Shadow parasite

‘This sure feels like it’s real,’ thought Gorn while going towards the next snake. Despite that, he still leaned more to the side that everything that happened here was just inside his head, and nothing more.

After challenging the next opponent, the stage divided yet again. The moment he appeared on the arena, his energy, as well as all his physical injuries, recovered instantly. It was like they didn’t even happen in the first place.

This aspect was an important clue, and something that solidified his belief that the place was not real, even more.

Evading the snake that already started to attack him like mad, Gorn thought: ‘This seems to be the case, however, I can’t know for sure.’ Leaving some room for other, potential answers, and outcomes wasn’t a bad idea. After all, the less you expect something, the more dangerous it is.

“Shit!”

The snake almost hit him squarely into the face. Fighting, and thinking of other matters, wasn’t a wise strategy.

Analyzing the huge reptile, Gorn couldn’t help himself but tremble a little inside. Facing a snake that was over fifteen meters long, and as thick as a male adult, wasn’t exactly the easiest of things.

His abilities allowed him to have a great advantage, and from that steamed a certain level of confidence as well. This wasn’t the first time he saw such a monster, and that helped as well.

“If it wasn’t for my blink, and air steps abilities, then this, as well as every other fight, would become at least a few times harder.”

Special abilities were a game changer most of the time. Without them, everything would be harder, and take longer.

“I still have two available slots. Unfortunately, this place is not suitable for fixing this problem…”

He had two more free slots which he could use at any time. The initial plan was to use them on the spiders, and maybe get the durability skill from the wild boars. Alas, not everything goes according to plans.

“There is no need to rush this. For now, I should focus on the matter at hand.”

Gorn blinked one last time to put some distance between him, and the snake. Focusing, he wanted to fight it without using any skills, just his raw power.

.

After a few hours of struggle, Gorn finally managed to kill the snake. This time, his body was full of injuries, including some broken bones.

“Now I understand why my doubles needed so many hours to obtain victory…”

Without special skills, the small difference in raw power was incredibly hard to overcome.

‘If I was more skilled at fighting, then this wouldn’t have taken so much time…’

At this point, his lack of training, and shallow experience was very noticeable. His grave injuries, and the time it took to obtain victory, was clear proof of that.

“If I remember correctly, then the time in this place flows differently. Two days here is one day outside,” said Gorn out loud while going to select another snake. He wanted to heal faster, after all, having a few broken ribs, and fingers wasn’t the nicest of feelings.

The arena divided yet again. Gorn blinked around, evading the snake, while thinking. “I can use this time ratio to my advantage. Farm gold, and experience at the same time. Isn’t that great?”