Old Friend

[Iron-tusked boar lvl 25 has been slain!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[Title acquired: Basic Mana Manipulator]

[Abilitiy acquired: Enhanced Strike]

A breath of air leaked out when Jimmy looked at his notifications, killing that boar gave great rewards. He obtained a new title which increases his mana recovery rate by 5%, and he finally formed an ability!

He pulled his spear out of the boar's head and hopped down.

When he looked over at the approaching adventurers his eyes suddenly widened in surprise. Similarly, one of the adventurers walking over also stopped her approach and had a dumbfounded expression on her face.

He ran over and hugged her, much to the confusion of the other two adventurers.

"Sasha! I didn't know you played this game, what a coincidence!" He said with a large grin plastered on his face.

Jimmy had been good friends with Sasha since their childhoods, and only recently separated when they went off to college a few months ago.

Sasha had very sharp facial features which matched her general taciturn demeanor. With her well-toned body from practicing archery and her silky black long hair, her sharp features gave her the vibe of a beautiful ice queen.

They separated and Sasha said with a dubious tone, "I should be the one saying that, how can you even afford to play this game? Aren't you broke?"

Contrasting her questioning tone, she had a beaming expression on her face.

"I wasn't going to play, but Austin convinced me to join the game's raffle, and I was one of the winners."

Meanwhile, the two adventurers at the side were dumbstruck. They had only known Sasha for around a month, but she rarely talked, nor had she once looked as happy as she did at the moment.

"Um… could you introduce us, Sasha?" The young swordsman asked.

Sasha coughed and her face returned to its usual cold look.

Facing the two confused adventurers she said, "This is my childhood friend Jimmy."

She then looked at Jimmy and said, "These two are friends I made when I started the game. His name is Kevin," she said while pointing at the blonde swordsman, "and his name is Chad." She said while pointing at the amicable-looking Paladin.

"Thank you guys for taking care of Sasha, she can be pretty antisocial so she has trouble making friends," Jimmy said.

Sasha pouted and mumbled under her breath, "I'm not that bad at making friends…"

Kevin laughed and said, "She was completely lost on what to do when I first found her. I ended up helping her out and then we formed an adventurer party with Chad."

Jimmy nodded and asked Sasha, "You've never really played games before, why did you decide to play Ascension?"

Sasha sighed and said, "Austin convinced me to play just like you, but he never told me you were playing. He must have been planning on surprising us."

Suddenly a devious grin appeared on Jimmy's face.

"What if we just don't tell him we met. It will feel good to see the look on his face when he realizes his prank failed." Jimmy said.

A slight smirk popped up on Sasha's face and she said, "That would be amusing."

Chad popped in the conversation and asked, "Do you need any help with those boars? Those tusks are pretty big, I don't know if you can carry them all by yourself."

Jimmy looked at the large tusks of the level 25 boar and realized he probably wouldn't be able to carry them and the other four boar's tusks at the same time.

He turned to Chad and said, "Sure, I doubt I could carry them all by myself. I'll give you the reward for whatever tusks you carry for me."

"Sasha's friend is my friend, I couldn't take the money for something you killed," Chad said.

"It's fine, I insist. I would feel bad having you helping me without any compensation."

A look of hesitation flashed on Chad's face. He didn't want to be paid for his help, but it would be rude to be stubborn.

Kevin saw this and stepped in, "How about instead of paying us you can tell us how you got so freakishly strong! Your lower level than us, but I doubt even all three of us could kill that boar as easily as you did."

Jimmy thought for a second and then said, "Ok, I'll accept that. To tell you the truth I got lucky and found a really good teacher. She runs a training hall and you can get quests that increase your stats by training there. She also taught me how to control mana. That's why I am much stronger than my level."

All three of them had their eyes widen when they heard this. They had no clue you could get stats from quests! How enviable!

Kevin excitedly asked, "Can you introduce us?"

The other two nodded their heads, looking expectantly at Jimmy.

Jimmy scratched his head and had an awkward look on his face.

He said, "Sure I can introduce you, but she won't teach you unless you pay 5 silver a month."

Kevin took a deep breath at the price. The three of them only had about 6-7 silver each, it would cost them almost everything they had each month However, he still thought it was well worth the price.

"It's a bit pricey, but if what you said is true it will definitely be worth it," Kevin said after a moment.

"Alright, I'll introduce you guys to her after I turn in my quest," Jimmy said.

After their talk finished, Jimmy walked over to the giant boar and thought about how he was going to cut the tusks. He couldn't cut through them without wasting a lot of time using normal methods, and he doubted normal methods would work at all on the giant boar. He figured that the only way to cut through the tusks was to use a mana empowered strike on each of the horns.

He decided to put thirty points from his level-ups into magic to make sure he wouldn't run out of mana.

The other three were standing by the side curious as to how he was going to cut the tusks. They knew that the tusks were extremely difficult to cut, but he seemed confident so they didn't say anything.

He got into stance and mana flowed into his arms and then covered his spear in a thin membrane.

He cut down with his spear and sliced through the iron-like tusk as if it were butter. His fine control over the mana and his technique with the spear allowed for him to effortlessly handle the job.

He then continued to do the same with all the other boar tusks.

The three standing at the side were now even more dumbfounded. Taking down the boars was impressive enough already, but they couldn't wrap their heads around how he managed to cut through those tough tusks so easily. Mana really was amazing!

Jimmy didn't seem to notice their awe as he rubbed the sweat off his forehead. This was the first time he had exerted so much mana, and he was almost completely empty.

He turned over to them and said, "I'll take the big pair of tusks and one of the smaller pairs. You guys can each carry one of the smaller ones."

To pick up two sets of tusks he wrapped an arm around each large tusk and then held the smaller tusks in his hands.

The other three picked up the rest of the tusks and they all set off back to town.

When they reached the gate Jimmy heard a familiar voice greet him.

Dave the gate guard laughed and said, "Looks like you had a successful hunt kid! I don't need to see your IDs, you guys can just go in."

They thanked him and made their way to the adventurers guild.

The guild receptionist at the counter was the same one that gave him the mission. When she saw him carrying the giant tusks she was quite surprised. He had just become a D-Rank adventurer, she did not expect him to be capable of taking down a boar that size.

She looked at the three behind him and asked, "Did you kill them on your own or get their help?"

Kevin spoke up and said, "We didn't help him at all, he killed them by himself. We are just helping him carry the tusks."

She was a bit skeptical but she didn't voice her thoughts. Instead, she said, "Place the tusks on the table over to the right. "

They did as they were instructed and placed the tusks on the large metal inspection table.

The receptionist walked over to the table and began inspecting the tusks. After looking for a couple of minutes she returned to the counter and took out six silver coins.

"Congratulations on completing the mission. The tusks were all cleanly cut and in great condition so each of the sets is worth one silver each. The large tusks are worth double and are 2 silver coins. Your mission has been marked complete so you only need to complete 9 more D rank missions before you can take the promotion exam." She said.

Jimmy took the coins and thanked her when he got a system notification.

[Quest Complete!]

[2 Levels Gained!]