Luke slumped back to the floor. His mind was exhausted. It would take more than a simple declaration to get stronger.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Luke squinted his eyes as he woke up. He slowly sat up and unbuttoned his shirt. There it was on his chest, the silver hourglass tattoo.

‘This thing has to be what saved me… Just what is the nature of this elemental? The old man said that he had two elementals: the strange sounding one and also a wind elemental. If I assume that the balls of light that floated above him as he died were his elementals, it would be safe to say that the silver light that entered me would be the unique elemental that “chose me”, as the old man put it. That would mean that the pure white ball of light was the wind elemental. It would’ve been great if I could’ve somehow absorbed that elemental as well, but that’s just wishful thinking.’

Luke then narrowed his eyes, staring at something.

‘I really need to get rid of that corpse soon, it is emitting a really bad stench. I figure I’ll be a bit safer during the day. I really don’t want to run into that giant bird-bastard again. At least not yet.’

Luke thought that it would be better not to think about his death, but it had undoubtedly left a mental scar on his mind already. Whether he’d like to admit it or not.

Luke’s stomach growled. He hadn’t had any food or water since appearing in this forest.

Luke stood up and decided to take a look around the house. He found some dried meat, as well as a leather water pouch, tucked away under the old man’s bed.

‘This should last me for a while.’

Luke heaved a sigh. He drank a gulp of water, and then started gnawing on the dry meat, stopping after only a few bites.

‘That corpse is ruining my appetite.’

Luke sat down on one of the wooden chairs and leaned downwards, placing a finger on his forehead, deep in thought.

‘If think about it rationally, that giant bird-bastard is most likely the strongest monster in this forest. It has an ability to control wind, so I’ll assume that it possesses a pretty strong wind elemental. The old man didn’t explain it to me all that clearly, so I’ll need to test a few things out, but I have a hunch that ordinary Gleems possess wind elementals themselves, just very weak ones that are basically useless on their own.

If this is actually the case, there may be a way to absorb those elementals as your own, and combine them into a single stronger elemental. The old man had a pretty strong wind elemental himself, so it would’ve made sense for him to live here until he strengthened it even further by killing Gleems. He could’ve easily absorbed the elementals back when he saved me as well, so it would make sense that I didn’t see any elementals back then. I mean, I did close my eyes for a few minutes.’

Luke straightened his back, stood up, and made his way to the door. Luke turned his head around and looked at the old man’s corpse.

“Sorry, old man, you’ll have to stay here for a bit longer.”

Luke turned his head back around and opened the door. He narrowed his eyes, adjusting his vision to the daylight.

‘The way I see it, there’s only one way to kill a Gleem for the current me…’

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Luke stepped out into the forest, and started scheming.

‘So, if I were to kill a Gleem, there’s no way that I’d win in a fair confrontation, especially without a weapon.’

If he couldn’t beat a monster with his physical strength, then he’d have to use his head, and devise a plan, so his mind started doing just that.

He was in a dried up forest that was pretty bare, so if he were to make a weapon, it would have to be out of wood, as other resources were almost non-existent. He looked at the ground below him.

‘I’ll need to find at least a sharp stone or something similar to that first.’

Soon enough, Luke found a tiny stone with a slightly sharp edge. The stone itself couldn’t be used as a weapon, but he could sharpen sticks with it, which was his plan in the first place.

Next, he gathered up some sticks, and started his work on sharpening them. The work was dull and boring, but it was also hurtful to his hands, causing calluses to appear.

‘If someone ever told me that this is what I’d be doing after graduating from college, I’d laugh out loud in their face…’

After sharpening up a few sticks, the plan could commence. He sharpened up a thicker stick as well, which proved difficult due to the size of the stone. It was crucial to his plan though, and there could be no mistakes.

The plan was to bait out a Gleem, injure it, and then provoke it into charging directly into the thick stick, thus not relying on Luke’s physical strength to kill it.

