I quickly put the two new attribute points I got from leveling into Wisdom since I had a sudden urge to have more void mana. Sure, the spell took quite a while to cast, but the results spoke for themselves. The MaxMP gain from Wisdom was getting higher for every five points that I invested, so these two points gave me ten MaxMP each, which was a stark contrast to the three points I used to get per point invested.

It didn’t take long for other monsters to come by and check out what the commotion was about. A few aquatic monsters carefully poked their heads out of the water and I saw a few others sneaking closer through the bushes. The air was tense, and if I had to guess, they’d be at each other's throats soon enough.

Well, I didn’t want any part of that, so I rushed to activate my stealth passive, and just to make sure I cast Void Cloak as well. I was fairly certain that this made me completely untraceable to everything on the third layer, so I just sat back and enjoyed the show.

Well, everything except the hunter, probably. But I wasn’t exactly keen on finding out.

Just as I’d thought, a fight broke out, with the monsters going at each other, fighting over the loose scraps left over from the hippogriff. The land-based monsters were a huge three-headed snake, a small imp that was flinging around air spells like they were free, and a panther that seemed to change fur color like a chameleon. While in the water, there was the weird tentacled monster trying to grab onto the combatants, and a shark poking its head out while shooting water bullets at anything that moved.

All of the fighters had to strike a balance between attacking each other and dodging the constant barrage of water bullets and air blades. In short, it was chaos. I almost got hit by a stray projectile several times, but just held my ground and activated my defensive skills, just in case.

It was tempting to throw another Void Javelin into the fray, but I wasn’t sure if that would cancel my cloaking. I’d have to test that out later. Instead, I started firing out some concentrated Poison Needles, celebrating every time I hit something. It really was a lot easier to hit my shots now.

The fight continued with nobody emerging as a dominant force, but then everything started shaking. I looked around, concerned about what could be the cause, and eventually laid my eyes on a charging beetle.

It was huge and was approaching with all the subtlety of a tank. A massive horn was lowered to the ground, easily clearing any trees daring to stand in the beetle's path. The others were a tad too busy fighting each other to notice the impending doom, but both the puma and the snake managed to dodge in the nick of time. They probably either felt or saw it coming, a luxury the imp didn’t have.

It was speared on the horn, dying instantly. Unfortunately, the beetle seemed to have a one-track mind and hadn’t accounted for the lake. So it careened into the water immediately after goring the imp.

Eight tentacles emerged from the water, immediately grabbing a hold of the foolish monster, not giving it a chance to get back to shore. It was then that I realized that the tentacles actually belonged to the shark. What kind of fucked up abomination was that?

The beetle’s shell managed to hold out for a while, but eventually, cracks started to form and it was crushed and shoveled into the shark's mouth. The puma and the snake were still going at each other, uncaring of the slaughter in the lake, but I could see that my poison was getting to both of them.

I was looking forward to getting another kill or two when two more monsters emerged from the bushes and joined in, while some avians started to divebomb the sharktopus(?). I sighed and prepared myself to wait out the brawl that was forming. I even canceled my cloaking, unwilling to waste my VMP when they were too preoccupied with each other.

If this would happen every time I used Void Javelin, I might as well shelve it for a while, so I could hunt in peace.

It took about an hour, but the fighting eventually died down, just like all the competitors. A whole bunch of bodies decorated the ground and three of the survivors seemed to have entered some kind of non-aggression pact because they were just eyeing each other while eating their spoils. Occasionally, a tentacle or two would sneak out of the water and grab another body.

I waited a bit longer until the participants had eaten their fill and left before coming down from my hiding spot. I made sure to keep a healthy distance from the water, lest the freaky shark gets me. That thing was A-grade scary. I watched it absolutely decimate everything that even thought about entering its general vicinity and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was close to the next tier.

I managed to snag up two mostly intact bodies that I deemed far enough away from the lake but left it at that. There was no point in getting greedy since I had more than enough food in my inventory, namely the fruits. Sure, gluttony made it so I could get some crazy value out of the bodies, even if I didn’t kill them myself, but I’d rather not risk being within range of the sharkraken.

I’d internalized the reach of these tentacles and I made sure to stay well out of reach, moving down the shoreline to get some distance from the battlefield, looking for a good spot to set up another ambush. A process that took decidedly less time now that I could move around faster. I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed my newfound mobility.

Eventually, I deemed myself far enough away from the bloodbath and went up another tree. My VMP had almost regenerated back to full, and my regular mana was topped up a long time ago. It was time to wait again, and then I’d check how well my concentrated poison needle stacked up against a tier-three monster. My bet was on it being pretty effective, after all, my Intelligence was pretty high, and that gave a bonus to status effect damage… plus, the concentrated poison was almost tier four.

Surprisingly, my next victim didn’t come out from the underbrush, but from the water. It was a crocodile type, but a lot longer than I was used to, had four sets of legs, and I was pretty sure its mouth ran halfway down its body.

I just shrugged(mentally), and prepared a single concentrated poison needle. I reveled in the fact that it only took me a single shot to hit it. Regaining my Agility stat really did feel like I’d found water after months in the desert.

The fucked up croc looked around for a bit, before entering the greenery of the oasis, lumbering away from me. I frowned a bit, but there were no rules saying it had to stay here and let me observe the effects of my poison. A bit miffed, I went back to waiting.

You have killed a T3 Lv.6 Garralosh

You have been awarded 2150 XP

You have been awarded 72 Data Points

You have leveled up!

