First issue: food and monsters.
Second issue: strength being too low to kill said monsters and obtain food, along with the shackles preventing him from being fully stealthy.
Third issue: other inhabitants.
Fourth issue: strength being too low to defend himself from said inhabitants.
This was the order Faust classified his problems at the moment. Food was the most pressing issue—he hadn't eaten for a long time, and he was already hungry. But since this place didn't seem to have trees with fruits or other vegetation, he had to kill the monsters. He had already tasted the grass, and it was indigestible. It didn't satisfy him, and it also seemed quite toxic, as it didn't take long before he vomited it back up.
So, he either had to kill the fishes in the 'deep blue river'—as he decided to call it—or kill monsters. He had no spears or harpoons, and fishing with his hands was close to impossible. He technically could try to use the ruins to create makeshift spears, but they would likely be too weak and break before he could use them.
He also had a weapon he didn't know how to use and no accessible runes at the moment, so killing monsters outside the village was also close to impossible.
That is, outside the village.
Faust, in fact, had no access to any method of using runes externally—he had no book or pages to draw them—but he could do it the way he did in the cave: engrave them on the ground and walls, attract creatures, and detonate them until they died. Maybe, if they didn't die, he could use 'obedience' on them. Having creatures by his side would undoubtedly help.
Faust was still sitting on the bed, his hair touching almost the middle of his back, his skin pale, and his dark red eyes fixed on a wall. His body had gained more muscle now, but he was still slim, and due to the bad nutrition he had endured until now, he looked younger than his actual age.
"Alright, I guess that encompasses everything. I'll start drawing the runes. The only problem is, they'll cause noise, which could attract other creatures... sigh, it's a double-edged knife. Either die of hunger or try to kill the creatures and risk attracting something that then kills me."
Faust had a pessimistic view of his current state. How could he not? He was in an unknown place, with unknown creatures and unknown inhabitants. Judging by the monsters he had seen until now, how could he be sure the inhabitants were even human? Who knew—maybe they were monsters too.
His mind went back to the beastfolk; they lived in tribes similar to human villages, but they weren't human. They were actually quite hostile toward humans, so Faust had left them alone at the time.
...He left the closed house, and using the round tip of the sword, he began drawing runes on the dark, smashed-earth ground. He wanted to get rid of the 'spikes' creatures, since it would also allow him to use the whole settlement. He had named the monsters he encountered: the mantis-like monster was named 'Slasher,' the beetle 'Armored,' the wolf with tentacles 'Fisher,' and the porcupine-like ones 'Spikes.'
That made it easier for him to remember them.
As he engraved the ground with the runes, he thought about the 'Devour'rune. "I need to find something hard enough for me to inscribe on metal… it will probably take a while, but I have to search for it soon. That rune looks too good to be left unused."
Finally, after some time, he finished engraving dozens of 'Detonation' runes on the ground. Now the next step was activating them by injecting mana, which would take a while.
Faust noticed that, no matter how much time passed, the sky and light remained unchanged. It was as if time itself was frozen.
There was no night, no dusk.
There was no morning, no noon.
The sky was clear and devoid of clouds, but even if there were any, they probably wouldn't move. The temperature was also constant—slightly cold, but nothing compared to the winters he had endured before.
After hours of injecting mana into the runes and recovering it, the runes were all powered. Some were fully powered, some were low-powered, but most were half-powered. Fully powered runes were injected to their limit, half-powered ones to about half that limit, and low-powered ones to about twenty percent of the total limit.
Now, it was time to attract the 'Spikes.'
The question was: how? He had no bait... or maybe he did. When he first hunted goblins, he used his own body as bait. As he gathered goblins, wolves, the boar, and eventually the bear, he used meat or his creatures as bait. But since he had none now, he would have to resort to the old strategy.
Faust ran over to the area where the 'Spikes' were, his shackles making a low noise as he moved. When he got closer to the small, spiky black creatures, they continued moving aimlessly, seemingly unbothered. He stood still, waiting for them to notice him. Strangely enough, they didn't seem to care.
"What... why aren't they moving towards me?" Faust was curious about this situation. "Oh... could it be that they're blind? They don't seem to have eyes, at least none I can see. Then, let me try something."
He hit his shackles against each other, producing a high-pitched sound.
The 'Spikes' turned toward him and quickly began rushing at him. But... their speed remained the same. The speed they were walking earlier was apparently their maximum speed.
They were quite slow, about one-third the speed of a goblin.
"Really? If they're this slow, I can just hit and run them until they die."
The moment he thought that, one of the creatures twitched and shot a black spike at Faust's head. His eyes glistened, and he quickly dodged to the side. He felt a warm liquid dripping down his face—he put a hand to it and realized it was blood, he was grazed by the spike.
The creature started twitching more, launching spike after spike. Faust dodged most of them but was hit twice: once grazing his leg, and another time grazing his arm.
He instantly ran back to the fallen wall area, but the creatures were right behind him. The more they shot, the faster they became. Another spike hit him, grazing his shoulder.
"Damn it!" His eyes squinted from the pain.
As he dodged the spikes, the creatures' speed was already almost on par with his own. He reached the fallen wall area, and the moment the creatures entered the zone with the runes, he started detonating them. These creatures looked stupid—they weren't even trying to dodge the explosions or leave the area, just blindly following Faust.
He rushed toward the house, slid the door open, threw himself inside, and slammed the door shut. Dozens of spikes half-crossed the door, almost reaching him. He glanced outside through the window while continuing to detonate the runes.
The 'Spikes' had stopped shooting—they were just wandering aimlessly again, having lost Faust as a target.
"What is that resistance? Are all the things here that strong?"
The weaker explosions just threw the creatures into the air but caused no apparent damage. The half-powered runes would crack their shells and spikes but still wouldn't kill them. Only full-powered runes caused apparent damage, making pieces of their shells fly away.
Eventually, after detonating all the runes he had prepared, the three 'Spikes' monsters were defeated.
Their bodies lay on the ground, unmoving.
"I have to be even more careful than I thought... to think such small things were that resistant. Their resistance is only slightly less than the bear's, but greatly improved compared to goblins and wolves... that's honestly impressive."
Even though he was quite frustrated about having to waste all his 'Detonation' runes, a grin crossed his face. He had killed his first creatures in this place, and from that, could assess that other creatures would probably be even stronger. If he had discovered that while fighting a real opponent, things could have gone much worse.
His bleeding had already stopped as he was about to open the door and grab his prey, when suddenly, his whole body shivered. Instinctively, he slammed the door shut and threw himself onto the ground, barely moving his head enough to peek through the window.
From the fallen wall entrance, a creature surged forward.
Its body, over three meters tall, resembled a wolf, but with tentacles in place of its mouth and nose. In place of its eyes were spirals that resembled human ears. Its fur was opaque and gray—a 'Fisher,' though even bigger than the one before.
It was looking in Faust's direction, its tentacles moving back and forth while an oozy liquid dripped from them.