As his Strength increased by one point, Zoe felt a surge of power course through his body.
At the same time, his size also increased slightly.
He quickly opened his status screen to check his attributes after leveling up.
His Strength had risen from 7 to 8. In addition, his Mana had increased from 100 to 105.
His maximum Experience cap had also changed from 50 to 80.
“Did my maximum Mana only increase by five points?”
Zoe thought for a moment and allocated his sole Free Attribute Point into Intelligence, raising it from 7 to 8.
However, his Mana didn't change as expected; it remained at 105.
“Does Intelligence not determine total Mana?”
Zoe tried aiming at a large tree and spat out another glob of acid.
“The potency of the acid seems to have increased a bit.”
“So the Intelligence attribute doesn't determine total Mana, but rather the power of magic skills.”
Spellcasters were an extremely rare class, standing far above others among adventurers.
As a mere Low-tier Swordsman in his previous life, Zoe never had the opportunity to party up with noble spellcasters.
But according to the rumors he had heard, a spellcaster's Mana was increased through years of meditation, refining mana from the atmosphere.
And meditation wasn't just zoning out; it was done through special meditation methods.
The higher the quality of the meditation method, the more difficult it was to learn, and the better its effects.
Likewise, meditation methods were incredibly precious. In his previous life, Zoe had no chance of ever coming across one.
“I'll have to find a way to get a meditation method when I get the chance later.”
Zoe dismissed his status screen, spat out the digested remains of the goblin, and then slithered away from the battle scene along the forest shadows.
Leveling up hadn't fully restored Zoe's status. With less than 10 Mana remaining, he couldn't afford to continue fighting. He needed to find a safe place to recover.
Sneaking through the shadows until he was completely away from the battle scene, Zoe found a hollow tree cavity surrounded by tangled roots. Squeezing his body, he slipped inside.
Perhaps because he had just eaten, Zoe's Mana began to recover slowly, bit by bit.
Zoe looked at his status screen and silently timed it to estimate how long it took to recover his Mana. In the end, he calculated that in a resting state where he stopped moving, it took about two minutes to recover a single point of Mana.
In other words, to fully recover 105 Mana would take more than two hundred minutes.
“A full three hours or so.”
“I'll have to carefully plan my Mana allocation for skills during battle from now on.”
Spellcasters indeed had their own difficulties; physical combat classes didn't exhaust themselves nearly as quickly.
While physical classes also consumed a small amount of Mana when using combat techniques, in most cases, swordsmen relied on swordsmanship that consumed stamina, weaving in combat techniques as needed.
Zoe vigilantly sensed the movements around him as he patiently waited for his Mana to recover.
All kinds of unsettling noises echoed from the dark forest.
Once his Mana was fully restored, Zoe cautiously poked his head out of the hollow.
This temporary tree hollow really didn't provide much of a sense of security.
“I will likely have to stay in this forest for a while. I need to find a permanent lair to nest in.”
Zoe controlled his body, searching for a lair in the dim forest.
At the same time, he swallowed the surrounding weeds and leaves, replenishing his moisture while digesting them.
Just then, a rustling came from the shadows to his side, and a massive boar charged out.
Zoe swiftly retreated to dodge, his gelatinous body moving with an agility that completely defied its appearance.
“Boom!”
With a loud crash, the charging boar slammed hard into a massive tree, knocking it over. Amidst a shower of wood chips and flying leaves, the giant beast turned around.
“A tusk boar?”
Zoe looked at the massive wild boar and quickly identified its species.
Tusk boars, unlike ordinary wild boars, possessed immense strength, and their protruding tusks could channel wind magic.
A single tusk boar could easily run over an entire party of rookie adventurers.
“Snort! Snort!”
The tusk boar's eyes turned bloodshot as it locked its gaze back onto Zoe and began to charge once more.
Locking his focus on the beast, Zoe sidestepped the very moment it charged, dodging the attack once again.
But after all, a tusk boar was merely a rookie killer.
While their momentum was intimidating, their attacks were straightforward. As long as one remained calm, an adventurer could easily dodge them.
However, rookie parties were often paralyzed by the beast's sheer momentum, losing their cool and getting gored on the spot.
Dodging out of the way, Zoe targeted the tusk boar's backside and spat a glob of acid.
Accompanied by the notification sound of rising proficiency, the tusk boar's thick hide began to corrode.
“Squeal!”
The tusk boar squealed in pain, turning around to charge once more.
Having already figured out the tusk boar's attack patterns, Zoe spat a pre-charged stream of acid directly onto its face.
“Squeal! Squeal! Squeal!”
Its squeals turned even more wretched. Blinded, the tusk boar rolled on the ground in agony, crushing a large patch of bushes beneath it.
Then, flailing its four legs, it scrambled back up, turned, and bolted into the thick forest. It had completely lost any will to fight.
How could Zoe let such a huge chunk of prime meat get away?
Tusk boar meat was exceptionally firm and delicious—a premium ingredient constantly requested by the Adventurers' Guild.
He lunged toward the fleeing beast, his gelatinous body bouncing like a rubber ball as he leaped onto the tusk boar's back. He then began corroding it with his body's mucus.
Wracked with pain, the tusk boar thrashed wildly through the forest, twisting its body to shake Zoe off.
“That was close.”
Zoe quickly controlled his body, spreading like a growing mold along the tusk boar's spine. He tightly wrapped himself around the beast, corroding its thick hide.
The skills [Corrosion (E-grade)] and [Digest (D-grade)] activated simultaneously. As his Mana dropped, the tusk boar's skin melted away at a rapid pace.
“Squeal!!!”
The tusk boar, seemingly grunting the porcine equivalent of a swear word, smashed through a tree and crashed into a vine-covered hollow.
The vines lashed repeatedly against Zoe's body, but...
Useless, useless, useless!
Such weak impacts couldn't even make Zoe feel pain.
Suddenly, a sense of weightlessness hit him.
The rampaging tusk boar stepped into empty space.
With the sound of snapping vines, the tusk boar fell down a deep cavern, taking Zoe along with it.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Before Zoe could even jump off, a series of heavy impacts echoed, accompanied by the snapping of the tusk boar's bones.
By the time the tusk boar's falling body slammed into the cavern floor and stopped, blood was pouring out like a spring. After a few twitches, it lay completely still.
[Slew Tusk Boar Lv.6, Experience +100]
[Experience bar filled. Level increased from Lv.2 to Lv.3]
[Agility +1, Free Attribute Point +1]
Zoe quickly gathered his body.
During the fall, parts of his body had been torn away. He was now consuming Mana to rapidly regenerate.
[Skill: High-speed Regeneration (C-grade) proficiency +1, +1...]
Rate on N.U.
