Trembling with excitement at his new healing, Kael whipped open the [Status] screen in a flash to check out his [Weak Life Regen]. Though, this excitement soon faded from the more than underwhelming details. "Wah... Only 1HP recovered per minute..? How trash is this! But any HP generation is good HP generation I suppose..." He stated to the open air dejectedly, watching his HP slowly crawl back to full in a few minutes. Apparently [Weak Nature Control] was no better, only giving him a trashy ability to grow flowers in a single spot at the cost of precious MP. "Has my luck finally died out? While healing a small amount of HP is fine for travel, it's nearly worthless in a heated fight... That extra CON might just give me a bit of the big tank energy I need though. I'm much to fragile to take a hit from something big right now."
As he mused over his situation, the trail only grew narrower, shaded by emerald green leaves from all sides. In the distance, he saw a cluster of stone, brick and mortar, and even what looked to be log buildings all bunched together. Before he could reach it, an inhuman scream echoed from deep within the forest, a womans' voice sweeping through the entire area in what could only be called agony, before becoming silent within an instant, not a sound to be heard at all in the surrounding trees. A chill crawling down his spine, Kael felt danger; beginning to run towards the presumed safety of the buildings, where he could now see figures running back and forth, armed with glinting blades and mail armor. As he managed to close the distance to about thirty feet, his back seared with pain and he felt himself lifted from the ground and thrown like a doll, three deep gashes ripping right through his new cloak and leather as if it were made of tissue paper; his waist coated in a slow gush of blood.
[Player has taken a critical blow, HP -50. Player has been afflicted with Bleeding(M) and will take -5 HP per minute unless treated. Warning! Player will be given a penalty for death.]
What the hell??? His HP gone by 50 in just one deep slash to the back, that's insane! Panicked, Kael hit the ground hard and did his best to roll onto his feet, narrowly avoiding a lethally aimed swipe that carved a gash into the hard packed road. Arrows rained and bounced off his assailant with a loud clink on impact, the screech of a creature capable of dealing death like a deck of cards blasting out from behind him loud enough to make his ears hurt and ring loudly, narrowly surviving a glancing scratch on his shoulder, ripping his cloak off and sending him stumbling for the last few feet, the guards behind the wall rushing out to throw... Water?? The beast behind him screamed in rage, a loud fwoosh coming from behind him. Falling down, exhausted; he looked back at his hunter finally and saw a 10 foot long dragon that appeared right out of a fantasy novel, cruel red eyes and scales, wickedly curved talons, and a set of wings that put any bird to shame in terms of flight. Was this an actual dragon??
The creature then shrank to about 6 foot long and became insanely swift, vanishing in a blur of red and black as his own blood splattered to the ground, left behind by the talons now far away. The last thing he saw of it were the cold, blood red pupils locked on to his own eyes. He had been marked, and he knew it. This creature was going to either kill him, or die by his hand. Looks to him like the latter isn't very likely. Wondering how it was so dark in the early morning light, he finally succumbed to the strange sleepiness that washed over him, collapsing on his face as the world went to black.
The guards were in quite a shock at the kid that just survived the third attack from that monster. After being bandaged up, he was slowly looking better and better after only about an hour and a half! Not only did he outrun the beast and live after his armor was torn to ribbons, he managed to reach safety and slowly recover. The Vice Captain was puzzled on how such a young looking guy could take hits even she struggled to defend against, when he woke up and groaned, slowly rising to a sitting position.
"Shiiiit.... What gods did I offend to have that kind of beatdown? I knew I was weak but, it almost one hit me!" He lamented out loud, before noticing a stern, athletic looking woman in well tailored armor staring at him like he was some sort of monster. "Oh, I'm really sorry. I didn't even notice you there, what happened? I remember a dragon looking thing, and then blacking out but after that..." He trailed off as she adopted a stonelike gaze, before speaking. "You...You really did heal after being hit by it. How..? That Drakeling is some other breed of monster, it tore straight through a steel shield as if it were a child ripping up leaves in fall. We don't know if it's an Alpha or not, but it is surely a [Rare] Class monster on the verge of becoming [Epic]." She seemed bitter, and he swiftly realized just how dire this was. If it turned steel into scraps, what would it do to normal human guards?
Thinking silently back to his past, though rather uneventful Valhalla experience, a monster could level up just like most everything else. Though it only gained experience from a kill and did not earn anything for weakling opponents, a clever one could easily abuse its inborn abilities and become [Rare] Class. [Epic] class were commonly thought of as field boss level monsters, needing a party of at least three (With exceptions) just to have a chance. [Legendary] Monsters were world bosses, needing a full squad of 6-10 players for a weak one. "An Alpha? What do you mean, I've never heard of something like that..." Puzzled, he turned to question her more but found her pulling his somewhat decently repaired gear out of a trunk and passing it to him. "You best leave when our next supply run does. This base has numbered days. And, to warn you. Alpha monsters are top predators, and usually make weaker of their species serve them. Think of it as a King, then the pawns underneath. This one however, is a lone wolf. So we suspect this Drakeling was forced out by a stronger beast or something of equal strength, and came here to gain power. They're prideful in being swift killers.. So since you lived you're a target."