Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 5: Ball of white fur

The time limit on the gate was something I didn't expect to encounter. And for the first time since I crossed through the portal to this strange, new world, I felt hints of fear settle in my spirit.

Up until now, I was sure that in times of any real danger... I could just run back to the safety of the earth, where I would still be filled with danger and enmity - but of a different kind.

This place, however, was different. Just my experiences on the starlight plain proved there could be dangers that I couldn't wrap my head around lurking in potentially every shadow.

"Haaa..." I let out a long sigh before taking some time to stabilize my breath and mute the anxiety.

Sure, I was stranded in this world for the next forty hours or so. But absolutely nothing good would come from standing around in despair. Quite frankly, I couldn't help but feel it would be stupid to just sit around and do nothing, waiting for my ace card of the portal to renew itself.

"There's no way I will be able to get anywhere through that plain," I muttered to myself, the gears in my mind switching from processing the innate fear of the wild to actually analyzing the situation. "And that leaves me with only one place to explore..."

I turned around and took a look into the forest's depths. It seemed that it would only take a few steps before all the sunlight would vanish, leaving me stranded in the dark shadows cast by the treetops.

"Nothing good will come from standing around," I muttered, before gulping my saliva down. "And it takes a lot of bravery to be a coward..." I added.

The meaning of this sentence was simple.

I had to have one hell of massive balls to risk staying in one place. Doing so would only invite all sorts of predators from this world to come and snack on my poor, non-athletic body. The lack of serious muscles was likely to make my body perfectly fatty, like those wagyu cows that attained the insane marbling of their meat thanks to the regular massages and rich diet.

It took a lot of balls to risk becoming a gourmet dish for some predators. And as scary as it might be now, while I was still within the range of the light, it was actually a lot easier to just venture into the forest depths.

'A little scary now, or really scary later, that's the question,' I smiled to my own thoughts before moving back, to the very edge of the trees, to confirm one more thing.

There was a river cutting through the starlight plains. Something I noticed even before learning the true dangers of this open field. And while there was no way I would get anywhere near that body of water while on the plain... My idea of looking for civilization by following the river still stood.

"Okay, now that I know the right direction..." I hesitated for a second, before taking a deep breath and turning around, only to march right into the dark shadows of the forest depths.

Exactly as I anticipated, the first few minutes of my new journey were pretty terrifying. Every tiniest sound, be it the rustling of the leaves or the creaking of a small twig that I stepped on was enough to put me on a full alert. Yet, most likely thanks to my now high intelligence, it took me only a short moment to figure out what sounds were pretty much natural and what others came from the presence of something else.

'Maybe that's what the intelligence is all about?' I thought, soon growing so used to the darkness of the forest to let my thoughts drift a little. 'To process and absorb information at a faster rate?'

If I was right, then it was a pretty useless ability while my other stats were pretty low. There was no point in perfectly managing the battlefield if I lacked the strength to attack or the agility to avoid getting hit. Planning the situation out and then flexibly adapting to the changes on the go would only do so much.

'I wonder what wisdom stat affects, then,' I thought.

My hopes of randomly growing more knowledgeable betrayed me. But what was even worse, stuck in my initial interpretation of the meaning of wisdom made it all the harder to now abandon this idea and figure out something else!

I continued to slowly move through the forest, quickly growing more and more used to its atmosphere. Soon, I realized that I could use the timer on the gate as a clock of sorts, allowing me to track how long I was actually walking.

In a mere two hours after stepping into the forest, I finally reached the edge of the river that I saw back on the plain. It cut straight through the forest, but with its thick vegetation, I only noticed it when I was literally a single step away from plunging down two meters and taking a dive in its cold waters.

'Knowing what kind of effect those plains had on me, I would rather avoid taking a bath in this river,' I thought, my improved mind quickly warning me about the potential dangers of the river. Still, it wasn't something that I could simply ignore.

After climbing back up to the shore proper, I spent another hour looking for a spot where I could easily climb down to some shallow parts of the river. Thankfully, as the current pushed the water towards the plains rather than away from them, there was a chance the water wasn't spoiled by whatever effect the plains possibly had on it.

I squatted before getting down on one knee and carefully lowering my hand towards the water...

'Cold!'

My hand snapped back, tuned to react sharply to even the tiniest stimuli. I didn't know how just touching this water would affect me, making me worry about an instance where the initial strike on my mind would cause me to stumble and fall into the river, receiving the full brunt of the effect this water would have on me.

In the end, though, the only thing I felt from the river... was the refreshing coldness of its water.

"I guess I won't have to worry about my water supply," I whispered, only for a small smile to creep up on my lips.

That meant I could safely discard nearly a third of the weight I was carrying! And with just two bottles of water and the purification set I've brought with me, I could simply resupply once I decide to move away from the river!

The smile crept high on my lips... Only to freeze when I realized that I wasn't actually the only one at the river's shore.

"Bark!"

A strange, giggle-like bark reached my ears, right as my eyes zeroed in on a figure of a small, fluffy ball of white fur.

Gulp.

I couldn't help but swallow my saliva, watching how a fox the size of an average dog pried its mouth open and uttered a low, guttural growl...

Only for the rumbling of its stomach that followed to kill the vibe of terror and danger and let me finally see the fox for what it truly was in the eyes of an animal lover like me.

A ball of fluffy fur that I could potentially pet to my heart's content if I bribed it with just some food!