Sighing, Vain continued thinking to himself but couldn't come up with any other ideas. After all, he just came to this world ten minutes ago at most, therefore he had no knowledge of how anything in this strange world worked. Having nothing better to do now, Vain began to look back through the hole in the basket and immediately regretted it, this is because his worst fear became true, a creature was following the damn rabbits' blood trail right to him and was only about four meters away at this point. The creature looked like a big Grey dog with a sharp pointy nose, triangular eyes, and small circular ears. If it wasn't the case that he had almost just suffocated to death he would've tried holding his breath for as long as possible. Fortunately, the creature seemed weary of something and was approaching at a rather slow pace. This wasn't great news for Vain, but it was better than him getting pounced upon without noticing and dying unwillingly. Taking what little time he had left until the creature was directly over top of him, Vain began to rapidly think of something he could do, but what could he do? He didn't know at all. From four meters to three, from three meters to two, to one, and suddenly the creatures' shadow started rising over the edge of the basket. Being Completely frozen in fear and covered from head to toe in a puddle of cold sweat, Vain's fight or flight was running to the max and all of his metaphorical cylinders were about to explode. However, at this life or death moment, Vain suddenly had a flash of inspiration and over the sound of his own heartbeat, he heard himself thinking, "Camouflage, Camouflage, Camouflage, how the hell do I use that Camouflage!?" The creature abruptly appeared over the basket, scaring Vain to death. Fortunately, the dead rabbit seemed to have completely enthralled the creature, thus Vain felt a little at ease. Unfortunately, this only lasted a fleeting moment, Vain suddenly felt exhausted and dizzy. The creature, surprised at this moment, jumped back in shock but quickly relaxed, realizing it was only a small human baby. The odd looking creature continued on it's mission, not paying any attention to Vain, grabbed the dead rabbit with its maw and dropped it on the outside of the basket without batting another eye. Then, it's head came back up over the basket and headed straight for Vain. Vain not daring to let his new life go to waste, did what little he could and started screaming as loud as he could. The creature not caring, kept its head moving towards Vain without a disruption in its movement.
*Screeee*
All of a sudden, the odd creature let out a deafening scream and quickly disappeared from Vain's sight. After which, he heard a low thump against the ground and through the basket hole, he saw the creatures' body laying there motionlessly. But that's not all. Behind him out of sight, he heard a person's voice say "Oh not bad, this suckers got quite a nice pelt on him, should be able to sell for a few bronze, Ain't that right little fella?"
Vain stopped screaming after hearing these words, he was shocked, he did not expect to be saved at this moment. Quickly, Vain tried to turn his small body and see the man that saved him but soon he was already airborne, "Poor little guy, *Sighs* I don't even want to think about all those small bones I've found in these woods, lucky for you, Uncle Ale arrived just in time." The man said with the slight smile. "Well, let's head home and give you a bath little guy, you definitely shit yourself just now and with how bad you smell, I won't be able to hunt these woods anymore." Laughing to himself, the man who called himself Uncle Ale picked up Vain's entire basket with care and then turned to pick up the carcass of the rabbit and the strange creature. Vain was very embarrassed because he didn't even notice that he pooped himself, but indeed it did seem that way. Although Vain was super embarrassed and very grateful to the man that had just saved him, he really didn't want to miss this opportunity. Vain didn't know how or why the powers of this world worked but he did know that he absorbed the blood of the Mutated White Rabbit. Knowing this,Vain wanted to try and absorb the blood of the strange creature that had almost just killed him. After all, he pledged to himself after almost dying a second and third time, that he would no longer allow himself to die again. It was simply too terrifying. Who knows if he would be reincarnated again? Who knows if there is an afterlife? It was all too terrifying to even think about let alone experience it. Because of these thoughts, Vain swore that he would become so strong that nothing could stop him from living his life, and he felt that in this world, with powers and strange creatures, that he could accomplish this feat. Therefore, he really, really wanted to try and see if he could absorb the blood of the creature that had almost killed him. Throwing out what little face Vain had