Chapter 15: Chapter 15
Darius collapsed in a heap. His body a ragged mess of sweat, panting, and pain. He had finally made it out of the forest with his continuous jogging, yet the effectiveness of the water had fallen far faster than if he would have just walked.
Towards the end, he had just been limp-jogging, fueled by the promise of the end being close as shown by the mini-map. The second he reached his goal, all his energy had bled away, leaving him as he was now.
With shaky hands, Darius gulped down the rest of the Pure Water, but apart from refreshing him, it had little effect on reviving his vivacity. He spent more than half an hour just like that, until his heaving chest subsided and all that was left was a sea of fatigue as well as aching limbs.
Darius felt his eyelids become heavy as the cool night breeze passed over him, its gentle touch seemingly carrying away his will to stay awake with each draft. He knew it would be a bad idea to sleep in a grassland like this, but the feeling of soft grass on his back and the cool wind magnified his tiredness greatly.
Without much resistance, Darius fell asleep.
* * *
Darius' brows furrowed as he felt himself rising from the depths of sleep. Coupled with slight grogginess, Darius was about to open his eyes when a foreign sound made him aware of exactly why he had woken up just now.
Something was currently sniffing his face as he lay there on the grass. Darius could feel a wet nose as well as the small but quick puffs of air that passed over his right cheek gently and curiously.
Darius cracked his eyelids open every so slightly, just enough for him to barely make out what was standing above him without alerting the other party that he was awake. His heart sank when he recognized that it was a large bear with beady red eyes and frazzled grey-black fur.
It looked very malicious and menacing, making Darius thankful that he had been smart enough to play dead. For now, the bear seemed content to check whether this strange fellow beneath it had passed on to Valhalla, and Darius used this chance to inspect it.
[Grey Bear - Level 3 Beast
HP: 20/20 MP: 2/2]
Darius shivered internally. Not only was this bear two levels above him, but it was also the first creature he had encountered so far that had mana, albeit just 2 points of it. If it had access to some sort of spell, or more likely a skill that utilized it, Darius would be in even more danger.
In his current posture, it was impossible for Darius to move his finger, for the Grey Bear would notice it. Even if he did, he wasn't sure he could fire off a spell before the large beast ripped out his throat or tore his face off.
He patiently waited for it to either step back or become distracted, giving him an opening to turn his shitty situation around, but the damned thing just continued to sniff him leisurely. Could it have developed a liking for the smell of humans?
Darius did not dare ask it, so he could only settle for waiting longer. Eventually, the Grey Bear did pull back a bit, but not in a way Darius liked. It raised its head a little and roared lightly, opening its mouth wide.
Darius didn't like the look of that, as it seemed like it was about to take a bite of the snack beneath it, so he directly raised his left finger towards the opened maw of the bear and shot off the Sparks spell.
Just like with the Reticulated Python, this resulted in a critical hit, though it was merely 3 points for now. However, what Darius had craved was the stun effect, which gave him the opportunity to roll away and rise to his feet quickly.
He noticed that his body was outwardly fine, apart from his clothes being messy and smelly from his sweat and lying in the grass. However, he had much more important things to worry about than his personal hygiene at that moment.
Unlike with the boar or the snake, the stun effect didn't even last a full second. The bear quickly rose to its feet, roaring in pain and anger. Darius guessed that either the bear had higher magic resistance than them or the level difference was beginning to show.
Whatever the case, he had an angry bear in front of him that was about the size of a small car and it looked like it was getting ready to charge at him. Darius did not dare to test his reaction speed against the bear's charge and attacked again with his only spell.
The Grey Bear received this on its face and cried out in pain, but otherwise shook off the stun effect even faster. Its HP dropped by another point, leaving with 16 more.
Darius was aware that he was truly fucked this time around. In hindsight, it might have been wiser to sleep in the boughs of a tree in the forest nearby rather than on the ground in a plains area.
However, he had expected prey animals to frequent plains, herbivores mostly. Since when did bears traverse the grasslands? Could it be that the bear had followed him from the forest he had exited?
It was extremely likely, as he had been noisy and conspicuous with his panting and jogging last night.
Hm… last night…?
Darius' mind ran at a speed faster than the events occurring around him thanks to his heightened Intellect and perception. He quickly drafted a hasty plan that required more luck and guesswork than skill and finesse, but he had to take the chance.
As such, by the time the Grey Bear began to barrel forward to smash him into paste, Darius had already stretched his hand forward and cast Sparks for a third time this fight.
The Grey Bear was further hurt but continued to rush at him through the pain. Darius had partially expected for a stun to not occur, and had therefore used the moment in which the Grey Bear had closed its eyes to protect them from the lightning by jumping out of its trajectory.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Kotario
Kotario I find the reactions to this chapter funny.
A few berated Darius for sleeping out in the wild, which is naturally dumb.
However, it wasn't he who wanted to genuinely nap there out of ignorance, but the fact he collapsed and practically fainted into sleep after jogging for 8 hours nonstop.
Someone said he should never have run in the first place and I find that even funnier. Was he supposed to sleep in this forest?
