Rue never realized that the blockage existed, a corruption filling his Magic Vein, staggering his healing capacity. Clerence referred to them as ‘Impurities’, the cost of forcing magic on one untrained vein. She had gained the knowledge the moment she took this healing skill of hers.

  A three-way battle is ongoing inside Rue. Clerence’s golden flame burned against the impurities that still resist. Her flame also damaged his actual body, as his body now naturally resisted flame, especially inside him. The health potion and Eve’s green ambient mana heal Rue’s body, trying to outdo the damage Clerence's flames have caused while burning away his impurities.

  Luckily, the healing force of Eve, enhanced with the Elderwood staff she held, was able to overwhelm the pain, and his HP is not dropping thanks to her. What concerned him more is the battlefield; with Rue and Clerence here, they’re missing some serious forces. Annoyance flickered briefly inside him as he did not see Yomi and Rita. He was confident these two would fight. Did Emily fail? Perhaps he should convince them to focus on the boars and kobolds and ignore the goblins.

  Alquin, Gilbert, and Yom are now facing five boars. They were running between trees, only to receive the boar charge if they slowed down. Gilbert had a skill that allowed him to enlarge his shield, and the man had a passive skill that granted him extra strength. He has been the key to stopping the boars' charge without resorting to the reckless trick that Rue did.

  Gilbert bashed his shield to the boar’s head. The creature lulled around, trying to rake the blue-haired man, but Gilbert’s shield was large enough to prevent the tusk from hitting him. “Now do it!” He screamed.

  Rue stared intently, his pulse quickened, and Alquin was still baiting another boar to a tree. Is Gilbert talking to Yom?

  Turns out, Rue’s guess is right. Yom ran across the tusks' length and slammed his Long Bone right into the boar’s hide.

  “Yom!” Eve gasped from beside Rue.

  The Long Bone dug deep into the boar’s flesh, but it did not deal any significant damage. The boar raised its front body and turned, trying to stomp Yom. At that very moment, Gilbert leaped forward, his shield now returned to its former size, and he thrust his Bone Sword right into the Boar's abdomen, pushing it to the ground with another shield bash.

  Eve let out a sharp breath beside him, then the green mana continued to flow toward Rue.

  “Clerence, not yet?” Rue asked.

  “Soon, Rue, don’t be so eager.”

  Eager? No, he’s not… well, he might be. But the situation called for it. He turned toward where Rino at, he had managed to kill the goblins, and now he’s coordinating with the scout and warrior. The middle-aged scout baited two boars, then Rino and the warrior flanked each, raking their sword deep into the boar's flesh.

  Things are going well. For now, at least.

  Rue's eyes went up to where Paxwell was, the man still jumping from branch to branch with that new skill of his. Three zaps of lightning repeatedly tried to fry the old man, but he managed to dodge them all, even returning a Mana Arrow in midair.

  “This is strange,” Rue remarked. They did not face as much resistance as he thought they would. It must be the Kobold. Rue checked the main tutorial quest, and indeed, they were dying.

  (Tutorial Quest: Defeat the Goblins and Boar tribe.)

  Goblins (79/100). Boars (36/50)

  A huge, guttural rumbling echoed from the depths of the forest. It’s the groan of the Boar Queen; it sounded like two colossal wooden objects rubbing against each other.

  Rue had tried to ask Pax what he had seen, but the man couldn’t hear him, as he needed to keep moving.

  “Almost there,” Clerence muttered.

  A loud, familiar thumping beat against the ground. The Earth shook beneath, and Rue had to steady himself with both hands. Eve yelped, her forehead bumping against a tree trunk behind him.

  “The hell?” She grumbled, rubbing her wound, before injecting more mana into Rue.

  “It's running, watch out!” Paxwell shouted from the top of a branch. “Rino! The Boar Queen is coming!”

  Rino and the two others near him did not hear Paxwell's warning; they were busy running around and stabbing the sides of normal boars. But, covered by trees, a huge, hulking figure stomped its way straight at them.

  Rue made out the giant figure of the boar, albeit still blocked by countless trunks.

  “Done! This is the best I could do for now,” Clerence lifted her hand, straight at the huge charging boar. A fireball manifests near Rue's face, ready to launch.

  No, it wouldn’t be enough.

  How is Pax?

  Rue looked up, the old man charging mana Arrow, before lighting zip straight at him, barely missing him, but hitting the bottom of his branch. The wood gave up, and Pax was forced to jump away yet again.

  Not seeing another option, Rue cast Frost Shrapnel. Above his palm is a cube of solid ice, which shone with the bluish glow of his mana. He stood, still holding the cube; he could sense its property, so open for him to fill. There were ways to tinker with this spell, but Rue currently did not care about it. Recalling the skill description, Rue threw the cube far beyond where the Boar queen at.

