章 7: Can I really do this?

The next day, Kai woke up very early in the morning. He discovered that his body now didn't need as much sleep as before, which was a pleasant surprise.

"It's hard to sleep comfortably when I think about all the weird things in this world that could kill me in my sleep"

Kai left the hut and as if part of his routine, started collecting as many berries as he could from the bushes around the hut. He had decided to try drying a few of them to make some trail mix in the inevitable event that he had to run for his life.

Kai put the berries on top of the old rags he had been wearing when he first got here. he realized just how handy his new body was. Not only was he able to turn his rags into a usable, makeshift rucksack. He also knew how to differentiate edible plants from poisonous ones.

Had it been the old Kai, he would have eaten any random berry and gotten himself killed long ago. "My memories are still hazy and incomplete but one thing is for sure, this kid has some sick wilderness survival skills".

His body had long since healed which was another testament to this body's resilience. No matter how many beatings he received, he just refused to die. Since he felt great and the Qi used the previous day had recovered, Kai felt it was time to finally do a little exploring further away from the hut.

If nothing else, he needed to make sure that there were no immediate dangers to his life. Being scared wouldn't make the scary things go away, so he just sucked it up and headed towards the tall grass clearing located a few meters away from the shore.

He kept his body as low as possible and used the brown straw hat and cloak to blend in better with the brown grass around him.

The more steps he took, the more anxious he because. More than once he thought about running back to the shack, but he kept his resolve.

"What am I afraid of. I'm a cultivator now. You saw what I did to that tree?. I may as well be immortal". Kai told himself anything to steel his heart.

>Whoosh...

Something brushed past Kai's back at breakneck speed. Kai dropped even lower and became as still as possible. "Dammit!, what am I doing being this reckless?. I should have waited a few more days to gather Qi, what if I miss?, then I'm screwed!" Kai cursed his impatience. He didn't know if it was his overconfidence from having become a cultivator, but he was doing things that were uncharacteristic today. Normally he would have holed up in that hut for weeks eating berries.

As he was thinking these useless thoughts, he heard a rustling sound in the direction that the thing that brushed past him had gone. His eyes slowly drifted towards in that direction where saw an odd-looking humanoid rabbit-thing.

It stood on its hind legs like a person, suggesting it was bipedal.

But unlike normal rabbits, this one had silver and razor-sharp teeth. As if that wasn't scary enough, it had a sinister-looking horn fixed in-between its brows. Worse still, the thing was huge!. Well relative to Kai's height. Kai estimated he was about 1.6 meters, so this thing had to be at least a meter tall while standing.

At that moment, Kai's [Qi detection] automatically activated.

[Qi Detection]

[Name: Vicious Hare]

[Estimated Qi: 5 ]

Vicious Hare? What kind of bunny has such sharp teeth, is this thing a carnivore?". The blood-thirsty look in its eyes and the teeth that are obviously meant for tearing flesh proved his theory.

Kai slowly backed away. Rabbits and Slime were always the first monsters in games sure, but this thing didn't look like some starter mob. This had to be a boss!.

Unfortunately for Kai, the [Vicious Hare] had already noticed him. It released a disturbing screech and started hopping in place for a moment before it completely vanished from his sight, into the tall grass.

When Kai saw this and his heart dropped. He immediately turned around and bolted for the riverbank as quickly as his legs could carry him,

however, the [Vicious Hare] wasn't going to let such easy prey get away.

Not only was it faster than he was, but it was also a lot more experienced in combat. it pounced on his back and kicked him, releasing a sickening crunch sound from Kai's shoulder blades and sending him flying forward. It then jumped onto the grounded Kai and tried to take a massive bite out of his neck.

Kai rolled away as the Hare's maw bit into nothing.

Kai kept rolling then quickly pushed himself onto his knees while keeping the [Vicious Hare] in his sights. At this moment, the beast had cut off Kai's preferred escape route. He could see the shore as well as the small hut. "If I can just get into the water, hopefully, it won't follow me"

The last thing Kai wanted to do was go deeper into the tall grass. If there were more of these things, then he would be dead for sure. Kai decided to keep going towards the shore, it was his only ticket to survival. Kai resolved himself and bolted for the shore again, completely ignoring the pain in his back.

Before Kai could make his move, the beast had already started hopping towards him at a much faster pace, this time using its wide-open maw to initiate the attack again towards Kai's neck. Kai was angry, ever since he had come to this world, he had done nothing but get beaten up or run away and he was getting sick of it.

