20 Growth

Lucifer knew that he had to grow stronger on his own.

Teamwork was important. Growing stronger as a party was essential to move forward from this point. But time and situation won't always be the same.

He believed that one's true strength lies within oneself, so there was no point in expecting others to save his ass every time his back was against a wall. Instead, it was wiser to level up and sharpen his skill to the point where he can face threats of any caliber.

Fighting these three chimpanzee-like monsters was his way of testing himself.

Up there in the trees, no one could come to rescue him. On top of that, he was at a disadvantage because in this environment, while the monsters could use their abilities to the fullest.

The situation was perfect. Till now, they had divided the enemy's fighting power to defeat them, but now he could only rely on his own strength.

He caught one of the branches and used it as a support to jump to the tallest tree in the surrounding. His plan was to reach the highest point so that he would be able to see all the incoming attacks from the surrounding monsters.

However, the problem here was if he climbs that high, other monsters—including the ones that could fly—would notice him. But that was the only choice he had in this case.

The chimpanzees had already surrounded him, so there was no way out of this.

"Khyaaaah!"

One of the chimpanzees jumped at him from the trees on the side. It was fast and could jump up to fifteen feet, so Lucifer had difficulty dodging it by going around the branch.

By the looks of things, this was only an attempt to show aggression. It was how these creatures tried chasing away the enemies bigger than them, somewhat like scaring a kid with an angry face so that he won't ask for candies.

Lucifer kept on climbing higher without showing any reaction. He didn't want to provoke them until he reached the top. However, it appeared as though his mere existence was getting on the nerves of these chimpanzee-like creatures.

He avoided their attacks until he reached high enough, and after he did, he turned around and counterattacked.

He threw several Fire bursts towards them, but these creatures were too fast for it to hit them. The attack, however, burned the tree they were at, so the three jumped to the other trees nearby.

"Kyaaaah!!!"

Now that they started feeling threatened by Lucifer's attack, they became careful and tried attacking from the back while still keeping their distance.

They could use low-level wind magic, which wasn't normally fatal. But when one is around 300 feet above the ground, any attack that could make one lose their balance was fatal.

Lucifer realized that when he felt several small cuts in his body. They were not so deep, but there was blood coming out of them. It was apparent that if it continued, he would die by bleeding out from those small cuts without even realizing it.

Lucifer sighed as he quickly took out a health potion and drank it.

The branch he was standing at was sturdy, so it was easy for him to balance himself without using his hands.

As soon as he finished drinking another potion to recover his mana. He activated 'Hide' to seize any sign of presence that his body was making. He then jumped a step and hid among the leaves.

Without a presence, it looked like he disappeared into thin air. But this was similar to how circus illusions worked. A card in the magician's hand disappears without a trace while the audience is focused somewhere else.

But the effect of this skill didn't last very long. As soon as the user does something attention-catching, the enemy could recognize their presence.

So, Lucifer waited for a while as they were looking around in confusion, and slowly moved towards one of them. Because of his subclasses —assassin and hunter— he could accomplish something like that.

Once he reached behind one of them, who was looking around for Lucifer in confusion, he took out his flaming spear and put it through him from behind.

"KHYAAAAAAAA!"

If it was a sword, the monsters might have been able to reach Lucifer with his long hands. But since it was a spear, there was no way it would be able to reach him.

His health started dropping rapidly, and once he activated the spell, his whole body burned to ashes and fell on the ground.

[Congratulations! You've leveled up]

Looking at this happen, the other two started running and hiding from him. This made his job way easier. He was a hunter, after all.

The prey is most vulnerable when it's showing his back and running. This was true in most of the cases. Now all he had to do was hunt them down.

Lucifer took a long breath before activating Hide again. He knew that this skill was useful, but the way it made his job this easier was simply unexpected, even by him.

But this was the field where his subclasses came into use. Both hunter and assassin were classes that better functioned in solo combat.

He used Fire bursts to burn the tree in front of them, and when the chimpanzees were confused, he attacked the one behind with the spear. And as he activated the spell, this one too met the same fate as the last one.

Watching all this happen, the remaining one was confused about what to do. Lucifer was not good at reading animal expressions, but the look on his face was that of an animal who was up against certain death.

However, the rules of the jungle were straight. It was the survival of the fittest. These monsters wouldn't have spared him just because he was weak, so why should he?

He thrust his spear into the third chimpanzee and burned it to the ashes. But right after he did that, a huge shadow fell upon the tree in which he was.

He looked towards the sky, but despite the bright sun, his eyes widened. A chill ran down his spine.

This was the feeling he had never felt before. His hands were shaking, his heart was racing, and every hair in his body stood up.

It was no wonder his instinct as a living being reacted to the might of the creature that just showed up.

Only after hearing the 'swat' sound of this beast —which confirmed that he wasn't daydreaming— could he finally utter two words.

"A dragon?!"