“AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

„Fuck, It’s heading here! Ready your weapons! Someone wake up the giant!”

‘Well, that was pretty quick. I’m not sure if I should be happy that I don’t need to wait long, or pissed off because I still didn’t get enough sleep.’

Irena got up and checked her weapons. The shovel was by her side and so was her machete, both sharp and ready.

“Alrighty, let’s see what the fuss is all about.”

She was about to catch one of the panicked stray elves to ask it for directions, but whatever frightened them into stupor already revealed its location by making about as much noise as a group of tourists near ‘Please be quiet’ sign.

She headed for the noise, readying the shovel, and hiding behind trees. She wouldn't be so stupid as to discard her element of surprise.

It wasn’t long before the reason for the elven panic revealed itself in full, crocodilian glory. It reached Irena’s tight, and was proportionally long and massive.

‘Not an alligator then, got it. But man, this thing is even bigger than they said. Should’ve squeezed them for more money.’

[Identify]

[Lesser Water Dragon LV. ???]

‘Does that mean it is in three digit leveled after all? But no matter. It should still be in low one hundreds, if that old man wasn’t completely full of shit.’

The crock stepped closer. Irena squeezed herself tighter against a tree.

‘Alright, it didn’t notice me, I love animals with problems in detecting immobile targets!’

Truth be told, elves running around and screaming in all kinds of distracting ways probably helped Irena even more than holding her breath.

Ding!

[Fae’s shyness] reaches level 2

She dismissed the notification, charged up her [Ethical strike], and pounced.

Unfortunately, the highest leveled creature she had ever fought had different plans than to end up as food and a bunch of expensive purses.

Irena still managed to hit it, but not exactly where she aimed. Instead of nailing the creature straight through its cervical spine right behind the skull, the blow hit too far forward, and glanced off of bone.

Remember how crocks shouldn’t be much faster than humans on land? Well, apparently that doesn’t apply to dragons.

Irena barely managed to shift her mana before her left arm found itself clamped shut in a maw filled with teeth way too sharp for her liking.

She made peace with the fact that, for the first time since she obtained [Self regeneration], she would have to try regrowing an entire limb.

And then…

The [Lesser water dragon]… did nothing.

Except trying to return where it came from, without even bothering to rip Irena’s arm out.

‘Does this little shit want to get drag me to its lair for later consumption without even killing me first? Am I not even an opponent worth killing?’

Irena was just a little, tiniest bit... absolutely livid.

She gathered her mana in her left paw. She felt like her body was asking her for an [Ethical strike].

She didn’t allow it.

Ding!

[Flame manipulation] reaches level 10

‘Skipped a level again, huh?’

She allowed herself to be dragged off. Occasionally, a stray arrow found itself bouncing off of the purse material on lesser dragon’s back.

Not one landing near its eyes.

‘Are you guys scared it will drop me and go for you instead? No worries. I would be at a disadvantage in water.’

Irena reached for her machete, and chopped lightly at Lesser dragon’s eye, without using any mana.

It landed true, enraging the beast that jerked its head, losing patience.

Another light cut.

That pissed it off enough.

Its head turned into a blur, and Irena’s body got thrown a good five of her body lengths away, breaking a few smaller trees in a process.

“Chew It slowly, ya stupid fuck. Just don’t choke or anything!”

CRACK!

Now that Irena wasn’t there to keep it stable, the tightly packed orb of fire mana self ignited from pressure, right as it was being swallowed by the stupid ass lizard.

The eruption that followed ripped its gullet, and thrown it so high up, even its tail lost contact with the ground, the [Lesser water dragon]’s eyes popping out from pressure.

The scorched brain matter spilling out of crocodilian eye sockets made Irena certain it was dead even before she heard the notifications.

Ding!

{[Flame manipulation] reaches level 11}

Ding!

{[Self Regeneration] Reaches level 13}

Ding!

{You have cooked open a [Lesser Water Dragon] For slaying an enemy 80 or more levels above your own, additional experience has been granted.}

Ding!

{[Giant Longhunter] reaches level 29. Stat points awarded}

Warning!

{Both your MP and HP are below 15%}

‘Oh shit, there are warnings?’

Irena got up, not without issues.

‘I need to prevent them from weaseling out of our deal!’

An arrow embedded itself in her chest.

