CHAPTER 28 - GRIN AND BEAR IT

Despite all my earlier (and later) fretting over saying “what’s the worst that could happen,” I have never actually found conclusive proof that it makes a difference.

Believe me, I’ve tested.

However, a younger and more naïve Titus definitely believed in that superstition. And after the events to come, I could hardly blame him.

---

I had jinxed myself by saying, “What’s the worst that could happen,” and I knew it. To make matters worse, I decided to take off first thing in the morning when the mob density was a bit lighter. That meant I got a few hours to contemplate exactly how much I had screwed myself over.

As I got ready to go, Jake even gave me one last out. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

If I was a smart man, I would’ve taken the lifeline.

“Yes,” the not very-smart man answered. “It’s the best chance that we have as a party.”

Jake frowned. “Well… Good luck then. Stay safe, alright, Titus?”

I nodded, waved my goodbyes to the party, and then took off at a jog to the north with a dave in hand.

Fortunately, the god of irony wasn’t intent on curb-stomping me immediately, so my first day of travel actually went fine. The first wave of enemies happened about an hour in, and it was only a wave of 20 wolves without an alpha. I dropped the dave, punched and kicked a bunch of wolves, fed their bodies to my dave to avoid another undead attack (I didn’t want to just hope the party found the bodies), and then I continued on my way.

The other fights went similarly. However, I was a little worried when I had to fight a wave with 3 alphas in it. I managed, though. My already summoned dave took care of one, my second, hastily summoned, dave took care of the second, and I managed to beat the third to death with [Fire Strikes] while only getting bit once. I wouldn’t have gotten bit at all, but a normal wolf played decoy at just the right time for the big one to get its attack in.

You know how I said the first day went fine? Well, after that, the first day was over. It was now the first night.

The world even decided to give me a nice heads up that I was about to get my butt kicked because the next set of howls came while I was still cleaning up the last of the bodies.

“Really?” I groaned. Fortunately, the wave that came was pretty small and only had a single alpha.

Unfortunately, I only made it halfway through clearing out those bodies when yet another howl came. There was again only 1 alpha, and I made quick work of them. I looked over the bodies for a bit, but I made my decision.

“Come on, Dave2, we’re getting out of here,” I said as I picked up one of the balls of slime and took off running to the north. I knew there was a chance that the bodies I left behind wouldn’t get found, and I would start another undead infestation. However, I also knew that I would eventually die against a never-ending horde of enemies, no matter how weak they were.

Sure enough, another wave was soon hot on my heels.

Okay, Titus. Think. You’re obviously in an area with an increased spawn rate. I punched a wolf that jumped at me from the right and kept moving. So, first step. Get out of the spawn area. How’s my stamina? I checked it and grimaced. Okay, 141 of my 285 SP. I can make this work. Somehow.

The alpha of that wave was gaining on me quickly, but I didn’t have time to lose. I simply spun around, hucked the dave into its face, and then kept running. The dave took it down but succumbed quickly to the other wolves that swarmed it right after.

1 dave for 1 alpha, not a bad trade.

More howls and 2 more alphas changed my mind.

“How big is the spawn area?!” I shouted. I kept running until one of the alpha wolves caught me. They’re too fast when I’m running in a straight line.

I stopped and dodged a bite. I was about to return with a [Fire Strike] when I realized. I don’t have to kill them, just slow them down. I hit the wolf with two [Ice Strikes] instead, dodged around the second alpha’s bite, and did the same to that one.

With the decrease to their speed, I was just barely faster than them, so I kept running.

I kept flipping open my status to watch my stamina slowly drain as more and more wolves joined the chase. More alphas also joined in. Fortunately, there were too many of the other wolves in the way for them to get to me. I was able to keep sprinting north until I got to around 10 SP.

Nothing for it now, I thought. I have to rest. I picked a solid-looking tree, jumped and grabbed a limb, nearly slipped off since it was covered in snow, managed to somehow keep my grip with the other hand, and then hoisted myself up.

“The good news is that I think they’ve stopped spawning for a while now,” I said to myself. I looked out across the sea of wolves that encircled me. “The bad news is that it that might be because I hit the cap for mobs in a single area.”

