Benedictus immediately ordered her as he passed her by, "Wait by the cabin! I'll handle these things!" 

She didn't even question it as she simply tried to make her way over to the cabin like he had said. At the same time, he closed the distance with the pack of bug wolf monsters. Raising his gun, he fired a shot into the closest one that seemed to be moving dead straight towards him. 

The infused bullet like before blew a hole straight through it. This time, going through every major organ in its body. This triggered the rest of the pack to stop chasing the girl and focus on him as a loud noise from his gun along with the death of one of their own seemed to register to them as a danger they needed to prioritize dealing with. 

Benedictus noted that he only had 6 bullets left now in his pistol, and he immediately fired off one of the bullets into the head of the nearby creature leaping at him. It was trying to go for his neck, but he blew its head off. Another one came close trying to leap at him, but he dodged backwards out of the way while holding out his pocket knife. He carved from its open mouth all the way down to its back leg a massive burning cut that caused it to fall over and begin bleeding out heavily. 

He knew that one would die on its own and decided to prioritize the ones that were still up and moving. Two creatures tried to rush him down at the same time while the third was trying to reposition behind him. What they did not expect, however, was that Ben was not a dumb animal. He easily understood their tactics and dealt with them accordingly. 

Exploding the head of one of them with his bullet, and turning to slice open the second one that was charging him with his pocket knife. The third one tried to continue its original idea to attack him from behind, but by that point he already held out his pistol and fired straight at its skull.

4 of the remaining 6 beasts started to encircle him while a 5th one actually tried to rush him down. He only had 3 bullets left in his gun, so he needed to use them intelligently. As the creature rushed at him, he chose not to shoot it. Instead, he dipped down under it, so that as it leaped towards where he was originally standing, he would carve its underbelly open with his pocket knife. 

As the creature fell a few feet behind where he was, it was quickly dying from the deadly wound. He turned his attention to the four that were encircling him and, with swift movements and rotations, he aimed and shot 3 of them dead, leaving only two creatures left. Although now he was out of ammunition for his pistol and trying to reload in the middle of this would not be ideal. 

He quickly put his pistol back in its holster, freeing up one hand as the last two creatures charged at him together. He coated his free hand in red lightning using the Static Fist spell, and he punched one of the creatures dead in the snout. It got launched backwards just a bit and tried to move, but it was paralyzed temporarily. The other one was trying to go for his legs to try and take him down. He dodged out of the way of it and stabbed repeatedly with his pocket knife in the neck. 

As that one fell to the ground, he stabbed it some more into the chest to make sure that it would start to bleed out as he was going for most of its vitals. He didn't get to inflict much more damage with his pocket knife as he noticed the other one getting up. Instead, he turned his attention to it, rushing it down and going for a punch to the side of its face. 

The red lightning covering his fist definitely did hefty damage. He used the opening from the punch to stab it in the eye with his pocket knife. As it cried out in pain, it tried to move away but as it tried to put distance between him and it, he kicked it in the bottom of its jaw while pulling his pocket knife out of its eye.

He saw that the magic on his pocket knife faded away. It had done more than enough and, still holding it, he knew that it could serve more. The creature began to try and run, but he didn't let it get far. He used his geo manipulation to immediately spawn a hole under it that it fell into. 

The hole was just deep enough that it could not simply climb out in its injured state. He walked up to the pit and cast minor pyro manipulation to unleash a torrent of flame and burned it alive. Once he was sure that it was dead, he walked away and waited for his notification to pop up telling him that he had leveled up. 

However, the notification did not show up, which confused him. After every fight, the notification always popped up indicating that he gained XP. As he tried to figure out what that meant, he suddenly was launched forward at a decent speed from a very heavy impact behind him.

As he tumbled forward, it occurred to him too late that there was more potentially waiting and preparing. Quickly trying to get his bearings and get back to his feet, he looked in the direction of where he heard the sound of running. He saw the same insectoid creature but this time twice the size and with a horn on its snout the length of a baseball bat but in the shape of a rhinoceros beetle's horn. It was going to try and charge him and impale him. He was able to roll out of the way in the nick of time as it missed him.

As it tried to slow down its momentum in order to turn around and go for another charge, he was able to get to his feet though very battered. He felt like it probably broke maybe two ribs and definitely bruised most of his back. He tried to fire lightning at it, but it almost seemed to recognize it, dodging out of the way and closing the distance. It could not complete its charge so it settled for smacking him with its hind leg. 

The force of the kick sent him flying backwards about 20 feet. If he didn't have broken ribs before, he definitely did now. He tried to stand, but he couldn't due to the heavy amount of pain he was in. Instead, he decided to simply sit up as best as he could. Using one of his arms for support, he held out his hand, looking at the creature as it was charging at him once more.

He noticed its positioning was actually near one of his pitfall traps. It was definitely deep enough that it could be trapped in it temporarily. He decided in the heat of the moment to cast two spells at the same time. 

He created another pit that was less deep off to the side, closer to where it was trying to go while firing lightning from his hand again. It was either going to dodge to one side or the other like it had done before and either way it would fall into one of the pits. Due to what he could only hope to call luck, it dodged off to the right where the deeper trap was and it fell in. 

Using the last of his effort, he cast minor geo manipulation again, this time turning the walls of the deeper pit trap into a spiky tomb that impaled the bigger creature from all sides. He heard it let out a guttural scream as the spikes began to pierce its body before it went dead silent abruptly. As he felt it was dead, he laid down on the ground.

