'In Inuit folklore, it's known to use its resemblance with dogs to deceive lost travelers.' The creature in question finally stopped eating and turned toward Lazar. As he expected it wasn't the least surprised to see him and even looked amused to meet a human who hadn't fallen into the trap for once.
'What differentiates an Eeqidi from a dog physically is the fact that it's bigger and has a human face. Also, it was specified in the book that his sense of smell is closer to that of dogs than that of humans. The main thing to remember about them is that as soon as someone approached them without suspicion, then they would throw themselves on them to devour their brains.'
While Lazar was still assessing his opponent, the Eeqidi was stretching its 4 paws. It no longer took this fight seriously after seeing the build of Lazar. From an outside point of view, no one would bet on him either even taking into account the fact that he has a weapon. On one side, you have a bloodthirsty, frightening monster, 1.80 meters long, with a muscular build, black fur, red eyes, and a human face who has nothing to do there displaying a sinister expression. On the other side, there is Lazar, 1,70 meters, who has a good musculature but who must be half the weight of this monster.
But the reality was quite different for him, 'It's obvious that mother nature or whatever gave birth to this shit designed it so that its specialty is surprise attack. Its claws aren't impressive and don't look sharp at all, the main danger comes from its speed and its jaw. With teeth like that, it will only take a bite to kill me. On top of that, I feel like my body is less resistant with this blade in my hands. But it's also easier to move and it's more important for an opponent like that.'
He had never fought a monster, but when it came to hand-to-hand combat with or without a combat knife... No one could boast of being his equal at the base, not even his instructors.
Tired of waiting for Lazar to decide to attack, it was the Eeqidi that act first by rushing at him. Not wanting its second snack of the day to run away, it reduced the distance between them in barely 2 seconds and threw itself on Lazar to tackle him on the ground.
It didn't go as planned because Lazar took a step aside at the very moment when it had thrown himself in the air to avoid it and he didn't limit himself to avoid it. In the continuity of his movement, Lazar sliced with disconcerting ease one of the back paws of the Eeqidi.
It couldn't land on the ground correctly and from its amputated limb spurted a geyser of blood. Now there was only pain that was visible on its face, it had underestimated its opponent and with one paw less it had lost his advantage in speed.
It understood quickly that it couldn't run away, It had to kill this human if it wanted to have a chance to survive. The next few seconds were going to sign its death warrant if it didn't have a genius idea right now.
Lazar wasn't going to cross his arms during this time. He reaffirmed his grip on his weapon and ran towards the Eeqidi to give it the final blow. That was a real surprise for him when he felt blood splatter his face. He didn't think that the beast was smart enough for coming so quickly to the conclusion that its best option for survival was to throw blood from its stump onto him to blind him.
This had the effect of disorienting Lazar for an instant. The beast took this opportunity to prepare another charge by gathering as much strength as possible in its 3 remainings paws. Seeing that Lazar was no longer moving and that there was blood all over his face, the Eeqidi could already see itself savoring his brain who had been so hard to win. It pounced on him with almost as much strength as the last time.
'You won't have me like that.' Lazar certainly hadn't planned that the Eeqidi would do that, so what? As a Navy Seal, he was trained to use his other senses when he was deprived of one. Blind, he counted on his hearing and his touch. It was far from being as effective as his eyes. But its growls of pain, the sound of its strides, and the change of wind direction were more than enough to predict the trajectory of the assault of the Eeqidi.
The outcome of the fight was decided from the start. The Eeqidi was cut in half and was dying on the ground, 'All it could do was try to pounce at me. I didn't even have to make a move very different from when I cut his paw, very clever but no fighting instinct.'
Noting that it was still breathing and seeing its blank gaze as it stared at the lower part of its own body right before its eyes... Lazar walked towards it and finished it by plunging his blade into its head.
'Disappointing...'
Not wanting to open his eyes for fear that blood would enter inside he felt two large discharges of electricity run through him but he didn't saw the black smoke that emanated from his body at the same time.
❗ [You have eliminated an Eeqidi (E ★★★☆☆)] ❗
❗ [You awoke as an Evolved human being] ❗
❗ [150 experience points obtained] ❗
❗ [Your level has increased, level 0➞1] ❗
❗ [Your level has increased, level 1➞2] ❗
'Mmh... very interesting.' 3 notifications with different titles at the top of them had appeared in his brain at the same time.
'Let's see...' When he tried to select the first notification with his mind, a 'BESTIARY' section appeared. There were several boards on it and a letter was above each of them. In each board were several dozen lines and question marks for each line except one in the board named 'E'. It was written 'Eeqidi' and a patch next to it was highlighted. Lazar attributed the responsibility to the fact that he focused on the patch to justify the opening of a whole paragraph of description.
