Fruit of Your Labor

Qing's mother runs out of the library to notice a large barrier was put over the forest. She notice one of the seals she placed on Qing had just been broken again. She placed them on him as a child to prevent mana overuse as he was born with extraordinary amounts of mana.

The first time was when he was learning mana and now another was unsealed while he was on a hunting trip.

She quickly runs to the barrier and starts attempting to dispel it. She continues to investigate the barrier to no avail. It used a combination of magic formation and a magic circle. Meaning, she could attempt to break it, but She also needed assistance from the people trapped inside. Whoever set a barrier theoretically made a perfect barrier.

It would take her an hour to forcefully brute force the barrier down. Qing's mother began injecting mana into the barrier, and forcefully corrupt the barrier.

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Qing's mind was in turmoil. The giant boar knew how to use mana. It could attack him from a range and beat him in sheer strength. What else could he do? He tried limiting its movement by trying the ground around it into the mud. This barely helps to level the playing field. The only thing the mud caused was for it to stop charging at him. The beast knew magic, which messed up his whole plan up.

Qing dodges the roots the boar created. This angered the boar, which launched more at him. He needed an upper hand. Qing summons more slime out of his hand to assist him in his new plan.

He begins forming a platform out of the mud. Giving him the high ground. He was positive he could safely snipe the boar from this distance. Qing forms one of his slimes into a lens that could enhance his eyesight. He coats his hand in slime to absorb the impact he was going to receive.

Forcing as much mana into his hands as he could. Qing formed two incomplete magic circles. The first mistake he ever made making runes was going to save his life today.

The boar launches a large wood spike toward Qing's direction aiming for the pillar he had created. The boar had knocked down the pillar Qing had created and knocked him. In a last-ditch effort, Qing releases his mana missile hoping it would land.

Qing quickly shields himself by forming a slime barrier that surrounds his body. Landing safely on the ground.

The boar roared as the mana missiles flew at it dissipating the mana from the air. It was slowly recovering its endurance. It continues to stand still and launched a flurry of thorns and roots at Qing. Qing had to create another opening.

Qing blocks another root from shooting at him with a shield made of slime. He needs something better. A shield something to protect his whole body. He could not spend the whole time fighting this beast being defensive he had to protect himself and attack. He needs to create an Amor.

The Boar began making itself a giant wooden pedestal to give itself a better footing compared to the muddy ground below it. Qing saw this and realized the environmental advantage he had created for himself was drying out. 'How did this Boar have the mental concentration to make root attack him and made a good flooring?' Qing thought. Now that the boar was gaining ground. It would be harder to land a proper aerial attack on it. Qing had one shot at this, and his next aerial attack had to land.

Qing dashes back to the giant metallic pole he had stuck on the ground from the first ariel attack and willed it to become skinnier and taller. With this, he had a height advantage over the boar. He cast strength over himself twice. He then begins to focus on his third cast. He notices that a continuous barrage of thorns would interrupt this crucial cast, and creates a metallic-like slime helmet to protect himself. And cover his body with a layer of slime to absorb the impact of the thorns

Qing carefully casts it while summoning slimes around him to absorb the boar's thorns attack. 'Strengthen' Qing said as he slowly complete the cast. The muscles on his body suddenly started cramping he had to land this hit.

Qing continues enduring the cramp all over his body and propelled himself into the air. He summons a large greatsword made from the slime. 'Strengthen' had also strengthened his eyesight. He could see the boar was creating a wooden barrier to protect itself from Qing's attack.

Qing focuses mana on his feet and creates an explosion of mana out of his feet to launch himself at the boar. As he flies down his eyes turns turn bloodshot and his nose starts bleeding. His body was nearing its limits. He swings the greatsword down on the boar ready to kill it solely with the weight of the greatsword.

"Nature's barrier," Qing heard from the corner of his ear. 'That stupid beast knew advanced magic.'

The boar became surrounded by a green barrier. Qing's slime greatsword had destroyed the 'nature's barrier'. The barrier exploded, ruining Qing's weapon. The boar slowly walked over to Qing making sure it was asserting its power over Qing. "You knew Magic," Qing gasped at the boar.

Qing was exhausted. He was ready to accept his death. The trial was ridged from the very beginning.

"You never reveal your trump card til the last second," The Boar snored at Qing. It prepared to crush Qing underneath its hooves.

An old man appeared beside it telling the boar to stop.

"I am the hermit of the forest. A servant of the divine," The person introduced himself.

The board then proceeded to heal Qing. "You have passed the first trial," The hermit said. As he hands Qing his first reward for clearing the trial. "Your first reward is a portion of the guardian's core."

The giant boar complained, "That's ten percent of the energy I stored for the last decade."

"You broke the agreement by using Magic. You were just supposed to fight him with less than one percent of your powers, not seven," the hermit noted at the boar.

"He killed one of my offspring," The boar complained.

Qing had killed a dear. He was wondering how this boar was related to the deer.

That's when the boar revealed its true form of a giant stag. "I am the guardian of this forest. Every animal inside is like my child," The Guardian noted.

"Please consume the guardian's core before we continue with the rewards," The hermit ordered Qing.

Qing popped the guardian's core into his mouth. It slowly dissolved in his mouth. It tasted like honey, and a bit like jam his mother made.

"Now, kid don't go popping monster cores into your mouth. That was a well-processed one. So, you should be receiving some skills," The hermit noted to Qing.

Qing felt nothing after consuming it. Then, he slowly felt the wood around him. He was able to move them. Qing control attempts to move the branches around him. He only felt his mana getting consumed more and more as he tied to force the branch to move. "This skill consumes an enormous amount of mana," Qing replied to the Hermit.

"Yes it does," the hermit replied to him.

Qing tries to feel for any other skill he could have received but felt nothing.

"Remember kid, Passive skills also exist. I'll explain them to you another time," The Hermit explained.

"Now, your second reward is…"