Boaring the Boars

[Arkice]

The forest was filled with an abundance of trees, but they were great and big—reaching high above—so they were spaced generously apart, so much so that there was plenty of room to move and even set up a campsite. Their many branches, outfitted to the brim with healthy green leaves, blotted out the noon sun, providing a shade of relief for those underneath. That was the reason that there was plenty of living creatures that lived within the forest, surviving and feeding on what the planets and other animals provided.

Or at least, that was the reasoning in the game’s logic.

With both hands on the staff raised high above her, Arkice brought it down with a brutal efficiency. The head of the staff audibly cracked against the dazed boar’s head, eliciting a squeal as its leg slipped out from underneath it. The young boar—not yet an adult as it had no tusks—went down heavily and without resistance. Despite that, it still frantically tried to move its unresponsive limbs to stand back up.

It was at times like this that she questioned whether it was reality or not. Games simply did not have this level of detail, yet at the same time, she knew explicitly that it was a game. Death was free of any serious consequences, and even traveling was not tiring at all. It was a strange mixture, just like the relief she felt when she had gotten under the shade of the forest, away from the burning warmth of the sun.

Arkice raised the staff up and brought it down once again, harder this time. The death cry of the beast was brutal and clear, making her doubt yet again, but that doubt was just as quickly dispelled when the body vanished into sparkles that floated off with the air. She reached down and picked up what came out of the boar’s body, but once she got a closer look, she frowned. Scraps.

Sighing, the green-haired woman raised her hand up as the virtual interface came to life in front of her. Shifting through the options, she clicked on her inventory and deposited the item into it. With another few clicks, she found herself staring at her equipment settings with a doll-like portrait of herself on screen.

She was a tall woman with a generously sized chest that accentuated her slender and well-proportioned figure. Her face contained slightly sharp eyes with dark honey pupils and seductively supple lips that stood out from her jade hair that drifted softly amongst her shoulders. On her body, she wore simple light brown, sleeveless tunic that could barely contain her generously sized chest, overlaid with a white vest—its flaps left open such that it fluttered with the occasional wind. Around her waist, she wore an oversized belt that held up her loose light green pants. Each ankle had white ribbon that tightened the loose clothes to it, just above light brown boots outlined with white fur.

All in all, it was a slightly strange mixture of color, but she wasn’t in a position to complain about it. In fact, it wasn’t even the time to think about it. There were many things that could be said about Elder Tale, but the fact of the matter was that levels were incredibly important, especially among the hierarchy of players. It was necessary, therefore, to join the race.

So here she was, hunting boars to not only gain experience, but to also take all the material that they drop off from their corpses—or rather, their death sparkles. Still, they had a lot more to do before the day was done. She turned her head slightly, glancing at her partner—a person who had joined her party just before she left town.

“Bunji, should we try for a larger amount of boars? They don’t seem so troublesome when we are both attacking it.”

---

WC: 654

[bunji]

Those fuzzy fox like ears of his stood upright as they absorbed all the sound around him, from the twigs that snapped under his footsteps from his rapidly moving feet, to the rustling branches up above healthy with green leaves. A pair of crimson orbs remained focused on a single target as he rushed towards it, using the speed granted to his movements from his activated skill to cover the distance faster, in his right hand holding it with a firm grip by the hilt he had a katana; the trusty, and signature weapon of the samurai class in this game. He had grown quite fond of the weapon, getting accustomed to its attack patterns, learning how to measure its range, and overall getting very familiar with the sword. For now he was going to yet again test his skill against a familiar foe, he had recently taken on a mission like this with his sister so he was pretty familiar with the attack patterns of these beasts it was pretty simple; wild, and short bursts of energy made up their very limited array of attacks. Taking adavtange of his enemies limited range he would use his katana's range in order to strike first, lucky for him he was already within striking range raising the katana overhead he swiftly brought it down with a single motion. As the blade descended towards the boar, his knees would bend bringing his body weight down with the slash itself once the attack landed he would hear the boar squeal as its head was struck by the honed edge of his katana.

