The day after Si Sheng killed the pig, with his new set of gear, he set out with a goal of maxing out his level, which proved to be harder than he thought.
With Si Sheng's increased Strength and Agility, he could kill more creatures in a shorter amount of time.
In the first week after the double level up, Si Sheng leveled up again. He put all 50 points into Agility bring the total up to 110. He was easily able to outpace any creature on the side of the mountain. The pesky rabbits that used to escape him if he didn't use Sneak or Sprint, were now easy to catch just running after them.
Si Sheng had been eating all the creatures he killed with the hope that he'd acquire new skills, but no skills ever came up. He chalked it up to the animals being too low leveled, common, or already having gained the skill they gave. He wasn't too bothered by it as long as he got to eat and level up.
***
Before Si Sheng knew it, a month had passed.
"Status."
[Name: Si Sheng | Age:18 | Race: Human]
[Status: Healthy (Content)]
[Level 9/10 | Experience 638/1000]
[Titles: The Sin of Gluttony, Supreme Healer]
[Stats]
[HP: 1000/1000 | MP: 500/500]
[Strength: 100 | Intelligence: 50 | Defense: 50 | Agility: 150 | Vitality: 100 | Luck: 15]
[Attribute Points: 0]
[Skills]
[Awareness (F), Evil Eye (Eye of Understanding), Evolutionary Body, Fire Magic (D), Gluttony, Healing Magic (SSS), Presence Concealment (C), Repair (A), Sneak (F), Sprint (E), Swordsmanship (D), Water Magic (D)]
In that time, Si Sheng had reached level 9. He'd been grinding! His stats went through a radical improvement. At this point, with his strength, he could crush rocks with his bare hands, although small ones, run as fast as an Olympic runner for a second or two, and didn't get tired as easily allowing for more and longer hunts.
Additionally, with his increased Intelligence, Si Sheng had an even clearer memory and the world around him seemed clearer. This clarity was mainly due to his Evil Eye becoming enhanced along with his Intelligence. Along with the improved mental function, his magic had gotten more potent, which Si Sheng attributed to the increase in Intelligence since the rating of his magic skills hadn't improved over that short period of time. As for the aforementioned memory, having a photographic memory already, Si Sheng's memory became clearer instead of better. Meaning, instead of looking at memories through a slightly darkened view, like he was looking through a peephole, it now became clearer and he had a wider perspective when he looked back on memories. It was like comparing different resolutions for videos, 1080P would always be better than 144P.
As for his Defense, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good; he was still pretty vulnerable. Even with his defense, he had cut himself a number of times with the knives he'd made while cooking, which showcased how poor his defenses were. Good thing he was more of an assassin type with high Agility, so Defense wasn't a prerogative to him at this point. In due time, Si Sheng knew he'd have to increase it since he couldn't always dodge or assassinate his targets. There would be a time when he'd face an opponent with similar speed and strength to his own that would beat him simply because it outclassed him in defense.
He needed to get stronger and he wanted to get stronger. Looking at his status only made him more motivated to trudge forward.
***
As Si Sheng was going over his stats, he had a thought.
'Now that I'm fairly strong, I feel like I should take on something from the forest. It would be a good experience and I might get skills if I kill and eat a creature from the forest.'
He thought about it and thought he was ready, despite the numerous alarming creatures that he had seen during his time in the forest.
He came up with a plan. He would go into the forest in the afternoon and look for a weaker creature to battle. While entering the forest, he'd use his Sneak skill to not get detected while moving in the forest, although that wouldn't hide him from the stronger creatures, it was better than nothing. The skill was a lot less mana intensive than Sprint or Presence Concealment, so he could keep it active for a good amount of time before he had to stop. Plus he had raised his Intelligence stat and had a larger pool of mana at this point.
Si Sheng was determined and ready. He was gonna kill one, eat it, and grow stronger.
***
That afternoon Si Sheng stood at the edge of the forest peering into the dense foliage, light scattering across the ground like a disco of golden rays. He had mentally and physically prepared for this moment.
It had been more than a month's time since Si Sheng had arrived on the mountainside. In that time, he had learned and refined his tool-making skills and had much better weapons now. Si Sheng carried two knives, one on either side of him, that were as sharp as conventional knives, but were brittle due to being made from rock. Also, he carried a spear on his back that he had made for mid-distance fighting. It had a head that looked like a leaf made from the same basalt-like stone his knives were made from and had a smooth shaft made from the branch of a younger tree near the edge of the forest, making it flexible and easy to use.
