On the second day of their journey to the Southern forest, Kyoma and Rina displayed nearly perfect teamwork. They spotted a wild boar resting beside a tree from a distance. The boar looked content and satisfied, having just eaten its fill of berries from the nearby plant. Kyoma initiated the attack with his strongest move, the hobgoblin's smash. The hobgoblin silently crept up to the sleeping boar and unleashed a powerful strike with its heavy sledgehammer, aiming to crush the boar's head.
The wild boar was abruptly awoken by the powerful sledgehammer strike, leaving it disoriented and unable to retaliate. Taking advantage of the situation, dark arrows targeted its vulnerable leg, sinking into the flesh and causing the animal to squeal in anger. While immobilised, Kyoma, the windcutter rabbit, and the melee dark goblin swiftly moved in and worked together to dispatch the wild boar, aided by the hobgoblin. In a four seconds window, the four front liners weakened their prey by delivering nasty blows and promptly retreated. Suddenly, a fire javelin pierced through the boar's thick hide, striking its heart and ensuring a swift kill. This was a highly effective method for taking down a sleeping wild boar.
+129 experience points (Kyoma)
+119 experience points (Rina)
"Wow, that was probably the quickest we managed to kill a wild boar" Kyoma expressed his astonishment at how quickly they were able to take down the wild boar, acknowledging that if he had attempted the hunt solo, it would have taken several minutes of non-stop smashing due to the wild boar's formidable defence. The presence of a skilled fire mage made the task much simpler. Rina, on the other hand, would have required two to three fire javelins and a casting time of around three to four seconds for each javelin, while leaving her vulnerable to attack during casting. In addition, if her first fire javelin failed to kill the wild boar or provoked it, she would have no opportunity to complete the cast of her second fire javelin.
Kyoma and Rina complemented each other's weaknesses perfectly. While Kyoma's undead goblins could stall the enemies, they lacked the necessary penetrative abilities to fatally wound the wild boar. On the other hand, Rina's penetrative fire spells were effective, but she required protection while casting them.
"Your movements and attacks have improved since yesterday," Rina praised Kyoma. He had completed 14 sets of the Yin and Yang breathing technique, resulting in a significant enhancement in his physical strength and control. As a result, Kyoma was now able to deal more damage than before. In the past, Rina would typically earn more experience points than Kyoma due to her ability to inflict greater damage. However, during their most recent encounter, Kyoma earned more experience points than Rina. This indicated that the combined damage dealt by Kyoma and his undead goblins was greater than Rina's fire javelin.
"The next wild boar is up ahead," Kyoma alerted Rina about the presence of the next wild boar ahead as the windcutter rabbit spotted it from atop a tree branch. This time, they couldn't rely on a powerful sneak attack to stun the wild boar, they would have to use their usual fighting methods to take it down.
The wild boar was targeted by a barrage of dark arrows and fire arrows, causing it to suffer minor injuries. The arrows failed to penetrate the boar's thick hide and only left superficial cuts. The dark arrows, infused with a curse, seeped dark energy into the wounds and slowed down the boar, making it feel weighed down and sluggish.
Furious, the wild boar snorted and charged towards the direction from which the arrows had come. Rina stopped firing her fire arrows and began to chant the spell for her powerful fire javelin. However, as the wild boar approached, a hulking hobgoblin stepped between them and swung its massive sledgehammer at the wild boar's head, halting it in its tracks. The impact was so powerful that it created a gust of wind that sent leaves flying in every direction from the epicenter of the fight.
After activating its Charge ability, the wild boar's skull had hardened, and the sledgehammer smash failed to put it in a state of concussion. The wild boar stepped back and prepared to charge again. Suddenly, a wild rabbit appeared out of nowhere and slashed at the wild boar's eyes, causing it to panic and oink in distress. Blinded, the wild boar moved erratically and unpredictably as it retreated backwards. Taking advantage of the situation, Kyoma and the melee dark goblin attacked the boar with heavy blows to its body. Kyoma used his fists to punch the wild boar, leaving deep fist marks on its hide with each blow. After three seconds, the melee front liners backed off as Rina launched a fire javelin straight towards the wild boar's chest.
The wild boar let out a final cry of "Oink!!!" as it neared death. Although the fire javelin missed the heart, it was still alive. Kyoma quickly rushed in to deliver the finishing blow, landing a powerful punch on the boar's belly.