Kabutowari, was a technique that had become a favorite of Bunji's because of the particular special effect it had not only was a it quick, and simple but when a target was at full HP during the point of contact it dealt extra damage. The HP bar of the boar would shrink significantly as he struck it, giving the young fox tail a boost of confidence as he stepped in closer swinging his katana upwards using the same momentum of body motion to hit the boar with all his body weight, with that it would burst into data fragments. The glowing shards of blue data would rain around Bunji's feet, standing there with the katana in his right hand he would stare for a moment at the spot where the fragments glowed before fading away. Not until his fox ears twitched at the sound of his partners smooth feminine voice did he raise his eyes from the ground, settling his crimson orbs on the girl she was indeed soothing to the eye, and not just because of her ample breasts no the woman had a very mature allure to her; more along the lines of sexy than anything else.

His katana would come up to rest the blade on his shoulder, turning away from the girl he would stare off to the endless forest that awaited them, this quest after all required the extermination of a few more boars these two were just the tip of the iceberg. "Sounds good, we should head up further ahead then. Maybe deeper into the forest we will find bigger clusters of them" he added as he started making his way down the path leading further into the forest.

WC: 553

[Arkice]

Arkice simply nodded her head once at the statement, falling into step behind the swordsman. The forest, despite its life-sized quality, had trees that were nearly identical. By that statement, she didn’t mean identical as in the real world, where each tree could be of the same type. No, she meant that in a way to say that they felt more like clones of each other than anything else. Every now and then, she would see a tree that she recognized a few feet back that contained the same imperfection in the same spot.

It was strange. There were other deviations on their trunks, but they seemed to all come from the same core structure. In the real world, that could never happen, but it made sense in this virtual world. Art assets tend to be reused, especially for certain static objects that needed to be used in copious quantities, such as a forest, a marsh, or even a field of flowers. It was impossible to design each and every tree to be different, especially when the pay-off was disproportionately small in comparison to the work that would be necessary to implement it.

Yet, as they walked through the forest amongst the chirping wildlife, she could not help but see the differences that had started to grow on those core structures. Those little deviations that one couldn’t help but see after noticing them just once. If one were to look rationally at it, then there could only be one conclusion.

After the apocalypse, they had started to change. Changing, maybe even growing and evolving, with their environments. Just like the abundance of NPCs in town that suddenly appeared and seemed so alive, with all their emotions and history. It was a strange mixture that she was still adjusting to, still trying to make sense of.

But was there any logic, any reasoning, that could be put on all of this? On a virtual world that was growing and changing, perhaps even evolving?

Her thoughts, her musing, was placed on hold as the two came upon a opening gap in the forest, a small oasis where there was no trees, allowing the sun to shine down fully on the circular clearing. Flowers grew in abundance here, as if it was the only spot left for them to go. Perhaps, it was, since these types of plants could not grow where the trees provided their shading branches.

But what caught her attention was the three boars, rummaging about the small flower field. They were all young, having no tusks, and they seemed blissfully unaware of what was about to occur. Their deaths were already preordained and unlike with actual players, she had absolutely no qualms about using her full strength. After all, they were simply creatures of a virtual world.

Concentrating her will into her staff, she pointed the head forward as it began to glow.

“Frost spear.”

An spear made completely of ice formed in front of her and launched itself forward at high speed, ramming into the foremost boar. It yelped in pain, sliding back as the ice frosted its body, slowing it down. The other two young boars bounced to their feet, turning on the new threats.

---

WC: 538

[bunji]

Unlike his companion that seemed so aware of her surroundings, contemplating many things we have Bunji who seemed to not really care; because he had no reason to care for this world at the end of the day it was fake. He had come into this believing that he could safe everyone, that he could make a difference here unlike the real world that he sought to escape when he dove into this virtual hell hole. Shaking his head visibly he would not allow the thoughts to linger too long, he had no reason to care much about this all he knew was that he had to grow stronger he just didn't know why, such a conflicting thought but one he had come to accept. Stopping as they reached the clearing his crimson eyes would settle upon the many flowers that grew in abundance here, he would stand silent already taking notice Arks' movements. Quietly watching as the woman conjured forth a spear made of ice she fired it towards one of the boars, the male would wait as the boars reacted to the attack that their companion had just suffered through.

