For some reason Kai couldn't sleep—it could have been his recent near-death experiences, or having just fought over his dinner with whoever brought it, or maybe it was staring into the fire while unable to stop thinking about how much his body hurt.
"Must be the wonderful nap I took in that cave," he said, coming back to himself and shaking his head.
He grabbed his injured leg and sat still for a few moments.
"Seriously… how the hell did I not bleed out? Or die from the venom—what happened to the venom, where did it go?"
His pain had eased a little thanks to some painkillers he'd found in his first aid kit after one last look—surprisingly there were also antibiotics.
"How long ago did those expire?"
Kai cleared his throat—he hadn't cleaned the fish well and still felt like his throat was infested of fishbones. Probably because he'd never tried to cook one before.
He gritted his teeth.
"If that bastard hadn't stolen half of it maybe it would bother me less."
Kai no longer knew what to do—he had no idea about survival, he was bored out of his mind, and the only living beings he'd met in this world had tried to kill him. Well… one had used him as a punching bag and the other had stored him away like a snack.
He'd even switched his phone on a couple of times to play games or with the intention of listening to music, but switched it off again immediately. He was just draining the battery without actually doing anything.
"Oh," he said, remembering something.
There actually was something he could do to pass the time.
He opened his backpack—he'd brought it down shortly after lighting the fire—and took out his journal. Perfectly pristine, without a single word to corrupt it, at least until that moment.
Pencil in hand, Kai intended to document his adventure and his almost non-existent acquired knowledge.
"I could write a kind of field notes—a bestiary, information on fauna and the area…"
All those hours being the type of Monster Hunter player who spent half the time browsing environmental and creature information to understand how everything worked would have to be good for something.
He'd surely become a super observant person without realizing it, or something like that.
He even tried drawing things—those berries, that demonic fruit, the vines he'd cut. Unfortunately at some point he'd also have to dedicate a page or two to the bird and the spider.
He didn't know how to start—well, actually he didn't know whether he didn't know how to start or whether he didn't want to start.
Finally, after what felt like hours, he pressed the pencil to the page, and everything started to flow on its own.
***
With an exaggerated start, Kai jolted upright, wiping drool from his mouth as he worked out where he was.
It seemed he'd fallen asleep after writing—the notebook was closed and the pencil was… where was it? He rummaged through his clothes and watched the pencil tumble out of his hoodie sleeve.
"Haaahh, what a terrible sleep I had…" he murmured as he cracked his neck and stretched.
"Sleeping out in the open is harder than I thought."
He looked around listlessly and found the bird on top of the rock, still asleep.
"When did…?" He gathered his things and stood up with help from the staff. "Actually I don't care—it can do whatever it wants as long as it doesn't interfere."
He had no idea where he was going but he still couldn't settle down, especially not near that creature. At a relaxed pace he began to follow the river again. He'd grabbed a couple of the fruits from last time, though he seriously hoped he wouldn't have to eat another one.
He'd rather starve than repeat the surprise effect of that demonic fruit. Though given that he'd taken them anyway, maybe he wasn't so firm on that idea…
The river curved very slightly to the left, so since arriving at it he'd practically already changed direction completely.
The forest seemed much more alive than the day before—there were sounds everywhere: branches cracking, wind whistling, shadows dancing across the sky, spine-chilling howls…
It sounded like trouble. Everything in that place sounded like trouble. Especially after how empty the forest had been the day before.
Whatever happened, Kai didn't dare leave the river—not just to avoid getting lost, but to keep his field of vision clear.
After a while he stopped at the riverbank to drink and rest a little.
He took out the cobweb and started toying with it. He cut a piece off after some effort and submerged it in the water.
There were no visible changes—at least not immediately. After holding it there for a few minutes its texture began to shift very slowly. But it was a negligible change, nothing like when he used his own fluids.
"So it wasn't the water then…"
He experimented with it a little—it was a curious material. No matter how hard he pulled at the threads, he could only stretch it without managing to tear it even slightly. It was very resistant, soft to the touch and not sticky at all.
However, when he put a little sweat from his forehead on it, the texture changed—it became more malleable, slightly more viscous and stickier. He had no idea what that meant, but writing it down seemed like the right thing to do. It would probably sound intelligent.
When pulling at it in that state it didn't have the same elasticity—it stretched like chewing gum, and when he tried to cut it the blade just sank in.
"I got incredibly lucky in that moment…" he whispered, still turning the material over in his hands.
If he'd applied too much sweat or hadn't started cutting before the change in properties, getting out of that sack would have become practically impossible.
"What could I use this for…? Glue? Would it be a waste to use it like that?" He looked at the cobweb stretching between his fingers. "Or… could it maybe be used for something more complex?"
The crack of some branches in the distance made Kai turn his head sharply and pick up his pace.
As he held his staff, his knife rested in his other hand at all times—he kept looking constantly from side to side, and especially behind him. He didn't feel safe at all.
In the end he reached a lake.
It was a massive lake—the largest he'd seen in either world.
Well… he hadn't seen many in the previous one, but it was impressive all the same.
Of course it made sense that such an immense river would empty into something even greater, but this lake was easily the size of a city—at least as far as Kai could see—with several islets of varying sizes scattered across the water like different neighborhoods.
Kai was speechless, all he could do was take in the view.