I definitely wasn’t going to try to fight my way out now. Especially if I wasn’t sure if I was out of the woods when it came to the increased spawn rate area. That also made me realize I wasn’t going to be sure until I was literally out of the woods since it would be impossible to keep track of the rate of reinforcements when none were coming.

I hunkered down and waited the 15 minutes for my SP to replenish while wondering what on earth I should do. I came to a somewhat sketchy plan during that time, but I couldn’t think of anything better.

I watched my SP tick up to full and then sighed. Here goes nothing. I got on one of the tree limbs that went at least somewhat northward. I looked for a good target. Then I took off running and jumped.

It was, all told, a terrible Tarzan impression. There were no vines to swing from, I was obviously unpracticed at it, and unlike his yelling, mine was more of a scream in terror.

I almost slipped off twice when I grabbed the branch of the next tree, but I managed to stay on after a bit of scrambling.

I checked my SP and saw that I was down two from just that.

“Okay, that won’t work then. It’s way too slow, and the party’ll catch up to me in no time.” I frowned. I really didn’t want to catch the party up in the mess that I had made. I scratched my head. “There has to be another way to get out of this.”

I thought for another few minutes but didn’t come up with anything. I was getting frustrated.

“Stupid forest!” I said as I punched the trunk of the tree I was standing on.

That caused two things to happen. One, the tree wobbled just a bit, and I almost fell off into a wolfy doom. And two, I got an idea.

The idea made me suck in a breath and sigh, even though I didn’t need to do the first. “Titus, this is, without a doubt, the worst plan you’ve made yet.” However, I didn’t see another way out, so I started climbing up further into the tree.

I got as close to the top as I could and then stood on a branch on the south side of the tree. I hesitated. Do I really want to do this? Maybe I can just make it through the wolves another way. I made the mistake of looking down. I froze and grabbed the trunk of the tree.

That’s… A long way down. I shook my head. No Titus, that was a long way down on earth, but you could probably jump and be fine. You’re just a bundle of HP. That drop is nothing!

With my pep talk, I somehow convinced myself. “Here goes nothing.” I punched the tree. The amount it shook definitely didn’t help my nerves, but I managed to keep going. I was at hit 20 when I thought, Is this not going to work? Then hit 21 finally succeeded. The tree was going down.

“TIMBER!” I shouted as the tree smashed dozens of wolves that couldn’t get out of the way in the time. My plan had succeeded. I had broken the encirclement. However, there was only one tiny detail left.

How do I land?! I panicked as the ground was coming up on me way faster than I would have liked. I jumped off the tree-trunk and tried to turn my landing into a forward roll.

It went… Better than I could have expected.

I flipped open my status to check my HP, saw that I only took 16 damage, and then booked it before the wolves could catch up to me again.

I then noticed the message.

System : New Achievement. Getting Wood. Class Perk Points Gained 1

I was confused for a half-second before I noticed the space in the name. “AltSys?” I asked the air. “A Minecraft[1] reference. Really?”

No messages greeted me, so I assumed that he wasn’t there.

I repeated the same game plan multiple times. Run until I was low on SP, climb a tree, wait for full stamina, punch it down. I did take a bit of damage here and there, especially one of the times when I landed awkwardly without a roll, but it was still faster than traveling with the party.

I continued that way for the rest of the night and then midway through the next morning. It was a bit sketchy at times, but I was well on my way to getting out of the forest.

Or so I thought.

I had just climbed a tree when a different growl informed me that a new enemy was on the scene. A dark bear. It started pushing its way through the wolves to my tree. Ship! He’ll knock me down before I’m ready!

However, I had countermeasures. “[Summon Dave]!” I yelled as I summoned the blob in front of my [Air Strike] punch. It flew true and landed on the bear’s back.

The bear rolled over to try to dislodge my trusty minion, but it struggled in vain. After several long seconds, the bear died.

5 normal wolves then also paid the price by attacking the dave, but that was enough to end the poor slime ball’s life.

I breathed a sigh of relief. That was close. I don’t have the SP to fight a bear head-on. I double-checked my numbers and saw I was down to 45 MP and 9 SP after that spell/skill combo. Good thing I can take a break.

My thoughts were interrupted by another growl from the other side of the tree.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” I exclaimed as I peeked around the tree trunk and saw a bear approaching from the other side.

