Ayden stood there in the middle of the forest, all alone. He was standing just a few meters away from one of the thickest, largest trees that he and Noah had seen lately. This was part of Noah’s plan. Basically, Ayden acted as bait for the boar, which Ayden could already see slowly approaching.

Then, it stopped and buried its legs in the ground, preparing for its next sprint. The Giant Boar’s eyes went white, and it started to run forward. However, the moment it did, Noah jumped out of the bush right next to it, his fingers pressing into the floating barrier that appeared just a moment earlier.

Like he had thought, Noah was able to pull the barrier away while the boar kept running, and at the same time, Ayden dodged out of the way. This just revealed the short blade stuck into a hole in the tree.

The boar kept on running and running until its forehead hit the tree. The blade pierced through its thick, rock-like forehead surprisingly easily, and the boar’s body slumped down onto the ground.

Noah stood there and looked at the dead animal, while Ayden slowly approached it as well. Ayden’s eyes sparked up in a silver light as he watched the boar’s spirit fade out of the body, like glittering steam rising off it.

Meanwhile, Noah’s eyes slowly focused on something else.

---

[You have completed the Class Acquisition Quest!]

[Your 1. Class is now Heart Seer!]

[You have gained the Heart Seer Class Skill !]

---

“Ah, shit...” Noah groaned loudly, looking at the emerald-green windows floating there in front of him. At the same time, the ‘barrier’ he stole from the Giant Boar slowly changed its color and shape. Instead of being oval-shaped like before, it was now perfectly round like a shield. Its color changed to become the same as the floating windows that he saw right now, just that it lost its glow.

---

[You have stolen the ]

---

The green shield was now floating next to Noah as he slowly approached his friend, who was still staring at the Giant Boar’s carcass.

“Well... Erm... Turns out I kinda...” Noah muttered, and Ayden turned his head toward his friend before taking a sudden step backward, “What the hell is that?”

“Huh? You can see this thing?”

“You mean that floating... Whatever it is?” Ayden asked, perplexed at what he saw. Noah nodded his head in response, “I just took that from the boar, and it turned into... this. And, well... Turns out I kinda ended up with a ‘Class’ now...”

“...So that really was your plan? Noah, what were you-“ With an angry frown, Ayden looked at Noah. He wasn’t actually mad at Noah for what he did; just worried. And his worries grew even stronger when Noah suddenly collapsed in front of him. The floating green shield disappeared as he fell to the ground. Without a moment’s hesitation, Ayden dropped down onto the ground with him.

Ayden tried to catch Noah’s fall a bit and slowly let him lay down, “Noah! Are you okay?”

In an immediate panic, Ayden went through all the steps he could to make sure that Noah was alright. He checked his breathing, pulse, and put his body into the right position in case Noah threw up. But at the end of the day... he concluded that he was just sleeping. He was a bit pale, though. Most importantly, the color of his eyes faded away quite a bit.

“I remember this... It was...” Ayden muttered quietly and quickly opened up Noah’s backpack. He pulled the book ‘Diseases, Ailments, and their Cures’ and flipped through it. When he reached the page he was looking for, he sighed in relief.

“Mana exhaustion... Alright, that’s fine then, I guess. Just a bit of sleep, and he’ll be alright. ‘After an hour, the patient should wake. Any further symptoms can be treated after.’” Ayden sighed deeply, glad that there was nothing to worry about.

That being the case, Ayden stood up and approached the Giant Boar, “I guess I should spend the time properly, then.”

Ayden walked up to the boar, which had conveniently rolled over to the side. He wrapped his hands around the bloodied dagger and pulled it out of the boar’s forehead. Surprisingly, the blade went through this rock-like layer like a hot knife through butter.

There were some cracks on the edge of the blade and some more where it entered the boar’s protective layer on its forehead. But besides that, everything was fine. Noah’s plan worked perfectly.

It was quite lucky. According to the book where Ayden learned about the Giant Boar in the first place, there were some useful parts of its body.

First, the rock-like part on its forehead, “‘Better when treated by a craftsman, but in emergency situations, can act as a makeshift shield.’ In a world where these sorts of creatures exist, a shield might not be the worst thing to have with you.”

Ayden carefully pushed the blade into the boar’s skin, cutting off the rock-like part. He did so precisely and swiftly. This sort of thing wasn’t a big deal to him. He practiced on animal carcasses many times before. His father wanted him to become a surgeon, so dissecting and butchering animals that Noah hunted was quite common.

After he finished removing the rock from its forehead, Ayden grabbed a thick branch lying near him and cracked it in half. He used it to prop the boar’s mouth open while pulling the two tusks out of it. This was all rather messy business, but there was a small river nearby that he could wash up at.

