Adam set off for the Wise Apothecary, a large pharmacy in Oak Town that specialized in serving mercenaries, making it a popular destination for many in the trade.

"10 pounds of agave, 2 pounds of Aragon blood-grass, ..., ..., and 3 bottles of 30ml Life-Restoring Agent," he listed, placing a small bag of gold coins on the counter. While most of the materials were relatively cheap, the Life-Restoring Agent was exceptionally expensive.

This potion, extracted from the blood of A-rank magical beasts, was priced steeply for its incredible effect: it could completely heal all bodily injuries within one minute.

Knowing the upcoming battle would be particularly dangerous and with limited gold to spare, Adam could only afford to buy three bottles of the potent elixir.

As battles between awakened superhumans and magical beasts became more frequent, both were classified into five tiers, with everyone striving to improve their rank through training.

(Magical Beast Tiers: S, A, B, C, D)

(Superhuman Tiers: S, A, B, C, D)

The other herbal materials were auxiliary ingredients for crafting beast-repelling potions.

However, these alone were not enough. If his memory from his previous life served him correctly, he still needed a special type of herb—a rare and precious plant guarded by magical beasts. To obtain it, he would have to hunt the beasts and seize the herb.

He only had one night to hunt the beasts and brew the potions.

Fortunately, his strength was more than sufficient to take down the creatures.

By the next day, he would lead the Tiger Mercenaries into the trap he had prepared.

As evening fell, deep in the wilderness, a magical beast stood guard over the precious herb—an Iron Clothes Boar.

It measured seven feet in length and three feet in height, its fur a reflective, iron-black hue. Two sharp, pale tusks protruded from its mouth, and its blood-red eyes radiated a terrifying aura.

The boar’s sleek, glossy, streamlined fur resembled an iron coat draped over its body.

Being relatively young, its supernatural abilities had not been awakened for long.

The Iron Clothes Boar exuded a savage, bloodthirsty, and indestructible presence, as if it were determined to destroy all life in its path.

However, Adam’s evolution rank was B+, while the boar’s was only B-. This gave him the confidence to take down the beast.

The boar was busy rooting through the soil in search of black truffles. With a few powerful thrusts of its iron-hard snout, it dug large pits beneath the tree roots, emitting a contented "oink, oink" as it worked.

It caught sight of a bold squirrel and lifted its hoof. Despite its bulky frame, the boar moved with surprising agility. Its powerful, glossy black leg came down with crushing force, turning the squirrel into a pulp.

Then, it returned to its search for black truffles, blissfully unaware.

Its peaceful life was about to be shattered.

In the tree above where the boar was rooting, dense leaves concealed a muscular man gripping a spear. His eyes were locked on the boar’s neck. This man was Adam.

"Oink, oink," the boar sniffed urgently, catching a whiff of a tantalizing scent. It began digging faster, completely oblivious to the danger looming above.

In this world, humans were forged into killing machines. The entire world forced them to evolve—evolve their supernatural abilities. To evolve, one had to kill, to slaughter magical beasts for profit and power.

If humans didn’t kill the beasts, the beasts would not hesitate to slaughter any humans they encountered in the wild.

The moment the boar exposed its smooth neck, a sharp, gleaming spear shot out from the cover of the leaves.

Adam’s eyes followed the spear, his mind electrified with tension as he willed it to pierce the boar’s flesh.

The Iron Clothes Boar heard the whistle of the spear cutting through the air, and a look of surprise flickered across its eerily human-like face.

Its expression showed shock, but no fear—because it knew no fear, it felt none.

Adam’s plan was straightforward: to obtain the herb guarded by the magical beast, he needed to ambush the boar. If the spear struck the Iron Clothes Boar and inflicted serious injury, he could easily finish it off and claim the herb.

In just 0.05 seconds, the spear would pierce the beast.

"It’s so fast, it won’t be able to react," he muttered to himself.

But in that fleeting 0.05 seconds, the Iron Clothes Boar dodged with an inconceivable speed.

Its iron-like skin twisted, its tendons contracted, and its limbs propelled it out of harm’s way in the blink of an eye. Its speed was so astonishing that even Adam’s brain couldn’t process it in time.

The iron spear embedded itself into the soil with a "thud," sinking all the way to the hilt.

"Oooaaooaoaoaooaoa!"

The Iron Clothes Boar let out a furious roar, its sound waves rippling through the air like water.

It had come dangerously close to death.

Rage flooded its mind, its small eyes burning a deep crimson. It was a powerful creature, the undisputed ruler of this forest, a formidable B-rank beast. Yet today, a human had dared to ambush it. The thought filled it with unparalleled fury.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Kill him, kill him! This wretched human must die!" it thought fiercely.

"Donnnn!"

A massive collision sounded beneath the tree. Adam’s footing shook, and the leaves rustled violently, making it impossible for him to stay steady.

