Staring at the huge beast before me, I felt intimidated.

It had tusks extending outwards, similar to the way elephants had their tusks grown. The height of the beast was very tall as well, around two metres tall and three metres in length. Despite it's height, it had slim sides, allowing it to manoeuvre in between the trees with ease.

As if to demonstrate it's strength, the boar I was observing wedged it's tusks under a tree to uproot it, and proceeded to nibble at strange black lumps stuck on the roots. It must have a really unrefined palate to enjoy eating something as weird as that.

It might not have been the best choice, but I took the chance to attack it, jumping from the tree I was perching on while swinging my hoe downwards. The impact of my fall focused in the hoe and I stuck the forehead of the beast hard, causing a loud thunk reminiscent of a hitting a rock to ring out the air. The boar squealed in pain as I hit the ground rolling.

Damn, these things have really thick skulls!

The boar stumbled around for a bit, then attempted to charge at me but hit a tree in it's confusion. It tried to right it's balance after, but was too dizzy and fell onto it's side on the ground.

Taking the opportunity, I repeatedly slammed my hoe on it's forehead over and over.

"Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!"

The beast kept squealing in pain as I attacked it again and again. Pools of blood collected on the ground, enough to fill a bathtub. The creature fell unconscious and I used the activated the function of the storage bag to collect it's body. Damn, I really should purchase one of these bags for my own use.

As the last of it's body went into the bag, I heard the thuds of hooves hitting the ground. Three other boars had heard the cries of torture from their's fellow kind. Crap, this was bad.

As one of them charged towards me, I dodged to the left. The boar hit a tree, causing the tree to shake from the impact. It looked dazed after that. The other two charged at me from my left and my right.

Quickly thinking of what I could do in this situation, I did the first thing that came to mind, jumping as high as I could and swinging my hoe downwards onto the snout of one of the charging boars. The resulting leverage lifted me higher into the air and I landed onto the back of the boar I hit. I stumbled and almost fell. I couldn't believe my plan worked, that was way too close!

"Skreeek!"

The boars squealed in pain as they collided. I myself almost fell off the monster yet again from the impact. Watching the boar that hit the tree face me again after getting over it's daze, I had an idea.

I shot a dart of fire from each of my hands, hitting both eyes of the boar perfectly. The boar roared in a way uncharacteristic of it's species and charged towards where it last saw me, the other two boars.

Leaping onto a nearby tree, I watched as the blinded boar rammed hard into the other two.

And before I knew it, those idiotic boars forgot their original intention and started fighting each other. I as a farmer, had kept pigs and could vouch for their intellect. The sight before me surprised me, as I'd never expected their cousins to be such fools.

The boars soon wore themselves off. A few other boars had come out of curiosity but left the trio to their battle. The blinded one had huge stab wounds all over it, collapsing due to blood loss. Another one seemed to have gotten a concussion, also on the ground in a heap.

And the final one grunted loudly, triumphantly even, as if proud of it's victory. I gave it a few slams to the head as a reward and collected the corpses.

Haha, if the boars were this dumb, this task was going to be easy! And of course I got whacked in the face again by life for that statement.

I spotted a humongous tiger as I climbed amongst the trees, searching for more boars.

The tiger was around two metres in height as well, body stretching around five metres long. It strutted proudly towards a pack of boars and sows. Most of the boars and sows squealed in terror and ran. A few boars bravely confronted the tiger, sacrificing their lives for the others and charged!

Unfortunately for them, they stood no chance against the tiger.

The tiger swiped with a paw, sending four of the boars flying. Two other boars struck with their tusks onto the sides of the tiger but the attacks simply glanced off. The tiger lifted it's paw and swiped downwards onto the head one of the boars that had attacked it. A loud cracking sound could be heard as the head of the boar was crushed.

Holy crap. That tiger was simply too powerful! Judging by it's strength, it was definitely a high ranking magic beast.

In a short period of time, the tiger had killed off most of the boars that fought it, running off to chase the ones that had run away. I waited for a few minutes just to be sure it had left far away.

Silence. Yeah, it should be safe now!

NOT.

I swiftly collected six of the corpses, preparing to leave when I suddenly heard a whoosh. The instant I heard the sound, I swerved to the left, narrowly dodging the sudden attack.

Blood trickled down my cheek. I turned back, only to see another tiger, but much smaller than the one that killed the boars, only the size of a regular tiger. I assumed it was a cub from it's youthful appearance, coming to feast on the meal it's parent had prepared for it.

"Grrrr!"

The cub was displeased that someone had stolen a portion of it's meal. It pounced at me again and I swung my hoe towards the side of it's head as I dodged. The tiger yelped as it got hit but didn't bleed in the slightest.

That's too powerful! Even the cubs are this strong!

Having stunned the cub for seconds, I ran away. The cub continued to follow even after I ran for minutes, but did not attempt to attack again. It keep growling loudly, as if to attract attention. Then it occured to me.

Attention!

It was trying to get the attention of it's parents! I thought of climbing amongst the trees but realised that tigers could climb trees as well. Fuck! I continued to run faster.

"Rooooaaar!

Oh no.

A very loud and angry roar finally sounded out behind me. Fortunately for me, I was already close to civilization. I neared the gates of the capital and happened to see Gerald sitting there, bored.

"Gerald! Help!"

I wasn't sure how strong his combat prowess was but I was sure gatekeepers need a certain level of strength to be employed as such.

"Alan! What have you gotten yourself into?"

Gerald fumbled, reaching behind his back to grab his staff and sent a bolt of lightning towards the tiger.

The tiger shrugged off the hit to it's abdomen and reached out a paw to swipe me. Claws raked across my back as I screeched in pain. Fortunately, the tiger misjudged the distance I was from it and only the tips of it's claws hit my back. I was sent flying from the impact and Gerald caught me, passing me to another guard that had come after hearing the growls of the tiger.

The tiger growled as it faced Gerald, cautiously eyeing him. Gerald dodged as the tiger tentatively swiped at him. He followed with a stronger bolt of lightning that he had been charging the whole time, striking the spot between the eyes of the tiger.

It whined in pain but seemed to be uninjured. Despite that, the tiger took off, unwilling to deal with such troublesome prey. Gerald heaved a sign of relief.

"Try not to attract trouble like this next time, will you?"

Gerald helped me wrap a few bandages behind my back but it wasn't quite sufficient. I had to pay a few dollops for them as well.

Limping to a nearby clinic, I had to pay a Coup (1000) for the service. Those healers sure did earn a high pay for simply using their magic. I wondered if working as a healer suited me, with high pay and a easy job. That would certainly be a good use for my omega element.

I headed back to Lumious after that.

Reaching the office, I handed the results of my misadventure to Edward. He raised an eyebrow.

"You know, I didn't expect you to complete the task as a rankless mage. I guess you do have some combat sense, eh? Oh, and you left your library books in the bag too."

I panicked. Did the books get soaked in the blood and damaged? Fortunately, they only touched the sweaty fur of one of the boars. It smelled terrible but it was better than the altenatives.

After recieving the rewards, I decided to cultivate a few more ranks before taking on another task.

I needed to get stronger if I didn't want to be trashed by monsters so easily!