The journey down wasn't pleasant at all.
Branches smashed into Leo as he fell, snapping against his ribs and shoulders. His already injured body was being pushed past its limit. As he tumbled, he had no idea how many of his bones were still intact. He reached for a branch, but he couldn't get a grip.
With a loud thud, Leo's body hit the ground. A heartbeat later, the lizard crashed down beside him.
He didn't even register the pain. His spine snapped on impact, and everything went dark. While unconscious, his immortality continued working, stitching his bones together.
_______
The first thing Leo felt was pain. He instinctively tried to move, but his limbs felt like lead. Every attempt sent a fresh surge of agony throughout his entire body.
Leo grimaced and stopped trying to move.
'Fuck, I can't move my legs—or arms.'
He was barely conscious from the pain. With some effort, he lifted his head slightly to look down at his legs. That small movement made him black out for a second. The only reason he was even conscious was because of the experience of having his body broken and remade when he first arrived here.
He stole a quick look at his lower body, then let his head drop back onto the ground, trying to steady his breathing.
His legs—if he could even call them that—were a mangled flesh, with shattered bones poking through. He could feel them stitching themselves back together, but the process was agonizingly slow and would take a while for them to heal, so for now, he couldn't do anything.
He didn't need to look at his arms to know they were in a similar condition.
'Fuck, am I going to live like this?'
Leo thought, frustrated.
He knew he couldn't die by normal means. Unless every part of him was completely erased, he would still regenerate, however long it took—and that was a problem. Imagine if the animal that feasted on him realized its food always returned. He would have to go on being eaten until his adaptability caught up and his immortality upgraded, if he was even still alive by then.
'I'm really fucked,' Leo thought with a slight chuckle.
The sky above him was a blur of shifting leaves and dull light. As he stared up, he felt a presence approaching.
He couldn't turn his head, so he focused on the bit of sky he could see. A shadow slid over him. He shifted his eyes as far as they would go toward the source.
It was a wolf. One that was larger than any he had seen trailing him. It had a scar over its right eye and black fur that seemed to suck up all the light around it. Its golden irises were staring straight at him.
Leo didn't feel anything at this point; he had already made his peace with the fact that he was going to die or suffer.
The wolf and Leo stared at each other for a while. The wolf shifted slightly, its muscles tensing, making Leo flinch unconsciously. It gave Leo one last glance, then turned and walked away while letting out a snort.
'What is even happening? Did I just get rejected by a wolf?'Leo thought the corner of his mouth twitching.
'Maybe they aren't hungry? Yeah, that has to be it. I'm too handsome to be disgusting.'
He didn't know why he wasn't wolf buffet by now, considering he had been unconscious for a while.
'But all jokes aside, they've been hunting me for almost three days now, and now that they've caught me, they aren't doing anything? That's not sus at all.' As he thought about it, he couldn't help but furrow his brow.
'Wait.... now that I think about it, were they even hunting me?' he thought, trying to remember all their interactions, 'Yeah, they followed me, but they didn't seem aggressive at all. And if it was prey they were looking for, they should have given up on me a long time ago.'
The more he thought about it, the more certain he became that they hadn't been hunting him, just following him.
'But why would they follow me?' Leo frowned inwardly. 'I just arrived less than a week ago, so I really don't have anything on me.'
~sigh~
"Whatever, if they aren't attacking me, then that's great," Leo muttered to himself, his voice sounding defeated.
He couldn't be bothered to make up wild conspiracies about the reasons; he knew he wasn't smart enough for that. Also, he didn't have any useful information about this world to draw any real conclusions, so he just decided to go with it, consequences be damned.
[System notification]
[Acquired skill; Pain resistance(level 1)]
The sudden system pop-up made Leo flinch slightly. But then a cold sensation washed over his entire body as he felt his pain subsiding. The sensation was oddly comforting.
'That honestly felt great, but damn that pop-up scared me a bit.'Leo thought a bit annoyed while muttering something about never liking surprise parties.
'Let's see what this skill is all about.'
[Pain resistance(level 1): Increases pain tolerance]
'Isn't the description a little too short,' Leo thought, his mouth twitching, 'but I guess the skill is self-explanatory.'
'If I level it up enough I wouldn't need to worry about the pain during regeneration. And if I burn my hands off in lava or something, I should be able to get fire resistance and also level up pain resistance at the same time, and if I drown, haa, the possibilities are endless.'He was getting a bit excited.
' Wait, am I becoming a masochist?'The thought sprouted out of nowhere, but it stuck. 'Nah, I'm probably overthinking it. This is what any normal person would do in my situation.' The fervent smile on his face, however, suggested otherwise. Is it power he is seeking or just his twisted pleasure? Who knows.
Just as he was lost in thought, he felt some weight on his chest.
Turning his gaze downwards, he saw two wolf cubs on his chest. If he were in his normal state, Leo wouldn't mind much since he always liked wolves in his past life, but now he felt his already broken ribs being strained even more.
'These things are freaking heavy.'Leo thought, groaning.
"Come on, little guys, can you get off for a bit?"Leo said sweetly, looking at the two cubs.
'That felt cringe, my mouth felt sour saying something like that.'Leo thought inwardly, but maintained a sweet smile.
The pups, however, didn't seem to care and started rolling and playing on him.
Feeling frustrated, Leo tried shaking them off, but it made things worse as the pups brought out their claws and stuck themselves onto his skin.
'Fuck. Since when did wolves have retractable claws? Leo thought, wincing slightly.
"That's it, you little bastards, get off me, "Leo shouted angrily, startling the pups.
That, it seemed, wasn't the best idea. One of the pups, apparently too agitated, peed on him, with some of it entering his mouth. The other one, on the other hand, let it all out on top of his chest.
Leo was lost for words. His brain short-circuited, and his eyes went hollow.
He couldn't process what just happened; the events happened too fast.
When it finally clicked. He tried to move to get the pups off his chest, but his hands were nowhere near healed. He could only watch in horror as the pups finished their business on him.
After the pups were done, they didn't stay for another minute, as if disgusted by the smell of their own shit.
As for Leo, he didn't even notice when they left. He just stared up at the sky, wondering what he'd done to deserve this.
He stayed like this for hours until a system window popped up.
[System notification]
[+3 Endurance]
[+2 Strength]
[+2 Agility]
Leo just looked at it for a while, his eyes still hollow.
'Status'
[Name: Leo Redwood]
[Age:25]
[Strength:18]
[Agility:18]
[Intelligence:15]
[Endurance:21]
(Average human 10)
SKILLS:
[Immortality(Tier 1): You can't die from natural causes like death from old age or diseases, and all wounds heal over time, but only if a piece of you remains; if not, then death awaits you. ]
[Adaptability(Tier 1): You adapt to any condition as long as you are alive]
[Pain resistance(level 1): Increases pain tolerance]
The status window seemed to bring a ray of light to his otherwise hollow eyes.
'What am I sulking about? I've been through worse.' Although he tried to convince himself that the smell was still fresh on his nostrils.
'Ha, whatever, nobody will ever find out about this, so there's nothing to worry about.'
After a pep talk, Leo finally stood up. His limbs had healed enough to allow movement, but he was weak. The regeneration had taken a lot of energy, burning through his already strained body reserves.
As he looked around, he saw that he was surrounded by multiple wolves who were either sleeping or just sitting. It was as if his presence didn't bother him at all.
The most surprising thing, however, was the body of the lizard he had killed. Leo had thought it had already been eaten by the wolves, but as he looked at the carcass that was still untouched, he was reminded again that he was in a different world.