Samuel’s mind was stripped of reasoning as panic seized his entire being.

  He had been prepared to encounter dangerous snakes on this scouting trip, even coming up with a strategy to protect himself. Unfortunately, nothing could have prepared him for the sight of a ten-metre long snake wider than his head coming at him with fangs bared.

  Fortunately, he was not unfamiliar with dangerous situations, so his body responded quickly after the initial split second of panic. He swung his stick in a downward arc, sending a burst of telekinesis through the weapon just as it hit the giant snake.

  Samuel was not so conceited as to think he was strong enough to win a contest of strength with something so large. Thankfully, his psi did not fail him. Hia telekinesis boosted strike managed to divert the snake, sending it to the ground instead of his face.

  Barely shaken and with not a wound on its body, the snake hissed at him and shot forward once more with bared fangs. He gripped the knife he prepared in his right hand, and then coated its blade with psi. The mental energy blade was not as sharp as he would have liked, but it would be enough.

  This time, he only managed to avoid getting bitten by a hair’s breadth. He did, however, swing his knife arm in the snake’s direction with all the force he could muster. Most of his focus was on maintaining the mental energy coating on the blade of the knife, so he was not able to add more force to his swing with telekinesis. He could only hope it was enough to make a difference.

  The hand with the knife flew through the air before meeting resistance and stopping. He felt the blade pierce through the tough scales with some resistance before sinking deep into the body of the snake.

  Both man and serpent tumbled to the ground as Samuel missed his footing and slipped. He got up almost instantly, turning to look at the snake with his knife lodged inside its neck. He had missed the head, unfortunately, but the blade still landed just a few centimetres beneath it. Said snake was writhing on the floor in agony at the large knife stuck in its flesh.

  Sam looked at the injured animal in amazement before coming to a quick realisation. He wanted to use the knife to finish the snake with a simple blow to the head, but he found himself unable to get close enough to retrieve it. The snake had its fangs bared even as it tried to free itself of pain. He had no doubt it was still capable of injecting him with a load of venom even injured as it was.

  Thankfully, he quickly came up with a solution. Holding his walking stick in his right hand, he struck the snake’s head, augmenting his strike with a telekinetic bolt in the process. In the short moment when the snake was stunned, he managed to pull the knife from the wound, leaving a fountain of blood in its place.

  As dazed and filled with agony as it must have been, the snake was clearly unwilling to let itself be killed. He barely had time to recover his balance after taking the knife when it struck again. Only a last minute application of telekinesis saved him, acting as a repelling force between man and snake.

  His momentary opening taken from him, Samuel found himself once more facing against a massive snake, likely venomous, that was determined to kill him. The snake was more aggressive this time, and he was forced to push both his reflexes and his new mental powers to the limit.

  Worry over quickly depleting mental reserves filled his mind as he failed to hit the giant serpent with anything more than surface blows or minor wounds. The quick pace of the battle forced him to only use his mental energy sparingly, mostly to redirect the massive fangs that seeked to pierce his skin. He could not even coat his blade with it, as that required more concentration than he could spare.

  Without the increased sharpness and length that the mental energy granted the knife, he couldn’t actually cut deep into the snake’s scales.

  Things were starting to get dire as his mental energy hit concerning levels when something finally happened. Although the snake had managed to come at him aggressively for a while, it was still heavily wounded. He was betting on the fact that the injury on its neck would prevent it from outlasting him in a battle of attrition.

  Thus, he noticed the moment when the snake’s movements began to slow down. He went from barely being able to track its movements to following it with little trouble.

  A small seed of hope bloomed in his heart, even with the situation he was currently in.

  At this point, it was only a matter of time.

  Sadly, knowing that did not make the rest of the fight any easier. At some point, as if sensing that its time was drawing near, the massive snake threw itself at him. It took all his strength and remaining mental energy to hold it off. In fact, he was so focused on not getting bitten that he only realised it was wrapping itself around him when he felt pressure on his chest.

  Panic.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Samuel silently cursed whoever thought it was a good idea to give venom to a snake so large and powerful.

  The pressure increased, and he realised he needed to do something fast, or he might end up dead, or with broken bones. Thankfully, his knife was still in his hand. For a brief moment, he stopped keeping the snake's head at bay with his telekinesis. When it struck once more, he met it with his blade.

  His hands almost grazed the large fangs, but he managed to succeed. The knife entered the open mouth and sank deep into the soft flesh inside. He pushed as much as he could, and felt the pressure on his chest loosen. It wiggled and twisted around for a moment after that, but even that stopped after he stabbed the head a few more times.

  When it finally lay completely still, he breathed a sigh of relief, not caring of the fact that he had a dead snake wrapped around him. He would take care of that in time. Instead, he lay down there for a few moments, enjoying the relative calm of the forest around him.