Bunji on the other hand wasted no time to give them a chance to react, raising a hand he would collect a while coating of energy on his palm that would aim directly at the boar in front of him already going aggro the boar charged only to be met by Bunji's energy beam that fired off towards it. When the invisible beam struck the boar it would stumble back after the impact becoming somewhat docile, thanks to his Holy Banishment he would be able to cover the distance faster without any real danger. Taking advantage of his window of opportunity the swordsman moved forward, his feet split the flowers apart as he stomped on them with every quick step once he stepped within striking range he was quick to take advantage. Once he entered the range he swung his katana horizontally hitting the boar across the exposed torso, with a squeal the beast would stumble away allowing Bunji to follow up with a series off strikes that came down in the form of two vertical slashes. Making sure to step into each slash eh threw his body weight behind it, bringing the katana up he would end the attack with a swift thrust to the boars body, with one final squeal the boar would burst into data bits.

Recovering from his attack he would turn his attention towards the other boar since he had gotten closer to it, the boar was charging at Bunji but the Fox Tail seemed to not even be worried about that. His face flashed a smirk as he activated his class skill, Kabutowari, moving forward with great speed he held his katana overhead as he stepped into range which happened a lot faster thanks to the charging boar he would strike. Bringing his katana down he slammed it onto the animals head, because of its full HP bar the extra damage dealt would cut the boars HP down quite a bit, spinning around as he slashed the boar with his sword once more this time horizontally he would again cause it to squeal in pain. Silencing the enemy with one final strike he would watch as the third boar burst into data bits, being a samurai meant he was a straight forward fighter so he was one of those in the front lines despite his lack for proper armor. Once again his katana came back to rest on his shoulder, "That wasn't too hard...." he said with a pause as his ears twitched, the male smiled his tail wagging side to side like when a dog became excited. "...I think we may find something more challenging ahead" he said to Ark, his ears having picked up quite a commotion just a few feet ahead of them.

Walking forward he began a cautious approach towards the source of the sound...

WC: 665

[Arkice]

While Bunji was dealing with the other two boars, Arkice only had to concentrate on the one boar that she had hit with the frost spear. On the side of its body, there evidence of creeping frost and blue skin at the place that the icicle had hit. As it charged at her, albeit at a decreased pace than its other two companions, she leisurely started preparing her attack. She raised her staff until she was holding the bottom end with both hands, rearing the weapon back behind her like a baseball bat. The moment that it stepped within her range, she swung the staff with all her might, greeting the side of the boar’s face with her staff’s head.

The boar’s neck cracked loudly as it turned nearly 45 degrees from the impact, its eyes wild with pain. The beast’s feet seemed to trip over themselves, causing its body fall and slide heavily on the ground, smothering the flowers beneath its fat body. The boar squealed loudly, frantically, as it seemed to try to comprehend what was going on.

In that moment, she brought the staff down with both hands, crushing the animal’s skull. Its life quickly flickered out of its eyes before its body flashed and turned into dozens of data bits that floated away.

She gave a slight sigh. Fighting with a staff wasn’t really the proper way to do things, but she didn’t like to waste mana on things that she could simply get done with other means. It was an efficient way to do it, especially since the boar posed little risk. It had been slowed down and damaged by her frost spear before she had engaged it. Though, it was a little bit surprising that it had lasted a little longer than they usually did. She should probably have checked the level, but she couldn’t quite work up the will for such low level creatures.

Sure, they were technically low level, but beginner monsters were always easy, no matter what type of mmorpg it was. They were all the same in that aspect. It was later on, at higher levels, that creatures became harder. They could have the same level as her, but they would be far more intricate and deadly. Those were the type where you had to pay attention to its information carefully.

But here, these were just beginner creatures. Easy to deal with and almost mindless in their affairs. She never really had to pay much attention when dealing with them back when she played other mmorpgs, though the situation now—being that she was trapped in this virtual world—did make it more different than usual. It was hard not to pay attention when it felt like they were attacking her real body.

