"Even though I remained a goblin by evolving, the tunnel still became quite narrow," thought Alexander. "It could end up trapping anything even slightly larger than me."

  Upon leaving the grove, Alexander felt a mix of excitement and fear, because, despite imprisoning him, that place kept him safe. His hesitation didn't last long, as the possibilities propelled him so strongly that fear wasn't enough to keep him there.

  On the outside, Alexander once again encountered that open landscape of leafy trees. Happy to be there, he chose a direction, which he considered to be the one leading out of the forest, and set off to start living his new life and making his own choices.

  After about 1 hour of walking, Alexander confirmed that the trees ahead were really diminishing. At first this was hardly noticeable, but after 1 hour in the same direction, paying attention to every small detail, it became more and more evident.

  This confirmation made Alexander even more convinced he was going in the right direction, because, as a rule, the larger the tree, the longer its lifespan, especially if compared among those of the same species. Meaning, the younger the vegetation ahead, the more likely he was heading towards some civilization, as he would be moving away from the oldest/virgin part of the forest.

  Alexander continued walking through the foliage, but his tranquility didn't last forever. After 2 more hours of walking, his peripheral vision caught a moving figure in the distance to his right.

  Turning to look at what it was, Alexander saw something that seemed very much like a cross between a goblin and an orc. That is, it was tall, moderately strong, but thin to the point of seeming a bit fragile.

  Obviously, this was just a general impression from someone seeing it from a distance. Alexander didn't dare approach to see details, especially because, even from afar, the thing gave him chills.

  Focusing on the creature to use |Appraise|, Alexander felt his body no longer wanted to obey his commands so he could turn and flee.

  [{Bloodthirsty Troll} – Monster – 2nd Evolution]

  Alexander didn't know if it was his gaze, the fact he was appraising it, or just his presence, but something seemed to draw the creature's attention in his direction.

  Terrified, Alexander activated |Sneak|, used |Run|, to compensate for part of his speed loss, and left as fast as possible, trying not to make too much noise.

  Alexander even thought about just moving forward calmly to attract less attention, but since he could only maintain |Sneak| for a few minutes, and monsters' instincts are very strong, he had to get far away quickly.

  Shortly before the skill |Sneak| was forcibly deactivated, Alexander confirmed he wasn't being followed and deactivated his skills to avoid running out of stamina.

  Exhausted from spending so much stamina, Alexander used what was left of it to find some place to rest and recover.

  After recovering his stamina by eating dried meat, drinking some of the water from |Invigorate|, and resting, Alexander continued to advance, but his path became very tortuous with the appearance of more and more monsters and beasts.

  Sometimes Alexander could avoid them just by slightly detouring from the original route, but other times he was forced to use |Sneak| and |Run|.

  As time passed, Alexander noticed three things: the first was that the monsters were producing less and less pressure on him; the second was that it wouldn't be long before it started to get dark, so he had to find a place to spend the night; and the third was that, thanks to the [Ring of the Thief God], creatures didn't notice him easily if he didn't look at them directly.

  As simple as it seemed, Alexander realized it wasn't that easy. His body, reflexively, turned towards any sound, or movement, that reached his senses, making it difficult to try not to look.

  After walking a bit more, Alexander found a concave tree and decided to make it his shelter. But before going to bed, he placed some rabbit skins on the ground and camouflaged the entrance with many dry leaves.

  The next day, Alexander continued advancing with the same tactics. But when it got dark, he noticed he hadn't seen 2nd evolution creatures for a long time. Even the trees were starting to become smaller and more spaced out.

  "I need to find a good place to spend the night soon," Alexander pondered in thought, not daring to verbalize his thoughts in this unknown forest. "It's getting darker and darker and I don't want to know what hunts in this place at night."

  Alexander needed 2 more hours of walking to find a place to spend the night. But even before he could get there, a smell of blood reached his sense of smell.

  Assuming there were no more 2nd evolution creatures nearby, Alexander decided to follow the smell of blood and see what was happening. After all, sometimes you can be lucky enough to catch good fish in troubled waters.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Upon carefully approaching the source of the smell, Alexander began to hear increasingly loud noises. And when he got close enough, he saw a solitary bear fighting against a pack of gray wolves.

  The wolves were led by a large gray wolf, much larger than the others, and were cornering the large brown bear against a stone wall.

  After observing all those involved, Alexander estimated that the only ones that could kill him were the large wolf and the brown bear. And so he appraised them.

  [{Alpha Wolf} – Beast – 1st Evolution]

  [{Forest Bear} – Magical Beast – 1st Evolution]

  The bear was surrounded by the wolves, but still stood firm and roared at the pack, showing more anger than fear.

  Both sides were injured, but the bear seemed to be at a disadvantage, as it had difficulty hitting the wolves. Whenever it charged in any direction, the wolves in front retreated and the others attacked the exposed part.

  Furious at being toyed with by the wolves, the bear turned and began to flee.