‘Fuck, they are already on it!’

Obviously, Elves wouldn’t just pay Irena what they owed her like honorable people.

Why? Because as straight and good they might be to each other, Irena was definitely not a proper person according to their local code of honor, as was proven by the elder trying to underpay her.

The fact that he agreed to her terms despite clearly not liking them could be explained by a single sentence. He was just that desperate, or...

He had no intention of paying from the start.

Even if the dragon won without injury, it would at least return to munch on its big meal, leaving elves in peace. Irena was to be a sacrifice, too dumb to recognize the difference in level between her and the pokilothermic menace.

And if by some miracle she managed to win by a small margin, well… The elves could just mercifully end the suffering of a crippled giant.

There was only one way to get out of there alive.

The next arrow pulsed with light and howled towards Irena, lodging itself in her sternum.

Irena did her best to ignore it, straightened out, assuming as impeccable posture as she could mange, and pulled her belt out, wrapping it around the stump of her arm.

‘I have about enough MP to stop the bleeding, but I can do that without wasting it just as well. Let’s hope my acting skills are good enough.’

She pushed the remaining mana into her vocal organs.

HAHAHAHAHAAA!!! BRING ME ANOTHER AND ITS MOTHER!

The elf before her dropped its next arrow, instead of sending it towards her.

She walked over to pick up her shovel.

‘Time works in my favor. As long as I can make them think I can kill them if they try anything funny, I will be able to recover without issues.’

“Oi, I get that you’re scared and stressed out, but stop shooting arrows everywhere. You might hurt someone thin skinned, and its pissing me off!”

‘Lol. Let’s tell them I treat their weapons like toys, maybe they’ll believe me.’

They believed her.

The elves poured out of the bushes, racing to the Lesser Dragons’ corpse, and started celebrating.

‘It looks like they weren’t all out to kill me. I bet that elder had some of his men, err… elves, wait on standby just to kill me, but they didn’t tell the rest anything.’

Good. They were jumping around, and squeaking so adorably, Irena might’ve been tempted to celebrate with them if she wasn’t barely standing. It would be a shame if she had to make them all pay for their treachery.

Irena started pushing every bit of her recovering mana towards her stump, and walked over to the lesser dragon’s unmoving body.

“I’m gonna eat much more than just your left paw.” “Hey, people! I’m gonna need some fire, let’s cook that bastard!”

The elves cheered, only a few remaining silent.

Ding!

{[Self Regeneration] reaches level 14}

‘Oh, good, the wound is nice and sealed.’

She redirected her mana from healing, instead focusing on recovering MP.

‘Let’s just wait now. They’ll probably ask for my help in hauling that thing back. Oh well, let’s slack off by pretending to be doing something important. I do have stat points to allocate, after all.’

Name: Irena Bestla

Class 1: [Giant Longunter] LV. 29

Stat points: 44

Class skills:

[Hunter’s perception II] LV. 1

[Untouching stride] LV. 8

[Ethical strike]LV. 8

Innate skills:

{Size manipulation} LV. 1

{Faes’ shyness} LV. 2

{Self regeneration} LV. 14

General skills:

{Identify} LV. 2

{Maata Standard language, LV 3.}

{Linguistic Leap, LV 5}

{Flame manipulation. LV. 11}

{Dismantle LV. 4}

{Biological poison resistance} LV. 7

{Chemical poison resistance} LV. 1

Stats:

Vitality: 40

Endurance: 30

Strength: 82

Intelligence: 30

Dexterity: 30

Wisdom: 45

Health : 61/400

Mana 13/450

Stamina 91/300]

‘Fuck it, I’m too tired to be thinking about it, let’s just put a 10 in vitality, 5 in wisdom, 4 into strength, 10 into dexterity, because that fucking lizard wouldn’t have dodged me if I pumped it higher, and ten into intelligence, maybe it’ll help me figure out how to flatten just this elder and no one else.’

Stats:

Vitality: 50

Endurance: 30

Strength: 86

Intelligence: 40

Dexterity: 40

Wisdom: 50

Health : 64/500

Mana 16/500

Stamina 91/300]

'Huh. I got a lot of levels out of it, compared to that time with a lynx. Was this croc worth more because it's supposed to be a dragon?'

‘Whatever, I'm gonna grab something to eat.’