Lloyd lay amongst the leaves and stones between the mass of roots the tree sat upon, slowly circulating mana as his veins recovered bit by bit. After an hour spent recovering Lloyd felt he was nearly recovered but would need a while longer to be sure. His whole body ached and cracked as he turned around, sore from the torture he went through to heal himself, yet despite the pain he refused to drop his guard for even a second.

  Lloyd stared into the shadowy recesses deep within the tree roots where he felt something, he couldn’t see it, but he could feel it, feel it watching. Even as he walked out from the roots and prepared to set out again, he kept a constant vigil. Out of the corner of his eye Lloyd watched as the shadows congealed revealing the true nature of the creature observing him. Amongst the pillars of earth and mud beneath the tree was now a brutish looking, brown monitor lizard the size of a large crocodile.

  Spinning around to face the new threat Lloyd seized his spear and got ready to fight. Seeing its cover had been blown, the lizard leaped forward in an attempt to catch him off guard. Unfortunately for the lizard, the compact labyrinthian pillars of dirt and roots had passages to thin for its bulky frame, rendering it trapped. Having lost the element of surprise, the creature retreated back into the shadows not intending to be an easy target.

  Seeing that the creature was stuck within the cave and would be relatively helpless if cornered, Lloyd went to grab some free experience. Lloyd entered the mass of roots ready for a quick fight but found himself stopping as he felt mana dispersing as it was seemingly sucked straight out of the air. Lloyd turned around and ran back into the forest knowing this could only be one thing. The activation of a powerful skill.

  Lloyd stumbled as an earth shattering roar echoed out from behind him making blood drip from his ears. Turning around Lloyd looked across the clearing staring at the base of the tree he’d just ran out of wondering what that lizard had done. Had it activated a powerful offensive skill? And if so, did it miss the attack? If this were the case, then he was in a very advantageous position as any skill that strong had to come with a backlash. This did seem like a likely outcome, so Lloyd started edging closer after a short moment’s hesitation.

  When Lloyd was standing just a few feet away from the entrance to the small cavern, his movement was interrupted by a sudden unexplainable, overwhelming sense of fear. He leapt backwards on instinct unable to fathom why he’d done so. Just before he went to walk back in front of the cavern entrance -not even a second after he jumped backwards originally. A huge cloud of dust exploded outwards as a massive object shot out from beneath the tree.

  As the dust dispersed and the clearing came back into view Lloyd almost fell backward in shock. When the creature first appeared, it had been around three to four meters long, around the size of a saltwater crocodile. Now however, that was far from the case. When Lloyd assumed the lizard had used an offensive skill, he was sorely mistaken. Whatever skill the beast had used had made it explode in size, becoming almost five times bulkier and ballooning to the length of a semi-truck.

  While it had already been a formidable opponent beforehand this was now a fight he would be hard pressed to win, especially with his veins still damaged from the hostile mana. If he wanted to fight this thing he would have to employ some clever tactics and avoid risking head on encounters.

  The lizard looked around erratically, with a wrathful look in its eyes trying to find him amongst the shrubbery. Not trying to become fertilizer Lloyd bolted towards the nearest tree and grabbed onto the deep grooves in the bark scrambling to get off the ground. Looking down at the lizard it appeared that it hadn’t noticed him yet, but he could see its forked tongue flicking back and forth as it tilted its head around.

  Going by a rough estimate Lloyd would say he was around thirty to forty meters above the forest floor, -well out of the lizard’s reach- so he decided he should be safe to start attacking. Being inspired by the skill options he’d skipped over Lloyd tried to summon a small blade of mana in the air to shoot at the lizard down below. The first half of this process went well with the tiny mana bolt appearing easily, the second part did not go to plan, however. It seemed he would need some more practice manipulating mana before he could propel it without contact, so for the time being he would have to throw them himself.

  Summoning fifty bolts into his hand Lloyd grabbed them and started launching them down towards the lizard. As the bolts slammed into the beast they tore through its scales and into its flesh with surprising efficacy. As the projectiles collided with the beast it roared and swivelled around to face him. Lloyd started to summon more bolts preparing for another volley also chucking in an identify since his cover was blown.

  Ent-wood Megalania -lvl 14

  Seeing the level of this beast was important as it gave him a better idea of how powerful this particular enemy was. The main aspect of this assumption was the level as it looked like it could shred the giant spider. Secondly it also told him that while its level was lower than that of the spider he’d escaped, it was likely stronger as it was clearly a superior species in terms of raw power.

