Everything was going well—until it wasn’t.
During a particularly unlucky run, Elias stumbled across a pack of three jungle rats just as he was about to engage a large group of five monsters. He managed to kick one of the rats as he ran past, slamming it into a tree, but the other two quickly joined the five already on his trail.
While fighting seven monsters at once wasn’t an insurmountable challenge, it definitely wouldn’t be easy. He was confident he could come out on top without too many injuries, but it was still something he’d rather avoid. Thinking quickly, Elias came up with a way to whittle down the group.
He slowed his pace, allowing the fastest of the creatures—a red two-tailed fox—to catch up. When it pounced, flipping in midair to strike at him with its tails, he caught the blow with his hands. He winced as heat seared his palms. It felt like the fox was on fire, but he held tight to one of its tails.
Then, without breaking stride, he slammed the creature into a tree as he ran past.
 
You have gained 140 exp.
 
One by one, the monsters lunged at him, and he took them down—punching, kicking, or slamming them against trees and rocks with brutal efficiency. At first, the strategy worked.
But its flaw quickly became obvious.
For every monster he dispatched, more joined the chase.
Before long, a dozen creatures were at his heels. He couldn’t stop—not even for a second—or they’d swarm him. The numbers were growing at an alarming rate, forming a veritable horde behind him.
Something had to change—and fast.
In another attempt to thin the horde, Elias grabbed a particularly sturdy-looking stick from the ground and began striking at the monsters behind him. The makeshift weapon’s extended reach allowed him to lash out without breaking stride. He even slowed his pace further, baiting more creatures into range before knocking them down.
Slowly, the number of monsters chasing him finally began to dwindle.
But just as he allowed himself a moment of relief, his eyes caught a familiar shape—a small, monkey-like creature with a bird’s beak, hanging upside down from a branch by its tail.
Elias cursed under his breath.
*******
Tamarin Macaw
Common
Level 9
*******
The small monster let out a deafening cry as it spotted the human sprinting in its direction. It leapt from the branch it had been hanging from and began bounding noisily through the trees, shrieking and thrashing as it joined the chase like all the others.
Elias didn’t even wait for it to swoop down and struck first. The moment it appeared near the front of the pack, he launched himself at it and took it down mercilessly. He earned several scratches and bites in the process, but he still exhaled in relief as the creature finally went still.
But it was already too late.
The damage had been done.
 
You have gained 180 exp.
 
The Tamarin Macaw had been so loud that it drew the attention of monsters from a much wider range. Elias hadn’t stopped running the entire time, either, which meant the group chasing him had nearly doubled in size. There were at least twenty monsters on his heels now, with more appearing by the second.This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
A wave of hopelessness washed over him as he glanced back at the growing horde. There were too many monsters now—so many that trying to thin their numbers was no longer realistic.
No—he needed a new strategy. Something that would let him face them a few at a time.
That was when the solution hit him: the glade in the zone’s core.
If he could reach the glade, he’d be in a far better position to deal with the monsters chasing him. There, he could kite them without drawing even more into the horde, slowly reducing their numbers. Their mobility would also be more limited in the water than his own, and the water itself had mild healing and energizing properties that could give him an edge in the fight.
Even as he adjusted his route toward the glade, Elias had to admit this wasn’t exactly an ideal plan. The glade was still at least half an hour away, and by the time he got there, the horde behind him would likely be much larger.
But it was the only plan he had, and the clearing was far too distant to count as a real option.
To avoid tiring himself out too quickly, Elias slowed to a pace he was confident he could maintain for at least an hour. The reduced speed allowed more monsters to catch up, but he struck them down with his stick whenever they got too close. Most died either from the blow itself or from being trampled by the others moments later, but their deaths didn’t come without a cost.
His back burned like he’d gotten a sunburn from falling asleep in the sun—or been dragged across asphalt.
Elias was eventually forced to start using the Common-rank healing potions he carried in his backpack, taking an occasional sip whenever the injuries began to pile up. He still yelped or flinched with every hit, especially when struck by some of the nastier long-range abilities the monsters unleashed, but he never stopped running.
Despite the mounting tension and anxiety, the chase was earning him experience at an unprecedented rate. By the ten-minute mark, he had already killed over thirty monsters, most of them around level 8, and gained more than 5,000 exp.
It was so much exp that, for a brief moment, he even thought his leveling strategy might have some merit.
Then he glanced over his shoulder, counted nearly fifty beasts still chasing him, and promptly changed his mind.
By the twenty-minute mark, Elias had killed another forty monsters, with an even higher average level of nine, earning another 7,000 exp or so. But by then, he was starting to truly freak out. He had lost count of how many monsters were chasing him. It had to be close to a hundred.
He started running a little faster.
By the thirty-minute mark, Elias was in full panic. He had lost track of how many monsters were still behind him—but there were far, far too many. And they just kept coming!
Even the ones fast enough to catch up were threatening to overwhelm him on their own.
He had long since stopped pacing himself. Now he was sprinting toward the glade as fast as he could, screaming for help whenever he could spare the breath.
It was around that time that another group of adventurers—three burly men—answered his desperate cries for help. They strolled in his direction with easy smiles, their laughter echoing through the trees. Clearly, they expected to find a newbie who had wandered too deep into the jungle.
What they saw instead was a wide-eyed Elias sprinting straight at them, yelling incoherently—with a massive horde of monsters at his heels.
Their smiles vanished, instantly replaced by sheer panic.
As one, the three adventurers turned and bolted, running away from Elias and the swarm chasing him. But it was too late. A portion of the monsters veered off to follow them instead—something they were very vocal about disliking.
Elias had never been cursed so passionately in his life. In the several seconds it took for their group to disappear from earshot, he was called things he didn’t even know the meaning of.
At around the forty-five minute mark, Elias finally spotted the towering fig tree that marked his destination. By then, he had already come across two more groups of adventurers. Each time, the scene played out the same way—first a moment of panic as they realized what they’d walked into, then a hasty retreat, with a portion of the monsters peeling off to chase after them instead.
Even though Elias felt bad about dragging those people into his mess, he was also relieved they had taken so many monsters with them. Without their unintentional help, there might have been close to a thousand still chasing him by now.
Though… he wasn’t really sure. He’d given up trying to count them a long time ago.
Elias’s heart leapt with joy as he burst through the final stretch of foliage into the glade—only for it to plummet a heartbeat later.
The first thing he saw was a group of five people getting dressed on the small island beneath the fig tree. Their heads snapped toward him in alarm, which didn’t surprise him, since his arrival had been anything but subtle. What did surprise him was that he recognized one of the women—Rebecca.
But that wasn’t what made his heart sink.
On the far side of the glade, two blonde women burst through the jungle foliage at a run. He recognized them instantly. They were from the last group of adventurers he’d passed during his chaotic flight.
One of the women met his gaze with a heartbroken expression, instantly realizing they’d both had the same plan. The other looked furious.
"You! This is all your damn fault!" she shouted, jabbing a trembling finger in his direction.
Elias didn’t waste time arguing. Gripping the stick he’d picked up, he dove into the water and shouted, "Quick! Get to the island!"
The last thing he saw before slipping beneath the surface was Rebecca’s eyes widening in panic—the monsters had arrived.