He snacked on the lizard's tail as he read his status screen and recovered from the fight.

Name - Kiel

Level - 4

Titles - Traveler

Body - 5

Mind - 14

Spirit - 10

Skills - Body Adaptation (Lvl 6), Climbing (Lvl 4)

This time, his body attribute increased the most, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the way he leveled up affected what stats increased. He was positive that his high Mind and Spirit attributes were extremely unusual for his level, and he wasn't taking advantage of them at all.

He spent the next couple of hours thinking how he could have approached the fight differently, what he could have done differently and how to proceed from here on out.

In essence, he wasn't used to the close up fighting, tooth and nail and all. He had evidence that magic existed in the form of his title that granted him increased spatial affinity. He had the affinity, he just didn't know how to take advantage of it, and he was under no delusions that leveling up was going to get easier.

The increased body attribute would help a lot for sure, but as he had experienced, body did not mean strength. It meant endurance, toughness, vitality and strength, most of which he personally experienced in his fight with the spider.

If he continued his assumptions, not only did attributes increase depending on how you leveled up, but the attributes themselves had subcategories that increased in the same manner. He still felt like he was missing something, but he knew he wasn't completely wrong.

It might be why his mind and spirit was really high with no other effects. And no matter how tough someone was, a cat to the throat could do them in much like anyone else.

In the end he decided not to go hunting for stronger prey today, opting to rest and catching a few more lizards for dinner. He honestly didn't find them that disgusting anymore. If anything, they weren't half bad.

When he woke up the next day, he saw that he'd already recovered from the spider's bite. Taking a look from the high vantage point of the tree, he also couldn't help but notice that his vision was better. He could see a little bit further than before and the details were sharper where he was able to see previously.

Jumping from the tree, he felt absolutely no discomfort, and testing his speed he found that he was faster than before. There was no way that was the work of just two stat points. He felt like an entirely new cat!

If he fought the giant spider this time, there was no question about it, he would demolish it! Or at least he felt like he could, but experience had proven him not to underestimate his opponents.

He now knew that he had no idea how the stat increases worked. There would be testing before and after his next levels. But first he would need to think of some tests to narrow down the pieces of information he was missing.

Sometimes he just wished he could meet someone on the side of the road who would be willing to explain everything he didn't understand about the system, the skills, and even how leveling worked. Problem was, cats weren't exactly known for their linguistic capabilities, but even if he met someone there was also the language barrier to overcome.

His original plan for today was to continue hunting stronger monsters, but that started to seem more and more like rushing to his death. He wasn't prepared for another such fight, and worse yet he didn't know how he would prepare for the next one.

Planning on taking it easy for today, he didn't know how, but the moment he made that decision, everything went wrong. Sure enough, a few dozen trees away he spotted three goblins chatting their merry way and picking berries and mushrooms. He hadn't dared touch any of these without knowing what was poisonous and what was safe to eat, but the goblin picking them up seemed to know what it was doing.

One goblin foraged while the other two stood guard. He didn't know what they would do if they spotted him, and he wasn't great at sneaking around, nor did he have any reason to be near them. Still, he felt confident in outrunning them, so he stayed, watching them.

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He was fairly positive he could take down one of the guards, but with two of them he didn't like his chances. And it wasn't like he could ignore the forager just because it didn't seem like a fighter. But then again, levels were proving more and more difficult to get, and the goblins were easy to kill and admittedly higher level than him.

Then again, he didn't want to just assault peaceful looking goblins minding their own business purely for experience. He settled for watching them and learning more about his enemy. Maybe in the end they didn't need to be enemies after all; they seemed more civilized than what he was expecting to see. Maybe he'd just caught them at a bad time.

That lasted all of fifteen minutes when the goblins encountered a worthy opponent. A bear almost twice their size was walking a bit further away. Kiel thought something scared the goblins half to death when they screamed loud enough for the entire forest to hear.

The two guards immediately charged at the bear and the forager staying a bit further behind yelled the loudest of them all.

