[Achievement Unlocked: First Contact – Tamer of the Unknown]
You've done what no one else has — formed a bond with a creature from another world.
This moment marks the beginning of a connection beyond species or origin.
A new path opens before you.
— Rewards —
• Monster Affinity +1
• Unallocated Stat Points +5
• coins +1000 ]
Evan was left speechless. Never in a million years did he expect to get a pet and an achievement at the same time.
"How lucky am I?" he muttered with a grin.
He chuckled inwardly while patting Luma, who had just reverted to its original baby form — still small, still weirdly adorable. Evan glanced in the direction he needed to go.
"It's time to start our journey. We've still got a long way to go."
Sword in hand, Evan began walking. Luma trotted beside him, occasionally leaping around or hopping onto his shoulder like some chaotic magical backpack. And just like that, Evan's journey resumed — this time with a new (and possibly overpowered) friend tagging along.
---
2 Hours Later
---
Evan's blade sliced through the air with inhuman speed, cleanly decapitating a razorlop. Nearby, Luma was happily feasting on another one, its tiny form drenched in monster gore like it was born for this.
This marked the third group of monsters they'd encountered in just two hours. One of those groups had included three shadow drifters, and Evan was still reeling from how easily Luma helped him dispatch them.
Sure, Luma looked like a fluffy shadow-panther plushie, but that bite? Absolutely vicious. One of the injured drifters had been straight-up chomped to death like a chew toy. Evan could only watch, stunned.
Shaking his head, he called up his status screen.
---
[Status]
Name: Evan
Level: 9
EXP: 300 / 900 (33%)
Race: Human
Class: {None}
Titles: {None}
Health: 280 / 280
Energy: 160 / 240
Stamina: 340 / 420
Hunger: 37 / 100
Fatigue: 28 / 100
Strength: 18
Agility: 21
Vitality: 14
Defense: 15
Spirit: 12
Unallocated Stat Points: 15
Coins: 1200
Skills:
• Energy Blast (E) – Level 1
Pet: Luma (Level 4)
---
Seeing his fifteen unallocated stat points made Evan feel like a kid staring at unwrapped birthday presents. His fingers twitched, itching to spend them.
But he held himself back.
"Nope. Not yet," he muttered. "This world's too unpredictable… might need Spirit tomorrow, or Defense, or I dunno — maybe Charisma if I meet a monster with emotional issues."
AN : Yeah he doesn't have a charisma stat
After closing the window, Evan called Luma over and resumed his trek. The forest gradually opened ahead, revealing a clearing. But what made his heartbeat spike wasn't the clearing — it was the faint red glow pulsing in the center.
He crouched instinctively, eyes narrowing.
There it was.
A red wormhole hovered above the ground, warping the air around it like ripples in a boiling pond. But what truly froze Evan's blood was the giant anaconda coiled lazily beneath it. The beast's belly bulged, clearly having swallowed something — or someone — whole. Its body was nearly a meter thick, its full length hidden in a tangle of coils.
"...That's just a normal anacosta?" Evan whispered, eyes narrowed. "But it feels anything but normal."
Could animals level up too? The thought struck him like a cold slap. Even in their base forms, animals like this already outclassed most humans in raw strength. If they could level up...
He shivered. "Nope. Not thinking about that."
Still, he had a choice to make. The wormhole was too valuable to ignore — and if he wanted to get stronger, he couldn't afford to keep running away.
"Alright," he said, inhaling deeply. "We fight."
But he wasn't reckless.
Evan bent down to whisper to Luma, "Stay quiet. Don't move unless I say so."
To his relief, Luma nodded (in its own weird way). Since their bond, Evan had begun sensing Luma's emotions like faint echoes in his mind — a strange, comforting connection.
Sword drawn, Evan began circling slowly through the foliage, moving to flank the creature. He needed the right angle. One misstep, and he wouldn't even get a death screen.
And so, the hunt began.
Circling stealthily through the undergrowth, Evan crept closer to the snake's head — or what he assumed was its head, buried as it was beneath a mound of scaly muscle. Sure, getting that close risked waking the beast, but if he wanted to end this quickly, he'd need to strike where it hurt most.
Once he was about five meters away, Evan tightened his grip on his sword. In his other hand, he readied the old, cracked shield — the same one hanging by a metaphorical (and probably literal) thread. It might snap mid-fight, but at this point, even false confidence was better than none.
He paused, muscles tense. Anacondas, like most snakes, didn't have ears — they relied on vibrations to detect movement. That's why Evan had tiptoed like a barefoot ninja the entire way, careful not to disturb a single leaf more than necessary.
The position was perfect. The beast was dead asleep. Time to go loud.
But first — stats.
[Agility: 25 (+5)]
[Strength: 23 (+5)]
Five points into agility, five into strength. That left him with just five unallocated points — his emergency stash.
With that done, Evan launched forward, propelling himself at top speed like a human bullet with delusions of grandeur. He blurred across the distance, sword raised, ready to strike down with the fury of a caffeinated samurai—
—but the snake moved.
Its head shifted just in time, narrowly dodging the full brunt of the strike. Still, Evan's blade managed to slice a shallow gash near its eye.
Shhhhhhhhhh!
The anaconda hissed, recoiling. Its beady eyes locked on Evan, full of venomous rage and wounded pride. Clearly, it hadn't expected him to be so fast. Maybe it had even been pretending to sleep, waiting for Evan to make the first move.
"Well played," Evan muttered, narrowing his eyes. "Cunning bastard."
Before the snake could retaliate, Evan tried to dart along its thick neck for another strike — but the conda lunged first, mouth wide open, aiming to turn him into a protein shake.
Evan didn't hesitate. He stomped down hard, launching himself into the air. Thanks to his boosted strength — now over four times that of an average human — he cleared more than three meters in a single bound. The snake's massive head whipped past just below him, narrowly missing.
He landed directly on its back and drove his blade deep into its scaled flesh.
HISSSSSSSSSS!
The entire body convulsed in agony. Evan scrambled off, but as his boots hit the forest floor, his heart sank — he was surrounded. Snake coils on all sides. Towering walls of muscle. It was like being trapped inside a fleshy death maze.
And then the horrifying realization struck him.
"This snake is hella big," he whispered.
But there was no time for awe. The anaconda lunged again, its strikes calculated and furious. With each failed bite, the coils around Evan grew tighter — the beast was herding him, shrinking the circle, preparing to end things with a single, crushing blow.
He tried to leap out of the trap, but the snake's gaping maw met him mid-air. He had to sacrifice his already battered shield, jamming it into the monster's mouth to block the bite. The shield shattered with a wet crunch — but it bought him just enough time to escape.
Now unarmed, shieldless, and caught in a tightening coil of doom, Evan knew one thing for sure:
This was either going to be his worst mistake… or the best XP farm ever.