Chapter 14 Awakening

• The bandits leader only stares at Alex with a puzzled expression. How can such a young boy be that skillful? Although they had just began this work about four months ago, they had not encountered such a situation. They would always avoid guarded carriages as they had not trained at all thus they cannot fight those with good fighting abilities.
• Well, it seemed that they were really unlucky to encounter such a fearsome opponent. Looking at Alex who was staring at him with his arm stretched, Kevin dug his hand into his pockets and removed all the coins they had saved so far. There were a total of thirty nine silver and forty seven copper coins.
• Alex gladly received the money with a wide smile. This would indeed help him a lot or bring him trouble Incase he encounters another group of bandits. "Thank you for you donation," Alex said as he turned around and headed towards the roasted deer.
• Kevin almost choked on his saliva once he heard Alex's words. Donation my foot. Isn't this thievery? Well, there was nothing he could do about it anyway. In this world, the strong prey on the weak and fear those who are stronger than them. In this case, he was weak.
• Alex chopped a few pieces of the roasted meat and stored it inside his backpack. He then chopped another chunk and began chewing on it as he left the bandits behind. He never turned to take a glance at them as he knew they would not dare to stab his back as if they couldn't kill him with a single stab, then they would be dead for sure. Well, Alex wasn't sure if he was ready to kill a human yet.
• Once Alex was out of sight, Kevin got to his feet and headed towards his second in command. When he got to him, he pulled him up by the collar and smashed his fist into his face breaking his nose. As if that wasn't enough, he punched his right eye leaving him with a black eye.
• "What kind of good luck is this? You shouted that we had woken up with good luck only to end up being our first bad luck!" shouted Kevin angrily. His vice could do nothing but squirm trying to hide his face. "From today onwards shut your cursed mouth whenever we are at work," he continued before releasing him. He had to vent his anger and frustration somehow. Who else could he do that to other than who was all smiley and was the one who proposed that they should come and check on the kid.
• As Kevin keeps on raising chaos, Alex proceeded with his journey to Kravon. He was all smiles, from poor to rich, just beating some bandits. 'It seems that this can be a well paying job. Mmh, well I can just beat up the thieves and they pay me for disciplining them hehehe. It can be a good job for those who are strong but for a weakling like me, it doesn't work at all. Maybe today was just my lucky day that I stopped....'
• His thoughts are interrupted when he feels movement from his left. Whatever was approaching him was so fast that all that Alex managed to do was to raise his arms.
• POW!
• A giant claw slammed into Alex sending him flying. After landing with a thud, he pulls himself up ready for a confrontation. Just as he raises his face, he spots a black figure already in front of him with its paw raised ready to strike. Alex rolled to the right escaping from another painful hit.
• After gaining some distance, he studied his opponent. It was a black tiger. This was a rank 1 martial monster in its mid stages. They are known as stealth and agility monsters who always stalk their prey before striking them at a high speed to avoid retaliation. The only thing that they lack being strength which is reciprocated by very sharp iron claws.
• This monster being one full stage from the one that he had fought in the dungeon. This just proves how difficult the fight the fight he had just been thrown into is. If an initial one could harm him to such an extent, what of one a stage ahead?
• Alex knew that the favour of the fight was against him. He decided to stay on defensive against the monster. He took a few steps back as he kept his eyes on the monster's movement. He had no weapon other than the dagger that Kana had given him before he left for training three years ago. The worst thing being that he could not remove the dagger from its sheath.
• The black tiger stared at Alex for a few seconds before leaping forward towards him with its paws raised. It moved in a speed that to Alex was only a blur. Although his reaction speed was high for someone his level, to the monster, his speed was nothing.
• Seeing the monster making its move, he rolled sideways as he didn't know where the monster would strike. His actions remained to be guess work. He was unlucky that his reaction speed was still law thus a claw landed of his left shoulder, sending him flying with blood raging out of his shoulder. He landed roughly on the ground but he didn't try to get his bearing and rolled to his right as soon as he landed. As soon as he moved aside, a paw crushed the ground sending pebbles flying.
• Alex immediately got to his feet and again rolled to his right escaping a paw once again. Unlucky for his backpack, it was torn and it dropped its contents to the ground. The small box containing the dagger also fell. Alex towards it and grabbed it. He opened it and took out the dagger and tried removing the sheath once again but he still couldn't. The dagger was his only hope.
• Before he could begin being frustrated, the black tiger was already on him sending him flying again. The dagger flew out of his hand and fell a distance away from him. He tried reaching it but the monster was already pinning him to the ground.
• "Arrgh!" Alex growled in pain as the monster had its paws digging deep in his shoulder. The monster began pushing its claws deep into the wound. Alex got frustrated and began punching the monster. Having been knocked around several times, his arms had already lost a lot of strength thus his fists didn't have enough power.
• After a few punches, the tiger let go of him and Alex rolled towards the dagger. He used his right hand to reach it. His hand was already stained with blood as all of his body was drenched in blood. He was losing a lot of blood thus his eyes were already beginning to lose focus.
• When his hand landed on the dagger, he felt warmth being transferred into his body and he felt at ease. Although not a lot, he could feel that the pain he was feeling was not as much as it was before. It was as if his body was being healed.
• The dagger absorbed the blood on Alex's hand and it glowed faint blue. At that moment, Alex lost his consciousness at that moment. Just at that moment, the black tiger raved forward trying to swipe its claws at Alex's neck to finish him off.
• However before the claw could land, the dagger unsheathed itself and flew at an invisible speed towards the claw. The dagger stabbed the paw forcing the tiger to withdraw its paw. Before it could gain its footing, the dagger struck its head dead center. The tiger staggered a few steps back before it slumped on the ground dead.