I stared at the jungle from what I would previously have considered a safe distance, had I not recently had a too-close encounter with one of its stronger denizens.

  Heck, I wasn't even sure 'stronger' was an appropriate description. The thing wasn't an apex predator, sitting at the top of the food chain. It was closer to halfway up the jungle's hierarchy. I'd seen a fortress eagle snap one up as a snack. And then there were the colossal worms.

  Despite remaining as green and scenic as when I'd first arrived at the border, the jungle no longer appeared quite so inviting. Not that I'd been fooled the first time around. Even from this distance, I could still hear the occasional quiet roar from deep within, and from the vantage point a little higher up the mountain, looking over the treetops, I could see tiny black dots in the distance that I was willing to bet, up close, would turn out to be very large, with lots of sharp edges.

  There was nothing for it. I couldn't go in there as I currently was: I'd achieve nothing more than providing a monster with a free lunch. While the gods seemed excessively eager to get me started on my task, it wasn't as if anyone had said anything about finishing it quickly. It wouldn't hurt to skirt around the jungle's edge, periodically making noise, attracting monsters, claiming their experience, then moving on before anything I couldn't handle turned up. I just needed to keep a careful lid on my rather more dangerous version of a Stat high.

  Once all my Stats were over two-hundred-and-fifty, upgrading the relevant Marks, and I'd used up the skill crystals I'd brought with me and maxed out their Skills, I'd make another attempt at one of the bigger monsters. Even then, my intent was to reach my destination while avoiding anything over B-rank. I still hadn't used up my [Float] skill crystal, and right now, I had no intention of doing so. The skies of this jungle were ruled by the fortress eagles, and I had no place in them.

  There was no chance I'd sustain two levels an hour, but even if not, if I spent a week doing nothing but slaying monsters, it was entirely possible that I could hit the third growth milestone. Doing so would greatly increase my chances of survival. Although even that may not be enough: the dinosaur had shrugged off multiple point blank hits of [Lightning Shock], and buying new Skills wouldn't give me a more powerful attack. Spending skill points on [Lightning Mage] might be the only chance I had of taking one down.

  Or I could follow the advice of the guild master. The requirement for [Archmage] was to bring four spells of different elements to their final stages, on top of [Mana Manipulation]. I'd already maxed out [Lightning Shock] and [Mana Manipulation], I knew [Noise] and [Heal], and I intended to learn [Wind Blade] imminently. How many skill points would it require? Eighteen for the required Skills, and another ten for the Path. Twenty-eight, which I would get prior to the next growth milestone. There wouldn't be enough left over to evolve [Mapping] or [Vigilance], though, and I'd really quite like both before setting foot in the jungle in earnest.

  Simple solution: I'd just need to go beyond the third growth milestone.

  But I'd rejected [Archmage] because of the impact it would have on my physical Stats. I didn't know what the exact outcome would be, because I didn't know how it would interact with [Ancient Soul] and [Perfectly Balanced], but at best I'd lose one point of gain per level, on top of doubling the cost of increasing them using free stat points. Even if I relied purely on magic to fight, there was sure to come a time when I'd need to run for my life, or simply lift something very heavy.

  I could counteract it in the short-term by dumping all of my free stat points into my physical Stats before buying the Path, but in the long term, I'd find my physical Stats slipping behind where I would have wanted them. Did it matter? Was there even a choice? Was there another way of completing my quest? I couldn't see any way forward without getting B-rank Skills, and it was that or [Assassin]. I didn't have the required skill crystals for anything else.

  In a way, it was poetic. I'd considered that my strength was reaching the point where I no longer needed to hide. I could defend myself from the weak, and I'd failed to keep my secrets hidden from the truly strong in the first place. Picking [Archmage] over [Assassin] would be matching my words with actions.

  With my plan decided, I made my way around the base of the mountain, considerably further than I needed to merely to ensure a fresh batch of acid crawlers or other weaker monsters. Traversing the rugged terrain took additional time, but I had no idea where the earlier dinosaur had gone, and I had no intention of discovering the answer was 'not very far' by it jumping back out at me the moment I cast my first [Lightning Shock].

  Exercising [Expert Stealth] to its fullest, I crept once more beyond the tree line.

  An acid crawler responded by dropping on my head. Or at least where my head would have been had I not hurriedly back-stepped. The thing splatted to the ground, but from the way it immediately raised its front end, it was obvious the fall hadn't harmed it.

  That was the second time in as many attempts. Did those things encircle the entire jungle, waiting for unsuspecting humans? How were they seeing through [Expert Stealth] so easily? I'd crept in hoping to look around, to get pre-warning of what sort of monsters were in the area before I started making noise and attracting them all. Alas, it seemed that wasn't going to happen.

  "Stab," I declared, having dodged the first glob of acid and not bothered waiting for the second. I had more than enough experience of killing these things to have got a handle on how fast they could spit a second batch of acid, and I had more than enough time to step in and run my dagger through the fleshy monster.

