Chapter Four

With a quick timely leap, Lionel avoided the Queen bee's stinger rolling away from the spot he steadied himself a distance away from the queen bee.

She was much larger than Lionel expected.

In his past life, just like the others, Lionel had completed a single quest and accepted to be transported out of the beginner town, hence such low level creatures like the valerian bees weren't something he'd combated with.

"Brave warrior, we can escape through the opening behind those shrubs, you don't have to battle with the queen valerian bee, it may harm you."

However Lionel's eyes shone as he watched the creature prepare it's attack, valerian bees could only cause damage with a close range attack which was using their stinger, however from what Lionel had heard about the queen valerian bee, it had multiple modes of attack other than it's stinger.

In order to get strong enough to reach the hundredth level of the game where the (Golden Orb) laid, Lionel knew he had to amass enough power and player experience. The more he played, the stronger he'd become and the stronger he was, the more he'd be able to level up fast enough to reach level hundred.

Excitement shone in his eyes as he readied his sword, "You can escape through the shrubs and go back to the village." He said to the farm girl.

"But you saved me, I can't leave you to fight alone. Let us escape together." The girl insisted.

"I have weapons and you're defenseless, I'll be able to withstand the fight but you won't. The valerian queen bee might attack you along with me. You can leave through the path behind the shrubs to get back to the village safely."

"But..." The farm girl hesitated, however the moment the queen valerian bee threw her attack the farm girl quickly ducked away in hiding.

Lionel had been prepared for the attack, he swiftly leapt off his spot and the attack crashed against the tree behind him.

When Lionel's eyes focused on the tree it sizzled with a burning sound as steam rose off of the tree. As the steam cleared Lionel sighted the tiny crackling lightening streaks that had hit the tree, his eyes quickly swung back to the queen valerian bee looking stunned.

"Shit! This isn't a queen valerian bee!" Lionel realized as he caught the faint purple color on the bee's stinger, the biggest difference between valerian bees and Voltsting bee. "Why is there a Voltsting bee in the beginner town?"

Voltsting bees were on a higher level than valerian bees were. Instead of a deadly poison in their stingers, Voltsting bees could shoot lightening up to a certain range. When grown to an adult stage, the amount of damage a Voltsting bee could cause on its opponent was massive that a single strike could lead to death.

Lionel had encountered an adult Voltsting bee once in his past life when he had reached level forty-five in the game. He hadn't been able to recognize this bee as a Voltsting due to the fact that it was still a young bee, an adult Voltsting could grow up to the size of a large horse, by then the purple streak on their bodies were much more evident and they could be fully distinguished from the Valerian bees.

Lionel couldn't figure out why a Voltsting bee was found in this level of the game at all.

Before Lionel could process his thoughts, another crackling streak had been shot towards him. Realizing almost too late he dodged the second attack just a fraction before it had touched him, however, the sharp pain to his arms and the burning sensation had him realize he hadn't dodged soon enough.

Looking down there was a bleeding burn to his left arm, the sword on his left had fallen to the floor as his fingers trembled due to the pain.

The sensation of pain cut sharp into his arm that he wasn't able to move the fingers of his left arm at all.

His health bar hovering above him revealed the amount of damage done to his avatar.

*Health: 65/100*

It had just been a small hit, yet he'd sustained this level of damage.

"You won't be getting another scratch out of me from now on." Lionel declared as he noticed the bee humming, gathering it's power for the next attack.

From playing the game, Lionel knew one thing about strong creatures. Kill or bind.

It all boiled down to these two options.

The power of a player not only relied on his own strength, but the force he could amass as his own. Treasures didn't just come in the form of gems, they also came in the form of powerful creatures.

One mistakes he'd made in his past life was relying too much on his physical strength. When Kaleb's team had been venturing on hunts to find powerful creatures to bind with, he'd dismissed that as a waste of time training in brute strength instead. That had left him completely defenseless to the (Golden Orb) when he was abandoned by his team at the last moment.

This time, he would correct that mistake.

He timely dodged another lightening strike, the power of a Voltsting was in long range attacks, the creature could only get him from a far distance.

Using the time when the Voltsting bee was still preparing for the next attack, Lionel flicked the game band and clicked rapidly on the screen before him, in a few seconds an object resembling a dog collar appeared in his hand.

Aiming to close the distance between him and the bee Lionel raced forward, timely monitoring the bee's aim each time it shot out a strike only for him to dodge it leaving the spot he'd been a second ago sizzling.

His left arms was still burning, however he knew he couldn't delay by staying to consume a healing potion.

The Voltsting bee seemed to realize what Lionel was doing, it created more distance by hovering away in the air as Lionel got closer.

But it found it hard to continue aiming a perfect attack while trying to fly away. The Voltsting stopped moving realizing that it could just wait for it's target to think he had the upper hand, then it would blast a final blow that would tear it's target into shreds.

Just as Lionel got right beneath the Voltsting and it was preparing to launch a huge hit, Lionel leapt off the ground launching himself using a nearby tree. The bee had already shot it's lightening at the floor where Lionel had been a second ago and dried leaves blew up in the air.

Before the Voltsting could react fast enough, Lionel had set off the item he'd just purchased which looked like a pet collar. It stretched coming in contact with the Voltsting bee and wound around it's neck.

*Level 3 Voltsting bee has successfully been bound to player Blacklion001*

As the notification flashed in front of him, the Voltsting bee's action seized completely, it was as if it had been frozen in place.

The item Lionel had bound the bee with was called a (Thorn Strap) and it only worked on binding low level creatures in the game. When used by a certain player, the creature would be bound as a pet to the player which the player could use as an assistant in combat with other enemies.

Lionel let out a long breath seeing the Voltsting bee hovering in the air, it would now submit to his every command.

He purchased a healing potion from the game store and his wound slowly began to close up. Just then, a notification popped into his view once more.

*Level up!*

*Congratulations player Blacklion001 on reaching level 2*

*Player Blacklion001 can now choose to leave the beginner town*

*Accept or reject?*