Found (Part One)

Seven days.

One week.

It's been one week since I was stranded in this wood, on a quest from an asshole of a god who won't even give me a hint.

Thinking about it, it's obvious what he actually had wanted me to do.

Something I could do fine in a video game, or something that made sense in every bad show or book I read.

Loot. He wanted to give me loot. Those adventurers had on very nice-looking gear, and there was even a spell caster among them. I could have gotten some magical items, money, and a litany of other objects.

If I was an absolute sociopath!

Are you kidding me Ego? You want me to loot the corpses of dead adventurers, two of whom I could have saved with quicker action?

I may be desperate and want to grow stronger, but I'm not THAT desperate! They were fresh corpses! I saw them die!

No matter what sort of advice I was supposed to follow from Ego in this forest, it has obviously failed. Now, I'm lost, in a completely different forest than the one owned by my family, being forced to hunt odd colored wolves for meat and tree-like monsters for wood and safety.

I was reluctant to eat the wolves at first, but it's this is starvation. There's one other option for meat, that being a monkey-like monster, but I am even less on board with eating the next closest thing to a human in these woods.

Thinking about humans, the Carnivoro. I don't know if it was like a boss or something in these woods, or a stray, or an invader, but there doesn't appear to be any more here.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, it's just strange.

Either way, I can't stay here. I've stayed in my artificial cave for a week now and it's not only cramped but useless.

What's the point in staying in one spot if no one is coming to look for me?

I mean, if my family was actively looking for me, my constant fires and movement in the forest should have allowed them to locate me by now.

No, what most likely happened was that the first night I didn't come home, there was a search party. Then, after I turned up gone, it was probably assumed that I had died. I mean, in a world of magic, swords, and monsters, I would not expect a literal toddler to be able to survive either.

I mean, if I was just the average kid I would have died by now. The only thing that has kept me alive is the fact that I'm really a nineteen-year-old in here, not a person who has the mental capabilities of a goldfish.

Well, technically I'm not nineteen anymore. Mentally, I'm around twenty-two now.

Weird. It doesn't feel that way at all, maybe because my body doesn't match up to my mind?

Either way, it doesn't feel as if I've aged any except physically. That'll probably fade with time, probably as my body reaches that of a teenager or young adult, my mind will start to recognize my aging. Or it could just be that it's a mix of my new body giving me a fresh mind and the fact that it's only been a few years.

Only time will tell with some things.

Another one of those things that time will tell, is when I begin my journey out of this forest.

I've decided to hunt some more wolves, cook and smoke their meat so it lasts for a while, and just start walking in any direction. I mean, worst case scenario I eventually hit civilization either inside of or out of the forest.

For now, all my hunting strategies need to change.

So far, I've focused on finding wolves that are alone or eating, sealing their movements with a cage of earth magic, and just pelting them with either ice or earth spears.

It works, but I want to have a nice stockpile of food before I head out, so today, I'm going to take down a pack.

Now, that's easier said than done. First, I need to find or lure a pack, then I need to wipe it out.

The wiping out is easy in theory, get in a tree, enclose them in a wall of stone, rain magic on them one by one until done.

Easy, simple, and free.

Tracking and luring however is a different beast entirely. I have not the slightest idea what these things eat, how they move, or even where to start looking.

Thankfully, during my deliberations, my problem solved itself.

Wandering around the forest, just about a kilometer or two away from my artificial cave, I hear the loud howling that is typical of these wolf packs.

On both a good note and a disturbing one, along with the howling of a wolf back, was a loud scream of terror.

Great. Of course.

The two things I wanted. Civilization and my wolf pack.

The only thing I didn't want was BOTH of them at the same time!

Immediately, I collect all of my two belongings and rush toward the source of the scream.

There's no way. There's absolutely no way I can ever get to that person in time if the pack is that close to them. If I were in my old body, I would probably stand a better chance, but even if that was the case, I can't remember the last time I worked out.

God, I really need to start working out. After like three minutes of running I'm panting out of breath.

But I have to keep going, I won't let a third person die because I'm slow. Especially since I know I can help.

Out of ideas, I funnel an insane amount of wind mana into my legs and release it all at once, draining my mana total by a significant margin, but sending me flying through the woods.

That worked for a moment until the pain in my legs nearly caused me to pass out and crash into a tree.

Maybe that technique oughta wait a few years until my legs can handle the force of something like that. Cycling my whole body with healing magic, I can finally start to move again.

I need to keep moving.

I need to make it in time.