Duncan and company soon made it back to the crypt’s entrance where Shaya once again updated her map after combining hers and Tyrok’s step counts. Duncan waited patiently and listened to the strange noises of the local fauna and observed the trees.
The fauna he heard were mostly birds with an occasional roar of a predator that was far away. He observed the trees and tried to gauge the height they achieved. He figured they were between 40 and 60 meters high. The flora underneath was sparse due to the light barely penetrating the thick canopy of foliage.
What he did recognize in his surroundings from his Herbology skill was all useless. He would probably have to climb the tall trees to get anything useful here. There were plenty of Herbs that, like orchids, lived in parasitic or symbiotic relationships with the trees.
“Are you done?” Duncan asked as Shaya finally put down her notebook.
She looked at him. “For now. Let’s move in the opposite direction of the town for about a kilometer. I will go in front with Tyrok and Rosen will protect the rear. You stay in the middle,” Shaya explained.
Duncan didn’t know what her kilometer meant so he asked, “How tall do you reckon those trees are?”
She looked around. “About 40 to 60 meters. Why do you ask?”
“Just figuring some things out,” he replied.
“So, the measurements are being translated and are similar to Earth’s which is weird since ours are based on the equator,” Duncan thought.
“How do you measure a kilometer?” Duncan asked, unable to contain his curiosity.
“One thousand standard paces for our purposes but using paces for long distances would bring with it big discrepancies so they use standardized measuring tools. Well, that is what I heard,” she replied as she took an arrow from her inventory.
Duncan nodded and got into formation. Rosen was yawning behind him and Tyrok kept his usual serious face.
They moved forward through the forest and Duncan spotted some mushrooms. He knew better than to touch them. His previous experience with mushrooms was anything but pleasant. The [Identify] skill just returned [Mushroom] and he left it in place.
“Maybe if I find Mycology books,” he thought.
They heard a sound suddenly of something rubbing against a tree and as they came closer they saw a three-meter-long wild boar scraping his hide on tree bark when it was not rolling in the dirt making happy oink oink noises.
“Rosen, get in front,” Shaya whispered her command.
“That’s a Black Forest boar,” Tyrok stated and Shaya nodded. Duncan tried to use Identify but he was too far. And Rosen being Rosen was just grinning with happiness.
Duncan saw the size of the boar and looked at the shield Rosen was carrying. It was made of wood and looked flimsy.
“Wait. Take this,” Duncan whispered and gave him the tower shield from his inventory.
Rosen’s eyes bulged as he took it and he nodded with a smile on his face. He stuck the other one in his inventory and admired the loaned one. It was rectangular and made of metal.
“On three,” Shaya whispered as she and Tyrok aimed at the wild boar. Duncan hid behind a tree and readied his sword.
“One, two, three,” Shaya whispered and let loose an arrow in coordination with Tyok.
Both arrows found their intended target hitting it in the neck area. The giant pig let out a terrifying angry squeal. It looked around and sniffed with its snout pointed in the air.
Before it could find the enemy another two arrows flew toward it.
One hit its snout and bounced off the bone and the other one hit the neck again. The third volley missed the pig entirely as it finally found its aggressors and charged toward them. Its long tusks in front were ready to wreak havoc on human flesh.
Tyrok and Shaya shot another volley before moving behind two thick trees. Rosen considered standing his ground in front of this biological runaway train but even he had enough sense to move for cover.
The boar ran past their covers and turned like a drifting car on the leaves skidding to a drifting stop before it let out another angry squeal. It appeared almost graceful doing that. Its hide was bloody but it looked as energetic as ever otherwise.
Duncan circled the tree until the boar was out of sight, while Tyrok and Shaya shot towards its eyes.
They both missed since the angle was wrong. The boar with now much less momentum ran towards Shaya and Rosen stepped in between them with the tower shield at an angle bouncing it out of the way.
Tyrok shot it again and hit it in the backside.
“Damn it. Why would they attack something so powerful?” Duncan thought as he peeked from behind the tree. He was safe for now but he felt miserable that he was unable to help.
The pig turned around and aimed at Rosen who placed the tower shield in front of him. It rammed the tower shield lifting it up as Rosen moved a few paces back. More arrows flew at it.
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The giant pig treated the arrows in its thick hide as mosquito bites and kept ramming into Rosen’s shield who nervously backed away.
Duncan was five meters from the action and he activated his Stealth skill even though he was almost sure its low level won’t make a difference. Rosen was being pushed back towards Duncan as volley after volley of arrows flew at the boar. The thick hide of the boar made the arrows not very effective but the cumulative bleeding effects and the stamina expended running were taking their toll.
They would probably have killed him without major problems eventually if Rosen hadn't get tangled on a tree root while being pushed back. He fell on his back the boar using that chance to pounce on him. All Rosen could do was cover himself using the shield like a blanket to avoid the tusks pounding on it.
Duncan at that moment was holding his sword two meters from the action behind a tree peeking from it. Tyrok took a sword and ran towards the backside of the boar. Shaya was still shooting arrows.
