The Old Man Become Young Again

*CAWW* *CAWW* The sounds of birds could be heard as they flew by, the sound of water coming from a nearby stream, and the warm feeling of the sun permeated onto his body as he continued leaning against a tree, followed by the feeling of something wet and warm hitting his face. 

"W-What the fuck was that?" the old man muttered as he began to open his eyes slowly, touching his face and feeling something wet. He looked down at his fingers to see that white bird poop had landed on him.  

"SO IT'S LIKE YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT!!" the old man yelled, as he stood up quickly, reaching into his left chest pocket, trying to pull out his gun, but felt emptiness. "FUCK!!!" he yelled, as the birds flew away.

After a brief moment of washing his face in the stream, the old man finally noticed his reflection in the water, where his complexion had returned to him, but for some reason, his hair remained a greyish color.

"That Goddess stated that she was going to revert my body's age to when I was 22 years old, so why the hell do I have grey hair?" the old man wondered, "And what the fuck am I wearing?" as he looked down as he was wearing a blue itchy cotton shirt, tanned wool pants, and some type of leather boots. 

"This honestly feels too close to a type of survival training," Aki said as he remembered a similar situation when he was completing a Ranger Course. "At least they gave me a knife during the training, so how the hell am I supposed to survive without anything  to work with?"

"*sigh*, What is that thing you command to look at your status? Status Open?" Aki randomly muttered, and a large transparent window screen appeared, measuring thirteen inches wide by eight inches tall. 

"Let's see now: 

Name: Aki
Age: 22 years old 
Race: Male Human (Japanese) 
Level: 5
Skills: Appraisal, Item Box, Map, Universal Translator, Oracle, Superior Mental Defense
Item Box: *Empty* 

"Superior Mental Defense? I don't remember asking that," Aki pondered as he tapped on the skill. 

Superior Mental Defense: Protects the user from any mental attack from enemies and prevents any attempt from an outside party to read their minds without permission. 

"Ha...Ha....HA!" Aki began to chuckle a bit, "That little Goddess must have read my mind again, and even after I warned her not to. Bad girls must be taught a lesson after all," as he cracked his knuckles. 


*SHIVER* A cold sensation went down Merisa's exposed back.

"What was that about?" Merisa wondered as she had just finished scrubbing herself and was about to enter her bathtub. "I must have stayed outside for too long. Let's hurry up inside the warm water now." *Splash * "Ahhhhhhh~"


"Now then, how can I help you three gentlemen?" Aki inquired as he was surrounded by three figures. *Appraisal*

All three figures shared a similar red-colored text along with a skull icon in front:

Male Lizardman, Lvl: 20
Green Scales and Webbed feet, wearing a bloodied tan chest armor and a blueish kilt, holding a damaged spear. 

Male Werewolf, Lvl: 30
Grey fur, exposed chest, only bloodied blue pants, with its claws fully drawn 

Male Beastman, Lvl: 35,
Resembles a lion; its red mane was covered in dirt, twigs, and dried blood, wearing full chainmail armor and military-style green pants, holding a type of mace

"It's just a poor human," the Lizardman stated as he lowered his spear. "Here I thought we were already caught". 

"He smells like a newborn baby; there isn't a single scent on his body, as if he has never worked before in his entire life." the Werewolf added, "Wait, it smells like Cokacat shit, he must have left his party to clean up in the stream after getting shit on by that fucking bird!" as he began to laugh. 

"How about it, Human? Us, gentlemen, will kindly escort you through the Forest of Taeria to help you regroup with your party ?" the Beastman offered with the full intent of robbing them once they met up. 

"*sigh* It's truly the same everywhere you go, huh? This stereotypical encounter and this terrible play of pretending to be good guys when you wanted criminals," Aki stated as he crouched down and started to pick a few good-sized pebbles from the ground.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING SMELL ME YOU FUCKING PEVERET!" as Aki threw a handful at the Werewolf, striking him in the face & nose, causing him to kneel in pain. 

