First Hunting Mission
In Faea, Freshlife Continent, Sixstones Branch of Paragon League...
It was already the morning of the next day.
The night before, after spending some of his money for an F-COM, and a bunch of items he thought were necessary for outdoor survival, Khael simply went to have some dinner in a cheap looking food-stall, and then slept in a similarly cheap hotel. He still had money, but he didn't think it would be wise to spend it all for the not-so-important luxury. Well, at least, not for now...
Right now, Khael was inside the Paragon League branch office, within one of the work-search cubicles, looking at the list of the possible jobs on the holographic screen in front of him with a serious expression. There were plenty for him to choose for. All provided certain number of paragon points, and of course suitable amount of money, as the rewards.
As he was still in the Novice rank, he could only see the jobs of Novice and Apprentice levels. But, the number of jobs of those two levels were still a lot.
After checking the jobs' overview for a while, Khael picked one of them and read the details:
|| Hunting Mission Target: Tyrant Boar ||
|| Client: Mythical Ingredient Processing Inc. ||
|| Estimated Level of the Target: [Enhanced] ||
|| Difficulty: 2 Stars ||
|| Details: The size of the target is approximately be 3 meters in height and at least 10 tons in weight. It possesses strong body with great quality of defensive scales, deadly tusks, and thick mane. It is very fast when charging straight, but slow in changing direction. It is estimated to be surrounded by a group of five [Common] Raging Sows. ||
|| Reward: 100 paragon points and 200 000 veens, additional 20 000 veens are rewarded for every [Common] Raging Sows collected. Excessive damage toward the monsters' body will reduce the reward. ||
|| Estimated Location: please download the positioning beacon to your communication device. ||
|| Task Completion: deliver the body of the monsters to any branch of Mythical Ingredient Processing Inc. Discount offer: hunter can use Swift Courier's service for the delivery for 10% cut of the reward. ||
'This one seems alright for testing my current capability,' thought Khael, directly selecting the job without any hesitation.
It should not be a hard job for him. Tyrant Boar should only be a little bit stronger compared to Greensteel Tortoise, while its defense was definitely weaker. It's dumb way of fighting made it easier to handle. Slaying the monster, even together with its Raging Sows, would not be a big problem.
The main problem would actually be the collection and delivery. He didn't have any spatial object to carry the huge monster's body, nor a big enough vehicle like Davada's truck to transport it. The only choice he got was to use the Swift Courier Company service.
Khael quickly installed Swift Courier Service application to his new F-COM. It would allow him to call a swift courier from the company to take care of the collection and delivery.
The swift couriers themselves were speed-based paragons who were equipped with very fast vehicles and spatial suitcases. They were not strong at all in combat, but they were all master of escaping and speed traveling in their vehicles.
Using the job data on his device, Khael quickly accessed the holographic map to find the estimated location of the target. It took quite a while for him to familiarize himself with the holographic map and its data.
'The location... it should take me about two days casual walk to get there if I follow the road. But if I take the off-road route, it should only take me 15 hours, approximately. And if I run, while practicing my parkour skill, it should be much faster. I could get this job done tomorrow. Of course, that is assuming that there is nothing wrong on the way..."
Khael walked out of the building and moved straight to the western gate. Since he had taken the job, he didn't plan to dilly-dally. He had to finish the job as quickly as possible.
---Time Skip: the next day---
In Faea, Freshlife Continent, Wilderness...
It was very early in the morning. The sun hadn't even shown itself in the sky.
A lone tent, in a camouflage-colored pattern, was set in a small clearing not far away from a small freshwater lake. A dimly glowing tribal pattern, circular in shape, could be seen on the ground, surrounding the tent.
Khael crawled out of the tent and stretched his body.
'The <
As the sun started to appear in the eastern horizon, Khael quickly took down and re-packed his tent. The adventurous experience in his past life made this action seem really simple and very easy.
After putting everything he packed in his bag, Khael checked his F-COM to orient himself and moved to his destination. It was not that far from there, just one to two hours journey if he moved fast enough.
