First things first, I took a handful of water, swirled it around in my mouth, then spat it out with a scrunched nose. Salty.

  I set up camp, stashing the large majority of my rations up in a tree and dug two pits in the sand: one for boiling water and one for making salt. While I waited for the pits to harden, I buried the leaf-wrapped meat and antlers and hid them under a bush with bright yellow berries.

  Once I finished all the preparations, I still had hours of daylight left, so I decided to scout out the surrounding area. With Iron circling above, I felt safe. He'd call out if he spotted anything out of the ordinary from his vantage point.

  I cast a glance at my status and confirmed that my stamina had almost fully recovered. It had only taken about half an hour for it to recharge, which was handy. Having such a quick recharge rate didn't make me feel like I had to carry around the last spear I summoned, but I still did. It started to disappear around the same time my stamina pool refilled.

  This could be trouble, I thought as the spear dissipated. If something like that happened during a fight, I could end up in deep shit. Hopefully, the higher the skill level, the longer the weapons would stay.

  This part of the forest was an hour or two away from the others, not far enough that I felt completely estranged, but far enough that I felt like I was making it on my own. A friendly distance. I still hadn't found an outer perimeter to the tutorial area. The trees were still white birch, and the canopy thick with green leaves.

  In my short trip into the surroundings, I found three more lakes. Most of them were about as large as the one in my glade, but none of them were as pretty. While debating what to do with my last remaining hours of sunlight, a roar shook the forest. It rattled my bones and awoke something primal in me.

  "What the hell was that..." I muttered and felt my pulse speed up. "Iron, lead the way!"

  Running through the woods, I found myself avoiding most sticks. I'm learning. I grinned and sped up a bit more.

  Minutes later, I found myself huddled in a pair of bushes. Iron circled above, keeping quiet. I could feel his unease through our bond.

  The ground shook, and the area was filled with wet snarls and thundering crashes. I moved slowly, making as little noise as possible until I could see what was going on. A short sprint away, the trees had been torn to bits and lay scattered throughout the woods. Relentlessly bathing the manufactured clearing with its warmth, the sun illuminated the scene in clear detail.

  My heart dropped. A pack of wolves was fighting what looked like a miniature dragon.

  [Hornback Drake LV???]

  Feeling my mouth dry at the question marks, all I could do was watch in awe as the drake fought. It had blue-tinted scales that shimmered in the sun and a tail as long as its body. The only thing about it that didn't look like a dragon was its lack of wings. Instead, it had a pair of spikes running alongside its body, starting from the shoulders and reaching all the way to its flank. Whenever a wolf lunged in to bite, it simply tilted its body and let them bite into the rock-hard spikes.

  Despite being as large as a car, it moved with the grace and finesse of a cat, each move tearing a wolf to shreds or sending them flying through the forest and into one of the many trees with a reverberating crack.

  Now this was a predator. This was a killer.

  Four wolves remained. They attacked the drake from all sides. With a swipe of its tail, the drake forced them back, turning the tables. It pounced at the wolf closest to me and bit down with teeth as large as swords. With a crunch, the wolf's mangled body was disfigured into a mess of flesh and bone. The drake spit it out like it was a piece of rancid meat and turned to face the last of the pack with a low growl.

  The wolves circled the drake, their fur standing on end as they crouched, saliva dripping from their bone-white fangs. One of them was larger than the others and had red lines of fur around its eyes like ominous eyeliner. I appraised it.

  [Direwolf Alpha LV??]

  "Holy shit," I muttered.

  Two apex predators were fighting right in front of me, and I would have been a fool to let such a golden opportunity slip by. Trembling, my fingers tore through space and summoned my spear. I waited as they kept fighting, hidden in the bushes while appraising the fallen wolves. A few of them whimpered, still alive. Their levels weren't hidden—unlike the alpha's and the drake's—and they ranged between 15 and 25. I swallowed, practically salivating at the chance of gaining a solid burst of levels. I couldn't be sloppy. Speed was the name of the game.

  Calling up the system, I finally invested my last free stat points into strength and felt the energizing surge ripple through my muscles. Maybe it was foolhardy to invest them shortly before taking a gamble, but leveling my strength from 7 to 9 resulted in an increase larger than 25%. Just by clenching my fingers around the spear, I could feel it.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The drake sent another wolf flying, straight toward me. Throwing myself to the ground just before it crushed me, I felt the wind pressure rustle my hair. It slammed into a tree a few steps away with a sickening crunch, breaking both its back and the tree in half.

  It's time!

  Pushing myself back up from the ground and dodging the falling tree, I burst into a sprint toward the wounded wolf and stabbed it straight through its chest. It stared wide-eyed at my sudden intrusion before its head fell lifelessly to the ground.

