Congratulations! Achievement Unlocked: First Companion!

As Zenith stared awe fully at the system panel in front of him, he suddenly felt a significant boost in strength. Although he was still quite exhausted, Zenith stood up using the two extra points he had gained in stamina after leveling up two times.

It looked like each time he leveled up, every stat got increased by one point.

After tightening and untightening his hands, feeling the little gain in power, Zenith distributed the two stat points he had gained from leveling up twice.

[ Strength: 10 ]

[ Stamina: 3/7 ]

Because his stamina was the lowest of the three main stats, Zenith decided to contribute one of his stat points to it.

He didn't want any stat to fall too far behind the others.

'Open inventory' Zenith thought to himself.

Another panel opened up right beside the stats panel, this one showing multiple empty slots with one already filled with what looked to be a small red potion in a glass bottle.

Zenith reached into the panel and picked up the potion in the slot as though he were reaching in a chest, and pulled it out into the real world.

He inspected the potion closely.

"Now that I think about it, I don't think I should waste such a powerful elixir. Who knows when I'll get another one of these."

Zenith said to himself before placing the potion back into the inventory slot.

Afterwards, Zenith tended to his wounds. Back in his village, he remembered the times where he would get cut sometimes, and how other village people would treat his wounds.

It was a specific leaf, called the Aine leaf, that was grinded into a paste and applied to a bleeding opening in the body, which would numb the pain and cease the bleeding from continuing.

Zenith was very familiar with this leaf, as he would get wounded quite often with his weak body, and so finding it in the luscious forest wasn't difficult by any means.

After grinding the Aine leaves he found into a thick green paste, Zenith applied it to his shins and some on his claves.

Almost immediately, Zenith felt the effects of the leaf. Most of the stinging pain on his calves instantly disappeared, and a numbing feeling replaced it. Thankfully, the bleeding was also stopped as well. That was Zenith's main concern with the wound.

After this, Zenith decided it was time to continue his journey, however, he didn't want to face another experience like that without being armed.

He took the baseball-bat sized stick that he had used to kill the Razor-Hopper and began sharpening it with a thin edged stone.

It took quite a while, a time ranging from one to two hours, mostly due to the dullness of all the rocks he found nearby, but he had finally made a semi sharpened wooden sword of sorts.

Although it wasted much of Zenith's day, he was willing to even spend the entire day carving the sword as long as he knew he would have a decent chance at protecting himself afterwards.

With the wooden sword placed on his back inside of a make-shift sheath made of vines and other fibrous material within the forest, Zenith finally stood up from his crafts and began making his way through the forest once again.

…

Soon, dawn turned to dusk, as the radiant sun's bright rays which once pierced through the forest rooftop slowly began to fade away.

By now, Zenith was extremely famished and tired. All he wanted to do was find a place where he could set up camp and sleep for the night.

As Zenith made his way through some thick brush, he saw an opening on the other side which was connected to a large mountainside.

Before walking out of the brush, Zenith's instincts told him to survey the area first beforehand, as the fear of being out in the open lingered in his head.

Although he hated the thick vegetation of the forest, it also served as a camouflage and an extra mantle of protection for him at times. Keeping his mind at ease once he knew he was inside of a large bush or something alike.

Here, the same idea stood relevant.

Just had Zenith had thought, he was not alone in the area, as he witnessed a couple of animals walk into the treeless open zone. He immediately gripped his sword just in case.

A large bear and her bear cub could clearly be seen, however, these bears did not look normal. Although it was quite hard to see in the dark, Zenith ascertained that these bears were abnormally large, as the cub itself was over four feet in height and the mother bear clearly looked to be over eight feet in stature while walking on all fours.

These bears also had a large red stripe that went through the middle of their fur, which made them unique from any bears Zenith had ever seen or even heard of.

As Zenith gawked in awe of the sheer size of the beasts, he also quickly noticed that the mother bear looked to be limping.

Upon closer inspection, Zenith saw that one of her legs had quite a large bite mark carved into it. The wound looked to be bleeding heavily.