. "...I think we may find something more challenging ahead"

Hm? Arkice glanced at her partner, who was already on the move. She didn’t know what he saw or heard, but it sounded like there was going to be more fighting to be had. In any case, she couldn’t let him go alone anyways. She followed behind the red-haired boy as they walked on into the unknown.

---

WC: 532

[bunji]

Whether Ark was coming along or not, he was already approaching the source of the sound that had tickled his ears tugging at his curiosity, as he got closer however he prepared his blade lowering it from the shoulder where it relaxed to hold it at his side ready for a quick swipe if need be. Yet, he was not expecting to find what he came across when he came close to that bush out of nowhere from his left side a solid blunt impact would dig into his side forcing the fox tail to widen his eyes, and stiffen his tail as the impact wrecked his body. Whatever hit him had built up quite some momentum to knock him over so suddenly, and force him into a messy side roll that pushed the male a few feet away from where Ark was, landing on one knee he would shake his head trying to regain his senses. Raising his head his ears folded back as he looked over at the source of whatever had hit him; there in front of him was a boar with its nostrils flaring violently, and its eyes glaring intensely at the player he had just struck. "Tch...sneaky one" he said with a chuckle forcing himself up to his feet, standing upright he rolled his neck and rolled his shoulders just as he turned to face the guilty party to his surprise it was not alone; the bushes around the boar rustled to life as a group of five boars emerged from the wilderness.

Walking over Bunji stopped next to Ark, holding his sword firmly he would say "Remember when I said it was too easy?" he asked the green topped girl as he took a stance with his legs wide, and his hand on his swords hilt ready to engage the enemy, "Guess we can say I spoke too soon" he added with a chuckle. Despite the situation they found themselves in, he was rather cheery about it why wouldn't he be? He was enjoying a game, what was so bad about that? The sooner he killed these porkers, the sooner he would have his much needed experience to gain some decent levels hopefully. The boars all seemed ready to charge in a single unit, but Bunji had another idea one that he would soon voice out "Scatter them, no point in handling them in a large crowd, once they charge we split into the surrounding forest. Breaking them apart, take them out as fast as you can...whoever finishes first helps the other. Good luck Ark" he said to the girl, just then the boards charge. The group of six aiming to smash into the players, but Bunji would dash to the far right wasting no time as he ran into the forest, hoping Ark had followed his plan she would have dashed to the far left.

Moving side to side as he snaked between the gaps of trees the fox tail would glance over his shoulder every once in a while spotting the incoming boars, whether out of luck or whatever it was he counted three, meaning Ark had three on her tail too. Looking away he smirked, the boars had split evenly, great for them coming to a stop he would turn just in time to react to an incoming boar stepping to the side as it tried to tackle him he was sure to stay within range as he brought the sword down striking the boars exposed back earning a satisfying squeal. Looking over he could see the other two coming, taking a stance the male smirked waiting for them to get close as he prepared to activate his skill.

WC: 620

[Arkice]

“Frost spear.”

A spear of pure white stabbed into one of the boars, making it yelp in pain before it began charging at her—albeit slowly—along with its two companions who quickly got ahead of the injured boar. Arkice dashed to the left, running through the gaps between the trees as the three young boars followed in her wake. Her mind had already formulated a simple plan to deal with the boars. It was a plan that she had used many times when playing mmorpgs, but it was going to be tricky to pull it off in the more real life kind of situation that she found herself in. However, she was confident that the tactic would work, just like it would have worked when it was simply a game.

Kiting.

It was a simple enough tactic. Run enough to stay out of range of their attack while pausing every now and then to launch a range attack. It was a tactic only available to the range classes, and it was mostly used against enemies with only melee attacks. It was possible to do it against ranged enemies, but that required an intricate knowledge of their attack ranges while keeping a diligent eye on it. Difficult to do in mmorpgs as there was also lag and lag compensation to consider, though she supposed it would not be a problem now.

Stopping abruptly and spinning on the heel of her foot, such she was now facing sideways, she glanced back at her charging enemies and aimed her staff.

