Apocalypse: Reborn as a Monster

Chapter 4: Grinding

Seeing the increase in his stats, Thorian couldn't help but grin. Even though he was nowhere near the strength of his past life, this feeling of rapid progression was one he had dearly missed.

Now with his fur clean and his odor bearable, Thorian could finally focus on planning his next moves.

I need to know where I am. This place does look like the forests of Sherwood, but all forests look the same.

He needed to know, once and for all, whether he had gone back in time, or if he was transported to a different world altogether. To do that, he needed to explore more.

He looked at the night kobloid bathing in the lake and asked, "Hey, what's your name?"

"Name?" The kobloid raised an eyebrow.

Thorian clicked his tongue at his follower's dullness, "Yes, what's your name? I can't be just calling you "You" the whole time."

The kobloid shook his head, "Me no name."

"That makes it hard," Thorian looked to the side in thought before his eyes brightened up, "Oh, I found a good one for you. Nox, your name shall be Nox from now on. It means Night in the old language."

"Nox..." The night kobloid looked in thought at his given name before nodding with a smile. "Me like Nox. Me Nox."

"Good, I'm glad you liked your name," Thorian chuckled. "Now, let's hunt for the whole night. We need to grow strong."

Nox nodded with a resolute expression, "Nox strong!"

As such, the two walked back into the forest and started hunting once again. For two hours, they killed squirrels, rabbits, hares, foxes, deer, and other weak animals. However, as Thorian reached level 6, he noticed something.

Level: 6/15 (exp: 0/70)

Even after killing a few rabbits and squirrels, his experience had not changed one bit.

Well, that was to be expected. Those small animals barely even counted when I was leveling up my class in the past.

Once the difference in levels was high enough, low-level monsters were just no longer useful to kill. Fortunately, Thorian was able to cruise through the early levels by hunting rabbits and hares. However, now he would need to focus on bigger and stronger monsters.

I hope those foxes and deers still provide some experience. Otherwise, I will need to start fighting true predators.

Thorian looked at Nox and gestured at him with his head, "Don't hunt rabbits and squirrels anymore. We need to focus on deers and foxes, you understand?"

Nox nodded at Thorian's words, "Fox deer. Nox understand."

The two continued searching for a few minutes before Thorian's eyes landed on a large hollow log. He signaled Nox to go to the other side without saying a word.

Thorian walked toward the opening of the hollow log with silent steps. As he looked down to see what was inside, he couldn't help but smile. There were five foxes; two parents and three children.

Thorian felt no pity for the sleeping family. This was a kill-or-be-killed world, and he hated being the prey. The two kobloids massacred the fox family in less than a minute. They tried to escape, but there was no way out of Thorian's strong jaws.

Level: 6/15 (exp: 19/70)

So, 3 exp for the small ones and 5 for the parents, huh? I guess that went down too.

Small foxes used to give five experience for Thorian and the adult ones gave eight. While this decrease in gained experience was unfortunate, it was not the end of the world. At the very least, they could still hunt relatively weak animals and level up with not much risk.