Tonight We Feast

Wandering off from the rest of the group, I head towards the direction of where the Stairs of Wind were. Although the stairs aren't there anymore, continuing in that direction leads me to some woodlands. Crouching low to the ground, I keep moving with stifled movements as I notice something else wandering around here. But in all honesty, I would have to have no senses what so ever if I didn't notice anything as the ground shakes in a rhythmic way, as if whatever is here is causing small earthquakes with is steps.

Spitting out the prototype sniper I rebuilt, I lay close to the ground. Within a few seconds, something comes into view from the bushes. But what appears before my eyes isn't what I initially thought. The bushes shake briefly before a small not so small piglet walks out. The System says its a piglet, that's clearly too big to be a baby... and too fat, it's probably delicious too.

Its steps certainly create small vibration in the ground, but they aren't like those I felt earlier. If this is really a baby, then there is a good chance that the parents are nearby. But I really want to hope that whatever was causing the ground to shake was just something else passing by.

Hmm... ok, I just kill the piglet and see what happens. If whatever was causing the small quakes are this thing's parents, then I'll just deal with them and I get an even bigger meal. If it turns out to be more than I can handle, then it's time for plan B, run and make Aurelia deal with it.

It's a little unnecessary, but I bring my eye to the makeshift scope on the sniper. As far as I'm concerned it doesn't really do much for me since I can see further than humans anyway, but I guess it does help align my vision for a shot. There are about thirty metres between me and the young pig, bidding my time, I wait for the path to be clear as it walks out from behind a tree. Entering my sights, I infuse ice mana into the gun and pull the trigger.

*bang*

The loud sound from my shot travels far in the quiet woods. Seems like this thing is going to need a lot of improvements to truly be called a sniper. I aimed for the body, but the bullet strayed far and only grazed my dinner's foot.

The startled pig begins to run off with slow staggered movements. Even if I couldn't end it in a single shot, I still slowed it's movements thanks to the properties of the ice imbued shot. Taking aim once more I fire off a couple more rounds, each imbued with a different type of mana. Although most of them miss, the one direct hit I got was enough to end the pig's life, even through its somewhat high health pool.

The scent of blood fills the air as I walk up to inspect the corpse. Its backside has been completely blown off, so the firepower of this thing is certainly high, but it really needs some adjustments so it can actually hit the target. I think the pig should still be edible if we remove the parts that got destroyed by my attack.

As I go to pick up the corpse, I suddenly feel those vibrations in the ground again. Looking over to its source, I see trees being pushed aside and forced to the ground and as the view clears, a giant pig is rushing here from afar. But despite its massive size, it doesn't really have much going for it.

Race: Adult Lausial Mountain Boar

Tier: 3

Level: 25

State: Enraged

HP: 5,214/5,214 MP: 1,245/1,245 SP: 4,521/4,521

STR: 1,362

VIT: 2,365

DEX: 1,624

INT: 1,232

WIS: 1,023

MND: 1,122

Being a pretty low tier monster, it's stats are pretty low despite being level 25. And of course, as is tradition, I always have to fight with an enraged monster. But this pig is around two-thirds the size of Gaoh, which is still pretty big, probably around the size of a small house. And it's even fatter than the young one I just killed.

With it charging straight at me, I try to shoot it with the sniper, and even though it hits, the damage isn't enough to end it, only shaving off around 1,000 from its total health. Continuing its charge despite the bullet to the face, I store away the sniper and use my Dark Creation & Manipulation to create another zone of total darkness, blocking out the light of the twilight. If it had a type of night vision like me, then this wouldn't amount to much, but with the loss of its sight, the charge halts.

Since I want to eat as much of it as I can, I opt to not use my corrosive abilities and instead, I whither it down with various ice and air based attacks. Even though it tries to fight back, the pig's lack of ability to use magic and inability to see, it's just flailing around aimlessly.

This position feels good. Since I often find myself on the backend of fights and at the mercy of everyone stronger than me, it feels great to torment these lesser monsters with a nice and slow death.

Eventually, the big pig runs out of health and as it falls, the ground shakes with intensity, nearly knocking me down. Since I was able to kill it while keeping its body intact, it should provide a rather nice meal tonight. Releasing the zone of darkness, I try to grab the corpse since it's too big for me to fit into my mouth, but not only is it too big, it's also way too heavy. Even with my total strength stat being just over 4,000 I can barely drag the corpse along with me.

As I'm pondering over how I should deal with it, a solution pops up, or rather, walks up, as Aurelia and Lia arrive.

"I don't like what you're thinking right now. If you can't carry it yourself then why did you kill it?" Aurelia asks.

"It chased me, I just responded. Now do you want to eat it or should I just cook it right here and eat it all myself."

"Now, now, I never said I wouldn't help bring this over to the camp," Aurelia says as she walks over to the corpse.

"It's natural that we carry it since we didn't do any of the work ourselves yet will be the ones eating. That said, I'll carry the smaller one," Lia says as she walks over to the younger pig's corpse.

It's been a while since I've had a chance to eat like this, tonight we feast.