He had just come online and saw that Himu was not in the area. Gagan messaged him and waited for his reply, but nothing came even after 5 minutes.
So Gagan thought that he must be busy with something and started walking towards the forest.
But then he remembered his last experience, where he almost didn't get to fight anything.
So he turned back and went towards the western side where he could fight new things, which could possibly be of a higher level than him. The thought made him excited and he sped up his approach.
Unlucky for him, when he reached the entrance, his map showed that this was also a part of the Frupline woods.
He was a bit annoyed at this, but since he had already come here, he decided to level up.
He found a pack of Triam Wolves and he started fighting them. During the fight, he realised that he was slowly losing his health even when he was not getting hit.
{Why is that happening? … … … Oooooohhhhh! That wyvern! I totally forgot about him, he inflicted me with a Bleed status. What do I do about this? Ah well, I'll just fight this group and then head back to town to buy something to stop it.}
By the time he was done with them, he had taken very few hits, yet his HP was at about 5%.
He started running back, making sure to keep an eye on his surroundings and his health bar.
Luckily or unluckily, he didn't find anything, but what surprised him was that his HP bar hadn't moved at all. It was at the same spot that the fight had ended.
{Ohh!! So that's why I didn't die after the wyvern wounded me.}
He went to the nearest shop he found. It was rather small and was placed in such a way that it was kinda difficult to find. It had a small number of shelves that were completely filling the left and right walls.
A short old man was sitting on a stool tiredly behind the cabinet in front of him.
"I would like to buy something that could help me with bleeding." He asked the man.
He stood up from his stool, opened a low drawer on his left side, and gave him some Petals. "Here you go. That would be 9 Telks." He said it with a smile on his face, but there was still a glint of sadness in his eyes.
He checked the party's money and found out that he had only 7 Telks and a few dozen Coirs. Even if he were to add the money he got from killing the wolves, it was still 7 Telks and 101 Coirs.
"I'm sorry I don't have enough money." He placed that Petals back and started walking away, trying to think of some way other than fighting to make enough money or get an item like that.
The old man just smiled and stopped him, "It's okay. Tell me how much you have."
He told him the amount and yet the old man gave the red thingy to the young giant, "It's okay, take it."
Gagan was grateful to him and completed the trade.
After that, he went back and fought against quite a variety of monsters. There were the three-eyed Triam Wolves, two snake-like creatures called Trismegi that were coiling around each other, a few Hairols (Hare-like creatures) with a spike at their heads and a spiked tail that was a bit too long for a normal rabbit.
But, the best of them all was the Kirino he found. It had the tag of a Level 10 elite monster. It was a bear almost as big as himself. It was really slow, but it also looked like it could blend into its surroundings.
He could see it only if he concentrated really hard or if the bear came at him really fast, but that too would sometimes be too late, as even though the bear was slow, they were fighting in a confined space, with lots of cover for the huge beast.
He had thought about doing the same thing to the fierce but cute bear, but then again, that wouldn't really be fun, now would it?
He firmly believed that unless there was truly no other choice, you should always face a problem head-on.
The beast had black eyes full of ferocious hunger. It would wait for the right opportunity and then attack him, hiding again after clawing him once.
Fed up, and with a health of 60%, while he had only taken about 20% of its health, he did what he thought was the best.
He put his weapon in the inventory and added all the stat points that he hadn't used into STR.
{Come at me beast.} He decided to put an end to its antics.
The next time the beast sneaked up to him, he almost got clawed when at the last moment he ducked. Now that he could see the beast for a moment, he punched at its knee, making it lose balance and almost fall.
But the bear had plans that did not involve death, well, not his own, so it fell on him. Gagan stopped its mouth from reaching his own by holding his hands.
Now Gagan was on the ground and the bear was above him and they were exerting their full strength against each other.
This scene could have been romantic but it wasn't because, a) their faces told you that they were angry and not lovey-dovey, and, b) there was, presumably, no one who was seeing it.
Gagan kicked it in the groin with as much strength as he could muster, making it tumble on the ground once.
He immediately stood up. Conjuring his sword out of seemingly nowhere, he threw it at its head that the bear was rubbing while it was standing up.
It was unable to dodge the projectile and the sword struck him straight at his left red eye.
It was a critical hit. The creature howled in pain and doubled over, giving Gagan enough time to kill it by bashing his Fiery Shield into him again and again, also inflicting burn damage.
Gagan took back his sword before the creature died and then it went limp. He got about a hundred Coirs, some bear hide and a bear claw. He also levelled up once.
"That was quite a romantic fight between two bears, good sir. Now, I would like you to hand over all your equipment and money."
Okay yeah, there was only one reason that scene wasn't romantic.
**********
Author's Note: Lol! A wild Player Killer appears. Do you think Gagan will have fun with them alone? Would Himu appear? Swara? Alma? Some random girl will 'save' him from these thugs?
Also, what do y'all think Prometheus is doing?
I got like one answer, that too on Discord and not here.
Also, since I have been late in posting a chapter, I have made this a long one. Enjoy!