It's still in the middle of the night, lately, I barely spent any time sleeping, right now I also feel like that rest gave me 8 full hours of sleep. That's great for me, who wants to live in both worlds. The more time I have on my hands, the more I can do. I really lead a busy life.

Tomorrow I should visit Silvia again. Ah, I am still wearing the kimono. With Item Box, it's really easy to change my equipment. Though while I say that it took me some time to master this. Anyway, it's convenient now that I can use it.

Wearing my old armor and wielding my heavenly sword, I realize... wearing armor is actually super annoying. It restricts my movement like crazy. I won't be fighting anything strong, so I should be fine without armor tonight. I should still be careful, the monsters in this forest are more active at night.

After getting ready, I go out for some hunting. It's time to grind a bit after such a long time!

* * *

Name

Flame Boar

Level

300

Magic

3,000

Strength

5,000

Defense

2,000

Agility

2,000

Intelligence

400

Luck

300

I shoot an arrow at the boar, giving it a swift death.

"Easy."

The sun is rising. I've hunted a decent amount of Goblin Generals and Flame Boars tonight. During my vacation, I mainly hunted Goblin Elites to level up. I want to mainly focus on monsters I can 1-shot when leveling up. Killing higher-level monsters is too inefficient. At least I thought so...

When hunting Goblin Elites, I could kill many of them at once, as they always traveled in large groups. But going even a bit deeper into the forest, I couldn't find any other monsters in groups. Considering the time, I spend searching for monsters, I could probably fight some monsters of higher level and still be better off efficiency-wise. The only problem would be, that I would also be in at least a minimum of danger.

Thanks to my skills, I should be able to easily fight monsters with higher stats than myself now. Even a Golden Fury Ape should be possible, my stats are a little under half of his, but now I have many more skills and even magic. If I play m---

"Hmm?"

I just detected a strong monster in the area, usually, nothing far above the level of the Flame Boars should be walking around here. I wonder if I should check it out. This would be the safest environment to fight a stronger monster, as no other strong monsters are around. It could also be fleeing after being wounded by another monster, which would make killing it much easier, but there would be a chance of the predator to come after us while I finish it...

I do prefer being 100% safe, but I should at least check things out. I should take my chance this time!

After getting closer I can hear noises of something being eaten, stealthily I get even closer and look at the monster. A type of yellow panther...? There is a lot of blood all over him, I can't really see whether it is hurt or not, but I can't think of another reason for it to come this far out of its habitat. It's eating... some disgusting-looking black mass...

If it is too strong for me, I'll just teleport home instantly. From what I can tell it definitely has higher stats and a higher level than me, the feeling is the same as with the Golden Fury Ape.

Name

Bloody Venom Panther

Level

910

Magic

12,000

Strength

17,000

Defense

8,000

Agility

43,000

Intelligence

"KUAH!"

I barely block the dash of the panther, but I still fly back a good distance.

CRACK!

My flight was stopped by a tree. This fucking hurts!

A blood-red ball is flying towards me!

I quickly dash to the side, evading the red ball. The red ball creates a large explosion after colliding with the tree at high speed. Blood magic? This is seriously bad.

The panther keeps pressuring me using both its high speed and magic.

Using, what I consider, minimal movement, I can barely keep up. But I don't have any leeway to cast teleportation. Isn't this panther as strong as Jubokko?!

I can only continue defending for now. This would be the perfect time to use saved-up consumables... but I have nothing like that. I could try and move our location while fighting, but that won't help either. If I was near my home, I could do that to call for help from my Jubokko. Sadly, that won't be an option with the current distance. If I had even a little bit more leeway, I could cast teleportation, but as it stands right now, I can barely afford to think of a solution.

"KUUH! SHIT!"

I was hit again, this time I was actually hurt... This is bad, this guy definitely uses venom. I still have nothing to fight poisons, no magic, skill, or potion.

At least he stopped his attacks for a second, he must think he already won.

Something is wrong. He didn't stop, he is preparing to jump, but this speed... Time is flowing slower? What is this situation...?

I'm not sure, but I should use this opportunity to teleport!

Just as I am casting, I notice that I landed in the black mass the panther was eating before our fight. Umm, isn't this...?