Khael carried his big bag on his back and started moving quickly, half running, leaving the circular tribal patterns on the ground, which grew dimmer and dimmer.
Like a wild beast on the run, Khael moved really fluidly and without any pause. Despite the road-less environment, he did not seem to be slowed down at all. Without any hesitation, he ran over uneven ground, jumped over bushes, skipped from one rock to another rock, and even climbed trees like a monkey to take the shortest path to get to his destination.
It was slightly over one hour later that he saw his targets. There seemed to be a problem with the job information though, as what he saw was not a single Tyrant Boar and five Raging Sows.
It was one Tyrant Boar, one Tyrant Sow and four Raging Sows. One of the sows seemed to have evolved from the [Common] stage to [Enhanced] stage. The job was now much more challenging.
Khael was now on top of a high tree, looking down to the group of monsters who hadn't realized his presence yet. He quickly made a plan on how to slay those monsters cleanly. His main problem was how to finish them quickly without damaging their body too much.
That was a big problem for him. If he normally fought barehanded like he usually did, he would pummel those monsters, breaking their bones and giving them a great number of bruises. That would reduce his pay a lot.
If they were of normal size, he could probably suffocate them by holding their neck tightly with his powerful arms. But the size of the Tyrant Boar and Tyrant Sow was way too big for that to be successful. His arms were not long enough to cover the huge neck of any of the [Enhanced] monsters. He could use rope, but he didn't think that the rope he bought would be strong enough to suffocate those boss level monsters.
Khael observed the pig-like monsters seriously. The elephant sized Tyrant Boar looked really intimidating with his three pairs of big tusks, thick black mane, and scale-like black fur. The Tyrant Sow only had a pair of small tusks and did not have mane, but the fur on its chest was much thicker. Other than that it looked exactly like the boar.
Unlike the evolved Tyrant Sow, the Raging Sows were much smaller in size, without any tusk, and brown in color. They just looked like an over-sized wild pigs with their size which was about as big as cows.
'It seems that focused attacks to a single point of their body is my best bet for now. The fore flank right behind the elbow socket seemed to be the most effective target... well, except for the Tyrant Sow with that thick chest fur. Its neck is probably a better target. Alright! Let's do this. My first targets: the normal sows...'
Taking off his backpack, Khael carefully put it on the branch, hidden behind foliage. And then he immediately jumped down to the lower branch of the other tree, and then to the next one. He moved like a pro gymnast doing his practiced routine on uneven bars.
Within a couple of seconds, Khael had reached the lowest branch of the tree closest to the sounder of pig monsters. The sound of his rapid descent immediately alerted the monsters.
Dropping down next to the closest Raging Sow, Khael moved fluidly to the side of it and delivered rapid punches furiously, just like a machine gun. All hits were aimed at a single point of the beast's fore flank.
Bam bam bam...! Multiple hitting sounds exploded. The cow-sized sow squealed pathetically as it was thrown back violently. It was as if it collided with a bullet train. It flew like a gigantic cannon ball and crashed into a huge tree.
Khael dashed in an extreme speed, chasing the monster. As it bounced off the tree, he threw a super heavy punch to the same point, its left fore flank.
BANG! A sound so loud that it even hurt his ears resounded. It was not just a sound of collision, but also the sound of bone-breaking and flesh-tearing, as Khael's punch hit the sow so hard that almost half of his arm pierced through its body, sinking to the flesh and destroying part of the heart severely... instantly slaying the monster.
As the others of the sounder were still stunned because of the sudden attack, Khael quickly withdrew his arm and dashed to the other Raging Sow. The Sow was enraged. It snorted and lifted its front part of the body, trying to use its front legs to wildly stomp the incoming foe.
Khael swiftly and fluidly side-stepped to evade the stomping, and then, half crouching, he delivered a powerful uppercut to the fore flank of the beast. BANG! His punch was so strong that it lifted the heavy body of the monster violently.
