Chapter 11: Nighttime Visitor

It took him about an hour and a half to finally finish butchering and skinning the two carcasses. He stored the skins and meat in his necklace and was currently holding the two essence stones in his hands ready to absorb them.

Noticing the ellipses flashing again Rosario decided to see if he could absorb the essence from the stones without opening the system and confirming. He really didn't want to rely on having to open and confirm with the system every time he wanted to absorb essence. Deciding to give it a shot he focused on the two stones in his hands and thought about the feeling he had last time he absorbed essence. Picturing the scene again in his head a smile tugged at his lips as he watched as the stones dissolved into particles and flew into his head.

Excitedly he saw a lot more particles swirling about and entering him than the last time he absorbed essence. As it entered him he actually ,for a fraction of a second, felt something, he wasn't sure what, but it was almost like he could feel the essence being absorbed by an organ in his body or something. Opening the messages that he received he took a look at the amount of essence he now had.

[Essence Stone: Evo 0, Level 2]

[Essence Stone: Evo 0, Level 4]

[Level 0 (45/100)]

Seeing his essence now at 45 of 100 Rosario guessed that each animal gave him 15 essences as he had gained 30 from these two. Satisfied with the outcome, Rosario again began his trek through the forest towards his original goal of the mountains. As he traveled now his mind was awash with thoughts on how much essence he needed to get to level 1 and how many animals would it take for him to kill. What was the Evo 0 number and what did it represent? Immersed in his thoughts Rosario continued his hike until daylight was almost gone.

Finding a decent tree, he climbed up it and made himself comfortable to spend another night in the wilderness. Unfortunately for Rosario he had chosen a tree in an area already inhabited by another.

Rosario was peacefully dreaming about eating a delicious Thanksgiving Meal when he started feeling a tightness in his chest. Worried, he started rubbing his chest hoping to make the pain go away but instead he started having the feeling not just around his chest but the rest of his body also. Trying to shake off the feeling he was beginning to panic as the feeling started getting worse and worse. With every breath he took he felt it harder and harder to take the next. Very quickly he felt like he was suffocating and as he finally lifted his head yelling a silent scream for lack of oxygen, he finally woke up.

As Rosarios eyes shot open the feeling of being restricted and chorused did not disappear instead Rosario found himself fighting to take a breath as he felt his whole upper body and legs encased in vines that were tightening around him.

Unable to currently see his surroundings due to the darkness of the night and the canopy of treetops blocking the moonlight Rosarios eyes darted everywhere as his brain fired at rapid pace trying to comprehend what was going on around him.

After a few seconds of haziness from just waking up Rosario used the fingers on his right hand to feel around at his side for the bowie knife he had stabbed next to him prior to falling asleep. His arms were pinned to his sides and his left hand was also pinned with the spear firmly anchored where it sat in his hand, utterly useless. Just the fingers on his right hand seemed to be slightly free currently.

Wiggling them around he was able to grasp the hilt of the bowie knife, unfortunately he was not able to pull it from its wooden prison as he seemed to have stabbed it a little too deeply into the branch. Thinking quickly, he thought about the bowie knife disappearing into his necklace, immediately he felt the absence of the hilt from his fingertips. Knowing it had worked he thought about resummoning the Bowie knife back into his right hand but this time he imagined it being in his grip.

Feeling the weight of the knife back in his hand he started choking up on the blade so that it was at an angle facing whatever was still wrapped around him. Gripping the blade tightly he thrust the blade into the object gripping it tightly and causing his own hand to bleed. As he felt the knife sink into whatever the vine-like object was that surrounded him, he heard a hissing sound.

Immediately he knew what was going on. Somehow he was in the clutches of an Anaconda or Boa Constrictor. Feeling the snake writhing around him and tightening its grip on him faster he began doing whatever he could with the blade to cause damage to the snake. Trying to give himself some breathing room Rosario flexed his arms out away from his body as hard as possible. At first it didn't seem like it did anything but then slowly he felt himself pushing the snake away from constricting his chest.

Doubling down on trying to get himself out Rosario imagined the spear re-entering the necklace and now with his left hand empty and a bit of room left by the void of the spear he put his all into pushing his arms away from his sides. Making better progress than the first try Rosario felt the snakes grip on him loosening. After a few minutes Rosario was able to breathe properly again and had finally managed to get the snake to unravel from around him using his strength and knives. As the snake sloughed off of him he grabbed it and started swinging it about trying to find its head.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how he looked at it, Rosario definitely found the head of the snake but not as he would have liked. At this point his eyes had adjusted some and he was at least able to see a few shadows from the moonlight filtering through the trees. From seemingly out of nowhere on his left he saw an object shoot towards the side of his neck. With his improved reflexes he wasn't able to dodge whatever it was, but he was able to get his left arm up in the way. Feeling a stabbing pain on his arm he brought it down and found a massive snake's head biting deeply into his forearm. Without wasting any time Rosario swung his right hand over and brought his left arm closer to his body as he plunged the bowie knife into the snake's skull with a thud, burying it to the grip.

Briefly glancing at the ellipsis, he saw the message he wanted to see.

[Killed: Ringed Anaconda. Evo 0, Level 4]

After confirming that his opponent was dead, Rosario slumped back onto the branch he was initially sitting and sleeping on. His left arm was hurting really bad with the snake's fangs still solidly lodged into his forearm so, being careful so as to not hurt himself more Rosario began using his right arm to try and pull the fangs out. It took a couple of minutes but with a little work Rosario was finally able to dislodge the snake's fangs and he sat there holding the snake by the neck and blood trickling out of his arm.

Deciding to carve up the snake in the morning Rosario stored the snake away in his necklace while also pulling out a few medical supplies he had brought with him. He cleaned the two puncture wounds and wrapped a bandage tightly around the wounds. Once he was all cleaned up again Rosario recalled his spear and Bowie knife and relaxed back into the tree. Unfortunately, he was a little too on edge to be able to fall back asleep.