-“Let’s see…” The owner hummed as he tapped the pen he was holding on his lips, a small notebook in his hand.

He was standing inside a frigid room, snow accumulating in the corners, and the walls covered by thick layers of smooth ice. All the while in the upper corners of the room, small illuminating balls were giving off a soft, blue glow, making the room take a soft blue color. And In the center of the room, several piles of meat, all set in lines on rows of tables…

“I’m out of rabbit and boar, both their normal and monster counterparts…” The owner scratches his forehead before turning to look at the book. Scribbling down a few lines.

‘Wild Boar meat- 4-5 silvers’

‘Rabbit meat -1-2 silvers’

“Monster counterparts are rarely sold, as they are much rarer to find, plus much harder to take down, making them cost much more as well. Up to triple the price, at best.” The owner nods slightly, then turns around, towards a door that was behind him, the only door in the room.

“Hmm, you know. I could go hunting…” He shrugs slightly as pockets the small notebook, then goes through the door to end up in the kitchen. Batches of dried herbs and vegetables to his right, followed by another door, the one that led to the room with the armor he was working on yesterday. Ahead of him was the rest of the kitchen, with the door to the main hall a little further down and to his left.

“I could save some cash like that. And it should not be too hard as this place is near the border, hunters rarely if ever come to hunt around here. Plus, the location tends to have more monster variants roaming about, if you know where to look.” The owner nods to himself again, as if he was trying to convince himself that he spent enough time sitting on his ass…

“Yea, let’s go do that.” He nods one final time, and turns to head towards the door to his right.

Upon entering said door, he found himself inside the dimly lit room with the table that was chock full of enchanting materials, the armor still standing at attention next to it. The walls of the room were also full of books, a lot of them giving off a slight occasional glow…

Ignoring all that, he heads straight ahead, past the table and towards the bookcase on the opposite side of the room.

After stopping right in front of it, he gives it a light kick on the bottom, and the bookcase slides back and to the side, essentially sliding behind the bookcase that was next to it, to reveal a set of stairs.

(I need to think of a new secret room gimmick. Sliding bookcases are. Too cliche.)

He then goes down the stairs to end up in front of a heavy, metallic-looking door. Which he then knocked on.

The door, with a heavy click, proceeded to slowly open, the scratches on the metallic floor behind it making it obvious that the door was as heavy as it looked.

And inside, was a wide room chock full of equipment. Swords, greatswords, bows, armors. Some, looking like they were gifted from an angel, while others looking like they were forged in the deepest pits of the underworld. Along with everything in between, A sword with constant flames raging on its blade, A bow which caused the surrounding moisture to turn into snowflakes. An Armor whose plates looked more like liquid lava rather than a solid material, or a cape that looked like an open rift towards the night sky.

“Let’s see, I’m thinking monster boar. So, while the thing itself is aggressive and will attack on sight. Finding it is the real problem. So I’ll have to use bait. Now most wildlife is skittish, so heavy armor and close range is not going to cut it, too loud. And, all of my armors are….” The owner glances around the room with a slight sigh…

For all the variety on the elements and enchantments. All of the equipment in here could be considered on the heavy side, or at least medium to heavy…

“Definitely not going to cut it. Plus I don’t want to attract attention, and walking around like an active volcano or a Spire sent angel. Yea….” The owner shakes his head slightly.

“I’ll just take a bow…” He then turns to look at the section with the bows on display…

“Uhh, is a bow that creates exploding dark spheres overkill for hunting rabbits?...” He blinked a couple of times as he kept looking at a black bow which matched the aesthetics of the armor he was trying to automate. Black scales with red lines of energy running between them.

“Hmm, this one can turn whatever it hits into an icicle. Which would be helpful, if it didn’t also turn the ground into ice, which essentially glues whatever it hits to the ground...” The owner sighs as he looks at the ice sculpture-looking bow that was next to the black bow. Next to that, a bow with a yellow jagged body, electricity occasionally running through the string…

“This one doesn't even use arrows, it straight out shoots thunderbolts. It essentially burns everything even worse than an actual flame sword, not to add the problem of starting a forest fire…” The owner folds his arms as he tilts his head..