+137 experience points (Kyoma)
+99 experience points (Rina)
Kyoma's contributions in the latest battle greatly overshadowed Rina's, resulting in him gaining significantly more experience points. Despite being a fire mage and known for her offensive spells, Rina dealt less damage than Kyoma, who relied on close combat. This realisation left Rina feeling ashamed and determined to improve herself in the next battle. However, no matter how many wild boars they faced in the subsequent battles, Rina was unable to match Kyoma's damage output. As Kyoma grew more accustomed to his newfound power, he was able to deliver devastating punches to the vital regions of the wild boars, shortening the time it took to defeat them.
It is often said that there will always be someone stronger than oneself. In Rina's previous party, she had been arrogant and overconfident due to her role as the main damage dealer as a fire mage. She believed that her power was enough to make her an invaluable asset. However, Kyoma shattered these beliefs. In their adventures together, Rina found herself in a supportive role, and her pride was humbled as her weaknesses were exposed. This experience drove Rina to constantly strive to improve and keep up with Kyoma. Rina didn't give up and continued to push herself to the limit, battling wild boars with Kyoma. After several encounters, her hard work paid off as her offensive spell cast time decreased, and she was able to narrow the gap between her damage output and Kyoma's.
After a full day of hunting and traversing the wild boar's territory, Kyoma had achieved level 8, while Rina had advanced to level 9. Both of them appeared visibly stronger than the previous day as they effortlessly dispatched wild boar after wild boar. In her previous party, Rina had been complacent and lacked the drive to constantly improve herself and push her limits. However, adventuring with Kyoma forced her to consistently explore her capabilities, leading to a significant breakthrough in her mastery over her abilities. Her fire javelin spell had even reached a higher level, and she was now able to cast it in under three seconds, resulting in a substantial increase in damage output.
As they continued their journey, Kyoma and Rina eventually reached the outer edges of the wild boar's territory. There, they stumbled upon a group of goblins engaged in a battle with a wild boar. The goblin group consisted of two hobgoblins and eight lesser goblins, who were charging in recklessly with their daggers and stone spears. Despite managing to take down the wild boar, the goblin casualties were high, with six lesser goblins killed and the rest severely injured. Just as the surviving goblins were preparing to feast on their kill, four dark arrows suddenly flew through the air, killing the remaining goblins who were barely clinging onto life.
Kyoma immediately retrieved the two hobgoblin corpses and attempted to use Assimilation to strengthen his mutated hobgoblin. Unsure if the process would work since his hobgoblin was a mutated species while these were regular hobgoblins, he was surprised when the corpses transformed into a slimy substance that merged with his hobgoblin, increasing its power by 1.2x. Despite the assimilation working as usual, the power boost wasn't significant as Kyoma's hobgoblin was already enhanced by its mutation. Adding two regular hobgoblins to the mix didn't add much to its strength.
After absorbing the raw power of the two regular hobgoblins, Kyoma's mutated hobgoblin shared a portion of the strength with him, further increasing his overall power. This was the advantage of the Assimilation skill. Unlike other necromancers who had to undergo rigorous physical exercises or train in secret mana techniques to increase their strength, Kyoma only needed his undead companions to assimilate the power of the same species, and a portion of it would be shared with him. It was an unfair advantage, but Assimilation was a lost skill, probably one of its kind in this era. Only those fortunate enough to come across the forbidden secret tombs of necromancy could gain overpowered abilities like this.
Upon witnessing Kyoma's hobgoblin assimilating the two dead hobgoblins, Rina was astounded by his skill. Despite her background as a princess and her vast experiences, she had never encountered such an ability. However, she was aware that this world contained all sorts of peculiar skills that were created using magic. For instance, there was a skill that enabled a human to sprout additional arms. Consequently, Rina was only taken aback that Kyoma, hailing from a remote village, possessed such a unique and rare skill that allowed him to enhance his familiars by assimilating other monsters.
Once Kyoma finished assimilating the hobgoblins, he proceeded to carve the horns off of the lesser goblins lying on the ground. These goblins didn't dissolve upon death like the ones in the dungeon, so their corpses were left intact. Kyoma had to manually extract their horns.
Kyoma was calmly dismantling the goblins, but Rina was quite the opposite. With her experience, she knew that hobgoblins should not be wandering in the wild boar's territory. The goblins that were out in the wild were usually the weaker ones who had been cast aside from their cave due to overpopulation. However, this group of outcasts included hobgoblins, which was unusual. This suggested that the goblin cave was likely already overpopulated with hobgoblins. The appearance of a hobgoblin king was the only reason for a cave to be overpopulated with hobgoblins.