The monster was huge, it was almost ten levels higher than him, and it obviously had magic. Trevor saw the devastation that just being six levels above can cause. He had little to no chance of defeating this thing, but he wasn’t sure if it would let him run off to get help. Shiar was probably still near, it had only been an hour since they last saw each other.

But Trevor was stuck in fear at the sight of the Ember-root, feeling like the reaper itself had come for Trevor, and everything else around them had completely disappeared. Something felt off about this, though. He had enough sense of mind to realize most of this fear was unnatural. The monster must have an Ability or Skill that was magically making him freeze in fear. The Ember-root started slowly stalking towards him, seemingly confident about the kill it was about to make.

Trevor tried to move his body, a finger, a toe, even his tail, but all he could manage was a twitch. He looked for any advantage he could use, and discovered he could still use his mana and other Abilities. He focused on the blades of grass underneath his feet, hoping this would work, and activated Forest Pathfinder. He immediately sunk into the ground, feeling the direct connection to life and, thankfully, his body free from the magical fear.

Not taking any chances, he moved the farthest he could reach with the Ability and appeared on a branch high-up in a large tree. Trevor gasped as he was freed from the fear, though the natural form of it still lingered.

There was no way he would willingly fight that beast, not as he was anyway. His combat Skills were too low for him to feel comfortable, and he wasn’t confident in dodging or taking a hit from that thing. But then again, the rewards from defeating it would be immense. If he was careful and smart about this, he would become exponentially stronger.

First, though, were to train and then gain information. The Ember-Root had a fear-inducing Ability, and likely ones that include flames and plants. He should also expect attacks and abilities of a regular wolf, so speed and some strength and intelligence need to be taken into account.

He also needed to work on his defenses. Earth Spike is nice, but it costs too much mana and wouldn’t work on something as big as the Ember-Root. There were three elements Trevor could use for that; water, fire, and mana. Water is the most difficult, as he had tried pulling water droplets from the air but was unable to. He probably needed a high Skill or Ability level to utilize that.

“Wait a minute. The river! I can use the river!”

It was a solid plan. Using an almost endless and large source of water would decrease the wolf’s abilities. Besides the wolf’s natural attacks and speed the only other thing he had to worry about was how it would use those plants in the fight. Still, the river would be the perfect staging ground for the upcoming fight.

Trevor headed there on foot, sparing from using Forest Pathfinder as it costs a lot of mana to activate, more than double what Earth Spike costs. Now that he thought about it, using the Ability’s secondary effect would greatly help him in the fight. And while on the way, he practiced with mana and elemental Skills.

It was tricky to do so, as he needed to balance his mana use and its regeneration. First, he needed a proper defense. The idea is pretty much the same as Mana Weapon, but had a different intended outcome. Trevor wanted to make a wall of mana, or more specifically, a shield of it.

The starting concept was the same, just gathering enough mana and then shaping it into his needs. Thanks to the increase in level to both of his mana Abilities, the amount he can control and use has greatly increased. He gathered and coalesced the mana, and then flattened it out into a panel while smoothing out the surface. He got it on his first try, and refined it to gain additional levels in Mana Shield, Mana Sense, and the mana ECE Skill.

A little bit of rest later and he continued his speed training, with his ECE Skills. The more he levels them up, the more he feels like he understands that element, among all of its nuances and individual aspects. But what if he used that knowledge for a different ECE Skill, what would happen then? The answer came as rapid and high amounts of levels in all of his current ECE and other Skills, as well as a few new Skills.

This took several hours to do, so it was already well into the night. It was completely dark in the forest and the only things guiding Trevor were a torch he made himself and his Navigation Skill. Something the System jokingly gave him minutes earlier and bumped it up to level 42 instantly. Which, personally, is just really annoying.

With the high-leveled Skill, it was easy to traverse from his current position all the way to the wide river. He couldn’t go back to his base, since the Ember-Root knows he was there and will possibly wait for him. The only choice he had was to make the river his new base and wait for the monster to come here. That would come later, as he was extremely tired after the previous fight and the long walk it took to get here. He didn’t want to sleep, though, so he just sat next to a tree and went over the plan in his mind.

Then, he heard a familiar growl come from behind him, followed by the heavy trot of something big rushing at him. Trevor quickly activated his Ability and traveled to the other side of the river. He dared not look at the wolf and hid behind the brush he appeared from. He mentally admonished himself for not thinking the Ember-Root would come here instead. Trevor had spent almost as much time at the river as he did at his shelter.

The sound of trees and roots cracking and breaking apart sounded from behind, so he dodged normally to his left and hid again. For a moment, the feeling of fear and paralysis came back but disappeared again once he was hidden. That proved his hypothesis that the wolf’s Ability doesn’t work by vicinity, but by its line of sight. While that did cause a problem with having to look at the wolf to properly attack it, Trevor thought of something that could work around that fact.

Trevor closed his eyes and activated Mana Sense, getting a view of his surroundings up to 20 meters around him in a radius. The same vibrancy of mana and life came around, but now he could see slightly more. The elements of mana were colored in specific ways, with mana being clear, as it didn’t have an elemental concept, while things like fire, wind, and earth were colored red, grey, and brown, respectively. Though he was unable to see things precisely as they are, it was enough to get a generally accurate direction and location of objects within the vicinity, as well as living creatures.