So it worked out after all, huh? If I had to wager a guess, it took about five minutes until the Garralosh died. Not exactly fast, but it got the job done. I’d have trouble collecting the bodies of my victims like this, but hey, as long as it worked. For now, my goal wasn’t to collect bodies anyway, I just wanted to reach level twenty. And maybe keep an eye out for that fruit of evolution.

I did notice that the tier-three monsters gave out a lot more experience than their tier-two counterparts. Not like it mattered, since it took a lot more XP to level up in turn. The DP gain was nice, though. Some of the things in the shop had reset when I reached the second tier, so there was once again a short time benefit to collecting DP, instead of saving up for the bigger purchases.

Unfortunately, the price of these “per tier” items had also doubled. On the other hand, I’d saved up quite a bit of DP from my stint on the second layer, and I was now at just over 1300 points. If I bought out these items, that being, one mutation, five skill points, and five attribute points, I’d be spending exactly 800 points, which was worth it in my opinion. So while I waited, I quickly purchased all of it.

I quickly thought about what new mutation I wanted, which was definitely an upgrade to my spell-attuned brain, but I needed two mutations to upgrade it, so I shelved the mutation for later. The five attribute points were all shoved into Wisdom, still, with the purpose of getting more VMP, everything else I got from Wisdom just being a bonus.

Then, after a long time, I checked in on my skill tree again. It had been a long time since I received skill points from leveling, and now I had a whole eight to spend. Since it’d been a while, I’d more or less forgotten what I could even buy, but upon a quick read, quickly bought two nodes for four points each. One of them gave me a flat ten wisdom, and the other an upgrade to my poison.

Man, Pay to Win was a scam. I pitied the fools who didn’t have access to this system.

Crystalized poison (Passive) (C)

Your poison gets laced with tiny, sharp crystals that cut open the skin of your enemies. Making the skin absorb the poison, resulting in faster-acting poison.

After spending my DP and skill points, Wisdom was by far my highest attribute, sitting at a comfortable sixty-eight! I had almost a thousand MP, and close to five hundred VMP! At least I could absolutely spam all of my spells now… well, maybe except for giant spike. That spell still took a fifth of my mana to cast once.

With giant spike and void javelin, I had two spells that could absolutely demolish most monsters, and now I had the means to cast both of them without having to worry about being able to continue fighting if they shouldn't work. I briefly considered being able to fight the hunter, but quickly realized just how cocky I had become.

Just remembering that… thing made me shudder. Sure, if I made sure to activate Turret before I started casting, stacked up as many void javelins as I could, let them all fly at the same time, and then followed up with five giant spikes I could inflict some truly massive damage. But, like, what if it survived?

No, I was better off staying well out of dodge from the hunter until I was at the highest level of tier three. By then I’d have more of everything, and if I carpet-bombed it then, I was reasonably certain I could succeed. The point being, there was no way I’d engage the hunter unless I was absolutely certain I’d win.

My attributes were heavily skewed towards Intelligence and Wisdom, but that was alright since I was now on the path of a sorcerer. I was pretty comfortable with where my other attributes were right now, and gluttony would raise them slowly over time anyway.

I continued waiting until finally, another monster came to drink. At first, I thought it was another crocodile thing but quickly realized that this was more of a lizard. It was a huge thing, with a shoulder height of about two meters and a length of about four, albeit its tail made up almost half of that. Its scales were sand-colored, which would allow it to blend in perfectly out in the desert, but in the oasis, it stood out like a sore thumb.

Judging by the fact that it was bigger than the Garralosh I’d killed earlier, this one would probably take even longer to die from poisoning, so I quickly tagged it with a concentrated poison needle. Well, I did get a passive for faster acting poison just now, so it might not take longer after all.

The lizard approached the water without a care in the world and started gulping down large amounts of the drink. It was pretty close to me now, and I noticed a niggling thought in my mind, telling me to run away. It wasn’t that hard to ignore, really, but I wondered if the lizard had one of the aura skills I saw in the evolution menu. Fear, maybe? If so, that’d explain why it was just confidently strolling around, thinking that nothing would dare to attack.

A few minutes later, the lizard seemed to have drunk its fill and turned around. I briefly considered engaging with some poison spears, or just casting giant spear for shits and giggles since I now could, but decided against it. I had already resolved to give up on the bodies if it wasn’t convenient to collect them, so I just hit it with another needle and let it walk away. Unless it got in a fight with something else, I’d get the XP anyway, and that was what counted the most right now.

And sure enough, a few minutes later.

You have killed a T3 Lv.5 Komodo Assassin

You have been awarded 1800 XP

You have been awarded 70 Data Points

You have leveled up!

Already level five! I was leveling pretty fast, but I suppose that’s what happens when you hunt above your weight class.

I felt like I could be a lot more effective with my hunting, especially since I wasn’t constrained to a… snail's pace. I should be able to actively seek out monsters, using a combination of my passive stealth and void cloak, but I was still hesitant to use this method. The slow and methodical way of hunting I’d been using so far had somewhat burned itself into my very nature.

To add to that, there was a risk of triggering another mass fight, and since I didn’t have any reliable ways to get out of danger quickly, I much preferred this safe method.

I took a quick look at the sun’s position and determined that I should probably get back to my little hole in the ground. I’d eventually have to stick around at night to attempt to complete my bonus objective for this evolution, but that day was not today.

I quickly went back the way I came, the location of the earlier massacre still easily recognizable by all of the blood-soaked ground and body parts lying around. From there it was as simple as pushing into the oasis in a straight line away from the lake, and I eventually wound up back in my cave.

It took me a bit of searching since I hadn’t put any recognizable markings on the tree. Something which I’d need to fix tomorrow, but for now, it was time to get some shut-eye.