I thought through my options. Can’t summon a dave. Not enough MP. Can’t fight it. Not enough SP. Do I let it take the tree down? I grimaced. That would push me in the wrong direction. Then I had an idea. I think it’ll be enough. Barely.

I immediately relaxed to try to squeeze out another SP or two before the bear got to my tree. Since I regained around 1 SP every 4 seconds while resting, that meant it took the bear about 8 seconds to get to my tree, putting me up to 11 SP. As soon as the bear reached it and made its first swipe, I got ready. Wait for the second. Then go immediately.

The tree shuddered for a second time, and I immediately punched it with both hands. “[Fire Strike]!”

The tree immediately started falling northward in the direction of the now helpless bear. It also caught on fire… The tree that is. Not the bear. Placeholder is buggy, but not quite that buggy.

To be honest, the initial burst of flame caused me to panic, and I almost jumped away from the tree out of reflex. Fortunately, I remembered [Fire Immunity] before I did something that stupid, so I rode the tree the rest of the way down and then did my usual dismount.

I prepared to run immediately to another tree when I saw the wolves giving the flaming tree a wide berth. That gave me an idea, so I snapped one of the smaller, and still flaming, limbs off the tree and held it in the direction of the wolves.

“Back!” I jabbed at the nearest wolf. It jumped away from the flaming stick.

I finally had range on my side! If only I had known that I just needed a stick all along!

Then it phased through my hand and landed on the snowy forest floor, where it extinguished.

I looked up at the sky. “Really?” I asked the System. “That counts as a weapon?”

I didn’t have any more time for complaints, though, because the wolf lunged at me. I punched it in the face and then turned tail and ran.

I clambered up another tree and tried to think as two more bears came to knock it down.

I don’t have enough SP to keep this up. It takes me 6 to make sure I knock the tree down, and then a few more to get up into another one. My thoughts were interrupted as both bears hit the tree, so I quickly knocked it over with two [Fire Strikes].

I hadn’t had time to get as high up into the tree, so I had wolves nipping on my heels as soon as I landed. I also still hadn’t solved the issue before the bears reached my next tree, and I had to knock that one over too.

I was able to repeat it two more times, but that was it. 5 SP. I don’t have enough. I grimaced as the third hit came, and the tree went down.

Instead of going to the north, the tree went east. All I could do was run to another one in that direction. I continued climbing trees, but I also didn’t dare climb as high since I couldn’t risk taking any HP damage when it inevitably fell. Somehow, I managed to stay alive that entire day. I hovered between 1 and 7 SP, but that was all I could get before the growing number of bears knocked my tree down.

I only had one other option that I could think of, but I hesitated to use it. Wrath form. I didn’t know what it did. There was a high chance that it was merely a boosted version of Rage], and that would mean that I jump into the fray, last for 5 seconds, and then die when I run out of SP.

So I decided to keep that as a last resort for when I was finally pushed up against the wall. Or when the bears managed to eventually run me out of the forest.

However, the moment that I was closest to activating it came at neither of those times. I had just climbed yet another tree when I saw something in the distance.

“Is that a crater?”

It was. It was a bowl-shaped crater, a football field in diameter, with sheer rock walls 20 feet down leading into it. Nothing was growing inside, just dirt, so if I ended up down there, I would have to give up the only strategy that was currently keeping me alive. And thanks to my fantastic luck, that was precisely the way I was being funneled.

I holed up in a tree that was practically on the edge of the crater and then thought. Okay, I just have to try to redirect this one. Just time it before the third hit.

The timing was impossible. Three bears struck simultaneously, and the tree petered and fell with its top part going into the crater.

I managed to bail out of it right on the edge of the crater, and I had to windmill my arms to keep from falling in.

“Wrath form it is,” I said. “Bring it!” I shouted and turned to face the tide.

However, one of my ursine opponents had reached me right at that moment. I was too slow to dodge the paw swipe, and I was launched into the crater. I hit the ground and tumbled several feet.

“I’m dead. I’m so dead,” I said.

Then I noticed that all of the monsters were waiting on the edge of the crater, and they slowly turned away and started running.

“I’m saved!” I said. That was when I realized that it was suddenly dark out and the stars were showing, even though it had just been late afternoon.

I finally noticed the system message.

System: You have entered a dungeon boss room! You will be unable to leave by any means until the dungeon boss is defeated.

