Sweet Revenge

Asher headed out of the city towards the western mountains. The city was nicely seated in a fertile valley with large mountains on either side, and it provided some excellent natural barriers against some of the more enormous monsters.

As Asher left the city, he saw some merchants getting their carriages ready to go. Thankfully they would head to the western territory, and after offering five silver, they agreed to take him as far as the mountains, which would cut his traveling time in half.

Asher climbed into the carriage and waited for it to head down the road. It was still early morning as Asher watched as the city pulled away. "I don't think I have ever gotten a chance to see the city from this angle." The entire town was covered by golden light. The scene was so beautiful. In Asher's past life, he had never been able to take the chance to enjoy sights like this. He was always struggling for survival, and the only time he could enjoy life like this was with...

Asher shook the thought from his head. Asher looked through the 'Monsterpedia' for his target. "Drill horn... Drill horn... ahh, Drill-horned boar. Drill-horned boar is a novice earth element monster. The tusks are made from stone and dirt, and it uses the earth element to spin the tusks like a drill to dig up tree roots to eat."

The merchants had guards that walked alongside the carriage. One of them, a lanky-looking fellow, looked at Asher sitting in the carriage. "Hey, look at the nerd. Why would he be reading at times like this?"

"He is just a scared kid wanting to play the hero." Another replied.

"I bet the moment we see a monster, the bookworm wets himself."

Asher was annoyed, but he ignored them all the same. "The drill horn has a few intermediate and advanced variants. However, they are territorial, and they only appear together when they are fighting over territory. The female is significantly bigger than the male, and how big is significantly bigger?"

Asher put away the book and pulled out the herbology book he had 'borrowed' from the shop. "If Cynthia found out, I took this..." Asher shuttered the thought.

He flipped through the book. "The Burning Passion Fruit is a large fruit with large fire element properties. Most notable is the pulsing heat when held. Many people claim that it feels like a pulsing heart. While eatable, it has an extremely spicy flavor."

Asher looked over the plant's appearance so he could find it in the wild. "I wonder why these plants can't be cultivated."

[You have acquired the requirements to obtain the skill 'Pharmaceutical Knowledge.']

['Pharmaceutical Knowledge' has combined with the skill 'Scan']

[Scan has reached LV2]

[You can now use 'Scan' to identify herbs and plants]

Asher felt dumbfounded. "Okay, these skills are hacked." Asher thought over how these skills even began to appear. "Maybe the system responds to what I need. That would make sense, I guess. I got Courageous Charge while fighting the knight slime, and I got meditation and cultivation after almost dying because of said knight slime."

Asher sighed. "At least, it will make finding the fruit easier." The carriage continued for a few hours before reaching the base mountain, and the merchant let him hope out of the carriage.

As Asher ran off toward the mountain, he overheard the guard laughing and saying it would be the last time he would ever be seen. Asher looked back briefly to glare at them before continuing.

Asher walked for an hour without seeing any sign of the boar or fruit. "And here I thought my Scan ability would make this easy. How naive of me." Asher heard what sounded like shouting in the distance.

Asher investigated the source of the sounds only to find William's party. "That shiny bastard." Asher watched them from the shadows. William sat towards the back and even had a chair and a lady in his lap. "That sleaze bag. Well, this explains why he is so low-level and weak. He probably pays the other to hunt the dangerous monsters while he does nothing but fell up those women."

The boar was surrounded by spearmen and knights with mages and archers behind them, casting long-range skills. "He may be scum, but his party has a nice formation." The boar was as big as an average adult on all fours but seemed similar to a normal boar. It had difficulty turning, so the warriors would provoke it to charge and step aside at the last second.

It was like watching a matador with a bull. Every dodge was met with another cut along the boar's body. To the point, its fur was soaked in its blood. It was educational. Asher, observe. Group fighting was like a careful dance, and the warriors had to move whenever the boar did. Every step out of the ring was met with a rain of spells from the caster.

