Zero steadily picked at the ores on the wall of the cave entrance. Sweat glistening on his forehead from the heat of the sun and the hard work that he has been putting on trying to get the ore out of the stone wall. While he was lucky enough to have found ore so close to the entrance, it was not very big ore vein.

Letting the top of the pick hit the ground, he let out an exhausted sigh. "God, I been at it for the last three hours, and I barely managed to get five iron ore."

He looked further into the cave and contemplated the option of plunging further in to find more abundant ore. He could wait here and try to get the iron from here, but it was going to take far too long. While Zero didn't mind doing this, he did want to go a try the combat system soon. Letting his impatience win, Zero set out further into the cave, making sure to be vigilant of his surroundings in case there was a monster hidden.

Ten minutes into the cave, he found what he searched for and without the hassle of a single monster and started picking the large iron vein. It wasn't long after he began picking that he heard something moving in the distance. Zero's ears immediately perked up, putting his body in full alert for any sound that may happen again. Once again, he heard the sound of something footsteps across the floor. Zero grabbed his sword from his inventory, while he knew it crap, it was still better than fighting unarmed.

A few moments later, from the way he came from, Zero saw the waist-high blue creature walk towards him. He held a club in hand and only had a loincloth to cover himself. The monster started to make a screeching noise as he got closer and immediately, zero inspected the monster.

Kobold Level 9

"Fuck!" Zero let out curse to him as he saw the level of the Kobold. He wanted to forget the ores and run away, Zero was not able to since the Kobold before him block his way out.

Zero took a deep breath in, "Alright, I can do this. In every game I played in, I have always fought monster high level, this is no different" With that in mind, Zero ran towards the Kobold, sword at the ready to slash at the small monster.

If this were one of those novels where the main character somehow manages to overpower the stronger monster, then Zero plan would have worked. But in reality, what unfolded was much more different then what he expected. The kobold sidestepped to the right and slamming the club into his chest, sending Zero tumbling back, gasping for air.

Received 41 damage

The blue box appeared in front of Zero as air struggle to enter his lungs. If it weren't for the increase stats that Zero had received during the training room, he would have died otherwise. He grabbed his chest when air finally rushed into his body, relieving him of the tightness in the Zero felt in it.

With one-fourth of his health taken in one hit, Zero did the only thing that came to his mind, run and fight another time. He turned around and ran the opposite direction of the Kobold, not realizing that he was running further into the cave system.