The night passed without any incident. Zalanir had even discovered a synergy that he had no idea existed: Sound Sense helped him overcome the shortest of Meditate. The gray mist from using the skill still obstructed his senses and reduced them to about 10% of their normal competencies — a number he made up since he had no way to gauge something like that with accuracy, but that sounded about right based on his experience — but now, possibly due to the existence of Sound Sense, he could still hear pretty well, all things considered. It wasn’t at his normal listening range, as that depended on the volume and frequency of the sound as well, but he felt like anything within about six meters was crystal clear to his ears. No sound could escape him in this “hearing sphere” of his.

  This discovery just made his meditation in the wilderness much safer all of a sudden. Except for some fast and long-range attacks, or expert stalking that created no sound, he doubted any of the melee attackers could catch him off-guard. His mind now could focus on understanding the soul or trying to dissect what ambient magic was without reserving too much of a concern for his security.

  Zalanir continued his search for worthy monsters to kill, but found none until late noon. Even then, it was just a group of level 40s sunflowers being triggered — or seduced — by the scent of the brocade bag and decided to attack him. Killing them gave him no level, which was expected, but where they came from caught his attention and made his heart pound.

  In their direction, which was closer to the middle of the valley, lay a giant snail. Its size was that of a single person office table. Or rather, its shell, to be correct, as he didn’t see its body. It could be way bigger than that when the body came out. Dark-green mosses and vines littered the cube brown shell, though the edges themselves were rounded rather than sharp. A corner even looked like a slide, likely being cut by something in a clean motion.

  After using Identify, Zalanir grinned to his ears. Luck was really on his side.

  [Murkvine Dawdler — Level 49]

  It was a snail, so it should be slow, right? Its enormous size and the potential differences between this snail and its Earth counterpart might reverse the expectation, but he would bet on it being a sluggard. No reason to believe in anything else unless proven otherwise.

  Zalanir crept ahead until he was about three meters away from the monster. This distance should be enough for him to hit most of the bolts, while still leaving him with enough distance to back off in case things went south. Considering how tough the shell looked, earth bolts would be his preferred choice.

  But then he stopped. Why opened with Adaptability Bolt when he had something superior for the opening in the form of Sonic Lance? The snail was sleeping anyway, so there was no way it would react and interrupt him mid-channeling. This could be the time for him to test out how powerful a full channeled Sonic Lance was.

  With the method settled, Zalanir backed off two steps and started to channel the skill. He had used it several times already, but this would be the strongest attack that he could muster at the moment, with everything full and his mind clear.

  Orange light started to shimmer on top of his shoulder, slowly warping into the form of a long and thin diamond head. Then came the shaft extending to the back as time trod on. After six seconds, his shoulder began to tremble. The lance now was about one meter in length, and it finished at about one and a half when Zalanir couldn’t hold on to it longer without the risk of having his shoulder dislocated. Even though it was purely light and magic, its weight was as heavy as a large stone or any concrete material.

  Eight seconds were his limit for now. The skill didn’t mention any limit to the channel duration, so this could be one that grew with him. Perhaps one day he could form a giant lance the size of a mountain. That would be so dope.

  Zalanir smiled. This could be his very first serve in this world. The snail was at the T, four meters away from his spot. If he could land an ace down the T at eighteen meters away in a real match under the gaze of thousands of people, there was no way he could miss one at this distance. He coiled and tilted his body, with his chest facing the sky and his left hand in a trophy position. Then, with an imaginative racket in his right hand, he pushed the elbow forward, dropped the racket head down and immediately swung the racket in a fluid and complete rotating motion. The lance — aka the ball — slammed into the immobilized shell and bang, exploding into orange sparkles and mist.

  The ground actually trembled from that explosion. Light, but it did move. The sound also echoed off the two cliffs on each side, repeating and layering bang, bang, bang until it ricocheted off into the vast, dim sky. Some snowflakes seemed to be even affected by that ping-pong effect, blowing up and scattering in unconventional patterns.

  Through the orange lens, Zalanir saw the shell being drilled with a big and deep hole. A web of cracks formed around, free of mosses and vines. It was lifted up two seconds later, and a stone gray beast emerged from under it. Two pairs of long, curling tentacles wavered in the air, each with a perked purple, hollowed pupil on the top.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  It’s game time! Zalanir unleashed a barrage of earth bolts toward the exposed creature, and pre-emptively created a shield on top of his left arm just in case. The monster was indeed slow, as it got hit by four out of the five projectiles squarely on the shell. If it were the garrle yesterday, it would have dodged these with ease with some acrobatic bullshit already.

  Though the snail was slow, its attacks weren’t. Two vines stretched from its back toward him at a similar speed that rivaled his bolt. He only managed to block one with his shield. The other vine sliced his right thigh like the sharpest knife in the world, making him lose his foothold and stumble onto the ground.

