Night

[It looks like it has already stabilized. Should I try to move it? Maybe I can try to pull a small amount of energy from it and have it circulate around my body to see if something will happen.]

Poking the energy a little to see if anything will happen, I tried pulling a tiny amount of energy, as soon as a tiny amount of energy separated from the 'core', I felt excruciating pain when the small energy moved outside the heart, but still at a level I could handle.

[Was the pain I felt when the energy rampaged this excruciating? I think it was worse since I can still handle this amount of pain. But goddamn this is painful. Should I put the energy back? No, I need to find a place to eject this energy since it could be harmful and find a different way to use soul magic if I have an affinity with it.]

Moving the energy to my left hand with the feeling of pain following the energy, I tried to see if it could exit the way it entered. When the energy reached the surface of my palm, it felt as if a barrier was blocking the energy from going out of from hand.

Seeing that it can't exit throught my palm, I also tried moving the energy through my individual fingers to the tip but the same thing happened, concluding that the energy can't be ejected through my left hand, I moved the energy back to the core, the constant feeling of intense pain has taken a large toll on me.

Deciding to explore more about this energy later, I opened my eyes, feeling that I was sweating even when most of my body is underwater, I started taking a proper bath.

After wearing the same clothes which are the only clothes I have, I ate a few berries and went out to collect more branches and leaves after making another shortspear.

Carrying everything back to the cave together with some berries, I started trying to skin the boar carcass and separating its meat.

Thankfully, the carcass had little to no blood left in its body after dying of bloodlost and after getting dragged through the forest. But even with that, my hands were still covered in blood after I finished separating what I could with my stone knives.

Looking at the blood-stained boar hide, a pile of raw meat and bones, and another pile of organs in front of me, I looked at the pile of organs and thought of what I can use them for.

[I don't know what I can use them for. I've heard that we can use the tendons as strings and the like, but I can't see how I would do that. Should I throw everything other than the tendon? It's starting to smell, and it's only gonna get worse.]

Thinking of anything I can use to cover the smell up, I exited the cave to search around the perimeter for something that can cover the smell, with my weapons in hand.

Carefully looking through the things nearby for a few minutes, I thought of just throwing the organs as I have no knowledge of how to use them anyway, when my feet stepped into a pile of mud, giving me an idea.

[Can I use mud to cover the smell? I think it'll work, but will it just make it rot faster? Well, it doesn't matter if it rots faster since if I don't find their use soon, I'll just throw it away anyway.]

Returning to the cave, I scooped as much mud as I could from the mud puddle beside the cave entrance, I smeared the mud around the organs and put them at a corner of the cave on a few leaves.

Done handling the organs, I cleaned the blood-stained part of the animal hide with mud and took a few branches to build a drying rack at a dry part of the cave entrance where the branches can stick into the soil, and proceeded to lay the hides and a few pieces of meat on the racks to dry them.

Looking up and seeing that the sky was getting yellowish, I thought of what I would need to get through the night. Sharpening a few more branches, I sticked them into the ground, covering the cave entrance like a wooden spike fence with gaps. This should at least provide me some protection for the night.

Gathering the dry twigs and branches that I have, and also a few stones, I arranged the stones in a circle and the branch and twigs inside near the entrance and tried to make fire.

After about an hour of trying to use a technique I learned from the internet to make fire, I was finally able to make a stable fire.

Putting boar legs and raw meat over the flame, I waited for it to cook and stared at the dark sky filled with stars and the fire giving me light, getting lost in my thoughts.

After switching out cooked meat with raw ones after about an hour and adding shaved wood to the fire when needed, I took a bite out of a cooked boar leg.

[It tastes tough and bland. Haah, why am I in a forest... I should be at home right now. Who brought me here? Why? And I need to find more food tomorrow too. Fuck. No use complaining now. This is just the first day. I'll get used to this soon... I hope. Maybe I can find something to season my food tomorrow. Maybe curry leaves... If there are any in this type of forest.]

Using the berries to make the meal taste better, I ate until I was full. I made sure everything was alright. Then left the fire burning and laid down on the ground with a pile of leaves as my pillow, trying to get a decent sleep.