I looked back in the direction Bassir was staring at before he disappeared, but no matter how much I strained my eyes, I saw nothing there.

Abruptly the state of my mind went from very comfortable to worry to fear. I remembered how silently the beast sneaked and how well it was camouflaged in the forest.

I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my body and felt chills travel up from my legs. It was a familiar feeling. The fear and smell of blood combined took me back.

I was utterly terrified and felt like a bullet would hit me at any second. There was even phantom pain in my leg.

"Fuck, not a good time to have a PTSD attack," I mumbled to myself, staring out into the forest.

I took deep breaths and tried to remind myself I was not in the war anymore. Well, not in the same war anyway.

While slipping the ax out from my belt, I thought about the situation.

The disappearing act was likely meant to test my skills or prepare me for this world. Bassir knew I was weak, so he's probably using a stealth skill to stay back and will pop out the moment I'm in grave danger.

I kept silently looking around as the seconds passed, waiting for the Lurker to pop out from the brush. When the seconds turned into minutes, I began to get exceedingly paranoid.

'What if the Lurker has been circling me this whole time? Is it behind me? Is it to the side? Above?'

Now, instead of having only one direction to worry about, I had to keep glancing around every once in a while to look for an ambush. The monster you couldn't see was honestly a lot more horrifying than the monster that was right in front of you.

At this point, my internal fight or flight switch started turning in the flight position, but I knew that if I escaped, I'd be in even more danger. Bassir is likely near me right now, so if I ran away, the Lurker might cut me off and snap my neck before Bassir could do anything. Also, if this was a test, then running away couldn't be that high of a grade.

Finally, after about 4 minutes, I saw movement in the direction Bassir was initially staring at.

At first, it was only slight glimpses of something black between the bushed, but once it got about 100 meters from me, I could entirely see it cautiously but swiftly pacing towards me.

'How did Bassir see it from that far away, hidden in a bush?' I thought, perplexed.

It had likely been waiting if the other humanoid was coming back before making its move. Also, this time it seemed a lot less hesitant in attacking me. It made sense since I was standing on its food.

Now that it was getting closer, I realized I had been too focused on spotting it and never planned what to do after it came at me.

My legs started to inch back involuntarily, the forest seemed to get darker. The closer the beast got, the more despair I felt. How the hell was I supposed to fight a lion-sized monster? It was unfair. I should just escape while it was still far away.

'Fucking focus!' I screeched internally and hit my chest with my spare hand while tensing all my muscles.

'You've fought guys that can instantly kill you from hundreds of meters away! You aren't going to die to a fucking baby kitten!' I gave myself a speech that seemed to help get me back into fight mode.

At this point, the cat was about 50 meters from me.

'It's likely to go straight for my neck, since it likes to attack from ambushes,' I thought as I looked at its physique. I also remembered that the corpse next to me had a missing chunk of flesh on its nape.

My ax had a wide and a pointy end. I should probably use the wide end since it is more probable to hit, and the Lurker is still a hatchling, so it likely won't have enough vitality and endurance to shrug off the hit.

I got in a low sideways position so that if the cat pounced on me, I could try to block it with my free hand. In a low sideways stance, I'm also less prone to falling back from the weight of the pounce.

'Wait, what about my hand?' I asked myself, glancing between the Lurker's maw and my bare left palm.

I slowly and cautiously took the backpack off of my back and held it as a shield.

As the Lurker got closer, it also slowed down and lowered its center of balance. Once it was about 4 meters from me, it gently turned a bit to the side and started to circle me.

I kept my stance steady and stared it down. I didn't think it'd be wise to charge as it likely had better reflexes than me, so it'd be in an advantage if I went in swinging.

'Now I just have to wait for it to make a move.'

❖❖❖

The forest was silent. Only a rapid heartbeat and the occasional loud hissing sounds resounded from within.

Bassir was sitting on a thick branch above Derek and the kitten, hidden by the dense canopy and a camouflage skill. He had planned to lure the Lurker under him by using Derek as bait. He could have just chased it down, but this was easier and also worked to show the city dweller how dangerous these woods could be.

Then, once it would have been under him, he would have just killed it with one bolt. That was the plan, but then, as the kitten got closer and Derek looked like he was about to run away, the boy suddenly slapped his chest and got in a proper stance.

Intrigued by Derek's change of heart, Bassir decided to let them fight, and if it got dangerous, he'd swoop in and save the kid.