He just had an encounter with a huge snake on top of a tree, so what was preventing another one from taking a bite out of him if he tried that?
Chapter 16: Chapter 16
Now behind the bear, Darius quickly opened his Inventory and took out the unused spell manual as well as the python fang.
[Would you like to change the empty spell manual into a small fireball spell manual? This will cost 5 Conversion Points.]
[Would you like to change the Reticulated Python fang into a small teleportation scroll? This will cost 3 Conversion Points.]
Darius immediately assented to both. Since midnight had already passed, his points had naturally refreshed, meaning that he had 10 of them at his disposal.
Without wasting time, both items transformed into the final versions he desired. The glowing spell manual shook a little, its cover and spine changed to a bright red color while its pages emitted a low heat that was comfortable to the touch.
The fang also grew in shape until it became a roll of parchment that radiated greyish-black energy. Darius quickly inspected them both as the Grey Bear began to turn around.
[Ember Spell - Manual
Durability: 10/10
Description: Contained within is the required knowledge to cast the simplest spell of the fire element, Ember. Due to the high quality of the material and the penmanship, the success chance of learning the spell is increased by 100% while the effectiveness of the spell is increased by 500%.]
[Short Warp - Scroll
Durability: 25/25
Description: Travel instantly between two separate locations. The maximum travel distance is 25 Kilometers.]
Darius was greatly reassured after he saw the scroll's description, as it would be his getaway method in case things went sour. Right now, he wanted to fight against this bear for it would be a good chance to learn more about the methods of spell combat as well as the different tiers of experience gain.
Darius held the Ember spell manual as the Grey Bear began its charge once again.
[Detected spellbook. Would you like to learn its contents?
Warning: The spellbook will be destroyed upon using this method! Continue?]
Darius hastily consented and saw the large book melt into a reddish slush that poured through his ears and flowed into his brain.
[Ember - Level 1 Spell
Cost: 1 MP
Description: Send out a shower of fire that burns all foes within range. This deals 5% fire damage.]
For a split second, Darius became dazed as the knowledge assimilated with his brain and memories, turning him from someone who had just heard the spell name to someone who had spent months practicing it to perfection.
Unfortunately, that split second was all the Grey Bear needed to reach Darius, where he was promptly swatted away with its large paw. The poor fellow was sent flying, his back whomping into one of the trees that had formed the edge of the unnamed forest.
Darius gasped for air as his lungs had been emptied by the hit and subsequent crash, his struggled breathing yielding some spurts of blood from internal bleeding.
[You have suffered 34 points of damage!]
[You have been inflicted with the 'Mild Hemorrhage' status effect.
Effect; -0.1 HP per second for 10 seconds.]
[You have been inflicted with the 'Mild Fractures' status effect.
Effect; -2 points in Strength and Agility for 1 hour!]
Darius skimmed through the notifications with his partially stunned mind. As a person who had never truly gotten into a fight himself, the immense pain and trauma from the bear's 'love tap' had sent him into a slight shock.
However, Darius was able to shake it off rather quickly, not because he had overcome it, but because of his high Intellect stat increasing his mental faculties.
Just in time to roll away from the Grey Bear's follow-up charge, which would have otherwise crushed him against the tree. Instead, it was now the Grey Bear who had smashed headfirst into the very same evergreen and cried out in pain.
It had visibly harmed itself, its head bleeding profusely from the collision, and judging by the shaking of his head it must have gotten at least a mild concussion.
Darius thanked his lucky stars for this short break, as he slowly and shakily rose to his feet, paling from the pain of his slightly broken ribs rubbing against each other and his abdomen feeling as if someone had cut it open with a knife.
He first checked the remaining HP of the Grey Bear as well as himself.
[Grey Bear - Level 3 Beast
HP: 10/20 MP: 0/2]
It appeared that the ursine had used up his mana to empower his charge. No wonder, the collision had really harmed enough to make it lose 5 HP, which was equivalent to Darius' previous efforts.
[Darius Stone - Level 1 Itemancer
HP: 15/49 MP: 18/21]
He was not doing so good himself, left with less than one-third of his initial HP. Fortunately, he still had more than enough mana to spam the dazed Grey Bear to the next life.
Darius had no sympathy for his prey and alternated between casting Ember to increase the Grey Bear's agony as he showered it in scorching flame and used Sparks to singe its fur, as well as to prolong its daze.
The Grey Bear was unfairly bombarded to death by a barrage of low-level spells that should have required a casting-time or chanting if it had been any other mage.
The bear let out a dying roar and stayed down, its scorched body looking and definitely smelling worse than the Wild Boar or Reticulated Python's corpse. In fact, one could argue that the two of them had gotten the bigger end of the stick.
The moment the Grey Bear died, Darius received the rewards for his struggle.
[You have gained 80 EXP, 10 Bronze Ando Coins, and 1 Common Health Potion.]
Darius limped over to a tree and propped his body against it as he slid to the ground. He then focused more on what he had achieved, pondering what to do next when more screens came up before him.
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 2!
You have gained 5 Ability Points and 3 Skill Points to spend as you wish!]
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
6 Power
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