  Bolts of electric mana rained down upon the lizard as it ran towards him undeterred as while they were effective at damaging its scales the creature’s vitality was too strong for such unrefined bolts to overpower. As the Megalania thundered towards the tree it soaked up the bolts like a sponge, but it was only so strong, so Lloyd was confident he’d be able to start doing some damage by the scars appearing on its face.

  What was dampening Lloyd’s confidence however was how the Megalania was undeterred his overwhelming height advantage. The whole tree shook as the lizard dug its claws into the bark and started slithering its way up the trunk. This was when a realisation struck him, this thing was a monitor lizard. Those little bastards lived in trees of course this titan could climb.

  Thumps echoed out as the monstrous lizard started closing in on him faster than he could climb away. Running out of time and options Lloyd jammed a fistful of his mana blades into the tree bark beneath his feet, before shocking them with his electrify skill launching him away. Lloyd shot across the air above the forest to a nearby tree where he grabbed onto another branch to continue with his bombardment.

  Spinning around Lloyd hurled a fistful of bolts straight at the lizard’s head, however he didn’t see the lizards head spark, he was instead met with a patch of singed bark. This wasn’t a matter of bad aim, Lloyd struck exactly where the Megalania’s head should have been. It wasn’t from the beast dodging either, looking down Lloyd saw the lizard gripping the first tree with its bottom legs as it arched its back reaching across to the tree he moved to, with its jaws and forearms.

  As the beast’s titanic maw came into his range, he slashed at it with his spear leaving deep cuts across its jaw. Despite the size of the lizard’s body the distance between the trees was just too great for it to reach across, so it could only gnash its teeth at him from a couple feet away. The way Lloyd was abusing the Megalania was clearly aggravating it, causing it to act sporadically swinging its head to hard losing balance. Seeing an opportunity in front of him Lloyd summoned a fistful of mana shards which he then jammed into the Megalania’s bottom jaw.

  With his ammunition planted Lloyd channelled a full power electrify into the shards, launching the Megalania downwards. Lloyd looked on with excitement as a fall like this, while not fatal, would likely be able to cripple the lizard long enough for him to finish it off. While the beast tumbled towards the ground Lloyd got ready to dodge as he felt the beast channel a powerful skill once again.

  Lloyd was ready for any kind of attack the Megalania could throw at him, but what he was not ready for was the whole lizard’s body to transform once again. The beast’s body had a ripple spread across it, turning every exposed patch of scale to wood, so instead of being grievously wounded by the fall it got back up like nothing happened. As the lizard sat in the open Lloyd got a good view of its new appearance, it was now a dark brown earthen colour, with patches of bark-like skin as bonus defence on top of its durable hide.

  The beast looked back across the field of flattened ferns and cracked earth, glaring at him up in the tree. Before Lloyd could come up with any decisions for what to do, the Megalania came surging across the clearing towards the trunk of the tree. As the beast drew near it showed no signs of stopping as it continued its charge into the base of the tree. When the collision ran up the trunk Lloyd had thought himself ready for the impact, but he realised he had underestimated what twenty tonnes of pure muscle could do as he plummeted towards his foe.

  Lloyd tried to slow his fall by slamming his spear into the tree, but it was clearly to far as his spear flailed in the air a metre from the trunk. Seeing he couldn’t slow down Lloyd swore as he went all in on the offensive. This had better be enough.

  Lloyd shot down toward his foe angling his speat to put his full force into the slam. With his momentum and speed, Lloyd collided with the lizard’s skull with more force than a bullet, in an attack that would turn the average human to mush. A look of glee and triumph turned to one of pain in horror as the impact knocked the air out of him bringing him to his knees. The lizard however came out of this situation with not even a scratch to show for it.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Mana pumped through his veins, and he could only try his best to push his way through the pain as he kept desperately attacking the beasts back. Lloyd swung down with his spear over and over again sparks flying as his weapon clashed and bounced off, with no marks to be seen.

  Despite the lack of damage Lloyd could do the lizard still hissed in anger, thrashing its body trying to shake him off. Eventually Lloyd could hold on no longer and he was flung into the air, as he shot away from the Megalania the beast took its chance. The whole creature spun as it flicked its tail like a whip, digging deep into his chest, letting blood flow like a river as he smashed against a tree.

  Lloyd consciousness blurred as his sight darkened, and the lizard began its charge. As his mind wavered on the brink of collapse Lloyd launched mana bolts towards his foe by the hundreds, yet not a single one left a mark. As the beast drew near it opened its mouth far wider than anatomically possible baring three rows of grisly, serrated teeth.

