Rain’s legs tensed. He couldn't jump sideways, so he leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his back.

How did I do that? Rain didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked his teeth out.

The wolf staggered around, trying to shake him. But Rain believes he couldn’t go down so he locked his arms around his neck desperately to keep from being thrown.

The desperate will to survive was burning in his eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned his nostrils.

The wolf shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull.

I need to survive! Rain’s will filled him like high-octane fuel.

Raising his right hand, he gripped the dagger tightly and stabbed it on its neck with all his might.

The wolf tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!

The wolf screamed and flung him through the air. He landed flat on his back in the grass. Rain’s head smacked against a rock.

A mage with poor defense and vitality would have been done for in that situation, but surprisingly, Rain only felt a little pain.

But this wasn’t the time for him to think about that as he immediately tried to stand up, his vision was blurry.

“Uugh!” His whole body was in pain but surprisingly he could still move.

The beast looked at him with absolute hatred. Seeing Rain’s ragged condition, the beast bared its fangs and lifted its large claws.

Rain didn’t close his eyes and didn’t look away. He didn’t give up on life either.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

It was at that moment.

In front of Rain and the monster, something flashed. Both of their visions were clouded by pure golden light, and the beast’s lowering arm was shot down.

“GYAAH!!?”

The beast raised a loud cry and took a large leap backwards.

Seeing black smoke rising from its own front leg, it kept vigil to the light as it… retreated.

As the beast disappeared from view, Rain let out a sigh of relief, as his behind dropped to the ground. He no longer had the power to stand.

“… what was that light? … I would be screwed if it were an enemy…”

Rain stared at a glimmering object not far away from him, as he muttered it in a daze. However, his face immediately turns stiff as he recognized the one who helped him.

Not so far away from him, a small white cute rabbit was standing while looking at him with its beautiful ruby like eyes. Behind it were two burned corpses that looked like wolves.

Seeing this, Rain couldn’t help but cursed inwardly. F*ck! Is that rabbit so terrifying?! Two wolves became barbecue?

“Kyu…”

The white rabbit looked at him before shaking its small white head left and right. Then as if mocking him, the white rabbit pointed it small paw towards him then to the last remaining wolf while shaking its head.

This bastard!!!

Seeing this, unimaginable fury wailed inside Rain. He was actually mocked by a small rabbit?! What the heck is this world?

Is there no justice in this world?!

Burning with fury, Rain stood up. His body shaking, and was still as damaged as ever. He leaned himself against a tree to stand up and held his side.

But he bit his tongue in frustration. He’s not that athletic to begin with, and there’s no way he can beat a high spec beast meant to have abilities exceeding humanity in a direct confrontation.

But all of this vanished on his mind. The only thing he wanted to do was to slap back the tiny rabbit who was mocking him by defeating the wolf in front of him.

“Just you watch … you bastard!”

Saying that, Rain kicked off the ground.

“!”

“GOOO!?”

The wolf that was frozen stiff due to the attack finally started moving again.

Swinging the small dagger, Rain decided to end it immediately or else he would be the one lying on the ground.

The beast charged.

Like Rain, the beast also resolved itself and attacked him with a body blow.

Without thinking, Rain rolled to one side and came up kneeling.

It was fairly quick, but Rain was able to dodge it. It was a kind of movement that was impossible for the previous him.

As the monster barreled past, the sharp dagger he was holding on to grazed the wolf’s neck, becoming a mortal wound.

Rain dodged the incoming claws once again and took that time to kick the head of the wolf like a soccer ball. Then the sound of a broken neck rang out.

Without stopping his momentum, Rain pointed his hand and immediately casted---Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!!!

The beast roared in agony. It flailed; clawing around like a kid throwing a tantrum, then fell to the ground twitching and died.

The beast was gone.

“I won!”

A declaration of victory.

Rain almost teared up. He smelled like livestock and his knees were shaking. His head felt like it was splitting open.

He knows that he was really weak and scared and trembling in fear. He wanted to lie down and cry, but then he remembered the abominable white rabbit.

The white rabbit was looking at him while tilting its head cutely. Its long ears swaying from the wind and its ruby like eyes were watching him attentively.

Seeing this, Rain couldn’t help but hold his tears up. He puffed his chest in pride.

“See that? I can do it if I try … idi~ot.”

“Kyu!”

The white rabbit seemed annoyed as it snorted.

“Wh-What?! You want to fight?! I, I’ll fight you!”

Seeing the white rabbit’s actions, Rain trembled. He knows that he wouldn’t be able to win against this abominable little thing and unconsciously step back.

However, unexpectedly the white rabbit didn’t attack him and instead turned around. It wiggled its cute butt toward him before vanishing off in the bushes.

Seeing the white rabbit gone in a flash, Rain felt complicated. However, this is not the time for him to feel that.

At this moment, he could finally felt relieved.

Against the wolves that stopped moving, he quietly sat down.

Although it was his first time facing that many enemies...... it was lucky that he escaped from the danger.

Although he was injured pretty badly but it wasn’t that grave, so in conclusion he did pretty well on his first battle.

Perhaps there are a number of ways to do it better than what he did. However, as a man that didn’t have a teacher to learn fighting from, it was impossible to order me to do things that he didn’t know of.

Although self-learning sounds nice, in reality, he was still a rookie, noob, a newbie. Thus, for the current he, saying self-learning could only be heard as unreliable proof.

Shaking his thoughts, he gaze fell into the beast beside him.

It was a wolf.

According to the information he gathered about the game, inside [ Philippine Lore ] aside from the famous monsters such as Tikbalang, Mananggal, and other Philippine famous monsters, there were also monsters turned from animals.

Where do you think these monsters came from?

The answer was, it was breeded or mutated by miasma from the place with high magic density. Former is affected by heredity. Most of the monsters are born by either breeding or mutation.

And this so called high magic density came from the three doors opened by Sitan; the doors of Kasamaan.

--- ---

Well, hello guys~ I guess most of you guys are already expecting some Philippine monsters but sadly to say, they will be introduced one by one. Rain won't fight them at this stage because if he does, he would surely kick off the bucket.

Tikbalang and such monsters are high ranking monsters so they shouldn't be defeated that easily, am I right?

Oh well, anyway I'm planning to build his strength only by fighting beast monster for now or what you call animal monsters ... oh this isn't a plot hole, there is a reason why other high ranking monster don't show up in that forest... you will know it later on~

Hope you enjoy [ Philippine Lore ] guys~