Into The Wild pt-1

"It's been two days since I have been here."

In the forest, Tori was lying beside the tree. 'My food is almost drained up, if I stay like this, I will surely die.'

Tori gets up and starts searching his bag. He found a loaf of bread, the last food he had left. He looks at the bread. "How about eating only half piece today and the other tomorrow?" he says, breaking the bread into two pieces.

'But, it will end soon enough, ' he thought while eating the bread, 'today or tomorrow, I have to move forward, but I'm scared.'

Tomorrow came in a flash, and so did the day after tomorrow. No food, no water, and no sense of direction, Tori was rotting away on the ground, hungry and thirsty.

Tori, resting beneath a tree, looks out at the vast forest and the dangers he will face, but the hunger forms into desperation.

'Haha, I feel miserable, and this sucks,' Tori chuckled, ' what happened to the great Tori who was gonna kill that stupid king and Commander Vice?'

Tori started laughing, "hahaha..... hahahahaahh!!!!" The laughter soon turned to a scream; he screamed to snap out of this miserable feeling.

"STAND UP AND MOVE FORWARD!!! YOU ASHHOLE!!!" Tori shouts, "YOU GOT PEOPLE THAT CARE ABOUT YOU!"

After all the shouting, Tori breathes heavily. He screamed again. "I can't die here. I CAN'T DIE HERE!"

"Okay, so, what are the things that I need to survive?" Tori wrote on the ground with a wooden stick he carried along after his fight with Commander Vice.

[1. food]

[2. water]

[3. Shelter]

"Oh, forgot the most important thing, [4. system]" Tori planned.

“So, should I try to call the system again…” Tori thought, “SYSTEM ARISE”

“...” Tori felt like an idiot, His stomach rumbles, “No system in my isekai story. That sucks.”

Tori held the stick again, ‘Guess I will have to create my system.’

[QUEST: Find water]

“Now, my survival in this forest begins!” Tori shouts out in enthusiasm. Tori then looked around, ‘it's not like anyone’s hearing me’

***

“Wow, the forest is huge.” Tori looks at the whole forest from the top of a tree, which took him hours to climb; his hands were covered with abrasion. “It's hard to see water from here…”

“Hmm, maybe I should follow north,” Tori started navigating the direction by moving his hand to the direction, “the sun is at 2 o'clock, then west is at 8 o'clock, then the north would be here,” he points at 11 o'clock. “Okay! That's my destination!”

“Now, how do I get down from this tree?” Tori looked down.

Tori somehow climbed down the tree, take his backpack, and follow north. The forest had stranger creatures that I had never seen before, like a group of monkey-type creatures with a spring-like tail jumping from tree to tree, a phoenix-looking bird with four wings, and other strange things.

“Are they dokemon?” Tori was curious, but he would rather not take a risk in this unknown forest.

After going straight for hours, Tori heard the stream, ‘water!’ he thought while rushing towards the voice.

When Tori reached there, he found the stream of the river. The river looked clean, and there were fish inside it. He can see a few creatures at a distance, drinking water from the river.

“I'm not alone here.” Tori inspected the river by poking the stick inside the river; so far, there was no sign of any dangers inside the river, which made Tori sigh in relief.

Tori takes the leather bottle out of his bag, opens its lid, and starts filling the water. The air bubble from the bottle space comes to the river surface. After filling the bottle, Tori cautiously takes a sip and keeps it under his mouth for a few seconds, ‘The taste is normal, that would mean the water is safe.’

“[QUEST: Find water complete]” Tori said while writing on the ground. “Can't believe I find the water so easily. Oh well, onto the next quest.”

[QUEST: find food]

“Now, I have to find food.” Tori looks around the river and sneaks through the bush. He finds a bunny.

"damn, my luck is on a roll. The first normal-looking creature I see in the forest," Tori celebrates, "Now how to kill this rabbit?"

He searched his back, "If I remember correctly, I saw a knife in there". After a few digs, the knife finally pulled out. He then took the stick he had been carrying around after the fight with Commander Vice, and he tied the vine of the tree, sticking the knife on the top of the stick.

Tori sneaks behind the bush to locate the position of the bunny. 'Okay, the spear is ready. First, silently get near the bunny without being noticed. Second, attack the rabbit by throwing the spear. Third, enjoy the meal, Tori imagined roasting the bunny, and the drool started coming out of his mouth.

