Defeat

Vann was surprised for a moment as he heard the level up notification. Because of the battle and his mind occupied with suspicious thoughts, he momentarily forgot that he was very close to leveling up.

Needless to say, he was happy and grateful for it as not only is he back to full health, he now has more APs in hand to use.

Vann hastily retreated while still facing the monkeys as he quickly opened up his status page and distributed his APs. He put two points each in dexterity and strength and the last point into vitality and without hesitation confirmed his choice.

He knew that this distribution might cause an imbalance in his stats because he didn't know yet what is the defined limit for a person's stats to be considered as such. But considering his current predicament, he has no choice but to do this because there's a high chance that he'll die if he decided to use his APs into attributes that will not give him an advantage in the fight.

Unfortunately, the elite monkey didn't stay idle as it managed to catch up with him with the other two trailing behind it. The elite monkey swung it's right hand, intending to scratch Vann's head with its short but sharp claws.

Its attack was so fast and with Vann being half focused in using up his APs, he only managed to put his shield in front of him without having a steady foothold.

-14

The result caused him to take a lot more damage when he blocked its attack earlier and it almost made him lose his footing. Fortunately at the last second he was able to place his left foot down to the ground behind him, giving him the leverage he desperately needed to resist from falling down on the ground.

If not for his timely reaction, he can only imagine the scene of his inevitable death as it would be nearly impossible to get back up with three monkeys ganging up on him while he's on the ground helpless.

Seeing the elite monkey retreating its right arm and preparing to attack one more time with the other two getting in range for them to attack as well, Vann sneered as he endured the pain in his left arm and pushed hard, causing the elite monkey to cry out in alarm as it took the shield right in its face, causing it to stop its movements for a split second.

-3

Vann took advantage of that brief moment as he thrust his sword to the chest of the elite monkey.

-15

The elite monkey was able to shift its body sideways at the last second, causing the spear to pierce its right shoulder instead.

A slight frown appeared on Vann's face when he saw that but he didn't linger for too long as he slightly withdraw his shield, blocking the two normal monkeys' attacks and launching a fast counterattack that hit the monkey to his right.

-5 (Vann)

-5 (Vann)

-14 (Monkey)

Before the other monkeys can attack again, Vann moved to his right facing the last monkey that he attacked. With his new position, he made it so that only one monkey can attack him at a time while the other two has to go around the monkey that he's facing. Coupled with the fact that the monkeys were just fighting without any strategies, the chances of the two monkeys at the back scrambling to get close to Vann is high which will also give him more time before he needs to move again.

The battle between Vann and the monkeys continued as he constantly moved whenever he was on the verge of getting attacked by two monkeys. Using this strategy, he was able to dodge more easily as he slowly whittled down one of the monkeys while sustaining a bit of damage whenever he is forced to block an attack.

[You gained 2 exp!]

[You gained 2 exp!]

It didn't take long for the 3rd monkey to die under Vann's attacks followed by the last normal monkey after a few more minutes. At this point, Vann already ate one of his bread earlier to regain his health mid-fight leaving him with just one left for a different purpose. Now he only has a little over 30 health with no way to heal except for his slow health regeneration.

However, this didn't discourage him as he was confident that he can kill the elite monkey as long as there are no other monsters interfering in the fight. And despite its low intelligence, the elite monkey instinctively felt that as well as it growled at Vann and stopped attacking mindlessly.

Seeing this, Vann smirked as he did one of the things that he's good at.

Dropping his sword and shield to the ground, Vann held up his hand and made a taunting gesture with a sneer on his face.

"Your next, you fucking bitch."

The reaction was immediate as the monkey was thoroughly incensed as it tossed all caution to the wind. It charged at Vann recklessly, eager to rip him apart with its own hands.

Unfortunately for it, that will never happen.

Vann's smile widened seeing that his taunt worked. He stood there casually with his right leg slightly behind his left, displaying an air carelessness and arrogance to hide his focus and alertness.

He patiently waited for the monkey to come closer. The moment it got close enough, Vann threw a straight punch with his right fist that landed a clear hit at the face of the infuriated monkey with such force that it stumbled backwards.

-5

Since he wasn't using any weapons, the damage is far lower compared to what he can normally deal using his sword. But in place of that lost power, comes the advantage of more speed.

Vann continued his attack with a flurry of punches, each one as fast as his first punch not leaving any chance for the elite monkey to retaliate. Even if it could, its attack will never reach Vann who has a far longer arm reach. Paired with Vann's near flawless spacing, the only thing the elite monkey can do is to cry out in pain as it endured punch after punch while desperately trying to defend by instincts.

However, it was a futile endeavor as it soon ended up following in the footsteps of the other monkeys.

[You gained 4 exp!]

As he watched the elite monkey turn to particles, Vann let out a long breathe. Clenching his fist, an excited grin appears on his face as he stared at the sky.

"That was fun."

Recalling how intense the fight was, he can only sigh in amazement and admiration at how the game can create such a realistic combat system that far surpassed that of what the other games can offer. His feelings for the game reached a point that he's starting to feel bad about the possibility of the game shutting down because of the insanity of Maxima.

Nevertheless if the game proved to be dangerous, he will quit without any hesitation. Because no matter how amazing the combat system is, if the game itself is lethal then what's the point. He will not sacrifice his jealth over such meager things. In the worst case, he just needs to find or maybe wait for a new VR game to come out that will come close to being as fun as BFS.

Chirp!

The sudden chirping of a bird snapped Vann out of his thoughts. At the same time, he smiled bitterly as he remembered the cause of all this mess.

Turning to the direction of the noise, Vann saw the little blue bird hiding behind a tree and looking at him curiously.

***

(A/N)

So I made an embarrassing mistake. I forgot to take into account the bonus exp gained when killing monsters with a level difference. Level 2 monsters have around 2 to 4 base exp. Then there is a 40% increase in exp gained per level difference. So instead of gaining 2 exp from the wolf (ch. 8), he should've gained 3 exp after rounding it. Of course the numbers isn't too important as that will be too complicated but I still wanted to atleast explain so there's no confusion.

Anyways I'll update the previous chapters( ch. 8 and 10) to keep up with the changes. Just a few minor change. Sorry for my carelessness.