The higher you go, the greater the wound you would get when you fall. The more you hoped, the more you would be disappointed.
"It's not working, Rokky," said Daniel as he slumped to the ground.
'Rokky', that was a way Daniel always used when addressing me. My name is Rayn Morky, so he mixed the two words together and created a new name for me. At first, I am a bit irritated by his way of addressing me, but I have grown accustomed to his eccentric behavior, so I just let it be and accept the reality.
"At least we found our status," I said, I didn't want to think that our efforts from the previous 1 hour were to no avail.
From our previous experiments, I found that when we said or thought of 'status' strongly, a panel filled with our information would show up before us. This status is individual and could only be seen by the one who owns it, so we couldn't see each other's status.
What can I say, it's just... classic.
Dina certainly would agree with me in this.
[Status]
•Name: Rayn Morky.
•Race: Zombie.
•Level: 1/10
•Sex: Male.
•Vitality: 30
•Flexibility: 3
•Might: 12
•Magic: 0
•Intelligence: 15
•Sense: 8
[Active skill]
-Claw (1/5).
-Bite (1/5.
[Passive skill]
-Regeneration (1/10).
[Title]
-Otherworlder.
Daniel's status and mine were quite similar. The only thing that looks good enough in us is Regeneration, which seemingly can regenerate our wounds we might happen to sustain after we engage in any combat or dangerous activities in the future.
Looking at ourselves, we could immediately know that this world has magical creatures that bring both wonder and danger with them. So, we couldn't have but should be ready for any battle to come to us from now on.
"No cheat... So what now?" Daniel asked.
"Well, what about going back to look for food?" I said, reminding him of our original plan.
Daniel sighed, but he still stood up.
Alright, let's get something to eat!
Though the fact that we didn't have any cheat ability was a rather disappointing fact, the hunger gnawing our thin stomachs didn't give us time to even feel gloomy and lament the reality. We moved on, stepping further into the forest.
Daniel tripped on a bark. He fell with his face first.
"Ugh... This body is just so stiff!" He wails.
I could only laugh awkwardly in response.
Indeed, these new zombie bodies of ours were just too stiff. Every time we move, a cracking sound of bones always follows. It was as if our bones cracked with every move we made. No pain, but still disturbing, to be honest.
Time passed quickly as we busied ourselves looking for food.
The moon is hanging above our heads, slowly moving toward the west.
After another hour, we finally found a tree with fruits that looked delicious and juicy.
The fruit looks like a mix of apple in color and size, with the texture of a watery rose apple. So watery when we bite it, as expected.
Strange enough, we couldn't taste it. Whether it is because of our zombie bodies or another reason, we aren't sure. At least we could somewhat satisfy our grumbling stomachs with this.
"Next is to level up," Daniel said, his lifeless eyes filled with fighting spirit.
"Yeah!" I agreed with him.
While we didn't know much about isekai stories, we do know about games. Since leveling up was important in most games, and we also didn't want to let our bodies remain stiff and hard to move, we thought leveling up would help. We didn't have anything else to do, anyway.
Of course, we had our own worries after being suddenly transferred into this world as zombies.
My mother and father must've been worried and sad after they found out about my disappearance. Daniel's father and mother, and the girls' parents as well, are also the same.
However, for now, we focused ourselves to improve our bodies first. Maybe one day, after we get stronger, after we know more about this world, we will find a way to return to our home world.
Hopefully.
The most concerning fact that worried me and Daniel at the moment is the fact that we had been separated from the girls after we were transferred into this world. We didn't know whether something bad had happened to them or not.
Hopefully, again, they are doing just fine.
...
Except for the moon, we didn't have any other way to determine our position and which way we're currently tracking. By random judgment, we aimed toward the east, hoping to find something.
And after 10 minutes of walking, we indeed found something.
A prey.
An animal, or monster. We aren't sure, but it looks kinda similar to a bunny. A very big bunny, more precisely.
Its body is tall, over 100 cm. And it looks muscular and powered up. It had almost no traits of our family-friendly little cute bunnies from Earth if it didn't have the same fluffy fur.
"It looks so powerful. Could we handle it?" Daniel whispered to me, hesitated.
"I bet it is as strong as a Pitbull... Let's just pass it," I said.
Daniel agreed with me and we began sneaking around the muscular bunny, moving as stealthily as we could. We make sure that we move so little at one time so that our bones do not break and make the bunny notice our presence.
It was so fortunate that we chose not to engage that bunny in a battle. I was proven to have a quirk in this matter by a wolf that showed up and attacked the muscular bunny not long after we began sneaking around the bunny and avoiding it.
The muscular bunny, who had been still until now, suddenly moved after the wolf lunged toward it. It launched a kick attack straight to the wolf's abdomen, pushing it 10 meters backward until the wolf stopped after its body crashed into a tree, which killed it instantly.
The wolf's friends, who are about to lunge toward the bunny as well after it, halt their steps and turn around. They are running away from the bunny, their tails between their legs.
What the hell is that kick!?
We looked at each other, our faces became paler than ever.
We nodded, silently reached an agreement to quickly sneak away from this crazily strong bunny.
Damn, who said that bunny is cute? They're monsters! At least in this world...
We continue to walk through the forest, this time more stealthily and carefully. We didn't want to encounter any strong monster like that bunny anymore. That's just straight off terrifying, man.
After 30 minutes of walking.
We finally found our ideal target.
Small frame, thin limbs, and a weak, trembling body that was starved for days.
We found a dying monkey.
We surrounded it from two sides, cornered it. It resisted, but its weak limbs pose little to no threat to us. We swung our claws, slowly filling its body with wounds. Finally, we killed it. Purely by luck, it was I who landed the last hit.
[You have successfully killed a Rank 1 monster: Macrum Monkey. +1 EXP.]
[You have leveled up! +10 Vitality, +1 Flexibility, +3 Might, +3 Intelligence, +2 Sense.]
[You would need 2 EXP for the next level up.]