He could feel the searing pain in his forearm, an undeniable reminder of his newfound physical body, thankfully the pain was bearable thanks to his pain tolerance. But it wasn't blood that came out of the wound despite the deep cut. Some kind of grey smoke was coming out of the wound. The Titan Bear, a hulking mass of muscle and fur, stood before him, its eyes gleaming with predatory intent. Its initial attack had been swift, a blur of raw power, and Leo's agility, despite being higher than the bear's, had barely been enough to avoid a fatal blow thanks to his lacking fighting experience.
'I'd love to just turn ethereal and just suck that damned bear dry but I won't be able to learn anything if I do so. I need some experience, I won't come by such a chance again easily. I won't turn ethereal unless necessary'
Leo steeled his nerves for the battle.
'Let's see, what would be the most optimal strategy against this bear. I should prolly create some distance, I have a major disadvantage when it comes to physical strength so I need to figure out some way to deal some damage'
Leo took a few steps back to create some distance with the bear but the bear didn't just stand around and wait for him, it lunged towards him closing the distance between them. The bear attacked him relentlessly, swiping its claws at him again and again. Leo dodged to the best of his abilities but it was not enough to completely dodge the bear's attacks and cut wounds started accumulating on his body, mist coming out from all of his wounds.
'I wanted to fight with just my physical abilities but it seems it's impossible for me to win without my ghost abilities, all I can do is dodge.'
Seeing that he couldn't win otherwise Leo enabled some of his ghost abilities, his chill zone, tendrils and life absorb. The fight kept going with Leo just dodging, now more efficiently by using his tendrils as support and as the time passed he was slowly hacking away at the bear's strength with his absorb. As the bear was slowly getting weaker and weaker it noticed that it was slowly losing its advantage and then activated its species ability, Titan Size. It then started growing in size exponentially, its size growing three times its original size.
'What the hell. How did it get so much bigger. Oh yeah, it had that one skill in its status, but I know it said Titan size but I didn't expect this, this is too much'
The sheer scale of the transformed bear was terrifying,it towered over him. Its roars, once just loud, now vibrated through his very bones. The ground trembled slightly by its weight. He was in trouble.
Despite the fear, Leo's mind raced. His Life Absorb was still active, siphoning away the bear's essence, but at this size, its HP pool must be enormous. He needed to increase the rate of absorption, or find a way to deal more direct damage. He extended his tendrils, making them thicker, more numerous, and tried to wrap them around the bear's massive limbs, hoping to increase the contact area for his draining skill. The tendrils, empowered by his high SPR, stretched and coiled, attempting to bind the beast.
The bear, however, was not easily subdued. It thrashed and roared, its immense strength tearing at the spiritual tendrils. It lunged, its colossal paws creating craters in the earth, forcing Leo to dodge with everything he had. With the size of the bear now Leo knew that if he was hit even once it would be game over so he had to dodge no matter what. This was a battle of attrition, and Leo knew that he was at a disadvantage, he was not gonna win at this rate.
Leo did his best to dodge the bear's attacks but he just couldn't. As the bear lunged again, a massive paw swiping towards him, he knew that he couldn't dodge this one, so instead of dodging Leo quickly turned ethereal and the bear's paw passed through him harmlessly.
The bear roared in confusion and looked around trying to find the person it was just fighting with but to no avail, he was nowhere in sight. Leo floated to the bear's face, materialized his body again and quickly used his hand to thrust into the left eye of the bear and swiftly disappeared again just as the bear swiped its claw towards its now bleeding face, it roared in pain. He repeated the tactic one more time, taking out its right eye as well. The bear thrashed around hitting blindly and knocking down trees in hopes to hit its opponent but to no avail. Leo, having dealt these blows to the bear, now just stayed invisible and waited for the bear to slowly die.
The bear's movements, though still powerful, slowly began to lose some of their coordination. Its roars became less frequent, replaced by grunts of frustration and pain. Leo's Life Absorb was working its magic, slowly draining the beast. The result of the battle was already set. Leo was able to drain the bear while intangible and the bear had no way to hit Leo while he was in his ethereal form. There was no way for the bear to win anymore.
The colossal creature stumbled, its massive frame swaying precariously. The jungle, once filled with its thunderous roars, now echoed with its ragged, weakening breaths. Leo, invisible and untouchable, watched as the mighty Titan Bear, blinded and slowly being drained of its life force, finally collapsed. The impact shook the ground, sending a tremor through the surrounding trees. It was over, the bear was dead and he had won the battle.
Mental fatigue and exhaustion then washed over him as well as a sense of relief.
"It's finally over, I really thought I was gonna die at some point. But I still came out victorious. I may have had to turn ethereal but a win is a win nonetheless. Now let's see what I got from this battle, I must have leveled up at least once"
[Status]
[Name: Leo Hawthorne]
[Age: 19]
[Species: Ghost]
[Level: 8]
[HP: 67/1100]
[Mana: 600/600]
[STR: 46]
[AGI: 55]
[VIT: 48]
[INT: 60]
[SPR: 110]
[Stat Points: 68]
[Skill Points: 24]
[Unique Skills: Status Window, ???]
[Skills: Item Box (Lvl 1), Appraisal, Stealth (Lvl 1), Pain Tolerance (Lvl 2), Dodging (Lvl 1), Fighting (Lvl 1)]
[Species Skills: Invisible, Ethereal Form, Levitation, Spectral Sight, Chill Zone, Possession, Undying, Tendrils, Life Absorb, Transform]
Leo looked at his status baffled for a few seconds before getting himself together.
"This. This increase in my stats is insane, almost illegal one would say. There's no way such a rate of improvement is allowed. In every isekai I've watched the rate at which stats go up is much slower"
He was dumbfounded, but that doesn't mean he wasn't happy, it was a crazy increase, but a very much welcome increase.
"Well, it may be a lot but I'll gladly take it. Let's see where to allocate my stats now. I won't throw everything to spirit this time, I'll only put 10 points to my SPR stat, I'll put 10 points to my INT stat as well, it's about time to start learning magic. Then 7 points to VIT, I got to start raising it now that I have a body, especially after what happened with the bear. 15 to my AGI which is very useful and lastly the rest 26 to my STR which I will need."
Leo marveled over his stats for a bit and then came the next and equally important part, using his skill points.