He had also made basic armor from the leather of the numerous creatures, specifically a leathery bug. It was ironically called a Leather Shelled Beetle. Si Sheng had found a nest of these rather large yet weak creatures a couple of weeks ago. Their hide was perfect for armor making, as it was both flexible and tough. Despite that, Si Sheng was no tailor. He had no idea how to make armor or even clothes for that matter. In spite of this, he diligently learned and quickly made something good enough to be called armor. It protected his chest, back, arms, legs, groin, and head, leaving the neck, joints, and sides of his body exposed.
With his new weapons, armor, and stats, Si Sheng was ready to take a stab at the forest and try his luck. He would have to enter the forest at some point and entering now seemed like a good point in time since he was freshly kitted out and his stats were looking good.
As he entered the forest, Si Sheng made sure to remain cautious and proceeded slowly.
"Sneak."
Si Sheng activated his skill and entered the forest, becoming enshrouded in darkness and speckles of light.
***
Si Sheng didn't go far into the forest, he primarily stayed around the edge as further in was where those nightmarish creatures lived.
Wandering around the outskirts of the forest, Si Sheng hadn't seen any creatures that were noteworthy. He saw the typical rabbits and bugs, but they only gave him a small amount of experience, so he didn't bother wasting his energy at this time.
After searching for an hour, Si Sheng finally caught wind of something. He could smell a rather pungent odor drifting in from the grove up ahead. He approached it carefully, wanting to observe whatever demon lay in wait to snatch his soul.
As he peered into the grove, Si Sheng saw a rather small, white animal feeding on what appeared to be a deer carcass.
The scene was rather revolting, as the carcass was already decomposing and rigor mortis had set in a few days ago. There were maggots crawling throughout the slimy flesh of the deer like little gophers popping out of the ground. The flesh was purulent and many other fluids covered the body. The flies that were swarming the body were having a field day slurping up the delectable juices that were oozing out.
Half of the face was eaten off and the brain was entirely missing. The organs lay in a pool next to the body—some missing. The little creature was feeding on these organs ravenously as if it were cocaine and it couldn't get enough of it.
Si Sheng had seen some nasty things in his short life, but this took the cake. Seeing this ungodly scene, Si Sheng almost vomited but swallowed it back down in time. The smell combined with the visuals made for a masterpiece of revulsion. No matter how gross the scene was, however, he wasn't going to waste time being picky about which creature to kill.
To be frank, Si Sheng wanted to get out of the forest as soon as possible, thus, when he came across this grove and saw the small, white animal, he was prepared to kill it despite the horrid environment.
Sitting in the bushes, Si Sheng prepared to pounce on his prey. He got into position holding his knives akimbo, with the spear stuck in the ground, positioned so that the tip was pointed toward the creature.
Si Sheng slowed his breathing and concentrated, he didn't want to make a mistake, he couldn't underestimate a creature living in the forest!
Activating Sprint and pushing it to the extreme, Si Sheng sprang forward in an instant. In that moment, he ended up right next to the creature, holding his knives ready to decapitate the little guy.
Si Sheng swung his knives in an X pattern in an attempt to scissor the creature's head off. He struck and skidded a few meters passed the creature after he launched his attack.
Quickly turning around, Si Sheng hoped to be greeted with a lovely trophy for today's battle, but to his surprise, the little creature was fine, no wound to speak of.
Si Sheng was baffled, he thought for sure he had cut into its neck, only to find out in didn't even have an abrasion on its body.
The little creature looked at Si Sheng in a curious and cute manner tilting its head to one side as if pondering on what just happened.
When Si Sheng saw what the creature looked like he was given another shock. It looked just like the rabbits that he had killed on the mountainside, except this one was white as snow with ruby red eyes and a small horn on its head.
It was adorable, yes, but knowing its capabilities after that short exchange, sent a chill down Si Sheng's spine.
The rabbit was at least faster, or capable of becoming faster, than he was for it to be wholly unharmed after he sneak attacked it.
Si Sheng wasn't one to give up under difficult circumstances, he'd just have to think a way out of the predicament he got himself into.
Si Sheng was smart, on an even greater level after being revived. To compare it to something, he would have a mind equivalent to that of a savant or the top minds from Earth.
Lucky for him, he was gifted with this intelligence that greatly enhanced his combat prowess. Additionally, his intelligence was condensed into only thinking about combat and survival, so his abilities were comparable to martial artists who had trained for a couple of years. He was still lightyears away from masters of combat, even from Earth. To them, his movements would be like a child throwing a punch at them, even though it was moving at the speed of a car.
Despite that, his combat abilities put him above most creatures that lacked intelligence and only followed instinct.
So, in the face of this creature's ridiculous speed and reaction time, Si Sheng wasn't too worried even though he was surprised. He would just think of a way to kill it, whether that be leading it to a trap, or outmaneuvering it—since overpowering it was out of the question.
With a determined mindset, Si Sheng quickly thought of some ways to combat the rapid rabbit and prepared to execute them.