  Not sticking around to see if the fighting monsters noticed, I rushed away, making sure to stay behind the cover of still-standing trees as I made my way to the next wolf. It snarled and bit at me, but it couldn't reach without a set of working legs. Holding my spear near the bottom spike, I stabbed without entering the range of its snapping jaw. Flicking my spear away from its skull, the wolf snapped, spraying saliva onto my chest. Sweat trickled down my back as I recoiled and tried again, this time impaling it in the throat.

  A terrifying roar shook the surrounding trees. I glanced back to the clearing, watching as the two apex predators faced off against each other. My time was running out. Whirling around, I looked for my next target. I found it lying close to the central battle along with two others. They were the only ones still breathing and were half a soccer field away. Looking between the injured wolves and the raging battle, I was scared that my heart would beat out of my chest.

  I jumped in place, warming up my legs for a mad sprint, and slapping my face lightly with my free hand. "Come on Jax, you can do this shit! Go, go, GO!" I screamed and dashed forward with all the speed of 9 points in strength.

  Twigs whipped against my bare skin, and my hair fluttered in the wind. I crossed half the distance in less than two seconds and threw my spear at the wolf that looked like it might die at any moment. It tore through the distance in a moment and punched through its body with ease. The remaining two wolves looked my way, whimpering and howling at their alpha for help.

  Still sprinting and now much closer, I summoned a new spear and lunged at the closest one. It held its nose up to the sky as it howled, and I cut the song short as my spear pierced clean through its throat. Blood gushed out of the wound. I didn't bother pulling the spear out and drew my sword to kill the last. Throwing a diagonal cut, I opened my guard too much and had to watch in terror as it slashed at me with a set of dagger-like claws. They bit into my thigh at the same time as my blade tore through the wolf, almost cutting its head off.

  I bit back a scream and retreated while pressing my free hand against the wound. Warm blood flowed out and coated my only pair of pants. "Fuck," I moaned and felt the word echo in the woods. Why was it so quiet?

  I froze and turned to look at the clearing. Dread washed over me as I met the drake's cold reptilian eyes. The Direwolf alpha lay under its front paw, crushed and bleeding from multiple wounds. That had been a monster so strong I couldn't even see its level.

  I gulped and backed away, raising my hands in surrender. "Oh hey, I was just leaving... Stay calm... Good dragon..." My heart jumped as I stepped on a branch, cracking it in two. Sweat trickled down my face. The snap echoed endlessly through the forest. "Stay ca–"

  Interrupting my plea with a loud roar, the drake barreled toward me, leveling tree stumps and cadavers alike. I turned heel and pushed my injured legs as fast as I could, all the while screaming, "Fuuuuck!"

  Iron chirped like a pigeon gone mad. Was he accusing me of something? "I know!" I shouted back. Flaring pain traveled down my injured leg with each step. The drake's deafening charge was approaching. It was way faster than me; simply outrunning it was impossible.

  I racked my brain, trying to find a solution while praying to the system for some sort of divine intervention. If I could level up vitality and heal the wound, then escaping wouldn't be so god damn painful, at least. But the notifications weren't coming like I'd hoped.

  Gritting my teeth, I made a sharp turn into a large patch of ferns. They were as tall as me and tickled my face as I pushed through. Glancing back, I noticed a trail of red left in my wake and cursed under my breath. Then it hit me. Following the blood trail was how most hunters thought, right? Would the drake be any different? Probably not, I decided.

  I dug my fingers into the gash mid-stride, making my vision fill with black spots of sharp pain. Flicking my hand, I sent sprays of blood in random directions as I pushed deeper into the brushwood.

  Soon enough, the distance between us widened. When I could no longer hear its booming approach, I stopped to catch my breath. I tore off a pant leg and tied it around my thigh in hopes of slowing the bleeding. "Any ideas?" I asked Iron.

  My diversion wouldn't occupy the drake forever. In fact, I was surprised it had worked this well. While considering burying myself in the dirt, a muffled set of voices reached me.

  "This way! The drake is fighting!"

  I ducked into some bushes and watched as a group of black-cloaked figures snuck closer. They were wearing the same cloaks as the guys looking for survivors. Just as I was about to ask them for help, the system chimed.

  You have defeated [Direwolf LV16]

  You have defeated [Direwolf LV25]

  You have defeated [Direwolf LV21]

  You have defeated [Direwolf LV23]

  You have defeated [Direwolf LV15]

  Ironwrought Summoner reaches LV5

  Ironwrought Summoner reaches LV6

  ...

  Ironwrought Summoner reaches LV10

  Free stat points +24

  Skill up!

  Weapon Mastery: Spear +2

  Skill up!

  Summon Armament +2

  Spell up!

  Summon Familiar +1

  Sub skill gained!

  Enhanced Throw LV0

  Read ahead on !