Caelan felt rooted to the ground.
While he froze, the Winged-Bear lowered its head. It was apparent that it had the body of a huge bear. It opened its mouth, and its tongue touched Caelan's face.
This jolted him awake and woke him up from his fear. He thought he was dead, but the monster had shown mercy?
Am I a joke? Caelan was angry at himself.
Earlier, in his encounter with the Armored Canine, he acted inefficiently, letting fear and anger lead his movement. Although Caelan is not much of a fighter, if he could just use his head, he might fight better than letting his emotions get the best of him.
Caelan took a quick side step and wiped the disgusting saliva off his face.
Several scenarios ran through his head. How can he deal with this thing? The Armored Canines earlier were just Level 3 or so, but he had already almost died. He doubts that he can outrun this beast, regardless of whether he is in full health or not.
The Winged-Bear snorted, a bit offended by its prey's defiant look. However, it didn't take any action and just observed him as it paced around its prey.
Caelan seemed to take the hint that this monster was curious about him. It seems to have some intelligence and was curious about the newcomer in the deep forest.
It wasn't in a hurry or anything. Why would it hurry when it has the absolute confidence that it can kill this puny human in less than a second? That is the only reason Caelan is alive right now.
Caelan was still. His eyes followed the Winged-Bear as it encircled him a few times. After some time, it finally got closer.
At this point, Caelan placed his hands up and his head down, as if to surrender. The Winged-Bear had a noticeable smile at this. It licked its lips, and it got closer.
It stood on its hind legs like an actual bear, just uglier. With its sharp nails and long fingers, it took hold of Caelan's right arm and sniffed it, salivating from the thought of snacking on it. Caelan's eyes never left the beast.
Eventually, the Winged-Bear couldn't hold it in and heavily pressed on Caelan's body onto the ground.
"Grhh!" Caelan groaned in pain because his arm wasn't released. It's as if the monster were trying to rip it off. Caelan placed his hand on the monster's paw that was pressed on his body, as if pushing it away, to no avail.
The Winged-Bear didn't wait for the arm to get ripped off and just proceeded to take a bite from it. But before it could do so, it felt something in its paw.
A sense of dread spread out, and it felt like its paw was about to deteriorate.
Graaa—! The Winged-Bear let out a painful wail. It dropped its snack and looked at what happened to its paw.
A black handprint of decay could be seen. Not only that but he black handprint was becoming larger. Its instincts kicked off and unconsciously fought the spreading of the Death Attribute in its body. Thankfully, the decay was minimal.
How could that have happened? The Winged-Bear knew the human had something to do with this. Its anger rose, and it thought of torturing the human before eating it.
But when it turned its attention back to its prey, it was gone.
Far from the Winged-Bear, Caelan was running as hard as he could, as his life literally depended on it. The moment the Winged-Bear released him, he took off with all his strength. Consuming the herbs with Life Attribute in his Storage, Caelan's strength was returning. However, the problem was that his right arm was now crippled.
The skin was stretched out, and the muscles were torn apart. His bone was dislocated. The sight of this arm was disturbing. The only thing that he could do was to use his Explore skill and use some of the herbs to help heal it. However, it doesn't seem to be working because its physical structure was altered. The Life Attribute essence can only hasten the body's natural recovery, but if the body itself can't recover in the first place, there is nothing any medicinal herb can do.
Caelan stopped placing the herbs with Life Attribute on his arm since there was no progress.
He looked back and saw that nothing was chasing him. Did the Winged-Bear give up on him? Just as he was thinking this, he heard a faraway roar.
Was it the Winged-Bear?
Caelan's heart sank as he picked up his speed, unsure if this was enough to outrun a level 35 monster. At the same time, he's praying he will not encounter another monster on the way. So, he was using his Explore skill to its extreme limit. It's like he was looking through an infrared camera. From far away, he saw creatures with essence light. They each have different colors. For some reason, they were avoiding him even though they were far away. Caelan felt a bit relieved since he didn't need to worry about them.
Soon, he realized why the other monsters were acting this way.
The heavy roars continued, and Caelan didn't know where they were coming from, until– he looked up and saw a giant figure in the night sky, with its long arm wide open and wings connected to it, and onto its ribs. The wings were being used to let its huge body glide in the sky.
Caelan's eyes almost popped out of their socket.
So, that big thing can fly!? How!?
Of course, the answer is simple. It's magic. Fuck magic, man!
When he used Inspect to see the details of this monster, it had both the Earth and the Wind Attributes.
Also, why didn't it dawn on him? The monster is named "Winged" Bear, after all. Caelan just didn't expect such a huge being to fly.
Caelan stopped running. He knew it was useless to use his energy to run away when the Winged-Bear could catch up to him, even if his speed was twice.
But can it even see him?
Caelan then noticed the monster's head was facing him. Yep, it can see him. This monster looks like a bat. Why can it see?
What to do!? No matter how much of a genius he is, there's no outsmarting this one.
At that moment, he noticed something underground that was shining through the lenses of his Explore skill. Caelan was desperate. It was something, so he went after it.
