Steel
We're presently staying in the village so we can deal with the boars anytime they come.
The villagers are letting us stay at a vacant house for free and even provide daily necessities. Makes for good saving on lodging expense.
It's the fifth day now. We've exterminated around 20 boars so far.
They're raiding the village from all directions day and night so it's been mentally and physically exhausting.
Well we're pretty much on rest mode besides those moments so it's not that bad, but they sometimes come out when we're sleeping or eating, it's seriously annoying.
Still better than having to work overtime on my days off back on earth though. Wonder if somebody else has taken my place at the factory. Eh, who cares about that I guess.
"We've taken care so many already yet it's not even half of them. Wonder how long till we can complete this commission."
"Those boars make for good test subjects for my arranged magic, so I'm not bored."
That remark is a bit scary. Are you a mad scientist?
Well, I'm not one to talk seeing as I've been giving Alma advice like making the stone the shape of a bullet and spinning it, or speeding it up instead of sizing it up.
And the result of my advice was a much higher penetrating power, the stones shot through those boars. That still eats up around 20MP per shoot though.
I had a hard time explaining how to image a bullet. Or more like I'm bad at explaining this stuff.
I'd have liked to show by example but I can't even create a stone.
Materializing mana seems possible for stuff like combustible gas or water through the mana doing this or that with the air around or something, but I can't make it create rocks somehow.
Yeah, it's obvious that I've been using this mana thing haphazardly. Can't believe I managed to learn magic on my own.
Even just creating a pebble from mana seems to require a considerable control. I don't even know if it's done by directly turning mana into material or making it convert the atom in the air or something. Heck, I haven't the slightest clue how either of that work, none at all.
"O-oy! It's terrible! A herd of magic beasts got in the village!"
A villager rushed in our lodging in panic.
Here we go again. How many time would this be.
"Understood. How many of them are there?"
"At least 20 of 'em from what we can tell! It ain't nothin' like anything before!"
Ooh, 20 huh.
They usually only come in a wave of 5-10 at most, now this is inflation.
Or rather, why didn't they do this from the start. Were they groping for traps?
"That's quite a lot. We gotta go cull them right away."
"Also, there's one with a different colored fur, it's red and big. The other boars seem to follow that thing's lead."
"Perhaps it's the herd boss?"
"I bet it is. That thing looked way stronger than the other boars. You two better be careful if you run into it!"
"Got it. Let's go, Alma."
"Un."
Boss huh. Wonder if this outbreak will settle down if we defeat that thing.
Wonder how strong it is. Even a Lv10 Rush Boar has similar stats as a Hobgoblin, a developed specimen should be pretty strong.
Let's keep our guard up and go all out from the get go.
It's been around 30 minutes since we got the message about the raiding boars.
Dealing with these boars is quite troublesome since they're trespassing all over the village, but we've found out from the past few days that they usually go straight for crops so we can usually find two to three of them in bigger fields.
I've already culled seven of those boars. Alma who's gone separate way should have defeated about as many, and the Combat Job villagers should be able to deal with two, three boars on their own.
...Now then, things are going smoothly, so how should I go about that thing I'm seeing right now.
A red boar is gorging on crops in a veggie field.
Magic Beast: Jet Boar
Level: 26
Status: Normal
【Stats】
HP (Health Points): 557/557
MP (Magic Points): 170/170
SP (Stamina Points): 329/342
STR (Strength): 357
ATK (Attack): 357
DEF (Defense): 294
AGI (Agility): 320
INT (Intelligence): 78
DEX (Dexterity): 38
PER (Perception): 271
RES (Resistance): 39
LUK (Luck): 58
【Skills】
Magic Beast Level 3
Quadruped Level 4
Martial Art Level 4
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
Strong. What the heck is this thing, it's way too strong.
It makes Werewolf seem cute in comparison.
ATK, DEF and AGI are all way high. Its only weaknesses are probably its low DEX and RES, which means it likely can't turn around in tight corners and is highly susceptible to abnormal status.
But I've got no more Spark Wolf Horn, and even if I had a Roaring Mushroom, I shouldn't use it in the middle of this village anyway.
It's bright outside, blinding it with light energy-converted mana is no go too. Doesn't look like my current mana conversion would do any good here.
Carpet bombing from the sky is gonna cause collateral damage to the village and I'd like to prevent information about me being Soarer leaking.
In conclusion: frontal assault is my only option.
...Eh, you can't be serious.
For now let's try ambushing it from outside its vision... Hold it, isn't that only true from behind? I mean its eyes are on the sides of its face.
Meaning I gotta attack its butt huh... Oh man, I'm losing motivation already.
I don't want to get too close, let's go with ranged attacks.
I wrapped a wooden stake of around 10 centimeter in diameter in mana armor and sharpened its tip.
Mana armor starts to disperse once it gets too far from me but it should be okay if only for a moment until impact.
Also, guess calling hardened mana, mana armor is too simplistic.
Aim for the butt, and shoot!
GYUN! CLANK!
...What?
Eh, wait, that got flicked off!? But that was a direct hit to the butt!
It should have enough firepower to shoot through an entire Rush Boar from its butt.
Just how hard is its butt anyway. Steel butt? What the heck.
『BUGOOOOOOOO!!』
Uwaa, it got mad and started charging at me while roaring loudly.
Well I mean anybody's gonna get mad having their butt shot by a stake in the middle of a meal. I would.
Wait it's way fast! Nothing like Rush Boars at all! This ain't no time to space out!
If butt's no good, then how about its head!
I'm gonna hit the head of this charging Jet Boar with Mana Pile Bunker head on!
GYUUN!!
"Wha!?"
As it got within 5 meter away from me, the Jet Boar accelerated.
Its body is letting out a pale light, a Skill huh!
<<Quadruped Skill Lv4 [Roaring Rush]: An ability to momentarily raise attributes to 1.5x original values during a charging attack.>>
Ain't no time to gawk!
Eat this Pile!
BAAAM!!
Crack crack...! SHATTER!
A-are you for real. The mana Pile Bunker stake hit its head and broke into pieces.
It got so easily smashed even though it should be as hard as iron! Heck, had no idea hardened mana could even break.
『GOAAAAAAAAA!!』
Looks like the attack had an effect. The Jet Boar roared loudly as it bled from its head.
It then resumed charging at me, refusing to let me go. Pile, won't make it.
I immediately enveloped myself in Mana Armor to avoid a direct hit.
DOGAA!!
"Gah...!"
A strong impact assaulted my whole body.
It hurts. Yes, it hurts.
This means I'm taking damage. Looks like the HP on my Status's completely gone. How strong was that ramming attack dammit.
Ah, crap, I'm fading, out...
I passed out.