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  And so it became the first sacrifice to my growth. Or the first sacrifice of this batch, anyway.

  If it was just going to be acid crawlers and moths again, I knew how to handle them already. "Lightning..." I started, and then changed my mind.

  I could learn.

  "Noise," I breathed instead, employing my little-used distraction spell to make a much quieter sound. I should start small, and clear out the closest monsters before attracting them from further afield.

  It was actually quite an interesting little spell. I could control the position and volume of the magic, although at the first stage I could only aim it a few metres away at most and the maximum volume didn't exceed my normal speech. Thankfully, although I still needed to speak 'noise' out loud, I could get away with whispering it, even without [Expert Stealth] helping to quieten it, else the first stage of the spell would be rather pointless. I might as well just shout 'over here'.

  ... Actually, that was a good intermediate stage between [Noise] and [Lightning Shock]. I was learning again!

  I could also control the sound the thing made, and so the laughter of a human child sounded from behind the nearest tree—the best I could do in terms of cover, when the size of the trees meant they were spaced further apart than the range of [Noise].

  The tree rustled, a branch flexing slightly as something moved along it. I caught glimpses of white between the leaves. Sure enough, there was another of the crawlers up there. It didn't drop on the source of the noise, but poked its head through the leaves, remaining motionless as the eyes swivelled. [Expert Stealth] must have been doing something, because it completely missed me, which it probably shouldn't have done even if its focus was in a different direction.

  An acid moth descending from the adjacent tree did see me, though, forcing me to take my eyes off the monstrous caterpillar and defend myself. Again, I'd had enough experience of them to know their patterns, and how their acidic powder fell. There was little wind down here to disperse it, making it surprisingly easy to evade, as long as I kept an eye on my feet and remembered not to tread in it. For one moth, I didn't need to employ [Lightning Shock].

  I kicked off the tree to jump up to its height, then declared, "Stab," running my dagger through the monster's thorax but being careful to avoid letting my blade touch the wings. I didn't know what effect the powder would have on my weapons, given that they weren't made from regular steel, but this far from any smithies, I didn't want to risk finding out.

  Alas, unlike 'noise', I did need to clearly enunciate 'stab' at a normal volume for the Skill to activate, and despite [Expert Stealth] partially masking it, the acid crawler that had been looking around for the source of laughter flexed, pointing its face—if a ring of eyes surrounding a ring of teeth could be called a face—right at me.

  I dodged the acid glob, the attack not coming at all as a surprise, but the noise had already attracted a few more caterpillars and another moth, crawling and flying around the trunks of the trees.

  "Guess it's time to get this started in earnest," I muttered as I charged the nearest acid crawler, neatly pirouetting around its burning spit. The monsters still weren't a threat, but with more of them turning up, I was starting to lack the leeway to hold back. Sure enough, it was mere minutes before I was forced to use [Lightning Shock] to take out an acid moth that was flying too high to stab, and that I couldn't evade on account of being surrounded by crawlers.

  Of course, the echoing crack of thunder attracted even more.

  I made a fighting retreat, edging toward the tree line in the hopes that being outside the jungle would prevent me getting surrounded, but as I approached the edge, the moths flew straight up and the crawlers spun around and headed for the nearest tree, wriggling up it and vanishing into the leaves.

  "What's wrong?" I goaded. "Don't like sunlight?"

  Something about that didn't ring true, though. It wasn't as if I'd gone more than a few trees deep into the forest during the entire altercation, so there was still plenty of light, even if there was no direct sunlight. The monsters showed no such behaviour in my first fight, nor did the bestiary say anything about it.

  Besides, they were the dumber sort of monsters. Their ingrained hostility should have had them charging after me even if the sunlight caused them to instantly and messily explode.

  Then why were they retreating? I couldn't hear any nearby roaring, which I'd been keeping a very careful ear out for. Another type of monster? I looked up fearfully, but there was no sign of any birds, let alone a fortress eagle. Down, then? Was I about to get swallowed by a worm? No point running; that would just make me easier for them to find. The best I could do was stand very still, with [Expert Stealth] active, and hope it passed by.

  But what would a colossal worm be doing at the jungle border, and besides, how would the moths have detected it?

  While I had no idea what was coming, I was certain something was. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for whatever was about to burst out of the jungle, driven by its monstrous instincts to kill the human interloper that had stepped into its territory.

  And then I grinned because, however faint, there was a tang of sweetness in the air. A taste I hadn't noticed until I took a deep breath, but that matched up perfectly with one of the bestiary entries. It wasn't a colossal worm.

  Long, flexible tentacles emerged from deeper within the jungle, wrapping around trees and pulling forward a white, pulsating mass. The source of the scent was a C-rank monster, stronger than the acid moths, but not on the level of the dinosaur. A cross between a slime and... and...

  Actually, I had no idea what the second half of it could be. Possibly an over-ripe cheese.

  It had no eyes, and yet the tentacles groped for me while my grin widened. Unlike the moths, which were too weak, or the dinosaur, which was too strong, this should be a fair fight.

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