“I, do not have a normal hunting bow. Do I?” He sighs as he keeps looking at his bows, each one looking even less ‘normal’ than the one next to it…

“Hmm… Ohh, wait! This!” The owner, while browsing through his arsenal with his eyes half-closed, ends up seeing an elaborately crafted wooden bow. Thin, golden lines running from the handle all the way to the lower and upper limb, carvings that resembled leaves around the handle itself. A bow that screamed ‘elf made’...

“I remember buying this because I liked its design. But I never really used it. In other words, it should not create hurricanes, or volcanos...probably.” The owner picks the bow and tugs the string a couple of times as he speaks. Which caused the bow to bend with little to no resistance.

“Though, elven bows with this much detail are, uhh. Not very common either. But I got nothing else…” He adds as he glances around him, then passes the bow on his shoulder.

“Ehh, better than being seen with a bow that can shoot holy elemental beams from the sky…” He shrugs as he picks an arrow case full of normal arrows.

“At least I got a crapton of those left…” He chuckles as he turns to leave.

“I know I also had a satchel with an enchantment that essentially made it ‘bigger on the inside. But I have no idea where I stuffed it…” He adds as he glances at the room one last time, then turns to leave, the door shutting behind him.

And so, after heading to the main room, he throws one last glance around the empty insides. Then turns to head out.

“Nobody comes around this time anyway.” He fixes the arrow case on his back as he exits the building.

“And if somebody does come. Well, tough luck I guess? I can’t be constantly open.” He adds as the building's big door closes behind him.

“So, let’s see. No real need to teleport, game around here should be good. I’ll just exit the forest, then move next to it while walking away from the mountain range.” He glances behind him for a few seconds before turning to walk down the stone path at a casual pace. The trees on the sides of the path creating a canopy over his head.

“Hmm, maybe I should add a couple of lights along the path once I get the time…” He whispered as he looked up, the sun’s rays being slightly blocked off by the foliage over his head.

It took several minutes of walking until the owner finally arrived at a clearing. The forest which was obstructing most of his view till now getting replaced by vast green fields. At least to his left side. As the more you looked towards the right, the less greenery you could see. Instead, on a hill-like climb, that greenery got replaced by brown soil and rocks, which then gave way to the actual foot of the ‘schism’ mountain range.

Far further ahead you could also make out some gray structures sticking out from the brown landscape, them being the outposts that were scattered around the border. These were quite small though, as the main fort, which was also the only place where Iero sent its squires, was miles away from here.

The owner takes a deep breath, and turns to the left, the forest he just exited now extending to his left, with the field taking the center and right side of his view.

Staying on a small dirt path, the owner started walking forward once again, ignoring any fork on the path that led deeper into the fields.

“Monster boars usually don’t move too far from their turf, and their turf is always deeper into the forests. I think there was a path down this dirt road that led into the deeper part of the forest.” The owner whispers to himself as he readies his bow and arrow.

“...Uhh, well this feels awkward. I haven’t touched a bow for way too long. Even when I was still active, I tended to use close range equipment in most cases…” He adds as he pulls on the strings, the bow bending to his pull.

Putting the bow back over his shoulder, he then kept his eyes aimed forward and to the left, towards the forest next to him. The occasional forest animal popping from behind the trees, only to disappear again shortly after.

“Hmm, if I remember correctly, while monster boars are omnivores, they prefer to eat live prey, like most of the monster variants. Heh, the whole thing does sound a bit funny when you think that the same applies to a monster rabbit, or a squirrel. At least until one chews through your leg and proceeds to ran off with it…” With a small chuckle, the owner then quickened his pace.

-About ten minutes later-

(There, I see a fork that goes left into the forest.)

