Ch 2 – Attaining Freedom

An unknown amount of time later, the boy was still deep below the pool of stomach acid, constantly feeling and hearing the thumps of the ground and the shaking of the titan's body with each step it takes.

'Huh, so these titans are probably immortal in age, have a regeneration ability, they also seem to only eat humans but don't seem to need them for nutrition. Another clue for me to use, sigh, I should be able to escape this titan's stomach soon if it just swallows a better branch, the one I currently have in my save file is just a tiny stick that would instantly break when I try to pierce through the titan's stomach wall.' He thought, grabbing the wall beside him with curious eyes while his body continues to dissolve under the acid including his wide-open eyes.

But soon, he suddenly felt the titan's stomach crunch up which hasn't happened before, and soon, he felt the whole stomach rapidly shaking which indicates the titan was running around, and his theory was proven true when he heard more thumps near him which means more titans are running alongside the titan he was in.

'Humans!' he thought with wide eyes, but soon, calmness returned back to his mind as he starts to assess the situation.

'3, no, 5 titans are currently around me. If I manage to gut out the stomach with a weapon, I would only get surrounded by more titans and have to fight them and get swallowed again. So I must ensure that my titan can swallow a human and hope that they have something useful on them, and then must wait for it to sleep in nighttime and start my escape.' He thought with determined eyes, getting into a standing position, he puts his legs and arms in certain positions where he could slightly alter the titan's movements and try to predict where the humans are.

But soon, the sound of a blade being drawn, metal hitting wood, and a swishing sound appears all around him alongside one titan right beside them falling to the ground which shocks him.

'W-what? They managed to kill a titan? That means they have been dealing with titans for a few years already and have developed some sort of civilized society.' He assess the situation further as he knew what to do, he could either wait for the titan he was in to die and get their help, or the titan is able to kill one of them and he could get their weapon or some shards of it at least if he was slightly lucky.

Putting his legs and arms away, he decides to let the titan go on its own and see what side of the coin will land, to get help or do it on his own.

And as he hears more slashes and loud thumps on the ground, he felt the titan making contact with something and crouching down on the ground, and soon, he hears a loud scream for help and with a plop right above him, he saw… another human right in front of him dead with burning skin.

With a cold gaze, he hastily grabs the man's weird things on his waist while quickly making a save file of the man to use later and drawing out a sword that seems to be disposable which was a weird design choice, and what was even wielder was that there was a trigger hook up to a cable on the machine on his waist that seems to be used for something.

'Finally, a miracle has happened, now I only need it to be night and I can finally get out of this stomach.' He thought while unbuckling the gear on the man's waists and inspecting it further to past time.

And finally, as he felt the titan stop moving and sit down on the ground, he takes a deep breath wearing the weird gear on his waist that was luckily perfectly fine and draws out the blade from his waist, and with him nearing it to the stomach wall, he stabs it in one go and felt it piercing through with relative ease which shows how sharp the blades were.

And as the titan stays asleep as expected, he opens a hole in the titan's stomach and as he felt the cold breeze entering the hole… he walks through it with a cold gaze as finally, he was now out of the hellhole called a titan's stomach.

Grabbing the titan's fat stomach, he jumps down to the ground from a dangerous height that would definitely hurt him but with a single press, gas went to shoot out from the thing on his waist halts his fall for a split second and manages to safely land down on the ground.

'Gas strong enough to halt my fall. The triggers will shoot out the hooks, along with the gas, and also reel the cables in. So this means… this is for swinging around to deal with titans!' he thought with an impressed gaze, pointing his gear at nearby trees, he shoots out two hooks, one on the left and one on the right and with a quick jump, he finds himself shakily balancing his body and soon, he drops down headfirst to the ground as his balance was easily disrupted.

'Balance, and control. I'll deal with balance for now and deal with control later. I still have a few hours before the sun appears and have to go back inside that stomach for housing.' He thought while glancing at the sleeping house beside him and chuckling at the sight.

'But, I also need to have my physical strength be raised to properly wield this thing without having to constantly reload. So, I really do need to find where those people came from and get a job so I can gain nutrition and start training, I'm still young and age won't be a problem for me later in the future when I just wait for a few thousand years for the technology to develop or find another way to gain immortality.' He thought while redoing his training once more for the rest of the night and by the time the sun was rising in the sky, his balance was near perfect as his state was always at peak condition which allowed him to train endlessly for a few hours straight.