He attached two smaller sticks to his pants using his belt, and picked up the thicker stick. He started searching for an open plain, with little to no obstructions.

After a short walk, he spotted an ideal location. He placed the thick stick on the ground and stood a dozen meters away from it.

He was not sure about what would happen if he were to die again, but he had to do this.

He already knew of a way to make Gleems that were wandering around come to him. Luke took a deep breath and opened his mouth:

“HEY!!! YOU BIRD BASTARDS! COME AND GET ME!!!”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

*Crack, crack*

A bunch of twigs broke under the claws of a bird-like creature as it walked forward. It had a big stature, with reddish fur, and small wings, its eyes looking wild and ferocious.

It kept looking around, searching for prey.

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!*

It instinctively screeched loudly as if to assert its dominance. They were greedy creatures, their intelligence estimated to be on the level of a 2 year old human child by various monster experts. Their danger level was classified as [Low].

It was then that the creature heard a loud noise. Someone was shouting.

“HEY!!! YOU BIRD BASTARDS! COME AND GET ME!!!”

As if both enraged and excited, the Gleem screeched yet again, but even louder this time.

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!*

Considering its thick, short legs, it started running surprisingly fast, making its way towards the direction of the shout.

There he was.

A human.

The Gleem started salivating and leaped towards him.

The human rolled to the right and managed to dodge its furious attack by a hair's breadth.

The Gleem burrowed its claws into the ground, stopping its charge. It was quite shocked, but that feeling disappeared quite fast, as it felt sharp pain. Something was sticking out of the Gleem’s back. Scarlet red blood started trickling down to the ground slowly.

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!*

The Gleem screeched in pain and grew even more furious, thrashing around.

It glared at the human behind it, and started charging at him again, this time even faster than before.

The human rolled towards his right, and as if expecting it, the Gleem swiftly changed its direction and opened its beak wide.

What the Gleem did not anticipate though, was a thick, sharp stick suddenly appearing in front of its head out of seemingly nowhere, and stabbing right into its left eye and penetrating into its brain.

To be more precise, the Gleem stabbed into the stick with its own momentum.

The human was knocked into the ground, meanwhile the Gleem’s body went limp, and started rolling around on the ground, only stopping after smashing into a tree.

There was a tiny white speck of light floating out of the Gleem’s corpse.

The human, now stained with blood and dirt, stood up, and grinned widely.

Luke’s plan played out just as intended.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Luke hurriedly approached the Gleem’s corpse. His heart was beating wildly because of the adrenaline rush that he had just went through.

He reached his hand out towards the speck of white light that was floating above it. He felt a stinging pain around his chest, and the white speck of light started floating towards his hand.

The white speck of light was floating up, along his arm, and made its way to his chest. It entered into his chest and Luke felt as if his heart was about to fly right out of his body. He unbuttoned his shirt, and the silver hourglass tattoo was pulsating with a blue hue.

The white speck of light started changing into a tattoo-like symbol as well, much smaller than the silver hourglass. The blue hue subsided, and a new tattoo was revealed right under the silver hourglass.

It was a small, pure white gust of wind. It looked as if it was lifting the silver hourglass up, making it hover.

Luke suddenly felt a bit lighter on his feet, and felt as if though he could move a bit faster.

He smiled.

‘So, my assumption was correct. The Gleems indeed have wind elementals themselves, although incomparable in strength to either the old man’s wind elemental or the giant bird-bastard’s one.

Luke stared at his hands.

‘If I kill enough Gleems, and train hard enough, I might be able to reach their level sooner than I thought.’

At this thought, Luke clenched his fists and raised his head up to look into the gray sky. He would not let himself die again. At least not to those bird-bastards.

He closed his eyes, and the scenes from last night flashed by. Luke got shook up for a moment, but he clenched his fists even harder. He opened his eyes and glared at the Gleem corpse below him. His resolve would not be broken so easily.