*Skill: Throwing Unlocked*

"YOU BASTARD!!" the Lizardman yelled as he charged, with the spear tip glowing red, *IRON THRUST*. Aki quickly shifted to his right, fully avoiding the charge attack.

"H-He is completely unharmed?" the Lizardman thought. "No, I grazed him a bit on his chest," as he saw Aki's blue shirt had a horizontal slice across and was slightly bleeding. 

Aki looked down at his bleeding chest and began to look at his right hand, opening and closing it. "Hm... I should have dodged it fully, so how did I get grazed?" he pondered. 

The Werewolf quickly charged with its claws fully extended, trying to sink its claw into Aki's body, *Blitz Rush*, while Aki began to jump backward, barely avoiding each swing as his clothes and body were still getting grazed. 

"T-This doesn't feel right?" Aki realized his movement felt sluggish, and he backed into a tree trunk. 

"I FUCKING GOT YOU NOW!" the Werewolf declared as he quickly began an over-swing attack with his right arm. 

Aki quickly crouched down and began to tuck and roll, forcing him to sink his claws into the thick tree trunk as he began to get stuck in it. The Werewolf was looking around for Aki and saw that he was doing burpees. 

"T-The hell is that human doing?" the Werewolf inquired, as he pulled his claws out of the tree trunks.

"I-I have no idea," the Beastman replied, as he also watched along. 

After completing thirty reps of burpees in two minutes, Aki knew what was wrong.

There was a small lag between his mind & body as his mind wasn't able to properly readjust for his younger body. This lag led to his body responding three seconds too late, resulting in a type of disconnection. 

 *Skill: Pre Workout Routine Unlocked* 

"Sorry about the wait, gentlemen," Aki apologized as they waited for him to finish his workout. 
"Now, where were we? as he exhales, with bloodlust beginning to spill out of him. 

For wild animals, when they are faced with an extreme threat, they are given two options: Fight or flee, with most species choosing the option to flee.

In the case of these three, who were battle-hardened and had been raised with a single mind that fleeing meant dishonor and demonstrating weakness, they chose to fight to the death. 

The Beastman charged at Aki, swinging the mace with his right arm, as it went side to side with immense force that the air shuddered with each passing, but thanks to his skill buff, Aki avoided the immense force by jumping backwards.

The Lizardman, with its flexible body, snuck up from underneath the Beastman's legs, began an upward thrust, while Werewolf was waiting on top of a tree, waiting for him to be in range to pounce. 

Aki took out a few small pebbles from his pocket that he had kept and flicked them towards the beastman's eyes, where they struck him on the cheekbone and then his lower chin, causing the Beastman to slow down his attack.

During that moment, Aki's palm attacks the upper section of the spear, near the shaft, causing it to vibrate uncontrollably, with the lizardman being forced to let go of the spear as it travels to his thin arms.

Aki quickly grabbed hold of the spear and directly at the Werewolf, striking him directly in the chest, causing him to lose balance and fall to the ground with the spear point fully impaling his heart.

*Skill: Javelin Throw Unlocked* *Skill: Critical Shot Unlocked*

"You bastard!!" the Beastman yelled, as he opened up his eyes again, switching to a downward swing, as the mace began to glow brown, *Earth Shatter*. 

Aki quickly reached behind him, barely reaching the spear's handle, twisting the already damaged spear, and breaking the wooden handle from its spear socket, creating a sharp wooden tip. He proceeded to stab the ground, pinning the Lizardman's tail as he attempted to also move out of range of the attack from the Beastman. 

Aki kicked the Beastman's right arm, causing him to shift his trajectory by a few inches towards the lizardman, who couldn't move, taking the full force of the Beastman's attack, causing the lizardman's body to splatter in the air.

"HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!!" the Beastman yelled, *Bloodline Skill: King's Roar*, with a deathening roar echoed into the forest.

Aki began to crouch as the roar began to ring in his ear canal and directly into his eardrum, before suddenly being sent flying across the stream from a lariat. 