A boss health bar filled up at the top of my screen titled “Ursa Major.”

“Nope. I’m dead,” I groaned. I looked at the crater. “And how does this count as a dungeon?!”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Okay, Titus. You have to fight yet another boss. It’s fine. You just have to find a way to cheese it. I looked around at the barren crater. “Yeah, because there’s so much here to work with.”

I sighed. “Maybe the party will come and get me? They should be able to fight through all the monsters, right?” I frowned as I realized that losing aggro also meant that I had likely dumped that entire wave of monsters off on them. Which made me realize another issue. “But what if the spawn rates aren’t just jacked up for me? What if the party has to face the same issue? Won’t they get worn down too?”

I shook my head. “Didn’t Legume Berry… Didn’t I already use legume? Eh, whatever. Didn’t they come from this direction? That means that they made it through here just fine, and we have a [Hero]. So…” I almost said, it should be fine, but since similar words were what got me into this mess, I didn’t want to tempt fate any more than I was.

I came up with a game plan and nodded my head. The first part of that game plan? I immediately collapsed onto the dirt spread eagle. I didn’t realize how mentally exhausted I was after that ongoing chase, but it really caught up to me. I would’ve loved to take a nap, but the whole “no sleep” thing meant I couldn’t do that.

I chuckled. “Who would’ve thought I would ever complain about not needing to sleep?”

I prepared for a long wait ahead as I summoned daves until I had enough that I thought I could beat a boss, or until the party rescued me.

--- Approximately 2 days ago, right after I split from the party ---

Jake was worried about Titus. Not that that was unusual, but he was even more concerned than normal. “What if something goes wrong? We won’t be able to get there to help him since he’ll be so far ahead of us,” Jake said to Garrett.

Garrett just sighed. “How big was Faroff Forest?”

Jake raised an eyebrow. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just a ballpark. How long do you think it would take Titus to get through it?”

Jake shrugged. “Dunno. At the farthest, maybe a day and a half? Two days?”

Garrett nodded. “That’s the only reason I agreed to this. This forest shouldn’t be too much bigger, right? That means Titus should be out of here before he has the chance to cause much trouble.”

“I guess.” Jake wasn’t overly convinced, and he could tell Garrett wasn’t either. However, there was nothing either of them could do about it now, so they tried to stop thinking about it. Jake didn’t have much success with that as his eyes kept drifting over to check Titus’ resources. Fortunately, Titus gave him nothing to worry about there as he didn’t lose a bit of HP that entire day.

As for the party, they only had two small encounters that day, and they were already noticing the effects of not having their [Monster Magnet] there.

Jake’s worries for Titus gave him a bit of trouble sleeping, especially after Titus took damage for the first time. However, it seemed like the damage was few and far between, so Jake eventually drifted off until his turn to watch.

He had the last watch of the night, and something was bugging him. He didn’t figure it out until everyone was up, eating breakfast, and getting ready for the day. “No one had a monster attack during their watch, right? I didn’t just sleep through it?”

The party looked at each other and shrugged or shook their heads. “Maybe they are still focused solely on Titus?” Tim asked.

Jake frowned. “But we had at least one monster attack a night when we split from him so that he could go help Faroff. I don’t see why this should be different.”

The party didn’t have a good answer, and Jake’s concern continued to grow as they traveled throughout the day and didn’t see a single monster. Or at least, they didn’t see a single living monster. They did come across several dead ones.

“Titus must have come through here,” Jake said as they looted the bodies. “I wonder why we haven’t seen more bodies earlier?”

The party guessed that maybe he had gone off course for a bit, but Jake decided to keep it in mind for when they next saw the [Half-Demon].

Their travel was eventually interrupted by Emilia. “Anyone else see that?” she asked.

Jake looked off in that direction but didn’t see anything. “Nope. What do your elf eyes see, Em?”

She cocked an eyebrow at him and then sighed. “Was that a reference?”

He chuckled. “Yup. Lord of the Rings, but seriously, what did you see?”

“A tree’s down up ahead.”

Emilia’s [Enhanced Senses] apparently worked on vision, so that was a good thing to note, but soon enough, Jake could see it too.

When they got to it, they stopped at its stump. They also noticed some dark wolf corpses stuck underneath the tree, so Megan went to go loot them.

