There were teeth in Benate’s head, and he was upset by how it make his skull squoosh. Then the pain struck, and he realized there were more important things to worry about.

“💢😠💢🌩!” he bellowed.

He knew he had to fight back if he was going to survive, but his instincts were jumping in different directions at once. By mistake, he dropped his whole stack::cereal, and the grains he’d carefully collected flew out everywhere onto the ground.

With his hand now free, he swung it at his cuddly attacker as it released its bite. His elbow connected with its plushy body with a soft thump as it was dropping.

[B398] used default attack [Struggle]

AutoMod→Hint: [Struggle] is a default reaction action, and has a low effectiveness. [Plan]ning effective Martial Artes is recommended for players who choose to engage in combat

“Owie!” the beast roared with indignation. It looked like it could not believe that Benate had the audacity to fight back.

Cold focus fell over Benate, as his hopes to avoid battle had been dashed so quickly. He settled instead for the determination to survive, and the primal will, if necessary, to kill. He didn’t mind the tiny 3.5 that floated over the squishy-poof’s head, that damage was an afterthought. While [Struggle] was useful for having some basic damage reflection, and got some small bonuses for {Scrounger}, it simply couldn’t compete with a dedicated stamina action.

The red 11 which floated away from his own head into the air was frightening. His body ached as his 24.2/35.2 vitality screamed pain signals that he couldn’t ignore. That was a third of his health, struck away in a single attack: the kind of damage you simply didn’t see until high tier 0. What kind of power did this beast have hidden inside its flocculent form?

Maybe he should have regretted neglecting the local shrub nuts and bug meat over the past hour, but he simply didn’t have time to kick himself for being stingy with food slots now. Even though his physical stat was still only at raw 12, and tier 0.08, it was enough for him to [Plan] his basic combat attack. First, though, Benate would need a weapon.

[Craft] [weapon.unarmed.fist] failed. Cannot craft while overencumbered.

AutoMod→Hint: Your used carrying capacity is impeding your [Craft] action. [Drop] items and try again.

AutoMod→ProceduralHint: Action penalty {carrying capacity in use} is within 1 order of magnitude of action cost. Alternative: Action [Craft] may succeed if base attribute (💪 Physical) is improved.

Fist craft had failed? Blinking in surprise, Benate almost panicked. His opponent’s [Bite] cooldown wouldn’t last long, and battle was the worst possible time to fumble with his interface. Then a moment of clarity struck him.

“😳🤦. 🌱🗡!”

He was being stupid. Benate held out his {thorn} stick-0.0 and [Plan]ned a [Basic Attack] with a thought.

The thin rod lashed out, draining his stamina by 5 points and tearing viciously across the squishy-poof. It turned away from the intensity of the blow, and tiny, angry red dots appeared over its body where the bonus 🌊Pierce damage of his weapon’s perk took effect.

A 7.2 tore from the fluffy little body and into the air. His combat action had disabled [Struggle], but that was no real loss. Time felt like it was slowing down as Benate inspected the 0.5 seconds of his [Basic Attack] cooldown with a flutter of adrenaline. He already felt his stomach churning as his food slots digested their durability, restoring his lost vitality. It wasn’t ideal to spend food this way, the decay of a food slot was nearly tripled during combat, even though there weren’t any bonuses to regen rate (not normally, anyway). But even if it was a bit of a waste to burn the contents of his belly like this, at least it was better than dying.

The 0.41 beast didn’t hesitate. It leapt again at Benate. Not for the first time, he felt the slowness of his body, and wondered if there wasn’t a way to dodge or avoid an attack before unlocking some of the Tier 1 basic combat artes. But all combat movement had heavy stamina costs at tier 0, and he didn’t need the trade-off of blowing his full stamina bar just for a slim chance of running the way out of a single attack.

[Bite]!

The 11 popped out of his body and spun into the air as if it was mocking him. He was really balancing along the razor’s edge here. Only 14.3/35.2 of his vitality remained. Benate couldn’t allow this fight to drag out. His weapon slashed out in a horizontal strike, delivering all the painful slash and thorn marks to his opponent of its 7.2 damage.

Still, the creature glared at him, refusing to back down, and readying to strike. He tried to weigh his options rationally. There were too many unknown variables at play here. Any basic beast usually started life at the disadvantage of only 10 vitality, but they were voracious in a way that Benate could not risk while he was managing his deltas. They were all too happy to bloat on low quality foods, and it was tough to judge what kind of stats they might have as a result.

He did have reason to hope. Those 11 damage bites were intimidating, but there was no way that a beast like that could only be ranked at 0.41 unless its diet left gaps in its capabilities.

The next [Bite] attack savaged his leg painfully, and he was nearly overwhelmed as his vitality dropped to a critical 4.6/35.2. This next strike would be his last chance, and the decisive stroke of this struggle to the death. For a moment, Benate considered taking the easy road. It would be so much simpler to die here, to try and try again until he found a zone with less risk, and fewer struggles.

But he could no longer accept that from himself. He was no longer satisfied to while away his lives like a coward, when his real goal was still so far out of reach. Because the truth was, Benate had a secret. It was a secret so serious, and so dangerous, he had never entrusted it with anyone – not even with AutoMod.

Benate had discovered how to contact the outside.

And now, somewhere out there in that place called the real world, he had a an IRL friend who was waiting for him. Even if it was impossible, even if he had to die a million times to do it, he was going to stop at nothing until he could meet his friend –

xxLulSk8brdr1080kflipxx.

Benate’s eyes flared with overwhelming decisiveness. “🙏🧖, 😤. 🤪!” he resolved, throwing caution to the wind. All or nothing, that was what survival always came down to didn’t it? So why ever hold anything back?

He [Plan]ed a new action like he’d never done before. Taking his [Basic Attack] in his minds-eye, he pushed. It was a static pattern, with clearly defined inputs and parameters, but he willed it to change. It was designed with maximal efficiency to consume increments of stamina, 5 at a time. But Benate wasn’t going to need his stamina for anything after this next exchange, whether he succeeded or not.

As a rule, stamina regenerated far faster than vitality. He had already recovered enough that he was sitting at 15.1 points out of his current maximum of 22. That would have to be enough.

There was a feeling that gave Benate the distant impression of shattering glass, even if he wasn’t entirely sure what glass was supposed to be. But he was rewarded for his efforts with a new contextual action.

[Tool Arte: Strike]

“🏄, 💀!” He bellowed, holding nothing back as 15 stamina was spent in an instant.

It was horribly wasteful. It was inefficient. But, it also dealt a mighty 10.8 points of concentrated hurt.

Darkness threatened to close in on Benate. He’d drained himself to the limit, and he collapsed on the ground. But he’d done it. There was a resounding and cutesy flop as the corpse fell into the dirt. The tier 0.41 was dead.