Even after dying the elk gave him much trouble to move it across from the woods towards the clearing at the creek.
He had hunted the massive beasts, somehow, but he forgot to take into account its size and weight.
Placing the elk at the creek he started skinning the elk. Started 'trying' to skin the elk.
Even up close and with a knife in hand the hide was extremely hard to cut open. The moment he tried to cut it, he knew he couldn't salvage the pelt even from this stage.
He employed all his power and cut open the elk at an awkward angle flaying blood upon himself and the surrounding painting himself red.
'F**k'
Leaving it aside, Noctis immediately moved to wash his face at the creek.
He splashed water in his face repeatedly, gargling his mouth to get rid of it.
After drying it from the little unaffected part he looked towards himself; the elk; and the surroundings.
He questioned the circumstances that led up to this.
'I'm so fu**ed right now'
He debated for a moment to leave the thing alone and move to hunt something easier maybe.
'haah'
He heaved a big sigh before taking up his knife and going back to the elk.
***
Noctis laid on his bed, dead tired from the labour he went through today.
He didn't regret anything but his body ached everywhere from his shoulder that felt like he dislocated it trying to cut the beats to his legs that gave out multiple times trying to transport just the meat of the beast to his house.
He was certain he had torn quite a few muscles and ligaments which he knew would take ages to heal properly before getting back to his A game.
The massive elk gave him enough meat for a good few days, even weeks if he used sparingly but he had no idea how long it would take his body to recover without any medications.
He just laid there trying not to think of depressive stuff and rather focus on the gains, but it was still quite overwhelming.
He needed much more power if he wanted to go deeper in the forest. He also had to rethink his strategy as it looked like the arrows were going to hit a ceiling very quickly.
'Aah. Let's just think about it later'
Right now his body screamed at him to just rest. Eventually he fell asleep.
***
Noctis was sleeping peacefully on his bed with a serene expression when suddenly, his body started twitching all of a sudden.
His muscles tightened to an extreme and his veins became so pronounced it looked like they were trying to escape his body. Even his bones seemed like they were trying to move across his body.
The shoulder popped upwards before depressing deep down in his body. Other bones also showed similar weird movement that made him look a horrific shapeshifter.
Even through all this his expression remained ever peaceful.
His body eventually started oozing oils and blood too. His clothes yet again looked like he had fallen into a pool of blood.
On his forehead, the region between both his eyes started emitting a faint blue light.
Noctis opened his eyes again in an ethereal space. A large infinite expanse of space that was filled with a strange creamy white smoke or clouds that kept expanding throughout the void.
Rather than waking up he was in an intoxicating state and just floated there as the pure white ethereal space started transforming into a forest just as incorporeal.
The trees of milky white color with a flowy texture as the canopy felt like clouds moving from one tree to another.
The sky was void filled with thousands and millions of stars twinkling at him.
Noctis took it all in the same intoxicating state. He was conscious of himself but was unable to think beyond anything here.
He moved on and on in the expanse himself feeling like he had turned into a cloud that had no thoughts and was just moving through space and time to wherever the natural laws took it.
Finally after what felt like eternity he started floating down and landed on the now semi-solid forest floor.
Eventually his reason came back and he finally realised his situation.
'What's this now?'
Was he back at the space where the creepy hand gave him the choice? Was he going to get his task now?
Noctis started moving around the space looking at the ephemeral surroundings.
The whole space had this pleasant nourishing feel to it like he was embraced in a secure hug. The whole space felt like warmth itself.
Looking at the forest, the rocks and the various elements of the space, it was all made up of this flowy milky white that resembled clouds, fur and silk at the same time.
He moved through the space just as he did in a real forest. It was a large large space as he noticed while floating away but it didn't bore him or angst him.
Moving through it felt like daydreaming. He just wanted to bask in it for eternity.
Eventually he stopped, however, at what looked the only thing a little different in the state. It was a sapling.
A small, green plant with two leaves and a small stem peeking out of the solid looking ground around the flowing ethereal ground.
As Noctis looked at this sapling, he felt as if he was looking at something really really important to him. It very much felt like the source of the warmth that he felt all around himself.
Noctis stood there, or floated, and kept staring at the sapling. After some time, he felt as if he should wake up.
He didn't understand this feeling. He was certainly awake right now. So what gives?
But he felt the tugging at his heart, and although reluctant to part with this mysterious yet familiar thing, eventually gave in.
He woke up again, this time in his now familiar house. He stood still for a moment thinking about the strange dream, if it even was that and the feeling it gave.
As he was thinking he realised he had a similar tugging at his heart that told him to go back to that place like when he was in it that said to wake up.
When he stopped thinking about the place, the feeling stopped. It was really mysterious.
Trying to divert his mind he tried to stand up and go outside.
The moment he stood up he felt the change in his body. The body that his clothes were strangely sticking to as if he had just taken a dip in a water tub, was certainly different from the last night.
Converse to what he felt when he had first woken up in this world, his body this time had grown stronger.
He also noticed that his wounds had entirely been done away through the course of the night.
He clenched his fist and realised the massive leap in his power just from it. He thought back to the ethereal state.
He noticed that his clothes were all dirty too. Thinking back to the incident the previous day, he realised something about him had changed.
He felt as if something had awakened within himself.