Asher summoned a bow and aimed it at the boar. Asher wanted the exp. He could not steal the items but tried to level up and stop the others from leveling. He had already scanned some of the party members, and the weakest was level 45, so they wouldn't miss it.

Wait with bow draw and water arrow set. He calmed his breathing. Every moment was drawn out as the seconds became like hours. His heart pounded in his chest, and it felt like the beating was against his every second, growing louder. The boar let out a fatal sequel. Asher let loose the arrow, flying through the air and sinking deep into the boar's eye.

[Congradulation! You have killed a drill-horned boar. +14 exp]

[You have killed a new type of creature. +30 exp]

Asher was overjoyed he managed to hit it. Some of the fighters noticed the water arrow flying through the air, sending them scrambling to find where the person was. "Maybe..." Asher covered himself in the veil and snuck up to the boar quietly.

The warrior ran off to scout the area while the archers and mages guarded the boar. "What was that find which fool would be stupid enough to shoot at the great William Thorn III."

"First, I did shoot at you. Second, no one would dare call you anything like great." Asher grumbled under his breath. He was finally able to make it right next to the boar. The moment he touched it, it fractured into a thousand pieces.

"What the hell is happening?" William screamed as he watched his quarry disappear. "Damn it, find the bastard that is stealing from me. You stupid mages. Cast your spells and find him."

When the mages cast their locate spells, Asher used his wind strider boots to run away at top speed. They never even had a chance to discover him. Asher stopped running away when he traveled 10 miles. If Sir William Thorn-in-the-Butt showed his face, he could claim there is no way to reach this distance in any amount of time.

He smiled at himself. "Nothing feels as good as sweet revenge on a self-righteous bastard." Asher walked and found a cliff. He found four more boars, half as big as the first one. "Guess that's what the book meant by significantly larger. The first one should have been a female. I still haven't found a passion fruit, and don't tell me they are out of season."

Asher wandered about the mountain. He would use his scan to check out the herbs in the area. "Poison lily. Mountain jade. Life-sucking trap. Reviving grass." Asher collected some that seemed more harmless but ignored the more dangerous. Some of these herbs sound like touching them would be a mistake.

Asher ended up on a cliff overlooking the valley with the city in the center. There was a tree near the edge, and the tree was covered with tiny red and orange fruits, bright red like an apple. As Asher approached the tree, he used his scan ability.

[Scan complete]

Name: Burning Passion Fruit

Status: Ripe

Description: A fruit that has evolved with fire-attributed aetheric essence. They will only grow high in mountains that are volcanic in origin. The fruits have been known to pulse like a heartbeat from the heat of the fire essence.

Asher wanted to jump for joy. He finally found some burning passion fruit. Asher pulled one of the red fruits out of the tree. Its skin was hot to the touch that Asher yelped and dropped it. "Damn, that's hot." It felt like he put his hand directly on a burner. As the fruit hit the ground, it began to smoke as it scorched the earth.

[Scan complete]

Name: Burning Passion Fruit

Status: Overripe

Description: A fruit that has evolved with fire-attributed aetheric essence. They will only grow high in mountains that are volcanic in origin. The fruits have been known to pulse like a heartbeat from the heat of the fire essence.

"So the red ones are overripe, the orange must be ripe, and the green ones are underripe." Asher grabbed one of the orange ones hesitantly, and it was warm to the touch and came in waves like it had a heartbeat. Asher then felt one of the green ones without plucking it, and its skin was calm like a fruit should be.

"Guess that means the concentration of fire essence increases as it ripens." Asher grabbed 35 orange fruit to use for his potion. "I wonder if there is a way to collect and use the red ones. For now, these will have to do." He put them back into his inventory and began his long march back to the city.

On his way, he overheard William's group fighting again. Asher snuck up and watched. The more time he oversaw, the easier it became to predict the warrior's and the boar's movements. William had a scowl across his face. Asher decided that some sweet revenge and easy prey were in order. He summoned his bow and aimed.