"So the vampire queen has already started her journey, huh?"
The thought lingered in his mind as the previous system warning had set a clear timer.
She was out there moving across the continent, and getting stronger was no longer just a loose goal.
It was a strict requirement for survival.
A full twenty-four hours had passed since leaving Lyra behind.
Taking a new route had seemed smart at the time. Avoiding her patrol path kept the corrupted wolves at bay.
It also meant wandering blindly through uncharted territory.
The dense trees offered zero directions, and the terrain was unfamiliar.
Navigation relied purely on guessing the sun's position.
Now, the physical consequences were slowly setting in.
Hunger clawed viciously at his empty stomach as his vision kept blurring at the edges.
The borrowed green shirt clung to his sweating back, and leaning against a rough pine trunk provided a brief, necessary rest.
Food was an immediate necessity.
Starving to death was a pathetic way to end a second life.
Squinting through the foliage revealed a strange silhouette.
A deer grazed in a small clearing twenty meters away.
Two fully formed heads grew from its neck, and it chewed the grey grass in unison. It looked like a glitch in the world's code.
Nature out here was clearly broken.
'I really gotta taste that.'
True starvation easily overrode any normal disgust.
He needed calories; having no weapons was definitely an inconvenience, but It didn't make him helpless.
A cold energy still rested near his chest.
He focused on that familiar chill as the stolen mana flowed smoothly down his right arm.
He never formed a proper bond with Sheila.
Yet, his cheat skill had absorbed a fraction of her power anyway. It was a pure survival mechanism. The system recognised her terrifying strength and copied a sliver of it to keep him alive.
Frost gathered in the centre of his palm.
The ambient moisture hardened into a razor-sharp shard of ice.
It felt freezing to the touch.
He held his breath, waiting required patience he barely possessed.
The bizarre twin-headed animal took two steps closer.
It lowered both heads to graze as the target was completely unaware.
Bam.
He threw his hand forward.
The icy projectile crossed the distance in a blur and buried itself deep into the deer's flank.
Blood didn't spill from the wound.
Instead, pale frost rapidly expanded across the brown fur.
The temperature around the animal dropped instantly as the creature let out a strange, gargled bleat.
Its joints locked tight, and within seconds, the animal was frozen stiff.
It tipped over like a statue.
Walking over, Kai dragged a finger across the icy carcass.
The meat was perfectly preserved.
A tiny fraction of a witch's magic was dangerously useful. It bypassed normal physical damage entirely.
Ding!
[Mutated Deer have been slain]
[REWARD: Experience Gained.]
Agility +1.
Strength +1.
The blue screen faded away into nothingness.
Gathering dry wood took the better part of an hour, but the physical effort was entirely worth it.
A fire soon crackled in the clearing, and the smell of cooking meat filled the air.
Finding a stone helped carve the strange animal.
Roasted mutant venison tasted surprisingly like regular beef. It brought a flush of warmth back to his limbs, his vision cleared up nicely, and the blurry edges disappeared completely.
Eating his fill solved the immediate problem.
Sleeping, however, remained entirely out of the question.
Closing his eyes in an unmapped forest practically invited an early grave.
Unknown predators were definitely watching the firelight.
He kicked dirt over the glowing embers, snuffing out the light, plunging the clearing into darkness.
Moving at night felt safer than sleeping on the ground.
He trusted his boosted stats to keep him alert.
The woods transformed into a maze of dark silhouettes.
Every snapping twig demanded strict attention.
Giant, ten-foot pythons could easily drop from the high branches.
A wrong step meant tripping over hidden roots.
The solo march dragged on for hours which felt like it tested his mental endurance to the limit.
A normal human would have collapsed long ago.
Two full days of walking finally yielded results.
The uneven forest floor transitioned into a packed dirt path. Finding a carved road meant civilisation was close. It offered a welcome break from navigating dense underbrush.
Following the wide trail would surely lead toward a nearby city. The environment grew slightly less wild, and the promise of a real bed pushed him forward.
But as he walked, distant shouting broke the quiet atmosphere.
The sound of wood echoed down the path. Dropping his stance, Kai slowed his pace.
He crouched low into the tall grass lining the roadside, looking over the green stalks revealed a chaotic scene.
Wooden crates spilt across the road by a disorganised group of attackers surrounded the travellers.
The raiders wore crudely stitched boar skins and carried rough, unpolished weapons.
Their faces were painted with dark mud. They held long wooden spears at the terrified merchants and demanded valuables and supplies.
Huddled together near the broken cart, the victims looked like standard, helpless travellers whose fine clothes marked them as easy targets.
They prayed for a rescue that clearly wasn't coming, especially since the local guards were nowhere in sight.
Growing bolder by the second, one of the boar-skinned bandits kicked a fallen crate open, sending spools of bright fabric rolling out into the dirt.
This was a classic role-playing scenario, and rescuing stranded merchants almost always guaranteed a solid reward.
A free ride to the city sounded perfect right now, and earning some local currency certainly wouldn't hurt either.
Walking into a new town empty-handed was a terrible strategy, making these aggressive bandits nothing more than convenient stepping stones standing between him and a comfortable inn.
Cold energy pooled around his knuckles as the moisture in the air condensed rapidly, hardening into a layer of frost that formed icy brass knuckles right over his bare skin.
The magic formed with quiet lethality while he cracked his neck sideways to loosen up his stiff shoulders.
"Looks like free accommodation," Kai thought, stepping out of the tall grass to introduce himself.