In the last few days, Xavier saw more boars than he’d ever witnessed in the last few years. Unfortunately, this one was not only three meters tall but it was also aggressively charging at a group of survivors. Fiery flames were raging from its body as if it was a living, breathing torch as it barged into the crowd.

The survivors were shocked but they seemed to have some experience facing the monsters of the new world. They split up and escaped getting mauled under the blazing boar’s hooves by a hair’s breadth. The fiery flames shrouding the boar expanded and scorched a middle-aged woman’s arm but that was all.

Xavier stepped forward, tightly gripping the ruby katana, ready to dash toward the blazing boar to help the survivors when he heard a cacophony of sounds from his right.

The sound of several gunshots boomed through the vicinity, followed by the subtle sound of an arrow propelling through the air. The blazing boar let out a high-pitched screech as several bullets and an arrow hit its hide. Blood spurted through the surroundings and the blazing boar turned in the direction of the perpetrators.

A group of humans appeared in the blazing boar’s sight. It changed its target immediately and pawed the ground with its hooves to move toward the newcomers. It huffed loudly and crossed a considerable distance rapidly.

But before it could reach the group of newcomers, two more arrows whizzed through the air in quick succession. The arrows emanated blue light. One lodged itself in the boar’s chest, slowing the monstrosity whereas the other pierced through its eye, splattering the eyeball in one go.

Wait…that’s Leyla!

Xavier saw the faces of the newcomers at last. The group consisted of his father, his former colleagues of the hunting club – a club that regulated the population of animals in the forest – and Leyla. The hunters used their old rifles, while Leyla used a bow and arrow to fight.

Interestingly enough, Leyla’s attacks were faster and resulted in far more damage. She’d been using Power Shot to amplify the lethality of her arrows.

Despite sustaining one wound after another, the blazing boar didn’t slow down. It accelerated in anger and closed the distance to the hunters. More people entered Xavier’s sight as the hunters changed their weapons. They retrieved a bunch of swords and other familiar exotic weapons.

Xavier realized at once that the weapons were his father’s.

They must have raided our home to get all of those… At least, they’re going to be of some use now.

Xavier wanted to get moving to help his father, Leyla, and the rest, but he didn’t want to steal their show. He wanted to see if they could handle the boar on their own.

Since Xavier grew stronger since his first encounter with the blazing boars, he could tell that he and his family changed a lot. But more importantly, Xavier could roughly perceive how strong his opponents were. It was not very accurate, but he could tell if a monster was much weaker than him, roughly as strong as he was, or if it was much stronger.

The Goblin Warrior, for example, had been a little bit stronger than Xavier before. At this point, it was probably weaker than him, and the same applied to the blazing boar. Xavier sensed the natural presence the monster radiated, but it didn’t overwhelm him. If he wanted to, he could kill the blazing boar on his own.

Sensing the drastic change within himself compared to a few days ago was unique. It was not bad by any means. On the contrary, Xavier felt that he had made it far in the last few days. It was nice to grow stronger – strong enough to protect his people and help them grow stronger as well. But most importantly…it was exhilarating to fight and grow stronger as a reward for challenging oneself by fighting against powerful monsters and large groups of enemies.

Xavier and Glut moved to the other group of survivors. The survivors, who had been raiding the houses to procure food, water, and various other necessities, didn’t expect anyone to climb up the staircase near the forest. It was hardly ever used and it posed a big threat now that the animals in the forest had mutated.

Upon seeing Xavier, one of the middle-aged women shrieked. Not only did someone suddenly appear out of nowhere, the man wielded a ruby katana and was drenched in blood, intestines, and brain mass.

She was the only one who shrieked but the middle-aged woman was certainly not the only one who retreated in fear. Two men stumbled to the ground after their legs turned into jelly, while another one pointed at Xavier with trembling fingers.

“Calm down a bit, will you?” Xavier said calmly. He glanced behind his back and saw that the survivors following him made it past the staircase. He gestured to them to join the raiders for a moment.

“I can’t protect everyone if you split up like that. Move together.”

Xavier noticed that his tone was harsher than usual, but he didn’t have the time it would take to convince the survivors to listen to him if he acted like usual. There was no time to act nice and play babysitter.

His grandfather told him to be forthcoming at all times. The only exception he gave him was when it was important – a situation that would be the difference of life and death of the people around him.

Did Grandpa know about this? Nah, that doesn’t make sense. He was just a good man who knew when to be kind and where to take matters into his hands. I miss him…

The middle-aged woman who’d shrieked earlier hurriedly covered her mouth with both her hands when she realized who the blood-covered young man was.

“Xavier?” Someone else called out. Xavier turned to a middle-aged man and smiled lightly.

It was Thomas, one of his uncle’s friends. His uncle lived quite far away from their small village as he relocated when he was transferred to a managing position in a faraway city, but he often came back to meet his friends. Some of them still lived in the quaint village, just like Thomas.

“Yup, that’s me,” Xavier responded with a faint smile. He was just about to say something else when he heard a few men grunting farther away. The boar roared loudly after it flung one of the former hunters through the air.

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Mark and Leyla did a great job fighting against the blazing boar. They struggled a little bit but their numbers and tactic posed a great threat to the blazing boar. It was already injured and could only see with one eye.

Nonetheless, Xavier didn’t want to see anyone hurt. He already missed rushing to the aid of the man who had been tossed through the air like a ragdoll. Xavier could only hope that the man would be fine.

“Wait a sec,” He muttered, kicking the ground right as he used Dash.

He turned into a flash and charged up a small elevation. Xavier crossed the distance to the blazing boar in the blink of an eye. Once he reached the blazing boar’s back, the ruby katana flashed through the air twice.