After reaching said fork, the owner took a left turn towards a small opening that led deeper, into the thicker part of the forest. The path itself was nothing more than a walked grass path, the only real way to distinguish it from the surrounding area was that the path itself was slightly recessed into the ground...

And so, the owner kept moving forward, towards the deeper part of the forest...

(Once I’m deep enough, I need to lure a monster boar to me. Best way I can think of is fresh blood, the smell of blood is bound to attract one. The problem is that monster boards aren't the only thing that gets attracted by blood, so I’ll have to act quickly after finding one…)

And slowly, as the path started becoming indistinguishable from the surrounding location, the trees started to thicken, and the sun’s light started to dim because of the thick foliage overhead, giving away the fact that the owner was starting to enter the deeper parts of the forest.

After reaching a part where the trees parted to create a small opening, he stopped.

“Ok, this should be far enough. No fun getting lost here. Now let’s see...” The owner nods, crouches down and readies an arrow...

“First, we wait for something to use as bait, a rabbit or maybe a deer.…” He whispers as he narrows his eyes, keeping completely still…

-5 minutes later-

(Maybe I should have brought a carrot...)

The owner was about to move, when with a small rustle. A small rabbit popped out from one of the bushes, casually hopping about towards who knows where…

He quickly stops moving, and silently draws his bow.

Aims, and shoots...

An audible ‘thud’, and the rabbit let out its final hop...

The owner then gets up and walks up to the now motionless rabbit. He then kneels down next to it and yanks the arrow out of its body.

“Second, we make some bait to attract the target.” He whispers to himself as he uses the arrow he just picked to make a long, deep cut onto the rabbit's torso, causing even more blood to spill out.

He then gets up again, and walks up to a tree.

(Better wait from higher ground now, the last thing I need is some carnivore appearing from behind me.)

With that thought, the owner climbs up the tree, and settles down on one thick branch.

(And now, we wait again.)

With a small sigh, He leaned against the trunk…

5 minutes later-

(Nothing yet…)

-10 minutes later-

(Still nothing…)

-15 minutes later-

(Nada…)

-20 minutes later-

(...nuh-uhhhh, wait....)

After a long wait of nothingness, a small patch of greenery in the distance started to rustle, the rustle slowly moving towards the body of the dead rabbit…

The owner silently readied himself as he drew his bow, and as the rustling reached the final bush...

Another rabbit popped up. The owner groaned as he rolled his eyes, and slowly lowered his bow.

(Do rabbits have only one mate? I thought the term fucking like rabbits meant that they literally fuck everything...)

And as the owner let out a small sigh and lowered his head to look right under the tree…

(Better get down and sca….)

“SQWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” A sudden loud squeal as a bulky shadow dashed from the side of a tree, crashing right into the second rabbit.

(..re it off….)

The owner quickly readied his bow again at the shadow.

Which in truth was a stocky, black furred boar with overly large tusks and beady yellow eyes, several spike like bone protrusions that run along its spine, all the way to its tail, where they then instead covered said tail like an actual exoskeleton, these same spike like protrusions were also sticking out from where its front shoulder blades connected to the rest of its body. Its overall size was two, to two and a half times bigger than a normal boar. In other words, about chest height to the owner.

(Damn this is a big one alright…)

The owner narrowed his eyes as he readied his shot, the monster boar seemingly occupied with gobbling down the now two dead rabbits…

(I can’t see the head from here, fat chance a normal arrow will do anything to the rest of this thing’s body…)

While keeping the bow drawn, the owner takes a deep breath.

“HEY!” The moment he shouted, the monster boar darted its head towards him. And came eye to eye, with an arrowhead. An arrowhead that priced right into the boar’s eye.

With a loud shrieking squeal the boar violently shook its head, lifting itself to it’s back legs several times as it flailed about. Before finally turning itself to look towards the owner, it’s now single yellow eye locking towards him.

(Still not dead, and something tells me it's extra pissed.)