“Frost spear.”

Her staff’s head glowed an ethereal blue before an icicle spear was launched from it, ripping through the air like an arrow. It struck the lead boar head-on, causing it to yelp and flinch from the attack.

As she turned back to run, she thought more on it. That was another thing that was different with this world. The flinching mechanic in mmorpgs were that the enemies, at most, would pause for a millisecond or maybe none at all, but it certainly wouldn’t interrupt them at all. Here, it had a more realistic behavior, in that if they were attacked, they did act with the behavior that they were hit, often stopping what they were doing.

This worked well as an interrupt, though she wasn’t sure if this would apply to higher level creatures. She would just have to see when she got there for herself.

She turned at a bend in the trees, running to the left. The worst mistake when kiting was to run too far in a straight line. Not only did it bring you out of the area, it also had an increased change of making you encounter more enemies, creating a train of mobs that would follow you. Even low level creatures could be extremely deadly in a train of enemies. That was why she turned left. It was to circle around, leading the enemy on the chase while bringing her back to her starting area.

Glancing back as she ran, she saw there were large gaps forming between the three boars. The farthest one, the one she had first hit with the frost spear was still lagging far behind, while the second one was not fast enough to keep up with the three one—the healthy one.

Stopping once again, she spun around and raised her staff high up. It was an attack that she had used quite often, but you only had one spell, you had to improvise. As the boar ran into range, she slammed the staff down, knocking hard into the creature’s head. It fell heavily—dazed beyond its simple comprehension—and was at her mercy. With another staff attack, it exploded into sparkles of data bits. The second one was starting to catch up, but she was already focusing her will to cast another spell.

“Frost spear.”

The icicle-like spear stabbed into the boar once more, making it squeal a death cry before vanishing into dust.

And then there was only one left. She leisurely began walking toward the last creature, spinning the staff idly in her hand. It was going to be easy picking.

---

WC: 695

[bunji]

The two boars were closing the distance fast but so was Bunji the Fox Tail was charging straight for the two boars his katana at his side as he got closer to them, the distance between them that once seemed so great was rapidly shrinking as the two sides got closer to a head on collision. Wasting no time he raised his katana overhead a soon as he did he activated the skill that was becoming a favorite of his, Kabutowari once it was activated giving him the chance to dash forward with enough speed to reach the lead boar. Once he was within reach he struck down hard using the edge of his katana to cleave into the monsters head, crimson orbs focused on the second boar it was closing the distance rather quickly but he was ready. With honed reflexes that matched the sharpened of his curved blade he quickly bounced the katana's blade off the boars head to slamming it rather sloppily into the other boar knocking it away, the boar slides across the ground rather violently as it comes to a sudden stop just a few feet away.

Relaxing from his stance he would take a step back just as the first pig was recovering it was rather dazed so he had to take advantage of it, stepping around he spin on his feet but at the same time stepped in with a strong thrust aiming to bury the katana into the boars face. He felt no pity for these virtual beasts, they were after all just that virtual creatures put here to further advance the players of this world, with that belief in place he was easily able to dig his katana deep into the boar receiving a violent squeal as the remainder of its HP depleted, and it burst into data crystal right in front of him. This left him with two more boars to deal with both of which had lost some HP, but were already recovering from the previous strikes putting them in quite the sour mood.

Taking a stance he stepped back just enough to have them both in his view they were split quite the distance apart, so he wondered how they would come at him maybe both at once? Whatever their tactic would be, the fox tail kept his ears perked up waiting for his enemies to make their first move.

WC: 402

[Arkice]

The last boar seemed to have gotten over the frost effect as it returned to its normal speed, charging straight at her. However, Arkice was unconcerned. She reared her staff back and swung it in a baseball bat swing. The staff connected with the boar’s legs, entangling it and sending it spiraling upside down. It landed heavily on its back, its feet already moving to right itself, but she stomped a boot down on its belly, eliciting a squeal and keeping it in place. It struggle against its entrapment, as if it knew what was coming, but she merely pressed down harder on the beast. There was no escape for it.

