- First Encounter

Irvin was an adventurer of twenty years , yet the highest rank he could achieve was a measly D rank. He had failed multiple times to promote himself as the requirements needed for C rank and above was no longer missions completed but strength

Strength he unfortunately did not posses , no matter how much he wanted to grow stronger his talent made it abundantly clear where he stood in this world.

He had given up , for the last year Irvin did nothing but simple tasks with the least amount of danger trying to earn himself enough so he could retire

But recently he had heard a rumor one that he could not ignore , the scholars of the Magic Tower had discovered a way to permanently increase a humans strength in the form of a potion but it only worked on people who have not trained in aura or mana , a requirement he met

They saw an opportunity and decided to mass produce them and sell those potions to every kingdom that was willing to pay in order to strengthen their armies , but recently a rumor had been going around that the black market in the Kingdom of Valoran had gotten their hands on some of those potions and were selling them to the highest bidder

He had spend quite a bit of his silver to get here and even more to learn the location the sale would take place and the time , and to his surprise it was not a one time sale. The black market did not sell the potions in batches but sold one potions every three days , they were using the potions popularity to draw clients and sell more goods

The next sale would occur in two days. In two days he would have the chance to finally brake the limitations on his body and become and C rank adventurer , he could already imagine his pockets filling up with gold as even the simplest C rank mission payed three times the amount of a normal D rank missions

But in the mean time in order to kill some time and earn back some of that silver he spend , Irvin decided to look for the closest branch of the adventurers guild in Valoran hoping to find any requests that didn't take took much time to complete

"Welcome to the adventurers guild how can i help you?" Asked the female receptionist with a smile on her face as he walked in

"Hello , are there any requests at the moment that could be completed in a short amount of time?" he asked the female receptionist

"Can I please have your adventurer badge of identification , so I can properly assist you"

Irvin handed his badge and waited patiently for the receptionist to confirm his rank and id , after the receptionist confirmed Irvin's id and rank she gave him some recommendations

"We have plenty of F and E ranked requests that are mostly handyman work or delivery if you're interested"

"No is there any D rank missions that fit that criteria , if they could be done in two days max ill take them"

"I understand , please wait a moment" the receptionist turned around and started searching for a book of what Irvin assumed contained the D rank missions , after a couple of minutes she had found a couple requests

"There are three requests at the moment that meet your requirements"

"The first is an escort mission , from Valoran to the nearest town of Clacton its a two day job"

"The second is a protection mission , a group of herbalist wish to enter Red Wood forest for a day in order to restock their supplies and your job will be to protect them in that time period"

"And the third one is a hunting mission located also in the Red Wood forest , it requires you to retrieve the tusks and skin of a Tusked Boar the body is not a priority. Time limit of two days"

The female receptionist listed all three request and waited patiently for Irvin to make his choice

The first one was immediately shut down by Irvin he spend an entire week walking from his hometown to get to Valoran , he had enough of walking

The second was annoying as it was not just one person he had to protect so that one was no good as well

The third one was not that bad considering he didn't need to bring the body since the skin and the tusks was the priority , and although Tusked Boars were dangerous if someone inexperienced had tried to hunt them it was not a problem for him since he had killed a couple of them before so he was confident

"Ill take the hunting mission if you don't mind"

"Very well , please sign here for confirmation so I can transfer the request to your badge"

Irvin signed and watched as the receptionist transferred the request to his badge.

An adventurers badge was like a small data drive that was used to keep information like your name , rank and number of requests completed , but was mostly used so that the adventurers guild could keep track of who was doing what and if someone died they could clear the mission and reassign it to someone else

That was only possible thanks to the way these badges were made , every new adventure would sign a magic contract with their own blood with one drop being spilled on their newly made badge and the other on a mana crystal that was used by the adventurers guild

This crystal allowed the guild access to every adventures most basic information and what tasks they were currently on but the most important information it gave them was if you were still alive

If you died unexpectedly during a mission the guild would know and could immediately reassign the task to someone else

"Thank you very much and good luck on your mission" the female receptionist thanked Irvin for his cooperation and wished him good luck with a smile

"Thank you" He thanked the female receptionist and left the guild , heading towards the Red Wood forest

The Red Wood forest was located north west just outside of Valoran , it took Irvin only five hours to reach since the guild branch he took the request from was located on the north west on Valoran as well , which was pretty convenient for him

After wondering around the woods for a couple of hours Irvin finally spotted the thing he came here for

Just a couple of meters away from him he could see a four feet tall black boar with two giant tusks of about 30cm curving upwards and four smaller once in front of them that were about 10/15cm long , truly and intimidating sight

Irvin slowly moved into a more suitable position where he could hit the boar with his arrow straight through the eye and hopefully finish it of in one hit

Once he found the perfect spot he carefully took one arrow from his quiver and slowly pulled on his bowstring trying to make as less noise as possible in order for him to not miss this perfect opportunity that was presented to him

After drawing his bow , just as he was about to shoot. The noise of branches snapping was heard behind him which alerted the boar and made it look in his direction

As soon as the Tusked Boar saw Irvin and the bow he was holding it growled and charged at him with full speed

"!!!" Irvin was shocked at how quickly the scenario changed , one second he was the hunter and the other he turned into the pray , and it was not even his fault he thought with grievance in his eyes

Whatever made that sound behind him , got him in a situation where he could potentially get killed , he quickly shot the arrow he had ready but immediately started running since his aim was unfortunately off as he saw the arrow bounce off the boars tusk

Just as Irvin was running he saw a man walking in his direction and he immediately knew that he was the one responsible for the noise that alerted the boar , just as he was about the speak the man saw Irvin and smiled

"Finally!" the man shouted in frustration , startling Irvin

"I've been wondering around this forest for hours now , but I finally found another human" he said with some excitement in his voice

Irvin was stunned , what do you mean you've been wondering this place for hours its not even that big of a forest so how could you get lost to the point of feeling this much joy of meeting another human he asked himself in disbelief but quickly threw those questions aside as he shouted

"Run!" Irvin shouted at the man trying to warn him of the bull rushing boar that was on its way

"What ? Run ?" Lucian heard the man running towards him screaming for him to run , he was puzzled so he looked behind the man and saw the biggest fucking boar he ever saw in his life charging right behind the man that was heading straight for him

"I see so that's why you were screaming for me to run" Lucian smiled , he was a little surprised that the first human he met seemed to be of good nature , he half jokingly expected to meet some bandits or something as his first encounter

Lucian took a throwing stance while electricity slowly started crackling and hissing around his hand forming what seemed to be a lightning javelin , once it was formed he hurled it as hard as he could towards the boar

*boom*

The sound of thunder spread throughout the forest scaring any living being around that area