Chapter 89 :
Episode 20 : A Fulfilling Meal (1)
HwanGi, Alaine, Raiden and Frostina were in between the grassland and the forest, walking along the edge of the forest.
With HwanGi on the front left and Alaine on the back left watching over the forest while Frostina at the front right and Raiden on the lower right side observing the grassland, they did this to raise their guard up to prepare for anything.
"Have you seen any monsters on your side, Alaine?" HwanGi asked while observing his side.
Alaine responded back instantly. "Nothing on the radar yet!"
HwanGi after getting her reply, quickly turned around to have a look at another person walking in the middle alongside his party.
Since HwanGi, Raiden and Alaine got the exact same quest as each other, HwanGi and Alaine only needed to finish this escort quest to complete their second quests.
The person they were escorting was Maria Rose. The first NPC HwanGi had encountered when he arrived in this world.
"How much further is your destination and do you feel any discomfort, Maria?" HwanGi asked as he glanced at Maria.
Maria, surprised by the sudden question, became flustered. "I-It's close. Just l-little further and we w-will be there.. I'm fine.. Thank you f-for asking.."
"No problem." HwanGi smiled at her before shifting his gaze back to survey his vicinity.
Nothing has yet approached the party, there were no monsters and no players that might try to kill HwanGi for his ‘Numbers’.
Naturally, everything was going smoothly, too smoothly to the point that HwanGi started feeling doubtful.
"No monsters yet. Isn't this an easy quest?" Alaine spoke while doing some stretches with her arms.
HwanGi didn't agree that this could be an easy quest because everything in this world can be tough at times.
"Do not let your guard down." HwanGi advised Alaine until he realized a sudden presence.
Quickly as he could, HwanGi unsheathed his sword and grasped its hilt firmly, glaring straight at the direction in which he found that presence.
A bush was rustling as if someone was hiding in there. Without any warning, the creature charged out of the bush, revealing itself.
It was a wild boar that was charging toward HwanGi at full speed. And so, he masked his sword with the flame of ‘Divine Flame’, dashing toward the boar to slice it.
With a strike from ‘Heavenly Slash’, the boar was cut in half without any difficulties.
At that moment, HwanGi quickly wanted to go warn his party members about the boar, but when he turned to look, there were a great multitude of wild boars suddenly appearing around them.
It was an unexpected ambush from the boars, every possible exit was blocked off by the surrounding boars.
Alaine with her daggers out swiftly called out to HwanGi. "What should we do?!"
HwanGi in a pinch situation, quickly panicked a little, eventually he had calmed himself down.
He told Alaine in a serene tone of voice. "Stay in position and protect Maria as much as you can! Fight off the monsters but don't rush in alone!"
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Everyone heard his command and they followed his words with no objection.
Frostina calmly standing and watching the boars, took a glimpse at HwanGi's expression since she was curious of what HwanGi was feeling right now.
An untroubled mixed with slight terror in his expression, HwanGi remained undismayed and fought against the boars with a bit of struggle.
Frostina shifted her eyes back to the enemies in front of her, she had a slight smile on her face when she remembered herself in HwanGi's shoes.
"What fond memories." Frostina took a step forward toward the incoming boars while generating icicles behind her.
[Player ‘500’ has activated the Hidden Skill, ‘Fusillade of Icicles’ Lv. ???.]
A volley of icicles were ready to mow down the boars. With a flick of her fingers, the icicles were immediately advancing toward the boars, taking three icicles to pierce down a boar.
As for Raiden, he heard HwanGi's command and had followed it as if it was his Sensei's order.
[Player ‘215’ has activated the Skill, ‘Thunderbolt’ Lv. ???.]
Thunderbolts in his hands, he struck boars to the ground with a toss of his thunder, electrifying the remaining boars ahead of him.
Being able to handle these many boars at a single second, on the other hand, there was HwanGi and Alaine who were struggling to fight off the boars.
With her clones to help her decrease the advancing boars dashing toward her, Alaine slaughtered the boars using ‘Flurry Strike’ as much as she could.
But with just a single mistake, Alaine was unable to prevent a boar from going past her. "No! Darn it!"
Caught off guard by the boar running toward Maria, she threw her dagger at the boar, perfectly hitting its butthole which wasn't what Alaine had intended. "..Ooo.. that wasn't.. oof."
Although the boar hadn't died yet, the pain from its behind caused it to fall and oink in agony.
Despite not being the one to experience the pain, Alaine could already imagine what it was like to have a sharp object hitting her behind.
"Eek.... I'm sorry piggy!" Alaine apologized to the poor suffering boar.
With only one dagger, Alaine must increase her defense and offense as much as possible. "Now what? I don't even have a spare dagger..!"
