He had been overconfident, far too used to roaming the wild without taking safety precautions. Creatures capable of threatening him didn't exist at that time. But the him of the past and him now were poles apart.
Even as he cast another spell, he could calculate the speed at which it would take effect, and that told him the frog wouldn't be deterred from landing a killing blow on him.
But right then, a small, palm-sized shadow whirred past his head from behind, heading right at the frog's face at the speed of lightning. Whatever it was, it had enough momentum and an edge to tear through the frog's eyelids, sinking into the eyeball with a sickening squelch.
A hand gripped Ken's arm and tugged him back, dragging him past the thick tree and then flung him up and away like a ragdoll. Ken found himself thrown back by more than thirty feet, landing disastrously on a downward slope. While he was rolling downhill from the momentum of the throw, he heard a couple of loud croaks from the top of the slope.
"She really followed me here..." Ken would have been a bit disgruntled with her lack of confidence in him, but it seemed that she was right to feel so. He would have been devoured by that monstrous frog if it wasn't for Simm's timely intervention.
He wasn't worried that she was facing the frog by herself. She had revealed herself to be a stable Super-Rank Goblin, an entire Rank above the Frog. Her lifeform itself was qualitatively above the reptile, let alone the vast combat experience she had. The two frogs would die if she wanted them to die, exactly how she wanted them to die.
Lying at the bottom of the small hill, Ken patted himself to check for injuries and was satisfied by the lack of deadly ones. A tiny silhouette popped into view on top of the slope and waved at him to climb up, signifying that the threat had been dealt with.
Ken examined his stats absent-mindedly as he grabbed a bunch of long vines for support on his way up.
[ Class: Mage ]
[ Class Grade: Ordinary ]
[ Grade Level: 1/9 ]
[ Level Exp: 24.5/25 ]
[ Spell Library: Bleeding Curse (Common); Life-Seeker (Common); Flamepalm (Common); Reflection Shift (Common); Plant Proliferation (Common); Basic Mental Manipulation (Common); Basic Healing (Ultimate) (unusable); Talent Transformation (???) (unusable) ]
He had almost reached the level cap for experience points as a level-1 Ordinary Mage. Common magic spells, when used by rookies with little to no foundation in casting experience, usually generated 0.5 - 1 Experience point. Ken had nothing but experience. He could make these spells work with above 100% efficiency with a little effort and luck. Getting more than 1 Experience Point in some spells wasn't difficult for him.
He only needed to cast only one more spell efficiently to break past level 1. Putting that task up on his list of priorities, Ken focused back on the real world and sped up his climb.
Five minutes later, he was skinning and cutting off frog meat from two huge corpses, each of them bigger than a healthy horse. He had really underestimated how large and dangerous his opponents were compared to his current self.
No words passed between Simm and him, nothing was necessary. She knew he'd feel upset if she descended into a rant about his safety. Ken the Undefeated needed to adjust to his weakened form, and mistakes were bound to happen in that process. She understood him well enough to know that he had taken the lesson from this near-death experience even if he didn't bring the issue up in a conversation.
Ken was concerned more about the bump that was growing bigger by the hour inside Simm's body. He had a good understanding of Goblins, physically or otherwise. Even if Simm had gotten pregnant from their recent trysts, it couldn't be proceeding so fast! Her stomach was flat as a board ten hours ago!
"Do you think it's the spell you used? Maybe our new artificial talent doesn't create the type of pregnancy you thought it did, master," Simm said as they cautiously made their way back to the hiding spot. And Ken couldn't help but agree. That was the only plausible answer to the development inside her body.
"By the way, Simm, I never got around to asking... Why were you being chased by the High Race mercenaries? We have to ensure that no one even more powerful comes to sniff out our tracks. Our hiding spot won't hold up against anyone above Ordinary Grade, less so if they're a mage."
Simm waved a hand indifferently, her voice steady. "Don't worry about that. Those fourteen mercs were the last team of hunters on my trail. They killed all of my companions, but failed more than ten times to capture me. If someone even more powerful was assisting them, I wouldn't have made it past the first three encirclements. Worst that could happen is if they don't send back signals to their command center for a while, someone would track their corpses down. We just have to make sure we aren't here by then. I reckon we have at least another 25 hours of safety net, enough time for a good head start."
"...I see. But why were they chasing you, anyway? Their equipment was impressive!"
Simm turned her neck around a bit stiffly before replying in a cold tone, "Your first wife, Emerald Queen Emora commissioned the bounty for me and my team."
"...." Ken chose not to further the conversation for the time being. A man must know when to keep silent in order to avoid unneeded confrontations!