"You... you did this on purpose..." The mountain bandit leader looked incredulously at the dagger in his chest, slowly losing breath.
"I thought it over carefully, and in the end, I decided not to let you off." Laine sneered mischievously, shaking his head, "So now, all your ill-gotten gains belong to me~"
He began to count the loot in the bandits' cave, where the bandits stored their usual plunder. Laine noticed that the food was running low, the weapons were in tatters, and there was nothing worth taking. Finally, he found two Gold Dinars on the leader's corpse, which he considered his reward.
Upon leaving the cave, Laine discovered that the underling Noah and several others were waiting for him at the entrance, holding torches: "What's going on? Didn't I tell you to flee for your lives?"
"Lord Knight! If we flee, where could we possibly go?" One of the older bandits placed a pitchfork on the ground and knelt, clutching his head to show he meant no harm, "We're almost out of food. If you don't mind, there is still some grain left in the cave. Could you grant it to us?"
All the spoils from eradicating bandits belonged to the leading noble.
"Please take whatever else you fancy! We're really starving, and there's no food at home either." Noah said, kneeling.
"Ah~" Laine sighed deeply. Some things are inevitable. If they weren't desperate, they wouldn't have turned to banditry here, as the real skilled bandits roamed the major trade routes.
"You guys head in. Not even mountain bandits can fill their stomachs?" Laine gestured for the few bandits to go inside.
"The best food was always reserved for the boss. If we made more profit, we'd eat well; if not, we'd barely have enough to survive." The underling quickly emerged with a box of black bread, greedily taking one to munch on. His ravenous demeanor almost made Laine think he was holding a roast leg of lamb.
"I have a few more black breads here, split them among yourselves!" Laine also took out some black bread from his Space Ring, things he wouldn't eat anyway, and simply gave them to them. "Find your way out! Stop being bandits. Soon the heavy snow will seal the mountains. Hurry and find a way out!"
"Thank you! Milord, you are a good person. May the Lady of Wealth bless you. We swear never to be bandits again." Several former bandits cried with gratitude, one of them remembering something: "Oh, this stone, it came from a visiting dwarf. After we killed him, we found it on him. You are a noble Lord Knight; you surely know how to use it. Farewell."
Taking the stone, Laine found it was a dwarf's identity rune stone, but it was severely damaged: "Alright then, see you if fate permits."
"Until fate lets us meet!" The bandits took the food and quickly vanished into the forest.
After watching them leave, Laine put away the rune stone and headed down the mountain.
The mountain bandit group had disbanded; it was time to return to the camp.
But after only a few dozen steps, Laine immediately sensed an anomaly.
The cold wind blowing against him carried a slight fishy scent. Laine realized that a large creature was moving through the dark forest, its body brushing through the trees with a "rustle" sound.
Laine gathered Spiritual Energy around him, ran his hand over his Warhammer, igniting a blue flame that burned on the fine iron hammerhead. He could see what it was now.
It was a large boar, entirely silver in color, over two and a half meters in length, and extremely stout. Two tusks as thick as a child's arm were raised high, facing Laine's direction, while large puffs of mist emitted from its nostrils, and its front hoof scraped the ground, its eyes filled with hostility.
It was ready for battle.
"Really unlucky, those bandits have been here for so long and never encountered this thing..." Laine tightened his grip on the Warhammer, his eyes filled with intense fighting spirit.
Come on!
"Roar~ Roar~ Roar!!!!" Moving its front hoof, lifting its right leg, the silver boar howled as it charged toward Laine, its powerful hind legs bursting with explosive strength. In just a few breaths, the boar reached right in front of Laine. Laine steadied himself, slightly shifted his body, raised his Warhammer.
"Boom!" When it was still three meters away from Laine, the boar leaped high, charging at Laine with tusks shimmering in silver light, its massive body descending from the sky, intending to pierce Laine directly.
"Arghhhh!!!" Laine used all his strength, swinging the Warhammer horizontally, the blue flame on the hammerhead smashing right toward the boar's face.
"What is this?!"
But instead of hitting the boar as Laine expected, it avoided the hammerhead in mid-air, its silver tusks leaving a white shallow mark on Laine's face.
"Damn it!" The Kingdom Knight reached to touch his face. If not for his Extraordinary Physique being tough enough, he would have been disfigured.
"Roar~ Roar~" The boar landed heavily about three meters behind Laine, howling proudly, its tail sweeping around, kicking up patches of snow. The bristles on its back started to slowly stand, gradually changing to a metallic sheen.
"Whoosh!!!" The bristles left the boar's body, like steel needles, flying in rows towards where the Kingdom Knight stood, making a whistling sound through the air.
Laine raised his Warhammer, gripping the handle with both hands, spinning rapidly. The Warhammer formed a cyclone in Laine's swift motions, deflecting all the attacking bristles.
"This..." Seeing one bristle become as hard as an iron rod and deeply embed into a nearby tree's trunk, Laine abruptly stopped spinning the Warhammer. At that moment, a blue fireball had formed in the air. Laine swung the Warhammer forward, sending the blue fireball flying towards the boar. The boar easily sidestepped to dodge it, then charged at Laine again.
"Come on! Fight!" Laine also launched into a sprint toward the boar.
Heavy riding boots and thick front hooves stomped on the forest floor, leaving footprints.
As they closed in, the boar's silhouette enlarged in Laine's pupils, just as before, when it was two to three meters away, the silver boar leapt again.
This is the moment!
Laine's body tilted back like lying flat on the snow, slipping directly under the boar.
The boar's soft and vulnerable belly appeared right before Laine's eyes. The Kingdom Knight used his Warhammer, striking hard three inches beneath that belly as the two passed.
"Woo woo woo!" The boar emitted a piercing cry, its airborne body collapsing like a deflated ball, rolling several times on the snow, lying down and whimpering incessantly. The Kingdom Knight flipped up from the snow, rushed to the boar, and ignoring its pleading eyes, brought down the Warhammer.
"Crack!" The boar's skull shattered, white brain matter flowed down, its eyes turned white, its body twitched for a moment, then stopped breathing.
"All done." Laine exhaled, noting this was evidently a boar mutated by Chaos Energy contamination, acquiring powerful abilities and a robust physique, even gaining the ability to harden and shoot bristles.
The unfortunate part was that despite gaining tremendous power, the boar's intelligence didn't keep pace; it only knew how to charge and use its tusks to attack enemies, at best learning to shoot bristles. Its weakness remained its soft belly, which allowed the combat-experienced Laine to seize a fleeting opportunity to deal it a severe blow.
Otherwise, capturing this boar would be an extremely challenging task, its fur tougher than iron.
Looking at the oversized carcass, Laine suddenly knelt on one knee, performing a standard knightly salute, his right hand on his chest, fingers pressed against the White Wolf Knight Badge on his chest.
"I wish to offer the glory and spoils of this battle to the great White Wolf War God. May the Wolf God's white flames forever illuminate the north!"
"Yurik gives me wolf's sharp fangs, Yurik gives me wolf's sharp claws, Yurik gives me wolf's coat, and I, show the enemy the power of the wolf!"
With that, Laine stayed kneeling there without further movement.