Boar

Walking towards the mountain Diedrich found it odd he had not seen a single creature yet. He had been traversing what he assumed was an animal path for two hours and had decided to quicken his pace, with how dense the vegetation was it was virtually impossible for him to spot anything so he abandoned vigilance.

Also finding his sword too heavy to constantly carry, Diedrich decided to create a sheath for it, although it took a few tries with the final result looking subpar it was usable and fit his about 70 centimeters long sword, he also made a strap for the sheath out of wood so he could carry it over his shoulder, it felt extremely rigid and uncomfortable, but did its job and Diedrich could move quicker.

Halfway towards the mountain Diedrich spotted movement on the path in the distance and encountered his first sign of life. In the distance Diedrich could see a boar searching for food, slowly heading in his direction.

The boar was different from the ones Diedrich knew about as it was about 150cm tall, and with Diedrich being 185cm, the boar was huge.

The boar also seemed to have a longer snout than normal with no tusks and was brown except for the bottom of its jaw where the fur was white.

Diedrich quickly backtracked a bit so the boar couldn't see him, as the path he followed wasn't straight but seemed to follow a snake-like movement the boar's view of him was obstructed.

Diedrich was conflicted about whether he should fight it or not, although the boar had no tusks, its size alone showed its power and Diedrich did not have any skills that could deal damage to it, except Treant creation however he did not know how that skill worked as he had yet to encounter any small trees to try it on.

On the other hand, Diedrich did not want to leave the safety of the path and enter the dense shrubbery where who knows what could attack him, and even then he didn't know if the boar would not sniff his scent and chase him, so Diedrich decided he'd rather fight and have the advantage of performing a surprise attack.

"How should I attack it?"

Not wanting to attack it with just his sword Diedrich needed a plan to assure his victory, so racking his brain and looking over his skills again Diedrich suddenly found something obvious that he had missed with the skill Treant creation.

" I can make Treants from any plant"

Diedrich wanted to slap himself in the face for missing something so obvious, he didn't know why but when he read the word plant he just assumed it only meant tree's but it could be made from anything plant based!

Hearing the Boar in the distance closing in on him Diedrich quickly cut off a large portion of vines on the tree next to him and put it in a little bundle before activating the skill.

"This better work"

Diedrich felt a strange sensation throughout his body, as if some sort of energy had awoken inside of him. It felt unfamiliar yet familiar at the same time, as if it belonged with him, was a piece of him even though it was never meant to be seen.

The energy began gradually moving towards his arms and accumulated in his hands.

Once Diedrich felt like the energy had fully amassed, a dark green mist began to slowly seep out of both hands, traveling towards the pile of vines in front of him.

For a second Diedrich felt like a piece of him was missing, like his essence had been sucked out. The feeling only ended when the green mist went into the vines.

After a few seconds of waiting the vines began to slowly intertwine and mingle, first two feet were formed and from there the rest of the body began to shape eventually turning the vines into a humanoid figure standing at 40cm tall.

The figure had no facial features except for two eye-shaped cavities that were glowing a soft green light while its fingers were a bunch of long and draping vines.

Diedrich looked incredulous at the creature and thought " What is this Sh*t"

Diedrich was incredibly disappointed by his creation it was the size of a doll and from the looks of it couldn't do much, Diedrich's complaints however were short lived as he began feeling a Massive headache, so he checked his status.

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Name: Diedrich

Race: Human (✩✩✩✩)

Tier: 1 (Lv:1)

Stats: Strength: 7, Intelligence: 8, Agility: 7, EP: 15 [3], Constitution: 6

Affinity: Beast

Class: Beast Guardian (✩✩✩✩)

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"12 EP!!!"

It had cost Diedrich 12 EP to make the vine treant, Diedrich wanted to curse but was interrupted.

"Oink, oink"

Diedrich immediately became still as a mouse hoping that the boar had not heard his earlier outburst, making sure Diedrich quietly walked to the curve of the path to inconspicuously look at where the boar was, there he saw that the boar was no longer searching for food but was steadily walking in his direction with its little tail up in the air as if it was on alert, the boar seemed to be looking for something or someone.

Diedrich didn't have a lot of time and he knew it and quickly formulated a plan, eventually he thought of one, it was rough but could work.

Briskly walking towards his vine Treant, which still stood in its original spot motionlessly, Diedrich was puzzled about how he was supposed to communicate with it as it was vital to the plan, although he could feel some sort of connection to the Treant, Diedrich didn't have time to explore it and just needed it to follow his commands.

Diedrich tried to give it orders mentally and out loud however it remained motionless. Diedrich then tried to envision the Treant's movements in his mind just like with the Wood Manipulation skill and surprisingly it worked.

"This will make things more difficult" Diedrich thought as he willed it to go into a bush next to the path while he retreated a bit further.

Diedrich did this just in time as not a second later the boar showed up.

Diedrich and the boar had an intense stare of for a couple of seconds neither willing to look away, the boar began to threateningly squeal at Diedrich opening its mouth widely enough to show the four massive sharp tusks it had, two on the bottom and two on the top.

Diedrich became slightly frightened at the display, previously he couldn't see the tusks as normally boars had them sticking out on the outside as they were blunt and were used for defense, however this boar's teeth seemed more carnivorous like it was meant for hunting and ripping into flesh.

Not wanting to be caught by surprise Diedrich pulled out his sword from the sheath, this turned out to be a mistake as the boar saw it as a sign of aggression and began charging at Diedrich.

Although it ran a bit clumsily which was likely due to its stocky build it was still fast, and in the middle of its charge its eyes suddenly turned red as if it was bloodshot while it speed became even greater.

Seeing the red eyed charging boar Diedrich knew he had no chance in a direct confrontation with it, the boar was likely running faster than Usain Bolt, and with its size taken into account, there wasn't much difference from a truck ramming into you, Diedrich began to really hope that his plan would work.

When the boar had almost reached him and passed a particular bush, sudden movement came out from it and a small figure quickly ran and grabbed the back of the boar's leg, not expecting such a thing to happen and due to its already clumsy nature it stumbled and fell on its side.

As it slid forward due to its momentum the boar was about to crash into Diedrich, however he simply sidestepped and avoided it.

As the boar came to a halt a meter past Diedrich confused at what happened and wanting to stand up it suddenly felt a piercing pain go through its neck.

Diedrich had stabbed the stone sword through the boar's neck and into the ground. The boar shrieked in agony as it still tried to stand up however with Diedrich still firmly holding the sword down, from a position the boar couldn't reach him, its erratic movement only caused it further injuries and it died due to blood loss a minute later.

After the boar took its final breath Diedrich let go of the sword and fell backwards on the ground tiredly breathing for air.

As he lay there on the ground, Diedrich had a strange expression on his face. he felt that something was wrong.

In the trial he had killed goblins and orcs mercilessly and without regret, he felt basically nothing, however this time was different, he felt bad.

Although he wasn't going to apologize for what he did and he only defended himself, he still didn't like to see the fear and desperation in the boar's eyes as it struggled for life, he just wished he could have finished things sooner.

"Huh, maybe I am a nature guy" Diedrich chuckled to himself softly.

Although Diedrich was feeling this way now he knew that to survive in this new world he could not show weakness and to find his family he could not shy away from such events, however he did hope he could become strong enough to end things quickly.

Reaffirming his resolve, Diedrich got up and walked towards the boar as there was one more reason Diedrich decided to fight it.

"Rumble"

Diedrich was hungry.