Sensing danger came from behind him, Khael cancelled his about-to-be-unleashed follow-up attack and rolled to the side. That was a good decision because the charge of the Tyrant Boar's immense body nearly would crash into his body, had he not done so.
Once he evaded the boss monster's charge, Khael pressed the ground hard and jumped, somersaulting in the air to another Raging Sow and landing a heavy heel drop to the nape of the Sow.
BAM! A powerful sound, a combination of collision and bone-cracking, reverberated. The sow gave out a high-pitched squeal as its head was driven down with such an excessive force that it left a large dent to the hard ground.
Unable to follow up again because this time the Tyrant Sow was charging at him, Khael did another roll to the side, and changed his charge back to his second target that still seemed to be shivering and squealing in pain.
BAM! Another heavy uppercut landed on the Raging Sow's fore flank, right at the place it was hit before. It was instantly followed by much stronger and sharper punch.
BANG! It was another collision which involved bone-breaking and flesh-tearing. Khael's fist pierced through the sow's fore flank violently, sinking to the flesh as if it were just a soft pudding... instantly slaying the beast.
Again, Khael didn't stop moving after he killed the monster. Instead, he jump-rolled sideways and then leaped over the charging Raging Sow. His acrobatic movement looked so well practiced that it seemed like a performance on the stage.
The enormous Tyrant Boar grunted furiously and charged at him again, but Khael sidestepped easily to avoid it. He dashed to the closest tree and then jumped up, grabbing the lowest branch and then climbed up so quickly just like a monkey.
The Tyrant Sow charged and rammed his body to the tree he was climbing, shaking it violently. But Khael had already jumped to the branch of another tree. With almost unbelievable calculation, Khael flew from the tree branch, somersaulted twice and landed another fierce heel drop on the neck of the third Raging Sow.
CRACK! There was an extremely loud sound of bone breaking and the Raging Sow, whose neck had already been injured previously, dropped down lifelessly, letting out its final weak squeal.
Khael flipped to the side again as the last Raging Sow charged past his previous position. It crashed against a big tree and furiously shook its head.
Quickly moved to the dizzy beast side, Khael launched another flurry of punches to the front flank of the beast. Bam Bam Bam!
CRASH! The last sound of collision did not come from Khael's punch. It was a friendly fire of the Tyrant Boar's deadly tusks piercing the side of the Ranging Sow. Khael, the real target of the enraged boar had cunningly slid away just before the charge reached his body.
Using the chance when the Tyrant Boar got stuck for a few seconds because of the friendly fire crash, Khael threw a rapid punches to the boar's front flank. It was not as effective though. The Tyrant Boar's defensive capability was much higher than the Raging Sows.
The titanic boar grunted in rage as it shook its body and trashed around wildly, forcing Khael to retreat. Then, from another direction, the Tyrant Sow charged at him, also full of rage, forcing Khael to maneuver acrobatically further away. His opponents were just two now, but they were much more troublesome to handle.
The Tyrant Boar, now fully recovered, charged in extreme fury toward Khael. Its intimidating tusks were aimed at his body. Recklessly Khael charged forward as if he wanted to clash in direct combat. But when they were about to clash, he jumped over the huge head of the boar, flipped on air, and grabbed its mane.
In an incredibly daring maneuver, he now rode on the monster's back. Khael didn't plan to stay long there though, as he immediately jumped over to the Tyrant Sow which was not that far away.
Again, with unbelievable calculation, Khael twisted his body and flipped rapidly a few times in the air before dropping down in a deadly slam right to the huge neck of the sow. Both of his hand crashed down violently like a sledgehammer trying to break down an extremely sturdy rock.
BANGG! The explosion-like sound vibrated so loudly that Khael could not seem to hear anything else for a few seconds.
The Tyrant Sow's head was slammed down in such a fierce force that it left a much bigger dent on the ground. The assault was not done yet, as Khael used the reactive force of the collision to bounce vertically, rotate acrobatically in high speed, and drop down again to slam the same point with even greater force.
