Chapter 14 - 13 Time Moves On

After Marcus' exceptionally good day where he defeated a large boar without getting injured and obtained some stat boosting mushrooms, he started up a new training program. Now Marcus would bait his pitfall trap and head out into the woods and stealthy look for other creatures to fight. While doing this he would find various creatures from a small pack of dogs to beasts that were complete abominations from what he knew on Earth. If the creature looked like he could beat it, he would take the initiative with a sneak attack. Marcus would then check his pitfall trap every few hour and if a creature was stuck in it, he would dispatch them. With this method Marcus was able to gain exp much faster than he had before. While sneaking around the forest Marcus would occasionally see creatures, he knew he had no chance against. One day he saw a massive vaguely humanoid monster that looked like depictions of a troll or ogre from Earth fiction. Marcus made sure to stay away from that area for the rest of his stay in the woods.

Marcus managed to get through the remaining two weeks with his current training method he had quite a few close calls during his training such as being jumped by a feathered lizard that looked like a dinosaur and having a swarm of large bees attack him. In the end though he had been able to get out of the situations by staying calm, using his brain, and getting really lucky. Now it was his last day before he planned to leave, and he had managed to hit level eight.

'Now I can see why the average level for people is thirteen the exp curve got much harder after level five. I was hoping I could reach level ten before leaving but I should be able to get to level ten during my journey to save Lilia. I should check my status to make sure that the poison from the giant spider I killed earlier is gone and then check my trap one last time and call it a day.'

'Status'

Name: Marcus Ferrous

Age: 28

Race: Unbound Ghost (Human Irene Soul Tethered)

Level: 8

HP: 400/400-270/270

MP: 350/350

STR: 10(+18)

AGL: 30

VIT: 10(+17)

INT: 35

SPR: 37(+3)

Stat Points: 0

Skill Points: 2

Unique Skills: Personal Status

Skills: Small Item Box, Lesser Regeneration Lvl 1, Digging Lvl 1, Fighting Lvl 2, Magic Circulation Lvl 2, Iron Magic Lvl 2, Disassembly Lvl 2, Stealth Lvl 2, Lightning Magic Lvl 1, Creature Appraisal Lvl 1, Fire Magic Lvl 1, Danger Sense Lvl 1

Blessing of Iron

Race Abilities: Invisible, Ethereal, Chill Zone, Float, Possession, Undying

Possessed Race abilities:

Specter Powers: Ghost Sounds

'Looks good the poison effect has worn off and my HP is back up to max, one last look at my hard working pitfall trap and I will be done with this forest.'

Marcus leisurely walked over to his pitfall trap not really expecting to find anything since he had only reset the trap around an hour ago and it normally took a bit longer for something to get caught in the trap. Unfortunately for Marcus something had triggered his trap something he was hoping not to see again. Sitting next to his trap with a very angry expression was a bear that had scales over its body like armor. Once Marcus came into view the bear locked on to him with its angry expression and let out a menacing growl.

'Oh shit it looks pissed, the fucker waited for me to come back just to kill me. It is a bit smaller than the other one I saw before but it is still around seven feet long. I can't see its level so it must be higher than me, think Marcus how are you going to get out of this.'

Marcus started to weave his spells and formulate a plan when the scaled bear got up and charged towards him. The bear was incredible fast and was on top of Marcus in an instance. The bear opened its jaws to take a massive bite out of Marcus. Right as the jaws were just inches away from him Marcus suddenly jerked back missing the toothy maw of the bear by mere inches. Marcus had used his new tier two iron magic spell iron threads to attach himself to a tree behind him and pull back for a quick burst of speed.

Marcus then unleashed his tier one fire spell fire shot towards the bear. The fire shot hit the bear square in the face however, its sturdy scales protected from most of the damage and the bear was even more pissed off. The bear continued its charge towards Marcus attacking with its claws this time. Marcus could sense a huge amount of danger and ducked and rolled out of the way of the claw as it impacted against the tree that was behind Marcus. Cutting deep into it Marcus then used his iron threads to tie up the bears hind legs and sent his spark spell through the threads towards the bear. The bear let out a roar full of rage as it was shocked by the spark spell and it ripped the iron threads binding its hind legs. The bear then began to attack Marcus in a frenzy as Marcus did his best to dodge the bears attack by using the trees an when that was impossible he would defend with his iron skin. After running around playing defense for a few minutes Marcus was covered in wounds and had a piece of his right arm missing where the bear bit a chunk out of it. The bear charged towards the exhausted and wounded Marcus to deal the finishing blow when Marcus' mouth curved up into a smile.

'Checkmate you vindictive bear.'

Marcus then pulled his iron threads with all the might he had left in him and the tree he had been using to absorb dozens of the bears attack began to fall. The bear noticing this tried to stop its charge but it was too late as the seventy foot tall tree crashed onto the bear. After using up all of his strength Marcus collapsed on to the ground. He looked towards the tree and saw as the dust began to settle that the bear while still alive was trapped under the tree.

'You were certainly one tough bastard but I won. My whole body hurts everywhere, this is the most pain I have felt since I first possessed this body. I only have about forty HP left and I can't move right now, hopefully nothing comes by in the next few hours or I really will be screwed.'

Marcus laid on the ground for hours letting his HP slowly recover, the bear struggled with all of its might to get out from under the tree but to no avail. After it had exhausted itself it stared at Marcus with a furious expression and if looks could kill Marcus would have been turned into a bloody pulp.

'Ah I feel a lot better now still really sore but at least I can move again. Okay now I need to figure out a way to kill this bear to get the exp and so it does not have to suffer any longer.'

Marcus began trying everything he could to kill the bear but his threads could not pierce its body and his spark spell could only hurt the bear not finish it off. After a few minutes of trying to kill the bear Marcus finally thought of a way to do it although it was a horribly cruel method. However, it would have been crueler to leave the bear here to slowly starve so Marcus reluctantly forced the bears mouth shut with his threads and then covered its nose. The bear began to thrash around again with renewed strength as its breathing was sealed, unfortunately for the bear it could do nothing to stop its impending suffocation. After a few dozen minutes the bear's life came to an end and Marcus heard the familiar sound of leveling up.

'You have leveled up to level 9.'

'I managed to make it to level nine, only one level off my original goal. I guess in certain way this was my final test before leaving these. I am going to miss this place a bit but at the same time I cannot wait to get out of this forest and rejoin civilization.'

Marcus quickly stored the bear's corpse in his item box and left his pitfall trap for the last time. Once he made it back to his base he tried to dismantle the bear's corpse but its scales were too strong for him to cut through. Dejected Marcus made the decision to leave the bears body in the woods and let whatever animal could eat it have it.. He then headed to sleep in the storage cellar on his bed of rags, excited and frightened of the journey he was about to set off on.