  Rolling to the side to dodge a vine slam, Zalanir quickly got back to his feet and started running away. He had already landed a solid opening attack, so there was no need to stay in range of its attack while his spell was on a cooldown. He received two other deep cuts on the belly when trying to get away, but then the situation changed when he got far enough. At this distance, he was comfortable stopping one while avoiding the other, as well as firing off bolts whenever the skill was off cooldown. Even though only one or two of the bolts landed, it was still enough to cause the beast problems and whittle it down. Zalanir wasn’t in any rush, so why not play safe?

  The dawdler changed its tactics after not being able to hit him a single time with its vine attacks. Still staying in place, it shot some black balls into the sky that exploded and rained down hundreds of thorns. Zalanir got hit by some of these pesky thorns, and soon realized what he had to deal with now: poison.

  It wasn’t as potent as the bush that took out the grasshopper, but instead it made the contacted area go numb and itchy. His health bar continuously flickered, but not with the strong, vibrant signals when his health dropped below 20%. In this case, it just kept on draining his health away with some light purple pulses. It wasn’t much — about 0.25% every five seconds or so — but still, it was enough to make him reconsider his foolproof approach. If his math was correct and he couldn’t finish it in about one hour or so, he would be in serious trouble.

  Right after the monster hurled another thorn ball into the sky again, Zalanir started to channel Sonic Lance. It had stopped using its vine completely, and he could certainly tank one of these balls to take advantage of the three seconds interval after each of its throws. It hurt like hell when tons of thorns pierced his back, neck, and shoulders, but no pain, no gain.

  He moved toward the monster while channeling Sonic Lance and cast Wind Rush to counter the slow effect and dash forward when the snail launched another ball of thorns. The effect wasn’t enough to offset the downside entirely, but enough to get him to the edge of the thorn bombardments.

  When the vines came out again, it had been a solid five or six seconds already, so Zalanir served the lance again. It wasn’t at full power, but still enough to give the snail a temporary disorientation, from the look of it. The vines were being pulled back before they even reached him, saving him from paying with his own health.

  The reason for that came clear a second later. After the orange hue around the monster scattered away, there was only the shell left, now with another hole and its own cracked web. Its body appeared to retreat into the shell already. But wasn’t that just stupid? Did it really hope for the poison in his veins to do all the work? He had no idea how poison worked, and he would examine it later, but he had full beliefs that he could take this dumb monster out before he succumbed to the poison effect.

  Thus, he just stayed in place and launched a salvo of earth bolts every three seconds, and then cast a full power Sonic Lance whenever it was available. After three Sonic Lances that drained his mana down to one-fourth of its full bar, the kill notification finally came.

  You have slain [Murkvine Dawdler — Level 49]

  The experiences were surprisingly not enough to push him to the next level, but it must've been close already.

  The dawdler’s shell was shattered into three big pieces and tons of smaller ones, exposing its curled up body inside. Yellow liquid smudged and splattered inside its house and around its body. It could be blood or mucin, Zalanir wasn’t sure, but he didn’t feel tempted to find out anyway. The reason he came over was the red pearl-like object that stuck under one of the broken shell pieces that caught his eye. He had no idea what it was, as he wasn’t a malacologist, but not like he needed to, because this world had Identify. What a handy skill!

  [Dawdler Bead] — Uncommon: Cultivated by a dawdler by expending its energy, this bead stores nature energy and can be used in various ways.

  This was the first time he had ever got an item from killing a monster. The description didn’t hint much about its usage, and it wasn’t like he could just eat it to absorb the energy, as it was as hard as a rock, and fairly disgusting since it was manifested inside a snail. No, it was useless to him until he figured out its application, but it was still an uncommon item, so there was no way he would throw it away. Zalanir tucked it deep into his pants pocket. He couldn’t let the same situation as with the silver coin happen again.

  Then, he shifted his attention toward the poison currently coursing through his veins, or so he interpreted, as he didn’t really feel its presence except for the itch. The last time with the herb bush ended too quickly with him plucking the poison out, but now with a less potent one, he needed to test it out. How long would it last? It shouldn’t last indefinitely, right?

  The answer appeared to be just shy of ten minutes. He didn’t do anything, just sat in one place and sensed his body. The itching effect lessened overtime and vanished on its own. His health bar had also stopped flickering as a result. So it seemed like he had overestimated the effectiveness of the poison attack from the snail. His calculation of one hour earlier perhaps remained only right if the poison was applied with consistency. Maybe that was what the snail was trying to do, launching those balls at fixed intervals like that.

  Getting his resources filled again, Zalanir continued on with his exploration.