“Wonder what took it down?” Jake asked.

“Something blunt,” Garrett answered. “The tree isn’t harvestable.” Jake and the rest of the party gave him quizzical looks. He grinned sheepishly. “[Lumberjack] subclass. When you cut down a tree with it, you can harvest a certain amount of wood from it depending on how you fell it. This one is completely unharvestable, so my class is pointing to someone with no experience and no bladed equipment knocking it down.”

Who knew that would come in handy? Jake chuckled. “So, Titus?”

Garrett shrugged. “If I had to guess, yeah. Or a bear. Didn’t he mention that bears will knock down trees?”

“Either way, he probably went this way. At least he’s on track.”

The party came across several other felled trees during the day. Jake also noticed that Titus was no longer waiting for his resources to get back to full and that he was hovering around 0 SP. He would have loved to go after him, but there wasn’t much the party could do to travel faster.

When it finally came time to make camp, they had still not seen a single living monster, and Jake was getting nervous. So much so that he managed to convince everyone to go with two people on each watch. That also had the side benefit of getting 2 hours of alone time with Emilia, but that wasn’t the primary point for once.

They chatted a bit in low voices as they patrolled the camp, but Jake couldn’t help but check on Titus’ status every minute or so. He was worried that Emilia would notice his eyes flicking over to check that during their time together, but then he realized something. She’s checking it too!

“Worried about Titus, eh?” he asked.

Her eyes snapped back to Jake. “How did you…” she sighed. “Yes. I think he bit off more than he can chew.”

“That’s surprising,” Jake muttered.

She snorted. “No, I’m pretty sure Titus getting in-“

Jake cut her off. “I meant that you were concerned for him. I thought you two hated each other.” There was a moment of silence between them, but Jake’s curiosity was too much. “What changed?”

“I guess we just talked. And he forgave me, even though I was completely unreasonable towards him.” She chuckled. “That and he said he was my friend. Or at least that I was the girlfriend of his friend. I don’t know about that one.”

Should I ask her? Jake took a deep breath. He mustered his courage, and then he stopped and took Emilia’s hands in his. He looked deep into her piercing blue eyes, which seemed even more enchanting in the moonlight. “Emilia, there’s something I want to tell you.”

Emilia shushed him.

Jake was confused. “Emilia, please just-“

She shushed him again. “Don’t you hear that?” she whispered violently. Her head snapped to the north. “It’s coming from that way. A rumbling.” Her eyes widened. “MONSTERS!” she shouted. “A HUGE WAVE OF MONSTERS IS COMING! GET UP AND READY FOR A BATTLE!”

Jake was confused for a half-second, and then finally heard the rumbling she was talking about. Emilia had succeeded in rousing the party, so he climbed a tree to get a better look.

What he saw stunned him momentarily. A dozen alpha wolves were leading the charge for a veritable army of monsters that were coming their way. He knew that they wouldn’t be able to protect the backline from that, so he immediately sent orders through the party to get the backliners up into a tree and to have the rest of the party encircle it.

The alphas are the main problem. If I can take those out, we should be able to handle the trash mobs. Jake made up his mind and jumped down from the tree. He took a tiny amount of fall damage, but he was off and running like a shot towards the approaching army.

The alphas all noticed him and started sprinting towards him.

Just like the elementals, just a lot faster. Jake ran to the left and right, trying to get them lined up. He couldn’t get them all, but he got close. He sprinted forward. “[Sunder]!” Jake activated the skill and didn’t have time to admire the 5 alphas he had killed with the single attack because another was on him.

“[Power Strike]!” Jake shouted and cleaved through it. He took a half-second to be pleasantly surprised that that was also a one-shot, before turning and running back towards the party. He had accomplished his goal and thinned out the alphas, but the remaining ones were hot on his heels.

Fortunately, that’s what party members were for. Spells and arrows flew and peppered the enemies that were giving chase, and that gave him the room he needed to make it back to the party. The weakened wolves made it to the party just to be cut down by Jake, Garrett, and Lindsey. Though, Jake killed most of the alphas remaining since it only took him at most 2 swings to kill one of them.

Okay, Titus. I admit. My class may be a bit OP.