But it didn’t stop there. Ten times a second, the boar rammed the tree—"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"Crack!"

The century-old tree, thick and sturdy, was snapped in half.

"Fine, let’s fight face to face!" Adam stomped hard on the tree trunk and roared wildly, "Muscle Madness!"

His already strong, dense muscles began to visibly expand, grow, and harden under the influence of his superpower.

The muscles in his arms swelled to an inhuman thickness, and his legs also bulged with newfound power. His reaction speed, strength, and stamina increased exponentially.

His streamlined muscles gleamed with a mesmerizing sheen, surpassing even the most muscular bodybuilders in the world.

In this state, he could easily defeat seven of his former selves without their powers activated.

"Thud!" He leaped down from the tree, the impact sending a massive shockwave through the ground. The fallen leaves rippled outward in concentric circles, as if a heavy weight had been dropped into a still pond. The ground trembled, and yellow leaves scattered and exploded into the air.

The boar had dodged once, but Adam guessed that such speed could only be used sparingly—its muscles couldn’t sustain rapid movements for long.

Before the Iron Clothes Boar could charge, Adam’s muscular arms were already tightly gripping its neck.

The boar thrashed like a rope in the hands of a giant, its neck as slippery as an eel’s, but Adam held it firmly in place.

"Ah!" With a fierce grunt, he slammed the Iron Clothes Boar onto the ground, the impact causing the earth to tremble. The boar flailed its four legs wildly, struggling against Adam’s overwhelming strength.

Seeing the boar unable to rise, Adam grabbed its hind legs with both hands and swung it like a ragged doll, smashing it against a tree trunk. Then, with a brutal punch, he struck its snout.

His fist was like a solid rock crashing into soft custard, leaving a deep dent.

The boar’s snout, a highly sensitive organ crucial for its keen sense of smell, was also its most delicate part. Though its body was tough, its moist snout was particularly vulnerable.

The punch sent waves of pain through the boar, nearly knocking it unconscious. However, its long survival in the dangerous jungle had honed its instincts to suppress such agony.

"Oooou!"

It let out a deafening roar and charged at Adam.

When the distance between man and beast narrowed to less than a foot, the Iron Clothes Boar’s skin suddenly contracted, then expanded.

"Whooosh!" A sound like a wind whistle erupted around it. Its smooth fur split open, revealing cracks that oozed an eerie, purplish-black light. The glow felt sinister, painful, and unnatural, like countless eyes staring at him.

The boar’s spiky hairs stood on end, sharp as needles and gleaming with a metallic black sheen, as if coated in steel.

"Screech—"

A piercing sound tore through the air as the dense, needle-like hairs erupted into a black blizzard, swirling into a storm that engulfed everything around it. Leaves, tree trunks, fallen foliage, and even the soil melted like chocolate under the onslaught.

Seeing this, Adam twisted his body abruptly, his foot digging a deep crater into the soil as he propelled himself out of the storm’s range.

"Damn it, this boar has mutated and evolved," he realized, acknowledging that he had underestimated the beast. Thankfully, he had managed to dodge in time.

The boar’s original ability wasn’t to launch its fur but to drastically increase its defense. Once activated, even a B-rank superhuman wielding a sword couldn’t cut through it—though Adam was an exception.

Despite Adam’s formidable physical defense, if the beast’s attack had landed, he would have been ground into mincemeat.

Now, with all its fur launched, the boar’s skin was riddled with wounds oozing dark red blood.

The beast’s greatest defense was its fur, which was as tough as iron and clung to its skin like a suit of armor. The boar had unleashed this ability to kill Adam, but he had evaded it, leaving him unscathed.

"Jejejeje," the beast let out a laugh eerily similar to a human’s. Its skin, now bare and exposed, began to swell like an inflating balloon. Its muscles twisted and intertwined like ancient tree roots, while its dark green skin cracked open, oozing dark red blood.

Adam realized that, paradoxically, shedding its fur had made the beast even stronger and more difficult to kill.

"Thud!" The boar’s powerful limbs propelled it forward, shaking the ground as it pounced on Adam.

Adam felt as if he had been hit by a train, his body flung in a parabolic arc before crashing into a thick pile of fallen leaves.

A mushroom cloud of yellow leaves erupted into the air.

But the victorious boar showed no signs of triumph. Instead, it rolled on the ground, howling in agony, its face twisted in pain.

At some point, the beast had discovered that despite its strength, impenetrable defense, and thick muscles, a sharp awl had been driven deep into the joint of its charging foreleg, sending blood spraying everywhere.

This was precisely the moment when the boar charged. With a fierce motion, Adam used his other hand to drive the hidden awl into the beast’s leg, crippling it.

But he wasn’t done yet. Grabbing the boar by the neck, he twisted with all his strength. A crisp "crack" echoed, and the boar’s struggles gradually weakened. After a few final twitches, it fell still, motionless.