She sighed. If things were going to be like this, she probably should have started with a two-handed sword rather than a staff. At first, she thought she would be given at least a starter set of magic spells, but it seemed that, at the early level, they start you out with only a single spell. That was debilitating in and of itself.

There was no doubt that spell casting classes were powerful later on, but at such an early level, they would have a harder time to become effective. She supposed that was fine anyways. She was confident enough in her experiences to be able to get past such hurdles in any case. All that she needed now was to actually do so. To level up and reach the height of her achievement.

Arkice slammed her staff down again and again, amidst its pain-filled squeals and cries. The softness of the boar against the hard wooden head of the staff felt like she was tenderizing a piece of meat for cooking. She continued at it until finally, it burst into a handful of data bits. She watched as each of the sparkles drifted upwards before disappearing from sight. As if the spell was broken, she blinked.

It was time to find Bunji. She wondered if he had already dealt with his side of things, but it was likely that he had. After all, these boars were on equal levels as themselves, but they were no threat at all, really. Still, she didn’t know how good he was at games. It was possible that he was an absolute beginner, except that he already knew how to use skills. She put that thought to rest. She had seen how he acted and as well as how he fought. There was no question that he would be fine...

She knew that he would be definitely fine, but she still had a nagging urge to check.

Giving out a light sigh, she pulled up her interface, bring up the digital screen into her view. Selecting through the menu, she brought out her map. Since they were both in the same party, she could see his dot blinking on the map. It actually wasn’t as far away as she thought. With a few clicks through the various options displayed, she activated the minimap. She dragged it across her vision, placing it at the bottom left of her sight. She also set her party status there as well. She really should have done this earlier, but she hadn’t been expecting to be partying until she had met Bunji just before she left the city’s gates.

And it seemed he was still in okay condition as his health and mana bar were still relatively good. Still, she needed to get to where he was. Following the direction that it said on the minimap, she began to sprint across the forest’s grounds.

---

WC: 596

[bunji]

With a squeal the boar would fall to the side having suffered for making the mistake of being the one of the two who led the charge, wasting no time as the name fell to its side he swung down delivering the finishing blow that depleted the rest of the monsters HP, with that it burst into data. Turning over his shoulder quickly he rolled onto his shoulder landing on one knee as he looked back at the other boar that was charging straight for him, he would smirk, they had managed to get him last time because he was distracted but not this time. Activating Kabutowari again he would move forward raising his weapon overhead as he closed the distance between the two of them, when he was within range the sword came down with a savage swing striking the monster on the head. This was enough to deplete the rest of the already weakened boar causing it to burst into data bits, relaxing from his stance he would standing upright with his katana in his right hand as he stared down at the area where the boar was once standing. "There go three more" he whispered to himself his tail slowly wagging side to side as he stood there his eyes focused on the surrounding wilderness, for a moment his ears twitched at the sound of some disturbance in the forest around him.


"More?" he asked a bit of excitement in his tone yet when he came to see the figure that emerged from the forest, instead of a wild boar it was the vixen that had become his partner for this quest sighing a bit disappointed he would bring his katana up to his shoulder not sheathing it yet just to be safe. "Take it you're all done on your end. So what do you say we go turn this one in then?" he asked the green haired woman, as he lowered his katana then pushed it into the respective scabbard that was attached to his waist. The male walked past the girl making his way back to town, his tail swaying side to side behind him as his ears reacted to surrounding sounds twitching every now, and then.

WC: 372

[Arkice]

Arkice had emerged at the spot where her partner was, only to find that he had just finished up on his end of things.

"Take it you're all done on your end. So what do you say we go turn this one in then?"

She nodded her head. They were pretty much done here. Glancing up at the sky, she could see that some time had passed. She could have, of course, taken a look at the clock on her interface, but she decided not to.

“Let’s get going.”

As Arkice followed behind the fox-tailed samurai, she allowed a little smile on her face. This partnership had worked out well, despite her initial expectations. When they reach town, she would probably send the man a friend invite. In this strange new world, having a friend to help you was a good thing to have.

---

WC: 145