Nick clenched and unclenched his fist repeatedly feeling the power he had gained.

“These stats look really good for the moment, but it's not enough.  I have to get a lot stronger to be able to live freely in this forest.

 Tomorrow will be the day I will go farther than I have ever gone inside the forest. I have prepared for this day for a week and I'm in my best physical condition."

' I just hope that it's enough. '

....

The sun rose slowly to the east  moving at its own pace that had remained unchanged for countless years , but Nick had no such luxury . He had woken up long before that preparing the gear for today’s exploration.First he ate a breakfasts that consisted only of fruits that I had gathered in the forest  for the last week, stuffing his belly with them. They weren't that good tasting , but they were filling. After a week he had somewhat become knowledgeable about the fruits through trial and error.

It was not a fun experience in the least. Some fruits gave him constipation, some gave him diarrhea and one even gave him a terrible rash all over his body. Poor Nick had to endure all this torment repeatedly to find which were the edible ones , and which weren’t.

 His anus was the most effected, alternating between constipation and diarrhoea was really ,really bad. He prayed so much in hoping to make it stop that it wouldn’t be surprising if the shit grew angel wings right then and there, took flight and went to turd heaven.

.....

Finally he got all his gear with him ,his spear ,his backpack that  was filled with some food among other things , the cleaver, water and some other miscellaneous  stuff. He also tied three short javelins to his backpack with some cloth for long range attack and set off as the sun rose in the horizon.

' After a week of exploring I have sort of created a map of the surrounding area and from that I learned something important. It looks like I am nowhere near the edge of the forest and without a map I could be stuck here forever. 

To the west far away, there appeared to be a mountain rage that stretched for so long time that my eyes can't see its edge . It consists of more than 20 mountains that pierce the sky like gigantic spikes reaching past the clouds and into the unknown. 

In the south after two hours of travel there is a swamp . It appeared to be safe in first glance, but the silence that prevailed there makes my hair stand on its ends. There is definitely something very dangerous in there by the looks of it and I would really like never come face to face with it.'

" My destination today is one if the other two directions, the north and as far as I have explored in the north there is nothing, but just trees. 

Hope I find something useful."

....

He started his journey finally stepping into the forest slowly as to not make any noise as always. He walked straight north for two hours while leaving marks on the trees in order so he could find his way back when he returned. During the way he was pestered by a lot of insects buzzing around  making him very irritated, but not all was bad.

During the way he suddenly saw a snake that was slithering down a tree slowly trying to blend in with the environment. It was about 2 m in length and 10 cm in girth, with a triangular head and a red blood forked tongue.

He immediately hid behind a tree observing it and trying to figure out what to do. Meanwhile the snake landed on the ground flaring its forked tongue in the air trying to look for for something.

‘Not good ,I’m going to be discovered.’

Right then and there he decided to make the snake the first victim of today’s conquest. He reached down and found two rocs half the size of his fist, picked them up and prepared to throw them towards the snake.

He was about five meters away from it making him have the advantage in a surprise attack. Nick took a couple of deep breaths before jumping into action.

"Hup...

He swiftly rushed for another two meters towards it and with a large swing I threw the rock at the snake, but unfortunately didn't hit it.

"Hisss~

The snake instantly became alarmed from the sudden attack and rolled itself into a circle like shape with its head in the middle cocked, ready for a strike.The first shot didn't hit and  only made the snake aware of his position ruining the element of surprise, but that didn't matter anymore. He still had the upper hand in this fight.

"Hup...

Not a second after he threw the second stone which this time as expected it hit the snake. The close distance coupled with the snake rolling itself made it a bigger target for the stone.

"Hiiissss~

The snake gave an angry hiss but Nick wasn't scared at all.

' One more time...

The snake with it's fast reflexes had managed to evade the stone from hitting its head, but it still took damage to its body. It started to wither in pain and hiss uncontrollably because of the damage it took. The snake was wounded, but not fatally which  made it still a dangerous opponent, especially now.

"Hisss..hisss...

This time he didn't push forward, but instead  stepped back. It looked like he was fleeing , but instead he took one of the wooden javelins from the back with his free hand and threw it hoping that this time it would strike true, and so it did.

The javelin flee with a beautiful ark and hit the snake. 

"Strike!"

 The javelin hit the snake in its head making it a bloody mess, but Nick didn't attack again. He knew that the snake was finished and didn't want to risk it. He waited until the snake completely stopped moving and the approached it ,but as soon as jey was two meters from it immediately sprung forth , opened its mouth wide and released towards him a jet of what would be its venom.

The snake was very very shrewd , but  it was futile.

SIDE STEP

Nick moved to the side evading the venom like he knew the future.

‘Heh you stupid snake you think you can outsmart me with such a basic trick, ME who has watched discovery channel countless times in my life? To naive of you.’

He regained his posture and with two quick steps I arrived at a distance my spear could reach and then...

THRUST

Je thrust his spear right through its head finally truly killing it. The snakes body convulsed for some time. After killing the snake i begun to think of what to do with its carcass.

“I wonder what snake meat tastes like?”

After removing the spear from the dead snakes head he took the cleaver from his backpack and separated its head and a part of its body . He wrapped them in a big leaf I took from nearby. After storing it into the backpack he went on his merry way, deeper into the forest like what had happened was just a dream.