The next morning, Alexander woke up when the first rays of sun penetrated the leaves of the tree where he was sleeping. Even though he couldn't sleep well, he still managed to recover to face this new day.

  As his first task of the day, he decided to return to the place where he had left the meat.

  As he approached the spot, he doubled his attention, but even after searching for footprints or tracks, no indication of other creatures was found.

  "It seems there are no creatures wandering around here at night. That's it, or yesterday was a very unusual day," Alexander concluded. "But I doubt that. Wild creatures tend to be territorial and always look for intruders."

  After checking the spot, he went to look at the meat. "They look good. Just a few more hours in the sun should leave them at the ideal point."

  Satisfied with this result, Alexander placed the meat in the sun and went to the river. When he got there, the sun still had part of it hidden on the horizon.

  Taking advantage of the calm, he drank some water and looked for a good place to hide while maintaining a good view of the river.

  While drinking water, Alexander realized he hadn't deactivated the transformation the previous night and it had remained active. "Interesting. The form won't change without my will, even while I sleep."

  Sitting in the shade of a tree and behind a bush, he remembered the plan he had drawn up the previous day and began to think: "It's better to take advantage of this day to try to understand and get used to the habits of the creatures here, as I'm still not in a condition to fight them."

  As if hearing his thoughts, a group of three goblins emerged from the bushes to fetch water from the river. And taking advantage of this opportunity, Alexander appraised them with |Appraise (Intermediate)| to see what the information would be.

  [{Goblin} Lv. 1] [{Goblin} Lv. 2] [{Goblin} Lv. 3]

  "Despite the advancement of |Appraise|, no additional information appeared," Alexander observed. "It seems information about individuals isn't this skill's strong suit."

  Shortly after the group of goblins left, the pair of kobolds also appeared. They did the same thing as the day before, and he did too.

  It also didn't take long after the pair left for the orc (Young) to appear and do what seemed to be everyone's routine.

  Trying to understand the pattern of those creatures, Alexander spent the entire morning observing the river and none of them appeared again. But at the same time as the previous day, when the sun was at its peak, the group of goblins appeared again and repeated the process.

  He then waited to confirm his assumption. And, as he suspected, it didn't take long for the pair of kobolds to appear, as the day before, and be succeeded by the orc (Young) shortly after.

  "It seems like a routine, and fetching water is part of their chores. They even avoid each other for this," Alexander analyzed. "The most vulnerable part must be the goblins, since they send a group of three while the orcs only send one member, who still seems completely unconcerned when leaving."

  Knowing they probably wouldn't return for now, thanks to his observation the previous day, Alexander went to get the meat, which should be well dried by now, and began trying to make some things using the rabbit hides.

  Using his newly acquired dagger, he cut a rustic rabbit hide into small threads and used them to make an adjustable shoe.

  It cost him 5 rabbit hides, but Alexander managed to make a pair of rudimentary footwear. They might seem insignificant, but he knew that footwear, no matter how rustic, was essential to avoid infections.

  Seeing that he still had a considerable amount of time left, Alexander took a break to eat, relieve himself, and rest.

  After resting, he began to use |Mana Control| to gain more practice with mana. But after using it for ten minutes, his stamina dropped to (1/11), his mana to (10/20), and his MP to (15/25).

  It was only at that moment that Alexander discovered how serious the cost of a skill is. His energy was almost completely drained, leaving him in a vulnerable situation even without moving.

  With no other choice, he was forced to rest again to recover his stamina. And after spending two hours resting, his stamina points returned to maximum, but his mana and MP did not.

  Alexander thought for a bit and went back to using |Mana Control|, but for safety reasons, he used it for less time this time, which forced him to stop to rest after just eight minutes.

  Upon repeating this process one more time, it wasn't just his stamina that became scarce. His mana and MP also became low.

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  With these three indicators low, he felt slow, weakened, and lethargic. He even knew this would happen, thanks to the descriptions of (Stamina), (Mana), and (MP), but he didn't expect it to be so literal.

  It took about four hours for Alexander's MP, the slowest of the three, to return to the tens. And since he couldn't practice anymore, as it would soon be dark, he just kept observing the river.

  When he was about to get up to leave, the goblin group returned to fetch more water. Shortly after came the kobolds, and not long after the orc (Young).

  "Since none of the groups seem to have seen yesterday's smoke, this must be the last time they fetch water for the day," Alexander conjectured.

  After making sure everyone had left, he went to drink some water and returned to the clearing. And after making sure it was safe, he also took a piece of dried meat and had a quick meal before going to bed.

  The next morning, Alexander got up again with the first rays of sun. And even though he hadn't slept well again, he took his things and went to the river to see if the routine would repeat at more or less the same time.

  As he expected, exactly the same thing happened as the day before. First came the trio of goblins, then the pair of kobolds, and finally the solitary orc (Young).

