I woke up early the next morning. The Sun was just about to rise and I felt slightly cold. I wrapped my blanket more closely around myself and slowly stepped out. It was very serene around me. I washed my face with some water from my pitcher and then set out with my axe, bow, arrows and spear to hunt for food.
A short distance away from the village I spotted a group of deer grazing. I knew that villager characters hunted deer and wild boars for food. I looked at my status and found my title had changed to "Hunter". I had no qualms about killing animals while they were in game form, but now that I was reincarnated, they looked very much like the animals in real life. I found myself hesitant to kill them. My values from my old world still held me down, preventing me from killing. I was a civilized human. An act like this would only condemn me to hell.
But then I realized that I had already died. I had reincarnated from a world that held no meaning to my existence. A world that fed on me like a parasite. That limited me from exploring my options. Here, there was nothing. An open field. A clean slate. No right from wrong. Just survival. This thought strengthened my resolve and boldly, I took aim on my bow and shot my arrow after pulling the string back as hard as I could.
It was all over in an instant. The arrow entered the neck of the beast. It fell on the ground gasping for breath as the arrow choked it. Its companions fled in fright. As I approached it, I felt its eyes staring me hard, questioning as if "Why?... What have I ever done to you that you should take my life?.... I looked forward to a happy and joyful day with my family..... How could you do this to me?.... Oh lord, What did I do that you would end my life thus?"
I knelt down beside the deer as it breathed its last. Tears flowed down my eyes. I mentally said a prayer, asking for forgiveness from whatever deity looked after this world. I closed my eyes and prayed with my hands clasped as tears ran down my face, hoping that the poor animal would find itself in a more happier world than what it lived in.
When I opened my eyes, the carcass was glowing and soon, it changed into several things. In front of me was a pile of fresh deer meat and a fine roll of deerskin. I quickly set to work salvaging the meat and the deerskin with a look of utter disgust at myself. The meat that the deer gave would last me for at least two days. Or so I thought until I could muster the courage to hunt more.
As I roasted some of the meat in a mechanical manner, I couldn't bring myself to enjoy the delicious smell or to taste the joy of celebrating my hard earned meal. I instead sat in a reverie thinking about life's rules and the food chain.
I had read about how life created our earth with a certain rhythm and a sophisticated system. Life sustained itself through death. If there was no death, there would be no space for new life. Life would continue to exist only if it was allowed the space to breathe. Else, it would extinguish quickly. Perhaps that's why the one who created the world created plants and trees to give life through air, animals to receive the air and return air which sustained the trees, plant eating animals and insects to avoid the plants from absorbing all the water on the world, carnivorous animals to hold the plant eating animals in check, and carnivorous insects to decompose the carnivorous animals to return the nutrients back to the earth to ensure sustenance. It was the cycle of life.
The Human with an evolving mind was a miscalculation in the world. Akin to a parasite. Very rare are the humans who are willing to gladly coexist side by side with the natural cycle of life without any thought of trying to take control of the process and play God. I was glad to consider myself as one among them. And I would always try to be.
Such were the thoughts passed through my mind after my unwilling first kill of the day.