Chapter 7 - Punching Up

The second the alert faded away, tens of messages appeared in front of him, and he started to understand why the system kept it off.

[Alert: Killed lvl:2 Wolf - Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)

Alert: Killed lvl:1 Wolf - Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)

Alert: Killed lvl:2 Wolf - Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)

Alert: Killed lvl:1 Wolf - Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)

Alert: Killed lvl:1 Wolf - Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)

Alert: Killed lvl:2 Wolf - Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)

Alert: Killed lvl:1 Wolf - Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)

Alert: Killed lvl:2 Wolf - Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)

Alert: Killed lvl:1 Wolf – Experience gained

Alert: Killed lvl:2 Wolf - Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)]

He was overwhelmed by the messages and had to rush to dismiss them as they blocked his vision. He imagined something like that would be perilous if it happened in the middle of a life-or-death battle… but it was also vital to know what exactly you were fighting.

If he knew the creature in the pond outclassed him, Lan would just leave. But if it wasn't too much stronger than him… he might give it a go.

After taking note of the bonus experience he gained from fighting creatures of a higher level than himself, he figured that was the best way forward. 'I should be able to level quicker and more efficiently if I'm punching above my weight.'

He looked back at the pool and frowned. He needed the rocks in there for the ambush he wanted to set up… but the guardian in the pool was in the way.

'Ah, who cares? I can't die anyway, so I might as well give it a go,' Lan decided, creeping up towards the pool and staying as far from the edge as he could. He reached out with the long branch and poked at the water's surface.

The ripple from the tap of the branch quickly turned into waves as the creature exploded out from the water again, snapping his stick as it did so.

Lan scrambled away from the water and made sure to get a good look at the creature as it hung in the air briefly.

The system dinged, and a glowing name appeared above the monster.

[Boulder Salamander – Lvl 6]

Seeing the massive difference, Lan almost wanted to give up and leave, but something stopped him. If he looked at the situation logically, he was meant to fight a Lvl 6 at Lvl 6. Meaning he would have 50 more stat points than he had now, almost doubling his stat total.

The power difference between them was clear as day, but so was the opportunity for growth. 'The bonus experience for killing something that much stronger will surely be immense,'

Lan's mind whirled as he tried to figure out a weakness the creature had. He didn't have much information to go on. The only thing he could say for sure was that it didn't like leaving the water, even if it could easily kill him if it did.

'The question is… how do I get it out of the pool?' Lan wondered, carefully examining the clearing. The pool was in the centre, beneath a rocky gully where the water fell down a miniature waterfall into the pond. Another stream carved its way through the forest on the other side of the pond.

His first thought was to somehow divert the stream that fed into the pond, letting the water drain away until the Boulder Salamander was left stranded and with no option but to come out and fight him.

It was almost the size of a horse, so he doubted it would be able to fit through the shallow river that led out from the pond. At worst, he could stand at the river's mouth and ambush the creature as it passed by.

The question was, how should he go about diverting the water?

He climbed up the slope to the mouth of the waterfall. The floor of the river was rocky, and the water was so clear it could be seen from the surface. Lan was just about to stick his arm in to check how deep the river was when he had a horrible realisation.

Jumping back, he eyed the rocky riverbed closely, trying to discern whether more salamanders were lurking beneath the water's surface.

Unfortunately, it was fruitless. The salamanders' scales were almost identical to the rocks they hid within; no matter how hard Lan looked, he could tell the difference between them.

Cautiously, he reached out with his stick, which was far shorter after being bitten in half by the giant Salamander and poked at the water. Nothing moved.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed the stick all the way down to the riverbed, a depth of almost a full metre. By the time he reached the bottom, his arm was submerged up to the elbow.

He kept stabbing at suspicious-looking rocks until he poked one spherical rock that shuddered before opening, revealing a bulbous eye that stared back up at him through the water.

Inspiration hit Lan like a truck, and he stabbed in the eye as hard as possible before throwing himself away from the river.

Seconds later, the water exploded into the sky as the Salamander barrelled out of the river, blue blood flowing from one of its eyes.