  As he faded Lloyd gave one last shot, summoning a plasma bolt and filling it to the brim with half of his whole mana reserve, and just before it left his hand, he channelled in one final electrify. Lightning arced across the bolt as it barrelled forward like it was a punch from Zeus himself, Lloyd looked on with hope but before the bolt could collide with its target his vision faded to black.

  Lloyd’s vision stirred to life as foggy shapes darted across his peripherals and a loud hum drummed through his ears. Blinking himself out of his stupor Lloyd attempted to get up but fell back down as a blinding pain burnt across his chest. Craning his neck downwards Lloyd caught a glimpse of the fight’s aftermath, and things did not look good.

  A deep festering wound ran along his chest from his left shoulder to his waist of the opposite side. The wound was filled will coagulated blood, red veins shone across his chest as his body tried to repair itself. At the bottom of the cut Lloyd almost started retching when he realised it was bone that he saw, the tail had cut all the way to his ribs. Lloyd was no doctor, but he knew this was bad, even with his inhuman constitution this would be lethal if left unchecked.

  Contemplating what he could do to fix his injury Lloyd first tried his go to method of circulating mana to heal but all that did was push out more blood. With only one other option Lloyd carefully pried out his satchel from below his back. As he opened it Lloyd was eternally thankful for the magic the system had infused it with. Since without it the bags contents would have been ruined a hundred times over, yet everything was still intact.

  Within the bag was a collection of items he’d so fat ignored, Lloyd pulled out a very conspicuous bottle of bright red liquid. A healing potion, something he’d saved for a dire time, and if there was a time in his life he needed this more than he did now he must’ve forgotten. Lloyd uncorked the bottle and gingerly took a sip, the unassuming liquid was the vilest concoction he’d had in his life. It tasted like a manifestation of pain liquified. As he swallowed, it burned his throat like he’d swallowed hot coals and poison ivy. As the liquid made its way into his chest it felt like he had been cast into the depths of hell, yet when he looked down, he could see his flesh writhe and repair itself at a visible pace.

  Seeing its efficacy Lloyd could only grit his teeth and gulp down the rest. Lloyd screamed and tears ran down his cheeks as he was healed. The pain was so bad it felt like his very soul was being torn apart, and he was able to do nothing but pray for it to stop. After what felt like hours but was likely only minutes, Lloyd was finally able to stand.

  Lloyd arose with shaky knees and jittering hands, trying to calm his nerves and assure himself it was over. What the hell was that? Everything about that drink had screamed pleasant and soothing yet it felt like he had to drink the wrath of a vengeful god. For fuck’s sake it even smelled like raspberries, what kind of sick joke was this?

  After overcoming the shock from the pain, Lloyd walked over to the corpse of the lizard. The beast’s mouth was still wide open, and Lloyd could see where his bolt had collided, in the top of the beast’s mouth was a gaping hole leading straight to the other side. The hole led directly into the creature’s brain cavity making it pretty obvious how it had died. While rather morbid, this was great news for Lloyd, as it meant he had a literal mountain of unscathed resources fresh for the taking.

  It seemed that once the beast had died the skill it used to maintain its wooden form had deactivated yet its titanic size remained, while this was odd it was nothing to complain about as it only brought him benefits. Seeing the beast’s sudden change in appearance Lloyd had an idea, placing his hand on the hide and infused it with mana. Just as Lloyd had suspected when he infused it with mana a patch around his hand had morphed into its wooden state once more. This meant it was like a berserking state where the lizard had to constantly expend energy to keep active.

  This gave Lloyd an idea, summoning a blade of mana Lloyd began slicing into the lizards hide taking off a large sheet scale. Once more infusing it with mana the same phenomena happened which could only mean one thing. He’d found the perfect armour material. Looting the corpse for all it was worth, Lloyd took a few more sheets of scale as well as some teeth. He also discarded the dead copies in exchange for a slab of the dead Megalania.

  After stuffing his bounty into his satchel Lloyd stuck to the shade as he tried to leave unnoticed. For the next hour Lloyd trekked through the forest having the occasional skirmish with weaker sub level fifteen enemies without much real danger -thanks to his new ambush skill. As he made his way deeper into the forest and farther from the sea, the sun once more began to sink into the horizon as night came. Finding an entrance to a tunnel in the side of a hill, Lloyd slunk in to set up camp for the night.