As a boar was going to headbutt into Alaine's waist, she swiftly dodged and slashed the boar's legs, forcing it to be unable to move for a while.
During this, HwanGi set out a wall of flame with his skill, burning the boars while not setting the forest on fire.
At that moment, he noticed how the boars kept coming despite this area not having so many boars.
‘There weren't this many when we left the grassland before.. So how are there so much?’ HwanGi pondered as he discovered the boars were coming from the inner side of the forest.
His eyes widened when he witnessed the predator that was causing the boars to run away.
Lengthy antlers that could be mistaken for a deer and a deafening growl to frighten any of its prey.
The apex predator of this terrain, the ‘Forest’ Bear. And that exact creature was currently cutting its distance between HwanGi's party in mere seconds.
"So that's why the boars are running this way!" Knowing that a powerful creature was rushing toward him, he needed to figure out what his next move was.
The thought of retreating was an optional choice since he wasn't sure if Maria could be guarded safely while they fought off the bear.
"Everyone! The ‘Forest’ bear is coming this way! We need to run away!" HwanGi shouted, striking two boars ahead of him.
His sword instead got caught in a boar's mouth, he tried to pull it out but the boar with its enormous strength didn't let go, forcing HwanGi to engulf his sword with his flame.
Burning the boar's inside like a torch, the boar slowly but surely removed the sword before lifelessly collapsing down to the dirt.
Alaine, who was stalling the bear with her clone, exclaimed loudly and desperately. "HwanGi! The bear is almost close! We can't retreat because of its insane speed!"
HwanGi gritted his teeth as he took a glance at the charging bear, not long after, he saw the bear biting onto the tree that it was supposed to bump into.
The tree that was in the bear's mouth, was now being thrown toward HwanGi's direction at an incredible rate.
In a flash, HwanGi blazed out his ‘Divine Flame’ toward the tree, thinking he had destroyed it.
Let alone a scratch, the tree was perfectly fine as it remained being flung toward HwanGi's direction.
‘Right! The ‘Divine Flame’ can't burn plants!’ HwanGi had a realization before speedily blasting the tree with his ‘Vortex Wave’.
After destroying the tree in his sight, HwanGi was greeted by countless trees popping up in his radar.
As such, HwanGi couldn't deal with all of these and wanted to have someone to help him.
"Raiden, please give me a hand with these projectiles!" HwanGi uttered while knocking a boar away with his sword's hilt.
When Raiden heard HwanGi's order, he quickly leapt off of the ground, discharging electricity onto the dirt to immobilize the boars in his spot.
[Player ‘215’ has activated the Skill, ‘Thunderbolts’ Lv. ???.]
As lightning was summoned into his hands, he fired them off toward the trees one at time in a blink of an eye while setting pointers for his next skill.
[Player ‘215’ has activated the Skill, ‘Electric Arc’ Lv. ???.]
The pointers connected itself toward each other with electricity, flawlessly building a wall of force field of lightning to stop any thrown objects from the ‘Forest’ bear.
Descending downward, Raiden noticed how the bear had managed to get across the force field. Since the bear was heading toward HwanGi at full speed, Raiden decided to give HwanGi a helping hand.
While still in the air, Raiden took this chance to call upon his strongest lightning to support HwanGi.
[Player ‘215’ has activated the Hidden Skill, ‘Invisible Lightning’ Lv. ???.]
———
HwanGi, who came face to face with the ‘Forest’ bear, sensed himself having goosebumps just from staring at this creature.
When the bear raised its arm, HwanGi couldn't even see that since the bear was capable of moving at high speed.
The bear struck its paw onto HwanGi with its unbelievable brawn, in spite of not seeing the bear's attack, HwanGi's instinct saved him by an inch as he evaded sideways.
The paw crushed the ground viciously where HwanGi had stood before, creating a crack onto the earth as the ground vibrated in a violent way.
As the paw was being removed from the ground, an unseen attack was zapping onto the bear, causing severe damages toward it.
‘Huh? What is..? That sounds like lightning!’ HwanGi mused, backing away from the bear a few steps.
Afterwards, HwanGi watched this sight while thunderous sounds around the bear kept resounding louder and more ear-splitting to one's ears.
Yet, he knew this was a chance to lower the odds of any fatal injuries in his party by killing the bear.
With an opportunity like this, HwanGi instantly sprinted toward the bear, swinging his flaming sword at the bear's leg.
‘If I can halt its movements for a bit, then it will be advantageous for us!’ HwanGi thought, boosting himself with ‘Vortex Wave’ below his feet when he jumped straight at the bear.
"Hahhh!!!"