Chapter 3

  Alright. Time to get my shit together now. Having a badass wolf companion was cool and all, but I was still stuck in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no clue where I was going. The novelty of being isekai'd was starting to wear off, and reality was setting in fast.

  I needed to survive. And despite being a shut-in loser back on Earth, I'd actually watched enough survival shows and read enough wikis during my endless internet binges to know the basics. Water, shelter, food - in that order. Everything else was just details.

  "Okay Nox, Think you can scout ahead?"I said, looking down at my massive companion. Those ember eyes were already focused on me already waiting for instructions.

  Nox gave a low rumble of acknowledgment and padded forward, his massive paws making surprisingly little noise on the forest floor.

  “Just... don't go too far, alright? I don't wanna lose you on day one."

  While he disappeared between the massive tree trunks, I started taking stock of my situation. The sun was still up, which was good - probably had a few hours of daylight left to work with. But these trees were so fucking huge that barely any sunlight was making it through the canopy. It was like being in a natural cathedral made of wood and leaves.

  First things first - water. The human body could go weeks without food if it had to, but only three days without water. And in a place like this, dehydration would fuck me up fast. I needed to find a stream, a lake, something.

  I closed my eyes and listened. Really listened, the way those survival guys always talked about. Past the rustling of leaves and the distant bird calls, I could hear... was that running water? Faint as hell, but there was definitely something that sounded like a stream somewhere to my left.

  Food would be trickier. I knew enough to avoid eating random berries and mushrooms - that was a quick way to die horribly. But there might be nuts, maybe some fish if I could figure out how to catch them. And if worse came to worst... well, Nox looked like he'd be pretty good at hunting.

  I was just starting to feel like I had a handle on things when I heard it - a loud snorting sound coming from behind me, followed by the sound of something big crashing through the underbrush.

  "What the fuck?" I spun around, and my blood turned to ice.

  Charging straight at me was some kind of massive boar, easily twice the size of any pig I'd ever seen. Its tusks were as long as my forearm and looked sharp enough to gut me like a fish. Foam was flying from its mouth, and its little pig eyes were filled with pure rage.

  "Oh shit, oh shit, oh SHIT!" I scrambled backward, tripping over a root and landing hard on my ass. The boar was maybe twenty feet away and closing fast, and I had absolutely nowhere to run. These massive trees were too big to climb, and even if I could, I'd never make it in time.

  This was it. This was how I was gonna die, as pig food in the middle of a forest. What a fucking joke.

  The boar was ten feet away when a black blur exploded out of the trees.

  Nox slammed into the charging boar like a freight train, his massive jaws clamping down on its neck with a wet crunch that made my stomach lurch. The boar let out this horrible squealing sound, thrashing and kicking, but it was already over. Nox was way too strong, way too fast. He gave one violent shake of his head, and the squealing stopped.

  "Holy shit," I gasped, scrambling to my feet. My hands were shaking like crazy, and I could feel my heart hammering against my ribs. "Nox, you beautiful bastard, you just saved my life!"

  The giant wolf dropped the dead boar and trotted over to me, his tail wagging like he'd just fetched a stick instead of brutally murdering something that could have killed me. There was blood on his muzzle, but those ember eyes were bright with what looked almost like pride.

  That's when the notification popped up, glowing blue text appearing right in my vision.

  [LEVEL UP!]

  "I leveled up?" I stared at the message, then at the dead boar, then back at Nox. "Wait, do I get experience when you kill something? That's... that's actually pretty fucking awesome."

  [STATUS SCREEN]

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Name: Vera Demecillo

  Race: Human/Otherworlder

  Level: 2

  Skills: Monster Maker

  As the notification faded, I felt something else - a warm sensation spreading through my body, like I'd just chugged a really good energy drink. My muscles felt tighter, more solid somehow. When I flexed my arms, they responded better than before, like someone had fine-tuned my entire body.

  It wasn't a huge change - I wasn't suddenly gonna be bench pressing cars or anything. But it was definitely there, a noticeable improvement that made me feel more confident.

  "Alright, buddy," I said, giving Nox a grateful pat. "Let's keep moving. But this time, you're staying close. I'm not getting caught with my pants down again."

