Chapter 8 Encounter #1

Next morning:TRiriiiriiiing! TriRiniiing!

Eero opened his eyes, listening to the ancient alarm sound, and glanced at the old-looking alarm clock belly dancing. "This alarm is the only old thing in the room; I don't know the reason behind it," Eero thought after tapping it, letting it rest.

Then he realized something, looking at his hands and feet suspiciously. He stood up, moved around, and muttered, "Why isn't my body aching like before? I thought this morning I would feel a little muscle or leg stress because of yesterday's overuse."

"Status Panel"

[Status Panel]

Name: Eero

Level: 1

Body: 0.6 [1 normal adult]

(0.2 Strength, 0.2 Agility, 0.2 Stamina)

Soul: 3.6 [1 normal adult]

(1.2 IQ, 1.2 Spirit, 1.2 Will)

[Note: All ratios of sub-stats will be kept balanced, under the rule of Infinity Talent.]

"Body attribute is increased by 0.42 and soul by 0.6.; it's more than I expected. Is it because of the universal human body I possess, or simply yesterday was my first training?" Eero became very confused. Thinking of the universal human body, he muttered with a headache, "I should have asked about it's properties."

"Also, yesterday, to avoid damaging the body, I used 10% of Saitama's training; today I will do it fully 100%; let's see if it has any effect tomorrow," Eero muttered, then walked outside the house, looking at the hide option above the window and door, clicked hide, instantly both vanished.

He felt the morning breeze and glanced at the sunrise, the sun peeking at him from behind the mountain far away.

"Hi fellow," Eero waved his hand happily, then appeared beside the hidden pathway, started grabbing the protruded stones, and put his feet inside the holes he remembered while climbing yesterday. 

After a few misses and stabilizations, he landed on a slope-shaped area, then passed through vines and bushes, trees, from behind the hill, looking at the area he climbed down from.

"It seems previous life two arms usage is helping me now in climbing; although the body is small, my arms' stability is higher than legs because of constant use of two arms instead of legs in the previous life; climbing is not a problem for me." 

Eero muttered while walking through the slope-like path, keeping an eye on the surroundings alertly lest a snake or other dangerous objects attack him.

HISSS!

Cold sweat flowed through Eero's forehead. 'I just thought about it; a snake pops up.' Feeling the chilly gaze from behind,

NOISE!

Feeling the rustling sound coming near from the left side behind, shivers ran through his waist. He felt coolness there, as if something was aiming at his waist.

Domain! Dual layer

Without thinking about anything, he instantly covered his body and also expanded the domain, then turned to glimpse at the open mouth of the snake, and venom drops in it's mouth, progressing toward his waist slowly.

A kitchen knife appeared in his hand; he waved it with full force, piercing through its eye, left the knife inserted, backed away aside, dodged hurriedly, while the domain retracted. He sat down on the ground, looking at the snake, which fell far away.

Taking deep breaths, Eero felt air hunger and backed away more while glaring at the snake alertly.

"HIissssss" "Hissss" "Hisss"

Looking at the pitch-black snake, about 1.5 meters in size and four inches thick, coiling around the kitchen knife embedded in its head, hissing painfully with blood flowing on the ground.

'Thankfully, I took a few sharp knives from the kitchen for my safety.'

'Also, I didn't pay attention to its appearance before, now looking at it; this guy is scary,' Eero thought.

After a while, it stopped hissing and stopped moving.

Eero didn't go near it but was paying attention to it; his complexion improved a little.

'I was ready to encounter and deal with dangerous situations, but this is too sudden; thankfully, it was a baby snake, or I would have become a special child roll if it were an adult snake.'

'It seems this hill has snakes,' Eero thought.

"Hisssss" instantly, his thoughts were interrupted.

Looking at the snake moving again after a while, she fell silent. 'As expected of top cunning animals,'

Eero thought then walked cautiously near it, first hitting it with stones. Looking at it not moving,

He sighed in relief and appeared beside it, alertly looking around. 'I have to hurry up before some other animals arrive following the blood smell,'

Grabbing the knife, he pulled it out, avoiding the blood drops, looking at the dead snake and knife, then put both of them inside his storage panel and ran hurriedly toward the front side of this hill. This time he hurried his pace, even using the domain.

Just as he left, following behind through the bushes, a few huge gray-brown wolves appeared around, smelling the air around, and growled in Eero's direction with their squinting eyes, sharp teeth, and red mouths drooling.

While Eero appeared on the pathway, he sat down in an open area to restore his stamina, paying attention to the surroundings. His heart became more alert and vigilant.

'It seems this is not a peaceful Earth of the previous life.'

'I have to find another way to climb the hill for a few days; only animals that can smell blood are wolves, coyotes, bears, and snakes. Among them, wolves are dangerous; they can smell scents besides blood. If there are wolves, I may fall in danger, climbing the same way again.'

Eero was thinking while running again toward the west city, which is probably more than 10 kilometers away from the hill.

Also, thinking of the subconscious use of the dual-layer domain, 'it seems only in danger true potential can be released. I haven't thought of such usage before, but dual layer consumes double stamina.'

Before he could use the domain for 2 seconds; with double domain, it became one second. 'One second is from outsider prospective; my time is equal to four seconds inside the domain,' Eero thought to himself.

...

After a while,

Looking at the city edge in front, wiping the sweat, "Today my performance was better," Eero muttered. If someone hears him and sees him sweating, they will become speechless—this little kid and his performance.

Passing through the city, looking at everything around curiously, suddenly he smelled a fragrance, turned, and glanced at the small stall-like restaurant far away; his eyes lit up.

Walked toward it.

Appeared inside looking at filled, crowded seats around; also, a boy and a middle-aged man were preparing and serving the dishes.

Eero appeared near the counter and spoke, "Please, give me the best dishes for breakfast."

"What do you need? Here's the menu, and special dishes are also written above," the staff asked, then passed the menu.

...