Trying to defend itself from the possible onslaught, the Sakura Tamer commanded the only tamed stick it had to charge towards Aurus with full speed.

Aurus looked at this and smirked. He easily dodged the Lesser Walnut Stick's charge with his extremely high-leveled [Roll++] skill. Of course, those of the Walnut race did not need to move at high speeds, thus their movement skill is severely lacking.

Aurus used the time it took for the Lesser Walnut Stick to rotate to prepare a shot that would easily kill the stick in one shot. Of course, it was [Nut Shot].

But all of a sudden...

Ding!

A notification sound popped up, shocking Aurus who was sure that he didn't gain enough experience for something to level up.

'[Nut Shot] has leveled up.'

"Ah," Aurus understood. It did seem weird that [Nut Shot] didn't level up at all with the amount of shots he has taken already. He only needed 3 experience points to level the [Nut Shot] skill to level 2, and combine it with his godly passive skill. If you think about it, it's weird that the skill level up notification was extremely delayed.

Thinking about this, Aurus got to a certain conclusion.

"Is this...lag?"

Yes. Lag. The bane of every player, not only in ISE, but in any game that needed the internet to connect. Aurus knew what lag was and he hated it to the core, but he just didn't understand why his system is lagging behind in notifications when no internet exists in the world of Erudinia. Not to mention, the system is connected to Aurus' soul!

"Haah...if I find a way to fix this problem, I'm going to—" Aurus was muttering something as he shot out a nut, killing the Lesser Walnut Stick in one go. But a sound he never expected to hear once more popped up.

Ding!

'Aurus has dealt 11 HP damage to [Lesser Walnut Stick].'

'Experience +5'

"Phew... it's just a battle screen notification." Aurus couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. He looked at the damage he dealt and tilted his nonexistent head in confusion. "This isn't a critical hit at all. My damage has been increased by 50%. I wonder why..."

After a few moments, he knew the culprit behind it. "The level up." Ding!

"Oh my god..." Now, Aurus truly didn't expect another notification sound to pop up. He opened the notification screen and well... let's just say the system has been nerfing him all this time.

'[Nut Shot] and [SP Storage] has leveled up.'

'[Nut Shot] and [SP Storage] has reached the MAX level.'

'[Nut Shot] and [SP Storage] has met the necessary requirements and is ready to evolve.'

Aurus couldn't help but press his nonexistent fingers on his nonexistent forehead in stress. If he was in danger, he would be happy with the system telling him that his skills have leveled up...but he didn't feel any happiness at all. To him, it felt like the system was trolling him.

Thankfully, the Sakura Tamer was still frozen in place from the fast-paced killing spree Aurus did from its perspective. To Aurus though, it was extremely slow since of course, he would fight faster species in the future.

"I'll have to evolve these skills after I finish this Sakura Tamer." At this point, Aurus didn't feel any anger towards the Sakura Tamer anymore. Just anger towards his own Existence Evolution System.

Aurus hastily positioned himself in front of the still frozen Sakura Tamer with his [Roll++] skill and shot a nut.

Bang!

Ding!

'Aurus has dealt 14 HP damage to [Sakura Tamer].'

"Oh?" Aurus couldn't help but raise his nonexistent eyebrows. "It seems that the damage I deal has been increased by 33%. Anyways, if I look at my damage from before the two continuous level ups, I've basically doubled my damage output."

As he was mumbling to himself, the cooldown for the [Nut Shot] skill ended. He then shot another nut towards the Sakura Tamer, bringing its HP down to an extremely critical state.

Ding!

'Aurus has dealt 14 HP damage to Sakura Tamer.'

'[Regenerative Fruit Creation] has leveled up twice.'

Aurus couldn't help but frown after seeing that one of his most reliable skills, [Regenerative Fruit Creation], also had delayed level ups. And not just one, but two of them!

"Haah..." Aurus took a deep breath and exhaled loudly as he was sure that the Sakura Tamer wouldn't attack him. He formed 2 additional green nuts on his body which held more SP than it used thanks to the skill reaching the halfway point of completion.

If one were to look at Aurus' current stats for HP and SP, it would look like... HP: 7/7

SP: 35/35

Indeed. With just a level up from his [SP Storage] skill and two level ups from his [Regenerative Fruit Creation] skill, Aurus was able to basically double the amount of HP he had.

He then spared a glance towards the extremely pitiful Sakura Tamer in front of him and then commanded the system to identify the enemy in front of him. Thankfully, the system didn't lag this time.

________

[Sakura Tamer (Special)] (Level 3)

HP: 1/35

________

"Wow...this is some heaven-defying luck," Aurus couldn't help but say after seeing that the Sakura Tamer was only hanging by a thread.

"Any last words?" Aurus went closer to the branch as he prepared a nut to end its life. He wasn't expecting that the branch would actually answer his question, but it turns out, fate works the opposite of what you think.

"No...Kill...Me..." Since the vitality of the Sakura Tamer was extremely low, it could only force itself to say these three words. It also shocked Aurus, since from this he realized that he was actually speaking out loud whenever he thought he was talking to himself.

"I should be careful with my surroundings," Aurus reminded himself as he looked at the branch in front of him and sighed.

"Think of it as fate."

Bang!

The nut Aurus shot collided directly at the center of the Sakura Tamer, breaking the branch into two halves, with some splinters being scattered all over the ground.

Aurus looked at this and sighed. "Thank you for your donation."

Ding!

'Aurus has dealt 12 HP damage to [Sakura Tamer].'

'Experience +30'

'Aurus has leveled up.'

Aurus looked at this with a frown. He then complained out to the skies, "What the heck?! My skill have level ups that are delayed by when I level up, it's just on time? What's the meaning of this?"

Silence filled the surroundings afterwards since the system didn't exactly interpret it as a command. Aurus sighed once more and said to himself, "I'll evolve [Nut Shot] and [SP Storage] first then I'll think about this problem later on."

With that goal in mind, Aurus then commanded.

"Evolve [SP Storage]."