บท 12: Second Day
[Time Remaining : 87:07:15]
Standing on a branch 16 feet above the ground, I looked at the group of three boars that were about to pass under me.
Each of them were a least 20 feet long. Their gnarly tusks gave them a savage and ferocious appearance.
Looking at their hulking bodies, I wondered if they even needed their tusks to kill something.
As the last boar was about to tread underneath me, I jumped and aimed my spear's tip at its head.
The branch shook as I jumped down and alerted the boar.
"Pierce"
But before it could react, my spear lengthened and pinned its head to the ground.
I landed without any difficulty. My constitution was high enough to ignore any fall damage from such height.
Leaving the spear impaling the boar's head, another spear appeared in my hand. This spear's entire body was black with only its tip having a silver color.
Stretching my back to the maximum I unfurled my arm and threw the spear toward the boar in front of me.
By now, the boars had heard the commotion and were about to turn behind.
Still, my attack hit at its mark, at the butt of the boar!
The pain made the boar jump as it rammed into the boar at the front.
After seeing that my job was done, I started backing away.
The boar I hit shouted like a pig being castrated and turned around to find the culprit.
As there was no one besides me, it naturally locked onto me. With its eyes that were almost blazing, it rushed towards me.
But before it could have a chance to attack me, Ryan suddenly appeared from behind it and killed the boar in one swing.
Just as the boar died, notifications began appearing in my vision.
Ignoring them, I looked behind Ryan to find the last boar already dead, with its head open like a watermelon.
'He already finished that boar in such a short time.'
Using my spear, I slashed at the base of Blood Boar's neck I killed and took out its core.
"Let's move." Lark appeared, then we dashed away.
***
"You guys rocked."
Lark said with a blinding smile while trying to regain his breathing. As a mage, his constitution and stamina were low.
"Wouldn't have been possible without you."
I genuinely meant what I said.
Without the strength buff provided by Lark, I wouldn't have been able to pierce the tough hide of Lvl.6 Blood Boar so effortlessly.
'Though even with the buff, I had to use the force generated by the jump to kill the boar in a single attack.'
The Blood boar group that we had fought earlier was our third group.
After they had rescued me, we only had small talks after which Lark and Ryan were about to begin hunting again.
Lark had also invited me to hunt together, saying that since I was injured, it should be better for me to hunt with them.
Although I was skeptical of them, it was true that I wouldn't be able to do much alone.
"Why do we have to bring this guy with us?"
I remembered what Ryan had said while snorting.
As much as I wanted to make Ryan eat his words, I could do nothing.
Lark and Ryan started by hunting small groups of Lvl.7 Blood boars. But even with the strength buff, my attacks weren't going through the tough hide of the boars.
I didn't even gain any exp even though we were hunting beasts 3 levels higher than me.
After those two fights, Ryan started speaking in a blatantly insulting way. Though Lark had intervened before, it escalated.
"Can you give us five minutes alone?"
I didn't know what Lark talked about with Ryan, but after then he had been acting a little placidly.
Thereafter we hunted Lvl.6 Blood boar groups.
'They probably want me to help them later. Since they are already stronger than Lvl.6 Blood Boars, it shouldn't take much effort for them to help me level up. Not to mention, all Meta-rank beasts give only 2 points in this exam.'
They definitely had a motive to help me. After all there was no free lunch in this world.
Even though everyone had a chance to level up quickly on this island, the clever ones would remember that their main goal wasn't to level up but to enter Ward. After that, they would get many opportunities to level up quickly.
"We should start preparing the camp."
Ryan said as he looked towards the setting sun.
"Isn't it too early?"
The sun was just beginning to set, so I wondered why they were stopping so early. But Lark answered my doubts.
"It's fine. Blood boars roam in groups, so hunting at night becomes difficult."
"Let's eat then."
Ryan didn't show much interest in our conversation and began his work.
Ryan brought a boar out that he had stored and began cutting. He looked like a practiced hunter while doing so.
On the other side, Lark began setting camp.
Since I didn't have much to do now, I opened the status screen and looked at the previous notifications.
[Congratulations, you have killed a Lvl.6 Blood Boar. You have gained 130 exp.]
[Congratulations, you have killed a Lvl.6 Blood Boar. You have gained 69 exp.]
The exp gained was different for every Lvl.6 Blood boar as it was distributed between all three of us depending on our contribution.
"Now the total exp is 330/600…. Wait."
My brows furrowed as I felt that my exp was a little less.
"I had 75 exp before I jumped off the cliff. I gained a total of 199 exp from hunting Lvl.6 Blood boars. Bringing the total sum to 274 exp."
The fire produced a popping sound as it continued to flicker. Ryan was still busy cutting the boar while Lark was not around.
"In the river for every Hollow gutweed I killed, I gained 10 exp. Even if I only killed 5 Hollow gutweeds, my total exp should become 310 exp. But I definitely killed at least 7 Hollow gutweeds"
Now that I was in a safer place, I was able to think properly.
"Where is the exp for the shadow fox I fell with?"
I had thought that the corpse had drowned, thus I didn't think much about the missing corpse back then.
I thought that the shadow fox died due to cushioning my fall. Since I was the main cause of its death. I should have gotten some exp even if it ultimately died of drowning, unless…..
"Something entirely else was the cause of its death."
The shadow foxes around the lake never even attempted to enter it. At that time I just thought that they couldn't swim.
But didn't a few shadow foxes jump into the river?
"There was something in the lake."
At that time, I wasn't thinking clearly due to the time constraint and the constant pain I was suffering from.
But this was still a big blunder on my part.
My expression twisted, even more so, when I realized that I didn't even know why I was spared. There was no way I survived just because of some luck.
A beast strong enough to threaten over a hundred shadow foxes wouldn't ignore someone entering its territory.
"Are you okay? You look pale"
Bringing me back from my thoughts was a hand on my shoulder.
I looked towards the source and found Lark sitting a little away from me. He was looking over at me with a worried expression.
I looked at Lark and then towards Ryan, who was sitting in front of me, and finally sighed.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just feeling a little tired."
'What happened has happened. I should focus on making sure everything goes smoothly.'
Lark laughed and patted me on the back while avoiding the area where my jacket was ripped.
"That feeling is mutual. Come, let's eat."
'After all, I can now see a way to get the manuals.'
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