The Winged-Bear finally caught up and— boom! Just twenty meters away, there was an explosion when the huge beasts landed.
Caelan caught a glimpse of the furious beast running towards him like an ape.
Ten meters!
Suddenly, the ground Caelan was running on became unstable. It felt like they were hit by an earthquake and turned the ground into quicksand. Caelan became noticeably slower. There was nowhere to run; the beast had caught up to him.
Caelan looked around. The shining essence light was… gone? Wasn't it here before?
He looked back at the Winged-Bear. It wasn't stopped by the ground turning into quicksand. Rather, it must've been the beast's skill. After all, it has the Earth Attribute as well.
The Winged-Bear used its long fingers to form a hammer with both fists. Its back bent backward, and it swung forward, bringing the hammer fists onto Caelan.
Boom!
Caelan received the attack with no way to dodge or defend. The level 35 monster was just too strong. There was no way he could survive.
At the same time, he received the attack, the ground gave way, and he was pushed down…
…
An unknown time had passed.
Caelan finally opened his head and saw that there was a small, faint light above, while he was in total darkness.
Was I dead… again?
Caelan tried reaching out to the light, but he couldn't. He couldn't move his arms. Soon, he realized he wasn't dead. He was alive and breathing.
His condition, however…
His body was in a mess. His torso has bruised black and ribs piercing down on his lungs. Every breath he takes is painful.
Caelan could move his left arm, though. But his legs? Describing them as broken is an understatement. A bone could be seen sticking out of his thigh.
Caelan was surprised that he was still alive. Is it because he leveled up four times that his body was able to handle this fatal attack? Furthermore, recalling what happened before, the ground gave up, so he didn't take the whole force of the Winged-Bear's attack.
That was the only reason he survived, because he fell. So, most probably, he's not dead and in a spirit realm or something. He's in an underground, and that small, faint light above is where he fell from.
Caelan wondered why the Winged-Bear didn't follow him. Did it think that this would kill him? If that's so, that monster is smart since it's correct. In a short matter of time, eventually, he will succumb to his wounds.
In a desperate last attempt, Caelan used his Explore skill. If there's just another Sunlight Lotus or any medicinal herb here, he can prolong his death and maybe have a slight increase in the chance of survival.
Explore.
The dark cave, which only had light coming from the hole above, suddenly lit up. Caelan couldn't believe it. Around him were minerals with different essence lights within them. And what's important is that they don't just have dots of light, but the light takes the form of the physical appearance.
Inspect.
[Fiery Ruby - Rare Mineral - Level 89 - Fire Attribute]
[Spiritual Moonstone - Epic Mineral - Level 133 - Spirit Attribute]
[Living Emerald - Rare Mineral - Level 62 - Life Attribute]
[Deep Sea Quartz…
Am I rich?
Caelan was stunned. But there was not enough time for him to spend being in a daze. With the last bit of his strength, Caelan crawled onto the nearest Living Emerald with his left hand. He dragged his ragged body, spreading blood onto the different ores that he passed by.
Though it was only a few meters away, it felt like he was crawling for miles on end. Eventually, with sheer will, he reached the nearest Living Emerald, Level 54.
He used both the Explore and Spirit Control skills to their maximum. The process was a lot harder as the essence light within this ore is much denser than the Common Fungus that he had practiced on.
It felt like he was using chopsticks to pick up heavy stones with this method. But Caelan couldn't afford to give up. He didn't sense other beings in this cave, and that was a huge relief for him.
Caelan did what he does best - focus! Focus, before his life completely saps away from him. If other residents in this world were to see what he was trying to do, they would laugh at his face. It's impossible!
Even though he has the Explore and the Spirit Control skills, the difference in levels was too wide. He was a mere level 4, while this ore was at Level 54, a fifty-level gap! This is important because he's using his own essence light to manipulate the ore's essence light. Although he was better than before with the Spirit Control skill, it was still an impossible task.
However, just like a mother could lift a car to save her child, Caelan's body screamed at him to exceed his limit! Also, who is Caelan? He's the one-in-a-century genius who could create an algorithm that solves what people back then on Earth thought to be impossible.
Caelan fell into a deep trance. He was exhausting his very life essence as energy to manipulate the ore's energy. His hair was turning white, and his cheeks were sinking the further he went. He was losing weight in real time.
Then, in the next moment, when Caelan's vision was about to fade, his finger seemed to move on its own. His comprehension reached a new level, and the essence light within the Living Emerald went to his body.
[System Unique Skill: Explore leveled up to Level 2!]
[Ancient Skill: Spirit Control leveled up to Level 2!]
[Special Advanced Skill: Essence Extraction. Unlocked!]
[The User leveled up to Level 5!]
[The User leveled up to Level 6!]
[The User leveled up to Level 7!]
[The User leveled up to Level 8!]
[The User leveled up to Level 9!]
[The User's current Level Cap has been reached.]
Caelan's hair returned to black, and his appearance returned to its lively appearance. Not just that, but even his physical age reverted, making him look ten years younger, bringing him back to his prime.
He successfully extracted the Life Attribute from the Living Emerald with a fifty-level gap!