A great boar the size of a fully grown man stood before me. Its eyes were trained on mine as it kicked the dirt behind its feet.

I looked back at it. Six orbs of water floated behind me as I held the bow and arrow, tightly.

“We meet again, bastard.”

“Grrrr”

The boar’s tail flapped around behind its back. At the same time, the many eyes plastered over its fleshy body turned to me.

A cloud of dust rose as the Boar dashed through the grounds and came straight at me.

“Go!”

One of the orbs floating behind me dashed ahead. It took on a spin and charged straight into the boar at a speed that surpassed both me and the animal. The boar, undeterred, growled and lowered its head. A magic circle formed right above its tusk and flames emerged from its head. Scarlet flames marked the charge of the boar. As soon as the water orb hit the fire, it fizzled out and turned into smoke.

25 meters.

“[Ice Magic: Ice Spear (3rd Circle)]”

Two more orbs dashed ahead. They elongated on their path and starting from the tip, crystallized into solid spears of ice. The boar realized the ice would last longer and hopped to the side, and then again.

The second spear grazed its face as it fell to the ground. 10 meters.

Without giving it a moment to breathe, I pulled an arrow. It was almost in front of me.

I shot the arrow and jumped to the side. The arrow lodged itself into the head of the boar while I rolled back on my feet and nocked two more arrows.

“GRAW!” The boar yelped as the two arrows pierced its side. It quickly changed its position, kicked up some more dirt from its hind, and charged at me again. The trees around it were withering from the flames at its head.

“Come.” I strapped the bow along my shoulder and pulled out my ax and sword. Three more orbs were still floating behind me.

‘Would this even work…?’

Even though I had doubts, I couldn’t indulge them. It was a fight. The boar charged at me again, now close enough to strip me of my chance to run. I rapidly sent the three orbs at it.

The boar growled and summoned flames again as if calling me a fool for trying a failed trick twice. The first orb swung from the left, and the boar barely moved. The second struck from its right, steam covered its sight around the flames. Irked, the boar tried to pierce through faster. The third one struck it head-on and at the same time, more mana seeped out of my hand.

[Earth Magic: Dirt Wall (1st Circle)]

A small ledge of stone rose from the ground, right below its feet. It had taken the path I guided it towards.

The boar tripped, along with the force and steam made by the third orb, it lost its balance and jumped forward. Its body was almost upon me.

Before the boar could land, I raised the sword and stabbed it from below.

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“AUGH!”

[Strength: 35 (Intermediate-Low)]

I twisted my entire body forward and the sword pierced through one of its many eyes. The boar spat out blood, but the heat from its head didn’t cease.

My eyes widened. The magic still being active meant.

“It’s alive!?”

The weight of the boar made the sword sink deeper, but my hand naturally lowered to the ground as it landed and started swinging its legs again. The boar pushed ahead with all its might, even with the sword going out of its back.

I held it at a distance with all my might. My feet pressed into the ground and I grit my teeth, holding the sword.

[Endurance: 47 (Intermediate-Low)]

I temporarily held my ax in my mouth and summoned another orb of water in my hands. It turned from one to two, three, four, six, all over again.

[Mana: 60 (Intermediate-Low)]

And all six of them turned into ice spears. With a flick of my wrist, they all stabbed into the boar at point-blank range.

[Control: 40 (Intermediate-Low)]

Through its back, and sides, and then finally impaling through its head. The heated flames finally dwindled as the struggling boar fell limp. The weight against my sword disappeared and I hacked its head again with the ax.

Now I could breathe in peace.

I stepped back and wiped my forehead.

“Fucking boars…” I sighed, leaning my weight against my shoulder. How huge was it in the first place? It could have prevented famines if it were more normal.

I stepped away from the boar and gathered my items. It was time to go back. The sweltering heat of the forest never ceased as the trees and birds rustled and chirped (growled actually).

I had set goals for myself in the labyrinth. They were supposed to be good for development. For now, my goal is to reach (Lowest-Intermediate) level on everything. It would drive my current stats up to 99 at (Highest-Low) and then back to 0 on the Intermediate grade.

Getting into the Highest Grade was apparently enough to secure a great spot in any country, and most successful knights were usually in the Intermediate and Highest grade range. I unfortunately didn’t know if there was anything above Highest-Highest, but there probably might be.

It just felt that way. In case there wasn’t something, my progress was rather encouraging. Though it would get difficult to increase even one stat point the stronger I became, for now, it wasn’t particularly bad.

There were two more goals in my mind. One was to kill the bear, and the other was to kill the creature in the cave before going further in.

I held the weapons tight as I found myself back at the trees I had decided to make my hideout. A huge pile of items was spread around the largest tree, the leaves that I used to cover the items now piled up so high that they were even more suspicious.

I sighed and pushed some of the leaves away. Strewn on the ground were dozens of spellbooks, martial art books, and weapons of all kinds and qualities along with food and other items. In just days, I had become a hoarder.

A sigh left me. There was only so much I could learn. If only there was a way to do it all at once. Hell, I would even take someone to teach me everything right now. The books had so much flub and their tricks were so hard to grasp without a feel that they each took days to understand. After experiencing it just once though, it became way easier to mimic the magic and the martial arts.

Unfortunately, what could I do? I was only one person—

“Wait…”

I crossed my arms and stepped back. Images flashed in my head before I immediately reached out and grabbed the Dark Magic Tome I had brought with me since the time with the Lich. The spell that it couldn’t use since it had a prerequisite of ‘dying.’

I quickly pulled the pages open and read through them.

The spell brought a dead ‘human’ back as an ‘undead’ without their losing any ability. It was a spell made out of academic interest. Raising other undead always came with a loss of skill. That meant if, by some twist of fate, a necromancer or a cadavermancer could get their hands on the corpse of a great knight, they would only be able to revive it to a fourth or even lesser of its true abilities from when it was alive.

On the other hand, a person could revive ‘themselves’ to the same degree as before death. I had felt it personally. Every time I used the skill, I found versions of myself that were strong and versions of myself that couldn’t even move after being hacked to 0 Stats by the Lich and from my brief stint in the coffin.

My breath hastened as I looked at the spellbooks around me.

Learn them all at the same time.

Get someone else to teach me personally.

And also stop being just ‘one’ person.

All of those were possible. If I could bring back myself from death, why couldn’t I make myself stronger as well?

My breath hitched out of excitement and nervousness. I placed a palm on my pounding chest and stretched the other one.

If it worked.

I would become unstoppable. There was no doubt about it.

“I’ll need all of your help… [Return To Hell]”