I’d trawled the woods with my father many times in our hunting outings, but I’d never gone this deep into them before.
The deeper I got, the fewer signs of life there were—not just of monsters but of normal animals too. The sound of my footsteps and rustling leaves were all that filled the silence of the dense woods.
An oddly desolate, eerie mood pervaded the forest here. I felt a chill run down my spine, but the fear that gripped me felt entirely different from the fear I felt in the face of monsters. Still, I kept going.
Finally, I came across a promising spot for a campsite beneath a cliff. Well, technically, it was more like two large boulders. There was a space between them that looked like a perfect shelter.
The boulders were overlapping, forming something like a roof. The entrance to the little hollow beneath them was only wide enough to fit three of me, so there would be no risk of finding myself surrounded by predators. Larger monsters wouldn’t even be able to reach the hollow in the first place.
It also offered a strong defense against the elements. I’d be safe here from the wind and the rain.
The only concerns I had were the overgrowth of moss and the hordes of disgusting-looking bugs that had claimed the hollow, but even those weren’t really a big deal.
I didn’t want to waste any time in making my new shelter hospitable, so I quickly set about clearing the moss and exterminating the many-legged bugs. My next task was to stabilize the muddy ground. After gathering up some sticks and leaves and blanketing the mud with them, my simple shelter was complete.
All that was left to do now was wait for the time to pass...
Unfortunately, though, even doing nothing makes a person hungry.
To make matters worse, I hadn’t had breakfast this morning. I’d also had to fend off Claus in an adrenaline-fueled fight which almost ended in him killing me, after which I’d made an escape deep into Patia Forest, wounded and exhausted.
I’d never been this low on energy before in my entire life. I was so hungry that even the sight of my disgusting centipede neighbors was making my mouth water. But I wanted to leave them as a last resort food source, and besides, I had to relieve myself, so I figured I might as well use the opportunity to gather some plants to eat instead.
I left my simple shelter and grabbed some nearby vegetation, shoving it immediately into my mouth.
The first plant I ate bore an uncanny resemblance to a human face, with two white flowers wrapped in vibrant red leaves. Initially, it tasted sweet, but the second the flowers touched my tongue, their acrid taste assaulted my senses.
The stark contrast between the slight sweetness of the leaves and the intense bitterness of the flowers only amplified the latter’s harsh flavor. My body fought against me, protesting my attempts to swallow, but I forced myself to gulp it down.
Whew...
All I’d done was eat a small handful of forest vegetation, but it had really taken it out of me.
I decided to lay off the countless human-faced flowers that covered the ground in front of me for now, opting instead to try my luck with some plants that had small, dainty purple flowers.
Unlike the creepy first flowers, these purple ones looked pretty inviting. But unfortunately, they were every bit as astringent and bitter.
I managed to choke them down too, along with the harsh reality of my circumstances. It was becoming clear to me that I couldn’t just ingest the forest’s vegetation raw like this. Toxic or not, they were inedible.
But since my stomach was completely empty, I forced myself to eat the plants anyway for the nutrition. I foraged a number of suspicious, poisonous-looking mushrooms to shove into my mouth too.
Aside from the human-faced flowers, most of the suspicious-looking plants I encountered actually turned out to be surprisingly edible. Once I’d found which plants tasted best, I ignored their unappetizing appearances and set about harvesting as many as I could, shoving them into my bag until it was bursting with greenery.
Once I got back to my shelter, I took them out of my bag and found a spot to store them.
The next step was to get some water. I needed to rehydrate and fill up my waterskin for later.
While I was gathering the plants, I’d also done some scouting for any nearby creeks or streams, but the most promising water source I’d managed to find was a shallow, muddy puddle.
I hadn’t spotted any other sources of water since I’d left the spring at the edge of the forest, so that left me with only two options: I could either walk all the way back to the spring, or I could drink from the muddy puddle.
The spring was certainly the more palatable option, even if it would take a while to reach it. But just as I was seriously considering making the trek, I realized I didn’t even know how to get there.
I’d been so desperate to escape from reality that all I’d been able to think about was running deeper and deeper into the forest. Now, I had no idea how to return. I was basically stranded here.
Guess I’ll just have to slurp up that muddy water, then...
Just like with the plants, my poison resistance would probably ensure that I didn’t suffer any physical consequences from contaminated water, but I couldn’t help recoiling at the thought of how it was going to taste.
I wondered if I could sustain myself with the water I’d have ingested from the plants, but I knew, realistically, that it wouldn’t be enough to stay hydrated. If I didn’t drink from that muddy puddle, I would probably doom myself to death by dehydration.
I headed over to the puddle, bracing myself. Cupping both hands, I scooped up some water and poured it down my throat.
The stench and putrid taste were exactly what you’d expect from the murky black water. Bits of grit clung to my tongue. I was on the verge of throwing it all right back up, but I forced myself to keep drinking.
No real food...and no water fit for drinking either.
As I took in the full wretchedness of my situation, I felt bitter tears prickling at the corners of my eyes. But, as awful as this was, I’d already made up my mind to do whatever it took to survive.
I won’t rest until I’ve had my revenge. Claus and my father will pay.
Spurred solely by the force of that resolve, I stood up again, wiped my mouth, and returned to my shelter.
Several days had passed since I’d entered the forest and set up camp.
I tried my best to drink rainwater whenever possible, but when that wasn’t enough, I hydrated myself with the muddy puddle water. For food, I’d been subsisting on plants and bugs.
Yesterday, though, I’d actually managed to find some kind of meat in the woods.
It had spoiled to the point that it was impossible to tell where it had come from or what it was, but after eating nothing but bugs and plants for days, it looked like a real feast.
Although I wouldn’t have ever dreamed of touching the stuff before I’d entered these woods, I picked the rotting meat up as if it were some priceless treasure and carried it back to camp with me.
It smelled absolutely awful, but I had a feeling that roasting it with some herbs might fix that. Excited, I experimented a bit to see which herbs might complement the meat best. In the end, I wound up with what was probably the best meal I could cook, given the circumstances.
I was under no illusions that, objectively speaking, this meat wasn’t the worst I’d ever had in my life. But right now, after all I’d been through, it tasted like a sumptuous delicacy.
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I savored the taste of my rotten herb roast. Full for the first time in days, I managed to push past the urge to indulge in a food coma and set out again in search of my next meal.
The lack of wild animals in the woods was a blessing in some ways, in that I didn’t need to worry much about being attacked, but it did make scouting for food a whole lot harder. It felt pretty inefficient having to spend an entire day in search of one day’s rations, but that was my life now.