Chapter 2: Month 1 Week 1 Hamlet Days Part 1 Food Stuff to Gather
Leroy made sure not to go out too far. The Hamlet had no real protection besides a few people that knew how to hunt and were part of some Organizations or Guilds formerly. It was hard to get exact answers from the warry people of the newcomer.
Leroy honestly felt like he was in one of those Homeless Housing Projects again. Those were very bad memories but at least here people stood out of your stuff.
Not like he had any. Not hunting squads nor crazy cousins came to look for him yet. So that was a plus in itself.
With having no weapons himself and not wanting to risk using Earth Boxing or a few outdated Judo moves to fight against a Demon Beast or worse, he looked for some sticks and rocks to make makeshift weapons.
A few sticks were cut into sharp stakes and a few rocks were sharpened along the edges to draw blood. No real string or anything to that effect to tie to make spears or thick enough sticks to jam the rock tip into one end. He also couldn't really rip up his clothing more than he already had at this point.
"Haa... gonna have to do it." After not finding or hearing anything for over an hour to hunt, Leroy found an ant pile. It was quite large compared to back home but the ants were still killable. "They are half the size of rats... Man, this can either go really good or really bad."
A tree was close by so he climbed up with a few stones attached to his back. With a toss, he hit the Ant pile dead on. Crushing a few ants in the process while waiting for them to flow out like they usually do when attacked.
'It's a good thing they follow the pattern like back home!' A few 100 ants actually poured out and by numbers of a pure surge, pushed the stone off the mound. The very moment was odd as they turned and tried to move towards the tree, Leroy threw a few more stones that way. "Hup!"
With a splat, the ants were crushed. But they did not stop pursuit just yet. Having traveled a few feet to cover the distance in no time.
A few more poured out and moved toward the threat that the first group was able to detect. Leroy let loose a row of stones to make the ants have to crawl over or go around as he thought of how different they acted.
What happened to have scent trails and shit to attack and move around the first feet around the Ant mound. It's already been at least 70 feet! Maybe they are the reason not a single animal or other bug type was around the area.
*Fwip!* He threw the sharpened sticks wildly into the ants before getting up and moving to an extended limb. With a leap, he made it onto another branch and swung to another.
"Tch!" The speed he went at to leap across caused the skin on top of his hands to peel. Not to count the number of splinters he just got in one go. "Made it!" Turning, he could see the ants tilting their heads to the sky looking in different directions.
A few leaves fluttered from behind through the forest. If Leroy could sense Qi this would have been a little easier to deal with. But at least his blood boiled to alert that something was happening.
Of course, a breeze passed carrying his scent through the area. The ants in small groups turned in his direction.
Leroy did not stand idle during this. He was hacking away at branches that were almost broken off. Knocked towards the crawling critters down below, more and more ants died.
The worse problem was that he didn't see any other type of wildlife during all this. It would have sucked to get taken out by a snake or a wild boar when trying to get some food for himself.
After an hour of crushing ants, he finally had a reprieve. The ants, having come across a stronger predator actually moved back underground.
Leroy immediately dashed over and started bagging as many as he could. Soon his makeshift bag got heavy and he couldn't load anymore up.
"I don't want to waste any of them..." Looking around at the trees, he found a few bird's nests not too far away. Of course, he ended up in an area he hadn't searched yet.".. ok.. just have to remember the method to approach wild birds.."
Scooping a bunch of ants onto a stick, he waved it in front of a nest. Slowly a few birds popped their heads out. As if to warn him off they let out a slight trilling sound. All over a few more birds popped up.
"Easy there..." Gesturing at the birds while giving an easy impression he then pointed to the ant hill before backing away. The birds of course did not trust the human and waited until he was far away. "..well those beaks look sharp as hell."
Leroy slowly backed out of the area not wanting to risk his life again. If overgrown fire ants gave him trouble then a flock of birds would cause absolute mayhem to him. Not to mention he still need to get rid of the splinters before they caused an infection.
A few of the birds swooped down and picked away at the ant remnants. It didn't take long however before the constant thumping from the talons hitting the exposed mound that the ants started coming out again.
This time bigger ones were in front. They even had a type of crowning on their heads that looked hard to pierce. As Leroy still backed away to safety more birds came down and more ants came up.
"This is crazy! I have seen a bunch of ants kill a bird by swarming before but this is nothing like that! This looks like a territory war!" He backed up even further to view it better and to be safe. "So many ants are coming out and a lot of birds are still coming in! I know Antmounds is pretty far underground and all but this... would have to be.."
*Snap!* Behind Leroy, unheard by him a large beast came up while on a stroll. It was a Black Tiger that was native to the area. It looked at him before opening its mouth.
"Grrr!" It was not an aggressive growl as far as Leroy could tell for some reason but it was a big one. The tiger had almost no teeth in its mouth. "Prrr!" It nudged the stunned Champion as a cat would do.