BAANNGG!! CRACK! A louder sound of collision, followed by the sound of hard bone cracking reverberated.
Khael bounced up again, spun rapidly, and dropped down for the final time, assaulting the same place with even greater force.
BAAANNGG!!! CRASH! The deafening collision this time resounded so loudly that it even caused the fierce assaulter grimaced in panic as dizziness attacked his head.
Khael, which rolled over a few times away, stood up unsteadily as he tried to combat the after-effect of his rapid rotations and exposure to loud sound. But the battle was not over. There was one remaining opponent.
As he was still trying to recover, Khael felt sudden danger. The ground shook and he could see a blurry shape of large creature charging at him. Following his trained instinct, he jumped upwards.
BANG! There was another sound of loud collision. The hard part of the boar monster's head collided against Khael's body, throwing him backward violently, crashing into several tree branches. But, at least the dreadful tusks of the monster did not manage to touch him.
It was pretty painful, but Khael had experienced a lot more pain during his training days in the Sanctuary. The metallic combat puppets he faced as opponents in the Body Tempering Pagoda were much stronger and more violent, although they were smaller in size.
Khael quickly jumped back on his feet. The greatly enraged boar monster had charged toward him again, crushing everything in his way.
Decisively, Khael jump-rolled sideways to evade... into thorny bushes. Ignoring countless stabs toward his impenetrable skin caused by the thorns, Khael passed through the bushes, maneuvering swiftly to the side of the boar which tried to stop its charge.
BAM! Khael launch a heavy flying kick to the fore flank of the beast, the same point he attacked previously. It was strong enough to shift the huge body sideways, but it didn't seem to injure it enough.
'Damn! Change target!' Khael thought quickly. Due to the monster's size, he could not utilize his power fully enough in attacking its fore flank. But, the mane-protected neck was also not an effective place to attack.
Khael grinned ferociously. 'My fists against its skull then... Let's see which is stronger."
As the beast tried to awkwardly turn to his direction, Khael jumped and grabbed the mane of the Tyrant Boar and climbed up to its back.
Feeling the enemy on its back, the Tyrant Boar wildly shook its body and trashed around, attempting to throw Khael off his position. Khael, holding tightly to the mane, was thrown left and right, yet still stayed on its back. It was one crazy rodeo drive.
He couldn't help but jumped down when the beast started rolling on the ground though. Flipping backward, he gained some space away from the berserk boar.
Both the monster and Khael seemed to freeze for a second before they moved straight toward each other in full speed. Khael jumped and swung his right fist as hard as he could... a frontal flying punch with full power aimed at the beast's forehead.
BAANNGG! An extremely loud sound of collision exploded. The boar monster sank a few centimetres down to the ground and was dragged a few meters backward. Khael, on the other hand, was thrown backward further. Even after somersaulting twice and landing successfully on all four limbs to the ground, he was still pushed backward a few meters, leaving straight lines on the ground.
Once he stopped moving, Khael quickly dashed forward again in full speed, ignoring the pain in his hand. The boar, after shaking its head a few times, also charged forward.
Khael jumped again. But this time, he spun fast on air and delivered a powerful kick to the beast's forehead. His shinbone crashed against the beast's skull.
BAANNGG! Another deafening sound of explosion reverberated. The huge monster was pushed violently further backward. And Khael was the same, thrown backward even further.
Both the beast and Khael charged straight toward each other again... and again... and again... Loud sound of collision shook the area continuously.
After the ninth collision, the Tyrant Boar finally fell. Its thick and hard skull was broken. It was hit at the same place again and again after all. Khael's condition was much better as he alternated in using his limbs for his attack.
"Well... It's done. Now I just need to contact the Swift Courier and guard the carcasses until their representative came."
Khael immediately returned to the place he hid the bag and took out his F-COM. He contacted the Swift Courier Service and activated his positioning beacon, Now, he just needed to wait. The person he contacted claimed that the courier would arrive in approximately 3 hours.