'Now that I look at it, the bear also looks to be very unwell.' Zenith said to himself, noticing the mother bears half closed eyes, heavy panting, and tired expression.

Out of nowhere, the mother bear fell onto her knees, seemingly due to exhaustion, and breathed continuously heavier strokes of breath.

The smaller cub whimpered in sorrow as it saw the dire state of its parent, not being able to do anything about it. It began nudging at its mother, trying to keep her awake.

Eventually, the mother bears eyes peacefully closed. The cub howled and whined in despair and it continued to try and nudge its now deceased mother. It was truly a depressing scene.

'What... have I just witnessed.' Zenith didn't know what to think at this current moment. He wanted to get away from the situation as soon as possible, and so, he slowly backed up while still crouching.

Crack!

Just then, Zenith stepped on a tree branch. 'Why now all of a sudden!?' He thought to himself, looking down at the branch.

The loud crack immediately alerted the bear cub, which quickly pointed its eyes in Zeniths direction.

Although he was slightly hidden, Zenith knew that he had clearly been spotted by the eyes of the creature.

Although it was just a cub, the bear was still of an apex predator species. Not only that, but it had also lost its mother, and was extra defensive.

Just then, an idea popped up into Zenith's head.

'This creature... it is quite weak right?' Thought thought to himself as he inspected the bear cub closer.

He noticed that the cub had not gained a sharp row of teeth yet, not did it look to have sharp claws.

The more Zenith looked at the cub, the less intimidated he became.

As the two continued to lock eye contact, Zenith slowly exited the bushes and neared the bear cub.

He could feel his heart pounding, and his breathing became more shaky.

As he got closer, the cub growled at him as loud as it could in order to scare the boy off, however, Zenith continued to walk closer, having complete trust in his skill no matter how frightened he felt on the inside.

The bear tried to taunt Zenith by lunging toward his general direction several times, but these fake bluffs were not enough to scare Zenith away.

After finally getting close enough, Zenith stared deep into the eyes of the beast. However, the bear cub suddenly lunged at Zenith, this time without a bluff, and bit deep into Zenith's arm.

Zenith was immediately driven to the ground, as the predator in front of him continued to champ at his arm savagely.

The pain was immeasurable, as bones could be heard breaking from the loud crunches.

Zenith immediately began to scream in pain and horror, realizing the true beast which was in front of him.

'What the hell was I thinking!? Argh!' Zenith thought to himself, still looking at the bears eyes as he desperately tried to pull his arm away from the feral beast.

However, out of nowhere, the creature suddenly stopped ravaging Zenith's arm, and took a couple steps backwards before standing still.

Using this moment of relief, Zenith quickly grabbed the full heal potion from his inventory and drank it. Although it may have been a waste, Zenith didn't care.

He was far too horrified and was in a state of shock and panic right now.

Upon drinking the red liquid in the glass bottle, Zenith felt a warm and comfortable feeling quickly envelop his body, and before he knew it, all of his injuries disappeared along with the writhing pain.

Afterwards, Zenith looked at the bear before quickly rising to his feet.

The bear continued to look at him for a couple more seconds, before slowly making its way toward Zenith once again.

Instead of running away, Zenith put his trust in his skill one last time and simply closed his eyes as he forced himself to stay still.

He was still breathing heavily, and slightly in a condition of trauma, yet he persevered.

Eventually, he felt a wet and sloppy feeling on his face, followed by a barrage of this exact same feeling.

It was extremely ticklish, and forced the petrified Zenith to laugh against his will, as he quickly fell to the ground along side the bear cub who continued to lick Zenith as it cheerfully smiled as well.

Finally, Zenith saw a panel which he had been waiting for pop up in front of him.

[ Skill: Gentle Eyes has been passively triggered ]

[ New Companionship Created:

Red-Ringed Bear

Current Rank: Pure Beast

Rank Potential: Upper Echelon Rampage Rank

(Hidden Genome Mutation!)

Name: Unspecified

{Stats} ]

[ Congratulations! Achievement unlocked: First Companion! ]

[ Please Select A Name For Your New Companion ]