"Ahh, it feels good to be on my feet once again." Aaron stretched a bit as he stood up, his cloths torn here and there but nothing too severe. The garment he wore on the outside had only a few patches and had protected both him and his inner cloths from taking too much damage, that is ignoring the broken bones. The herm of the garment was now dark brown, given the fact that it used to be white.
He spent most of the night awake, just staring at the star filled sky and complete darkness on the forest floor. He stayed like that for some time before sleep finally came. The next day, he woke up and was ready for that days activities.
He could walk normally with a few leaping action here and there, nothing too fancy, but he could get around well. Now he was faced with one deadly problem, food.
"Every fruit in this vicinity is darn poisonous! Come on luck? Where these guys ancestors vipers or something? What's with all the poison? The few that are edible are like eating groundnuts, its literarily useless." Apart from the tree he sat under, the rest were not at all edible, he wasn't even sure if they were fruits or just growths.
He wandered about in his search for food, but found nothing. The area closest to the river might be the safest since all the dangerous beasts couldn't get that close, but it was also void of survival necessities. Aaron kept walking towards where seemed to have little covering.
A couple more steps and a clearing could be seen ahead. Amidst the clearing was a crater at least the size of a large pond. Now He had little to no zeal, he rather not enter into that crater, the energy wasted when it'd be time to get out would be unreasonable considering his current state.
'I must have wandered away from the river quite a bit, I better not go any further, unless I want to end up as snack for some monster. That crater though..' "I should at least see what's inside."
Moving up close to the crater, Aaron could feel a strange energy around that area, a feeling he knew all too well. "Demonic energy?" 'I wonder if a demon died here, how would a demon even survive in a place like this? And how did it get here?'
"Ahh, a demonic beast huh. I am in no condition to investigate how it got here, but one thing is for sure, their meat is edible." 'It might taste really bad like my grandma's feet (He has never even met his mother who should more than 200 years at the time of his birth), but it'll do for food to quell my hunger.'
A hard grin appeared on his face as the thought of eating something so disgusting crossed his mind. The last demonic beast he ate left nothing to be desired about, but putting his hopes on the fact that this one must be pretty strong, he could only pray that it would be bearable. 'The stronger, the better. Right?'
He cast out the memories of the last demonic beast meat he ate as he prepared to slide down the side of the crater. "Ahh, I might be a magician, but man, I am pretty good at physical activities." The demonic beast lay on the ground face up, at maybe 3 meters in height, covered in loose muscles all over it's body, with the form that looked like a bear.
"What kind of meat is this?" Aaron said with a little disgust in his expressions. "I can already tell how it'll taste."
Looking at the beast's body, Aaron sluggishly pulled out from his boot a dagger, stabbed it into the beasts leg and carved out a small piece of meat. Prior to what he thought, the muscles were all elastic and stretchy, not like jell the way he thought.
That said, climbing back up was out of the question, he was already exhausted after spending most of the day searching for what to eat.
In less than a few minutes, of him thinking out ways to overcome the biggest crisis he faced at the moment, Aaron dug out the beast's flesh until he reached the bone, then after a while was able to break one of its ribs. With the rib in one hand and his dagger in the other, he climbed out of the crater.
After wandering about for a while, he gathering everything he needed to make fire and roast the meat, and also found a stone slab that would serve as chopping board and plate.
A little after noon, he decided to start work, he had thought of starting the feast in the evening, but this meal could no longer be delayed. This was a sacrifice to the god of hunger, if there was one.
After descending down the crater and everything was set, Aaron thrust his dagger into the leg of the beast, tearing out portions of different sizes. Fortunately, mana beasts don't rot as fast as normal animals because of the mana contained in them which prevents decomposition after death for a while. But yet again, this beast was truly a bear. The skin is way tougher than it looks.
After roasting the first batch, he sat back and took a bite out of the chunk, but immediately threw it back out. "What kind of ungodly thing is this? If my stomach wasn't already empty, I would really have vomited." The disgust was clear on his face as he stared at the meat.
It didn't take long after that before Aaron had achieved his duty of appeasing the god of hunger, as a little while later he had finished the roasted demonic beast meat. Although it tasted like old shoe wore by an old homeless man and mixed with shit, it filled the stomach well.
"At the very least, it filled the stomach well." Aaron said, thinking to himself the fact that he could also use this beast's hide to make a coat. Unlike it's flesh, the fur was strong and would definitely keep him warm in the cold forest, especially at night.
Aaron spent some time cutting out more parts from the demonic beast attempting to skin it and make a coat, when he suddenly heard a voice. Although very faint, it sounded as if someone was calling him.
"Hey, hey, can you hear me? Can you hear me?." The distant voice called out like a quite whisper.
Aaron knew of monsters that could mimic human voice, mostly a baby's or children, in other to catch unsuspecting people. There was no way he was going to fall for such an obvious trap, he no longer had his power, so trying to confirm his suspicions would be suicide.
'What a dumb trick, no one would be able to survive here to begin with.' He ignored the voice and continued what he was doing.
A couple days past, and by then his injuries had fully healed, and the remaining of his bones that were still fractured or broken completely healed. He had finally regained his physical self fully, but that didn't mean he had that much physical strength, since mages didn't need it.
Throughout his time in the forest, he hadn't taken his bath or washed himself, so that bothered him a little.
He hadn't found any stream yet or another river, so the water he had was gotten from the ones that formed on leafs, which was next to nothing.
After taking a stroll around the vicinity, he appeared before a stream flowing out of a cave. The cave wasn't big, and the entrance looked like it would barely fit Aaron through.
The stream was about a five minutes' walk from where the crater was, so it worked out fine. 'Hmm, something feels strange about this cave. I would love to check it out, but I no longer possess the strength to do such dangerous things. I really need to regain some strength." Aaron wore a worried expression as the thought of how weak and defenseless he had become rang through his mind.
He drank a little from the stream using his hands. The water was refreshing, carrying a crystal clear appearance. It was really tempting to jump into, as it looked comforting and felt soothing to the skin. 'I should have brought the water pouch I made using the beast's skin. That thing was too heavy to carry around for fun anyway, so no problem I guess.' He looked a bit relived as he thought about it.
After rinsing his mouth a few times and taking some more drinks form the stream, Aaron turned to go get his water pouch, when he heard a voice.
The voice sounded similar to the one he heard before. He turned around immediately as the voice seemed to be coming from behind, but all he saw was the cave that stood beyond the stream. 'That same voice again? This is the second time I'm hearing it.'
As he turned his head around trying to find the voice, he heard it again, this time with more clarity.
"Hey, I know you can hear me. Come on don't be scared, I won't bite I promise." Although the last thing this strange voice said was something any predator would say to its prey, Aaron felt an urge to at least see what's inside the cave. But that voice was still suspicious.
Before he could decide on what to do, the voice spoke again. "Don't worry, I'm already dead. There's nothing a dead man can do to you right? So please come."
Finally, Aaron decided to approach the cave. On getting to the entrance, to his surprise, after heading deeper inside for some seconds, he realised just how big of a cave it actually was compared to how it looked from outside.
The small entrance had completely given the wrong impression. As he landed inside the cave floor, he saw something that caught his attention. Taking a few steps forward, his face gave out a somewhat ecstatic expression, "Oh wow."
"Hi there, you finally came. Welcome."