Would it have been someone else they would have died here. This bastard is too dangerous. Drake took a deep breath as he looked down for a moment. But why did he have to bring me up so far? He gulped as he readied himself to jump down before a wooden fist slammed into his face, smashing Drake into the trunk. Huh? A second and third blow followed from above before Drake could react.

He caught a glimpse of the wooden monster he fought before as another of its wooden fists slammed into him, this time covered in spikes, causing him to lose consciousness.

Chapter Begin

Elijah groaned as he pushed himself back up to his feet. I have to stop thinking everything goes my way.

A stream of essence entered him as his wooden minion stopped smashing its fists into the unmoving man. Elijah sighed at the sight of another dead man being added to his list before he made his way over to the branch his minion was standing on.

Judging by the essence I always get it seems like I have to defeat more people or beasts to reach the next tier. He thought as he opened his status sheet and looked at his tier. He was still Tier 1.

I need to reach the spatial formation inside their camp but I shouldn’t go there with my current strength. Deciding to get stronger first, Elijah waited two hours for his mana to refill before he made his way down the tree and began scouting the forest.

He found it strange that he didn’t encounter more horned beasts until now as he met three more after only about 15 minutes. His attempt at sneaking up on them failed and they noticed Elijah and his minion as soon as they weren’t even thirty feet away.

The beasts ran at Elijah and his minion with horns ahead but Elijah was more prepared this time and managed to take one down immediately.

His mace smashed into the side of one of the beasts and sent it flying several feet before it landed against a tree. His minion engaged one of the monsters as Elijah took care of the second one. The difference between this fight and the last surprised him and the fight ended within minutes with three streams of essence pouring into him before they continued through the forest.

Over the next few hours, they encountered five more groups, bringing Elijah closer to Tier 2. He had to take several breaks to recover his mana and stamina a few times as he didn’t want to move around with an empty mana pool.

His caution paid off when he saw another group of people toward the evening. After climbing higher, he trailed them from afar to scout out the group. His minion waited for him on the ground.

It was a group of two women and a man this time. They had similar outfits to the party before, all of them wearing different shades of red. One of the women seemed to be their leader as she walked at the front with a bright red coat around her shoulders and a bow on her back.

The other two appeared to be a few years younger than their leader and were both wearing the same dark red coats. They each carried short swords with them, their eyes constantly scanning their surroundings. Their whole demeanor screamed newbie at even Elijah who was one himself.

While he thought he had a good chance of defeating this group, he decided to not engage with them. While he didn’t shy away from taking a life in self-defense, he would try to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

As he was about to turn around and go back to where his minion was waiting for him, an arrow flew past Elijah, missing him by a few inches. Another arrow followed as he immediately lay down.

“You are louder than a cackling goblin!” A shout came from below as more arrows followed. One of the arrows managed to tear a hole through the thick branch as the barrage continued.

Damn. How can she shoot so many arrows this fast? Elijah thought as he waited for an opening. The barrage of arrows seemed endless and Elijah didn’t know what to do as three more arrows managed to penetrate the thick branch, missing Elijah by inches.

He waited for a pause in the woman’s assault which eventually came a few minutes later and immediately decided to close the gap between him and the trio.

Before he could act the other two were next to him.

Elijah pushed himself up with his immense strength and leaped forward. He looked down and realized his mistake midair. Luckily the archer had put aside her bow. Instead, she followed Elijah from the ground, armed with two daggers.

As he approached another tree, Elijah noticed that he had misjudged the distance and his strength. Before he landed against the tree, his arm shot up and Elijah took hold of another branch above him, pulling himself up. The duo behind him shouted insults at him as he turned around after landing.

„Why are you attacking me?“ He shouted but took in a sharp breath the next moment as a dagger the archer threw at him impaled his thigh. He intended to keep moving, though, and lunged forward to smash his mace into the girl who had approached him. Pain shot through his leg as he stumbled and grimaced in pain while the girl was sent flying.

A sudden kick from the young man sent Elijah tumbling to the ground and the archer used the opportunity to leap forward, trying to impale him with her other dagger. With more luck than skill, Elijah repeated the feat from earlier and impaled the archer’s shoulder with his spiky wooden arm.

After an inelegant landing, Elijah rolled to the side to evade a stomp from the young man who landed seconds after him. The resulting cloud of dust briefly worsened visibility. On a whim, Elijah enlarged his hand and slapped the man, sending him flying. Serves you right. He searched for his other opponents and spotted them to his right.

The younger woman was already running at him and leaped forward, plunging her knife into Elijah’s arm. Unlike the archer’s knife, the younger woman didn’t manage to thrust her weapon in very deep. Ignoring the superficial wound, Elijah crushed her arm in his enlarged hand before flinging her at the male.

The archer used the opportunity and fired a few arrows at Elijah who tried to jump to the side. A few arrows grazed his arm but they missed the explosive force they contained earlier. I have to take her out as fast as possible.

Another jolt of pain shot through his body as he threw his mace at the archer. While she managed to evade the throw, Elijah grabbed the mace with his innate wood manipulation and moved the weapon to smash into the woman from behind. She landed face-first on the ground before the mace jerked down, crushing her head with an audible crunch and causing a stream of essence to flow toward Elijah.

Elijah contorted his face at the sight before he received a kick against his ribs. Seeing the woman just behind the man, Elijah readied himself to counter her attack. He didn’t expect her to vanish, only to appear above him the next moment, driving a kick into his face.

The kick didn’t hurt as much as Elijah had expected it to but the woman managed to topple Elijah off despite his massive weight rooting him to the ground. She was nowhere near as strong as the man though.

Judging from the man’s physical capabilities, he had around the same strength as Elijah. He wasn’t as hard, though. Elijah scrambled backward to evade their follow-up attacks but the motion felt awkward as he forgot to return his right hand to its former size.

The woman landed before Elijah turned his palm towards them and decided to use the rest of his mana to try and end the fight. Numerous spikes grew from his hand as his arm explosively increased in length and shot forward. He grabbed the woman’s waist and applied pressure while she tried to free herself.

Moments later she crashed against a tree before falling several feet down to the ground, laying there unmoving. A stream of essence entered Elijah as the man shouted in rage. Before he could attack Elijah, a wooden fist slammed into him from behind, knocking him unconscious.

“Took you long enough,” Elijah said as his minion took the man’s life.