“Perfect. A shield and two... swords, I guess? Swords you can only stab with, at least.” Ayden muttered to himself, looking at the three objects he removed from the boar’s body.

The river that they saw was only a small bit away. He didn’t feel great about leaving Noah alone, but Ayden thought it was better than suddenly coming up with some sort of infection because of the boar’s blood.

The blood was quickly washed off his arms and the makeshift swords and shield with the cold water. When he returned, he just waited for Noah to wake up, continuing to read his books nervously. Ayden would have preferred to move away from this carcass if any scavenger animals came to feed on the boar, but he wouldn’t be able to carry Noah anyway. And dragging him over the ground could lead to Noah being injured, which he wanted to avoid as much as he could as well.

So, Ayden waited and waited and waited. And then, a bit longer than an hour after, Noah let out a loud groan as he pushed himself off the ground.

“What the fuck happened? Did I die again..?”

“Not this time. But if you want, I can go ahead and kill you anyway. You kind of deserve it.” Ayden pointed out in an emotionless tone, slowly standing up. He handed the newly filled-up waterskin to Noah, “Drink. We have to go now. Oh, and you have new things to carry, as a bit of a punishment for getting a Class before we could figure out what would happen.” Ayden pressed the ‘swords and shield’ into Noah’s hand and quickly turned around to continue on their way.

Of course, he stopped for another moment, “Do you feel dizzy, nauseous, or have a blurry eyesight?”

“Eh...? Oh, nah. I’m fine, just kinda tired.” Noah slowly pushed himself off the ground and got rid of the dirt stuck to his body after he fell down, “What happened?”

“Mana Exhaustion is my guess. I could see that shield thingy or whatever it was, so you probably turned it into an actual thing using magic. That’s my guess, at least.” Ayden suggested. Noah stared back at his friend in disbelief.

“That’s a joke, right? No fuckin’ way did I really use magic.”

“No, you really did. More importantly, you said you got your class. Can you remember what it said?” Ayden asked.

“Ah... Fuck, yeah, that did happen... No, I don’t remember exactly, but let me see if I can find it again.” Noah muttered, still quite exhausted, as he tried to open his ‘Status’ page again. And then, it popped up in front of his eyes.

---

[Noah Christoph Hastings][Human][19 Years]

[Health – 14/14][Mana – 12/12][Stamina – 14/14]

Attributes

[Vitality - 14][Strength - 13][Endurance - 14]

[Agility - 15]]Intelligence - 9][Wisdom - 8]

[Heart – 10]

Personal Skills

[Eye of the Heart – Lvl 2]

Classes(1/3)

[Heart Seer - Lvl 1]

-Class Skills

-[Heart Theft – Lvl 1]

---

“Alright, seems like I do have the ‘Heart Seer’ Class now... And a new attribute and skill as well. Sorry..?” With a wry smile, Noah peeked past the emerald green window and looked at Ayden. Ayden himself was just trying to think about what to do now.

“I guess we can’t change it anymore. And you seem... fine. The other people we met in the village all had classes, so why should it be dangerous for us to have them? Let’s just keep on walking. We are going to deal with anything that comes up when it does.” Ayden was obviously nervous but was trying to calm himself down.

He looked at his friend, “Do you want to rest some more?”

“More than that, I’d love to get out of this fucking forest already.” Noah sighed. As he dismissed the status window, he noticed the objects laying on the ground next to Ayden, “Did you take those from the boar?”

“Oh, these. Yeah, I did. The head-plate is supposedly an excellent makeshift shield, and the tusks can act as weapons for now. Just in case a situation like this comes up again.” Ayden explained and quickly handed the objects to Noah, who looked at them a bit confused:

“Ehh, sure? I guess that could work. Let’s hope I won’t need to do that, though...” Noah replied. As he held the tusks and tried to swing them around a bit, he was surprised at how easily he could do so, “They’re weirdly light, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, but at the same time, still quite tough. And they are pretty sharp at the tip.” As Ayden kept speaking about the tusks and ‘shield’, Noah took a closer look at these objects. They were fine, but he wasn’t particularly used to this kind of thing. All he did was learn a bit of pole-based fighting from his uncle... It was a weird relationship, but Noah had fun anyway.

Either way, now that Noah woke up again, it was clear what these two young men had to do. They had to pick up their backpacks and continue on their way. They already lost a lot of time dealing with the Giant Boar, so they shouldn’t waste any more.

“But before then...” Ayden started before slowly raising his right hand with a slight smirk. He was pointing his fist at Noah, “Good job, man.”

Noah’s worried expression immediately faded as he started to smile broadly. He bumped his fist against Ayden’s.

“You got it, dude.”