The owner readied another arrow as he held his breath, while at the same time, the boar let out another loud squeal, and charged right towards the tree the owner was on.

Before the owner could let his second shot, the boar collided with the tree, a surprisingly strong vibration causing him to let go of the arrow he was holding in order to steady himself, yet a little too late, as he found himself leaning forward a bit too much.

Before he could lose his footing completely, he kicked off from the tree. Jumping in an ark away from the boar and turning himself in the air to keep himself facing the boar as he landed several meters away from it.

The boar, without losing a moment, turned around and charged right towards the owner again with another engaged squeal, not giving him time to pull and arrow as he had to jump to the side to avoid the charging boar. Which instead of stopping its charge after missing, kept picking up speed, running in an ark till it faced the owner again and charging at him yet again with even more speed.

Without the time to ready himself yet again, the owner ended up jumping towards the boar, landing his boot right on the top of its head as he then vaulted over it. And as He landed and turned to face the boar, he found it charging towards him, again...

(Oh for fucks sake! How did it turn around so quickly!)

Instead of reading himself for a third jump, he tossed his bow to the side and slid his right leg back, bringing his left hand forward as he pulled his right arm back…

And right as the board closed in and jumped to impale him with its tusks, he leaned forward and brought his right arm down with a vertical hook…

The boar’s momentum seemingly coming to a full halt as it instantly crashed down to the ground right in front of owner with a loud slam. The point where his hand had impacted with its head now had a wide, deep dent…

(....I was never good with bows after getting spotted…)

The owner takes a step back as he keeps looking at the now unmoving boar…

(Well, I think this will keep monster boar on the menu for quite some time.)

With a slight nod, the owner turned to look for his bow, which he found a few feet away from him, and as he turned towards it and kneeled down to pick it up…

“It came from this way! Come on hurry up! Somebody might be in danger!” A young male voice echoed from the point of the path the owner used to come here.

“Wait slow down Axel! It was probably just wild animals fighting! No humans wander this far into the forest! Wait!” An equally young female voice shouted right after, that one sounding rather out of breath…

And seconds later, a young man with unkempt brown hair appeared through the path. A gray tunic running all the way to the middle of his thighs, a belt around his waist holding said tunic from flowing around like a sheet. He was also wearing a pair of tall brown boots, and a raggedy red cloak. In his right hand, a rather good looking steel sword, to his other hand a normal round shield.

Following behind him, an equally young girl with long black straight hair that went to about chest height. This one was wearing a blue robe that covered all of her body, a deep blue strap of fabric was wrapped around her torso, a little under her chest. Giving away a small part of her figure, two more sets of the same type of fabric straps were on each of her forearms to keep the robe in place. In her left hand, a wooden staff that curved up to a half-circle on the top. A single small blue gem attached to the top of the staff via a small chain.

The girl, after reaching the young man, leaned on her staff as she essentially folded over to catch her breath…

The owner, who was still kneeling down to pick his bow, just stared at the duo…

“Sir! Don’t worry! I will handle this! Riela can use healing magic to help you!” The young man shouts with a determined voice as he runs between him and the downed monster boar, readying his shield. The girl, upon hearing her name, also runs up to the owner…

“Can you move? Don’t worry, just tell me where you got hurt and I can heal you.” The girl, Riela then adds as she kneels down next to the owner while trying to keep a calm expression …

(...Well, ain’t this just precious...)

The owner let out a small chuckle as he stood up, the girl looking blankly at him as she lifted her head towards him…

“Uhh. The monster boar ain’t moving…” The guy, Axel, then speaks up as he lowers his shield slightly…

“Umm Axel…” The girl then speaks up with a rather meek voice, causing the guy to turn and look at us.

“Ohh, you healed him already! I knew you were a good healer, but you work even faster now!” Axel exclaims as he glances at the owner, then at the kneeling girl…

“I, I didn't heal him.” The girl responds as she gets up, causing Axel to tilt his head.