Lan gulped nervously as he saw the creature completely leave the river and begin to waddle towards him, its body looking ungainly and awkward now that it wasn't in the water.

Its working eye glowed with unbridled fury, and its mouth was wide open, releasing a high-pitched hiss that rattled Lan's eardrums.

He backed up until they were a reasonable distance from the river before stopping beside a big tree almost twice as wide as he was. He turned back to make sure the monster was still following him.

[Boulder Salamander – Lvl 4]

It was slowly moving out of the water, and he could outpace it easily, causing the gap between them to grow.

But driven by fury and pain, the Salamander refused to give in, chasing after Lan with single-minded determination.

He stood beside the tree and watched it grow closer, keeping an eye on its tail as it closed in.

He had already figured out that the tail of the salamanders was their real weapon, and he wasn't going to make the mistake of underestimating it.

It finally got within striking distance and lunged. It looked clumsy compared to when it was in the water, but that didn't change the fact that he would die if it caught him.

Side-stepping, he slid behind the tree, causing the Salamander to slam headfirst into the sturdy trunk when it tried to change direction mid-lunge.

Lan rushed around and kicked at the creature's head, aiming for its working eye. It was too stunned to react with a block, but it simply didn't need to. It closed its scaly eyelid, and Lan felt like he had just kicked a boulder, not an eye.

Grunting, he raised his foot and hovered over the closed eyelid, waiting like a viper for his moment to strike.

He didn't have to wait long either, as the Salamander shifted and shook its head, opening one good eye.

Lan stomped down with everything he had and felt something crush and then pop beneath his boot. He had to fight the urge to throw up as the Salamander hissed and screamed, its tail thrashing uncontrollably as it flailed at empty air.

Jumping back, Lan wished, not for the first time, that he had an actual weapon and not just a stick that had no chance of breaking through the Salamander's rock-hard skin.

'I could wait for it to bleed out, but who knows how long that could take? I want to get this over with now and move on to the bigger one,'

Leaving the blinded Salamander where it was, Lan ran over to a fallen log a few metres away. It was thicker than his leg and a couple of metres long, looking to have fallen recently.

He bent down and grabbed it, instinctively understanding how to lift it and swing it just the right way.

Looking over his shoulder, he noticed that the Salamander had managed to calm down and was now snapping its head towards the source of every little noise in the forest, searching for Lan through sound instead of sight.

"Hey! Over here!" Lan shouted, tightening his grip on the heavy log as he did so.

The Salamander spun and immediately started charging toward the source of the noise, ramming straight through smaller plants and sticks as it did so.

Lan grunted and lifted first with his legs, then with his shoulders, hefting the huge log above his head like the hammer of God, waiting to smite down the Salamander.

His arms twitched from the strain, but he ignored them, his jaw set tight with single-minded determination.

The Salamander was upon him in a flash, and he swung with all his might. Following the instructions of his talent, he arched his back just the right way and burst into motion like a coiled spring.

The log sailed through the air and hammered into the Salamander's head with the splitting crack of bone and wood.

Its charge faltered, and its legs collapsed. Stumbling, it fell to the earth in a cloud of dust. It tried to raise its head, but Lan didn't let up, increasing the log again and bringing it down on the back of the Salamander's neck this time, where something broke with a sickening crunch.

Like a switch had been flipped, the Salamander went limp, and a notification appeared from the system.

[Alert: Killed Lvl:4 Boulder Salamander – Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)]

[Title Gained – Punching Up]

Lan froze, staring in disbelief at the notification. He had gained a title. How was that possible? Morgan had told him it was incredibly difficult to get titles. But while killing the monster had been challenging, it wasn't as impossibly hard as he had been led to believe.

Breathless from the intense battle, Lan managed to shout, "View Title!" and was greeted with another message from the system.

[Title – Punching up

Description – Everyone loves an underdog. Kill something 3 levels above your own.

Effects - +3 in all stats]

Stunned, Lan felt strength flow into him, he felt his muscles grow denser and more explosive, and his mind sharpen.

"I definitely need to kill that other Salamander!" He decided.