Zeke stood disregarded by the entrance of his cave, watching the thieving lizard slurp down the bog meat, making eating noises he'd thought previously impossible.

This was an issue.

There wasn't enough daylight to hunt another animal, more importantly, there was no way Zeke would roll over and allow his cave to be stolen by some stupid lizard. Tonight would not be another meal of moss for Zeke! The few berries he collected might suffice as a meal, but he had been looking forward to dinner since the morning.

The lizard had a slender figure, bright yellow scales with patches of dark green, green feathers also lined its neck, much like a lion's mane. It stood on a pair of muscular legs, finished with a single nasty talon on each foot, it's claws also look razor-sharp and ready to tear into any obstacles. Two rows of jagged teeth tore into the rather sizable bog leg on the floor as it's tail slowly swayed in the air.

Zeke was very happy to have arrived when he did, any sooner and he would've been ambushed in his cave, any later and he would've found it while it wasn't distracted by a tasty snack. He was pretty lucky to discover the lizard when he did.

Maybe with the element of surprise he could take his recently acquired stone sword to the creature's unguarded back, though it didn't seem like the smartest idea. Once it turned around he'd have to fight two pairs of deadly appendages, not desirable. No Zeke had a better idea.

Zeke would definitely kill it, the potential for attributes was very tantalizing, and mused the lizard meat probably tasted just as good as bog.

Silently Zeke backed away, mindful of the twigs and looses rocks on the ground. He place down the backpack by the cave mouth and pulled out the stone sword as he clambered above the cave's entrance. There was an audible scraping of feet and hands on rock, but the lizard was too enthralled in it's meal to react.

The plan was similar to the first goblin encounter. Hide around a corner and jump it as it went by. Simple and safe, no heroics here.

Perched above the cave, the would-be beast assassin waited patiently, confident the lizard hadn't noticed his presence or scent, still keeping surprise on his side. He sat there listening to the ripping and crunching of the thief's dinner. The sounds made him strangely hungry too, even if they were vomit inducing.

An eerie silence preceded the eating noises abrupt end.

A light clicking noise could be heard emanating from the darkness in the cave, the talons hitting the stone floor as it moved about. Zeke briefly considered the possibility that the lizard might choose to stay in the cave, leaving Zeke to spend the night to the open elements. If that were the case then he could just wait for it to go to sleep, hopefully it was a deep sleeper.

Thankfully, a slow clicking signified the beast approaching the exit, coaxing Zeke to tense up.

A scaled yellow face poked out, preceded by a feathery green mane. Blood and gore was slathered around it's razor sharp toothed mouth. It curiously scanned the forest, it had in fact, seemed to notice the rather primal strench of Zeke's odour, just not from where. Something it didn't need to search long for, as the man in question had just dropped themselves from above.

Absolutely determined not to undershoot the neck and hit the back like he'd usually did, Zeke launched himself the moment the lizard poked it's head out.

With a sword held in front in both hands, he made a deadly descent to the exposed nape of the intruder's feathery neck.

The strike was true and lodged it's self straight through the neck, pass the throat, and protruded from the exit wound. The sword's hilt wasn't able to withstand the impact of Zeke's full weight and the blade snapped, leaving it stuck the lizard's neck. Zeke tumbled by the lizard's claws and avoided them by landing a solid kick to the ribs as he fell to the leafy ground. He grumbled internally as he scrambled to his feet. He intended to mount the beast's back where it would be safe from the nasty curled sythes that passed as claws and talons, but shit happens.

The Lizard gurgled out a fountain of pale blood as it thrashed into nearby by trees. It clawed weakly at the embedded blade, which only served to make it bleed faster. Zeke was staring dumbfounded as the final drop of life-blood left the lizard's body and it slumped down a young tree, coating it in a layer of blood.

As the lizard hit the floor with a soft thump, a brisk sprint brought one of Zeke's many daggers into it's head. The whole 'fight' didn't even reach the 10 second mark, the most dangerous opponent to date was somehow the easiest to dispatch.

Level Up!

Level Up!

You've reached level 6

+ 6 Attribute Points

Easy peasy. Zeke grinned at the easy win, freelo. Jumping from above with a sword to the neck was something he should try more often, once he gets a new sword of course. Just to show how intelligence can trump raw killing prowess.

Zeke went giddy as he placed both hands along the lizard's back. A creature this scary was sure to hold a serious attribute bonus, that's if the skill was successful. God he hoped it worked this time.

"Avarice"

Mana poured into Zeke. The mana had a rough texture and slow flow, Zeke noticed that the slow mana flow in the mana had a unique characteristic of escaping his 'sight'. It resembled a type of mana camouflage, something interesting and he would try to replicate later.

As he reached the peak of the skill's mana culmination, the lizard mana began to fizzle, dispersing into the air without transferring any power. Another failure.

Zeke punched the cadavar in rage.

