I was trudging through the forest at a leisure pace.

I did ponder whether I should stay or not but then just decided to check the map. It seemed there was a cave not far from where I was. A cave was a perfect place for me to stay hidden. Plus, if it was big enough, I could practice my abilities and get them stronger. Well, get them back to how they were when Kannech owned it anyway.

There was no telling when the Hero would notice my presence. I couldn't deny the fact that we might clash in the near future before I go back to my world, though

I'd been walking for a long time now but the more I moved, the more I became concerned. It was the fact that I hadn't encountered a single monster once. For a forest that was known to have the greatest number of them, it was too barren. I was planning on testing my power on them too.

It was still hard to realize this was my reality now but since I was familiar with this setting, it wouldn't take me long to fully accept it.

I picked off a purple fruit from a tree before peeling the hairy skin. Inside, there was a juicy filling and I munched on it. It was the first food I got since coming here. Suffice it to say, it was sweet! It had enough juice to quench my thirst. It tasted like a mixture of green apple and strawberry. Sweet and sour. It didn't have any seed which made me wonder how this tree even populate.

Nevertheless, I continued forward. I'd casually checked whether I was on the right track with the map. My phone was still around 98%, meaning that it only got down around 2% even after a few hours of using it. It was still too much, though. I didn't have a charger and I didn't know whether magic would help recharge the battery.

I had Elemental Magic which included Lightning Element but I didn't want to risk it. I'd never used any magic since the accidental stomp from before. Plus, I didn't want to attract any high-grade monsters with how little my health was right now if I carelessly use loud magic.

Weaker ones might be easy but still. This was the Howling Jungle. No need to risk it unless I was forced to.

I was still surprised how I couldn't feel any pain. I'd lost one of my horns and my cuts were still bleeding. Was it the passive effect of Black Healing? I also hadn't tinkered with that ability yet. It was never described in the novel how Kannech used it.

It was different from normal healing magic so I also didn't want to gamble it. I needed to get to the cave before I could do anything. The less the attraction, the better.

I continued on, making sure I didn't miss any enemies hiding. I also used this opportunity to use the skills Night Vision and Keen Hearing. Those were common skills that every monster possessed. Luckily, it didn't take much effort to turn those skills on.

[Just use your imagination!]

I recalled those words that the author mentioned and became irritated.

Yeah, yeah, I used my imagination and it worked perfectly. Thank you, prick.

The method was simple. I simply imagined what night vision was supposed to be like and after a few glitches in my view, the night became clear. At first, it was like seeing through night goggles that I often saw on TV shows. I didn't like it.

So, I tweaked it a little. Since the author said I could use my imagination, there was a possibility that my imagination could change what had already been set. I didn't want to see things in neon teal and such. So, I envisioned that the skill Night Vision was like looking at the environment as if it was daytime.

It didn't work at first and I worried that an already established skill couldn't be altered after all. However, a few seconds later, I was seeing the night clearly. It was as if the two moons grew brighter, illuminating what was lurking in the dark. I was relieved. My theory was correct. I was able to alter my skills after all.

Keen Hearing didn't need any modifications as it worked perfectly. I could detect even the sound of ants moving on the ground. At least, I hoped those were ants and not some demonic version of those species. You never know. This was a fantasy world after all.

Another interesting thing that happened was, whenever I was able to re-learn the abilities that were corrupted, an animated voice rang in my head. Next, a screen popped up in my view, telling me what I gained.

[Skill "Night Vision" obtained. Recovering corrupted file. You can now access it via the status screen.]

[Skill "Keen Hearing" obtained. Recovering corrupted file. You can now access it via the status screen.]

True to its words, I checked my character information, and two new skills were added to my character information.

[Character Information]

Name: Kevin "Kannech" Morren

Race: Demon King (Mage Support)

Skills:

Black Healing, Illusion, Elemental Magic, Enhancement, Puppeteer's Harley, Night Vision, Keen Hearing, ERROR, ERROR, ERROR… [Unable to retrieve remaining abilities]

This was a good starting point. It seemed that my skills were still there but for some reason, they got "corrupted", leading me to recover them myself. I clicked on the skill Night Vision and it brought me to a new interface.

NIGHT VISION

You are one with the moons. You can see the night clearly without having any problem. A buff-type ability. No mana is required.

It was a simple description. Even without having to read them, I knew what it meant just from the skill's name. Nevertheless, reading the description helped me to know that I could turn this skill on at all times without wasting any mana.

I still didn't how mana functioned due to not having it on my screen. But as a reader, I knew Kannech had a large mana pool seeing that he could fight Erazor and used so many types of abilities against him.

I kept the skill on and weirdly enough, I could see a bunch of symbols at the corner of my upper right vision. One had somewhat of a cat's eye on it. Was it a sign that Night Vision was active? Another one below it was a symbol of an ear. Those features could help me a lot. Plus, it went away after some time and would resurface when I thought about it. So, it didn't exactly make me uncomfortable.

I continued to move until at some point, I heard rustling in front of me. I immediately moved to hide behind a tree. It didn't sound like a human. It was too rash and loud. A human person trudging through this forest wouldn't want any trouble with monsters. Well…unless that person was a dumbass.

I peeked out from behind the tree and scanned what was in front of me before I heaved a relieved sigh. It was just a deer. Its butt was facing me while it ate the leaves off of the bush.

I was quite surprised by the size. According to the novel, the Demon King Kannech was around 7'2 in height but the deer in front of me looked taller. Bigger even.

Do I avoid it or…?

Just as I thought of that, my stomach began to rumble and I clutched it. Shit, all that I ate today was some purple fruits. Add to the fact that I was summoned here when I was asleep.

In short, I was hungry. I needed to get that deer. No matter how big it was.

Since I possessed Elemental Magic now, I wanted to put it to a test. Kannech was established as a Mage Support after all. So, magic and support-type spells were his specialties.

I peeked out once again at the deer and made a handgun out of my fingers. If the use of imagination still applied here, I could shoot some type of bullet through my index finger, right?

Well, there was one way to find out.