Salvos (A Monster Evolution)

Chapter 16 -Not Rocks

16. Not Rocks

I wandered the forest as the colors in the sky changed; I was getting used to such a sight now. I had been fascinated by this day-night cycle at first, but now I realized how predictable it was. If there had been any variances between the amount of time it took for day or night to change— it was too minute for me to notice.

Also, I was rather preoccupied.

Defeated [Green Stag - Lvl. 24]!

Less experience is awarded for defeating an enemy with the help of others!

Subspecies [Zelus Imp] Level Up!

[Zelus Imp - Lvl. 20] -> [Zelus Imp - Lvl. 21]

Gained 5 Stat Points and 3 Skill Points!

I retracted my claw from the monster's back, letting go of his horns as I limply rolled away from his corpse. I lay on the grassy floor, spreading my arms wide as I started my [Rest].

This wasn't the first monster I had killed— if he was, I wouldn't have leveled just from defeating him. No— there was an entire herd of them which tossed me around and charged me no matter what I did. Fire? Why would they be scared of that? They ran straight through it and rammed me no matter what I did.

They were relentless. So eventually, I resorted to jumping on their backs to make them hit each other. It worked out to my favor somehow; they were not apprehensive about killing their own at all to get to me. I gained less experience from doing that, but I managed to survive and even level.

I sat up, evaluating my Skills and Stats.

Stats:

[Available Stat Points: 5]

[Vitality]: 21

[Strength]: 16

[Endurance]: 26

[Wisdom]: 33

[Agility]: 48

Skills:

[Available Skill Points: 5]

[Basic Fire Creation] - Lvl. 11

[Double Step] - Lvl. 8

[Fire Strike] - Lvl. 10 (Maxed)

[Fire Blast] - Lvl. 7

[Passive - General Tool Proficiency] - Lvl. 3

[Unused Skill Slot] x2

I had thought about it for a while: distributing different Skill and Stat Points every single time became a hassle when it wasn't absolutely necessary. So for my next few levels, all I would raise was [Endurance] by 2 Stat Points, [Wisdom] by 2 Stat Points, and [Agility] by 1 Stat Points. And as for my Skills, I would evenly split all 3 Skill Points I gained from leveling between [Basic Fire Creation], [Double Step], and [Fire Blast].

I would keep doing this until my Stat and Skill Points were needed elsewhere or for some other reason. For now, I did just that before resuming my leveling session. It wasn't progressing as quickly as I hoped; I would have to defeat dozens of monsters around my level to even gain a single level. And if that was the only issue, I wouldn't have cared as much, because the real problem wasn't the danger but—

My head snapped to the side as I heard a crunch.I stared at the deer as she stepped over some twigs and fallen tree branches, breaking them with her hooves. I felt my lips drawing to a frown.