The closer the kitten got, the more determined Derek looked. Bassir couldn't help but stare with great interest.

Suddenly the Lurker pounced hard.

Derek jolted forward with his back leg and, at the same time, shoved the bag towards the Lurker's head.

The Lurker swiftly changed its target and bit down on the bag.

And as quickly as it started, it was over. The ax in Derek's right arm swept down in a beautiful arc towards the neck of the Lurker.

Although the ax didn't hit the center, cutting off the spine as Derek had planned, it sliced a bit below and sliced about half of the Lurker's throat completely open.

❖❖❖

The feeling that transitioned from the ax into my hand was unique. As if I'd cut into very dense jelly. It was a satisfying feeling.

The Lurker curled up and started to claw me with its back legs, all the while painting the forest floor with its blood. I felt pressure on my left hip and quickly let go of the bag while jumping backward.

I lifted the ax high, ready to strike again, but the beast didn't follow. It just writhed on the floor made a few disturbing gurgling sounds.

I had cut a lot of muscle in its neck, so its head flopped all around. After a couple of seconds, the movements ceased.

I fell backward onto the bloody ground. I was both mentally and physically utterly exhausted, and my hands were visibly trembling with adrenaline.

I looked myself over, and most of my lower body was drenched in the Lurker's blood. Wait, now that I looked more carefully, there was a wound on my left hip that was pouring out blood as well. As soon as I realized it, searing pain shot up from the cut.

"Ahh, fuck," I gasped in a bit of a shock. I barely realized to put my hand on the wound to slow down the bleeding. The gash wasn't too critical, only about a finger long, but it must've been quite deep, judging by the amount of blood draining out.

"Pour this on the wound," a deep and thoughtful voice came from next to me.

A bit startled, I looked over and saw the dwarf standing there, pushing a bottle towards me.

"Nice timing," I snickered while taking the bottle. A wry smile appeared onto and quickly left Bassir's face.

"Oh, come on. Ya were never in any real trouble," Bassir laughed as if I was the one being unreasonable.

I pulled down my pants and poured the liquid on the wound. It stung like a bitch, making me grunt out loud. It must've been an antiseptic.

Meanwhile, Bassir's sadistic smile tried to poke its head out again: "Alright, then wrap it with this."

I snatched the field dressing from him while muttering: "Evil bastard." Luckily the wound was an inch more on my thigh side than my waist, so it was straightforward to cover with the bandage.

"I must say, kid, that was impressive!" he laughed proudly: "The way ya used yer bag as a shield was crafty, 'n' ya even managed to pull off a plan that had the best odds of keeping ya alive! Also, ya should check yer stats. There should be some goodies there for ya."

'So he was testing me, huh?' I pondered.

I was also quite curious about how much I would gain from this, so I opened up my status.

Stored notifications

You have resisted Intimidation.

Mental fortitude (Lv. 2 > Lv. 3)

Mind +2

Endurance +1

Strength +1

Vitality +1

You have killed a level 4 Lurker.

Congratulations! Level +2!

Free stat points +8

Status

Human - Level 3

Name: Derek Carter

Age: 21

Sex: Male

Stats

HP 81/110 - MP 100/100 - SP 9/130

Vitality: 11

Strength: 11

Endurance: 13

Agility: 11

Perception: 11

Mind: 12

Free stat points: 8

Skills

Passive:

Linguist - MAX

Mental fortitude - Lv. 3

Active:

Guide - Lv. 1

Intimidate - Lv. 2

Woah, it's fascinating to get statistics on yourself like this. Looks like the Lurker had used Intimidation on me as well. That must've been when it was walking towards me, and I wanted to run.

Bassir told me that the Mind stat makes you think faster and improves your focus. It also helps you make logical decisions easier.

My stat points will get increasingly more and more difficult to get in the future. The starting stats and the free points you use up don't affect how easy it is to get more stat points through actions, so since different races have different starting stats, there is a qualitative change between a dragon and a mouse, for example.

'It's crazy to think I'm smarter now.'

From the looks of it, I can take five similar hits before I die, so that's nice, I guess?

Endurance makes you more resistant, so if that hit landed on me before I ran for hours, I would have taken considerably more damage.

The numbers really made me feel better. I'd almost forgotten about the pain. If it was this easy to get so much more powerful, then fighting doesn't sound so bad...

A smile involuntarily formed on my lips.

"Not bad at all..."