From the murky lake, demonic toads began to crawl out one after another, their red eyes glowing with fury.
Zich quickly counted five of them, all around level 3 to 5. The calm on his face disappeared, and even Slimy stiffened as if it realized how bad the situation was.
As if things could not get worse, right at that moment, Slimy's body began to flicker before eventually vanishing.
"Damnit, I have run out of mana," Zich cursed under his breath.
Now that his summon was gone, it was now him against five demonic toads. To make matters worse, he was still level 1.
The Ascension Mountain did not work like other traditional games where one could level easily or track experience points.
The experience points were all bestowed by the nameless entity who governed this world.
"Bravery be damned!" Zich cursed as he quickly stood up under the watchful gaze of the five demonic toads. When he was fully upright, he channeled every fiber of strength into his foot and then—
BANG!
With one powerful stomp, he bolted back toward the direction he had come from.
Croak! Croak!
The demonic toads croaked loudly as they jumped out of the swamp, following behind him while shooting out their tongues in an attempt to catch him.
FWOOOSH! FWOOOSH!
Suddenly, something wrapped around his leg.
Zich looked down. A long, slimy tongue had coiled around his leg.
Shing!
The tongue was severed into two parts.
Although he did not have the leisure to see what happened, Zich heard the toad wailing in pain. It would take some time before it regained its bearing, which left him with only four toads chasing him.
Zich kept running through the forest, sweat dripping down his face as his breathing grew heavier. He had been running for nearly twenty minutes, and fatigue was starting to catch up to him, but he gritted his teeth and kept moving while watching his slowly recovering mana.
Behind him, the demonic toads were getting closer. Even the one whose tongue he had cut had rejoined the chase.
With determination to survive, he pushed himself to the maximum limit he could, and in the end, something snapped in his leg.
Snap! Crack!
"Fuck, not now!"
Because of how much he had pushed himself to the limit, his knee dislocated, and he crashed face first into the ground.
At the same time, the demonic toads covered the final stretch of land.
Unfortunately for them, Zich's mana came back once again.
"Slimy, come out!"
The poisonous slime emerged from the ground and even without being told what to do, it began to spam the toads with poisonous balls.
Puah! Puah! Puah!
Slimy began firing poison rapidly. The attacks splashed across the demonic toads' bodies, and smoke rose wherever the poison touched.
The toads croaked in pain as their health slowly dropped. One tried to jump forward, but a shot hit its face and forced it back.
Zich pushed himself up, ignoring the pain in his knee as he dragged himself backward to create distance while Slimy continued its assault. The toads were forced onto the defensive as the poison began to take effect.
"Keep going, Slimy!" Zich shouted.
The slime chirped and continued its attack. One of the toads finally collapsed, its body twitching before going still. Then another poison ball hit the second one, and it also began to slow down, its movements becoming sluggish as the poison spread through its body.
A few moments later, the poisonous slime finally killed the toad. The creature let out a weak croak before falling flat on the ground.
Right at that moment, a notification appeared in Zich's retina.
[Your pet Slimy has killed a toad]
[Ding! You have leveled up]
[You have received plus 5 free stat points]
A warm feeling spread through his body, and some of his exhaustion faded.
Zich let out a long breath and dropped to one knee, feeling relief wash over him. His body was tired, his knee hurt, and his breathing was rough, but he had survived.
But then his expression changed.
"There were five…" Zich muttered as he counted again.
One. Two. Three. Four.
One was missing.
At that moment, Zich suddenly felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. His body stiffened as a strange feeling crept up his spine. The forest had gone quiet behind him.
Zich's eyes widened as he realized the last toad had circled around during the fight and snuck behind him.
However, before he could even turn—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A barrage of fire attacks slammed into the toad behind him. The explosions hit it directly and blasted it backward before it could even react. The creature did not even get the chance to croak before the fire attacks completely killed it. Its body rolled across the ground and stopped moving.
Zich quickly turned around, his grip tightening on his sword as he looked toward the direction the attack came from.
Two individuals were walking forward calmly. One was a tall girl with blond hair. The other was a tall grey haired male. Both of them walked with confident strides as if they were not worried about anything in this forest.
The first thing Zich noticed about this pair was their attire and gear. They looked shiny and expensive, and even their aura was different.
"They have probably been here longer," his eyes narrowed, knowing the nature of players here in the Ascension Mountains. Even though they had just saved his life, he did not drop his guard.
They stopped a short distance away from Zich. Their eyes moved from Zich to the dead toads on the ground and then onto Slimy.
***
Seems 70 power stones is too much for the current base of readers so let's make it 50. 50 power stones or five reasonable reasonable reviews for one chapter!