CHAPTER 19: [The curse land] - [Smell lost] - [A dream or reality?]

All leaving being in this forest had an intellect thanks to *The Protector Of The Forest*, they could all understand each other even if they normally could in the outside world. Their intellect varied between species, the beast all gained intelligence but their resulting intelligence was based on their initial intelligence.

If a goldfish gained intelligence it would be a simpleton, but if a monkey gained intelligence it would become as intelligent as humans.

It was now morning, after waking up Damian had been too tired to do anything then sleep. He had climbed a tree, sat on a high branch and had tied himself to the trunk to prevent himself from falling to his death during his sleep.

He was woken up by the sound of beasts, they had come to check the result of the fight of such intensity. If collisions from a fight were this big It could mean only two things, either a beast is going on a rampage destroying everything on its path or a fight between two powerful beasts is occurring.

In both cases the other beast will try to salvage the situation to gain something from it. If it was a beast on rampage they would eat the beast killed by the beast without having to hunt for them. If it was two beasts fighting they would try to overwhelm the wing beast after it is injured or tired after the fight and eat it to further evolve gaining more strength in the process.

The problem was the competition between all the beasts that wanted to be the ones to eat the two beasts to become stronger. At first they would all ally to kill the winning beast but then problems arrived when they needed to separate the meat between themselves.

Often fights occurred between them, those fights could keep going for days as other beasts joined in, attracted by the commotion. To remedy that the beast allied with stronger beasts and by promising them half the meat they could have a whole half for themselves.

Damian looked down from his tree branch, from here he could see the crater and its battlefield-like surroundings. He had climbed on a tree that had resisted the fight he had the day before and had thick foliage.

The beasts were surrounding the body of the Panther but none had yet taken a bite, they were all waiting to see what the others would do. A fight could break out at any moment, one wrong movement would result in an all out fight where everyone fights for themselves.

Damian jumped down, landing quietly near the tree base. He soundlessly approached the group and when he arrived close to the group he released *blood lust* without using aura or mana.

Before the beasts and humans were blessed with mana it was rumored that some of them could produce something similar to *aura manifestation* and *blood lust*. He had trained in order a similar thing and had succeeded in understanding the true principle behind the two original techniques.

Something similar to *blood lust* could be achieved by focusing on the posture one is taking, in this technique the posture must show determination and power. Even if some people unconsciously act that way when using *aura manifestation*, if this information was spread to the world then technique will be greatly improved.

As for *blood lust*, one must alert all the senses of his enemy or enemies by having a strong and scary looking expression that would freeze the blood in his veins and convince him he is going to die by one's hand.

The beasts were all related by Damian and were frozen by fear as they saw his terrifying blood thirsty killer expression. He slowly walked in the middle of the group and reached its center where the Panther' s body was still lying on the ground.

Damian took the huge body by the tail, pulled it behind him and jumped on a tree before disappearing from the beasts' sights.

He returned to his cave while making sure he wasn't followed. He eliminated a few enemies that were following him and defeated another group that had set an ambush to rob him of his spoils.

Arriving at his cave he sat down and began to butcher the Panther for his meat and the materials it could provide. After a while he had successfully separated all the meat so he dug a hole where he set up a fire, he then added a long and flat stone on top before adding the meat and covering it with a big leaf.

While the meat was cooking he finished removing the wait and cleaned the skin, and collected all the fangs and claws of the Panther.

After a while he removed the leaf and the odor of the cooked meat of the hole he had previously created, making Damian want to taste the meat before preparing it further. The meat was now fully cooked and he cut it in thin slices of meat that he left to dry on branches.

'Once the slides have dried I will be able to keep them for a long time without worrying about them rotting and becoming uneatable.' Damian thought after placing the last piece of meat on a branch.

Damian then took four wooden poles from inside his cave and he planted them 6 meters apart. He then planted the skin on the poles so that it was stretched to the maximum. After that he let it dry under the sun before doing anything else with it.

All this process had taken almost a full day and the sun was now slowly disappearing behind the tall trees of the forest and the light was now quite deem.

Damian looked in the direction of the sun and observed it with an expression that showed fulfillment and wonder. After a while he smiled and turned back and headed for the cave. He laid down on his mattress and closed his eyes, ready to sleep for the night.

He sank into darkness and felt as if he was endlessly falling until the surrounding space changed and he entered the body of a small demon.

After recovering from the shock he looked around and found himself near the top of a tall mountain range. He could see the trees, the lakes and the earth below him. This sight was breathtaking, he knew he wouldn't ever forget what he was currently viewing.

Some time passed and he turned around as he felt the wind blowing on his back, looking at the top of the mountain he could see that it was completely covered in a thick snow. There was something magical about it, the snow seemed to suddenly stop falling after a few meters from the mountain peak.

He decided to continue his ascension. The wind was blowing heavily and the snow cover was thick. Damian walked for a full day without stopping, it was only at the end of the day that he started to feel the difficulty of the task. He climbed with difficulty as the oxygen started to make itself rarer and rarer as he reached higher heights.

The snow now reached his knees and his breath got heavier, sweat was running down his face and his steeps got heavier as he got tired from climbing the mountain.

Once he arrived at the top he witnessed something strange, the part of the mountain that was covered in snow was bigger than it seemed when outside it and it also had a house built at the top. It was like entering a hidden dimension, a dimension that hid at the top of the mountain.

Continuing on his path he headed to the door and once he was close he saw that it wasn't closed, he opened it and entered.

Damian entered the house and was hit by the temperature difference. The house was warmed using a fire that had been set up in the chimney's fireplace on the opposite wall, the chimney's ashes were falling into the fireplaces and floated in the air still producing light. The room was very warm and the snow seemed to be stopped by an invisible force from entering the house.

He walked close to a bed that was next to the entrance, and sat on it after closing the door. On the bed, through the window, he could see the snowy mountain top and the territory surrounding the mountain right flank.

But after a week he still remained in this body and then a month ended and he still couldn't find a way to return to his body, the month turned into months and the months became a year. He had felt lonely for a full year and had accepted his situation, he would stay in this body forever.

His daily life consisted of training himself by running around and fighting against wooden dummies and eating fruits. But he quickly got bored with doing all of that after discovering he was trapped by an invisible barrier.

His life then only consisted in sleeping and counting the days till he was either brought back to his body or died of old age.

One night he was looking at the landscape. It was beautiful but he was the only one here and had no one to talk to, there wasn't any other animal in sight either. He felt truly alone in the world.

'Is that how loneliness feels, who could have imagined that I would be forced to retire so early after the start of my journey? I didn't even get to take revenge on the emperor! I can't even leave the area, there is some sort of invisible barrier like in the games back on earth.' Damian thought as he looked at the horizon with a tired expression.

He laid down on the bed and closed his eyes once again praying to return to the jungle where he had once lived. His only wish was to return to see living beings and to eat something else than fruits from the tree down the mountain.

TO BE CONTINUED…