I felt a lot better when I woke up. I don’t know how long I had slept, but I knew it was a long time. 

It was still pitch black and made me wonder if it was night or if no light could make it in. 

I got up, and found my lighter. Using the lighter I checked out my clothes. They were still wet. 

I guess ill be naked today.

I then explored the bedroom fully. There was nothing noteworthy besides some clothes. I put them on, but it was awkward. They seemed short, but the waist and other parts were too wide. 

Was this guy a midget?..... or maybe a dwarf?

Originally I would never think that dwarves were real, but that guy with tusks changed my mind.

I put on a basic shirt, and some pants.

I then explored the main section of the ruin more carefully. It seems that it is day since there is light coming through the broken part of the door. I put down my lighter.

There was no food or water, which made me sad. However, there was a leather bag, which was useful to me. 

I then found a cabinet-like thing which was falling apart and inside was scrolls. I checked them out, one by one. They had symbols, patterns and writing that I had no idea what they meant. Then I found one that I thought might be useful, because it looked like a map.

MAP

I could be wrong, but this looks like a map, but it is hard to use since it seems to only focus on an area and I have no idea how big the map is.

I kept it for now.

Soon I was finished exploring. I now had to act on my hunger. 

I grabbed the sword and went hunting and gathering after setting my clothes outside to dry.

I returned in the evening. I had ate a lot of berries and set traps. I would not starve but I was still hungry. I then went to sleep.

A few days passed. I hunted some small animals, mostly rabbits, and one deer. I was lucky with the deer because it had gotten caught in one of my traps. 

I had been as careful as I could be, thinking that any day those guys would find me, but I had not run because I was weak. Now I was nearly back to full strength so it was time to leave.

I went south again, away from those guys. They certainly seemed like they came from the north. 

Another few days passed.

I hunted as I went, luckily I ate enough food to not only not starve but to be moderately full. By the way, by now I had used up my packets of oatmeal and potatoes. I now had no reserve food.

As I was going, I ran into some spiders. Huge spiders, they were about as big as my chest. At first I got half tangled up in a spider web trap. Strength could not free me, so I tried a knife, and that failed to. I then panicked and thought I was trapped. I managed to pull out my lighter but the fire was not powerful enough to burn the webs. 

I then heard something and turned to see a spider jumping to the tree I was close to. I panicked some more and pulled out my sword. I then madly swung it at the webs hoping for a miracle. I was blessed with one. The sword cut through the webs like it was nothing.

I was surprised and so was the spider apparently because it just watched me as I left.

After calming down, I spent the rest of the day testing the sword. I learned that it was sharp, super sharp and that its blade did not seem to get damaged. Normally one should never swing their sword against a tree especially when they need to sword desperately, because it was not made to cut trees and though it will cut the tree, it will be damaged in the process. Swords are not as tough as one thinks, even the knife I had gotten from that guy now had scrapes and dents in its blade. However, this sword would not get damaged. I cut the tree a few times and the blade looked the same. The tree also had deeper cuts than it should have got from a sword. I was surprised and so I cut a rock to further test it. I managed to cut the rock perfectly in two and the blade was still fine.

I was shocked speechless, then again I did not speak much in fear of something hearing me. 

This blade!? Is this blade magical!? Is it a rare technology?! What the hell is this? ….This blade is a treasure!!! I can fight things that I ran from before! I can fight those chickens and more!! I have a chance to live!!

Soon the shock turned to joy. I had found new hope after being depressed because of the loss of my gun. 

There was a problem though. I was still weak compared to the things in this forest. I had only survived by my sheer tenacity to live and better brains.

I decided that I need to improve my strength, stamina and skills. To do that, I need to find a good place farther away from those guys that chased me to settle down and train myself.

With excitement I acted. I immediately went south, still actively avoiding danger.

Days passed. I had found and crossed a river that was running from the north west to the south east. It took me a while to figure out how to cross this river safely because I noticed a few dangers. 

One the water was not super rough, but it was not calm. I was not the best swimmer but I was sure I could swim across if that was the only thing, but it was not. 

Two, the predators. There were spider webs on the edge of the trees by the river, which was not a big deal but these webs stretched across the river like a huge net in a few places. I was afraid I would be swept by the river into the web and though my sword could cut the web, if I was caught to the point I could not move then either I would drown or get killed by those spiders. I had only noticed the spider webs because I saw one crossing the river which freaked me out because I thought the spider was flying for a second.

The next predator I noticed were crocodiles or maybe they were alligators. To be honest I had never cared to learn the difference carefully and to be fair this could be a different animal but with a similar look. There were not a ton of them, but only a few were needed to be a threat. Also, they seemed a bit big, like everything else in this forest.

Another was a huge snake. I only saw one, but it seemed to go back and forth in the river like it owned the river. The crocs avoided it, because they could not challenge it because of its size. I saw the snake eat a whole croc in two bites. Soon after I saw it, I covered myself in wet dirt and decided to keep myself covered in wet dirt forever. This is because I knew some snakes could see by heat, so they can see warm bodies. I knew that thing could eat me in one bite like I was a mouse to it.

Lastly and what I thought to be the most dangerous were the mosquitos. They were huge, about the size of my palm. I saw a deer go to the river bank and get a drink. It was swarmed by mosquitos and though it shocked a group of them with lightning, it was still drank dry of blood within a minute. Luckily the main food source of the spiders was the mosquitos, so there were not a ton of them. 

The good news was that I expected this river to be hard to cross for those guys too and so if I managed to cross then I might be completely safe and can relax a bit.

I thought long and hard on how to cross. Swimming was not an option. Night was not an option. Could I use a log? Maybe fire? or was it too wet?

I finally decided that the only way to get across was to break the balance somehow. Right now, the Snake, crocs, mosquitos and spiders seemed to maintain a balance. They did eat and kill each other but no side was the clear winner and king of the area. The closest to being king was the Snake, but even he avoided the thick spider webs by submerging into the water.

I decided to do all that I could to destroy the balance. 

I first spent several days cutting down a tree that I hoped would crash into the biggest spider nest and land in the water. When it was half cut down, I then made a makeshift raft using a branch of a tree as a raft and a smaller branch as a paddle. I then gather all the flammable stuff I could like dried sticks. 

I then decided that one tree was not enough and cut a second one. I gathered more fire stuff too.

Several days passed, maybe even weeks? I was not sure, but I knew I had gotten stronger and more stamina from the process. I was now ready.

I lit the fire on both trees in the morning one day. By mid day both trees were on fire, by the way these trees were mostly dead trees and were not super close to each other. Also, why did I choose mid day? because I noticed that the spiders were less active in the day and no one likes to be woken from their sleep. 

I ran to my branch raft to the south east.

Another part of my plan was that I had waited until the snake had got to the north west before starting the fire. I was to the south east and knew the river would push me farther south east away from the Snake. 

I saw the two trees fall in the distance. Then all hell broke loose. The spiders scurried out of their nest, some were on fire and others fell into the water. Mosquitos and crocs went to capitalize on it and some were successful but others got caught in threads. 

I was sure it would have been entertaining to watch, but I had better things to do.

After a bit of waiting, I crossed the river. One croc tried to eat me, but I was able to slice its face and it swam away. 

I made it across! I am safe!