Leo first wiped the filth off with some leaves he found on the ground. He was still covered in blood and dirt and hadn't bathed once since he arrived.
'Fuck, I smell like shit,' he thought as he covered his nose.
Leo walked around the area, searching for his weapons. He still had one dagger and the necklace, but he didn't know where the spear and the other dagger were.
After a few minutes of searching, he spotted the spear near a fallen branch.
The problem was that it lay right beside two wolves.
Until now, Leo had avoided getting too close to the wolves. Although they hadn't attacked him, he didn't want to take any chances. Just standing near them put him on edge.
"Yeah, let's just get it and get out of here," he muttered. "What could go wrong, other than being mauled alive?"
Taking a few deep breaths, Leo approached them. The spear was right in front of the wolves.
As he got closer and closer, his heart pounded faster, and sweat trickled down his forehead.
The wolves, that had been lazing around, noticed him. They didn't move, just watched the weird creature curiously as he got closer.
Their stares made Leo even more nervous.
"Almost there," he told himself.
Just as he was about to reach the spear, the wolves moved. Leo wasn't able to react at all as they pounced on him.
Leo squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the pain.
He waited and waited, but the pain never came. What he felt instead was a slight tickling.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the wolves licking him, their tails wagging.
Although Leo was relieved, he was also starting to worry.
'Fuck, I haven't fully healed—and what are those tongues made of, sandpaper?!'
He could feel his newly healed bones threatening to fracture under the weight of the wolves.
'Can you get off me?' he thought desperately.
Surprisingly, the wolves actually got off him, as if reading his thoughts.
Leo was getting more and more confused about the wolves' behavior.
He stood up and looked at them.
'Can you hear me?' he thought.
The wolves just looked at him blankly while wagging their tails.
'Okay, so they can't hear my thoughts. But how did they understand me?' he thought.
He was about to give up finding the answer when an idea struck him.
"Will that actually work? I mean, there's no harm in trying, so why not?"
'Okay, let's see. Walk forward,' he thought while applying his will as he had done with the status window.
The wolves froze for a second and then moved forward toward him.
'It actually worked!' Leo was dumbfounded.
'Roll over,' he tried next.
However, this time the wolves didn't budge and seemed a bit annoyed as they looked at him.
'So it isn't a command type,' he thought nervously while scratching his cheek.
After confirming his theory and testing it for a while, Leo retrieved his spear, still lost in thought.
'So I can impose my will on them. It's not a command, more like a request—from what I've seen so far,' Leo thought as he searched for the other dagger. 'However, what if I tried it on a weaker creature? Would it still feel like a request, or would it become a command? Does it even work on other creatures, or only on these wolves? Can every creature impose its will on others? And why does this even work in the first place?'
The more he thought about it, the more questions appeared, until he finally gave up thinking about it altogether.
'This is freaking complex, I should test it out when I have time.' He decided.
After searching for a while, Leo found his missing dagger lying in a patch of grass.
With everything recovered, he went back to the lizard's corpse, which was surprisingly still fresh.
All this time, he'd been observing the wolves' behavior and concluded they were unusually friendly with him. He had tried looking for the black-furred wolf, but it seemed it had left.
'I'll stay here until I'm fully healed, then continue westwards. Hopefully nothing goes wrong,' he thought as he sat down near the lizard's body.
The wolves seemed to avoid the corpse as if it were a plague. Even when their pups tried taking a bite, an adult wolf immediately stopped them and led them away.
'This is either poisonous, or they are just very kind and generous, ' Leo thought with a chuckle as he inspected the lizard's body.
The thing was huge. Up close, Leo could clearly see its otherworldly features. It was about three meters long and about one meter high. It had green scales covering its entire body, and, unlike normal lizards, it had a short tail. Leo also noted that its scales were a bit slimy, and, coupled with its frog-like eyes, he concluded that there might be a nearby body of water.
After inspecting the entire thing, Leo had a clear plan for how to skin it.
He wasn't really worried about poison because of his skills; if anything, he welcomed it. He needed food to regain his energy since his body wasn't even fully healed, and this lizard was too big to waste.
Skinning the whole thing took hours. He then sorted out the useless things and the useful ones. The claws, he realized, were pretty sharp for something non-retractable. Although they weren't as sturdy as his daggers, they were good enough for cutting most things.
The scales were useless for now. He didn't know how to make anything about tanning at the moment, nor did he have time to learn it.
After everything was done, Leo had pieces of meat hanging on a low branch with the claws under them.
'That was exhausting.' Leo thought as he was sprawled on the ground, panting.
The whole process took about six hours without a single break.
Night was already approaching, but Leo wasn't planning to sleep tonight. After the recent attack, he had become more cautious. The wolves were a blessing in a way. He didn't have to be on guard all the time, especially now that he was in a weakened state. His wounds had mostly healed with only some surface wounds remaining.
Some of the wolves—most likely the hunting party— had left earlier, leaving behind the pups and a few adults. Leo just observed all this silently.
After resting for a while, he got up and scavenged around for some dry wood and leaves.
It was a blessing that it hadn't rained since he arrived. This also made the search easier as he found everything he needed in just ten minutes.
He arranged the sticks and dry leaves in order, and using some rocks he had found that had similar traits to flint and iron pyrites, he started a fire.
The wolves nearby were startled, and those near him moved away as they all stared at the flame.
Leo didn't even notice as he watched the flame burn, a sense of accomplishment welling up in his chest.
He then cut some small strips from the hanging meat. Since he didn't have any metal tools, he improvised with a stone slab he'd found, hoping it wouldn't explode, and placed a strip of meat on it.
After a while, the meat was sizzling, and the stone hadn't exploded, making Leo calm down a bit. He then placed the other strips on it.
"Those YouTube videos are really coming in handy," Leo muttered as he watched the meat cook.
The wolves had calmed down, but they still watched curiously as their noses picked up the scent of the burning meat. However, rather than getting close, they stepped back even more.
Once the meat was ready, Leo didn't hesitate as his hunger took over. Within mere minutes, he had already finished the whole thing.
'This isn't enough.'
And so Leo continued the process until he was satisfied.
'That felt great.'
Leo lay on his back, completely stuffed, as he looked up at the sky.
He turned his gaze towards the now-empty hanging vines.
Leo had finished the whole thing. He was, of course, shocked by his appetite, but with everything that was happening, this discovery seemed like a trivial matter.
Right now, he felt his strength had fully returned.
Now that he didn't have to worry about his state of weakness, Leo could focus on his plans.
For one, he realized he needed something to carry his weapons. He had some ideas, but with what he had at the moment, he decided to tie his daggers on his waist using a vine. He also needed to get used to using his weapons, especially his spear.
After planning for a while, Leo sat down and started working on the waist rope and the sheath of the daggers.
He was just about to finish the waist rope when his vision blurred. His body went numb, and he fell face-first to the ground. He was paralysed.
'Oh, come on, this is just bullying me.'
Leo didn't need to think much to realize the culprit. It was probably a neurotoxin from the lizard's meat.
And that was only the beginning. For the next hour, he had to endure excruciating pain as he felt his insides being digested.
'Yeah, screw that. I'm gonna go sleep.' With that, Leo passed out with his face eating dirt and his butt facing up. A weird posture indeed.