Second World

Jack immediately raised his Magic Shield in front of him and widened his stance to prepare for an impact. Unexpectedly, the Lizardman vanished when it was about to collide with his shield. Jack was stupefied by this turn of events.

Instinctively, he felt unease at his back. He swiveled around just in time to see the Lizardman leveling an attack. By dumb luck, when he turned the sword in his hand collided with the Lizardman's scimitar, parrying the attack A red 56 appeared above Jack's head.

He was astonished. Even though he was two levels lower than the Lizardman, he had an additional class with a level that was not low. His total attributes should still be way higher than a level 12 monster, but both his speed and strength seemed to be lacking in comparison to this Lizardman. The damage it dealt wasn't high compared to the Skeleton Captain's, proportionately, but its speed made this Lizardman much more dangerous to deal with.

As he regained his balance, Jack saw the monster lunge at him once more. He raised his Magic Shield again, but this time he paid more attention to the monster's movements. When it was a short distance from him, its body became a blur. In his limited peripheral vision, Jack noticed a red shadow passing above him. He turned around and saw the monster land a few feet behind.

'Shit! What a powerful jump!' He exclaimed in his mind.

The Lizardman turned in a flash and executed a slash. This time Jack was aware of the attack and managed to dodge by backstepping. Once the scimitar went past, he promptly advanced and executed Power Strike. The blow hit the round shield held in the Lizardman's left hand. It stood its ground without any damage.

It returned the attack with two lightning-fast consecutive slashes. Jack blocked the first slash with his Magic Shield but the second strike slashed across his hip. He felt a stinging pain as he hastily retreated. He lost 79 HP from the slash.

The battle had started less than a minute ago but the Lizardman had already taken out a quarter of Jack's health. The monster didn't allow him time to recuperate; it advanced and made several more consecutive slashes. Facing such fierce assault, Jack could only go on the defensive. He managed to block the attacks with Magic Shield and Parry, but he became passive and was still continuously losing health.

When the barrage of assaults ended, he took a risk and leapt forward to land a Power Strike on the monster's bare body. But it turned out its scales were its own armor. He felt like his sword scraped down a metallic sheet. His best blow only left a slight mark on the scales. The damage was a pitiful 32; not even one percent of the monster's total HP.

'This is not a fair fight,' he complained to himself.

He was trying his best to stay alive. He even took out two Medicines to recover his health during the fight. However, his HP bar kept depleting, while he could only land one or two hits amongst the relentless assaults from the monster. He would run out of health before he could even take out ten percent of this monster's HP. He needed to retreat!

He backed off while focusing on defense using his Magic Shield and Parry. When he reached the door, he used his back to push it open.

'Hopefully, this is the type of Boss that doesn't chase you once you're out of its territory,' he prayed. The door did not open to his push. It was locked.

'Oh, no! Did I get locked in this room? Won't it be game over for me then?' He was alarmed.

With a glance, he saw a card reader beside the door, and then he saw another door on the opposite side of this room.  It was slightly opened.

  'Crap, it's the wrong door!' He cursed.

With the intensity of battle and the symmetrical design of the room, he had gotten turned around! His health was pitifully low now; he could maybe survive another one or two hits if he blocked using Magic Shield or Parry.

The monster used its round shield to ram onto him. Jack blocked it with Magic Shield but his body still slammed into the door behind. Small damage further chipped away his low HP, but he felt his body getting paralyzed from the hard impact. The Lizardman seized the opportunity when he was dazed and lifted its scimitar high, it was going to deal a finishing blow!

Jack clenched his teeth and ignored the pain in his back. He jumped out just as the scimitar came slashing down, and dodged it by a hairbreadth. He rolled on the ground, and as he got back up, he cast Energy Bolts. One of the advantages of Energy Bolts spell was that the bolts could home in on the enemy, so there was no need for accuracy. In fact, he cast the spell without looking at the Lizardman.

Jack started running towards the opposite door. He heard four crashing sounds as each of the Bolts hit the Lizardman. Jack knew that the bolts wouldn't give the monster significant damage. However, the impact did halt the Lizardman's advance, which gave Jack extra distance as he dashed away from the monster.

However, the room was quite large. Even before he covered one-third of the distance to the entrance door, he heard the sound of the Lizardman's footsteps closing in. It was very fast. Luckily, Jack had spent some points on his dexterity. If not, he would have been easily caught by the monster before he reached two-thirds of the distance.

He stored his weapons and exerted all his effort just on running; it was pointless to continue the fight now. As he was about to reach the door, he could hear the Lizardman closing in. He gritted his teeth and jumped forward. He crashed onto the door and it swung violently outwards from the impact. He fell onto the floor outside the room and rolled several times before stopping some distance away from the door. He hastily got up and prepared to make another evasion jump, but he didn't see the Lizardman.

He looked through the open door. The Lizardman leisurely walked back to the middle of the room. After it arrived there, it once again sat on the floor. The situation inside the room was just as it had been before he entered, as if nothing had occurred.

Jack let out a relieved breath when he saw the monster was no longer after him.

'So, it only attacks if someone enters the room,' he pondered.

He was taking out medicine to drink when he noticed his health starting to recover by itself. He remembered now that he had received the Natural Body Recovery skill, which allowed him to recover over time when he wasn't in combat. He put the medicine away to be used in combat. He then sat down to recuperate.

"Wait, maybe I can use this natural recovery to my advantage," he said. He thought about it. Even though he hadn't given the Lizardman any significant damage, he had still wounded it a little. If he waited until he fully recovered, went back in, fought the Lizardman for a while, and came out again to recover once his HP was low, he could use this method to chip away on the Boss' HP.

"Haha," he started to laugh. "Just you wait, you overgrown lizard. I gonna skewer you into lizard stick!"

He grinned in anticipation as he rested. His stamina and mana recovered much faster due to the effect of the Egg Fried Rice he had eaten before entering the building. He wished he could find a food recipe that increased his natural health recovery as well.

After around fifteen minutes, his HP bar finally filled up. He took out his weapons and dashed back into the room with vigor. The Lizardman stood up once he saw the intruder was back, the red bar above its head was full.

"F**k!" Jack cursed out loud.. The Monster also had natural recovery ability.