The timer was ticking down, and sweat was flooding poor Zach's face, it had been nearly 3 days since he stepped foot into the depths of the forest for the first time. He was scared, the Lichification was nearing 50% and if he didn't increase his willpower in time he knew instinctually that he would become like His dear Uncle. if not worse.

  creatures were rare in the woods if you were not strong enough. you'd die to someone or something that was, so most lives there were younglings or powerful evolved creatures and although Zach was strong he didn't have any confidence in fighting a beast the likes of which destroyed his home, not yet anyway.

  "faster.. I need to be faster." Zach thought, pushing back towards his home. his mind wandered back to the few creatures he had seen during his adventures as a kid himself. his mind locked onto one of them and he went hunting. deeper and deeper, into depths he was familiar with. He summoned a small floating sphere by his side like always to help him light the way in this dim blackness.

  "that thing should be somewhere around here, right?" he muttered, scanning the area with both his gaze and the magic light, the magic naturally glowed so this was less of a light and just a clump of pulsing mana. Zach slowly searched the Area 'Tsk Tsk' he sounded out, trying to lure the beast over to him. and too did the creature stalk the child, its three eyes watched the boy's every move.

  'foolish creature' the beast thought to itself. it would have laughed at the human's pathetic attempts if it could.

  goosebumps covered his arms and back and he ducked, completely on instinct but he wasn't fast enough. a chunk was ripped from his shoulder, but only small 4 gashes appeared on the wound.

  the pain made him flinch as he backed away. his eyes locking with the beasts. before scanning its imposing frame. 'it's larger than before? much larger. but I know I can do this' Zach reassured himself.

  The beast was a nearly four-foot-tall, quadrupedal creature covered mainly in a thick fur reminiscent of a bear. with scaled extremities and 2 bunny ears planted firmly on its head, its 2 yellow eyes watched the boys, whilst its 3rd eye on the beast's forehead flickered constantly scanning the surroundings and Zach's Mana orb for threats.

  Zach outstretched his left hand summoning his [Mana spear level 4] to his hand. the surrounding mana converged into a perfect glowing blue rod with hints of a more ornate design fading in and out of being, Zach had practiced a lot with this spell over his 5 years of life, being the first spell he learned. but most of its exp gain came from killing Grey when he had turned. The four-pronged tip of the spear looked moreso like an arrow than anything and Zach was ready to use it as one.

  The rabbit-like monstrosity pounced forward, with a speed so extreme that Zach struggled to react. He threw the spear towards it with as much aim as he could muster in the dark depths of the forest. the pulsing Mana spear ripped through the rabbit's scaled front paw mauling it into a bloody pulp so grotesque that he would have puked could he see it.

  The creature staggered, stunned at the damage it took, before renewing its charge with greater velocity. crashing headfirst into Zach's chest, knocking him back and ripping a bite that could chew through steel directly at his left arm.

  It was clear to Zach, as young and misinformed as he was that the creature's stats outscaled his own by twofold. 'if I want to win I need to do something different' he thought to himself. yet what could he do? it would take time for his Next Mana spear to form, and his assortment of Magic spells was limited at best. he knew he needed something for defense. as the creature's teeth were closing in on his frail arm.

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  'Mana condensation? what's that he thought, this active skill was new, yet although it might be a solution he knew better than to mess around with things he didn't understand. 'but I might not have a choice' his eyes were still locked on to the beast's mouth, "screw it! [Mana clothes]" he shouted.

  The mana around and within him started condensing onto his body making a second layer of clothes yet he knew it wouldn't be enough, a second layer started to appear on top of the first, then a third and finally as the fourth began to appear the highly condensed mana pressed into itself. forming 2 layers of a thicker clothingset and they condensed further into 1 layer.

  Zach was momentarily stunned by the barrage of notifications as the rabbit maw ripped into his reinforced Mana clothes. shredding the arm-sleeve apart yet leaving the boys arm in near perfect condition.

  The rabbit's eyes saw Zach's face turn from fear to glee as his idea worked flawlessly, "stupid boy, your armor protected you once, but for how long' it thought to itself. Then as the rabbit went to back up and go for a second bite its third eye sensed the Magic fluctuations of that dreaded spear once again coalesce beside it.

  Zach Thrust the spear as hard as he could, using all his strength to penetrate the beast's hide. ripping through dense layers of fur and flesh. the spear was driven deep as the creature before him cried out in pain. "I win" the boy grinned before pushing even deeper.

  Zach was exhausted, although the fight didn't last long, he was one step from death the whole time. he fell back and sat down next to the falling figure of the Rabbit-like monstrosity. watching as it collapsed onto the verdant grass before dispelling his spear. the blood gushed out of the puncture hole like a faucet staining the ground around the two of them.

  "What a beast you were, good fight," he said with a grin reminiscent of a demon.

  "This fight was hard, lets hope I gained a lot of experience for this," he muttered to himself whilst pulling up his status screen.

  After taking his first glance at his status page the first thing he noticed was his mana "i-its all gone? he quickly calculated it, 80 for Mana clothes and 60 for Mana spear? 1,2,3,4 is 320 and mana spear I used twice is 120. so this fight took only 8 seconds huh?" he glanced down, his eyes hitting his experience bar. "none?" he jumped up staring at the Motionless rabbit beast. till he noticed a faint breathing sound coming from it.

  "[Mana spear]" he summoned, the creature quivered in fear beside him. Zach didn't notice.

  blood splattered further across the glass as he moved.