Leo turned around and scanned the airspace behind him for the source of the sound. Sure enough, he quickly identified it. The problem was, it was worse than he expected.

He saw not one, but two corvian skinks gliding over the treetops in the distance, heading in his direction. But that was not all. One of the beasts clearly was the one that he fought earlier, while the other one... The other one was much bigger.

The young corvian skink let out a loud cry. Then, the big one responded with one you can't describe with any word other than menacing. The screeches echoed across the cavern like an alarm. It was as if the little one was saying "Look Dad, the guy that beat me up should be somewhere around here" and the big one answered, "don't worry son, look how your father whoops his ass, he won't be able to hide from me".

And while it was amusing to imagine what they would be talking about as if it was a comedic skit, the reality of the situation was quite serious. In fact, it probably was a worst-case scenario. The small one was already too much for Leo to handle. Now, he had to somehow deal with two, one of them being a big bad monster kind of variation. And it was only a matter of time for some monster, be it a kobold or a flying steroid crocodile to detect him.

Leo almost wanted to cry. This was such bullshit. After all, the only thing he did was protect himself from being eaten, and now he was being punished for that.

And he couldn't even properly express his frustration. It was impossible for him to sit this one out either, the bird-lizard had clearly knew Leo was somewhere around here.

"Shit."

Leo's options were incredibly limited. He needed to get inside the Sanctuary's safe zone, or he was dead today. By his calculations, his distance to the edge of the safe zone was around three kilometers. It wasn't really a far distance. Yet, it was infinitely more deadly now. There was no way he could cross that distance without being noticed and engaged.

He couldn't really fight them, at least head-on. His stats were much lower compared to those monsters, and while he was improving in speed, the difference in agility was still overwhelming. Furthermore, even though he had some time to recover, he only had about three-quarters of his stamina left.

[Lesser Aura Release] was a useful skill, but he couldn't hope to pull off the same bluff twice. His only hope was somehow sneaking into the safe zone without alerting any kobolds. He needed to move.

The best result would be him sneaking away and bird-beasts and kobolds duking it out. He could even attempt to sweep up the survivors. That was somewhat likely to happen since the corvian skink he wounded earlier was definitely pissed. It could try to settle its anger by munching on some kobold jerky instead of Leo.

In case that failed, he would have to start running and hope to god the monsters just somehow miss every single strike.

Leo opened his stat panel. He had quite a number of feat points available to him. He chose to save them because the reason for this trip was to evaluate which area he was lacking in, and now seemed to be a perfect time to spend those points. After all, dead men don't need points. Or anything really.

He checked his feat point counter. Twenty-one. There was no need to think much about his first choice of feat to level. It was [Dazzling Retreat]. He quickly put nine points into it to bring it to completion. Then he skimmed through the rest of the list and added ten points to [First Blood] and the remaining two to [Daredevil].

While increased regeneration would be great, his first priority was getting the [Retreat] skill and then stat points. A ten percent regeneration increase is great but it won't save him from claws or spears. Overall, twenty-one feat points yielded him a skill, some preallocated stats, and twenty-two free stat points.

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[-][Retreat Lv.1](0%)

Unranked Active Skill

Max level: 10

Description: Upon activation, increase movement speed by 50% + the percentage of your health missing for 30 seconds.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Current bonus: 42%

Mana Cost: 20 MP

The skill was great. In current condition, it almost doubled his already enhanced speed. If he had to make the run for it, this might actually make the difference.

Leo opened his stats panel. Twenty-two stat points were looking at him waiting to be allocated.

"If I put all in strength, I could actually try fighting the smaller one and stand a decent chance to win."

He considered it for a moment but then decided against it. Even if he could fight it now, what would he do about the big one? He had a paralytic dart the kobold scout leader dropped, but it only worked for one second, so killing the big one was probably out of the question. Instead, he put two points into MND, one to PER, and the rest nineteen to AGI.

They all influenced how effective his [Sneak] was, MND and PER greatly affected his general awareness and AGI meant speed, and as everyone knows, speed is king.

The changes to his body were noticeable in an instant. His senses didn't receive an overwhelming upgrade, since proportionally, it was a lesser step up compared to when he first increased his MND and PER, but he could still feel that it was easier to separate sounds coming from all directions around him. As for AGI, it wasn't really noticeable right now, but he could bet he will feel it next time he runs.

Now it was time to move. If he stalled for any longer, he would end up sandwiched between the heli-gators and kobolds.

Leo chose a direction and started moving.

He moved swiftly, but carefully. The trick was to avoid open areas as much as you can. As long as there is some distance and an object breaking the line of sight between him and the kobolds, it should be relatively easy to stay undetected.

Thankfully, there were plenty of trees, bushes, and rocks around. He used them to cover his movement. The fact that the kobolds were generally pretty short also played to his advantage. He kept on moving, skirting around the main force of the kobold army. The idea was to sneak between the main force and scouts since the place they already had searched would be the last place they would look for him in.

Unfortunately, he stumbled into a rather annoying obstacle. A couple of kobolds were in a heated argument about something, blocking the passage for him.

"Lasssk!" One of the kobolds spat, pushing its companion away.

"Gakk kasarr, Karshak!" Another one growled, raising its spear. "Ikkar lusssk raal!"

The kobolds seemed to be quite the quarrelsome bunch.

"Should I eliminate them?"

Leo tried to calculate his chance of getting rid of those two quietly. They were completely distracted, looking away from the direction Leo came from. As long as he uses his skills wisely, he should be able to silence both kobolds simultaneously.

"Karshak?! Gakk narok Karshak!" The first kobold seemed to be quite riled up by his companions' last comment. Infuriated even. It shoved its companion so hard that it stumbled backward, dropping its spear on the ground.

The kobold recovered quickly and lunged forward, punching its comrade squarely in the jaw. The impact sent it reeling, causing it to fall down on its back. It lay there stunned as the other kobold climbed on top of it and started hitting it repeatedly.

"GAKK KASARR! GAKK KASARR!! GAKK KASARR!!!" The enraged creature screamed between the hits. The other kobold wailed in pain, trying to defend itself. But with its opponent sitting on top of it, the only thing it could do was cover its head with its hands and brace for the beating.

The kobolds in the distance clearly picked up on the commotion as Leo could already hear shouts coming from several directions. They were coming here.

"Fuck."

Leo bolted forward readying his glaive. He charged at the kobolds while they were too busy beating the shit out of each other to notice him. Before they realized what happened, Leo skewered both of them with one swift strike, cutting off their screams before they started.

"Go bicker in hell." Leo hissed at their bodies as they vanished. Not sparing notifications a glance, he immediately moved in the direction of Sanctuary's tower. By his calculations, he had to cover about three kilometers before he was safe. And he had to do it fast. The small corvian skink already was fast, he couldn't even imagine how fast would the high-level version be.

A shriek sounded out in the distance.

"Think of the devil..."