  Since everything happened the same, Alexander decided to follow the orc (Young) from a distance to locate its den. And after a few minutes of walking, he saw it enter a cave, but couldn't get any closer, or he would lose his camouflage.

  After confirming the location of the orc den, he decided to explore some unexplored areas until it was time for the creatures to fetch water.

  To do this reconnaissance, Alexander finally crossed the river. And following the unexplored areas in the opposite direction of the orc cave, he found another small cave.

  Very close to its entrance were two creatures. One of them he recognized; it was a boar, but the other was unknown.

  The unknown creature seemed to have a body structure similar to a jellyfish, semi-transparent film on the outside and fluid on the inside. The strangest thing was that it seemed to have captured the boar and was pressing its body into itself to dissolve it.

  Not daring to get too close, Alexander just used |Appraise| on the creature from a distance to find out what it was.

  [{Slime} Lv. 2]

  Upon discovering the slime's identity, he was shocked. "Aren't they supposed to be 'weak'?... How can this thing be weak?"

  Just imagining that the small cave entrance could lead to a space full of those things, Alexander's body began to tremble and move away.

  Not wanting to stay near that place, he began to explore other areas. And upon exploring that side of the river well, he noticed there were more boars there, but in contrast, the number of rabbits was very small.

  After a few minutes of walking, Alexander began to approach the kobold and goblin caves, on which he only did a small reconnaissance from a distance, to confirm his information, and returned to "his side" of the river.

  After exploring everything possible on the other side of the river, he began to explore his side of the river as well.

  At first, everything seemed fine on that side; he didn't find any monsters or caves, just rabbits and some boars. But when he was finishing exploring the area, a very narrow cave appeared.

  Alexander immediately hid as best as he could and began observing it from a distance. But even after some time, he saw no movement or heard any noise.

  Just when he was about to give up and leave, a rabbit came hopping happily out of the cave.

  "If the rabbit came out unharmed, then there are no monsters in this cave, right?... Or its end would have been the same as that boar's."

  After weighing the pros and cons, Alexander carefully approached the cave entrance. And upon getting very close to the entrance, he discovered it wasn't a cave, but an ascending tunnel.

  Noticing that it was impossible for any large or medium creature to pass through such a space, he decided to see what was on the other side. And what he found upon passing through the tunnel was a large forest with trees much larger than those in the grove where he was.

  Looking at all that "freedom" around him, Alexander considered not returning to the grove. But this idea died as quickly as it came to life, as his reason shouted louder, telling him that he was still too weak...

  After taking a deep breath to get as much fresh air as possible, he turned around and went to finish exploring the grove. And with this goal accomplished, he returned to the river while forming a mental map of the small grove in his head:

  "The grove is somewhat circular; it is bounded by high walls; has a radius of approximately 1 km; is cut in half by a river; has four caves and one tunnel.

  "The kobold cave is more to the west, followed by the goblin, slime, and orc caves. Their arrangement on the map is in a fan shape from left to right. And on my side of the river is the exit tunnel from the grove, located to the east."

  As soon as he reached his observation point at the river, Alexander began to rest to recover from the exploration. And since the morning period was always calm, he rested very relaxed to recover faster.

  After resting until the sun indicated it was time for the goblin group to appear, without wasting time, he resumed his cautious posture, but for some reason, the goblins didn't appear.

  Alexander looked at the sun again to see if he had made a mistake, but the time was right. The goblins hadn't appeared at the usual time.

  Just when he had given up and was thinking about what to do, the goblins appeared. And just when he thought everything would return to normal, the pair of kobolds arrived.

  The two groups then stared at each other for a while, but it didn't take long for them to drop their containers and charge at each other.

  The goblins were at a disadvantage in physical size, but they were greater in number and threw stones at the kobolds whenever they had the opportunity.

  "They must have |Throw|," Alexander assumed. "It and |Run| must be inherent skills for goblins. That's why I have them."

  The fight on the riverbank began to drag on, leaving both sides injured and wet. To make the situation even more tense, an animalistic sound was heard, making everyone turn their heads in the direction of the orc (Young), who had just arrived and didn't like seeing them there.

  The arrival of the orc (Young) made the fight even more confusing. But, ironically, it was the one at the greatest disadvantage, as there was no one to cover its rear.

  In return, it was also the one who suffered less from injuries and caused more damage.

  The more time passed, the more intense the fight became. At one point, the orc (Young) was attacked from behind by one of the kobolds, and when he turned to hit it, he took a stone to the head and fell into the river, dazed.

  One of the kobolds even wanted to take advantage of the situation to attack it again, but was met with a powerful punch that sent it flying.

  Alexander, who was watching everything, made a decision: "I don't know if I'll have a better opportunity than this. So it's now or never."