As Vera and Aug continued deeper into the wilds, they encountered two more slimes, and after the second one, Aug levelled up. He was now level four and stopped for a moment to assign his point. Since speed was his only stat currently at zero, he invested his point there.
As Aug had yet to get any sort of combat abilities, he was not really sure where he should invest his points. The [Corpse Collector] class did not seem to have any inbuilt combat potential yet. So for now he was just going to blanket the points into everything, to cover all bases.
Once he had completed assigning points, he checked his stats page:
[Augustus Saturn]
[Level 4 (0%)]
[Class: Corpse Collector (Beginner)]
[Abilities: Corpse Collection (Level 1), Corpse Scan (Level 1), Corpse Processing (Level 1)]
Stats: Shield: 20/20. Mana: 8/20. Energy: 10/20]
[Major Bonuses: Dexterity: 1, Strength: 1, Intellect: 1, Luck: 0 + 1, Speed: 1, Perception: 0]
[Minor Bonuses: None]
[Equipment: Trinket slot (1/4) Dungeon Fox Tale (+1 Luck)]
He had used [Corpse Processing] on the other two slimes and got the same items as before. Slimes were not lucrative for drops, and they probably needed to find better prey. To process corpses, Aug used mana, but his mana regeneration was extremely slow, yielding just one mana per hour, which corresponded to his INT. Therefore, he didn't want to use his one remaining mana potion just to get more useless slime items.
"We should avoid slimes, as they don't give us the items we want."
"Well, we can kill them. I need practice, but you don't need to process them."
"Fair," replied Aug, still new to the adventuring game.
Even though it was only a small amount, the experience gained from killing slimes was valuable.
They walked deeper into the wilds, only coming across a few more slimes. Had Aug been lucky his first time he was in the wilds, where he came across a spider? He must have, because now it was slimes for days.
After walking for over an hour, the wilds changed from a thinly wooded forest to a denser, darker area with a thick canopy. Both Vera and Aug were not familiar with the wilds, so thought nothing of it until they encountered their first monster, only a few minutes in. It was a [lone wolf] that appeared to still be a juvenile.
The wolf was grey, mangy, and about the size of a Great Dane, but much wider. It had large teeth, a big jaw, and its big red eyes locked on Vera and Aug, who were frozen in place.
"Uh, I don't think we are in the [Beginner's Forest] anymore."
"Noted," replied Aug, pulling the machete from his waist.
"Can we run?" asked Vera, fear in her voice.
"We can't outrun it in a sprint."
"So, we have to fight?"
"Let's see what it does," said Aug, tightening his grip on the machete and stepping in front of Vera to protect her.
The wolf prowled in a circle around them, waiting for an opening, or for them to make the first move. Aug followed it as it circled, watching it, hoping it would just leave on its own.
Whilst the [Beginner's Forest] maxed out at level 5, the wood beyond, the [Canopy Woods], contained monsters up to level 100.
Vera reached into her pocket, shaking, and pulled out a few bottle caps. She put one in position and fired. The bottle cap wildly flew off her hand and missed the wolf completely, embedding itself into the moss in front of it.
The wolf took this as a sign of aggression and charged them. Both Vera and Aug jumped to the side, in opposite directions, but the wolf was nimble and followed the closer target, Aug.
Aug moved his machete up in front of him, facing upwards to block. Before he knew it, the wolf had wound around his machete and attempted to take a bite out of his arm. It snapped at his arm as Aug pulled away, its front teeth grazing his forearm. The bite was just enough to remove Aug's shield but not enough to do damage to his skin.
The shield is a protective barrier that wraps around an adventurer's skin and stops any monster damage coming through. Once the shield depletes, the body will take direct attacks or damage. So now his very limited shield was gone. Any further bites would cause him actual damage.
The wolf attacked once more, leaping at Aug. Aug dodged to the side and swung his blade downwards, but the agile wolf leapt back, narrowly avoiding the blade.
Unfortunately for it, it was now at point-blank range for Vera, who slapped it on the hind leg with [Explosive Palm]. A purple explosion radiated from the slapped location, blowing a hole in its flesh and singeing its fur.
The wolf whimpered and stepped out of range before Vera could load up for another attack. It flashed its teeth and prowled around to the other side of Vera, who had pulled a bottle cap from her pocket and had it locked onto the beast. The wolf now acknowledged the threat Vera posed and waited in a standoff with her.
To avoid being attacked from behind, the wolf had strategically positioned itself away from Aug. But Aug took this opportunity to close the gap to Vera and stand beside her, machete raised.
Despite the wolf's hind leg being injured, causing it to limp, the wound was not bleeding because of the cauterising effect of the explosion.
The wolf bared its teeth once more and growled, growing impatient. As it was about to pounce, there was a deep, guttural roar from further into the woods. The wolf's ears suddenly dropped, and it turned tail and ran off in the opposite direction, scared of whatever had made the noise.
Aug and Vera sighed with relief.
"What made that noise?" asked Vera, peering toward its direction to see if she could make anything out.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it has the wolf scared, so we shouldn't wait around to find out. Run, now!" replied Aug, pointing back towards the [Beginner's Forest].
They both took off in a run, wondering what was lurking beyond, but not willing to find out.
Within a minute, they had returned to the [Beginner's Forest], but they still kept running to be sure they were safe. When they were clear, Aug stopped and looked around for trouble. There was nothing he could see, so he breathed out heavily and sat down on a log.
Vera, who was a couple of steps behind and nowhere near as fit as he, sat next to him. She was heaving heavily and took a few minutes to regain her breath before speaking.
"That was close," she said, still breathing heavily.
"Too close. We know we aren't up for anything outside of beginner areas," replied Aug, who was a bit shaken but felt fine. He was accustomed to being active and working under pressure, so a brief run and a formidable opponent did not faze him.
"Agreed," said Vera, puffing as she spoke.
"Let's rest," said Aug, to which Vera nodded in reply.
Here, they took a lunch break on the log, eating food prepared by Aug earlier, while Vera slept.