“Damn it!”

A whip crack pierced through the jungle as Raidishier jumped aside and initiated combat with the incoming yellow lizard, and even before he’d taken any damage began cursing his starting equipment.

‘I completely forgot about that!’

Though Raid knew he didn’t fully need to rely on being stealthy to safely cross through the jungle thanks to his Class’s unique perk, remaining silent would definitely help him avoid the things that still had a chance of being aggressive...which is why it sucked to be stuck with a whip. His every normal melee attack was an alert to all creatures within earshot of his presence, and most beasts kept their clamor to a bare minimum for a reason!

‘Yikes!’

The Monster Tamer banished his noise concerns to the back of his mind as he outmaneuvered the reptile again, barely dodging its tiny, but powerful, claw swipe aimed at his leg. For now he had to concentrate on surviving the current fight so that he could worry about being sneaky later.

“Concussive Crack!” Raidishier yelled, activating his only magical offensive ability with a mental tug. A new, energized sensation immediately washed through the Monster Tamer’s body at an incredible speed, originating from his chest and traveling down his right arm, which he was performing a normal melee attack with. No fancy flashes of light exploded from his weapon, but when the whip end struck the lizard’s head, the creature’s legs stopped functioning and it crashed, looking like a lonely guy in a bar who had a few too many drinks.

The boy thanked his lucky stars that his attack didn’t miss the head--because that was the skill’s only requirement for its effect to be displayed--and quickly took the high ground on the fallen log before striking out again with mundane melee attacks. The Concussive Crack only afforded him a couple seconds of freedom, which unlike in real life, was not enough to end the life of the lizard or escape. If he’d come across the bright-yellow creature in real life all Raid would have to do was stomp the pesky thing to put it out of its misery due to his weight advantage. However, Aff didn’t work like that because of the attributes system, and just as he couldn’t instantly kill the beast while it was stunned, he couldn’t outrun it. Likely, most of its physical stats were higher than his, which could be reasoned by the fact that it didn’t immediately begin casting magic, instead choosing to brawl.

Thus Raidishier could only use the seconds it was stunned to acquire slightly better positioning and land a few more shots before it roused and came at him again...or so he thought it would. Instead of continuing its attempt at clawing or biting the human to death, the beast began to glow as it emitted crackling sounds. Almost too late did the teen realize the connections between being bright-yellow, starting to glow, and the crackles, as he fell backwards off the log in time to dodge the pencil-thin bolt of lightning. It had both physical and magical prowess!

Fortunately, falling in Aff did not work the same way it did in real life, or else Raidishier’s primary hand might have been fractured, which would have been a devastating injury to sustain within the deadly jungle. Instead of that horrifying alternative, he only lost a few HP from the fall...then nearly a quarter of his entire health pool when the lizard jumped on him and he was forced to bat it away with his non-dominant arm.

“Aaarrggghhh!”

Raidishier roared through his teeth as pain shot through his left arm, having been clawed by the lizard when he hit it. However, it wasn’t as bad as what he’d suffered under the fists of Runn1ng, nor nearly as HP-draining as what would have happened if he hadn’t raised his arm in time. Raidishier got to his feet in seconds, teeth gnashing, left arm limp, but right arm fully capable of and already lashing out with the whip.

The fight went on for only a few minutes, but those hundreds of seconds had the same impact as hours on the boy as he huffed for breath, slumped down with his back against a tree, the body of his enemy lying beside him. One-on-one combat against a monster, unlike with another player, was typically very slow and harsh. It encouraged players to fight in parties and learn group combat to support each other for greater efficiency, because the alternative was what Raid just experienced--a long dance of trading blows and dodging, the slow drain of stamina, and only one kill as reward...all the while leaving himself open to more predators.

Sure, Raidishier kept all the experience from the fight, and even gained bonuses for killing something of a higher level, but...that only bumped his 2/10 EXP to 4/10, meaning he’d have to do the same thing another three times to reach Level 2. By the EXP numbers that didn’t seem bad, but when one accounted for the stress....

Raid had once attempted to follow Michael’s personal workout routine instead of sticking to his own, resulting in such strain and absolute feelings of weakness that he nearly puked and wanted nothing more than to pass out to rid himself of the nausea… He hadn’t even completed the workout. Such waves of exhaustion buffeted the boy now after fighting the Level 2 lizard, so could he do it three more times before the sun set?

On top of simply being difficult to execute due to the burdens single combat against a higher-level monster placed on Raidishier, he knew it would take upwards of half an hour to regain his stamina and much longer to regen his lost HP, because of his lack of...anything. Higher-quality food, potions, magic, sleep, or a simple campfire would all go a long way by increasing his passive resource regeneration or simply refilling them on the spot.

But he had none of them. His only food consisted of the simplest bread--which did not aide him in any way besides allowing him to passively regen at all through having a full stomach--he lacked potions, resource regeneration magic, a campfire, all the ways to make them, and was out in the wilderness where sleeping was a death sentence without anyone to guard him.

Nevertheless, Raidishier did not give up hope. The battle against the Level 2 lizard and sustaining the injury he had was within his expectations. The teen’s only concern was needing to wash off his blood so that the grotesque smell didn’t encourage predators to attack who wouldn’t have before. So long as he located a source of water--which wouldn’t be difficult because he extensively studied the path he planned to trek--he would be fine to continue as he had.

Thus, the Monster Tamer marched on.