left, he started squirming and trying his best to point at the odd dead creature hanging over the man's shoulder. The man didn't notice at first so he just kept along with his business, walking through the woods at a steady pace. Seeing this, Vain was a little aggrieved but wasn't willing to give up. He started letting out a few small cries and this time, the man quickly noticed him. The man called Uncle Ale said, "Little fella can't you wait for us to get home? I'll make you some clothes and get you washed up." Vain was unsatisfied and continued to try his best to get the hunters attention. Uncle Ale wasn't a stupid person. Therefore, after a few squeals and squabbles from Vain, he quickly noticed that Vain was constantly pointing at the Round Ear Wolf that was on his shoulder. Seeing this, Uncle Ale said, "Oh! No worries little guy, this baddie is already dead, look." After saying this, Uncle Ale set down the basket, pulled the Round Ear Wolf off of his shoulder and set it on the ground, then he picked up Vain out of the basket and brought him closer to the Round Ear Wolf's corpse. Uncle Ale had the mind to raise Vain, so he wanted to start to get Vain use to how the world works. Uncle Ale knew this was cruel but after all, it was a very cruel world. Noticing Uncle Ale's actions, Vain quickly became excited and a smile krept up his face. Seeing this, Uncle Ale was dumbfounded. He thought the baby's reaction was out of fear and wanted the baby to quickly become numb to this kind of thing. However, out of his wildest expectations, the baby boy actually wanted to get closer to it? "Um... little fella aren't you supposed to be afraid of this thing? Rawr look its gonna get you." Uncle Ale brought the Round Ear Wolf's corpse directly in front of Vain shaking it and making all kinds of weird noises to see his reaction. Unperturbed, Vain reached out his small baby hands and touched the trickle of blood coming out of the Round Ear Wolf's nose. Then, the same magical thing as before happened. All of the blood in the Round Ear Wolf's body started slowly moving its way to the tips of Vain's little fingers. He was ecstatic, this is exactly what he was hoping for. Uncle Ale's face changed drastically, but it went back to normal in an instant. He just thought to himself that this was the power the baby was born with and said,"Wow little guy, looks like you're gonna be pretty good at helping me dry the meat." Although Uncle Ale said this, Vain couldn't hear a word. He was too focused on listening to that strange yet pleasant voice play out in his mind. Rank Five Ordinary Round Ear Wolf blood absorbed, Rank increased to Ordinary Rank three from Ordinary Rank two. Vain was overjoyed but also confused. "Didn't the message before mention a few other things besides my rank increasing? What was it again? Damn. Too much has happened and I just can't remember." Vain put these thoughts aside as Uncle Ale put him back into the basket and began back on his way.
Some time passed. Vain wasn't sure how much time passed because his poor little body was exhausted to the bone after his experiences, but he soon woke up when Uncle Ale lifted him out of the basket. In front of Vain, sat a cozy and rustic little log cabin. It was still in the middle of the woods, but at least a few square acres around the cabin were all cleared out. About half an acre away from the cabin was a decent sized river that seemed to stretch to both ends of the woods, Vain could not see the beginning nor the end of it. "We're here little fella, this'll be your new home. Hopefully you'll like it here... actually I'm not really allowed to go anywhere else, so even if you don't like it you'd be stuck here with me haha." Uncle Ale said. "Oh no!" Vain thought. "Did I get adopted by a lunatic? If I Think about it... why would anyone live alone? Especially with all of these creatures running rampant? Ehh he can't be that bad, he saved my life after all. I guess we'll see." Vain wasn't too worried about Uncle Ale. After all, would a psychopath save a baby boy that was abandoned in the woods? Maybe. But not likely. Not paying too much attention to Vain's reaction, Uncle Ale arrived at the backside of the cabin where there was a small wooden shed in pretty good condition. Uncle Ale opened the shed door and continued to set down the corpses of the White Rabbit and the Round Ear Wolf. Then, he walked out of the shed, picked Vain's basket back up, and returned to the cabin. The inside of the cabin was very cozy but quite tightly packed. Surprisingly, there were books everywhere and they were all neatly placed on shelves and book benches. It looked more like a library instead of a home. This surprised Vain, but ultimately he didn't care. What worried him the most was what was going to happen next, the bath. Vain was a fully grown man at the age of twenty. Before he was reincarnated. He did not want another man to see him naked, even more so to wash him from head to toe.