Chapter 18: Academy Entrance 1
After going up to level 2 Jerod found that he had to kill more animals to gain the same amount of experience. When he was level 1 he was earning 1 experience point per animal, however after achieving level 2 he had to kill two to earn 1 point. Lindsay explained that this was normal in games, since he was a higher level than what he was 'fighting' he would earn less experience. He would probably eventually not earn any experience at all if there was a high enough level gap.
And so after four days of going into the woods in the morning and returning home at night he had earned 200 experience points. Today would be the last day to go into the woods to hunt animals and hopefully be the day he successfully leveled up again.
Jerod set out just like before walking through the woods to find animals. Today was different however, as he looked around he could not find any animals. Lindsay scanned the area and informed him that there was nothing nearby so he decided to go deeper into the woods.
'It's strange that there are not any animals around today. We have made sure to go into different directions each time and made sure that we left a good amount of animals alone to ensure we didn't destroy the local population. I wonder why they have all disappeared.'
Jerod was in deep thought wondering about the cause of this phenomenon. He continued to trek through the woods not noticing the pair of eyes watching him from the shadows. Jerod came across a lake and decided to stop for a drink and see if he could see any animal trails that might lead him to the animals.
Just as he neared the lake Jerod tripped on a rock causing him to fall face forward onto the ground. Just then a black shadow had pounced at him missing due to the sudden drop of its prey.
'Jerod! Stand quickly! A panther just tried to attack you!'
Jerod stood up and jumped back away from the panther as fast as he could. In his experience in the woods so far he had not come across something as dangerous as a panther before.
'Lindsay can you scan the panther's stats? How did it just show up when we have been searching the area for animals all morning?'
'It seems to have a way of hiding its presence.'
STATUS
Black Panther LV 3
HP: 50/50
MP: 10/22
SPIRIT: 30
STR: 7
AGI: 12
LUK: 5
SOUL ENERGY: 70
'Wow it's faster than me and has way more HP than I do. It seems to have been using its MP for something. This is going to be tough, I don't think I can just kill it with spirit magic like I have been with everything else.'
The panther at this time had turned around to eye Jerod, not knowing if he had intentionally fallen down to avoid his attack or if there was some coincidence. Erring on the side of caution the panther circled Jerod looking for an opening to attack again.
"Human filth! Who gave you permission to enter my territory and hunt my prey?"
Taken aback by the sudden question from an animal Jerod froze for a moment. This moment was all the Panther needed to attack again. It leaped straight at Jerod with its claws stretched out trying to pin him to the ground. With his increased agility Jerod was able to react fast enough to turn to the side to avoid the panther but not enough to escape unharmed.
(-7 damage)
Jerod screamed out in pain as he was lacerated across his chest. Quickly releasing a light heal to stop the bleeding he decided to ask a question to the panther in hopes of giving himself some time to prepare to attack back.
"You can talk? Are you the reason all the animals are gone today?"
(+5 HP regenerated)
The panther taken by surprise at how quick the human moved turned to inspect the damage done. Unfortunately he saw a milky white light healing the wound he just inflected.
"Humph.. Small human magician you have no right to talk to me. I won't let you take over my territory and my prey"
With that the panther launched another attack. However in mid air Jerod launched his attack as well. Launching an earth spike from beneath the panther he was able to successfully injure its back leg.
(Earth spike deals -12 damage to black panther)
'My timing was off. This panther moves too quickly.'
Due to the hit from the spike the trajectory of the panther was thrown off causing him to miss Jerod completely this time. Being surprised the human was able to keep up with its speed the panther rolled away and went into a bush.
'Jerod, not good. The panther has disappeared again I don't sense where it is.'
Jerod faced the bush where the panther disappeared into and inched his way slowly towards the lake. Keeping the lake behind him would allow him to have one less direction to have to defend against. Once he go there he formed a spell to be ready to attack as soon as the panther showed up again.
Just as Jerod had finished preparing a frost lance there was movement to his left so he turned and shot the lance into the bushes there. At that time the panther attacked again from Jerod's right, this time successfully attacking Jerod's back.
(-10 HP)
As soon as Jerod hit the ground he launched another frost spike. By using the water from the lake he was able to gather the water elements necessary in a fraction of a second, and with Lindsay's help he was able to successfully hit the panther right in the head with the frost lance.
(CRITICAL HIT! Frost Lance deals -50 damage to black panther)
(Black Panther (LV3) killed Experience gained 50)
(Congratulations! You have leveled up to LV 3.)
(HP +5, MP +10, SOUL ENERGY +10, Free stat points earned +5)
Jerod moved out from under the panther. His shirt was torn in front and back due to the panther's claws and it was soaked in blood.
(-1 HP)
'Jerod! You are still bleeding you need to heal your back.'
Jerod was light headed and struggling to focus. He closed his eyes and started to circulate his mana towards the channels in his back. Unfortunately he couldn't keep his mind focused enough to follow the channels directly. Noticing this he decided to just flood the channels with light magicles in hopes that he would be able to stop the bleeding.
(-1 HP)
Jerod's mana started to gush through his entire body causing his MP to drop quickly developing enough light magicles to spread through all of the channels.
(New spell developed! Light Body Fusion. User infuses the body with light magicles causing wounds and abrasions to heal. Note: this spell is a channeled spell costing MP and STAM)
The wounds on Jerod's back finally closed and stopped bleeding. His MP drained to 0 and his STAM was at a pitiful 2 points but he was no longer taking bleeding damage. Jerod continued to lay on the ground near the lake with his eyes closed while he recovered his MP and STAM.
'Lindsay, let me know if anything dangerous shows up. I am going to rest for a while so I can cast a healing spell.'
Luckily no other predators showed up and after 2 hours of resting Jerod was able to cast a few healing spells to recover his HP back to max. He placed the panther's body into his inventory and washed up in the lake. He took out a shirt from his inventory to replace the ripped and bloodied one he was wearing and slowly made his way home.
Jerod decided to use 2 of his stat points to increase his health by 20 points and put the rest of the points into his MP raising it by 15. The next two days would be spent with his family and then he would go to the entrance exam for Hilas Magic Academy.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone