Two hours out from the city gate, a farmer stood over his broken fence, turning a crushed post over.
"Took my breeding sow before dawn, dragged her through the rails, look at this mess!"
Red-faced, he flung the post beside the pen, where blood darkened the churned ground.
Hajin checked a print against his foot while Juna sniffed the splintered rail, nose wrinkling and ears flattening.
"Fifteen silver," the farmer grumbled, crushing his cap and jabbing a thumb past the pasture, "bring me proof from the body and proof it won't come back for my herd, then I pay."
"Fifteen silver for one dead pig? Deal, you just made yourself a friend."
"Keep the coins ready and stay behind this fence, one boar is plenty without hunting missing customers too," he added with a lopsided grin.
'Promised silver isn't mine until he counts it into my palm, street rule number one.'
At the timber's edge, Hajin dropped his pack and laid his old sword across his knees.
"Look at you, buddy, more notch than sword, you'd lose a fight with a turnip."
He winced at the edge, where the deer's notch met a fresh bite from Jonas's axe haft.
[ Purchase: Basic Iron Sword | Price: 15 Credits | Wallet: 30 → 15 ]
[ Fragment's Blessing: Purchase worth enhanced | Common sword, refined steel temper and edge ]
[ Elemental armor penetration: None ]
Light drained away as the hilt settled into his palm, and one test swing dropped a branch.
"Ooh, okay, hello, you're pretty, where were you my whole damn life?" he breathed, eyes going starry.
'Better steel, not magic steel, it still breaks if I shove it somewhere stupid.'
He wrapped the notched sword in spare cloth and buried it under his supplies.
"Cheapest sword on the list," he boasted, twirling the new blade so the stream could admire it, "fifteen credits, half my whole fortune, so it better earn its keep."
[ CringeSlayer91: cheapest sword, still got half the wallet left ]
[ ShadowMage44: buy the blade before the tusks arrive, good decision ]
Juna crouched at the next print, then touched a red smear on a trunk.
"Cattle blood and resin, it came through after the pen, and this tree hasn't stopped bleeding sap yet." She sniffed the stained finger, nose twitching like the trail smelled of breakfast.
"Fifteen silver for a pig, and most goes to a pillar I don't even sleep under."
"You broke the pillar."
"I broke it heroically," he huffed, puffing out his chest, "there's a difference, heroics should come with a discount."
"Did buying a new sword make you slower, or are you hoping the pig waits politely?" She rolled her eyes as his pack strap snagged on a low twig.
He yanked the strap free with a sheepish shrug and stepped into her tracks, "Saving my strength, somebody has to carry fifteen silver home without collapsing before the baker sees it."
A sapling snapped somewhere ahead, loud enough to end every argument about walking faster.
The boar shoved out between the trunks, two earth Shards circling above tusks jutting like spears.
"Holy shit, that's not a pig, that's a house with tusks!"
"Clearing, left side, don't let it pin you between the trunks!" He drew the new sword and jabbed it at a patch beyond a fallen log.
Juna sprang over a root, and the boar's head swung after her as its hooves tore up dirt.
"Then get there yourself, I'll make sure it remembers where to look!" she snapped, tail lashing.
One Wing flashed behind her shoulder as mana drove her leap, and Hajin circled the opposite side over loose stones. The boar quit chasing her line, planted its forelegs at the clearing's edge, and waited for her to land there.
Her trailing foot slid on the gravel, and both tusks dropped toward the gap her stumble opened.
'Nope, no, I asked her to hunt, not to fall on a tusk!'
Hajin launched off firmer ground and slammed his heel behind its turning foreleg.
The boar crashed sideways into a trunk, shaking needles loose, and he landed between it and Juna with knees bent.
"Ow, fuck, ow, that's a leg made of rock, who builds a pig out of rock?" he wheezed, face scrunched in pain.
He kept the point on its eye while glancing back at the elbow Juna was rubbing, "Still with me, or did the ground decide you were finished?"
"Still here, bruised enough to hate gravel, not enough to let this thing keep its face," she growled, baring her teeth.
The boar shoved free of the bark while her claws lengthened with mana.
"Hey, ugly, eyes on me, I'm the one with the shiny new toy!" Hajin stepped into its sight and waved the sword to give those tusks one target.
"You could've cut it while it was stuck," she scoffed, ears pinned back as she sank into a crouch, "were you waiting for it to ask nicely?"
"Waiting for my partner's turn, unless you want me stealing credit for every opening you make." He flashed a cocky grin without letting the point drift off its eye.
She drove in from the flank, punching her claws above the tusks and down where reinforced bone met the crest.
Both its knees buckled, and the boar hit the dirt, convulsed, then went still on bloodied leaves.
She checked the tusks from outside their reach, then raised two fingers over the fallen head.
"Two Shards, and I almost forgot there were two hunters, fifteen silver sounds better already," she said, chin lifted and tail swishing smugly.
The Shards above its head dimmed but never quite vanished, and no EXP notice popped up.
"Hell yes, okay," he cheered, pumping his free fist, "let's check the core before—"
The jaw lifted with a wet scrape, and the split skull drew itself together, knitting shut under pulsing mana.
Shoulders swelled and forced the front hooves apart as hide tore, and one foreleg stretched into something with claws.
'We broke its head, it stopped, so why the fuck is a dead pig standing up?'
The changed forelimb swept toward Juna's ribs while Hajin was already lunging with the blade raised.
"Get clear!"
It caught her before her leap cleared the swelling shoulder and flung her across the clearing into a boulder.
She dropped with blood at her mouth, one hand scraping dirt once before it went slack under her arm.
"Juna!"
Her chest moved, barely, and then the boar turned its new bulk between him and the rock.
Three Shards circled lengthening tusks now, and a cloying sweetness reached him under the blood and sap.
"Stay breathing, please, I'm coming, don't let this bastard make our first real hunt the last one." His voice cracked as he faced the bulk filling the eight paces to her.
'Fifteen credits buys salve, sure, but salve won't help if I can't even reach her.'
The shop's salve treated minor wounds, and opening it meant taking a hand off the sword.
'She gave me the best part of her bread, so I'm not watching her die over a pig.'
[ Warning: Irregular mutation | Progress: 61% | External mana source: Unknown ]
[ Stream: Active | Viewers: 27 | Soul Energy: 19 ]
"Sixty-one percent of what, a pig? What's the other thirty-nine gonna be?"
Gripping his sword two-handed, he stepped inside the low sweep at his knees as claws ripped ground behind his heel. Dirt slapped his cheek as he thrust where the neck plates ended, but its twist tore him out before contact.
[ DarkBlade: it got back up, what happened to the broken skull? ]
[ LurkerNoMore: she's still by the rock, keep it away from her ]
"I know, I was there, I'm literally standing in front of it!"
The claw wounds Juna opened kept filling with borrowed mana, and the warning still named no source.
The Ring woke under his cuff as he tightened his grip, feeding strength into both braced arms.
The three corrupted Shards spun faster as Hajin set his feet and choked up on the hilt.
He bared his teeth and brought the blade toward the softer neck, "You owed fifteen silver before deciding to be two problems, so die properly this time!"