"Hi.. there..." Leroy gave the tiger a gentle pat. Not like he could beat considering his current state. Tigers on Earth weigh around 500-600 pounds, this one despite being old looked to be about the same. "..mighty big paws you have there."
Seeing as the Tiger was not letting him go anywhere and was quite intent in nestling against him, for the pats on it seemed but kept licking where he cut himself earlier.
"I need to eat really badly.." Reaching for the bag with the ant remains, Leroy only lamented he couldn't roast them first. If not for the Survival Class he took this would not have been his go-to choice. In fact, he couldn't help but look around once more for any type of fruits or vegetables growing. ".. the larvae roasted would have been better. With the size of these ants, I need to be careful not to eat too much and get venom in me. Small doses nothing should happen if I am not allergic anyway."
He really hope allergies wouldn't trigger in this body against what he was allergic to. Considering the lack of allergy testing in a time period like this it would be really bad to go into shock.
As Leroy crunched away on the ant remains, the Tiger looked at him helplessly. It could not hunt as well as it used to but it was not at that point it needed to eat bugs.
Growling stomach be damned most days.
After eating a quarter of the ants in his bag with great difficulty, Leroy had to stop as the telltale signs of poisoning made itself known. The rate at which it appeared was a lot faster than normal.
He had drowsiness, dizziness, high temperature, chills (shivering), and a headache. But inside the ants were traces of Qi. Besides his bodying going for it like a natural tonic due to his exercises and then fighting the ants, he was able to take it in without much discomfort.
"Ugh!" Taking a knee, Leroy was watched over by the tiger. Thankfully it the papillae on it's tongue was flat and not peeling his flesh off. One good thing it was capable of doing compared to the tiger back home. "This sludge.. stinks!"
He didn't forget to start removing the splinters from his hands. A mental note that he needed gloves was made on the very long list.
As the Qi entered and became rampant inside him once he was back to snuff the additional started to push through his muscles and stomach lining. The pain was manageable as he gritted down and flushed out the filth.
The Tiger licked away at the sludge and even ripped some of Leroy's clothes off to get to it. Small new teeth started to appear after it huffed at small wisps of flame that left the sludge. In response, the old tiger sent some refined Qi to enter the Champion as if beckoned by him.
'Hmm?' The Old Tiger's eyes shined in interest as Leroy was turning into something to pay attention to. At first, it came due to the smell of the Corpse Pit that lingered on him with sweat mixed in, now it actually benefits from his body. 'If only I could communicate with him, this would be easier to find out information before leaving.'
The sun started to rise in the sky and the various birds had finished eating a large swath of the ant mound. From their pickings, the ant mound was no more topside and was dug out a good bit.
Leroy had snuck over once the coast was clear and grabbed a bunch of the dead birds. The old tiger followed and grabbed a mouth full but didn't eat yet. There were still ants mixed in with the birds after all.
"Need to get back first!" Moving away briskly, Leroy felt the talons of a few of the birds would be perfect for makeshift weapons. If he found a good file method maybe he can make a few medical devices, though crude they would still help in case he was injured by something. "Almost there!"
There was a reason he was moving so briskly, he had to take a crap. By the feel of it, it was most likely diarrhea from the ant venom. He really wishes he had a chance to make a good fire beforehand and or smoke out the ants before.
Slipping into the hut, Leroy dropped the animal and insect remains as he moved to the back of the hut and let loose. The old tiger squeezed into the hut and spat out what it carried to the side.
'What a small place.' Unimpressed by the living quarters of the human it followed, the old tiger started to clean a few birds to eat for itself. 'He should be fine eating some of the drool from me, especially considering how he ate bugs earlier.'
By the time Leroy finished burying his excrement in the mud hut, he was weary and wanted to sleep finally. But that would have to wait as he tended to the remains and the nagging thoughts in his head that popped up.
'It was odd before but I I know that these Fire Ants have enough venom to take down a Buffalo. And even now they only left me alone earlier because they viewed me as a threat after the losses grew too big. The ants were actually planning on coming after once the Shield Ants came from deep in the Antmound.' Not wanting to ponder this out loud, Leroy thought it over while de-feathering the birds. He even checked the screen but the only change was that he was in the Body Tempering II and the stats changed a little. 'Power and Defense went up by 1 and Health by 5, my Intellect increase has to be something to do with the knowledge of the Ants that I have now. But my Qi went up to 20, so is it gonna be 10 per Rank in Cultivation?'
If it followed the standard from Cultivation Novels, Shows, and Games then there were 9 levels to Body Tempering or possibly an infinite number if his Body was special and couldn't break through normally.
He also had to figure out if just working his body out pushed him into the higher stages of Body Tempering or if he would have to find special ways to Cultivate Organs and stuff.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
FrozenTidez
FrozenTidez Status: Leroy Agu Shentai
Health: 15 Qi: 20
Power: 2 Defense: 2
Willpower: 20 Intellect: 21
Connection: 1
Flame Vortex: Body Tempering II
Cultivation:
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone