“Aahn!” Starlit Path screamed.

She’d barely managed to dodge the tusks, but not the body of the alpha. She was flung up into the air, but before the boar could do anything, an arrow struck it.

“THUNK”

Immediately, it turned around and charged at Yunya.

“Crap,” he chuckled.

They’d already been fighting for over 30 minutes without much trouble. It was a lot faster than other boars, but with how high their dexterity was, both Yunya and Starlit Path managed to dodge his charges easily. They took turns, with one dodging and one attacking to attract its agro, while Whispering Breeze attacked from afar. In fact, she had the easiest job out of the three of them. She had found a rock she’d climbed on and shot magic missiles from above until her mana was empty, then rested to regenerate it. The high elf did not have that much mana to begin with, so she had to rest quite often. Thankfully, it made the alpha boar lose interest in her every time, making it so the squishy soon-to-be mage didn’t have to worry about a possible counterattack.

Soon, they’d fallen into a pattern and steadily whittled down the alpha boar. Yunya and Starlit Path even had the opportunity to attack from time to time when it was their turn to dodge. Until the alpha suddenly growled deeply and sped up. The boar had managed to catch Starlit Path off guard, flinging her up into the air.

“Path!” Whispering Breeze yelled worriedly.

“I’m fine! Don’t be distracted, just keep attacking it. Help out Ashen Fall while I take a potion.”

Yunya barely managed to dodge the charge. Had that first sped-up charge been directed at him, he probably wouldn’t have been able to even dodge its tusks, let alone the entire body.

“He entered berserk mode, so his health must be getting low. Probably about a fourth left I’d say.”

“A fourth? That’s about how many arrows I have left,” Yunya frowned.

“Then you better not miss a single one.”

Despite focusing all his attention on the berserk boar, Yunya somehow managed to throw a glance at Whispering Breeze for that last remark. And was ‘rewarded’ with her sticking her tongue out. And then she rained down a barrage of magic missiles on the boar.

“Don’t overdo it, Whispering Breeze! If you keep attacking like that, you’ll end up attracting agro.”

Yunya was unable to chide her, but thankfully, Starlit Path did.

“Sorry. I just don’t like it when you get hurt.”

“WHOOSH”

Yunya just barely managed to dodge the alpha.

“Path!” he anxiously yelled, “how much longer?!”

“After the next charge!”

Yunya exhaled. Whereas he previously managed to look at Whispering Breeze, he didn’t want to take his eyes off the alpha any longer. Thankfully, just when it started getting close to Yunya, it got hit by some magic missiles once again. The attack caused it to stagger ever so slightly, slowing him down right when Yunya had to dodge.

“Keep doing that! Try to hit it right before it reaches full speed. It makes him slow down a bit, making his charge easier to dodge,” Starlit Path said to Whispering Breeze, before turning her attention to Yunya again. “My turn to dodge again, Ashen Fall.”

“Alright.”

Yunya and Starlit Path kept dodging in turns, similar to before. But with the alpha going berserk, they no longer dared to attack during their dodge. Starlit Path even had trouble attracting its agro. After going berserk, it got too fast for her to properly engage it. This prompted her to use the moment Yunya dodged as the moment to attack the boar, since she knew where the boar would be at that exact moment.

“I’m getting low on stamina,” Yunya suddenly said.

“I probably have less than 5 more minutes left in me.”

“A guy that only lasts 5 minutes?”

Annoyed, Yunya glanced at her. “Keep that remark for later, Breeze. If that swine doesn’t die in 5 minutes, we’ll need to retreat. Unless the two of you can do it by yourself?”

Pouting, Whispering Breeze went silent. She was fully aware that with Yunya gone, they wouldn’t be able to bring down the alpha. Or with anyone else gone for that matter. Even with all three of them giving it all they had, it still was not easy. Then, Yunya lucked out.

He had managed to hit the boar's eye. No longer being able to see out of his left eye, the boss became a lot easier to attack. Two minutes later, it died when Yunya hit the same eye again.

Reached level 3, 1 free attribute point has been awarded.

Yunya didn’t even care about the level he just got, just letting his tensed up body relax. Looking at his quiver, he only had a few arrows left.

“Even if I had more stamina, I would’ve run out of arrows. Thank god it’s dead.”

