As Damon traversed the difficult terrain, Buna started showing signs of aggression. She was sniffing the ground, as if searching for prey and she started leading Damon to a dark cave. She stopped right in front of it and turned her head towards Damon.

What should I do? Does Buna want me to go in first?

As if reading his mind, the wolf started pushing Damon into the cave, but he didn’t want to suddenly get attacked. Quietly, he activated stealth and started walking in. Buna didn’t seem surprised by the erasure of Damon’s presence… maybe she didn’t sense the change at all?

Hm, maybe stealth doesn’t work on beings that I deem are allies?

Damon had thought of Buna the wolf as kind of a pet now, so the system might have allowed Buna to see through stealth.

Or… Buna is stronger than me and stealth doesn’t work on her.

Just imagining something able to endanger his life walking a few steps beside him freaked Damon out. If the wolf hadn’t stopped attacking…

Forget it, she didn’t attack, so why am I even worrying about it?

Not wanting to think about the matter more, Damon switched his attention onto his cave exploration. A faint disgusting smell was in the air, it was like the smell of rotting corpses. That meant that there was definitely a living thing in their that was eating or hunting whatever the corpses were before they died. If Damon sent Buna in to fight, he could probably secure some food without having to do anything!

But what does monster meat taste like… I rather not try it, but if there’s nothing else…

Damon hated facing the fact that his only source of food was going to be from the meat from the monsters living in this hell like place. Plants didn’t seem like they could grow here, so that option was out. He needed water to survive too, but where would he find that! The hot temperature probably evaporated all the water already---even the sweat on his back was gone.

“Buna, what do you drink here?”

Damon decided to just ask Buna, because she was a resident of this horrible place and she was clearly still alive.

Buna stopped in her tracks and sat down on its hind legs. At the sudden stop, Damon watched Buna to see what kind of response she would give to him. Would the wolf show him a water source or not even be able to understand his question? But she seemed like she had understood some of his words, because of earlier, so there was a good chance she would try to answer Damon’s question now as well.

The wolf’s claws came out again and she scratched her other paw. Then, blood started gushing out, and Buna raised it up towards Damon’s face.

“Wait, you drink blood?!” asked Damon surprisingly.

Buna seemingly nodded her head and motioned for Damon to drink.

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Is blood their only source to keep themselves hydrated? Then won’t you just run out of blood eventually… unless you drink the blood of monsters you hunt…

Damon, having drank water to keep himself hydrated since forever was inwardly puking at the thought of being forced to drink blood from now on to stay alive. He decided to drink it later if he had to, and that would only be when he was seriously dehydrated to the point he could die. Damon told Buna that they would walk in deeper, and they started.

The farther they went, the stench of corpses assaulted their noses more and more. Damon started pinching his nose, but Buna didn’t seem affected. She probably had to deal with this smell everyday in the search for food.

Now, the source of the smell finally came into view, but there was a giant thing sitting in front of it. It was 3m tall, had rough, green skin, had a tiny tunic covering its private part, and had a giant wooden club in hand.

A troll?!

A troll from classic fantasy tales had just appeared in front of his eyes! Damon felt anxious standing in front of it even though it was sleeping, but he had to kill it if he wanted food. Having made a plan together with Buna, they started their sneaky assault.

The plan was for Damon to hide behind the troll when it was sleeping, and hit its head as hard as he could. Then, when it woke up, Buna would distract it from Damon while he got on its back and strangled it. It was dangerous, yes, but necessary. Having Buna and the troll fight one on one would be a rash decision that would end in his demise.

Damon got behind the troll and initiated the plan by throwing a big rock at the troll’s head with as much strength he could muster. The result was clear. The troll burst awake with a loud shout.

GaaRHH!

The moment the troll awoke, Damon stood silent behind it while Buna started attacking with her sharp claws and canines. Scratches appeared on the monster’s whole body, but it didn’t seem fazed. It dumbly chased after Buna, but she evaded with speed and accuracy. It was almost like a game of tag between a baby and an adult.

Finally, the troll got tired and stopped in place. It thought Buna was the only opponent, so it didn’t even think of protecting its back. It was the perfect chance for Damon! Finally, he got to test out teleport. Earlier, to make sure he had ‘visited’ the troll’s back, he had touched it lightly with his hand. Now, he could make it up there without having to climb!

Teleport activate!

[Teleport(F) Activated]

Damon’s body disappeared and reappeared on the troll’s back. It was an instantaneous movement, but the instant teleportation didn't faze Damon at all. He was determined to win this fight, it showed on his face and through his body language.

GuRgH!!

The troll started making choking sounds as Damon strangled it with his hands, while exerting the maximum amount of power he could. The troll tried to shake him off, but he hanged on as best he could. Buna, seeing his efforts, started attacking viciously as well. She bit the troll’s legs and impaled them with her claws. The combined efforts of the two ended up bearing fruit.

The troll finally fell down on its face after having struggled against strangulation and fierce bite marks and puncture wounds. Trolls were supposed to have strong regenerative abilities, but one couldn’t heal not having access to air. This fight ended in Damon’s victory, mostly because of his well thought up plan.

A familiar message popped up in front of Damon.

[Level Up!]

What? But I only killed one monster! Didn’t I have to kill another 10 to level up?

Damon was confused as he attempted to clean himself after touching the dirty, dirt riddled troll. But then, his gaze shifted to the pile of corpses. He counted exactly 9… which meant…

Does the system count the number of monsters a more powerful monster, that I defeated, has killed before? So this troll killed 9 monsters… plus me killing the troll itself would equal 10!

A new discovery about how the system gave out levels provided more insight on how Omega System actually worked. Leaving Buna to watch out for him and take care of the troll, Damon started playing with his system.

[Level Up Rewards]

-Strength +1

-Defense +1

-Agility +1

-Magic +1

Damon chose defense, because Buna could do the attacking, but he needed to be able to defend himself too. A familiar feeling of his body changing occured, and then he checked his stat page.

[Name] Damon Zellar

[Class] None

Level: 4(0/10)

Strength: 7

Defense: 7

Agility: 6

Magic: 0

[Special Stats]

Luck: 5

Intelligence: 4

*** Has not been unlocked yet (2/5)

[Skills]

Stealth(E)

Teleport(F)

Considering an average adult male back on Earth had stats of about 5, Damon was already in the top percentage, physically wise. Deciding on finding out what one stat in magic looked like next time, he moved onto the main event of the day… the troll.