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The wolf was just on the edge of his vision and closing in. It was too close for comfort so Trevor activated Dust Whirl to create a very small and localized sandstorm, blinding the wolf and offering him time to escape. He skirted further and further away from the wolf, making sure to stay near the river. At the same time, he briefly saw a bridge of roots had formed over the river. That explained how the Ember-Root got over to this side so quickly.

Suddenly, his body froze again in fear and he fell to the ground. He tried to teleport, but he didn’t have enough mana to use Forest Pathfinder to use that part of the Ability. The wolf leaped out of the dust storm and lazily ran towards Trevor, still confident in its victory. During that brief moment, a familiar feeling came from the wolf, and he realized in horror that the Ember-Root had Mana Sense as well. It was unknown if its Skill level was higher or lower than his, though.

The wolf arrived and smashed a paw onto his back, but as it was about to connect Trevor felt something deep within light up. He will not let this beast kill him, he will surely live on and thrive towards the future. With a great amount of willpower and mental fortitude, he physically rolled out of the way of the incoming paw. He was still sluggish, so the claws clipped his arm and hand and left deep scratches in them.

Skill Level Gained!

Dodging Proficiency Increased by 7!

Skill Gained!

Fear Resistance - Level 1

Fear Resistance Increased by 15!

Attributes Increased!

Charisma Increased by 5!

Level Increased!

You are now Level 16!

He was incredibly thankful for the increases as he felt the familiar rush of his new Skill and Charisma breaking through an invisible barrier of power. He immediately put 4 points into his Mind, and then 3 each into Agility and Constitution each, bringing the former up to 50. Trevor put the surprise he had felt at escaping the fear effect and turned to look directly at the wolf. The fear was still there, but it was now muted and didn’t feel as paralyzing.

“That’s right, beast. I’m no longer afraid of ye.” he boisterously provoked.

The wolf growled ferociously as if it understood, and Trevor grinned. The battle was more even now, even if the Ember-Root still held the advantage. His movements and mind were still very sluggish, but he could still fight and dodge if he timed it just right. To help with that, he activated the second effect of Forest Pathfinder to increase his Agility, increasing it by 30% and bringing it up to 65 points. It might not be massive, but the boost would help tremendously for Trevor.

The fear suddenly dissipated despite Trevor being in sight of the wolf, and then it charged towards him. As he began to dodge, a surge of mana came from the wolf and infused into the nearby roots. They rose from beneath the ground and slithered quickly to Trevor. He ran, barely escaping from their grasp. Both the roots, and the wolf, were after now, causing Trevor to feel dread.

They began a chase of cat and mouse, Trevor barely dodging by the skin of his teeth and gaining Skill levels as a result. He wished he had something to regain mana faster, so that he could use Forest Pathfinder, but he was restrained to just his lesser spells. It caused some damage to the Ember-Root, but the only thing that was effective was spraying a geyser of water from the river at it. Even that only made it lose concentration on its new Ability for a second before the roots returned.

Eventually, through continuing exhaustion and the time limit running out, Trevor was caught and the roots bound themselves around his limbs and neck. They tightened, forcing him onto his knees and nearly choking him. The wolf trotted slowly above him, and he almost thought that it was grinning. Trevor hated how smug it was.

Even with doom looming over him, Trevor tried to think of a way out of this. He couldn’t use Ignition unless he wanted to burn himself along with the roots, and none of his other elements would get him out. Except maybe his new wood element.

The Ember-Root wolf leaped towards Trevor, and he conjured a Mana Shield to block the attack, making the shield as thick as he possibly could. The shield barely held against the wolf, and it tried to maneuver around to attack at a different angle. Trevor moved the shield constantly, blocking the wolf at every turn. He kept pouring in what little mana he still had, but it was no use. His mana bottomed, and the sense of dizziness and disorientation came back.

He vaguely sensed the shield disappear, and the wolf approaching for what seemed like the hundredth time. This was it for him, every trick had been played to keep himself alive. There was nothing left to do except again wait for the end to come. But that wasn’t what Trevor wanted.

All of his life, he has been passive and detached from almost everything. He barely tried making friends, he never tried getting close to his family except for his sister Emily. His entire existence has been about avoiding hard situations and just waiting for the right moment to appear. He would no longer be the passive nobody that he’s been until now.

With a fire lit within him, Trevor pulled and resisted against the roots and vines embracing him. They strained under his new inhuman strength, but they kept on holding. He heard the wolf huff behind him, as if in amusement for his actions. Still, he didn’t want to give up, not anymore.

The sound of huge paws hitting the ground, followed by an exuberant howl indicated what was about to happen. Trevor gained an idea, and used what little mana he regenerated and focused on pushing it into the roots holding him. He felt great resistance, but he pushed harder anyway. The ding of a System message sounded in his head, and a bark of pain was heard from the wolf.

Trevor closed his eyes and his mana was depleted yet again in less than a few minutes, but he couldn’t fall down. The roots were still holding on to him. What little consciousness he had was very confused. He had definitely failed, and the Ember-Root attacked him. So why wasn’t he dead again?

Slowly it came back to him. The sound wasn’t a message coming from the System, or rather, not just from the System. It was the sound of a bowstring as an arrow was launched from it. Trevor looked up in the direction he heard the arrow come from, expecting to see Shiar.

What he saw instead was someone else, a beastkin that had the form of an otter with golden fur and a white undercoat. It was around Trevor’s current height, and wore a loose dressing of greens and browns with a cap on top of its head. There was a quiver of arrows strapped to its hip, and in its paws was an empty bow. The otter looked to Trevor, giving a wide grin.

“Did somebody ask for a rescue?”