"F-FUCK!" Aki yelled as he collided with a tree trunk with his back cracking, and fell flat on the ground.  

"STAND UP! I KNOW YOU CAN STAND UP, SO STAND UP!!" the Beastman yelled, demanding that Aki continue the fight. 

"Y-Yeah, yeah, give me a moment here," Aki requested as he attempted to stand up, but his body was starting to ache, causing him to remain on his forearms and knees.  

"Moment is up!" the Beastman yelled as he performed a downward right leg swing, followed by a loud crash as the tree fell and dust filled the air. "WHERE ARE YOU, YOU LITTLE SHIT!!" he yelled as he didn't feel any sort of flesh-like contact with his foot. 

"Over here," Aki yelled as he rolled into the cold stream, lying flat. 

"Taking a bath now, are we?" the Beastman asked as he turned around, laughing as the human took its final bath. 

"Laugh as much as you want, but this does wonders for my back," Aki yelled, "In all seriousness, I'm lying here mainly to avoid that!" as he pointed behind the Beastman. 

The Beastman slowly turned around and saw a giant pair of yellow eyes and emerald green scales approaching him from above the canopy. "N-no, not the Guardian of the Forest," he started to stutter.  

*Appraisal* 

Infant Colossal Snake, Lvl: 157 / S-Rank Monster 

Colossal Snakes are known for their beautiful emerald-colored scales and their bright yellow eyes, which they use to detect heat signatures. They can reach lengths of up to 500m when fully grown and have two fangs, measuring 15 meters tall, with a bite force of 75,000 PSI. 

Colossal Snakes tend to live in dense forest areas as they wrap themselves around the tree's upper canopy to bathe in the sun's warm rays. When threatened or disturbed from its sleep, it will attack without discrimination and swallow their prey whole. 

Aki was aware of the snake's presence when he had used the Appraisal skill on the three of them, but chose to ignore it as it was currently asleep in the upper canopy of the tree. 

When Aki was thrown against the tree trunk, he was concerned about the snake waking up from the collision, but now that the tree has been fully destroyed, it would have been awakened and angry. Aki had rolled into the cold stream to avoid heat detection from the snake's eyes. 

"SON OF A BI-" the Beastman attempted to yell, before his upper torso was swollen whole, and the Colossal Snake looked around, but saw nothing of interest, before slithering away, leaving behind just the bottom torso. 

Aki let out a sigh of relief as he lay flat into the stream, trying to reduce the pain in his back, "I need to work out more", as he closed his eyes. 

After spending a few more minutes in the cold stream, Aki began to feel his body temperature dropping fast as the sun began to set.

"Now then, fire, huh? How the fuck am I going to get a fire started here?" Aki inquired as his clothes were soaking from his soak in the stream. "I guess we will have to primate this shit!" *OHAHAHAHHAHAHA* as he began to rub two sticks together against a piece of wood, trying to start a fire.

It took half an hour before he was able to produce a small ember, followed by a large fire, in the nick of time as the sun was fully set behind the horizon.

*Skill: Beginner Fire Magic Unlocked* 

He began to take off his wet clothes, running through the stream again to wash away the dirt and blood from earlier, and hung them up on a nearby vine as it draped across two trees. He sat near the fire, covering his back with a few large leaves while he watched the two small fish he caught earlier being cooked. With his appraisal skill, he was able to determine that the water from the stream was considered safe to drink, but still felt off as he knew the price of tainted water. He decided to risk it all as it was better than becoming dehydrated. 

"Okay then, let's see what I salvage here." Aki pondered as he finished his light dinner meal, dragging the corpse of the Werewolf, as the Lizardman corpses were scattered around & the Beastman's bottom half was useless. 

"I can still salvage the spear tip," Aki stated as he pulled it out of the Werewolf's chest cavity,  removing the broken wood from the socket, rinsing it in the stream, and attempting to fit a branch to fit into it. "It won't be perfect, but I still need something to serve as a temporary weapon," as it kept popping out of the socket. 

