The ELITE of the Forest

[You have 26 stat points to assign!]

"15 on Endurance, and the rest on Perception," these were his lowest stats, and it was definitely visible by how much Leon was getting ambushed.

[Your Endurance Stat has increased by 15 stat points!]

[Your Perception Stat has increased by 11 stat points!]

"Fair enough," he cracked his arm before continuing to walk, all the injuries having disappeared, although there was still some blood drooping from his noise.

And five minutes later…

[We are close, Host] EGO smiled.

"Close to wha-" Leon looked ahead and, "Oh."

In the distance he could see that there were no more trees, and that the darkness of the forest had disappeared.

"Fucking finally," Leon groaned, it had been around three hours of navigating inside this forest, and oh boy was it annoying.

[I think you should run.]

"Huh, why-" and for the second time, right as Leon looked behind him, he noticed a massive creature, at least twice Leon's size, rushing toward him in the distance, "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

It looked like a massive bear with claws and everything, though its crimson eyes were shining in the distance, and it was DEFINITELY faster than Leon.

[Darkness Bear King - Level 13 (ELITE)]

The reason Leon, and even EGO, were this surprised was because they perfectly knew about the different types of monsters you could find in dimensions, and there was precisely 10 of them: Normal, Strong, Elite, Boss, Demon, Calamity, Immortal, Unbeatable, Divine, and finally, Soulless.

Up until now, all Leon had fought were "Normal" enemies, but this time, it was a massive jump as that [Darkness Bear King] was from the 'Elite' tier.

Basically: no way in hell Leon was defeating it.

"Didn't you saw we should face our opponents, though?" Leon raised his eyebrows, the bear getting closer as it kept roaring, saliva escaping out of its hungry-looking mouth.

[Sure, sure, but there's also the part where you shouldn't fight against an opponent impossible to beat at our current level!] EGO positioned himself in front of Leon's face, a stoic expression on his face, and a vortex of flames in his eyes, [Get to it or else we'll be bear food.]

"Alright-" Leon looked behind him for the second time as he got ready to run.

And…

"KING SLASH!" the bear was already jumping toward him, his claws ready to cut him.

"HOLY SHIT!" Leon rolled away, avoiding the strike, but the tree that was behind wasn't as lucky as it was cut into five different pieces.

And at that moment…

~DING~

[You have received a QUEST!]

[Quest: "The King of the Forest"]

[Objective: Kill the "Darkness Bear King"]

[Reward: "HP Checker" Perk!]

There were many rewards that could be given by quests: equipment, stat points, skill points, skills and perks, in this case.

Perks are like skills, but they are mostly passive, meaning that they integrate into the host's own talent automatically instead of having them use it.

"HP Checker…?"

[I mean, it's in the name, what else do you need?!]

For example, HP Checker was surely granting Leon the possibility of checking out the HP of enemies from now on before the battle, and each time he damaged them to see how long it would take before killing them.

It was an amazing perk.

But of course, an amazing perk meant a hard challenge to get it.

And in this case…

"GROAOOAWRR~" the bear slashed again, and Leon dodged to the side by a hair's length.

"Hell fucking no," Leon began to dash away toward the exit of the forest, no way in hell he was fighting that thing.

~SLASH~

He moved to the left to avoid it, the bear chasing after him, as it was slightly faster than he was.

[Huh, partner?]

"WHAT?"

~SLASH~

He jumped as the bear aimed at his legs.

[You know that it can follow you outside the forest, right?] EGO explained, [And so, if you leave the forest, it's just gonna be you, the bear, and a giant field with no trees to help you…]

"…Fuck."

~SLASH~

The bear, getting angrier every time Leon avoided, this time tried to slash horizontally, which the boy easily avoided by going to the left.

But then…

~FWISH, SLAM~

The "Darkness Bear" increased its speed and slammed its massive body onto Leon's, making him crash against a nearby tree.

~BAM~

Leon groaned, pain radiating through his back as he slid down the tree trunk.

And when he opened his eyes, all he saw was the bear looming over him, a hulking mass of muscle and fur, its crimson eyes locked onto him with a predatory hunger.

[GET UP! GET UP!]

"Working on it," Leon muttered, pushing against the ground.

[You can't run, partner, you were quite unlucky that it found you, but if we don't fight, we're fucked.] EGO wasn't as confident as he always had been, making Leon feel that this shit was the real deal, [It's the final one before the second zone, just keep going.]

And in addition to that…

[It is probably the strongest mob of the forest, prepare yourself]

"Thanks for all this useless info," Leon wiped the blood from his mouth as he placed his two hands in front of his face.

The fact he had no "fighting skill" beside his aura was kind of difficult, but [Partial Healing] had saved him so many times he couldn't really bring himself to hate on it.

"GROOAORER~" the bear took a few more steps toward Leon, its menacing body growing the more it approached.

"KIKIKIKIEKEKI~" and to add to his bad luck, two [Branch Monkeys] appeared beside it, holding their weapons as if ready to attack.

But…

"KING SLASH," as if wanting to show that it was really the king of this zone, the bear with two very quick slashes cut the monkeys in five pieces, then stared back at Leon.

That thing could eliminate all the others mobs with one strike, and who says he couldn't do the same with Leon? His endurance stat wasn't that high as to allow himself to tank it after all.

Meaning… that he was basically one shot against the strongest monster in this entire zone.

Anyone would feel fear at this point, knowing that they couldn't escape and they were stuck against a wall impossible to overcome at their current level.

And yet…

[Oh? Interesting…] EGO regained his smile as soon as he saw Leon's expression.

He was also smiling, and his expression was that of someone excited and… hungry.

"Come at me, king, I'll dethrone you," he didn't know if it could understand him or not.

But as soon as he said those words…

"GROOAORA~" the bear got enraged and rushed toward Leon again.

And so the battle could begin, human vs elite monster.