Meanwhile, the female alpha tried to flee, but didn’t get very far. Considering how easy the two girls took it down, it wasn’t any stronger than a normal boar. Meanwhile, Yunya was taking a look at the loot of the actual boss. Three glows attracted his attention, two white and one green.

“Oh, uncommon loot?” he muttered softly.

Infinite Odyssey had different rarities of loot, going from common to uncommon to rare to mythic to legendary. Colorwise, it was white, green, blue, purple and orange.

“Girls, let’s distribute the loot,” he called them over.

“It better dropped some nice stuff for us.”

“I think it did,” Yunya said as he gestured at the green glow. “Two pieces of common loot, a tusk and the hide. We can probably just sell this stuff. That green loot on the other hand…”

Looking more closely, the green glow revealed a book.

“A skill book!” Whispering Breeze happily exclaimed.

Skill Charge Rarity Uncommon Prerequisite Warrior Description Charge forward 5 meters in a straight line at 200% speed Cooldown 8 seconds

“Path, this is so perfect for you! A skill that increases your already high speed!”

“It would be nice, I can’t deny that. But I can hardly just claim this for myself. Besides, I’m not a warrior just yet.”

“She’s right, Whispering Breeze. A skill book this early in the game, I can’t just let you guys take it for free,” Yunya said. “Even if I can't use it, it could still earn me a lot of money.”

“How much do you want for it then?”

“No idea. Let’s ask around to see how much people would pay for something like this right now.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I agree,” Starlit Path said. “Besides, we have the other loot we need to sell and go to Eldwin to hand in our quest.”

Yunya looked at the previous notification.

Quest Secret of the boars Description You have discovered that the cause of all the new boars is the pregnancy from one of the alphas. Eldwin will be very pleased that you have already taken care of her and her mate. Reward 1 silver and an additional reward

“You’re right. This quest and the loot should give us some nice money. Probably enough to get us going until we reach level 5.”

“Although I still think this quest is incomplete. Even if that boar got pregnant, how did she spawn so many other boars?”

“I think that’s something for Eldwin to decide.”

With those words, they turned around and made their way back to Red Reef. Yunya threw a last look at the clearing, but after both boars had died, not much remained. The pressed grass where the female had laid down, whatever she’d been eating and a tree the male used to grind his tusks were the only noteworthy things, but Yunya couldn’t find anything special about it.

Back at the sideroom of the mayor’s home, Eldwin was delighted.

“You already took care of it? That is amazing. Thank you,” he said, with some hidden stress falling off his shoulders. “But a pregnant alpha? I have never heard of this.”

“Yes, I wanted to ask you about that,” Yunya said. “Shouldn’t pregnancy be limited to a single moment of birth, with only a few boars being born?”

“Hmm. Red Reef has no experience with a pregnant alpha boar, thus I do not know what the answer is to that question.”

Meanwhile, the village elder was taking out a coin pouch, giving them their due reward.

“I was going to give each of you a piece of silver, but considering the female alpha is already dead, I’ll give another,” he said as he took out six pieces of silver.

“Elder, do you want us to investigate this further?” Starlit Path suddenly asked.

“Further?”

“Yes. You said it yourself, a pregnant female alpha is not a common occurrence. Whether it’s all just a big coincidence or someone or something is behind it, I don’t think this situation can be left alone.”

“I do not like this either, but I can not give out rewards for an uncertain request like this. And I have a feeling none of you will do it for free.”

A sheepish grin on both of the girls’ faces was more than enough of an answer. However, Yunya suddenly spoke out.

“Then what about a different reward? Like a personal favor?”

“And what good would a favor be from a simple village elder?” the npc smiled.

“Please don’t sell yourself short,” Yunya smiled.

Gesturing at the desk, he continued, “I’m sure that in that stack of quests over there, there are some quests that have a reward that would suit one of us perfectly. Or perhaps there is a rumor going around about a hidden person that might know rare knowledge. Neither you personally nor the village would not lose anything by that, but to us, it would be a suitable reward.”

Eldwin smiled once again. “It would seem that you are smarter than I gave you credit for, Ashen Fall. Very well, a favor it is. But be careful. I have a feeling that if you want to find out the real truth, you will need to have an archetype at the very least.”

Quest Secret of the boars II Description Eldwin has a feeling there is more to the story behind the pregnant alpha boar. You somehow convinced him to let you investigate this further. Reward A personal favor from Eldwin

“Thank you. Before we leave, I wanted to ask one more thing.”

