Chương 10: Skill Issue

The morning sun didn't so much rise as it bled through the canopy. Zander woke to a world of green twilight, the dense foliage above filtering the daylight into a murky, verdant gloom. He sat up on his branch, stretching his limbs. The rope that secured him to the trunk had dug into his waist during the night, but thanks to his 20 points in Resilience, it left no lasting mark. He untied the knots with practiced ease, his fingers nimble as long as [Scarlet Gauntlet] wasn't active.

Breakfast was the last of the roasted squirrel. It was cold, rubbery, and tasted faintly of iron, but it was fuel. He ate it mechanically, washing it down with a swig of tree sap from his bottle.

"Day four," he muttered, wiping his mouth.

"Let's see what tries to kill me today." He climbed down from his perch, his boots hitting the mulch with a dull thud. He checked his phone. The battery was holding up thanks to the ultra-power-saving mode, but the signal bars were still nonexistent. He oriented himself using the System's vague directional pull toward the Apex Predator and began to walk. The forest was changing. For the first three days, the woods had felt like a park; giant trees, yes, but spaced out enough to allow for easy travel.

Now, the deeper he went, the more the wilderness seemed to close ranks against him. The trees grew closer together, their roots twisting out of the ground like gnarled knuckles trying to trip him up at every step. The undergrowth had thickened from ferns to brambles that snagged his clothes, or what was left of them at least. Vines draped from the canopy like the tattered curtains of a forgotten ballroom, thick as his arm and covered in moss. Zander moved slowly, his knife in hand.

He used it to hack away the more stubborn creepers, but mostly he tried to weave through them. The oppression of the forest was heavy. The air was humid, clinging to his skin, carrying the scent of rotting wood and damp earth. It was a green labyrinth designed to disorient. He paused to wipe sweat from his brow and checked his status, a habit he was developing.

Health: 200/200 Blood Well: 299/300 His Blood Well was doing its usual dance, ticking up to 300 and immediately dropping back to 299, as if there was a leak somewhere. He ignored it. He pushed aside a heavy curtain of hanging moss, stepping over a fallen log that was soft with decay. Swish. The sound was barely audible, like silk sliding over silk. Zander's instincts screamed at him. He flinched, twisting his torso to the left. It wasn't enough. Something struck him from the vines he had just pushed aside.

It hit him with the force of a swung baseball bat, slamming into his shoulder.

"Gah!" Zander stumbled back, dropping his knife. Pain, sharp and immediate, flared in his neck. It wasn't like the ache he used to live with; this was the specific, piercing agony of puncture wounds. Two needles, deep and hot. He reached up, his hand brushing against cold, dry scales. The vine wasn't a vine. He immediately used [Identify]. [Moss-Scale Viper - lvl 6] A level 6. The highest level he had encountered yet. The snake was massive, easily seven feet long, and as thick as his thigh.

Its scales were a mottled pattern of dark greens and browns that rendered it almost invisible against the mossy backdrop. And right now, its fangs were buried deep in Zander's shoulder muscles, just inches from his neck. Zander's heart hammered against his ribs. Venom. A viper this size didn't just bite for fun. It was injecting venom. He could feel a burning sensation spreading from the wound, a liquid fire racing toward his heart. This is it, he thought, a cold wash of dread dousing his panic.

I don't have an antidote. I can't heal this. He braced himself for the paralysis. He expected his lungs to seize, his vision to blur, or his heart to simply stop beating as the neurotoxin did its work.

'ding' A notification box flashed into existence, hovering right over the snake's head. Neurotoxin was detected and identified as a foreign contaminant. [BloodForged] has nullified its effect. The burning sensation in his veins vanished instantly. It was as if someone had flipped a switch. One second, he felt the liquid fire; the next, it just disappeared like it was never there in the first place. I'm immune, Zander remembered, a savage grin breaking across his face.

In his panic, he had forgotten about his [BloodForged] trait. The snake, seemingly confused that its prey wasn't convulsing on the ground, hissed. It unhinged its jaw further, trying to grind its fangs against his collarbone.

"My turn," Zander growled. He mentally screamed for [Scarlet Gauntlet]. His Blood Well drained. The familiar red mist erupted from his pores. Within two seconds, his hands were encased in the ugly, bulbous masses of hardened blood. He reached up to punch the snake. But the viper didn't stay put. Instead, it moved with terrifying speed. It released its bite on his shoulder only to whip its body around him. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

It coiled. One loop around his chest. Another around his neck. What the hell? Vipers aren't supposed to constrict! Zander gasped as the world tilted. The snake squeezed. It was pure muscle, a hydraulic press made of aggression. The coils tightened around his throat, cutting off his airflow instantly. Zander dismissed his gauntlets. He needed his bare hands to pry it loose. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the stars dancing in his vision. He reached up, his hands clawing at the thick coil wrapped around his throat.

He dug his fingers in and felt the ridge of the scales, the dense muscle shifting underneath. He had a grip.

"Get... off!" Zander pulled. He engaged his back, his shoulders, and his arms. He pulled until the tendons in his neck stood out like cords. He pulled until his fingernails threatened to tear loose. It wasn't enough. The viper was a level 6 beast, and it was in its element. It was a muscle made for one thing: crushing the life out of prey. Zander's strength was formidable, but he was trying to pry a steel cable outward from his own neck. The leverage was all wrong. The snake squeezed tighter.

