Morning comes around like it always does, much too early for Jason’s tastes. With a yawn and a stretch he glances around the clearing. To his relief he can see not a single bit of bramble. That and Lily seems better rested. He hadn’t been paying much attention yesterday morning but she had seemed a bit wound up during the rest of the day. 

“Just one more snarltail and I can focus on getting through this strange forest. As it is, I am cutting a corner to get to the location Jarr was last seen. Still a couple days from there but if I jog, it should save some time. That all depends on how fast I find the next cat.”

His day planned followed by one final stretch and Jason sets out. As he gets farther from the brambles life, as much as this place ever had, returns. It takes Jason much to long to realize this though. He can only shake his head at how he let such a simple thing slip by him. While the forest doesn’t have normal critters populating it, there are bugs. How he missed the lack of crickets chirping and flies buzzing around is a mystery. Even his arcology hasn’t kept them out. For the bramble area to be so dead ratchets the threat level in his mind way up. Then much to his relief he spots some blue off in the distance.

Jason stops in place. A deep breath and he calms himself. Now with his target in front of him he continues. This time at a slower more stealthy walk. He had started today walking at this pace but his worries had caused him to increase his pace. He still catches up to the snarltail which appears to be stalking some prey.

The best option at this point would be to wait for it to get in position itself. Jason however has his worries nipping at his feet. He follows for a minute or so but nervous energy takes over at that point. Jason picks up speed. The snarltail stops and cocks it head to listen. Jason breaks into a full out run at it and attacks with a kick straight to the cat’s gut.

The snarltail jumps back but not quite in time, Jason’s foot still clips it. Hardly a wound but enough to enrage it. The cat pounces back at him and swipes out with a claw.

-2

Jason blocks it with another kick. It cuts his foot up but the snarltail’s paw isn’t doing any better. It recoils back now with a limp. Jason however doesn’t let it get away. He crouches down and springs forward. With his fists up he gets back into range and jabs out twice.

It avoids the first but his second punch catches the cat. A spark of energy fires off as his blast punch partially connects. Suddenly teeth are in his face as the cat pounces.

-5

To avoid the attack, Jason drops backward and with a well-timed slap on the ground breaks his fall. More scratches across his body bleed out for a moment before his blood hardens. While he avoided the bite, the claws still scored furrows across his chest. Now on the forest floor with the cat just past him a sliver of worry invades his mind. The snarltail turns back to him for another chomp at his head. Jason lays there for a moment.

-1

However once the cat has committed to the attack, he slaps the ground again and uses the momentum to roll out of the way. His arm still marked by its teeth but he survived. Jason continues his roll and pulls his legs up to his chest. As his roll finishes he is now on his knees and inline with the cat's side. He punches out with a straight and then jumps up to his feet. The snarltail hisses and slashes at him.

This time Jason is ready for it and dodges back, taking no damage. Then he ducks right back in and goes at it with a flurry of punches. He isn’t even able to make each of them a blast punch as he goes to fast.

-3

It still has the effect Jason wanted though. Punches rain down on the snarltails head. He even takes damage from accidentally hitting its teeth a few times. However the blast punches that do connect knock the cat silly as he rings its head like a bell. With the snarltail stunned Jason slows down to make each punch count. He focuses right below the eyes and can feel the bones in its face shatter under his assault. Not long after he gets his first system message in a long while that he didn’t call up himself.

Second Bottleneck Reached

To level further please complete one of the following tasks:

• Beat a boss by yourself

Tough Self Imposed Battle

+5 Hp

+1 Agility

Jason plops down onto the ground and let's out a weak chuckle. Just because he pulls up his level info and there it is, level 9 and 99.99%. He is now infinitely close to joining the game as a full citizen. As his body relaxes his chuckle turns into a laugh as he opens the harness. Lily now in his lap Jason spends a good ten minutes petting her.

With his mental training he had kept a lot of his worries buried until now. He had never heard of cores in this world and just treated it like his past. Purity? Who knows if that was a good choice, there wasn’t a guide online for it. Sure everything seemed to work. He was fighting enemies so many levels above his! Now though he reached the first milestone. One boss kill away from him having made it. Even if everything proves to be a shoddy house of cards, he will have a foundation to rely on.

Jason places Lily back on the harness and stretches. Ready to take on the world, or at least a boss he jogs towards his goal. Jarr won't know what hit him.

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters free on my Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/dragonheartednovels ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).