"Hey buddy, good morning!" he said with a smile as the titan beside him looks at him with saliva dripping from his mouth, and just like that, he was eaten once more and he calmly slides through the steaming hot throat and plops down on his pool of acid.

'Hmm, theoretically, I would only need to have a single piece of meat and vegetable and just endlessly duplicate them for infinite food but due to that, I would slowly age and perhaps even get sick, be bruised, etc. and my peak condition save file would have to change and lose some progress. I'll deal with this later, for now, I don't have a home and I'm still surrounded by titans.' He thought, closing his eyes to improve his mental capabilities and reviewing his training that went on for 8 hours straight, finding some flaws in his training and making mental notes on how to fix them.

Once more, the moon has risen high above the sky as a hole bursts open from the titan's stomach, and the boy jumps out of it like last night.

'Now, I could safely keep my balance and start swinging around. So legs are going to be very important to develop later and muscle memory is going to help me tremendously. Even if I have trash talent right now, I have near-infinite time to train and that would be my main strength.' He thought, shooting two hooks out of his waist, and with one press on the trigger, gas shoots out of his waist and he was flung forwards into the air, and as he was about to slam into a tree right in front of him, the left hook reels back to his waist and he shoots it to another tree on his left, narrowly dodging the tree as the right hook goes back in its place.

'My calmness and great special awareness are quite nice, now I only have to develop my skills further and I should become proficient with this gear in no time.' He thought, landing right beside a tree and looking at the moon high above the night sky, counting the seconds a single night would averagely take.

(The Next Night)

'A bird nest!' he shouts in his mind, glancing at the nest just above the tree where his titan house is currently leaning on.

'Plan, discard the titan, find a cave or place to stay where I can recuperate after working out, and go back to peak condition for a new save file. Sigh, if only I can make a temporal save point, it would have been nice, but this power is still pretty good to have. Infinite stamina, constant peak condition, the worries of death being virtually gone, etc. As long as I don't do something stupid and risky, I would be able to safely train in this forest without any problem for a few years, and then with my safety being guaranteed, I can now start looking for humans and rejoin society.' He thought, deciding to discard the titan, he does a big leap while gas shoots out of his waist that propels him upwards, and with a swift grab, the nest was caught alongside the mother bird that was on there sleeping which would be his source of meat for a good while.

'Finally, infinite food and nutrition. Now I only need to get some vegetables, water, a base, and then I could start my training.' With his plans now set, he throws the nest on the ground cracking the eggs into yellow yolk, and with a hook shooting out of his waist, he starts swinging around at a rapid pace moving from one place to another with crude technique but it does the job well enough for him.

'Hmm? A river?' he thought as he heard the sound of running water in the deep silence of the forest up north so he continues to rapidly swing, narrowly dodging trees and obstacles along the way while his gas cylinder constantly refills due to him constantly reloading it back with his power which proves to be useful with many applications.

And soon, he lands on a branch and glances below him to see a beautiful clear river reflecting the full moon above them, illuminating the place around with a luminescent glow as he crouches down on the branch to look around the place.

'Close gaps, high trees, natural defense to my advantage. I could just dig a hole if I want to or hollow out a tree and there should be some fishes and plants growing around here. It's decided, this place would be my camp for now.' He thought while glancing around the area, with the trees acting as natural walls along with the ground being relatively rocky and flat, it should disrupt the titans' movements by stabbing their feet on the ground.

'Now I only need to make a fire by using wood and go on from there.' With a hop, he falls down to the ground with his hair flinging towards the air due to the wind pressure opposing his fall, and with a quick release of gas from his waist, his fall halts for a split second allowing him to land safely on the ground.

'Now, it's time to start training more seriously, to reach the peak means I have to sacrifice some things like personal enjoyment. But sacrifices are nothing to reach the peak, a power so vast you could alter reality on a whim, a power so incomprehensible infinity is a breeze to create, a power so unobtainable you could grant wishes akin to a god.' He thought, looking at the shining moon reflected on the river as if he wants to attain the moon for himself.

AN: This is 2040 words, you're welcome.

Writing is hard, so give me some power stones.

(May 16, 2022 – 173rd day of writing)