The bear didn't need any more of a warning call, and by the time the two goblins reached it, it was roaring back and standing on its hind legs, towering over the goblins. He imagined it would turn them to paste the very next second, but instead the forager lifted its hands and the forest filled with an earthly smell.

He didn't know what it had done, but his entire body felt tingly, like there was static in the air, yet he couldn't identify what it was. He didn't need to though, because the ground in front of the bear erupted into spikes, tearing large holes in the bear's legs and torso.

He watched as the forager, struggling to catch its breath, cast the same spell again, leaving the bear on the verge of death. The bear roared loud enough for the earth to vibrate, but it was but empty bravado as it could barely move. The air was filled with the scent of blood and mud.

Looking at the dying bear, seeing the pain in its eyes, he flinched. The bear was still alive, but against the two goblins uninjured as they were, it held no chances. Still, it held its ground defiantly, even as all hope was lost.

He took a step forward. The guards hadn't finished the injured bear, staying out of its range, waiting for it to get weaker. He had no time to contemplate whether this was the right call or not. It was time to fight or flee, and his instincts screamed at him to fight.

He likely wouldn't be able to save the bear, but he could make sure it had company where it was going. None of the goblins would leave this place alive, and he would start with the easiest morsel of them all.

Not bothering with sneaking around, he ran towards the goblin mage. The bear took notice of him in an instant and it didn't need help understanding what he was about to do.

The two goblins turned immediately to follow after him, but in that same instant the bear with its remaining strength leapt on top of the nearest goblin, pinning it to the ground under its heavy weight.

The other goblin didn't have hope of catching up to him either way, and before it managed to make more than a few strides, he was already beside the weakened mage.

The mage shrieked and tried to run from him, but it could barely lift itself from the ground. It didn't have the chance to try anything else as he reached it and opening his jaws as wide as they would go, he bit at its throat. His fangs sharper and stronger than a normal cat's tore the goblin's throat apart, and there was no question whether the goblin would survive this blow or not.

The remaining warrior reached him two seconds later, but he was already running away from it. He wouldn't dare underestimate these creatures before, let alone after today. After failing to catch him, it paused.

Looking at both of them, the goblin turned and ran away. What a coward...

Kiel turned to face the bear, and they met eyes. Its eyes didn't hold any malice; it was exhausted, scared. He hesitantly approached it. For a moment he considered attacking to get the experience, but he shook his head out of those thoughts. Even if he could deal significant damage, even if it did give him the experience, did he want to be that kind of person?

Reaching the dying bear, they both remained silent. The bear didn't have long for this life, and they knew it. He pushed his head against the bears' to comfort it in its last moments, and he remained by its side until it passed away.

The bear didn't shove him aside, nor did he bite his head off, which it very much could have done so. It remained silent until its dying breath.

He stood there for a long moment staring at the bear, his mind a jumble of emotions. This could have been him back when he first encountered the goblins... but it wasn't.

He pushed those emotions to the side, he had a lot to think about, starting with experiencing actual, real, honest to God, magic. Though it was hard to show excitement after seeing the last moments of the bear.

Shaking his head, he started to walk away when he noticed a squirming goblin trying to free itself from the bear's corpse. Well if that wasn't a gift on a silver platter. He strode over to the goblin, taking care not to let it grab him, and when it got tired trying to reach him, he jumped closer and slashed at its throat with his claws. It was too easy.

He barely felt any resistance, and blood started to pour out where he cut its throat. He didn't need to wait for long as the goblin joined the bear in the afterlife.

There was a system message waiting for him, but he let it wait.

"Thank you..." with those final words, he started to leave.

The goblins were a taint in the forest, and he would make sure to clean up before he left.

Name - Kiel

Level - 6

Titles - Traveler

Body - 6

Mind - 14

Spirit - 15

Skills - Body Adaptation (Lvl 7), Climbing (Lvl 4), Ether Sense (Lvl 0)

And it seemed like the time might come sooner than he thought.