Yunya took out the tusk and hide of the male alpha, “Any chance you need any of these? Or are we free to sell them?”

“I have no need for these. But I suggest you go ask the blacksmith or tailor. They might want this.”

“Thank you. I hope that next time we meet, I’ll have more information for you.”

“Likewise.”

Outside, Yunya grinned. He did not expect to actually be able to fish out a chain quest. Perhaps he had impressed Eldwin the first time by using the archer outpost quest as part of the quest to get the village map or perhaps he had just been very lucky.

“I wonder, if our luck or charm attributes were higher, would we have gotten an actual reward instead of a favor?” Whispering Breeze wondered.

“Maybe. But at the very least, we have another quest now.”

“True enough,” Whispering Breeze sighed. Then, the disappointment on her face changed to greed. “Come on, let’s go. I want to sell the loot and figure out how much a skill book is worth.”

“Hey, Whispering Breeze,” Yunya suddenly asked in all seriousness.

“Yes? Oh, call me Breeze by the way.”

“Alright, Breeze. Both of you can call me Ashen as well. Now, why could I see gold coins in your eyes when you said that last sentence?”

Path immediately interrupted laughingly, “‘Cause she’s greedy.”

And before Breeze could say or do anything, Yunya and Path had run off towards the blacksmith.

“Get back here! I’m not greedy, I just like money.”

“Oh, that’s a nice tusk you have there young man,” the blacksmith said. “Are you willing to sell it or do you want me to craft a weapon out of it?”

“A weapon? What kind of weapon?”

“A shortsword or dagger. But looking at the three of you, I don’t think y’all would be able to properly wield it, giving its weight.”

Shrugging, Yunya looked at his companions.

“Let’s sell it then. It’s not like we have much spare money anyway,” Path said.

“Alright missy. How about one silver?”

“One silver is not easy to split threeway. One silver, 20 copper?” she countered.

“One silver, 10 copper. Final offer.”

“Deal.”

When they were outside, Path asked how they should split the money, since 110 copper was equally annoying to split as one silver.

“Let’s wait until we have visited the tailor and settled the skill book,” Yunya suggested.

“Sure.”

Meanwhile, Breeze had been searching the forums for information about skill books. Not too many had been discovered yet, but buyers were offering up to as much as 15 silver per book. Sellers on the other hand were asking for 30 silver as a minimum.

When she shared this information, Yunya raised an eyebrow. The quest they just did had given them 2 silver each, but included killing a boss.

“Skills are worth a lot in every game, aren’t they,” he sighed. He then looked at Path, “Are you sure you don’t want to sell it?”

“Would you sell an archery skill book?”

Yunya grinned. Of course he wouldn’t. In fact, he’d taken a quick look as well, specifically at archery skills, but hadn’t found any.

Breeze offered to pay Yunya four silver for his share of the skill book, but he disagreed.

“Four silver? So you think Charge is worth only twelve silver in total?”

Before Breeze could display her greedy nature any further, Path intervened, “Let’s take 15 silver as a baseline for a skill book. I’d say that, considering there’s three of us, six or seven silver per share seems reasonable, since I do want this skill.”

“Hmm.”

“You don’t agree, Ashen?” Path asked.

“I do. I’m just unsure where you’re gonna get the money to pay me. ‘Cause I’m not accepting an ‘I’ll pay you later’-deal.”

“Not even from two pretty ladies?” Breeze blinked.

“Not even from a troll.”

“Bastard.”

“Scrooge.”

Laughing, Path stopped the petty argument. “Alright, alright, stop fighting. Once we sell the boar hide, I think me and Breeze should have enough if we combine our money.”

After the tailor saw the boar hide, she was eager to use it, saying it would make a nice leather jacket.

“Hmm. Give me four silver and let me keep this hide to get a jacket from and I’ll give up the skill book,” Yunya said to his companions.

“Deal.”

Half an hour later, Yunya walked out of the tailor shop with a brand new leather jacket and five silver.

Item Leather Jacket Rarity Uncommon Prerequisite Level 5 Description Made from the hide of an alpha boar Effect +1 endurance

“Not bad,” Path said when he showed them the results.

“Indeed, I just need to reach level 5 now. Same for you and your skill.”

“And we just happen to have a quest to do, don’t we?” Path smiled.