He cut the hind leg of the blazing boar with his tremendous strength and released an Air Bullet into its abdomen from the side. Thankfully he was close enough to propel the Air Bullet deep into an already existing bullet wound, thus increasing the damage a single Air Bullet could do.

The blazing boar squealed loudly and began thrashing its head around to meet the new enemy, but it was much slower than before. Xavier ducked underneath its head and struck the ruby katana through its throat. He twisted the katana and ripped it out of the boar. A fountain of warm blood squirted out of the boar’s throat. It splattered all over Xavier’s face – not that he needed any more blood shower, in the first place.

Xavier retreated right after his attack succeeded. He was stronger than the blazing boar, given his perception and the condition of the blazing boar.

However, he didn’t underestimate the power animals and monsters could unleash on the brink of death. The blazing boar ought to weigh several tons with its enormous size. Even if it was weaker than Xavier, it could still bury him underneath it, breaking all bones in his body before suffocating him.

Xavier really didn’t want to push it too far, not if he had another chance.

The blazing boar faced Xavier head-on. The spark of life in its eye slowly seemed to grow dull, whereas the fury it felt remained. It wanted to charge at Xavier and kill him. However, before it could do so, several more blades pierced deep into its body. Leyla released a barrage of arrows while the hunters slashed at the boar several times. They twisted the blades after driving them inside the boar, pulled them out and attacked once again.

Despite the wounds it sustained, the boar desired to finish off Xavier. However, its steps grew weaker and its body heavier. The life in its eyes was flickering like a candle flame and its legs caved in. The colossal monstrosity slumped to the ground and succumbed to the wounds it sustained.

Fiery Boar has been slain.

“I obtained 1 Soul Essence!” One of the hunters exclaimed.

“Me too!” Another one added.

Meanwhile, Leyla said, “I got two, and a Card Shard.”

Xavier looked at the group of hunters and studied their reactions. His gaze lingered on Leyla for a while. She noticed him and smiled back at him.

Contribution-based rewards. Makes sense.

Everything was similar to a game. Therefore, it wasn’t really a surprise that everyone was rewarded for their contribution in the battle. Xavier obtained not a single Soul Essence or Card Shard, but that was probably because his contribution was too low to give someone on his level any rewards. He would have to kill the blazing boar alone, or with a much higher contribution to be rewarded.

“I expected you to sleep a little bit longer,” Xavier said, but Leyla merely shrugged.

“I slept like a rock for a few hours. After that I was wide awake and decided to join your dad’s group,” She responded, her eyes drifting to Xavier’s father. Mark was looking at Xavier, not too sure what to say at first. He approached his son and embraced him tightly.

“You stink, you know that, right?” Mark scoffed, but he didn’t even think about letting go of his son.

“Well…”

“But I’m glad that you’re fine. I really am.”

Xavier pressed his lips together.

“Me too. I’m glad that you’re alive and unscathed.”

Xavier’s throat tightened and he was having problems breathing properly. His father’s embrace was warm and comforting. It felt weird…consoling…

There is no reason for me to be consoled by anyone. My family is fine. We’re all alive unlike…everyone else. I’m strong, strong enough to face my enemies and eliminate everyone who wants to harm us. I…

Xavier grit his teeth and escaped his father’s embrace. He looked at his father, unsure what to think about the turmoil in his heart.

“What are you guys doing exactly? Raiding the houses and hunting some monsters?” He asked.

“We’ve been clearing the hills for a while now. It was important for us to search for survivors and create a safe zone that was completely free of Goblins and Infected. It was a little bit difficult to hunt down all Mutated Cats, Goblins, and two Insightful Infected we’d encountered on our mission, but we decided to use our hunting rifles to eliminate the dangerous threats,” Mark explained calmly.

“Even if we don’t get any Soul Essences and Card Shards for killing monsters with rifles and similar weaponry, it is great that we can kill them. Surviving is more important than Soul Essences and Card Shards.”

“Of course, we harvested as many Soul Essences and Card Shards as we could. It’s necessary to grow stronger, after all,” Leyla added with a wink.

Xavier raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. He retrieved a Card from his pockets and handed it to Leyla.

“Pierce should suit you quite well. Combining Power Shot and Pierce will help you kill Insightful Infected rather easily, I guess.”

He then turned to his father and gave him Topographic Awareness and Communication Charm.

“I cannot really use them well. Maybe you can find another Communication Charm Card or someone else might like Topographic Awareness. If possible, I would trade them with some other Cards once we have some duplicates of other Cards, or someone gets a Card they don’t need. Maybe those Cards will fit my combat style.”

Glut descended onto Xavier’s shoulder and chirped loudly. Mark readied his longsword, ready to slash Glut – and probably his son – in two halves, when Xavier stopped him with a gesture.

“That’s Glut. I found and nurtured him. He is a valuable partner, who helps me keep my sanity,” Xavier introduced Glut, who chirped loudly as if introducing himself once again, “But let’s get back to the more important topic. You’ve already encountered Insightful Infected…I thought they were still rare to find…”

“You encountered them as well? Are you fine?” Mark asked worriedly as if he hadn’t sized him up from head to toe to figure out whether he had been injured on his hunt.

“They’re pretty tough enemies. How did you kill them?” A former hunter next to Mark asked.

“I killed two Insightful Infected and a Goblin Warrior wielding a mace. The Goblin Warrior was more troublesome to deal with. Good thing they beat the shit out of each other before I joined the battle.”

Mark and the hunters were intrigued by Xavier’s stories. They wanted to find out more about the happenings in the village, but they had other things to do.

Xavier brought some survivors back to the base. He was tired and in dire need of a proper plan to deal with the Monster Gate before it was too late.