Level 0

Matt stood and watched the river flow for a bit before he walked back into the forest, as he walked he looked up trying to spot some fruits hanging in the trees above, as well as that he was alert for the surrounding sounds, he could hear birds singing and animals letting out calls in the distance, the forest wasn’t quiet at all, then soon he spotted some fruit, however he had to climb a bit up a tree for them, Matt felt his rumbling stomach and eventually decided to climb the tree. The fruits tasted quite sweet, Matt ate a quite a few before he walked back to the river and decided to follow it down stream, a few days passed like this, other than being mauled by a large primate with 4 arms which smashed his body into mush, Matt was doing great, he lived off river water that had jet to give him any problems and eating fruits from the forest

‘Good thing there are fruits around… Or I would probably have starved to death…’

The night of the 4th day soon approached, Matt found a tree and climbed it, then he laid down on a wide branch, curled up and closed his eyes to get at least a few hours of sleep…

Matt’s eyes snapped open, he found himself amidst the stars, in front of him was an orange star and as if hugging the star was the skeleton of a giant beast, the empty skull of this beast suddenly flashed with a dark green light, then Matt felt his head get filled with information, while he still was confused he heard a voice speak in his head

“Do not disappoint me”

The next moment Matt’s eyes snapped open again, he once again found himself in the forest, he remembered his dream vividly

‘It doesn’t seem like a dream at all…’

Matt listened to the roars of the beasts in the forest for a bit before he muttered

“Well, it’s not like I can die anyway…”

Then he sat himself up on the branch and listened for sounds close to the tree he found himself in, then he nodded to himself and climbed down from the tree before he walked towards the river where he hesitated for a few moments before he dove into the river and swam down towards the bottom of it. Matt followed the path that had been left in his mind by the dream, and soon he found the thing he had been searching for, a clear orb stuck on some rocks on the bottom of the lake, Matt’s eyes shone before he grabbed the orb and swam back up to the surface and soon returned to land, there he sat down and without hesitating he took the clear orb in his hand and crushed it to, the orb shattered rather easily and released a white fog that swirled around, Matt opened his mouth and took a deep breath and as if guided the white fog flowed into his mouth.

When Matt opened his eyes again, it was dawn, Matt rose to his feet and felt his body was filled with strength, he walked over to a large tree and raised his fist before he punched out, his fist landed on the tree and with a bang it left a deep imprint as cracks spread out on the bark

“So it was true after all…”

What Matt was referring to was the knowledge he had received from his dream, according to the information from the dream he had just crossed a threshold and reached level 0 after digesting the white fog last night, the ‘level’ was apparently something normal on this world and according to the information he could increase his level further by consuming ‘odd’. Odd was in everything, it was in the air, in the plants, in the water and in fruits he had been eating for the past 4 days, but where the largest amount of odd could be found was, according to the information, in monster cores. Monsters was in reality just animals that had absorbed too much odd and formed a core, with it came an increase in their intelligence and a will to increase their level so intense that they would hunt down people who had a core in their body from when they were born and other monsters, though failing to do this they would consume other things, that was the reason why the wolf monster and 4-armed gorilla monster didn’t eat him, the odd in his body was too low for them to care, though now it would be different.

“I need to be more alert now… Though it’s not like I can lose my level or progress, I just don’t want to be eaten alive…”

Matt sighed, he had no doubt in his heart that it would be immensely painful to be eaten alive, though now he would have a fighting chance, Matt cleared his head and began walking again as he followed the river, in the evening Matt stopped walking and looked into the forest that was on his right, then he raised his fists in a boxing pose, soon something emerged from the forest, standing about the same height as Matt the bear that emerged looked at him like it was eyeing prey, Matt felt his adrenaline spike as he yelled out

“Come on you giant teddy, come get some!”

The bear let out a roar, clearly it was provoked by Matt and charged at him, Matt kicked off the ground and charged at the bear, when he entered the bear’s range it swiped out with a paw, Matt felt the world around him slow down as the paw of the bear approached him, that was, without doubt, death approaching, Matt reacted at once and bobbed under the bear’s right paw emerging on its left side and punched out with a jab hitting the bear’s right shoulder joint, a dull sound sounded when his fist connected, Matt didn’t stand still and dodged the bear’s attempted bite as it turned after him by taking half a step back then he punched out hitting the bear in on the snout, the bear shook its head a few times before it let out an enraged roar

“That’s right, I am not prey, I am a threat!”

The bear charged at him again and attempted to bite down on his right leg, though just as it lowered its head, Matt sent all his force into his left leg and shot up with his right knee to the jaw of the bear hitting it squarely in the jaw snapping its mouth shut, now close to the bear Matt slammed down his hand on the head of the bear trying to crush its skull, with a dull sound Matt’s fist hit the top of the bear’s head, the bear let out another enraged roar and swiped with its left paw in front of it, Matt quickly drew back, though he wasn’t fast enough and received 4 large cuts on his chest from the claws of the bear, as soon as the pain shot through his mind a dark green light shone in the bottom of his eyes as he felt rage take over his body as he roared

“How dare you draw my blood, you stupid teddy bear!”

Matt kicked off the ground and closed the distance again, he dodged the bear’s next swipe by ducking under it, there he punched out again at the bear’s right shoulder joint a dull sound sounded out followed by an audible crack as the bear let out a roar of pain while its right front paw went limp, Matt grabbed the limb arm and jumped onto the back of the bear while still holding onto it, there he locked his legs around its stomach and pulled on the limb, the bear trashed around but failed to shake Matt off its back as Matt pulled with all his strength, then a dark green light shone in the bottom of his eyes as he suddenly twisted the limb as he let out a yell, then came a terrible sound of meat tearing as he directly ripped the front right limb of the bear off, the bear let out a howl of pain as blood gushed out, as the bear trashed around it finally managed to shake off Matt that rolled on the ground before he quickly stood up still holding the torn off limb from the bear.

Matt swung the torn off limb of the bear down towards the bear’s head and with a dull sound the bear’s head was slammed down into the dirt, Matt slammed the torn off limb down a few more times on the bear’s head before a dull sound sounded out as the bear’s head carved inwards ending its pitiful howls of pain abruptly, Matt let go of the tron off limp before he collapsed down on his butt, he was out of breath and his muscles arched, still he had won the fight for his life.