Listening for any creatures, Zach took out his sword, before once again stepping into the forest.

Zach decided that he would stay near the outskirts since he had encountered a level 3 creature there yesterday.

After about five minutes of walking, he encountered a painfully familiar creature.

The creature looked like an earless purple bunny and was happily eating the leaves of a nearby bush.

Zach smiled, he had finally found a source of EXP; he felt nothing but disgust for the cute yet deadly creature.

He knew the creature would not be able to react to a surprise attack from him.

Zach began to slowly creep towards the unsuspecting creature, with his sword at the ready.

Once he closed their distance to about twenty feet, Zach would attack, 25...24...23...22...21...20!

The ground cracked beneath his feet, as he became a dark streak shooting towards his target!

As Zach got within his ten-foot striking range, the creature turned its head, just in time to see metallic-death descend upon it.

The greatsword obliterated the small creature instantly before slamming into the ground, causing earth and blood to fly everywhere.

As blood slid off his clothing, with its special material acting like a raincoat, Zach wondered if he had overdone it.

Well, he supposed the scattered skin and blood wouldn't be harming anyone anymore...

Zach smiled, Halt would have beaten him senseless for allowing his greatsword to hit the ground. However, Zach was just surprised by how little resistance the creature's body had.

"Better to be safe than sorry I guess," Zach chuckled to himself, before reading the new EXP message before him.

Common Enemy Slain: +25 Experience

Level Gap Multiplier: 1.0

Net Experience gained: 25.

Zach chuckled upon noticing the lack of exclamation marks, the Complex obviously was not impressed by the difficulty of his battle.

Unfortunately, he was unable to inspect the creature's corpse, but the message bubble still enabled him to make some valuable predictions.

Because the Level Gap Multiplier was 1.0 he assumed the creature was also level 0, and, since the level 3 Zinviper gave a multiplier of 1.6, each level between him and his prey probably resulted in +.2 to the multiplier.

Zach also noticed that an uncommon enemy gave exactly five times the exp of a common enemy, he wondered if this also applied to enemies of higher rarity.

His thought process was rapidly cut off by some rustling from a nearby bush.

Zach spun, facing the offending bush with his sword ready, just in time to see something walk out.

As he locked eyes with the creature, Zach's hands tightened around his sword like a pair of sweaty boa-constrictors.

It was best described as a dire wolf; however, it was a creature, unlike anything Zach had seen before.

Its eyes were a light amethyst purple, in their depths, Zach saw a combination of killing intent and raw, bestial, hunger.

It had light pale-green fur that seemed almost animated as the breeze gently blew it around.

Forcing himself to ignore the beauty of the creature, Zach looked for any potential hazards to avoid, besides, you know, the whole thing.

As the creature snarled at him, he noticed its teeth, its maw was filled with rows of emerald knives.

Zach glanced at its claws, they were razor-sharp and looked like no-fun; swallowing, he inspected the creature.

Windwulf (Uncommon): Level 4

Its name showed up as orange, well.... Shit...

Thinking rationally, Zach directly covered himself with Earthen Barrier and considered running.

However, he noticed the creature's hind-legs tense, it clearly had gotten bored of their standoff.

As the creature charged, Zach hoped he had found breakfast and that it wasn't the other way around...

*********************************

After Zach left, Thomas contemplated his words for a few minutes before entering his teepee and laying down next to Lisa.

"Who was that hun?" She asked drowsily.

"It was Zach, he said he found some berries, and a good spot for the group to set up camp," Thomas gently replied.

She woke up immediately at the mention of food, but then put on a dubious expression.

"That's great, I'm starving. But do you think he is trustworthy? He never seems to talk to me much, only you..."

"I think he's a bit socially awkward and possibly nuts for wanting to go into the woods alone. But, he seems like a good guy, so I doubt he would make things up," Thomas said seriously, before putting on a teasing expression and continuing.

"He probably doesn't talk to you much because he feels shy talking to pretty girls in front of their boyfriends!"

"Maybe," Lisa giggled, snuggling closer to him.

"Anyway, once the others are up, I am going to bring this up to them. For now, let's try to get some more sleep," Thomas said, kissing her forehead and ending the conversation.

As Thomas rested on the cold ground, he felt grateful that he had Lisa, his one source of happiness and warmth in this strange and terrifying world.

"Wonder what that crazy-person is up to right now," he mumbled to himself before falling back asleep...

*********************************

The creature’s speed startled Zach, it shot at him like a silent rocket, and it was faster than him by a solid margin!

Luckily, his weapon's reach provided him with a safety net.

Zach slashed horizontally at the creature, aiming to prevent it from closing their distance.

As he expected, the creature changed direction and dashed sideways away from his strike.

From outside of his reach, it stared at him, furious that its first attack had been unsuccessful.

Recalling Halt’s rants, Zach held his ground and did not pursue the creature.

Zach mumbled Halt's words under his breath...

"When facing an enemy of superior speed, do not attempt to catch them with wild movements! Focus on using their speed against them, and making as little movement as necessary..."

Zach smirked, after surviving Halt's degrading and hellish training, he certainly would not let himself get killed by a stupid dog!

"Come on!" Zach yelled.

Enraged by his taunt, the creature charged once again, however, Zach let it get slightly closer this time.

As the creature closed the distance Zach slashed downward, unleashing a Colossal Blow right at its head.

However, he had underestimated the creature’s mobility, it managed to launch itself to the right of the strike right before it hit.