Then the tide was upon them. From there, it should have been easy cleanup. Everyone could one-shot a dark wolf except for Sam and Tim when they were using [Mage Bolt]. Even Andrew with his mace.

However, the back ranks of the monster army contained some dark bears, and to make matters worse, the party heard some howls behind them.

Frick. Reinforcements. We’re in trouble. Tim had realized that too, and soon a [Fire Ball] took out a large portion of the monsters between Jake and the bears. Jake took that as his cue and sprinted forward with [Sunder] at the ready again.

He managed to line up 3 of the 6 bears with his skill, but he knew he needed to take care of the others too. He put down two leaping wolves with a quick slash, then took the bear in front of him down with his [Power Strike] and two more quick cuts. That gave the other two bears time to close the distance, and he was now fully encircled by normal wolves.

Jake took a deep breath and leveled his blade at the bear in front of him. Both bears charged him at the same time. He leaped out of the way with a roll and came up, slashing the wolves that jumped at him. He then sidestepped the next paw swipe from the bear and cut it twice on its outstretched limb. It jerked back in pain, so he followed up with two more cuts that ended it.

He spun around the remaining bear’s flank and slashed it down the flank, and then ducked under three more enemies that jumped at his exposed back. He ignored those three and pressed his advantage on the bear. He slashed the bear twice and went for a third when the bear’s paw connected with him.

He killed the bear but went tumbling at the same time. Fortunately, it was in the direction of the rest of the party, so he silently thanked the bear for its help getting him out of there.

He rejoined Garrett, who had a smirk on his face. Jake didn’t have time to ask him about it. Garrett cleaved through another two wolves and said, “Titus isn’t here, so I guess I have to say it. Your class is kinda BS.”

“Gee, thanks, geezer,” Jake said as he put down another pair of leaping wolves. “I hadn’t noticed.”

Even with the reinforcements, things were looking up. They had stabilized their formation, and they were quickly running out of enemies. However, Jake’s optimism was short-lived.

More howls echoed, and even more reinforcements came. “They just keep coming!” Jake growled.

And so it continued. The party would finally finish off all the monsters, and then yet another wave would come. They tried to press onward into the forest, but they made slow progress as they had to begin trading off fights to try to get some rest. However, they hadn’t gotten a full night’s rest in, so it took longer than normal to get back their SP.

The party fought on gamely through the night and into the next morning. However, it couldn’t last. Soon, Jake was the only one left standing, and that only because he had decided to purchase increased stamina. He stopped using skills. He tried to conserve energy as much as possible.

It wasn’t enough. Soon he too ran out of SP, and the party was left defenseless. He weakly tried to raise his sword but couldn’t do it as the final wave mauled the party.

----

“Is this enough?” I asked myself as I surveyed my growing army of daves. “I hope it is, but I really wish I knew more about the boss.”

I had walked around the boss room, but as usual, there weren’t many clues beyond the boss’s name, Ursa Major, which indicated a bear of some kind. There was also a glowing rock in the middle of the clearing, and I just assumed that was how I got the fight started.

Suddenly, I found myself facing a different direction and in another part of the crater.

I looked around in confusion. “What?” I saw only two of my daves sitting there. “Oh, no.” I sighed. Another server reset. That means someone in the party died. What am I supposed to do about it in here, though!? I realized what it meant, and it didn’t make me feel any better. Since the server went back this far, I have to fight the boss now. That was the only conclusion I could come to. I had rewound several hours, and I couldn’t think of any other reason I would be pushed back that far.

I looked at my two daves, my 37 MP, and my full HP and SP. I grit my teeth. “Well, if they died out there when Doom Fury made it through, it has to be [Monster Magnet] that did this. So, if someone is dying from this, it should be me.” I chuckled darkly. “I guess me getting killed would also work, wouldn’t it? That would take the [Monster Magnet] out, so maybe that’s what you were going for, right!?” I clenched my fist and shouted at the sky. “Well, screw you, System! I’m not dying here!”

I picked up a dave and strode over to the glowing rock in the middle. I touched it, and it vanished.

I immediately started looking around me to find the boss. I didn’t see it.

Unfortunately, I had yet to learn the lesson to look up once in a while. However, I managed to look down and see a shadow cast over me that was rapidly shrinking.

The end result was basically the same.

MOVE! I shouted at myself internally as I took off sprinting.

