After returning to the area of the stream and the knoll where he fought the zombie, Jason began to prepare a campfire. He collected all the dry sticks and leaves that were lying around, the climate in this place was warm and humid, so there were not too many of them. He arranged them in a small pile, and next to the fire he also put a few larger branches, which he intended to add to the fire when it was better lit.
A magic flint helped him a lot, as it turned out to be able to ignite even damp wood.
Jason, using a sharpened stone, cut off a few pieces of meat from the eren, skewered them on sticks, and then arranged them, supported by a few stumps he had brought, in such a way that they roasted at a distance from the fire. The boy gave a piece of raw meat to his pets but was surprised to see that they were not interested in eating.
"Don't you need a bite? I thought it was strange that I saw you drinking water from a stream." – Jason remarked in surprise, turning to the raven.
"Maybe you just wanted to show me that it was safe to drink?" Jason asked the raven. However, he did not stoop to answer his question.
After about two hours, fat was dripping from the meat, and the smell of roasting meat was everywhere. Jason, took one of the sticks and took a bite.
"Delicious! I wonder if I only think so, because I haven't eaten for a day, or if this meat is extremely tender" – the meat tasted like pork, but was leaner.
As soon as he filled his belly, he began to think about the next steps.
"I think I should improve my sleeping area a bit. I'd like to get a little better sleep today, besides, you never know how long I'll stay here. I have water here, and it seems like there's enough game here to hunt, even though I'd like to eat something other than meat." This amount should be enough for the next two days, he did not want to risk eating such meat after not keeping it in the fridge for a long time.
With a few points invested in strength and dexterity, Jason discovered that he was able to climb the lower branches of the trees growing in the area. Thanks to this, he could get a little better idea of where he was. His current camp was at the foot of the hill, on the opposite side of the hill from where he and Lucas had fought the Zombie. Jason didn't want to be near the monster's corpse, it certainly wouldn't make it easier for him to fall asleep. Very close to his encampment, maybe about a hundred yards awaythere was a stream, so he also had access to fresh water.
His swarm of wasps and raven helped him to accumulate many twigs of fern-like plants, and he decided to make a bed out of them, which would at least partially separate him from the hard roots.
He didn't need a canopy because the weather was warm, it wasn't raining, and even if it did, Jason was sure he wouldn't be able to get through the treetops that obscured the sky densely. During the day, you could see the sun piercing, during the night he saw the dark blue sky, the few stars that managed to penetrate the gaps between the leaves with their light.
"The next day I should go searching, something must have happened to Lucas, if it had been otherwise, he would probably have returned to this place. On the first day I will walk half a day, up the river, and on the second day I will also go down the stream for half a day. That way I should be back before dark. If I don't find any traces of civilization, I'll just follow the flow of the stream. Sooner or later I should meet someone," Jason made a plan for the next few days in his mind.
Time passed and the evening was extremely lonely, Jason was not a master of planning, so he felt helpless, he knew that he should probably be more active in looking for Lucas, but he was afraid to move away from the camp, in case his friend somehow returned here. Once again, before going to bed, he ordered his raven to guard the area, while a swarm of wasps sat on a branch near the bed to be the last line of defense against danger.
This time the night passed peacefully and without nightmares. According to the plan he had prepared the day before. He went up the river, having previously taken a piece of meat rpasted in the evening.
The stream by which he walked was basically a small river, about 15 meters wide, about one meter deep at the shore. Jason preferred not to check how deep it went further. He walked at a distance from the river, because he saw strange frogs here and there, the size of basketballs, and preferred not to check how aggressive they were. There were also occasional dragonfly-like insects that, like everything else in this world, were several times larger than their counterparts Jason knew from home.
At some point, Jason decided to try and get one more level.
"I'll find a creature that looks the weakest and I'll kill it, I'm not missing a lot of experience to level up."
His target was a dragonfly the size of a small crow. He stated that together with his summons, he would be able to kill her with ease.
"Attack," he mentally commanded his wasps, and ordered the raven to stay by his side.
The wasps surrounded the dragonfly, which was now much smaller than them, and pounced on it.
The dragonfly took flight and tried to escape, but one of the wasps grabbed its wing with its jaws. The dragonfly was determined enough to take flight, which caused the wing to remain in the jaws of the wasp.
Unfortunately, deprived of one wing, it was much slower than its opponents. The rest of the wasps quickly caught up with the dragonfly and tore her to pieces.
"You killed an enemy, Little Dragonfly, you gained 1 experience point" – He saw the system's message.
"One point? And that's it? I wonder why, probably the opponent was too weak. I won't level up quickly that way, but I have to attack something stronger."
At the time when he said these words, somewhere in the distance he heard a panicked cry for help:
"Help!! Is anyone here?!?" He heard a voice, but it didn't belong to Lucas, whom Jason was looking for. It was a voice that had to belong to a child even younger than Jason.