“-BLEEP- it, you mother-BLEEP-ing morons, -BLEEP-, -BLeEP-,” Duncan waited as the boar pulled back a bit for another charge then yelled as he pounced out from behind the tree with his sword pointed at the boar and stuck it directly into its right eye.
The cumulative effect of electricity and a sword hitting its brain had an immediate effect. A loud squeal scared all the nearby forest inhabitants before the giant pig lost its footing and dropped like a rock. Duncan let go of the sword and fell backward on his behind as Tyrok ran over and gave another poke into the boar’s neck.
One of Rosen’s legs was pinned between the dirt and the pig having an eternal rest on the shield but otherwise, he was alright. Shaken not stirred like a James Bond Martini Vodka but otherwise alright.
“Damn. That was close. I thought I was a goner,” Rosen said, panting from excitement.
Duncan took the boar into his inventory letting Rosen free before he started cursing in his mind.
“Why would you attack something so powerful?” Duncan yelled toward Shaya.
“Don’t blame Shaya. They usually just need two to three arrows to fall,” Tyrok intervened as he helped Rosen up.
Duncan looked at Shaya who had regret written on her face. “So, they are usually nowhere near as powerful as this one?”
“No. We have shot plenty of them from the Guard towers over the years,” Tyrok explained as Shaya remained quiet.
Duncan let out a long breath. “Sorry. I went off on you like that. But we almost had a casualty with our first encounter.”
“What level was the boar?” Rosen asked as he dusted himself off looking quite cheerful despite the ordeal.
[ You have killed Black Forest Boar - Level 39 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have Learned Swordsmanship Level 6. ]
Strength +0.6
Dexterity +0.6
Agility +0.6
“It was level 39,” Duncan replied after checking his [ LOG ].
“Phew. No wonder it was so hardy. I haven’t eaten one above level 25,” Rosen replied with a smile.
Duncan shook his head. “How can you be so cheerful? You almost died,” he asked looking at Rosen.
“I knew you had my back,” Rosen replied and patted him on the shoulder. “And you even gave me this sweet Tower Shield.”
“I am only loaning it to you,” Duncan replied, souring Rosen’s mood instantly. Seeing that he continued, “Fenris can decide if you get to keep it. Also, take this since you are going to be our tank.”
Duncan dumped the Plated Armor and Plated Greaves in front of Rosen.
“What’s a tank?” Rosen asked, looking confused.
“Probably a dumb guy who gets hit a lot, judging by the gear he gave you,” Tyrok stated as he looked down.
Duncan shook his head at Tyrok. “It’s a person whose purpose in a fight is to distract the monsters from going after weaker members of the party. And yes he gets hit a lot but he has the best armor and stats for getting hit,” he explained.
Tyrok smiled before saying, “See, I told you.”
Shaking his head Duncan checked his inventory for more items that could be helpful.
Duncan found the jewelry from the last expeditions and gave it to the two archers. He didn’t know the effects since he forgot to try them out but it would probably beat nothing.
Shaya nervously put on the tiara and a ring.
“The tiara has an enchantment of three points bonus in Perception, Intelligence, and Wisdom,” she stated. “The ring has a bonus of five in Intelligence,” she added as she put it on.
“Maybe you should give those two to Rosen,” Tyrok replied, getting a glare from Rosen.
“Mine has a five-point bonus in Agility,” Tyrok happily announced.
“Who wants the necklace?” Duncan asked.
“You should use it,” Shaya quietly replied.
Duncan shrugged and put it on since he heard no complaints from the other two. It gave him five stats in Endurance. He took out the ring of unidentifiable metal next and put it on.
It was black and plain looking with swirls engraved. He checked it for curses with Elland or he would have never put on something so sinister looking.
Nothing changed on the stat sheet but he saw the [ LOG ] blink.
He checked it.
[ Equipment skill bonus +25 levels in Stealth ]
His eyes went wide. “Can equipment give you skills?” he asked the others.
“It’s rare but yes,” Shaya replied and waited for him to explain why he asked
Duncan nodded thinking about the possibilities. “How much do you want for the boar?” he suddenly asked.
“Nothing. You killed it,” Shaya replied and the other two nodded.
“I will give you a silver each for helping. I am not dumb enough to think I could have done it myself and I don’t want any misunderstandings like the last time we were here,” Duncan replied and looked attentively at their expressions. Seeing no disapproval he produced a silver coin for each of the guards from his inventory to get it over with.
After that, they checked their gear and distributed their stats from level-ups.
Duncan went into his stat sheet and added the 3 stats from levels to his Agility bringing it up to 20.8. Now all his stats were above 20 except Charisma where he was still a pauper.
“Let’s gather our arrows and move on,” Shaya told Tyrok and he nodded.
“Do you want to grab the ones stuck in the pig?” Duncan asked and they nodded.
Duncan dropped the big pincushion on the ground again so they could get their arrows out of it and stored it back after that.