Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game

After a few hours of walking nonstop, Miles took a break to catch his breath.

He found a lake, from which he drank greedily, feeling the ice-cold water slide down his dry throat and, after that, climbed a tall tree to find a branch that would make up another makeshift spear.

He had to hunt if he wanted to eat in the woods without the rations he had packed before finding the gate that led him to this place. And so he did.

After finding a thick, suitable bush where Miles could hide from prying eyes, he waited until he heard the slithering sound of an approaching serpent. The only problem was that the thing was three or more times bigger than Miles, which sent shivers down his spine.

Thankfully, the creature was not paying any attention to him, simply passing by like all wildlife in that forest during the day.

During that time, everything there was pretty harmless, and Miles seized that opportunity to turn that monstrous snake, covered in black and white scales, into a somewhat hefty meal.

Hidden in the thick bush, Miles waited, but his heart suddenly lightened as soon as he saw the reptilian's name atop its head.

[Forest Creature – Serpens]

There was not a second line of text under the animal's name, indicating its level, but even if it had been there, Miles did not have a single worry about it, his brow raised.

It was not the name that caught him by surprise, leaving him speechless, though. The creature was immensely huge, and as thick as Miles himself, if not thicker, even.

However, its name was displayed in white letters, which could only mean one thing.

'Whatever its level might be, I'm stronger than it now!' Miles smiled, planting his right food on the ground and using it to give as much of a boost as he could, leaping out of the bush faster than he was used to, makeshift spear in hand, ready to strike.

But weak as Miles' target was, it was still a being from the woods, a beast, and it had sharp instincts honed by evolution itself, giving it an astounding, even though irrational, sense of self-preservation and survival.

As soon as Miles leaped towards the serpent, it rose up high, turning its enormous head towards Miles, and shaking its massive tail in his direction.

Before Miles could even land a hit at his target with the makeshift spear, he was hit.

"Shi-" Before he could finish cursing the huge serpent, he felt its tail colliding with his torso like a thick whip.

The strike was not strong enough to send him flying away, but it hurt and made Miles fall face-down to the ground.

"Damn you…" He immediately got up, turning around to face his enemy.

Even if it was weak, the serpent still stood way taller than Miles, thick as a young tree, and strong as a bull. But as he looked at the enemy, an idea crossed his mind.

'Maybe it's not a bad thing after all, that you have appeared…' He tilted his head, as the serpent hissed and its body slithered ever so slightly, its eyes focused on Miles' every move. 'Maybe I can use you to get used to my new stats... And then I can eat you.'

Breathing in deeply, and slowly breathing out, Miles assumed a defensive pose, not looking away from the serpent for one second.

It felt strange because even though the serpent was clearly of a lower level, and just a Beast at that, Miles felt like it had some kind of strategic intelligence opposite to its rank category and level. After all, as soon as the unexpected rustling of leaves sounded, out of his field of view, and he tried to see what it was by the corner of his eye, looking away from the enemy for a fraction of a second, the serpent attacked.

'Shit!' Miles leaped backward, dodging its open maw by a step or two.

He had less than the blink of an eye to react and think of a counterattack, but in that blink, he lunged at the serpent's head with his makeshift spear. However, the serpent was as quick and nimble as it was towering, and it got out of the way of Miles' strike as soon as he began to move, successfully dodging the attack by a large margin.

Unfortunately, for the Glitch's players, the game that the world had become was not as subtle or smooth as the ones people usually played, with immediate effect upon stat increasing or an immediate flood of knowledge upon the learning of a new skill or magic power.

It acted like a somewhat buffering of stats and skills that made the players' progress stagger a little bit, but they learned from the mistakes caused by it and developed strategies to get caught by stronger enemies while they were at the threshold between their past and their current, stronger selves.

Somehow, however, even though Miles did feel faster and stronger, and the difference showed blatantly between how he moved and fought back when he was still at level 05 and now, at level 07…

'Why does it feel like I still haven't assimilated the stats? Damn it!" He lunged at the serpent again, this time, though, aiming for the body. "I know it was a lot of stat points in one sitting, but I should've assimilated them by now…'

Rolling sideways, he evaded a smashing strike from the serpent's head. His eyes widened, and the spark of an idea bloomed in his mind.

"Damn it! How can I be this dense?" He said out loud, without even realizing it.

The truth of the matter was that it did not matter if the Beast's name was in white, yellow, orange, or even red. The serpent's level did not matter, either, because the real problem was that…

'I can't beat it with my current stats if I don't have a sound strategy, because since it's a natural creature, born in and from these woods… Its stat parameters must be way higher than mine…'

With the shadow of that realization towering over him as tall as his enemy, Miles clenched his fists, gritted his teeth…

And began to run.