I didn’t get to see the boss’ landing because I was too busy diving to try to get away from it, but I finally got a good look at it when I turned around.

It was a giant bear. It was jet black, but that wasn’t exactly different from normal. I snorted. “Very creative System, good job.”

The bear started roaring, and I noticed a single bright spot on its hide. It turned to face me and kept roaring. What is it doing?

My question was answered as a beam of light shot out of its mouth.

I barely managed to leap out of its way, but it wasn’t done yet. The beam kept going, and the boss started following me with it. I barely managed to scramble back to my feet and frantically sprint in circles around the bear. “WHY DOES IT HAVE A FRICKIN LASER BEAM!?” I shouted and continued my mad dash.

The beam finally cut off, and it was time for my counterattack.

“Eat this!” I shouted, and [Air Strike] punched the dave I had somehow managed to keep hold of.

The dave flew true.

The bear? The bear was unimpressed. It grunted and swatted the dave out of the air, instantly killing it.

I was briefly stunned after that. You know. I guess I should’ve expected that daves wouldn’t be the answer to killing everything.

I didn’t have too long to ponder that because the bear charged at me and slammed the ground with its paw where I had been standing not a half-second earlier. It was pretty fast, so I belted it with two [Ice Strikes] before falling back and dodging the next slam.

That repeated twice more, which was just enough to lure me into a false sense of security. I dodged backward, already anticipating the next slam. However, that left me completely unable to avoid the sideways swipe that the boss went with instead.

The impact drove the breath from me, and I was launched dozens of feet sideways into the crater wall.

I knew that both the hit and the landing had hurt a lot, but I didn’t even have time to check my status before the bear had reached me again. It was going for another claw swipe. I saw my one opening to avoid the attack, and I hit the dirt.

The bear’s claws passed mere inches above me.

I jumped back to my feet and sprinted away from the bear for a few steps. I turned around just in time to avoid a slam.

I remained on alert as I slowly whittled the boss’s health down, but it, fortunately, didn’t try any other attack patterns.

When I finally got it down to ¾ HP, it surprised me by jumping into the air and vanishing.

I finally had a moment’s reprieve. Status.

I blanched when I was down to 102/190 HP and 212/285 SP. Lost 88 HP and 73 SP for ¼ of the boss’s health. Numbers are really tight on SP. I’ll need to conserve it. I should be able to avoid getting hit, though, so HP isn’t-

The middle of a boss fight is really not the time to be plotting out HP and SP usage to the single digit. I was taught that lesson when a beam of light zapped me in the head and dropped me another 11 HP to 91.

I immediately hit the floor and looked for what on earth had just zapped me. Thankfully, I remembered to look up this time, and I saw a glowing red orb that was hovering maybe 30 feet off the ground.

Is that what- I didn’t get to finish my thought as it shot another beam at me, and I barely rolled out of the way. The orb then moved to a different part of the clearing and hovered there. “Okay, found the ads.” I looked around in the sky and saw only one. “Or I guess. Ad.” I dodged another beam, and it moved yet again.

I was curious what I was dealing with. “[Identify],” I cast. It returned “Ursa Major Star, level 1.”

I thought I had recognized a pattern. Oh, so that’s why it’s moving around. It’s drawing out the constellation! Neat. I dodged yet another beam. How am I going to kill it, though?

The solution to that was easy enough to come up with. My only ranged attack. I ran over to where I left my other dave and picked it up, dodging beam attacks every few seconds. I almost [Air Strike] punched it at the orb right away, but I stopped myself.

Wait. Daves have 50 HP. [Air Strike] does at least 10 damage. I dodged a beam and frowned. That means my fifth [Air Strike] will always kill the dave. There’s only one ad, but I have to do this at least three times. I dodged another beam. If it increases to 2 ads and then 3, the dave won’t have enough HP.

It felt like a waste, but I came to a solution. I positioned myself directly under the “star” and then [Air Strike] flicked my trusty minion with all 4 fingers. It shot up into the air, briefly latched onto it, and then fell back down when the enemy was slain. That brought me down to 197 SP after the skills and all the dodging.

I caught the slime ball and congratulated it. “Good work, Dave.” It said nothing, but I was sure one of these days it would reply and make me question my sanity.