He felt happy to see the notification finally popped up. It congratulated him on earning 160 XP and reaching level 4. It explained that he needed 50 more XP to reach level 5.

He saw that it told him he had a total of 4 additional stat points and 6 skill points to spend. Paired with the previous points that he had yet to spend, he now had a total of 6 stat points and 9 skill points he needed to allocate. But he was surprised by another notification that said upon reaching level 3 he had unlocked the magical spell trees and could select a new spell to add to his repertoire. A follow-up notification appeared that said upon reaching level 4 he gained a passive class ability called, Arcane Ancestry. 

As he lay there, he weekly moved his arms to look at the spell tab hoping to find healing magic even if it was of a weak variety. It kind of upset him finding out the hard way that, upon leveling up, you don't instantly heal and regain all of your lost health or energy. He saw that in the School of Vivomancy there was a branch of magic devoted to healing and purification called life magic. 

He still only had access to the level one spells, but upon reaching level 5, he would gain access to level 5 spells listed in the tab for all types. He selected the spell, Heart of Health, and looked over what it said.

Heart of Health: You select one target that you can see within 50 feet or yourself. The selected target is healed for 12 to 42 HP. This can be cast 10 times per day, and costs 15 EP per use.

He saw that there was another one just like it called Loving Hand, but specifically for more melee focused hands-on healing. He took heart of health simply because of the range that it provided. Immediately, he channeled his mana trying and envisioning using the spell to repair his injuries. He rapidly felt as the wounds he sustained almost seemed to be undone in a matter of 3 seconds. He still felt pain, and it hurt to sit up, but he was definitely a lot less hurt now.

He healed himself with the spell again, going for another round of healing. This time it seemed to finish the rest of the healing, and he felt like he was in perfect health once more. He easily got back to his feet and went to look for the woman. 

He saw that she was huddled in front of the cabin by the front door, almost afraid to go in. As he came around the corner she screamed quickly but calmed down immediately upon seeing him. 

"I'm sorry. You startled me. I thought you were one of the vinuu coming to kill me," she quickly apologized. 

"Vinuu?" he remarked, confused and questioning. 

She clarified and explained, "My class is beast tamer. I have the ability to study animals by observing them for about an hour and I get more information the longer I observe. I saw a few of those creatures when I first arrived and learned that they are called vinuu. I was trying to find a creature to tame at the time."

He looked at her and questioned about the creature she was holding, "I see.... I am assuming the one you're holding is the one you have tamed?" 

She gave a quick nod, "Yes. This is Charles. I named him after a rabbit I had when I was a kid. His kind of called duulox." 

"Interesting, I guess," he remarked. 

She gave a nod and then stated more in a questioning tone, "I'm assuming you're also a beast tamer? I saw your oshaluu inside."

"That's what that type of creature is called? I would never have even come close to guessing that. I just thought it was a snake sheep creature," he said in response, clearly showing that he had no idea. 

She asked, kind of confused, "Oh so you're not a beast tamer, I take it.... Wait, if you're not a beast tamer, how did you tame that animal?"

"I have a lot of experience raising pets. And it is young. I wouldn't say that I tamed it, but I definitely have started earning its trust after I saved it this morning," he casually remarked while moving to the door to open it and check on the creature.

When he opened the door, it seemed to look at him worried before realizing it with him. It immediately rushed over to him and wrapped its froggy paws around his leg almost to latch on for protection. He reached down and grabbed it, picking it up and holding it in his arms like earlier. He began to pet the creature and calm it down. 

The woman watched as it seemed to relax into his touch and gradually become more comfortable. The way he held it was reminiscent of how someone holds a cat, but the way he was petting it was more reminiscent of someone holding a puppy. She was surprised to see that it worked so well. 

Suddenly he spoke to her while still petting the creature, "You have a camp somewhere around here? If so, you might want to start heading back now that the coast is clear." 

"Oh..... No. No I don't... All I had was a little hammock that I had set up in some tree branches. I wouldn't call it a camp. Outside of what was in my purse I don't really have much," she replied, realizing that she had been here probably for the same amount of time as him and, in comparison, she was massively behind in terms of survival. 

He let out a long, deep sigh. He realized that he was about to do something stupid again. 

Slowly placing what he now knew was an oshaluu on to his makeshift bed, he looked back at the woman and told her plainly, "I don't trust anyone as a precaution when I first meet them. Safer to assume that everyone might try stabbing you in the back. Despite that..... I'll set you up a temporary structure to sleep in for the night. Don't make me regret doing this."

She realized that he was talking about making her a shelter and as a process through her brain she started nodding her head rapidly, "You won't. I promise I won't do anything like that. Thank you sir." 

"The name is Benedictus," he said introducing himself finally. 

"Thank you, Mr. Benedictus. My name is Marcelina. It's a pleasure to meet you," she replied back, offering out her hand to shake.

He clearly looked cautious about it, but he shook her hand out of respect. He then walked outside and put a little bit of space between his cabin and the temporary place he was going to build for her. 

Using a few castings of Minor Geo Manipulation, he built her a domed hut made of stone with a wooden door. It did not look nice, and it was definitely a much lower quality than his cabin. However, he gave her a similar bed set up and a fire pit as well. It took him only maybe 20 minutes to make it, just to make sure it would not collapse, and that everything was sturdy and sound in design.