After a restless night, Henry had decided to scout the area. The forest seemed entirely different from the part he had been in before. He couldn't even find his way back. Determined to understand his surroundings, he ventured deeper into the unknown. As he explored, he stumbled upon a herd of creatures that left him utterly baffled.

"I've been here for a week, and I still manage to find bizarre-looking things," he mused, crouching in the bushes. His eyes narrowed as he observed the herd. "Hmm, a young one is leaving the group," he noted, following the creature as it dashed through the shrubs and trees.

"Whaaat!" Henry's eyes widened in disbelief. The cowbunny had stopped and was now laying turds out of sight of its herd. "That thing just laid a golden turd in a heap of what looks like golden turds," he remarked, shock evident in his voice. His exclamation startled the creature, causing it to faint.

"Huh, it fainted," Henry observed, approaching the unconscious animal. He poked it cautiously. "I wonder if it tastes good," he said, drawing his knife. He attempted to stab it, but the creature's skin was too thick. His blade couldn't even scratch it.

"Hmm, I guess I need something reinforced with magic. Arg, but I don't have that," Henry ruffled his hair in frustration as he sheathed his knife. "I'll just take the gold then," he decided, picking up some of the golden turds. "This pile looks rather small for a herd that big..." he remarked, picking up a golden turd covered in another smelly substance.

"The hell is this?" he exclaimed, throwing it away. It seemed that the creatures excreted a small amount of gold, but the majority of their excrement was an extremely smelly fecal substance. Taking the untainted gold, small yet enough to fill both his hands, Henry made his way back to his abode.

He had learned something valuable today amidst all that feces. "Ahhh, home sweet home," Henry sighed, dropping the gold in the storage part of the cave. "Meat is not a problem; I can hunt small animals. But I need some greens. The problem is, I don't even know how to identify what's edible or not. At this rate, I'll end up malnourished," he said, assessing his food storage.

Fruit was not a problem for him. Maybe it was part of being in a magical world, but the fruit here didn't seem to spoil easily and maintained their flavor even after a long time. He picked up a couple from the pile, not bothering to check them, and ate to his content.

"Hmm, this one is sweeter than the others," he remarked, savoring the taste. "It's even a different color than the rest." With that, he came up with his task for the remainder of the day: sorting out the fruit by color. Although it took a lot of time, he managed to get it done. The red ones were in the middle, the fewest of all, with yellow and blue ones separated and accounted for. The red ones seemed to be rare, or maybe the lemurs liked them too much and ate those first. Henry did the same, starting with the red ones first.

Two months had passed, and Henry's cave now looked more like a home. He had crafted more weapons, mostly made of wood, stone, and bone. Though not perfect, he had dabbled in pottery, making a few accessories like pots for storing water, cooking, and food storage. He had even built a wall with a door at the entrance to the cave. Things were better now, but along the way, Henry confirmed his worst fear: those Pokémon that had captured him had taken him to a completely different part of the forest, further than he had thought.

Although he now had access to a lake and a river, things were far from okay. He had to be more careful, and this forest was harder to navigate than the previous one. "Lately, my body itches whenever I come into contact with those plants," Henry remarked as he left his cave, closing the door behind him. "This can't be a good sign. I don't want to get locked out of my own place because of some stupid plant," he said, looking at the sachets of leaf balls wrapped around his waist, filled with the power from the mana-eater.

"And the moons are now fully visible even during the day," he noted as he walked through the bushes. He came to a halt at his hunting ground, east of the rock-munching cow rabbits, where some baby wild boars liked to gather and play. In position, Henry was ready to claim his prize, but a sudden gush of hot air on his neck said otherwise.

Leaping forward, Henry began to run. He didn't even want to waste time looking behind him to see what it was. He simply ran in a straight line. If the scent of the mana-eater didn't deter the creature, then he wasn't going to risk it. As he ran, he could hear the creature following him. Twigs snapped, and bushes rattled. The creature was fast and catching up. Even with Henry's greatly improved physique, he was still human and barely had any mana. He wasn't even aware of his evolution.

He kept running, hearing the screech of the creature behind him. Fear gripped him as it slammed the ground, causing a rumbling. The ground before Henry turned into a pit. "Damn, it's smart and knows magic," he said, changing his course. The creature behind him let out what sounded like a cackle. Opening its mouth, a beam shot straight through Henry's lower abdomen.

"Kaaa!" Pierced by what felt like an icicle, Henry coughed at the impact. "Damnit, damnit, damnit," he cursed, clutching his wound.