“You didn’t think that maybe you should turn around after 5 or 10?” Winter shouted at her angrily.

“I couldn’t, they surrounded me!” She squeaked back.

“You can kill them in one hit!”

“That only works when I can stab them in the back!”

“Then stab them in the back! Minor Heal!” Winter shouted, casting heal at the maximum range as all of the boar's attention turned to him. He raised up his tiny shield which to him felt as though it was shrinking smaller and smaller as the stampede closed in on him. Silentwire maneuvered around the stampede and began dashing between the smaller ones, picking them off quickly while the Boss Boar overtook them and raged towards Winter.

Once it was close enough he flinched his eyes shut as the tusks larger than his head collided with his shield.

*CRACK!* - He felt it, he imagined it was akin to what getting hit by a train felt like. His spine, skull, arms, everything - it felt as though all of his bones had shattered, while simultaneously he felt light, the force knocking him clean off of his feet. He opened his eyes to see the Giant Boar getting further away from him - or rather he was getting further from the Giant Boar.

*CRUNCH* - his back slammed into a tree, it felt as though his entire body had cartoonishly warped around it like a piece of playdoh. His shield’s durability immediately dropped to 0 and shattered. His entire body surged with unimaginable, excruciating pain.

*WARNING* Mental Stress Levels are nearing the safe limit. You will be forcibly removed from the simulation if the current level of stress continues or increases.

[Force Log out] Take a break from the game and relax, you will respawn at the nearest Graveyard.

[Lower Pain Threshold] Threshold change is currently available for your account.

[Ignore] Keep Playing, acknowledging that Averon is not liable for any damages caused by continuing the Simulation. (If conditions persists or worsen you will be logged out against your will as part of our Terms of Service)

Winter hit the ground, and a few seconds later the pain from the blow disappeared, but despite this he fell into a cold sweat, his entire body felt weak and he staggered, struggling to stay on his feet. A blow like that wasn’t something he could just shake off, but at the same time he saw an attribute level up notification from taking the hit, +1 Constitution. If he could just bear with it… maybe it’s because he was caught by surprise? He wondered to himself as he hit the ignore button.

Silentwire was making quick work of the small boars but the large one was digging its hooves in, preparing to charge at Winter again. He could’ve sworn he heard her scream out worriedly when he got hit, but even now he only had ringing in his ears. He was getting a constant stream of 2 experience point gains, but Silentwire wouldn’t be able to do anything about the boss yet.

“Minor Heal!” He looked at his hit points - he’d taken 79 damage from that attack despite his shield mastery and armor. One heal wasn’t enough to completely top him off, but he could cast 3 more times and the boar would then need to hit him twice to take him out.

Just taking the behaviour of this creature into account, Winter thought that together the two could beat it. The problem was, he didn’t know if he could handle another hit like that. He was tempted to lower the pain threshold, but he remembered it’d be unchangeable for a while after he did, and he didn’t want to miss out on leveling up fast. He had to get stronger fast. An image of Makaroth flashed in his mind. He gritted his teeth, planted his feet, and equipped a new shield from his inventory.

*WHAM!*

You take 82 Crushing Damage.

Copper Shield’s durability has dropped by 36.

Your use of the Shield Mastery skill has unlocked the Shield Mastery Ability: [Brace]

[Brace] - Shield Mastery

While remaining stationary, press your shield forward into an attack at the moment of impact to double your Shield Mastery bonuses for that attack. Consumes 5 stamina per attempt at bracing. Stamina is consumed regardless of whether Brace is successful.

Shield Block Bonus: 18% (9% base from Shield Mastery Level 8)

Pushback Reduction: 18% (9% base from Shield Mastery Level 8)

Durability Lost: -14% (7% base from Shield Mastery Level 8)

It was a pleasant notification to read as Winter flew through the air again, this time landing on some branches and tumbling down a nearby tree, taking few extra points of falling damage. He tried to think of calming thoughts for the short few seconds that the pain surged through him, it was a battle of the mind. He knew the pain wasn’t real, he just needed to be completely convinced in order to shrug it off.

When he stood back up, he felt as though his legs could not possibly be able to still lift him up, because they should’ve been broken. Overcoming this mental block took him a moment but it was easier the second time around. “Minor Heal!” He could shout out as the Giant Boar began charging again.

“Winter are you okay? I finished with the small ones!” Silentwire called out to him.

“N-never been better. Please kill this one.” He mumbled weakly. The Giant Boar closed in, shaking the ground with each step. Winter knew if he wanted to take advantage of the new brace abilitiy he couldn’t flinch, so he opened his eyes wide to watch the giant tusks rush at his face. Just as they were about to hit he forced his shield arm forward and his shield suddenly flashed with yellow light, growing in size for a mere second as the tusks connected.

You take 65 Crushing Damage.

Copper Shield’s durability has reached 0 and is unusable until repaired.

The pain was lessened and he was not knocked in the air, instead skidding across the ground backwards a few meters until impacting a tree. The Boss Boar breathed heavily from it’s large snout, preparing another charge as Winter healed himself again.

Silentwire rushed at the boar from the rear and once close enough began stabbing it in the back furiously, each stab doing a range of 60 to 70 points of piercing damage. Winter could see the red text appearing and hear the impact sounds, it caused the boar to squeal in pain and angrily turn around to face her, doing a quick side swipe attack with its mouth. Despite her being higher level, she took more damage from the hit than Winter - 104 crushing. Her health was much higher than his at least so she wasn’t in immediate danger, but she was just above half from that single blow.

