, Mark put the slingshot back in his space, pulled the bow and quiver out of it, and put the arrow on his bow to stretch the string.
Sitting in the tree, he was like a hunter, on whose mind right now existed nothing but the hunt.
The pain, the horrible thoughts, the hunger, everything was gone. As his eyes stared at the forest, senses completely awake, killer instinct at its peak, suddenly he lifted the bow towards the sky and let the arrow loose.
Like a laser, the arrow moved, so quickly that it disappeared from Mark's sight within a blink of an eye.
While holding the gun in his right hand, knife in his left hand, John slowly walked towards the red dot.
His eyes looked everywhere, while he stood in open sight as if not worried that the person in front would end up killing him instead.
When suddenly he heard the woosh sound from above him, jumping he rolled and hid in front of the tree, as he saw the arrow getting half buried where he had stood before, making him shocked.
His stealth didn't work. No, it did work. He just came from between the group of monkeys, who couldn't see him even when he stood just meters away from them.
Yet somehow, the enemy in front found him. How? He had no idea.