Under the influence of adrenaline, he stopped in his tracks and turned to face the incoming Hare. As he did so, he released a desperate shout containing all his frustrations.

The loud shout from Kai caused the beast to slightly hesitate, shifting the trajectory of its bite from Kai's neck to his shoulder. The beast ripped into his left shoulder viciously as it rammed into him with force. At the same time, Kai used his right arm to grab the beast's neck and put it in a headlock.

The Hare continued to chomp on his right shoulder as it struggled to break itself free from his grip, however, Kai would not let it go. With the beast's neck in his arm, he dragged it along and continued to move towards the shore. As Kai moved, the beast sent violent kicks into Kai's legs and torso, emitting one crunching sound after the other.

Kai did not stop moving "Come on you f***er! that all you got?!". The pain was horrendous, but Kai was able to ignore it. For sure bones were broken but he ignored it and pushed through the pain. This was the advantage of a person who had been through various forms of pain.

The closer Kai got to the shore, the more vicious the beast's kicks and bites became. Kai used the last of his strength to drag the beast into the water and submerged half of his body, as well as the entire beast within the water.

Kai's strength had reached a point where the struggling beast could never hope to release itself from his grip unless it killed him or he chose to let go. As long as he had enough stamina, he could hold it forever. After a few minutes of violent screeches, the beast's struggles became weaker until it stopped moving completely.

At that moment, a notification appeared in front of Kai's eyes

=[Vicious Hare] defeated ]=

=[Dragon Subduing Law absorbed 2 Qi from the beast]=

Kai sighed in relief. "ha..hahaha!, I did it...I actually did it!". He dragged the rabbit out of the water and threw it on the ground. Kai then fell right next to the carcass while breathing heavily "F*** that hurts!, those teeth are no joke" The adrenaline was starting to wear off and he started feeling the pain in his shoulder

At this point, his left shoulder was nothing more than a mushed-up lump of meat. He could even see portions of bone but oddly enough, he still had mobility in his left arm. "I would have figured that the nerves would be completely severed. Is this another benefit of Internal Cultivation?".

He pondered to himself while also looking at the thing he had just killed.

Kai wanted to try turning it into a manual, however, this body hadn't had a proper meal in months now. And seeing as the thing had tried to treat him as dinner, he had no qualms doing the same to it as well. "But first, I need to do something about this shoulder".

Kai thought about the Qi he had just received and derided to circulate some of it over the wound. Kai noticed that the blood quickly clotted and the pain subsided quite a bit. "A wound like this would have killed me instantly on Earth. This is another benefit of Internal Cultivation. He wasn't healing any faster but he could at least use it like a painkiller and a way to stop the bleeding.

Kai had already picked up a piece of rag cloth, using it to clean out as much of the wound as possible. "I hope monsters in this world don't have rabies...". Thinking that he put in some extra effort into cleaning out the wound thoroughly. He couldn't feel too much anyway. After removing the torn and shredded lumps of flesh, it looked a lot better. "It's not as bad as I thought. there is just a gaping hole in my left shoulder now, no big deal..."

"Anyway, let's see what to do with this guy's body. I should treat him as horribly as possible". He pulled out one of the Hare's longer canine teeth and used it to gut the beast skillfully. Yet again, Kai was astonished by this body's instincts. "Is it common knowledge for village kids to know how to gut monsters in this world?". He still only had fragmented memories so he didn't know if this kid was special or just average.

It was still quite early in the morning. It had only been about half an hour since Kai first entered the tall grass. The battle itself was relatively quick with most of it spent while he was drowning the creature.

Kai finished gutting the creature and put its hide on the roof of the hut to dry. He knew that he could somehow tan that into workable leather hide that he could either use to make clothes or sell. After which, Kai started a fire and carefully grilled the meat.

Kai had his fill of meat and for the first time in countless days, he finally felt full. "I've regained some of the strength I lost during that fight. I could probably fight again if I had to". He looked at his shoulder and noticed that the hole had become slightly smaller. Of the 2 Qi points he had gained, he used one to help alleviate the pain and block the bleeding so he was only left with 1 Qi.

The Qi in his shoulder has dissipated within the would and was helping him regulate the damage. He felt this would last for an hour or so before the severe pain would come back so he had to somehow get more Qi.

"The Qi circulating is also keeping my wound clean. If I get an infection in a place like this...I'm a goner". And with that, Kai knew he had to go back into the tall grass.