One day passed since then, and Damien could be seen crouching behind a rock with his short swords out. At the moment he was stalking his prey, which was…a bunny.
Even Damien thought it was extremely lame for him to hunt bunnies, but when he carelessly attempted to kill the first one, his only reward was a deep gash on his leg that still hadn’t healed.
Because of that, Damien started calling this species, Demon Bunnies, and began using hit and run tactics using his teleportation to kill them while they were off guard.
‘Now’
And just like every time he hunted for the past day, he waited for his opportunity and teleported directly behind the bunny, stabbing his short swords down before he even teleported, instantly killing it.
Another discovery he made was that his teleportation ability carried his momentum. Although he had no idea how that worked scientifically, old laws of science didn’t apply to the new reality.
Still, he did his best to use the old science he learned to justify his power. It was human instinct to try and define the unknown in terms one already has knowledge of.
Using his bunny killing method, he had already gained a level, but killing the same beast too many times significantly decreases the amount of experience earned, so he would have to move on to bigger prey soon.
Grabbing the fresh bunny carcass, Damien went back to the cave he had found and set up residence in yesterday. He threw the body into the pile of other bodies and sat down.
Today would be his 2nd day going without food or water, but he was holding up relatively well due to the rich density of mana in the environment. Although he had 6 or 7 demon bunny corpses, he knew it would be stupid if he ate them as he is now.
Beast mana is infused in their bodies to strengthen them and is incompatible with humans, so it’s usually impossible to eat beasts unless the carcasses are purified by a priest class or similar people.
When the world first changed, there was a couple of cases of people trying to cook and eat beast meat, however, things didn’t end well for them.
Through further research, it was discovered that 99% of the time, people who ate non-purified beast meat had their bodies corrupted by the foreign mana and exploded.
The other 1% of people mutated into Demi-humans, but not the cute cat girl kind of that show up in the manga, rather they would have wolf heads and wolf paws with random tufts of fur jutting out from their bodies.
These people also tended to lose most of their reasoning, becoming more animalistic and primal.
Even knowing about these abysmal odds, Damien had a certain level of confidence in mutating successfully as long as he got stronger before he attempted it.
Either way, he would have to eat the beast meat, he just decided to delay it to increase his chances. However, he could only last at most another day or two before he needs to eat.
Once Damien got his thoughts in order, he thought back to the layout he made of the floor he’s on.
‘I don’t know which floor this is, but it’s definitely near the top. There are also only classless beasts on this floor since the rest were wiped out during the raid. Although it’s frustrating, there’s no way to go up or closer to the surface, there’s only a single staircase that leads to the next floor.’
‘I can’t gain much more from classless beasts unless I kill everything alive on this floor, but that’ll drain my stamina to the point where I’ll be forced to eat the beast meat and take my chances with mutation.’
As his thoughts followed this path, he made his decision. ‘I already firmed my resolve. There’s no more use in hesitating. If it means I can get stronger faster, I’ll go down to the next floor.’
But first, he decided to rest. Among the classless beasts here, he could reign relatively supreme with his teleportation, so they don’t usually disturb the area where he stays.
What felt like a couple of hours later, Damien woke up feeling refreshed. Since it’s only been around a day and a half since he got stranded, he still had a relative view of the time.
When he got up, he looked at the pile of corpses he’d made and sighed. He didn’t know if he’d be able to come back for these and felt it was a waste to save them.
‘Okay. It’s time to go. This will be my first time facing real danger in my life.’
With an increased sense of vigilance, Damien walked down the staircase leading to the next floor.
When he reached what he had dubbed as the second floor, he was surprised to find that plants were growing here and there. Although it was mostly as desolate as the 1st floor, it still had a bit of spice.
Damien was pleasantly surprised by this discovery, after all, this meant that there was a possibility of there being a water source somewhere in this dungeon.
As Damien vigilantly walked through this new floor, he finally met his first prey. In front of him was a grey wolf that was slightly shorter than the average human, and judging from the aura it gave off, it was probably around level 8 or 9.
Damien and the wolf eyed each other vigilantly before the wolf made the first move and pounced. Damien jumped to his right and drew his short swords. He then teleported to the left side of the wolf and slashed down.
The wolf howled in pain as a gash was created in its side and attempted to bite Damien, however, he had already teleported to the adjacent side of the wolf, repeating his previous motion.
The wolf, in its confusion, turned completely towards Damien, who vanished from the spot and continued his tactics, 3 stabs later, the wolf collapsed to the floor.
[You killed Lvl 9 Grey Wolf, obtained 50 Exp]
“Haa..haa..”
Since the wolf didn’t possess a great deal of intelligence, it was relatively easy to deal with, but Damien was still gasping for air. After all, he was never in frontal confrontations before this. Still, he couldn’t help but smile. Even though his fight was for survival, he found himself having fun.
Fighting, killing, growing stronger. Ever since the possibilities opened up with the introduction of mana, this was all he ever wanted to do.
As he looked forward to the seemingly limitless future, he reaffirmed his determination.
‘I will survive.’