Chapter 307 Suspicion

Those two ran towards the wild boar that ran, desperate to escape its hunters. Malon was faster and ran with his sword pointed down and ready to strike. The archer ran with the bow in hand, staying a little further back while he prepared another arrow.

The boar saw that his pursuers were approaching and then accelerated its pace even more, looking ahead until he saw a bunch of bushes. Malon saw the animal taking advantage of its body and throwing itself into the bush in an attempt to get away from them, hide and buy time since the wound in its leg was dropping a lot of blood.

Wasting no time as soon as he approached the bush, Malon jumped, and with his momentum, he passed, overseeing the wild boar that continued to run through the woods in search of an escape.

Not having the same speed and physical strength as the swordsman, Ailen moved around the bush, staying a little further behind while Malon continued the pursuit.

The search continued without changes, and the boar's body began to weaken from the bleeding. The animal saw in its path a trunk that had been knocked down, leaving only a small space enough for the animal to pass, but not a human.

And again, the boar used this chance to try to escape and get away, Ailen, who was aiming from afar while walking, shot towards the boar before it got under the trunk. The arrow hit the back of the animal, which screamed in pain but soon passed under the trunk, breaking the arrow and leaving it behind.

Malon looked at the trunk, noticing that it was high enough that he couldn't jump over it without risking some problems on the other side, and so to avoid that problem, he accelerated his step and then circled around. Soon after, he was able to see the boar close to him but still running.

Even though he had lost a little time to turn and chase the wild boar, the animal was already tired and injured, which made it run much slower, the obstacles lessened, and the two arrived at an open area in the forest with the wild boar stopping in front of a tree and turning to face its pursuers.

Malon saw that the animal had stopped and noticed that the boar seemed to be suffering from the bleeding and the run. With a quick advance, the boy again pointed his sword at the ground, ready to attack, and the boar, already without choices, advanced toward the swordsman.

The animal jumped so that it could hit the opponent's stomach with its speed and weight, but it was in vain. Malon defended himself with the sword making the animal hit its face on the side of the weapon. With a strong impulse, Malon threw the boar up and a little behind, and with a lethal swing, so he took the animal down.

The sword had pierced easily and quickly the neck of the creature. Malon knocked the animal to the ground, already lifeless. Ailen arrived soon after, putting away his bow and arrow that he would use, stopping beside the swordsman.

"That one went far... he must have strong skin. Normally they can't take the second arrow," Ailen explained.

"Nice excuse," Malon shrugged.

"You're pissing me off, so be quiet," Ailen said.

Ailen crunched next to the boar, and soon after, Malon also crouched, taking his knife.

"It's pretty simple what I do. Animals or monsters have their value, whether for skin, meat, bones, fur, and teeth," Ailen explained. "So higher level adventurers, by hunting monsters, can earn more than ordinary field workers. Rather, this is common sense, so why am I explaining this?"

"Can we find some monsters much stronger than the ones around these parts?" Malon ignored half of his friend's words.

"Not because of the difficulty, but because of the quality and rarity of the materials," Ailen explained.

"And what are they even for?" Malon frowned

"Oh, it's quite simple," Ailen spoke as he used his knife to take out one of the boar's teeth. "With materials, we can make healing or utility items, refine weapons or even create them. Some monsters swallow minerals and gems to assimilate their effects, and that's why they are so valuable."

"I understand... and on that boar, we can get hair... teeth... and meat, right?" Malon asked.

"Very well, because he's not a monster. He has a lot fewer materials that we can use, but he'll still make good money, let me teach you," Ailen said and then sighed. "... You really lived a sheltered life."

Alien started to use his knife to extract the materials from the animal's body, the meat and the fur were easier, but the teeth were difficult for Malon for being inexperienced and ending up destroying some due to his inexperience, but with the help of Ailen, they quickly finished and packed the materials into Malon's backpack.

"Alright... let's go back, I think that's enough for today, and we've already gone much deeper into the forest than we should. Soon we'll be able to encounter monsters... best avoid that," Alien said.

Ailen said and then looked around. However, Malon felt something strange, as if it was a light breeze coming from the direction of some bushes.

"Did you feel it?" Malon asked.

"Feel what?" Alien frowned.

Without understanding, Ailen asked, and then Malon got up and looked towards the bushes. Walking towards them and crossing those, the worried archer entered right after the swordsman, and after passing through the leaves, the two came across a clearing in the forest that hid a large tree with a light green tone with few leaves on its top.

Malon watched the tree showing doubt in his expression, and Ailen approached as he felt his hair being thrown back with a strong wind that seemed to be visible.

"What is this tree? And how come we never found it here before?" Ailen said while grabbing his bow. "And... what kind of wind is that?"