  Seeing this, the alpha wolf tried to stop it by jumping on it, but little did it know it was all a feint by the {Forest Bear}, which struck it a blow.

  The force of the blow threw the {Alpha Wolf} far away, but since the bear couldn't land a direct hit, the wolf was lucky not to be slashed by its claws.

  But that luck didn't last long, because as soon as the large gray wolf fell to the ground, a large brown wolf emerged from the vegetation and crushed and tore its neck with a powerful bite.

  Alexander, who was watching everything from a distance, felt a chill run through his entire body and began to double his attention on the surroundings. "It seems I'm not the only one looking for an opportunity in this forest."

  Following the large brown wolf, which was also an {Alpha Wolf}, several smaller brown wolves appeared and began to surround the gray wolves.

  Without a leader and being outnumbered, the gray wolves were massacred by the brown wolves and the bear who, seeing this turn of events, couldn't hold back.

  As soon as all the gray wolves were dead, or had fled, the large brown wolf and the bear exchanged glances. After some hesitation, they restarted the fight between species, but this time with a different representative for the wolves.

  Since the fighting style of the packs was very similar, the attacks from the new pack also enraged the bear, but didn't seem to cause much damage.

  The fight dragged on and Alexander began to get very anxious, because the smell of blood was spreading more and more. Meaning, the possibility of something else appearing there increased with each second.

  The fight continued like this until the {Alpha Wolf}, in an explosion of speed and dexterity, delivered a deep slash with its claws on the brown bear's back.

  "…" Alexander.

  "I didn't know a canine could be so explosive like that," Alexander was surprised, because, as far as he remembered, there were no such cases on Earth. This explosive capability was associated with felines.

  Enraged by this last blow, the bear charged at the alpha without caring about anything else. But just when Alexander thought the bear would be kited like a kite by the wolves, it turned and delivered a devastating blow to the wolves that had approached it.

  The wolves were sent flying by the force of the blow, and the first one hit had deep cuts made by the bear's claws. Shortly after the hit wolf fell to the ground, it stopped moving, probably dead.

  Even Alexander, who wasn't in the fight, was surprised to see the situation change so unexpectedly, but the alpha wolf wasn't. It took advantage of the opening in the bear's rear and inflicted a new wound on it.

  Both sides seemed not to care about the fallen wolf and continued to fight each other.

  At a certain point, the alpha thought it saw an opening and went on the attack, but it was a premeditated trap set by the bear, which turned to receive it.

  With the two facing each other, the clash was inevitable. But even at a disadvantage, the alpha managed to trade blow for blow with the brown bear.

  The wolf's claws opened a huge wound between the bear's front leg and neck, but the bear didn't fall behind. It hit the wolf's belly, sending it far away with a horrible cut.

  The fight between the two continued to become bloodier and bloodier. The bear began to focus primarily on the alpha wolf, although it still turned to try to eliminate some of the smaller wolves for good while, and the alpha wolf, as if expecting this, didn't miss those opportunities.

  The fight stretched on like this until only three combatants remained: the bear, the alpha, and another smaller wolf. The other wolves had retreated to the edge of the fight as they were too incapacitated to continue, or were dead.

  When the fight seemed very undecided as both sides were very injured, the bear rose a bit on its two hind legs and slammed its two front paws on the ground.

  Alexander didn't know why the bear did this until he saw the forest respond to the "call" and begin to trap all the wolves still alive with branches, roots, vines, and the like.

  "It seems the terms {Forest} and {Magical Beast} in its description aren't without reason. It really has some control over the vegetation."

  Surprised and frightened by the situation, the {Alpha Wolf} still tried to break free, but it was already too late. The bear was already in front of it and struck it with all its might.

  Coincidentally, the large wolf was thrown in Alexander's direction. But not knowing this, the bear pursued it with its guard down.

  Seeing that the fight was practically over and that there would be no other chances, Alexander used |Sneak| and went towards them to get the best possible position.

  The moment Alexander approached, the bear was basically on top of the wolf, which was still trying to get up, even though it was too injured to continue.

  The bear pressed the wolf to the ground with one of its paws and bit it, making it emit muffled sounds of pain until it seemed to give up. But before the bear could kill it, Alexander used |Magical Body Strengthening|, activated |Ambush|, jumped on the bear, and plunged his dagger, soaked in paralyzing poison, with all his strength into its eye.

  As soon as he was back on the ground after the attack, Alexander turned and began to run away from the bear. Fortunately, he didn't need to run far, as the bear soon fell dead.

  [{Forest Bear} Slain. – You received 3600 XP points]

  Upon receiving confirmation of the bear's death, Alexander turned and ran to kill the {Alpha Wolf} and the other surviving wolves before they fled, or died from their injuries.

  [1 x {Alpha Wolf} slain. – You received 2300 XP points]

  [7 x {Wolf} Lv. 7 slain. – You received 980 XP points]

  [4 x {Wolf} Lv. 8 slain. – You received 700 XP points]

  [3 x {Wolf} Lv. 9 slain. – You received 660 XP points]