Chapter 26 - First Battle

"Sniff!" "Sniff!"

A big fat boar sniffed the grassy ground with its big stubby nose, moving its head side to side as if it was looking for something to chew on. The hair strands on its face looked moist as saliva was dripping from its mouth on the grass like a waterfall. This boar was the same Roughback Boar that Niko's group has been watching. The boar stood on a patch of grass that lacked trees, however, it was surrounded by thick trees and bushes, and a few of those trees were where Niko and his group were hiding.

As the sunlight seeped through the green canopy and lightened up the green grassy ground that the boar sniffed, a strange light green orb floated above it. This orb was naturally the spirit of the Giant Mantis that Niko controlled and it slowly as it floated above the ground approaching the boar. As the spirit floated, it parted the grass on its way gently as if it was caressing it.

"Swoosh!" The boar exhaled as it noticed the orb approaching it slowly. Anger and confusion were seen on the boar's glossy black eyes as it began to take a few steps back.

The boar noticed that the spirit continued to float towards it without fear, causing the boar to be angered. It exhaled once more but this time loudly and rough as killing intent was revealed.

As the boar was about to pounce towards the spirit, bushes began to move on the side, startling the boar making it turn its head to look. It wasn't afraid of the little spirit, therefore, it checked if the intruder was someone stronger.

"ROAR!"

A powerful roar struck the boar causing it the be paralyzed for a second, however, as soon as Candreva who came from behind a tree was about to use the skill, Niko commanded the weak spirit to attack.

"Bang!"

The spirit collided with the bottom of the boar's head as if it was uppercut by a human. One couldn't underestimate the power of a weak spirit as it had the same strength as an average human, this was something Niko has come to learn. The uppercut-like attack was powerful enough to make the boar fall on its side in pain as it squealed loudly. Without giving it anytime to get up Zheng rushed from behind a tree and slashed the boar repeatedly at the stomach area. Guts and blood spilled over the green grass turning it crimson as the lifeless body of the boar layed on the grass.

The belly of the boar was so fragile that it was possible for a weak spirit to strike it hard enough and kill it. The difficult part would be getting the boar on its side.

Stepping out from behind, Niko looked at this scene with disgust as he saw the mess it made. Zheng didn't look fazed as he was even more excited. The crazy thing about this was the fact that all of this, took seconds!

"Good job! Although this Roughback Boar is extremely weak, it's our first time trying this! And the gore you'll get used to it, it's way too common in this world." Ivanic spoke with a bit of hope in his eyes.

"Wait can't we cut off some of these parts to sell them off and trade?" Niko asked as he already knew parts of monsters were tradeable and could be used for crafts.

Ivanic shrugged and said, "Unless we are crafting anything, it's easier to just store these big guys inside of our space and trade it in whole. I really despise the made-up currency they have going on, however, right now we might need it for some start-off gear. The back of these guys can make for some pretty good heavy armor, while the meat can be eaten, we might get good things for it."

"Alright, I'll store it then." Zheng walked over and touched the boar making it disappear completely as if it was never there in the first place leaving crimson grass behind.

"This thing is taking up most of the space I have…?" Zheng said with an ugly look as he begins to rub the nails against one another. The purple hair that once covered his lower forearm and hand, has begun to cover the upper forearm and almost reaches the elbow.

"We got a bit of exp for this, do you guys want to go and get more?" Ivanic suggested.

"Yes, let's kill!!" Zheng got excited as he stopped playing with his nails and looked at everyone.

Niko was still wary of Zheng as he was unsure if this was due to the skill or if Zheng was a psychopath when on earth. Niko was also annoyed at the fact that after killing this beast they barely received much exp, meaning grinding was extremely important, and to succeed one must grind their hearts out.

"Why don't we eat that boar? I'm hungry!" Candreva said with dissatisfaction as he was scratching his chest.

"If you haven't noticed other than the countdown, there is also a time on it. No one really knows how time works, however it seems to be similar to Earth which is interesting because this world is a flat plane... For us, who are part of the noob apartments, we receive food every 8 hours, which consists of meats from different monsters around here. You should know by now that we don't get as hungry as we usually do on Earth, we don't even need 3 meals every day. Let's kill a few more of these guys and head back. " Ivanic spoke.

Niko realized this. He thought that it was only in the preparation world, however, based on the fact that he was barely feeling any hunger was surprising.

"Let's kill! I can't hold the excitement!" Zheng says almost in a shout. He looked like a crazy person the way that his face looked.

Niko was beginning to get annoyed by these people. Ivanic was the only person who seemed to have a brain as he was made the right decisions, while the others just seemed either brainless or crazy. He wondered where he would be if his old teammates were here right now, even those people he knew online would've probably been much better, however, Niko didn't know their physical condition but based on the amount of time they were online it probably wasn't too good.

"Let's go, we can stay here for a bit more," Ivanic said as he walked, unfazed by Zheng.