“Chase me you big hairy pig!” She screamed at it before turning and dashing in the opposite direction. Winter had a moment to catch his breath and recover some stamina and mana. He limped awkwardly forward and watched as the large boar stormed off after her, bulldozing through the surrounding forest.

“If you get its attention back by healing me, I can do more damage!” Silentwire shouted to him from a distance. Winter wiped the sweat from his forehead and pulled broken twigs and branches out of his armor, gasping heavily and recomposing himself for a few moments as he nodded back. In those few moments of watching Silentwire flee, a sudden lightbulb flicked on in his head.

“H-how long can you keep running from it?” Winter yelled.

“Uh, uhm, I guess maybe 10 minutes? But my sprinting will use all the stamina I use for attacks.” She replied, shouting over the sound of the stomping beast. She turned back to see Winter with a giant smile on his face. He watched the Giant Boar as it recklessly rushed at her, leaving destruction in its wake, knocking over the large trees of Orm forest with ease.

“T-try to lead it to the Pine trees.” He suddenly pulled out his woodcutting axe.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” She screamed back. He didn’t hear her, he only saw the goldmine in front of him as tree after tree fell over. They took minutes to chop when they were standing, but broken on the ground from boar strikes? Seconds to turn them into logs suitable for adding to his game inventory. He located the first pine, hit the loose branches off with a few swings and got a clean hit at the bottom and top to keep only the good parts, then put it in his inventory.

“And here I was worried about you...” Silentwire couldn’t believe what she was seeing, watching Winter run from pine to pine behind her.

“Hey, focus! There’s a bunch to the left!” He shouted back at her.

“You’re telling ME to focus?! There’s a giant boar trying to kill us and you are chopping wood!” As her voice trailed off in the distance she swapped over to using the party communication system instead. Despite her protests, she led the Giant Boar exactly to where Winter suggested.

“This boar is awesome.” Winter cheered giddily. He was practically drooling at the mouth moving from pine to pine as fast as he could, draining stamina from sprinting between them.

“You’re unbelievable. Alright, 5 minutes, then we kill it, okay?” Silentwire relented. Winter heard her but didn’t respond, he was stuffing his face with food to keep his stamina up. The next 5 minutes consisted of Winter directing Silentwire on where to run to make the most of her sprinting time, conserving his stamina somewhat for the impending conclusion to the fight, though he wasn’t too keen on letting all those broken trees sit around for someone else to steal. They weren’t exactly being discrete, but he couldn’t keep up with how fast they were falling.

“Okay, I’m coming back now, you better heal me.” She grumbled as she rushed towards Winter at the end of the 5 minutes. When she closed in, Winter complied with a minor heal and garnered the Giant Boars attention.

The moment he started his charge at Winter, Silentwire began assaulting the boar from behind, it seemed unable to switch targets with its charge very easily so continued towards Winter despite the massive damage Silentwire was able to deal.

Winter dug his feet in with a new shield equipped and timed his brace perfectly, still sliding back from the blow but the pain was lessened by the thought of all the pine logs he’d be rolling in.

“Flurry!” Silentwire shouted, her hands glowing blue as her attacking speed rose significantly, stabbing multiple times a second with each forcing the creature to squeal. The Boss boar was huffing and preparing to turn and strike her again, and in the process the creature began to give off a red glow.

“It’s enraging!” Winter warned her, preparing to cast a minor heal. The moment it turned to hit her, she flew off her feet into a nearby tree and took 220 points of damage - more than Winter’s entire health bar, and she fell to dangerously low levels. He healed less than half back, but that was enough to turn the enraged boar back on him. He then used the last of his mana to heal himself.

“Hooo boy.” Winter gulped as the boar dug its hooves in. Silentwire recovered quickly and rushed at the boar, stabbing it again furiously - but it was clear she wouldn’t kill it before he took the hit.

He focused intensely on the impending tusks boring towards him through the air. It took every ounce of his willpower not to flinch, he needed to see the exact moment of impact to brace it properly or he’d be out.

*CRASH!*

You take 138 Crushing Damage.

Copper Shield’s durability has reached 0 and is unusable until repaired.

Level Up!: Shield Mastery reached level 9!

Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Strength

As he slid along the dirt from the impact, crashing into a cluster of bushes, he got several more messages.

The Boar King [Boss] has been Slain!

You gain 904 Experience!

Congratulations, you have reached level 4!: 3 attribute points available, +26 health, +16 mana!

Skill Learned: Leather Armor Proficiency.

The Boar King crashed into the ground, unable to withstand Silentwire’s relentless attacks any longer. It landed with a loud thud, and as it did Winter witnessed 3 orbs of varying size and color in front of the beast, rolling onto the ground after seemingly appearing out of thin air. Two were green, one was grey, and after a few moments, all three orbs cracked, crumbled, and opened with a grandiose flash of light. Once the light faded, three large objects appeared on the ground in their place.

“Is that…?” Winter asked as he climbed out of the bushes and eyed the items.

“Oh right, you’ve only been fighting low level monsters up until now, and they almost never drop items, so this is your first time seeing it? The item orbs?” Silentwire smiled as she walked over to him.“In that case, you should do the honors! Go see what he dropped.”

Winter walked towards them excitedly like a little boy on Christmas morning.