“I think there was a bit of a mix up here. I was kneeling down to pick my bow, I was not injured. Though I thank you for trying to help me.” The owner responds as he lifts his bow slightly.

“O- ohhh. I see…” Axel scratches the back of his head as he glances away with an embarrassed grin.

“But you don’t need to thank me. As a Hero, it’s my job to help people.” He adds as he sheaths his sword.

“Hmm? You’re a Hero?” The owner asks as he passes his bow over his shoulder.

“Yea. I just got baptized last week. I was making my way towards the underworld, but a nearby village had a request about a group of violent Kobolds. We had actually just taken care of them and were heading back, but then heard some very loud angry squeals. Too loud to be from a normal boar...” Axel answers as he points behind him, towards the fallen monster boar.

“Oh? So you were heading towards the schism?” The owner asks as he looks at Axel from top to bottom.

“Well yea, you need to pass the schism to go to the underworld.” And Axel casually nods…

“Uhh, I hate to break it to you then, but. Unless if what you’re wearing is actually much tougher than it actually looks, you seem a bit under-equipped for that trip…” The owner points at the new hero’s tunic and shield as he speaks.

“Really? You have gone past the schism? I thought we had garrisons up there. How bad can it be?” Axel folds his arms as he lifts both eyebrows.

“Uhh, I have an establishment nearby. So occasionally people that do pass it stop by. And yea, we got garrisons, but only at the foot of the mountain, not on it. The moment you start climbing, you’ll be running into demons. Harpies, lizards, and from what I heard, even lesser dragons tend to reside on the mountain.” The owner responds as he shakes his head.

“Ohh, damn…” Axel lets his shoulders drop the moment he hears the word ‘dragon’.

“If you don’t mind me asking mister. What are you doing this deep into the forest?” The mage girl then asks, turning her sight towards the monster boar.

“I was hunting. Rabbits. Then this thing popped up. Thankfully it ended up totaling itself by running into a tree at full speed. I think it might have killed itself by pushing the arrow in its eye deeper to its head... “ The owner points at the monster boar as he speaks.

“So, in other words you got really lucky?” Axel adds as he raises an eyebrow.

“Yea, I guess. Though now I have to drag this damn thing all the way to my hot spring…” The owner lets out a small sigh as he folds his arms…

“Hot, spring?” The girl asked with a confused expression as her eyes went wide.

“Yea, the establishment I mentioned, since I serve food as well…” The owner responds as he glances at the girl, whose eye’s then seemingly sparked up.

(Hmm, I wonder…)

“If you two are interested. I can let you use it for free. If you’ll help me carry this thing back there.” The owner then points at the dead monster boar.

“Uhh, I don’t r…” Before Axel could finish, Riela crawled up right next to him, holding her staff with both hands in front of her chest, giving him a very strong dose of, puppy eyes. And five seconds later.

“...O, ok…” Axel caved in…

“Aight, I’ll let you decide who’s carrying it then.” The owner nods as he turns to look towards the path that led to the field.

“Wait?! You won’t help?!” Axel shouts in surprise.

“The free session is a trade. If you want me to carry that thing as well. Then you’re only getting a discount. I’ll let you decide.” The owner responds with a slight shrug.

Axel stays quiet for a few seconds…

“Axel, you used most of our gold to buy that sword...” Riela whispers. And Axel, with a sigh, moved towards the boar...

“It’s ok. It’s training. It's strength training.” He whispers to himself as he picks one of the boar’s legs, and starts pulling. His struggle to move the boar, quite obvious...

“Hmm, can your healing magic deal with fatigue too miss mage? Think he will need some support.” The owner asks as he turns towards Riela.

“Ohh! Good idea!” She nods a couple of times before running up to the struggling Hero.

“Well, let’s go then.” And the owner then turns around to walk down the forest path.

“J, just don’t go too fast please! This thing is heavier than it looks!” Axel shouted…