  Sitting on the cave floor Lloyd felt exhausted, he’d travelled so far in one day it was hard to believe. Today was a tumultuous series of events, having fought constantly for his place in this new world. He’d only been here for a day, yet he had already started spinning a tapestry stained with blood. Despite this, today was without a doubt the most exiting day of his life.

  Lloyd had never really understood thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies, spending your savings to be exposed to a sense of danger. But as he sat in the cave recounting the day Lloyd started to understand, what he was doing was similar in some ways to the things people would do pre-system. Yet distinctly different. What Lloyd was doing was real, not fabricated fear, he was in actual danger at every step. He had to constantly fight to stay afloat. And he loved it.

  As he sat there Lloyd made his next move, pulling out his satchel he removed the lizard skin and some long wiry feathers he’d gotten from a weird birdlike creature. Once more testing the armour like feature of the scales, Lloyd got the same response as before hopefully meaning the effect wouldn’t become less pronounced over time.

  Summoning a mana needle Lloyd took off his cloak and started sewing small sheets of lizard hide to the inside using the long feathers like string. After around two hours his creation was finished, while he’d made several mistakes along the way none of them mattered, as his robes self-repaired to a certain extent. The same could not be said for his clothes, which were currently in tatters leaving him looking homeless until he found a replacement.

  Admiring his craftsmanship Lloyd tried it on and it worked just as intended. When worn casually it was light and comfortable, and when infused with mana it became hard like plate mail. This was certainly a big step up in quality compared to hide bracers, possibly good enough to be considered a common item. Unfortunately, this sentiment was not shared by the system, no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t for the life of him get identify to activate.

  Lloyd could only assume it was because he modified a system made item instead of creating something from scratch. He hadn’t done the majority of the work, so he didn’t get credit for it, this was probably a good thing for in the future as it created a higher skill ceiling for titles related to item creation. It would be wholly unfair if some hapless child could just glue some spikes to a set of high-quality armour and get a free title. Looking at the matter this way Lloyd overlooked his misgivings and inspected the armour for what it was worth.

  So what if his armour didn’t qualify for a rarity? It was still a damn good piece of armour no matter which way you put it. As its first durability test Lloyd hung the cloak from the roof of the cave and started slashing with his spear. As he had hoped, while the fabric still tore once he hit the scales his spear failed to continue, sliding off of his new gear. After a few more tests, Lloyd was content with his improved cloak and laid down to sleep for the night.

  Alone on that cold stone floor Lloyds thoughts began to wander to what fate had befallen his family. If his parents knew what was good for them and stayed out of trouble, they would most likely be fine. Despite their age they would be unlikely to fight as they would have a densely populated tutorial since they lived in the city. His brother on the other hand was a different story.

  Lloyds younger brother Steve was only two grades below him in school and would have left for school camp around a day before the integration occurred. Luckily his camp hadn’t been as remote as Lloyd’s biology trip so there was no chance of a situation mimicking his own. He was however in a rural area with a population in the thousands, so he was likely in a relatively empty tutorial compared to his parents.

  While Lloyd was confident in his parents being okay, Steve’s situation was another story entirely, and Lloyd could only hope his uncanny ability to survive would pull through once again. This trait of Steve’s had given his parents a heart attack on multiple occasions with two particular standouts. The first of which being when he grabbed a brown snake by the tail and avoided getting bitten by beheading it on a tree while swinging it. After that he was not allowed out of arms reach for months, yet that was far less nerve wracking than his next dance with death.

  When Lloyd was 15 and Steve was 13 their parents had organized for a family skydiving session much to his excitement. Once they were up in the air everyone enjoyed their moment of freefall with the wind blowing through their faces, however when they went to pull their parachutes not everything went according to plan.

  Everyone’s parachutes worked flawlessly. Except Steves. While they all began their slow decent towards the ground, Steves parachute came out wrong and was torn to shreds by the wind. As they helplessly watched him falling, his parents wept feeling it was all their fault as he plummeted towards the earth.

  When they reached the ground, his parents were hysterical, yet he could only laugh as he found Steve in a mound of cowshit with only a broken arm and damaged spine to show for the whole thing. Similar scenes displaying his uncanny ability to survive would repeat themselves all throughout his life, the figure of death far too busy to collect one stupid young boys’ soul. As he reminisced on his brother’s accidental exploits Lloyd’s mind became satisfied with his families’ prospects and his dreams began to wander elsewhere.