"I thought lakes in fantasy worlds only ever had one big island in the middle…" He snapped out of his daydream with the first nonsense that crossed his mind, then considered a problem.
He stood there for a few seconds.
"Now what?"
Kai couldn't swim, and even if he could he wouldn't try to cross this—the water was turbulent to say the least, churning heavily and forming currents that looked like traps. The river was equally out of the question.
Basically his only options were to head into the forest or skirt the lake to the left.
Honestly, neither option appealed to him much—of course the slower one was the safer one. And for one of the rare times in his life, he was going to rein in his impatience and play it safe.
Some terrible howls and a few bloodcurdling shrieks coming from deep within the forest made up his mind.
The lake wasn't free of its own horrors either—the water never stopped churning across its entire expanse, and every now and then Kai saw shadows far too large passing uncomfortably close to him.
At least they weren't the same size as some of those inside—every so often a colossal shadow, the size of a building, pressed up against the surface and enormous scales, belonging to some abomination, barely poked out of the water. Kai could barely make out anything beyond the glare of sunlight reflecting off the scales like mirrors.
"And it all looked so calm from a distance…"
After more time than he would have liked, he eventually reached a second river—this one far narrower than the first he'd found, much narrower. This one looked normal, even crossable.
Even so he decided to follow it upstream this time, still not quite feeling up to crossing it.
"Going down didn't go very well last time. Time for a change."
This stretch was much more uncomfortable than the other one—the river made sharp, tight bends and the forest didn't leave him as much space, with the trees now barely a meter away. On top of that the path went uphill, obviously, and was quite rough, with overgrown tree roots and rocks blocking the way.
"Going up isn't going very well either… Wonderful."
He rested whenever he found a moment and was still constantly exhausted—his legs were crying, one far more than the other. Without that staff he probably wouldn't have covered even a quarter of the distance… whatever that distance was.
It wasn't just the distance—Kai no longer had any idea where the first river even was. Between the undergrowth and the changes in direction he'd gotten completely disoriented.
"Not like I knew where I was before anyway," he said with a shrug.
He finally reached a leveling-off where the slope eased considerably—though the terrain still smelled terrible…
Kai decided to rest a little. He wasn't in great shape: his stomach was throwing a fit, his torso was tense both from the backpack and from bearing his weight on the staff, and his legs were better left unmentioned.
He took one of the fruits from his backpack and looked at it.
"This thing weighs a ton… Why on earth am I carrying two?"
Still grumbling, he put it back—that horrible side effect would probably be better than dying from not eating.
It still wouldn't be his first choice. Grabbing only his knife and staff he got up and decided to explore a little. He left his things leaning against a tree near the river and headed into the grove.
The forest didn't inspire confidence, but eating was unfortunately necessary.
Remembering that, he suddenly realized that his fever and weakness had disappeared at some point—he didn't even remember when. It could have even been while he was sleeping.
As he walked, branches cracked around him sending shivers down his spine. He kept marking trees as he went and listened to sounds in the distance.
There were mushrooms that caught his eye, but if even in his original world only a ridiculously small percentage were edible, he didn't want to try his luck in this one. Kai had absolutely no idea how to tell whether a mushroom was poisonous or not.
About ten minutes after leaving his things behind, Kai heard the rustle of some bushes stirring. He slipped as silently as he could through the undergrowth and saw a small animal—some kind of fox with a tail that split into three.
Kai stood there dumbstruck before he could form a coherent thought. It wasn't the first creature he'd seen, but it was the first one that didn't seem aggressive.
'Sorry little guy—I can't give you the chance…'
Before checking whether the small creature would pounce on him first, Kai was going to do it—he'd find a way to light a fire later.
Slowly he approached with short, measured steps while the fox dug at the ground, distracted.
Suddenly both of them turned their heads at the same time as the forest leaves stirred to their left.
An instant later, a small ash-colored shape came running between Kai and the little animal at full speed, shooting a quick glance at Kai as it went. Before Kai had time to process the image of the new creature, its pursuer appeared.
'Why am I not surprised?' he thought, bringing a hand to his face.
Flying like a guided missile after its target, the stupid bird appeared.
Kai tried to ignore both of them, and when he turned back toward his own prey there was nothing left.
Kai lifted his head to the sky with his eyes closed, exhausted by his adventure. He sighed and gave up on his attempt to find food.
"It is what it is…"
He turned around and went back for his things.
The river continued so steeply that Kai turned back around after collecting everything and headed back into the trees.
"I'm just going around in circles like an idiot."
He continued along his earlier path, so focused on nothing jumping out at him that his mind couldn't even rest anymore. Suddenly he had a very bad feeling. He felt watched.
He reached a semi-clearing, the trees and bushes finally giving him a little room to breathe.
He spun around sharply looking for anything hiding—but found nothing.
That was the point of hunters, wasn't it? Hiding well from their prey.
He tightened his grip on his knife.
'If only I could run…'
Without warning, Kai stepped to one side—he had no particular reason to do so since he hadn't even confirmed he was being followed and it wasn't paranoia, he simply felt it. But it helped a great deal.
In the spot where he'd been just a moment ago, a creature came diving down and hit the ground like a meteorite. It missed by a few centimeters and slid a couple of meters away on all fours, kicking up small pebbles and a cloud of dust.
In the middle of the dust cloud, the figure rose onto two legs.