9 Training In the Jungle

When Barry woke me up it was around midnight. He said, "Half the night has passed. Time for me to go to sleep."

I nodded and started the watch. Looking around me more carefully is the jungle we were in. The trees were massive, looking like the redwoods of Earth standing hundreds of feet tall.

It was incredible now that I paid attention to it. In the tops of the trees, I could see many animals moving from branch to branch. Monkeys the size of a car, squirrels standing at around my height, and birds that looked like they could eat me in one bite.

They were sleeping through content to ignore the small hairless apes that wandered into their territory. As the night passed and nothing happened I started to train once more.

I practiced each of the moves of Renewal Taekwondo, Bo-Bup, Hwechook, Gor Yo, Baekdu, and many more. I felt each strand of my muscle move in perfect synchronicity thinking about my previous fight.

I had handled it easily, but that was to be expected. I was already superhuman and had a martial art style that could stand up to gods. But I still couldn't knock out Loyd in one blow.

It annoyed me, I knew this was the world of One Piece, but still for some random mook to not be knocked out immediately, I felt insulted.

So I trained my forms trying to extract every fraction of power I could to each blow. Before on Earth, I trained to get the form right and make it muscle memory.

Now I imagined fighting foes much stronger than me and needing to strike them with blows that could crush boulders and shatter steel.

I moved in a hypnotic dance filled with kicks and punches that caused small shockwaves as they hit the air. And as I trained at the night I got more comfortable thinking of other aspects to train.

First I train my blows to be silent as while the shockwaves I produced were impressive they were also loud and seemed to be bothering Barry as he slept.

It was also inefficient as the shockwaves showed I was pushing air away at fast speeds. I faced a lot of wind resistance slowing me down. So I tried to understand the airflows.

This was going to be a crucial aspect in the future if I wanted to advance in Renewal Taekwondo. Some of the most powerful moves like the Jin Mo-Ri Original: Blue Dragon's Kick required you to manipulate air flows.

I trained well into the night and no animal attack but by the time Barry woke up I had made it so that I worked with the air, not against it. Making my blows dead quiet.

When he woke up he said, "Ok now that we're ready I will tell you what I know about this area. You see these trees, we call them Ironbark trees as while they aren't as good as Adam wood they are the next best alternative."

"Due to the toughness and size of these trees when a herbivore hides in one of them it makes it very hard to reach them. Because of that many of the predators here are incredibly fast or work in packs."

"Be careful of them. Normally it is the giant tiger and panther you have to worry about but make sure to keep an eye on those birds. Once in a while, they come down to try and catch prey down here if they can't catch much up in the trees."

"Due to dangerous predators, we need you to be fast as well if you want to catch any food for tonight. You better be fast as I certainly can't help you hunt or protect from any predators."

"What you want to do is hunt the rabbits in this area. They are around the size of my head and make nests in the roots of the trees. And while they are fast they aren't the fastest."

"What you do need to worry about is their hearing, they can hear a snapping of a branch from a hundred feet away. So you have to be stealthy when approaching them."

"There should be some around here, animals do tend to gather around freshwater. So go shoo try and hunt them. Remember to be stealthy and fast if you want to catch them."

I said, "Don't worry old man, by this time tonight I'll have 10 caught and ready to be cooked. But are you sure that you will be safe here? What if something attacks?"

He smiled, "Don't worry this pond is kind of a sacred place for the animals. They don't hunt prey here. And even if they do, I will just dive into the water, most animals here can't swim."

Reassured I smiled at him and dashed off into the forest. I sprung off trees and swung off branches, the parkour I learned before helping me navigate this wild land.

I saw many animals like those massive squirrels from before or rats the size of my leg. But most animals as soon as they saw climbed up the tree incredibly quickly.

I slowed down, I was making too much noise if I wanted to hunt. Good thing that I did the practice last night or I would alert the forest every time I struck out with any modicum of force.

With my high perception stat, I quickly spotted a rabbit around 50 meters away. I slowed down, calmed my breathing, and slowly approached it.

As I was getting closer the brown rabbit ignored content with eating a carrot it had found. When I was 10 meters away however it seemed to notice something.

Its ears stood up straight and I stood stock-still. What had I noticed, I made sure not to step on anything. Had I noticed by breathing?

As I swiveled its ears around I dashed towards trying to kill it before it ran off. But it noticed immediately and darted off into the trees.

But despite its small size it was fast and quickly reached its burrow and escaped me.

What had I done wrong? I thought this over and continued my hunt for rabbits. I kept failing them, noticing me before darting off into its burrow.

So I tried a different strategy, instead of approaching on foot, I scaled the trees. When I was above a rabbit I jumped aiming to kill it one shot.

Its hearing was still annoyingly sharp as it noticed my approach and ran off. I tried many more tactics to catch these furred bastards like throwing rocks, holding my breath, or covering myself in mud.

But they always seem to hear me. Then I went tonight and my shoulders slumped in defeat when back to camp.

There I found Barry with a rabbit roasting over a fire. I gaped in surprise, how did this is old fuck manage to get a rabbit and I didn't?

I said, "How the fuck did you get that?"

He looked in my direction then smiled, "Ho ho ho, didn't get a rabbit, did you. This old man caught a rabbit but you didn't for shame, for shame, on you."

I frustrated asked, "How the fuck did you manage to catch that rabbit?"

He smiled and said, "Those rabbits, you probably managed to get close but then once you were too they seem to notice you no matter what you didn't they?"

I nodded. With his shit-eating grin, he said, "That was because you were too excited. Didn't I warn you about their hearing? They can hear the heart beating in your chest."

How the fuck? Oh yeah, this was the world of One Piece crazy shit like this happens all the time. "So," I asked, "How to prevent them from noticing me?"

He smiled, "Didn't I tell you, you were too excited. You need to calm your heartbeat if you intend to catch them."

That would have been useful information before I started to hunt them. I grumbled about the unfairness but when he handed me some rabbit I ate it.

"So did you go into the forest to catch this?" I asked.

He said, "I shot it with my gun."

I gaped. This old shit not only had a way to protect himself but he made believe he caught it by hunting it using stealth.

I screamed in frustration and he laughed. We talked more over dinner. It turned tonight and we started our watches.