Zander's vision began to tunnel. A high-pitched ringing filled his ears. The snake hissed right next to his ear, a dry, rattling sound of victory. It opened its mouth, preparing to bite his face. Can't... breathe... He couldn't overpower it. Not like this. Panic threatened to overwhelm him again, but Zander forced it down. If something didn't work, you didn't keep doing it. You changed tactics. If I can't pull you off... He spun around, his boots slipping on the damp mulch.

His vision was blurring, dark spots creeping in from the edges. He saw a tree. A massive one with bark like jagged armor.... I'll smash you off. Zander threw his body weight backward. He didn't hold back. He launched himself into a blind, desperate backward lunge. THUD. He slammed his back against the tree trunk with every ounce of force he possessed. The snake was sandwiched between Zander's back and the unyielding wood. HISS! The air exploded out of the snake in a pained wheeze.

The coil around Zander's neck loosened, just a fraction of an inch. Oxygen rushed into Zander's throat with a ragged gasp.

"Yeah," Zander choked out, his voice a ruined rasp.

"How... do you... like... that?" He leaned forward, pulling away from the tree to create space, and then drove himself backward again. CRACK. He felt the vibration through his spine. Something inside the snake had given way. Ribs. Cartilage. It didn't matter. The viper thrashed. It abandoned the constriction, its tail whipping wildly, slapping against Zander's legs. It bit him again, striking blindly at the back of his shoulder, but Zander didn't care. The venom was useless water.

The pain was nothing compared to what he used to deal with before getting his bloodline class. He focused on the rhythm. Forward. Breathe. Backward. THUD. The grip around his throat faltered completely. The snake was trying to let go, trying to slither away from the madman who was using himself as a battering ram.

"I don't think so," Zander growled, grabbing the coil with his bare hands to hold it in place.

"You wanted a hug. We're hugging!" He slammed back one last time. CRUNCH. The sound was wet and sickeningly final. The snake went limp instantly. The tension in the coils vanished, and the heavy body slid down Zander's back, pooling at his heels like a discarded rope. Zander stumbled forward, falling to his hands and knees. He coughed, harsh, hacking sounds that tore at his bruised throat. He spat on the ground; the saliva was tinged with pink.

'ding' You have killed [Moss-Scale Viper - lvl 6]. For killing an adversary above your level, you receive 40 System Coins.

'ding' BloodForged Lord has reached level 5. 5 Will and 2 free points received. He stared at the ground, watching a beetle scurry over a dead leaf. He focused on his breathing, forcing the air in and out, measuring the recovery. He checked his Health. Health: 158/200 He had lost over forty health points. The constriction damage was no joke. If he hadn't neutralized the venom, he would have been dead ten times over. Zander sat back on his heels, wiping the blood from his neck.

The wounds were already closing, his Resilience working overtime. He looked at the corpse of the viper. The section of its body that had been against his back was pulverized. The scales were stripped away, revealing mashed meat and shattered bone.

"Level 5," he whispered, his voice a bit hoarse. He looked at his hands. His bare hands. They were shaking slightly, smeared with snake blood and slime. He had made the right call. If he had kept the [Scarlet Gauntlet], he would have been fumbling with slippery mittens while the snake crushed his windpipe. He would have died because of a skill issue.

"Bare hands for grappling," he noted aloud, his voice raspy.

"Gauntlets for punching." He stood up, his legs still a little wobbly. He walked over to the snake and nudged it with his boot. It was a lot of meat. Hopefully better than the squirrels. He retrieved his knife from the undergrowth.

"Well," Zander said, looking at the canopy where the snake had hidden.

"Thanks for the meal delivery." Skinning the snake was easier than the squirrels. The scales were tough, yes, but once he made an incision along the belly, the skin peeled back in one long strip. The meat underneath was pale and firm, like fish but denser. He built a small fire, confident that the smoke wouldn't travel far in this dense canopy. As the snake meat sizzled on a flat stone he placed over the coals, Zander checked his status again to assign his points.

Name: Zander Edwards Level: 5 System Coins: 160 Unspent Stat points: 2 Stats Might: 17 Resilience: 20 Will: 35 Why did he get 2 free stat points instead of 1 like the previous level up? He checked his class bonuses again: Stat Bonuses per Level-Up: +5 Will, +1 Free Point for every 4 Will points gained. Wait a minute. I get one Free Point for every four Will points I gain. But my class gives me five Will per level. That means there's always a remainder of one point left over. Those have to be stacking up.

If I'm right, every fourth level, those remainders should combine to give me two free points. Great. A grim smile touched his lips. It was a small mercy, but in this forest, he would take every advantage he could get. He didn't hesitate. He put the 2 points into Might. Might: 19 He needed to be stronger. If his Might had been 25, maybe he could have ripped that snake apart with his bare hands. Maybe he wouldn't have needed the tree. He ate the snake meat straight off the stone.

It was surprisingly good, lean and not as gamey as the squirrel. As he chewed, he formulated a new strategy. He couldn't rely on grappling. Not until he figured out how to make [Scarlet Gauntlet] articulate. Until then, he was a hammer. He needed to hit things, or hit things with things.

"Or hit things against things," he corrected himself, glancing at the bloodstained tree bark. He finished his meal, stamped out the fire, and looked deeper into the forest. The vines hung thick and silent, potential hiding spots for a dozen more vipers. Before, he would have been terrified. Now? Zander smiled. Let them bite.