However, a shadow appeared around us, and I realized the boss was making another entrance. I bowled the dave away from me and ran the other direction.

I actually got to see the boss land that time, and it was even more terrifying than I thought. In addition to the literal tons of bear smashing into the ground, beams of light also shot up into the sky from all around where he landed.

Really glad I didn’t get caught in that. I chuckled nervously.

The second round went much like the first. I dodged its attacks and hit it with some [Ice Strikes] to slow it down. The only difference was that I didn’t dare use my skill as much, so after the initial attacks, I just punched it normally until it hit the next HP threshold and jumped into the air.

160 SP. Much better. I was also right on my guess as there were now two floating orbs in the sky that alternated shooting beams of light at my face.

I took another hit before I could kill the first one because it was harder to dodge, but I cleaned up both of those the same way. I was down to 80 HP, 135 SP.

The third stage of the boss went no differently than the second, except I was even more efficient at dodging. I ended off with 116 SP when three “stars” appeared back in the sky.

That was one of the sketchiest parts. Each “star” fired at a different rate, and I had difficulty dodging them while grabbing my dave and then lining it up to kill them. Fortunately, since those were the last three, I didn’t have to worry about conserving my dave’s HP anymore, and I punched it with an [Air Strike] at the first one as soon as I had a shot.

I caught the dave and then repeated for the other two. I even caught the dave at the end, even though I realized I hadn’t really needed to.

I was worried, though. I had been hit by 4 beams leaving me at 36 HP, 120 SP. That meant that there was no way I could survive a single hit.

I didn’t have too long to dwell on that because the boss did his meteor impression yet again. I forgot to roll the dave away from me, so he ended up joining me in my mad-sprint away.

It was a small change that I didn’t even mean to make, but it ended up saving my life.

I got ready for round 4 when the boss let out a long ear-piercing roar, and then it turned from jet-black to a fiery red. It charged me, and I was stunned by its increase in speed.

I pushed the dave away from me and somehow managed to dodge the first two slams. However, I had no time to retaliate.

I dodged the third slam, and it was already swinging its other paw with its long sweeping attack.

I panicked, and my eyes latched onto the dave. My body acted more out of instinct than anything.

I dove towards dave, scooped it, and hurled it into the boss’s face.

The boss redirected its attack to hit the dave, but it was already there. The end result? The dave was obliterated, but the boss decked itself across the face and fell onto its back dozens of feet away.

I had my one opportunity. I dashed towards the boss and began belting it with [Fire Strikes] as fast as possible. I knew [Ice Strike’s] slow wouldn’t be enough, so it was down to this. Could I do the last fifth of the boss’ health bar before it recovered?

By the time I made it to the boss, it was already trying to get back to its feet.

1st strike, 2nd strike.

It shifted its body weight.

3rd strike, 4th strike.

It began to roll over.

5th strike, 6th strike.

It made it back onto its feet.

7th strike, 8th strike.

It reared back its other paw.

9th strike, 10th strike.

The paw came forward.

It’s almost dead! I yelled internally.

11th strike, 12th strike…

It wasn’t enough. I barely hit the floor in time, and it was already rearing back for yet another attack. However, the boss’s health bar was sitting on empty.

With a yell of rage, I popped to my feet, jumped, and [Fire Strike] punched the bear right across its face.

The bear fell backward with a roar, and beams of light shot out of it before it finally disappeared.

I also fell backward because I was absolutely exhausted. Not SP-wise, of course, I still had about 50 of that, but just mentally.

My rest was short-lived, though, because I got a couple of System prompts.

System: You have defeated the boss for an unnamed zone! Please choose a name

System: New Achievement. Explorer. Class Perk Points Gained 2

System: New Achievement. First Explorer. Class Perk Points Gained 2

For once, I actually came up with a name fairly quickly. However, I had my doubts. Okay, System. I beg of you. Please don’t butcher this and tack an extra forest on the end, or I’m gonna be upset.

“Starry Forest,” I said.

System: Current zone has been renamed to “Starry Forest”

Thank you. I sighed in relief.

I looked around at the crater. “So… How do I get out?”

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[1] Minecraft/Getting Wood – “Getting Wood” is the first achievement in Minecraft. It is for… Getting a piece of wood.

However, since you don’t have any tools at that point it means that you have to punch a tree block to get it.