Aki turned around and dipped one of the branch ends in some vine sap as he noticed how sticky the sap was and realized it could act like a type of glue, inserting it into the socket, wrapping a large leaf around it to help support it more, and placing it on the side as it dried. 

*Title: Entry Level Craftsman Obtained* 

"*Sigh*, I truly am in another world, aren't I?" Aki pondered as he looked up at the stars to see three different color moons: Yellow, Green, and Blue. "It's only the first day here, and I already almost died. I honestly believed with a younger body, I wouldn't have struggled so much in a fight with these morons," as he began to review today's fight. 

"If they were a bit coordinated, I would have been dead." Aki, realizing his mistake in today's fight, "I need to get stronger faster if I want to live a happy life here," he declared.

Aki spent the next two weeks inside the forest, beginning with an hour of meditation, followed by two hours of push-ups, pull-ups, swimming, etc. He would then spend the next few hours trekking alongside the stream, attempting to find anything salvageable. He also avoided any contact with monsters, as he felt his body wasn't ready to fight, and as far as he knew, he was at the bottom of the food chain in this world.

*Skill: Meditation Unlocked* 

During his exploration of the stream, he was able to find a large number of broken items like swords, shields, cookingware, backpacks, etc., but for him, it was useless.  

After trekking further than usual, he found an abandoned covered wagon covered in moss by a stream, with wooden boxes broken apart. 

Aki began to carefully pry open the remaining boxes with his spear, with spoiled food spilling out, broken glassware, rusted iron, and steel knives & swords.

After breaking through all the remaining boxes, he was able to find usable cookingware and utensils, a steel dagger, and a few questionable art pieces, along with a few sets of wearable clothes with multiple buffs applied to them: 

Navy Blue Long Coat with Brass Buttons: Item Degeneration Resistance, Ownership Protections, Thief Protection, Weather Protection, Dirt Resistance, Odor Resistance, Sweat Resistance, Stab Protection, Fatigue Reducer  & Impact Reducer.

Multiple Different Colors T-Shirts, Undergarments, Socks: Item Degeneration Resistance,  Dirt Resistance, Odor Resistances, & Sweat Resistances.

Two Pairs of Black & Brown Pants: Item Degeneration Resistance, Dirt Resistance, Odor Resistance, Sweat Resistance, Stab Protection & Impact Reducer 

Two Pairs of Black & Brown Leather Boots: Item Degeneration Resistance, Weather Protection,  Dirt Resistance, Odor Resistance, Sweat Resistance, Fatigue Reducer, Enhance Stamina, Enhance Agility, Enhance Speed, Puncture Protection,

Black Leather Backpack: Item Degeneration Resistance, Weather Protection, Puncture Protection, Ownership Protections, Thief Protection, Dirt Resistance, Odor Resistance, Fatigue Reducer, Featherweight & Dimension Storage.

Aki notices that all the usable clothing shares the same insignia or trademark: a special design hammer with a large fire in the background, meaning these items came from the same company. 

Aki deduces that the broken covered wagon belonged to a merchant at some point, and it ended up down here by the river after it was carried off by a dragon. He was able to collect two broken claws as it was wedged inside the iron axles, and with appraisal, the claws came from a Green Dragon. 

After he finished storing the rusted cookingware and weapons into his item box, he decided to return to camp to prepare for his journey out of the forest. He spent the rest of the night washing the clothes and then hanging them to dry. 

"OKAY!! I think I'm ready to leave now!" Aki stated as he finished his morning meditation, picking up his leather backpack and beginning to head up the stream where he had found a path that led out of the forest. 

"I honestly can't say I was happy to meet you guys, but at least it's thanks to you all that I realize how far behind I was in this world,"  Aki said, as he looked at three makeshift graves where he buried the two corpses and the small fragments of lizardman body. "Thank you, and see y'all later," as he waved goodbye. 

*Title: Hermit Obtained*