章 3: Awakening the System

James woke up from his thoughts as he was already near the entrance. He left half of the meat near the entrance because he needed to go back and forth to bring the meat inside, as the boar's body was too big to manage it in one go.

After securing the meat, he quickly fixes the bushes around the entrance to ensure that no people or animals notice it.

He then walked towards the house, and when he had arrived outside the house, he heard his sister's voice from inside.

"Brother, you're finally back!!"

The door opened, and a cute little figure jumped into James's body, hanging like a koala with a worried face as she raised her head and asked her brother.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? How was the outside? Was it dangerous?".

James patted her head and replied, "Don't worry, I am fine. I even killed a big boar and brought some meat for us to eat."

James said that to reassure her as he didn't want to show her his weak side and condition.

"Wow, how big was the boar? Is the meat delicious? I don't think I've ever had boar meat before. Let's cook it and eat it while it's still fresh." Minji's eyes sparkled with excitement as she spoke with drooling saliva on her cute face.

'...'

'Shouldn't you be praising your brother for being strong enough to kill the big boar and asking if he was hurt in the process? How could my sister not follow the script here?' James felt hurt just thinking about it.

After James went inside the house, he immediately put down the skin and unwrapped it, took a leg, and cut it into a smaller piece so that her sister could carry it.

"Here you go, you can cook it, but make sure to cook it well-done. Because right now we need to eat for survival first, and later you can enjoy eating after we get out of here and arrive in a city or somewhere. Please bear with it for now, okay?"

James said, as he thought that there could be a possibility of food poisoning or something if the meat wasn't cooked properly, as the boar could be said to have become a different entity than the normal boar.

"Okay brother, Minji understands." Minji nodded, indicating that she understood what James was talking about.

"Minji is indeed the best little sister in the world." James said it while patting her head. While Minji enjoyed being patted by her big brother, she giggled "hehe" away to the stone stove and immediately put the leg in the fire while enjoying the warmth that the fire gave.

James walked straight to the stack of firewood outside and added more wood to the fire pit before going outside the house and walking to the pond to take a bath.

After James arrived in the pond, he unsheathed his sword, and straight away jumped in the pool without undressing his robe, while still looking at the hole that could be seen in the wall at the bottom of the pond.

He had previously observed the hole while exploring the cave, though he didn't intend to explore at that time for various reasons.

Now, he decided to take a bath here and was actually going to test something, since coincidentaly he had a lot of blood on his robe, and his left arms as well as his back did bleed a little.

Subsequently, James jumped into the pond, and after moving around for a bit, he immediately went back to the ground, looking cautiously at the hole.

However, after waiting for a couple of minutes and there weren't any reactions or animals emerging from the hole, he decided to jump back into the pond to take a proper bath with a sword in his hand, while occasionally looking towards the hole from time to time because he was a little bit apprehensive.

Once James finished bathing, he returned to the house and examined his injuries. His left hand had a few bruises and he felt that his bones fractured a bit.

Fortunately, he could still move it around, though he couldn't use it to do laborious things like lifting heavy weights, fighting, etc. Of course, moving it around still hurt a little bit, but it was doable.

His back was better than his left hand, to the point where it didn't interfere with his daily life. Though he felt a slight crack, the pain was minimal unless he hit it squarely.

Before heading inside the house, he stopped by the well first to drink some water and filled up a bucket.

Minji was still cooking the boar leg, and when she saw her brother coming, she called out "Brother, come quickly cook yours while warming your body and drying your clothes."

"Okay, I am coming." James replied while dropping the bucket of water, grabbed a boar leg that was bigger than his little sister had and sat down beside her.

"Brother, how was the outside world? Was it dangerous?" Miinji asked curiously.

"Well, it's quite safe around the cave because I haven't seen any animals even after walking a few hundred meters, but as I walked further, I found the big boar that I killed. it was a big one, around 1,5 meters, and even had two big tusks around 50 cm each.

Of course, it was easy for your brother to kill it and even leave its head and half of its body to lure other animals to hunt it later.

However, I guess there should be more dangerous animals out there, so it's safe around the cave, but I haven't explored further yet." James patted her head while explaining slowly so that she could understand, as well as bragging a little bit.

"Wow... Brother, you are so strong! Can you hunt more then? Not much, just ten. Five for me and five for you." Minji looked at her brother and opened her palms, showing ten fingers towards him while smiling cutely with her saliva drooling in her mouth, thinking that she could have five whole boars.

'This... my cute little sister, do you want to kill your handsome brother? Do you want me to kill ten boars? You might as well stab me right now in the heart.

I was barely able to kill one, and you want me to kill ten?!? Though, even if I hadn't made a mistake at the start, it would've still taken a lot of time to kill it.

Because I don't have any skills or talent, where I am supposed to have them in the world where animals evolved and I was transmigrated to another world. But I need to wait for an unknown time while having no clue what is about to happen after turning 18 years old?'

James was speechless about her little sister's request and complained in his heart for a while before replying to her request.

"Don't worry, as long as I can find ten of them, I will kill them for you to have a feast." James said it proudly while holding his fist to his chest, reassuring her that there was nothing he couldn't do for his little sister.

"Hehe, my big brother is the best." Minji giggled, kissing him on the cheek.

'My little sister is pretty darn cute, whoever dares to bully her in the future, I will definitely beat the shit out of them and their parents.' James nodded at his thought while waiting for his meat to be cooked.

The two siblings chatted happily while eating the boar's meat. After they finished, James built a hanging place over the stone stove to preserve the remaining meat using a lot of wood and ropes created out of a plant branch.

Subsequently, James hung the rest of the meat on it with the rope made of a plant branch because he intended to let the meat being cooked slowly from the heat of the live coals and the smoke from the live coals to prevent the meat from spoiling so that the meat could be preserved for a long time.

Feeling exhausted despite it's only been a few hours since he woke up, he decided to take a nap because he felt that the time was probably still around 2–3 pm and he was planning to stay awake at night, for the reason that he just felt uneasy and something might happen at night.

After that, he reminded Minji not to wander around too much, don't ever go out of the cave, and if something happened, wake him up.

…

A few hours later, James woke up and noticed that Minji was eating the meat by herself in front of the stone stove.

He quickly joined her while chatting joyfully for a little while.

Afterward, James told Minji to go to sleep, as he wanted to guard outside the house and build a fireplace to keep him warm.

After he built a new fireplace, James sat cross-legged in front of the fireplace with his sword on his lap.

He also kept watching from time to time in the direction of the pond and the exit of the cave. He didn't know why, but he kept feeling uneasy.

After he kept feeling the feeling of uneasiness for a few hours, James suddenly felt an unknown energy begin to stream throughout his entire body.

James began to absorb it because his instinct urged him to do so, and he believed that this should be the moment the hazy figure in his memory was referring to.

Today was the day he would awaken a talent or ability that would help him become stronger and begin his journey into the unknown world.

In his opinion, the energy he was experiencing at the moment should be the awakening energy that would awaken his talent.

However, when he was about to absorb the awakening energy completely…