As he dodged, the creature's claws missed Zach's neck by an uncomfortable margin and left a deep slash on his shoulder.

If Zach did not have Earthen Barrier on his body, his arm likely would've been severed.

However, the side of Zach's sword had scraped against its left hind-leg, and luckily, the added weight of Colossal Blow had resulted in some fractures.

The creature began to circle Zach, it knew that even though its hind leg was hurt, Zach was slowly dying.

Zach gritted his teeth, his health was 70 and it was dropping by the second as blood shot from his left shoulder.

Even worse, his stamina was an unstable 50, he was using his full strength in every swing, Colossal Blow used 10 stamina, and maintaining Earthen Barrier was draining his stamina by the second.

Zach knew that the creature would simply wait until he weakened further, before killing him, he had to do something!

Glaring at the creature hatefully, Zach decided to throw up a Hail Mary.

Zach lowered Earthen Barrier, let his sword dip, and deliberately began breathing harder than was necessary.

The wolf continued circling him, however, Zach noticed the hunger in its eyes thicken.

Seconds later, just like he had hoped, the creature lost patience and took the bait. It charged at him and leapt for his throat.

Thankfully, its wounded leg slowed it down greatly, this made up for the fact that Zach's severely wounded left-arm greatly hindered his swordsmanship.

Even with pain resistance, Zach screamed angrily as he slashed upward, further tearing his left shoulder muscle.

As he expected, even though he surprised it, the creature managed to twist away, dodging the blow midair.

This was the opening he was looking for!

Zach let his sword fly out of his hands, and unleashed a vicious right-handed hammer fist toward the skull of the passing Windwulf.

Zach knew that the blow would at most give it a momentary concussion, even with his superior strength. But, if he did not kill the creature here it would simply wait till his now-gushing arm caused his death.

As his fist flew, his mind focused like a laser on his one hope for survival: Earthen Barrier.

Right before it collided with the Windwulf's skull, Zach covered his descending fist in a thin layer of dense Earthen Battle Aura.

The creature let out a cry of agony, as it was smashed into the ground with a loud bang.

Zach gave it no time to recover, he threw himself to the ground and smashed it over the head, again and again, using his reinforced hand like a sledgehammer, until he heard its skull crack.

Zach didn't even bother looking at the message bubbles which popped up on his screen, his health had fallen to a rapidly dropping 40!

Instead, he used his newly injured right hand to shakily-down the Health Vial.

The wound on his shoulder began to rapidly mend, and the flow of blood completely halted.

Zach also felt the familiar and comforting feeling of bones fusing back together, as the micro-fractures in his right fist healed.

Removing his now torn shirt, Zach walked over to his beloved sword and strapped it to his bare back.

Now that he was armed, and his health was slowly regening to 100, Zach walked over to the Windwulf's corpse.

Smiling, he picked up the two health vials it had dropped.

Health vial (Poor Quality):

Restores 50 HP.

Putting the vials into his pocket, Zach consumed a few Zinberries to complement his stamina regen, and began to read.

Uncommon Enemy Slain: +150 Experience

Level Gap Multiplier: 1.8

Net Experience gained: 270!!

Noticing the extra exclamation point, compared to when he killed the snake, Zach smiled at the Complex's weird quirks. This had brought his EXP to 495/1000, he was already half way to leveling up.

He had been right about how the Level Gap Multiplier worked, but apparently, enemies of equal-rarity could give slightly different amounts of EXP, likely depending on strength.

Clearing his mind, Zach looked at the other message bubbles before cackling like a madman.

He pulled up his skills and stats for the first time in a while.

Zachary Collins

Warrior Level 0

HP: 100 Health represents how far you are from death.

Stamina: 100 Stamina represents your ability to perform actions, including usage of battle aura.

Current Stats:

Strength: 50 Strength represents your ability to produce force.

Precision: 25 Precision represents your accuracy and timing.

Vitality: 31 Vitality represents health regen and bodily toughness.

Endurance: 32 Endurance represents stamina regen and bodily toughness.

Reaction: 20 Represents your ability to respond to events physically and mentally.

Perception: 17 Perception represents your ability to learn, and sense danger.

Skills:

Level 4 Pain Resistance (common): Reduces all pain experienced by 20%

Level 7 Astral Meditation (rare): Allows one to enter a state of mental clarity, and assists with comprehension of Earth and Space elements.

Level 5 Foundational Greatsword Technique (uncommon): A simple style focused on perfecting the basics and forming a foundation of body control.

Level 5 Earthen Barrier (uncommon): Thin but incredibly dense layers of Earth protect the body.

Level 1 Colossal Blow (uncommon): A large quantity of densely packed Earth surrounds the weapon, drastically increasing its weight.

Zach had finally reached level five in Earthen Barrier!

It's new description confirming his suspicions, Zach used Earthen Barrier to surround his fist; it was now easy for him to use Earthen Barrier on part of his body, instead of having to cover all of it.

As he pictured how this would drastically reduce his stamina consumption, and shorten the time it took for him to use Earthen Barrier, Zach smiled.

Zach's grumbling stomach snapped him out of his mental-fiesta and reminded him he was still in the forest.

Aiming to avoid encountering more creatures, Zach hoisted the Windwulf onto his shoulders and started walking back to his shelter.

As he walked, the breeze brushed against his shredded body, causing his messy black hair to sway, for once in his life, Zach felt like a badass...