▼ [Eeqidi ⚫ Inuit folklore] ▼
🔴 Danger level 🔴 E ★★★☆☆
🔴▼ Description ▼🔴
◼ The Eeqidi is an evil anthropophagous creature, it comes from the isolated and desert plains of eastern Greenland. Its thick fur protected it from the polar climate that prevails there. Its doglike appearance serves to inspire confidence in humans and it will not hesitate to tear them apart as soon as they lower their guard.
◼ Although it's particularly fond of surprise attacks, its strength and its powerful jaw often give it the advantage against an enemy considered as dangerous as it.
'I was already aware of the majority of the information here, but it's still good to have a more precise description. So, I must kill monsters so that they appear in the bestiary, it's obvious given that I have no information on the monsters coming from the crater and that I only got this notification when I killed the Eeqidi. Also, It looks like the bestiary is ranked in ascending order of level of danger. The Eeqidi being of rank E ★★★☆☆, it's in the same place as lines with 3 question marks and the first lines begin with 1 question mark while the last lines have 5.'
The bestiary was already a satisfying discovery but the information he found there was less important than what followed, 'Let's go to the second page.'
'It's the section made to compare which has the biggest' was what he thought when he came across the 'ACHIEVEMENTS' section. It was designed as a sort of ranking to know who had done what and in what order, apparently with rewards. The layout of this section was the same as that of the bestiary with boards and letters above each of them. What changed compared to the bestiary is that there were no lines with question marks, there were only lines with possible achievements and a cross on the same line if it has been completed.
There was also a patch on each line that doesn't flash and when you press it with your mind you can see a ranking indicating the name of each person having completed the achievement in chronological order. Lazar's name was present in two rankings and he also noticed that only his reward was visible, not that of others.
⚫ Kill a rank E monster ⌧
◼ 2520th ◼ Lazar Sogorov
◼ Reward ◼ Awakening
⚫ Kill a rank E ★★★☆☆ monster ⌧
◼ 3rd ◼ Lazar Sogorov
◼ Reward ◼ +5 stat points
'They put my birth name... It's going to be a problem.'
He didn't want to stay in this section for too long. He just memorized the names of the two people who killed a rank E ★★★☆☆ monster before him and went to the next notification since no one had killed stronger monsters yet.
'...A Status window.' There was nothing really important to see here, apart from the confirmation that he had no personal skills and the number of experience points he had to earn to increase his level. This is what he believed before seeing the number of energy points he has and the 'statistics' part.
There were 4 types of statistics and 10 stat points available to increase them, Lazar was almost tempted to thank the gods. It was surely something definitive so to make his decision he took the time to read the definition of each statistic. 'Increasing my constitution will make me stronger, more enduring, more resistant, and I will recover from injuries faster. Increasing my agility will make me faster, more flexible, and will decrease my reaction time. Increasing my perception will allow me to improve my senses and increasing my energy attributes will allow me to have more energy points and increases the power of my skills.'
He knew that he shouldn't only think about the possibilities offered by each statistic. 'To make my choice, I must also take into account the problems I encountered against the Eeqidi. If it had hit me I would have died and it wasn't far from it when it managed to send blood to my face, so I have to greatly increase my constitution first. I will not much increase my agility and my perception since they're already pretty high and I'm also going to increase my energy stats a lot. I need to have a ranged attack and I can barely feel any energy. If I find myself having to fight against several opponents, for example, I have to be able to use the Energy slash. The bonus of energy points is also welcome since I don't know what this skill is worth, it would be nice if I can use it more than 3 times.'
It only took a few seconds for him to agree on the distribution of his stat points.
▼ [Lazar Sogorov] ▼
🔶 Age 🔶 20
🔶 Level 🔶 2 (0/300)
🔶 Energy points 🔶 (30/30)➞(51/51)
⚫ Energy regeneration rate ⚫ (1,1 points/min)➞(1,6 points/min)
🔶 Evolution status 🔶 [Evolved human being]
🔶 Skills 🔶 (None)
🔶 Statistics 🔶 [Stat points available ⚫ 0]
⚫ Constitution ⚫ 7(-1) ➞ +5 ➞ 11
⚫ Agility ⚫ 9(+1) ➞ +2 ➞ 12
⚫ Perception ⚫ 9 ➞ +3 ➞12
⚫ Energy ⚫ 5(+1) ➞ +5 ➞ 11
Lazar felt overwhelmed with power after he added his stat points. But he kept in mind that this was just the beginning and that in the bestiary there were several columns after E, 'The Eeqidi shouldn't even be a bigger threat than a gnat compared to these monsters and in my current state, neither am I.'
He finally decided to clean his face with his t-shirt, then he grabbed his bag and put the blade back into its scabbard after wiping it on the Eeqidi's fur. He opened his eyes and headed for the car where the corpse was.