  It was probably a bad idea, considering how dangerous the forest was and the fact that the weight on his chest was quite significant, but he was too tired to care. It was only when the dead snake finally became too heavy to ignore that he finally found the strength to start moving again.

  Unwrapping the half constricted snake took Samuel more time that he would have liked to admit. He supposed he could chalk it up to the sheer exhaustion that came with depleting his mental energy reserves. There was barely anything left, which made him lethargic.

  When he finally finished unwrapping the snake, he noticed it was actually still twitching, if only barely. Annoyance powered through his sluggish mind and he found himself gripping the knife once more. He stabbed the snake multiple times again, not willing to stop till it was truly dead.

  It was only the sound of a notification that finally snapped him out of his stabbing frenzy.

  You have killed venomous python level 5.

  You have gained 2 levels. You are now level three

  [Telekinesis] is now level 2.

  Samuel looked at the system prompts before scanning his environment. Tall trees and swaying branches were all he saw. Much to his relief, there was a distinct lack of any large snakes.

  After he confirmed he was as safe as he could be in this deadly forest, he sat down on the root of a tree behind him. He was exhausted, more so than would have been normal even after hours of walking and an intense fight. He was only barely keeping himself awake as it was.

  The reason was fairly obvious, and a quick scan of his mental energy revealed why. His reserves were almost empty after he gave his all against the snake. There was no way he could fight effectively without it, especially not in his current state where he was only barely managing to not fall asleep.

  He tried to calm himself down. The situation was pretty bad, considering where he was, but perhaps it was not as hopeless as it seemed. He turned his attention back to the notifications that he had seen.

  Two level ups and a skill level.

  Whether that was good or bad, considering how dangerous the fight was, he had no idea. The snake had been four levels higher than him, yet it still lost. Once again, there was no frame of reference. Would that be considered good or bad by the people inside the tutorial?

  An image of his sister and grandmother cutting down level ten monsters filled his mind, and he couldn’t resist a smile. It was not even entirely unrealistic, given all that he knew about them.

  Either way, it didn’t matter too much, so he shelved the thought away. What interested him most were the six free points sitting in his status, waiting for him to distribute.

  His first instinct was to dump it all in psi. It was, after all, his most important stat without a doubt. It had saved him without a doubt and was his only major damage dealer. Plus, he genuinely loved it much more than all the others. Still, he stayed his hand and forced himself to think about it properly.

  Even though psi was going to be his main stat without a doubt, it did not seem like the right course of action to simply dump all his stats in it without thinking. That would make him too much of a glass cannon.

  Though he considered himself reasonably fit, he was not so arrogant as to think he was the pinnacle of endurance. Just the journey and fights he had been through within the past few hours made him realise how taxing on the body his new life in the dungeon was going to be. And even though his lack of psi added to his exhaustion, there was certainly a significant amount of physical tiredness.

  Once he made the decision, he found himself unable to hold on any longer. All the fighting and thinking had drained even the dregs he was running on. He quickly added four points into the psi stat before he fell asleep.

  The change was as instantaneous as it was pleasant. It felt like his brain suddenly went from being in desperate need to sleep to being mostly refreshed and rested. He could feel that he was not back to peak condition quite yet, but he was recovered enough to operate freely without much worry. He could also feel that his total mental energy reserves had increased, which would mean he could fight for longer periods now.

  Feeling lucid again, he put one point in endurance, feeling his body’s own exhaustion decrease a little. He debated what to do with the last point for some time before he decided to hold on to it.

  There was no telling what kind of situations he would face before his next level up, and having an extra point to help recover a bit of mental energy in a difficult situation could be the difference between life and death.

  After confirming there was nothing else for him to check, Samuel stood up once more and scanned his surroundings. He took note of the direction he came from, making sure to leave some stones in a pattern as markings. He had placed different kinds of objects on the way so he would not get lost in the unknown terrain. He also took out one of his water bottles from his back and took a sip before eating some biscuits he packed for the journey.

  When he felt adequately rested and fed, he continued his journey, making sure to take note of interesting things and potential landmarks for his next trip. He also had a notebook he used to draw something that he hoped would work as a map.

  He had not gone too far when he heard a chorus of loud hissing, noisier than anything he’d come across on his way. His body froze the moment he heard them, goose bumps appearing all over his skin. A primal terror filled his mind while his instincts screamed at him to run like never before.

  Raising his head to look in the direction of the sound convinced him to listen to those instincts.

  Waiting in the trees above him was a host of snakes of different sizes, Far more than he could reasonably handle.

  Without sparing much thought, Samuel ran for his life.