He punched again, and once more for good luck.

He raged at the constant chain of failures he had faced recently. Was it some unnoticed variable? Or was it just plain bad luck? perhaps it wouldn't work with certain things? He didn't mind the goblin failures earlier and just brushed them off, but this lizard was clearly a superior monster, one that would grant Zeke a significant boost to his stats.

So far Zeke had retrieved attributes from the 2 bogs he killed, nothing else, not even the several goblins he'd taken out or the lizard. Maybe Avarice was picky and only liked bogs?

Musing the ability, Zeke concluded it was probably just bad luck, after all, the ability did function on every corpse he'd killed. Just plain old bad luck, something he had by the bucket-full.

He chased away the negative thoughts after a moment of deep breathing and began carving off the lizard's smaller front arms. The smaller appendages probably held the tastiest meat. The scales proved to be a little less durable than the bog hide he cut through earlier. In just a few minutes he had removed the arms. With a meal sorted he carved out the two giant foot talons and finger claws, a couple of teeth too, he was sure he'd find some purpose for them. He didn't even bother trying to skin the hide, he wasn't sure how. Now that the looting had finished he hoisted the body on his shoulders and dumped the remains a good distance away from his cave to fertilize the plants, but mainly to keep other lizards away while he slept.

Returning to his home Zeke nimbly skirted around the huge pool of quickly drying lizard blood that covered the area, like a giant red doormat. He didn't have a method of clearing it, and it would definitely attract other carnivorous, but he'd just cross that bridge when he got to it. He wasn't just going to abandon house and strike out elsewhere, he'd grown attached to the little cave. He resigned to just prepare for any potential visitors and ignored it for now.

The tired hunter threw the collection of sharp keratin to the side and splayed out on the cave floor, using his remaining loincloths as a makeshift pillow. It smelled like dirty dog, but Zeke wasn't much different and deemed the comfort greater than the smell.

He casted a couple of blood regenerations, not because he was injured, but just to aliviate a general soreness and fatigue.

He stoked the softly glowing embers and skewered the lizard arms on a stick. The small flames licked the roasting arms that hung above as Zeke entered his meditation, as he wasn't willing to watch the meat cook, if he mediated for a bit, it would cook in a jiffy.

He drifted inwards a tried to remember the composition of the lizard's mana, it was slow yet elusive. He used his leg's mana as a testing ground for the experiment, he gathered a small amount of mana and willed the flow to a stand still. While not a complete stop, the mana slowed down to a sedated speed, just enough to keep it from stagnating. Zeke wondered what would happen if the mana fully stagnated, if he had to guess, something not good.

+1 Mana (26/40)

Zeke frowned, whilst he slowed the flow to speeds even slower than that of the lizard's, he still didn't achieve the same camouflage it had. Zeke reasoned that if the lizard had a mana camouflage, there must have been a monster capable of sensing mana in this forest. If Zeke had managed to acquire the same camouflage and maybe even improve upon it, he'd be much safer.

Skill Earned: Mana Concealment

Maybe his attempts wern't as fruitless as he thought?

He had earned the skill, but to Zeke, the mana he slowed down was just as visible as the fast flowing mana, there was no changed at all!

He conjured the infomation on the skill.

Mana Concealment: By crippling one's own flow of mana, one can make themselves mostly hidden to mana sensing. This skill prevents one's mana from naturally recovering while active.

Realisation dawned on the man. It made sense that it wouldn't be possible to hide his own mana from himself, such an effect would be quite useless, possibly even dangerous. He was also glad that he was able to so cleanly mimic the lizard's special mana, even though Avarice had failed to take any power, it still gave a unique insight of the target's mana. This tidbit of knowledge reminded Zeke of how crazily powerful Avarice truly was, even when it failed it had a benefit. If he could figure out how take advantage of it.

The timing of earning his new skill matched perfectly with the lizard legs that had just finishing cooking. A soft meaty aroma wafted past his nostrils and dragged him out of the serene meditation. The meat had taken on a light brown tinge and juices dripped readily as in bathed in the heat. Zeke had to mop his own drool as he took in the majestic view. Grabbing a nearby dagger, he held one of the skewered legs and began brushing off the charred scales, leaving just tender meat behind.

Oh boy, real meat, not just some glorified cave grass, real, protein packed meat. Without missing a heartbeat, Zeke bit into the divine feast and he swore, that for a flash, he'd actually died and entered heaven as he bit down. Generous juices bursted into his mouth as his chewed, it was a bit leathery in texture, the flavour however was everything he'd dream it to be. The first leg was devoured lickity split, the man eyed the second, grabbed the dagger, set off and removed the charred scales again. This time, he ate while savouring the flavour, truly... delicious, he really wished he'd taken more meat from the lizard, live and learn.

With a satisfied tummy, Zeke nodded off next to the fire's warmth, content with a day full of death and consumption.