  We started exploring deeper into the forest, and I felt way more secure with my massive wolf padding alongside me. Every few minutes, Nox would pause and sniff the air, his ears swiveling like radar dishes. The guy was a walking early warning system.

  The sound of running water was getting stronger, which meant I was heading in the right direction. But as we walked, something else caught my eye - a splash of red hanging from a low branch about ten feet away.

  "Is that...?" I squinted at it, then grinned.

  It looked like an apple, sort of. Same general shape and size, but the skin was this deep crimson color that seemed to shimmer in the filtered sunlight. My stomach chose that exact moment to remind me that I hadn't eaten anything since... well, since before I'd woken up in this place.

  But I wasn't stupid. Random fruit in a forest in a different world could be anything from a health potion to instant poison. I'd read enough stories to know better than to just chomp down on mysterious food.

  "Nox," I called, pointing at the fruit. The wolf trotted over, following my gaze to the red apple-thing. I carefully plucked it from the branch and held it out to him.

  "Give it a sniff, will you?”

  Nox lowered his massive head and took a long, careful sniff of the fruit.

  For a moment, I held my breath, waiting for him to growl or back away or give me some sign that this was a bad idea. Instead, his tail gave a small wag, and he looked up at me with what I could swear was approval in those eyes.

  The fruit was actually pretty decent - sweet but not too sweet, with a crisp texture that reminded me of a really good apple. My stomach practically cheered as I finished it off. "Thanks, buddy.”

  Thankfully, it didn't take much longer to find the water I'd been hearing. The sound of running water grew louder until we finally broke through a cluster of ferns and found ourselves standing next to a decent-sized stream. The water was crystal clear, babbling over smooth rocks as it wound its way between the massive trees.

  I knelt down beside the bank, cupping some of the water in my hands. It looked clean as hell, cleaner than anything that came out of the tap back home. But common sense was screaming at me that drinking random water in the wilderness was a great way to get some nasty parasite or disease that would leave me shitting my guts out for days.

  Problem was, I didn't exactly have a choice here. I could feel dehydration starting to creep in - that dry mouth, slight headache kind of feeling that meant my body was running low on fluids. And it wasn't like I had a water purification kit or anything useful like that.

  "Fuck it," I said, bringing the water to my lips. "If this kills me, at least it'll be faster than dying of thirst."

  The water was cold and tasted better than anything I'd had in years. I drank, then splashed some on my face and neck, feeling instantly more refreshed.

  Nox had waded into the shallower part of the stream and was lapping up water with his massive tongue, apparently not worried about water quality at all.

  After drinking my fill, I sat back on my heels and tried to think. Water: check. Food: sort of check, now I needed shelter before it got dark.

  I stood up and wiped my wet hands on my pants.

  I started scanning the area around the stream, looking for anything that might work. The massive tree roots I'd noticed earlier were even more impressive up close - some of them created natural alcoves and overhangs that could work as basic shelter. All I needed was something that would keep the rain off and give me a defensible position.

  There.

  I saw a particularly large root system about fifty yards upstream. The roots had grown in such a way that they formed a kind of natural lean-to against the base of one of those giant trees, enough that would keep me dry and give me a solid wall at my back.

  "What do you think, Nox? Good enough for our first night in paradise?"

  Nox padded over to investigate, sniffing around the root shelter pants. After a thorough inspection, he settled down in the entrance.

  "I'll take that as a yes," I grinned. Now I just had to hope nothing bigger and meaner decided they wanted our spot.

  As I started gathering some fallen branches and leaves to make the shelter more comfortable, my mind wandered to all the shit that could be lurking in these woods. That boar had been bad enough, but what else was out there? Bears? Worse than bears?

  This was a fantasy world, after all. For all I knew, there could be trolls, goblins, or some kind of acid-spitting spider the size of a car just waiting for nightfall to come hunting. Hell, maybe there were things I couldn't even imagine - monsters that would make that boar look like a harmless house pet.

  The thought should have terrified me, but instead I found myself glancing at Nox with a growing sense of confidence. My massive wolf was lounging by the shelter entrance, those eyes constantly scanning the forest around us.

  But whatever they were, they were about to learn that we weren’t going down without a fight.