'The improvements to the appraisal skill are very good, but I will need to do a lot of testing to know its potential because the skill description is too vague.' Alex thought after checking the detailed description of the Shadow Panther.

'This area is perfect for a predator like this panther as there are a lot of thick trees with giant shadows making him use it for his advantage.'

The area had giant trees a few feet away from each other with heavy crowns making the area dark and shadowy, but there were enough lights to not hinder Alex's sight by much.

'I know the panther will fight me using his agility and taking advantage of his natural environment, and the only way for me to win this battle is by fighting him head-on because if the battle is stretched for long, I will be the one to die,' Alex thought as tried to come up with few plans.

'The Panther has twice the agility as me, and even his strength is higher than mine, and with such a large reserve of health, killing it in a short time will be very hard.'

'I need to target its legs early into the fight to take away his biggest advantage, then dealing with his will get much easier.' Alex thought, using the additional information to devise a solid plan for victory.

'The skills I need to be wary of are the (Shadow Clone) and (Phantom Steps) as every other skill could be countered with some effort but with these two are real trouble, and if he used them in combination, then I would be real trouble.' Alex thought, recalling the skill details.

The Shadow Clone skill will let the panther make a clone of himself with fifty percent of his stats by using 50% of his mana, while the (Phantom Steps) skill will increase the panther's already high agility by 50% for five minutes.

The Phantom Steps skill had the side effect of making the panther lose half his agility for half an hour after using it, but the five-minute agility boost with a clone of himself fighting beside him was more than enough to end a battle.

If these skills were used in perfect combination, then Alex could only have one way to save his life, which was utilizing the Tenacity skill and wasting 15K mana or more to become invincible until his miasma domain was completed.

'I will create a plan according to the situation.' Alex thought as he silently summoned the legacy weapon.

Alex's legacy weapon was currently in the shape of a great sword that looked nothing fancy, with a spotless silver blade and a black iron hilt with a comfortable leather grip.

'Let's get this over with.' Alex thought as he stretched his shoulders and neck and walked toward the tree with the sleeping panther.

"Hey, Black Beauty, wake up. I am here to send you to your maker." Alex shouted as he got near the tree.

Alex usually would have taken full advantage of the pather sleeping condition and would have attacked him to do some heavy damage, but this fight was a test to check his capabilities, so fighting a head-on battle while being at a disadvantage was the best option for the best results.

"Grooolll"

The panther woke up from his slumber, looked toward Alex with his black crystal-like eyes, and growled at him while releasing killing intent.

"Thudd"

'Let's test the sharpness of my legacy weapon.' Alex thought, seeing the giant ten feet pather crashing onto the ground while staring him right in the eyes.

Alex took a normal defensive sword stance and got ready for the pather to pounce at him at any second, but even after a few seconds of stare down, the head-on attack he expected didn't come.Alex was getting impatient with the panther's passiveness when a few system notifications rang in his head, surprising him momentarily.

[Player is attacked with Curse of Blindness.]

[Psychic Shield has blocked the Curse of Blindness.]

[400 Mana Used]

'This fucking bastard is more intelligent than I thought.' Alex thought as he instinctively placed the flat side of his great sword in front of his face.

"BOOM"

Alex felt the heavy impact as the pather claw smashed onto his sword, making him take a few steps back to stabilize his footing, but knowing the following attack was coming, he immediately squatted down and thrust his sword upward with all his might.

'He is faster than I thought.' Alex thought as he felt his sword pierce through nothing but air.

Alex understood that the moment he got impatient and lost focus, the panther used the Curse of Blindness to make him blind and immediately used the Phantom Steps skill and ponced at him for the kill.

Alex wasn't worried about the Curse of Blindness skill because he knew that his Psychic Shield skill would protect him, but the defense and attack he did were completely out of his instinct after he saw a flash of darkness in front of his eyes.

'I don't need to worry about going blind, but I need to do something about his agility.' Alex thought, on full alert, as he searched for the panther.

'I have a perfect counter for your sneaky attacks,' Alex thought, knowing quick attacks were coming at him at any moment, and without wasting a second, he decided to use the Miasma Field skill.

'Let's test the Miasma Field skill on you, and then we can have an equal battle of strength.' Alex thought as he used the skill, and immediately, a small magic circle appeared under his feet that started releasing a vast amount of darkness.

Alex knew he couldn't react in time when panther had his agility bosted above a thousand points, and the only way to slow him down and have a head-on battle was by using the miasma domain because even at Mortal Rank, the skill was strong enough to slow down the panther.

"Cling"

"-600 Hp"

"Cling"

"-250 Hp"

The darkness was starting to spread out to make the miasma field when Alex got attacked twice, first from his back, then from his right side, making him lose balance and stumble onto one knee.

After getting attacked twice in milliseconds of difference, Alex knew something was not right and immediately rolled twice to the front to make some distance.

'How did he make his shadow clone this quickly?' Alex thought, surprised to see two exact-looking panthers growling at him on his left and right side.

Alex was surprised to see two panthers because he knew that the panther would need one whole minute to make his shadow clone which was the reason he decided to use his Miasma Field skill.

'This panther looks a little smaller.' Alex thought, and after a quick appraisal, he found the identity of the second panther.

-------------

[Shadow Panther](Rare Epic)

Title: [Shadow Born][Shadow Blessed]

LVL: 140

Rank: Second Rank

HP: 292_K/292_K ....(See More).

Condition: [Healthy]

Skill: [Shadow Merge][Shadow Weaponry][Shadow Armor][Curse of Blindness][Shadow Poison Fangs][Shadow Spear][Shadow Chanes].

Description: A Nimble creature with high agility as his greatest attribute with great affinity with shadow element.

[Important note: All the information about this specimen is already recorded in Philosopher Library.]

-------------

'I am fucked.' Alex thought, looking at the second Rank female panther that was slightly smaller than the male but, in reality, was much stronger than him.

'The bastard from the information hub didn't tell me anything about the Named pather having a strong guardian as his lover.' Alex thought, looking toward the female panther who gave him the death stare.

'I need to calm down.'

'The worst that could happen is me dying and returning to the real world and spending twelve hours with my family, which sounds good, but I am not dying alone.' Alex thought as he steeled his nerves, not accepting his death.

'The miasma field will need Sixty seconds to complete, but my mana will be gone in sixty seconds if I immediately use the Tenacity for invincibility.

'I need to protect myself for as long as possible from their fast attack before using Tenacity skill because I need to save all the mana I can to make a potent miasma field to at least kill the Grimras, the named panther.' Alex thought as he slowly stepped back.

The miasma field was the best damage dealer skill that Alex had, and it required 1000 mana to activate it and required 100 mana for every second the domain was active, but the best thing about the skill was its ability to increase the domain size and do more damage by consuming more mana.

Alex hadn't tested the miasma field skill even once, and this was the first time he was even using it, but his hope of successfully executing his plan entirely depended on how it will perform.

"GROOOOLLLL"

The female panther growled at Alex as she vanished from her place and appeared before him with her jaw wide open, aiming straight for his head, ready to crush it in one bite.

Alex was ready for her to attack, and the moment she vanished from her place, he jumped back with all his might, and like a loaded spring, his body was propelled back, making the female panther chomp on nothing but empty air.