Based on the first step, Tori stealthily moves closer to Bunny. But, he unknowingly steps on the branch, making a cracking sound. 'shit!!' Tori hides, and the bunny also goes alert, looking around for the danger. Bunny then continued eating grass.

"That was close," Tori sighed.

Tori finally gets close to four-step distance. He then raised his spear in a throwing stance. Tori, with full force, tries to throw the spear, and the bunny notices too.

Something moves in an instant towards Tori, passing his right cheek and hits the tree like a bullet. 'What?' Tori touches his right burning cheek and sees blood on his fingers. Everything around him feels heavy, like he is in a dream.

He looks behind at the tree, and the long, tentacle-like thing is stuck in the tree bark. The tentacle thing was none other than the bunny's tongue. The bunny was struggling to get his tongue out of the bark.

Tori, after getting some sense, looks at the threat against him and charges it with all his might, stabbing the bunny. The blood sprayed like a fountain, and the bunny shook a little until it went completely silent. Tori, breathing heavily, could only think one thing: "What the actual f*ck!"

Tori was scared to even touch the bunny, his hands shaking after an adrenaline dose. But hunger spoke louder than any fear.

He cleans his wound with the water and looks at his reflection in the river. The cut on his right cheek is not deep, but it will leave a mark. “One wrong move back there, and I could have seriously died. This forest is no joke.”

“Now, Tori looks back at the corpse of Bunny. “How am I gonna cook this?”

Tori holds the knife and cuts the bunny’s belly. Cutting it was uncomfortable for him as he did nothing like that. He then follows the process he saw on TV shows. He peeled the skin off and washed the meat with water to clean dirt and fur remains.

“Now fire” Tori searched the bag, ‘I hope I find something to start a fire’ he then found a pile of brown cards. Tori thought it looked similar to a matchstick, so he took two cards and rubbed them together.

Both cards burst out a high flame, burning tori finger, “ah! hot ow” he drops the cards immediately and rushes towards the river and dips his fingers. He looks at his fingers, and the thumb and index finger of both his hands are burned. “Dammit, it hurts like hell.”

Tori finally put the meat in the roaster. Tori sits near the fire; the heat from the bonfire gives Tori a warm feeling. He gazed at the campfire deeply, thinking about the moments that had happened moments ago.

‘If I wanna go back home, then I have to take part in Ragnarok. But can I even win the tournament? The people who summoned me abandon me. Today, I-I almost could have died. There might be an even deadlier monster than this rabbit-chameleon thing. Just how am I gonna go through this hell?' Tori started overthinking anxiously.

The crackling voice from the campfire brought Tori back to her senses. The silences spread for a moment before the thoughts came again. ‘Why do I even have to go back? It's not like I am living the best life there.'

Tori started remembering his days of the old world, where he had to do a part-time job to support himself and a bit of his sisters. His mom always came back from work tired and drunk. Looking at her mom in such a state, Tori could not even share his problems or help her.

Tori's interaction with his sisters grew smaller and smaller until it create a wall between them. Whenever Tori tries to talk to them, the only response he gets is “okay”.

Tori sighed and took a deep breath. He slapped both his cheeks hard, and it turned them bright red. “I SHOULDN'T BE WASTING MY TIME THINKING ABOUT THE PAST. For now, this is my life. In this forest, in this world. This is my new reality.”

Tori's stomach rumbles. “Better to focus on my food,” Tori takes the stick stabbed with the roasted meat. Tori looks at the meat with a drooling mouth. He blows air to cool down the meat before he takes his first bite. Chewing, he quickly takes another two bites. “This meat is bland, but it tastes so delicious.”

Tori completed the food and lay down relaxing after the tiring day, “ahhh. Now, what to do tomorrow?” he thinks, “maybe I should start training in this forest. Like, it will be my training arc.”

The rustling sounds echoed around Tori. That got him standing up to his knees, grabbing the weapon, and looking at the dark forest. Two small lights appear in the darkness. ‘What is that?’ Tori thought.

Soon, more small lights appear. Tori made a round and found himself surrounded by the glowing eyes. “This is bad,” Tori murmured.

Tori clenched his spear tight, ready to attack anything trying to get close to him. Tori realized, ‘here, in this world, old ways don't work here’.

‘I am not going to die that easily.’ He clenched his teeth, looking straight at the glowing eyes.