The sun was setting and it was the perfect time for a hunt thanks to the shadow cat's night vision. 'Let's see, there has to be something around that i can hunt'. He started looking around for prey and after some time he finally managed to find a rat. 'I hate rats but that's the only thing i managed to find that i could hunt after all this time looking around, it may be disgusting but it is my only option for now i suppose.'
Leo began to stalk the rat. The rat was busy gnawing at a piece of wood and didn't notice Leo that was inching closer with slow, deliberate movements. Thanks to the cat's stealth abilities he was able to get fairly close without making any sound that would give him away. 'This is it, let's do this'. He prepared and with a leap he pounced onto the rat catching it off guard and managing to get a good hold of it.
The rat tried to throw Leo off it's back but to no avail, he was gripping on to it's back tightly with his claws, 'I'm sorry little one but it's called survival of the fittest for a reason' Leo then bit into it's throat. The rat let out a high pitched sound and started squirming around frantically.
'Just die already, don't make it harder for me than it already is'
Leo didn't let go and slowly put more force to his bite until the rat finally stopped moving.
'I did it, I managed to kill the rat'
This achievement had a bittersweet taste to Leo who had never killed anything other than bugs before, but he was happy nonetheless, it was a big step forward.
'Let's see what i got from this'
Leo then checked his status window. He had lost 5HP thanks to the rat's squirming around. The next and most important change he noticed was the exp, he had earned about 1/10 of the exp required to level up.
'So little, i expected at least a a bit more exp. Oh well, it is what it is i guess'
It may not be much but it was a start. He was gaining experience!
'Now what shall i do with this, should i just leave it here, i'm not gonna eat it that's for sure, that would be disgusting. But then again i can't just let it go to waste'
Leo was in a dilema on what to do, then a thought flashed in his mind.
'I didn't think of it before but i'm possessing a living body, just because i don't need to eat doesn't mean the body i'm possessing doesn't either, i'll have to eat something eventually whether i want to or not'
Then, he remembered 'That's right, i have my item box, i haven't tested it out yet as well, this is a good chance'
So he took the dead rat's body and stored it in his item box.
'Nice, it's in. It's not very big, i could prolly fit about 20 of these rats only, but i suppose it's fine since it'll definitely get bigger after i upgrade it'
The Item Box was truly a versatile tool. He could store anything, weightless and timeless. This meant he could gather resources, or even store potential future meals. It would definitely prove useful to him in the future.
'This is a great skill, i'll make sure to upgrade it as quickly as possible, but to do that i need to level up first. Let's do this then, it's time to level up'
With the rat safely stored and with a renewed sense of determination to level up Leo continued his journey through the jungle looking for more creatures to kill. He looked around for a while but without any luck, the only things he could find were bugs like beetles and crickets.
'What the hell, where are all the animals. I will never level up if i don't find anything to kill'
Leo was feeling frustrated by this and was growing more desperate because he couldn't find anything.
'What if i killed a bug?'
With that thought he approached a bug and bit into it tearing a chunk of it.
'Yack, that was disgusting, reminder to never bite into another one of these ever again, next time i'll just use my claws instead. But enough of that, what did i gain from this beetle'
Leo excitedly opened his status only to be instantly disappointed by the feeble amount of exp he gained from killing that beetle
'What the, that's way too little. I'd have to kill more than a thousand beetles just to level up once, but i guess it is just a mere bug in the end of the day, how much did i expect to gain from a bug. You know what, i don't care, i'll kill as many as it takes to level up even if it takes me days or even weeks to do so and it's not like i'll never encounter another rat again'
With this renewed determination Leo went on a hunt massacring every bug he came across and occasionally a rodent if he was lucky.
3 hours passed by in an instant with him hunting relentlessly and he suddenly started feeling like his body was getting heavier and heavier every minute.
'What is this feeling, this is the first time i've felt this way since getting reincarnated to this place. That's right, how could i forget the sense of hunger, i haven't eaten all this time i've possessed this body. What should i eat, the only thing i have is three dead rat bodies in my item box, but they're disgusting. I refuse to eat them, i'll look for a bit more to try and find something to eat and then if i can't find anything we'll see'
Leo looked around for half an hour but couldn't find anything better to eat and hunger finally took over.
'Agh, i can't take this any longer, i have to eat'
Leo pulled out a rat's body from his item box, he stared at it hesitantly for a solid minute. He then slowly approached his mouth to the dead rat body.
'Fuck'
He took a bite and chewed on it
'Mmm? It's not as bad as i imagined, it's not good by any means, it's awful, but it's surprisingly not as disgusting as i thought'
He slowly ate the whole rat leaving only the bones behind.
'God that was awful, but at least i'm not hungry anymore'
With his stomach full now he now had the energy to keep going about his level up
'Ok, this is done, now back to business'
With that he went back to running around hunting for exp.