"Shit!" Lyle cursed as he sped through the forest.
'I messed up, I really messed up this time, I should have known better than to get that close.' Lyle thought as he ran as fast as he could, his limited mana being expended fast while a monster rammed through the trees behind him as it pursued him.
About an hour ago.
Lyle had just finished another battle.
He was now level 14 and was surprised to find that he was now getting 2 free attribute points together with 2 points that would randomly be allocated. That meant that he was now getting 4 points in total, which was double more than before he had hit level 10.
The increase in stats was good, but Lyle decided to hold onto using the attribute points just yet, one never knew when he would need a boost in power so he decided to simply have them stored for now.
The monsters deeper inside was of course stronger, Lyle had even come across a territory of some slimes.
Slimes in the world of Corleon were a bit weird.
There were many of them that belonged to the lowest ranks of monsters, but even then, they weren't easy to kill since one needed to destroy the core that was found in the center.
The slimes were usually acidic and touching them would burn one's skin, flesh, and bones.
The more powerful slimes simply became bigger and the acid before more powerful, some could even melt weapons the moment they touched them. Even spells wouldn't work on more powerful slimes since their acid could melt mana as well.
There were different breeds and variants of slimes, of which the most powerful were the Ice slimes that would constantly release frost from their bodies and could freeze over a small forest.
Lava slimes lived in extremely hot areas and they would leave a trail of lava that would consume everything in their path. They could of course also use mana and bombard people with fireballs, fire breath, and more.
The rarest and most powerful amongst them, however, was a type of slime that is considered extinct in the world.
The spirit slime.
The spirit slimes were always incredibly rare and hard to find, but their power was something else.
It was considered to be one of the most powerful monsters in Corleon and it was only about 2 centuries ago when the different empires of the world joined with a couple of monster clans to annihilate the spirit slimes that were led by a king.
The king was said to be even more powerful than the current top powerhouses in the world. The battle took days to finish and in the end, a couple of kingdoms were almost destroyed in the aftermath. Mountains were shaken and some even collapsed, rivers were overturned and the landscape was forever changed.
That was at least what everybody knew, the true story could be much different.
Even Lyle decided to not disturb the slimes as it wasn't worth it. He could only use his spear to fight them, but there were many and it would take too long to kill them all.
Lyle continued through the forest, fighting more powerful versions of the monsters he had come across before while also coming across some new ones such as forest fairies which were monsters that would charm one into coming close to them, they would look like the fairest of all maidens, the ideal woman that one wanted.
But when one would get close enough, the fairy would change, the beautiful lady would disappear and a skinny, ugly-looking deformity of what a human could potentially look like would attack.
Lyle had come across such monsters before, he almost lost his life the first time he did so.
When he was merely starting as an assassin, he once made a mistake and had to chase his target through a forest.
He found a fairy instead. Seeing the ethereal beauty in front of him made Lyle stare before coming closer to her, only to be greeted by her long claws that dug deep inside his chest.
If not for the dagger that he held in his right hand and the rigorous training that made stabbing or cutting someone in the face of danger a reflex, Lyle might have died there.
Upon killing the fairy, he was able to see his target lying dead on the ground, his body seemingly looking much older than before.
That was what the fairies did, they would take all your vitality, all the mana, and blood in your body and store it inside of them in order to show their illusions.
Lyle fought the fairy that he came across in the forest, but didn't kill her.
He grabbed her before plunging his fangs deep inside her neck.
He wanted to make her a servant of his.
He knew that once someone got bitten, their appearance would change. If the fairy turned out to look like a human after being changed by him, then he could easily bring her with him anywhere.
Her illusions would become a great help to him when it came to fighting powerful monsters or people.
Unfortunately, what Lyle got was a notification.
[ Warning, the host is currently not powerful enough to turn monsters into servants, only humans can be turned into servants before the host becomes more powerful. ]
The fairy started convulsing before collapsing to the ground. Her body started shaking while her blood boiled before finally dying.
Lyle sighed, it seems he had no choice but to find a person he could turn, but he wouldn't just grab any random person and change them to a vampire, he wasn't a cold-hearted killer that would do such things without a care in the world.
No, he still had his principles. He would only change a person that tried to harm him. With that thought in his head, Lyle turned around and wandered deeper inside the forest.
Finally, Lyle came to a huge tree.
The forest always had a couple of relatively big trees inside of it, they were used as a sort of landmark for the adventures so that they wouldn't lose their way.
One thing was different, however, as there was something weird right at the bottom of the tree.
A couple of monsters were lying down and sleeping right at the base of the tree. Each one was about 1 meter long and had thick fur that covered its body.
Their breath alone was very powerful and could be heard even from a couple of meters away. Lyle stared at the monsters in wonder before looking around and getting near them after not spotting anyone.
As he got about 10 meters close to the monsters, he was able to see what they were.
'Oh no.' Was the first thing on Lyle's mind.
The monsters that were sleeping in front of Lyle were Iron Bears.
They were amongst the most powerful creatures that one could find in the forest and were right below the Knight realm. One thing that everybody knew about them was that they had an incredibly good sense of smell.
Lyle knew that he had made a mistake. He was hasty, he just wanted to get a glimpse of what monsters were down in order to decide whether he would attack them or not.
But Iron Bears were different. These bears in front of him were just cubs, and when cubs were involved, the mama bear would never be far away.
Just the smell that Lyle would leave here would be enough to make the bear angry and potentially come after him. Bears were very territorial and incredibly protective of their cubs.
Lyle quickly turned around and started running away, but not even 3 seconds had passed before an angry roar echoed through the forest.
The mama bear had arrived, and she was able to both smell Lyle's scent and hear his movement. Upon learning that another creature had come so close to her cubs, the bear became enraged. It stared back at another bear that suddenly charged at Lyle while the mother stayed with the cubs.
The other bear was of course the father.
Iron Bears mated for life and usually never left the side of their partner. Upon learning that the cubs had been in danger, the male would usually charge at the enemy while the slightly smaller mother would stay at the cubs in order to protect them.
The powerful bear charged forward and rammed into trees that were on its way.
The trees were unable to stop it as its powerful body crushed them without much difficulty.
Lyle sped up and ran with all of his might, he knew that if the bear was to get to him, he would be in serious trouble.
The power that such a monster possessed was not something that he could hope to go against right now.
Even though his weapons were powerful and could penetrate through the body, he was not powerful enough to fully activate them and damage the monster.
He suddenly looked back, only to find that the bear was gaining on him. If he was to estimate the bear's power, it was at least about level 40, which was much, much more powerful compared to him.
He stared ahead and grit his teeth before using a skill that he hadn't used for a long time, one that he wasn't sure would even work.
[ Blood Knight, Ignition ]