The trees got thicker and the air got warmer and Eren knew he was close because his Pathfinding skill stopped pulling him in a general direction and started pulling him toward specific landmarks he recognized.

That bent tree with the split trunk where he’d hid from a leopard on day four. The cluster of mushrooms growing on a fallen log that he’d eaten from twice before learning they gave him stomach cramps for six hours. The clearing where he’d first seen the fire birds and almost died from a fireball to the chest.

His territory. Not officially because no system screen had ever popped up saying "congratulations you own this patch of forest" but after twenty-nine days of sleeping in the same tree and eating from the same sources and running the same routes his body recognized every smell and sound and shadow in this part of the woods like coming home after a long trip.

Overhead something caught his eye and he slowed to watch.

A bird that looked like a hawk but with metallic blue feathers was circling about fifty meters up and it folded its wings and dove toward something in the canopy. Right before impact a bolt of condensed electricity shot from its beak like a javelin made of lightning and punched through two layers of leaves with a crack so loud it echoed through the trees. The bird pulled up with something limp and smoking in its talons.

"An electric spear.." he muttered while jogging past. "A bird just threw an electric spear from its mouth. And here I am Level 31 and I still can’t throw a spark."

A few minutes later he saw something even stranger. A small rodent about the size of his fist was running across an open branch when it suddenly vanished. Not fast or hidden behind something but just gone.

His Cat Primal Senses told him it was still there and invisible and running but before it made it to the next branch an eagle-like bird with three eyes blinked out of existence in the air, reappeared directly above the invisible rodent and snatched it from the branch. The rodent flickered back into visibility in the bird’s claws, dead.

That bird can teleport. The rat can go invisible. And neither of them is bigger than my hand. Even the small things in this forest have abilities I’d kill for.

He was still thinking about that when the bees found him. The swarm came from the southeast and his Hunter’s Tracking picked them up about four seconds before they arrived. At least thirty of them, most the size of regular bees but five or six in the middle of the formation were fist-sized with darker bodies and a yellow gas leaking from their abdomens.

He recognized the gas immediately. It was a toxic pollen variant that caused temporary paralysis. He’d encountered a smaller swarm in his second week and spent an entire afternoon with numb legs because one of the big ones had gassed him from behind a tree.

His Invisibility activated before the first bee got within ten meters and his body disappeared while he sidestepped off the path.

The swarm buzzed past where he’d been standing half a second ago with the big ones spraying gas in a wide arc. His Poison Resistance at Level 5 could probably handle it but "probably" wasn’t good enough when "definitely" was an option.

He grinned while invisible and jogged away from the confused swarm. Twelve seconds of Invisibility at his current mana pool and the bees were already circling in place trying to figure out where their target went.

Imagine having Invisibility at Level 5 or 6. Imagine having enough mana to hold it for a full minute.

The old ant battlefield was exactly as depressing as he expected. The clearing where two massive colonies had gone to war during his first two weeks was covered in dried husks and broken exoskeletons and patches of discolored soil where acid and toxins had soaked into the ground. A new colony had moved in though.

Smaller ants with red-brown bodies and sharper mandibles, already building new mounds with the organized efficiency of something that didn’t waste time mourning the previous owners.

"You guys move fast.." he said quietly while crossing through their territory. None of them paid him any attention. His Stealth Enhancement from Hunter’s Tracking combined with his Perception at 91 apparently made him uninteresting enough that the ants classified him as "not food, not threat, not relevant."

Past the ant field the canopy opened up into the transitional zone between the insect territories and the bird-dominated area to the south. And at the edge of this zone sitting on a specific branch of a specific tree that wasn’t particularly tall or impressive was the colorful bird.

The rainbow-feathered thing was in its usual spot near the top of a medium-sized oak doing absolutely nothing. Its feathers shifted between colors in a way that should’ve been beautiful but instead made Eren’s Primal Senses tighten with the familiar warning that this creature was beyond his comprehension.

Every other creature in the area was giving the bird’s tree a wide berth. No insects on the bark, no smaller birds in the branches, nothing within a twenty-meter radius. The same invisible repulsion that kept things away from Eren’s own sleeping tree.

"The stronger you are the less anything bothers you.." he muttered. "When I leave this forest someday I want every creature in a hundred meters to walk the other way when they smell me coming."

He pulled two fruits from a nearby tree that some mid-level creatures were guarding and ate them while walking. His Swift Snatcher skill made the grab so fast the creatures barely registered what happened before he was gone.

The fire ape territory was a ten-minute detour east of his direct route home but he took it anyway. These were the chimpanzee-looking creatures that spat fireballs like candy. Their clan maintained a grove of fruit trees in a clearing surrounded by rocks and the biggest of those trees produced the thick purple fruit that had given Eren his Physical Durability skill back on day twelve.

He circled the clearing twice with his Hunter’s Tracking suppressing his presence and his Primal Senses mapping every ape in the area.

Fourteen of them scattered across the grove with three larger males near the purple fruit tree. The tree had new fruit, six of them hanging from the upper branches but smaller than the ones he’d eaten before and lighter in color. More pink than purple and not ripe yet.

Not ready. But they’re growing. If I come back every day I’ll know exactly when they’re ripe enough to grab.

He memorized the guard positions and approach angles and left without touching anything. He’d stolen from these guys twice already and each time they’d chased him throwing fireballs for five straight minutes. At Level 31 the fireballs were more annoying than dangerous but getting hit still hurt and his fire resistance was exactly zero.

Poison Resistance from eating toxic berries. Electric Resistance from eating the lightning cat. There has to be something in this forest I can eat to get fire resistance. The fire apes are definitely not edible though. Their meat probably tastes like charcoal and rage.

His tree appeared through the canopy about ten minutes later and the relief was physical. His shoulders dropped and his jaw unclenched and his pace slowed from a jog to a walk without him deciding to do it.

Everything was there. The thick trunk with his scratch marks counting the days. The platform branch twenty meters up. The crude rope ties hanging from the lower branches. His three stone cups sitting in a row on a natural shelf in the bark.

Finally..