The forest around them was a sight to behold, with its lush greenery, crystal-clear streams, and vibrant blossoms that seemed to glow in the sunlight.
Its canopy was marked by towering sequoia, majestic hemlock, and graceful beech trees. Their leaves and branches intertwined, creating a natural tapestry that allowed just enough light to filter through.
Below, a patchwork of ferns dominated the brittle leaves that littered the forest floor, their delicate fronds swaying in the gentle breeze. It was a place of enchantment, where the magic of nature was on full display.
Venturing deeper into this forest, one would be greeted by curling creepers that had a life of their own, snaking their way around the occasional tree, as if trying to ensnare any unsuspecting prey that dared to cross their path.
The mishmash of flowers that adorned the forest floor added a burst of vibrant colours to the otherwise mundane scenery as if they were trying to lure the travellers deeper into its mystical depths.
A myriad of untamed sounds, predominantly emanating from the forest's monster inhabitants, reverberated across the atmosphere, overpowering the tumultuous torrents of the river as they clashed against the nearby boulders.
As they passed a few trees with crisscrossed claw marks, the aroma of the little breakfast Evan and Eliza were having attracted a few monsters into the area, but Evan's shadow seemed to come alive as it released long, bladed shadowy appendages that sliced these 'weak' monsters to pieces faster than they could react.
No way the boy was gonna let anything interrupt his time with Eliza.
Eventually, the two arrived at a small clearing of about a few hundred metres in diameter, right in front of a small range of thousand-metre-tall mountains.
In the middle of this clearing, was a large brown four-limbed beast, its massive frame covered in matted fur and eyes gleaming ferocity, striking fear into the hearts of many who dare to cross its path.
Unfortunately for it, this duo most certainly didn't feel an iota of fear towards it, even when it flared its powerful grandmaster-level aura.
"That's our destination."
"The cave behind the bear?"
"Yep.
There's a secret entrance there. It's a shortcut, so to say."
"That so…"
Evan and Eliza continued chatting like always, ignoring the Giant Bear who roared out in rage at the two humans who intruded into its territory.
Without hesitation, it got up on all fours and crouched down slightly, before leaping into the air with enough force to create a deep crater into the ground.
Noticing this, Evan turned to the bear and was about to activate his intimidation skill, but Eliza just held his shoulder and pulled out the Memoria.
"I wanna try something for a bit."
The time it took them to have that small interaction was more than enough for the bear to reach them and swing its razor-sharp claws in their direction.
Blood red aura surrounded the claws, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake as it carved up the ground all the way up to where they stood.
**BOOMM!!
Despite the massive explosion that turned half the clearing to rubble, the bear had a strange 'expression' as it did not feel any feedback from slashing at the humans.
'Even if they were weak, I should at least have felt the sensation of cutting through them.'
"Wow, this feels fluffy."
The bear's eyes widened in shock as it heard the voice of the female human coming from behind it, before feeling a palm caressing the fur on its back.
It roared and spun its body around, swiping with its aura-coated claws once again, fully intending on slicing the human in two.
Seeing the incoming bear claws, Eliza ruled out the possibility of dodging and gripped her staff tightly, infusing it with pure magic power and raising it to block the attack.
**BAMM!!
The force behind the Bear's swing knocked Eliza backwards, and cancelled out the energy she had infused on her staff.
Eliza's feet carved two straight lines on the ground that stretched out for a dozen metres, stopping only after she stabbed the Memoria into the ground to halt her movement.
'Even if we both have the same strength stat, there's a difference between a monster specializing in power and a support-type humanoid like me, huh?'
She thought to herself as she looked at her still trembling arms, clenching her fists and using her life energy to relieve herself of the pain.
All she wanted to do was to see how much her strength fared against similar levelled monsters, and as she expected, there was a world of difference.
For starters, even though both Eliza and the bear had 'A-' strength stat, her stat level was far lower than it, being at Level 5 while the Bear had a stat level of 98.
In addition, her strength stat levelled up incredibly slowly, at less than half the speed her other stats like Health of Energy did.
However, when comparing energy between them, the bear had about 30 Levels in its A- energy stat while Eliza had twice that. Such was also the case with her Health stat too.
Evan had explained all the working processes behind this to her but since she did not have Full Appraisal like Evan, she could not see stat levels like he did.
Returning to the Giant Bear, it had now realised that Evan and Eliza escaping its first attack was no fluke or mistake, as it saw that Eliza had actually managed to withstand the second attack.
It instantly stopped playing around, flaring its aura and charging towards the girl at full speed, moving so fast that it seemed to be a blur.
However, with its kinetic vision, it saw how Eliza took a moment to look at it before grabbing her staff and moving out of the way at a speed that outstripped its own.
'What?!'
The girl didn't give it time to formulate any thoughts, activating her unique skill and consuming a charge as she jumped into the air and landed on the bear's back, before slamming her palm on it and marking it.
Feeling her palm on its back, the bear felt chills down its spine and activated a skill, turning its fur into projectiles that shot off its body like missiles, piercing the trees, the ground, the rocks around them, and what it believed was Eliza's body as well.
"That was close!"
Eliza's voice rang out from behind the bear, with the monster turning around in shock to see a multi-layered barrier of translucent light in front of her, with the first two layers being pierced by its fur projectiles while the remaining three were untouched.
Before its surprise could even set in fully, Eliza kicked off the ground and dashed forward, releasing the spear tip of her staff and swinging it towards the bear.
It snapped out of its shock and tried to block, but its senses warned it of danger and it instead opted to swing its other claw and release a three-pronged slash of aura in her direction.
Much to its shock, Eliza's arm blurred and she sliced apart its aura slashes with her weapon's spear tip.
Two rings of green light appeared around Eliza's wrists and her speed increased even further, allowing her to thrust forward with her staff faster than the bear could react and stab its shoulder.
The bear felt that same dangerous chill down its spine again but it could not see what the danger a simple spear stab had, and Eliza did not give it time to think.
Her hands moved as she changed her grip on her staff, slashing from left to right towards the bear's neck.
'Fast!'
That was the only thought the bear could formulate as it barely dodged Eliza's slash, but the girl activated her cutting wave skill and released a projected energy slash that tore through its thick fur and flesh like butter.
"GRARR!"
As it roared in pain, Eliza moved again, tightening her left hand's grip on the staff and pulling it down on the right side like she was trying to snap it in two.
She then abruptly released her right hand's grip on it, allowing the staff to shoot upwards like a spring and slam onto the head of the bear that was still in pain from her earlier cutting wave attack.
The instant the staff slammed onto the bear's head, she infused her energy through it and used it as a conduit to cast multiple physical and energy damage breach defuffs, before letting go of it.
Two more rings of light appeared around her arms and she grabbed the staff once more, slamming it down on the bear's injured shoulder with enough force to crack the bone there.
Due to how much strength she used, the staff rebounded back into the air and she jumped up, spun her body around and thrust the staff's spear tip towards the bear's head, stabbing it right in the eyes.
"GRRRROOOOAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!"
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