The next day.
“Be careful!” [Miyabi]
Miyabi sent me off, and I headed towards the north gate. I leisurely walked, taking my time to enjoy the scenery of the lively town, but as soon as I got close to the gate, I braced myself.
They’re restricting access, so people aren’t being allowed to pass through the gate. But there won’t be any problems so long as one is able to provide proof of being an E Rank adventurer. From here I should go to a place with plenty of plants that’s near the smash boar’s last known sightings, and begin gathering herbs there.
I have a bow and knife equipped. I’ve also prepared a spear in my ‘Item Box’, but I’m not planning to use it. Spears and large swords are supposedly effective against smash boars, but I’m fighting it under the pretense of having accidentally stumbled onto it, right? Then in order to keep up that pretense, I can’t be using a weapon tailored for fighting against it now, can I? Otherwise, I’ll get suspicious.
And so I went on my way to gather herbs… however, I can’t seem to find the smash boar at all.
I know that just because it’s a magical beast whose whereabouts are generally easy to find, doesn’t mean that it’s going to stay in places where there are plenty of herbs all the time, still… this has to be first time I’ve had to deal with a prey that’s so hard to find. I’ve even used search magic, but I can’t find it at all. Or rather, even the other magical beasts are missing. It’s exactly just as Miyabi-san had mentioned, there’re almost no magical beasts around here.
After that I went to gather some more herbs in other areas while I continued to look for the smash boar. After some time I finally managed to gather enough. The deadline for this request is still the day after tomorrow, so it’s not like there’s really any need to finish it today. But, well… apparently because of the rank restriction on the northern gate, the supply of these herbs has been dwindling, and because it’s not easy to get these kind of herbs anymore, apparently they’ll be purchasing all the herbs I can get. I figured that since there wasn’t any harm in getting more herbs I could go get more , but right as I thought that, I heard a small voice.
“––– Uwaaah.” [Someone]
A person’s voice? It’s a bit far though? Or am I just imagining things?
“––––––– Help me –––“ [Someone]
… There it goes again! It’s not just my imagination, someone’s asking for help!
I grabbed my bow, heightened my senses as I minimized my own presence, and headed towards the direction of the voice. There I saw two adventurers being chased by the smash boar.
But… rather than a boar, isn’t this a pig? It does have some fangs, but they’re quite small, and it’s not even sharp either. The only thing this pig has going for it is that it’s a little bigger than I thought. Hmm, I guess it’s about the size of a cow.
Wait a moment… this isn’t the time to be thinking about this!
Carefully timing my shot, I nocked my arrow and let one fly between the trees. The arrow flew sharply, slipping through the woods, smashing the thinner trees, and as the smash boar passed by, the arrow pierced its right eye. Immediately, the smash boar went into a rampage as its death throes resounded throughout the area.
Noticing the smash boar’s behavior, the two adventurers stopped moving and looked back.
What are these two doing!?
“Don’t stop! Keep on running!” [Ryouma]
When the two heard me, they looked my way and were flustered. I tried calling out to them again, but it was no good. And the smash boar, after getting back up to its feet, already had its gaze locked onto my direction.
It’s a bit different from what I planned, but…
I put the bow onto my back. And as I stared at the smash boar, I let the Ki move throughout my body.
The smash boar was like a pig with short, dull fangs protruding from both sides of its lower jaw. The fangs aren’t venomous, but the strength of those fangs from a head-on collision still isn’t something to be scoffed at.
The main problem is its constitution. It might be a pig, but its size is around 1.5 times that of a cow… probably. Anyway, the point is that it’s covered by thick meat all over. Its body is full of cuts, so those two adventurer’s must’ve cut it a lot, but… Forget the inner organs, I don’t think those cuts have even managed to reach the muscles.
Since attacking the body seems useless, then… the aim should be where the meat is the least! The head!
“Buoooooooo!” [Smash Boar]
The smash boar bellowed out a war cry as it charged towards me. It moved at a speed that made the trees look like nothing but nuisances. In response, I moved to my right and dodged its charge. The smash boar was caught off-guard by my sudden movement, and ended up crashing into the tree immediately behind me. That powerful charge easily mowed down that tree, and the smash boar began to charge towards me again.
This time I moved to the left, and as the smash boar passed by me, I hit its temple with Ki strengthened palm strike.
“Piggy!!?”
The smash boar whimpered as it came to a halt. I know from hitting it just how thin the meat was in that area, no wonder it was so effective.
Next, it shook its head, and tried to impale me with its fangs, but I easily dodged that with a single step, leaving its left temple wide open. I threw a kick at that opening, and the smash boar whimpered again.
“Pi, ggy…” [Smash Boar]
Looks like it was more effective this time as the smash boar broke its right foreleg, and is now lying on the ground. Not giving it time to rest, I began my counterattack.
With an uppercut from my left, I sent the smash boar’s head flying. While still in mid-air from the impact, I grabbed its fangs with the same hand, brought it down, made it spin counter-clockwise, and finished it off with a right elbow strike.
As my elbow sunk into the smash boar, I felt and heard the bones being crushed. The smash boar’s feet shook for a moment, and afterwards it immediately fell over, unmoving.
Whew… Did I kill it…? Well, from the looks of things, that seems to be the case.
After I confirmed that I’d killed the smash boar, the two people from a while ago called me as they walked towards me. I didn’t notice it a while ago because of the distance and the armor, but apparently one of the adventurers was a woman..
“U-Umm!” [Adventurer 1]
“Thank you very much for saving us!” [Adventurer 1]
“Eh, ahh… you’re welcome. Are you hurt anywhere?” [Ryouma]
“No, we’re fine, thanks to you.” [Adventurer 2]
“But one of our friends is still injured, and is over there. We haven’t been able to thank you yet for saving us, but please let us go help our friend first.” [Adventurer 1]
Well if someone’s injured we can’t just leave them alone.