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  The cube flew through the air. It rotated, spinning and kept gaining more height, before it balanced itself and levitated in a slow movement.

  “What?” Rue gaped.

  He needed it to be faster. But what else can he do?

  He helplessly watched the cube, wishing it to speed up.

  The boar queen bumped against a huge tree; its side must be burning with pain. Finally, Rino and the other two noticed the hulking boar. The warrior pinned under a boar corpse he had just taken down, the scout tries to free it to no avail. Rino bravely stood beyond them. He clasped his hands straight at the boar queen. Rue could make out mana gathering as a swirl of water spinning around his joined palms.

  “He's not going to make it,” Rue gritted. The Boar Queen is way higher level than him.

  “Point your palm, Rue,” Eve said.

  “My palm?”

  “It does not need to be your palm, as long as you can direct your magic. My healing can work even without touching the target; some spells are just like that.” Eve grasped Rue's hand and extended it, like directing a kid to catch a star.

  Then Rue felt a sudden connection, a thread of Mana that was quite familiar, yet different from Cel’s. He directed his Mana toward it, and the thread thrummed, obeying him.

  “Use this,” Eve shoved the Elderwood staff.

  Rue grasped it, with one hand still stretched toward the cube. Then, like water bursting from a dam, the mana burst forward, kicking the cube to fly forward. The cube zips across like a streak of blue star. As it was about to pass where the Boar Queen is, Rue clenched his left palm into a fist.

  The spell responded.

  The Cube broke apart, forming into a crystalline dozen needles, they jolted turning to point their sharp ends at the charging boar fleshy back – no, not there, Rue commanded, he knew the spell not going to be strong enough to kill the boar, what he wanted is the after effect, but, it still needed to hit the boar legs not it's back. The Needles flew down, gorging straight through the Boar Queen's thick legs.

  Five of them hit.

  From one of the needles, ice blossomed like a flower. His Passive, Icen Frost skill went to work. The ice burst downward, pushing against the ground, as the queen was still in the middle of its charge. Ice break, but the queen’s legs were still skewered with solid crystal of ice piercing its backmost left leg.

  The Queen of Boar fell to the ground, its body carried forward, skidding against the earth in a crumpling heap.

  Seeing this, Rino took his chance, he let out a sizzling burst of water, and brought it down toward the fallen queen.

  Rue did not bother to watch the exchange. He ran to where they were. The Sword of Frost manifested on his arm, its handle no longer felt cold. He skipped over the scout, who finally managed to pull the warrior off the dead boar's body.

  Rino had managed to slice off part of the queen's hide, still the wound is still shallow. The queen rose, red eyes glared at the water mage. One leg stomped the ground before its body tried to rise shakily, but the ice lodged by its back legs failed the huge creature, and it fell again, head against the earth.

  Rue passed by Rino, who still tried to pierce its thick hide.

  He could feel the heat of the Queen’s fur. It's ragged breathing, drawing so much air, as it exhales, fallen leaves pushed up, swaying lightly. Rue identified the countless wounds, mainly slash wounds, no doubt from the Kobolds, and some stab puncture wounds. One gash of a wound raked its side like a huge bear claw.

  Rue lifted his sword high up, and he cleaved down adding to the wound, skipping over its hide defense. His sword found no resistance, blood jumped up, and Frost started to freeze along its deep wound, Ice jumped up like a sudden geyser. Rue had to step back as his own Passive skill almost impaled him. The queen groaned; it was no longer strong enough to roar.

  But, Rue did not stop.

  He stabbed straight at a large puncture wound. Applying frost deep inside the boar. This time, no ice manifested, but the effect of the frost alone is enough.

  Identifying another three slash wounds, Rue brought down his sword on them repeatedly, blue freezing properties took over its skin, seeping deep into the queen's body. From one wound, Ice burst up again, this one is not as huge.

  Beside him, Rino also hacked against the boar's side, viscerally drawing blood. “Keep going, Rue! It's not dead yet,” he turned to the other two. “Jeremiah, Tobias! You two come here too!”

  The scout and the warrior. Joined. Four of them kept hacking on the boar queen, over and over again. It kept squealing as the pain must've been torturous.

  Rue wants to end its life quickly, as fast as possible.

  But why? Why wouldn’t it die?

  “Just die already!” The scout screamed, stabbing his dagger repeatedly into the boar's neck.

  Rue, on the other hand, has an interesting difficulty. When he kept going down on the same wound, his Passive Skill eventually appeared, bursting ice. And those Ice… Damn it, they blocked his strike from going deeper, even pushed his sword out of the Queen's body.

  Just then the realization dawned on him. His class meant to kill slowly, unsuited for this situation

  But, he recognized that without this Passive skill, the queen would be able to stand again.

  As he landed a vicious strike on one wound, he could see the queen's internal organs, just before he was about to stab deep, ice manifested, crystal burst forward, shielding him from going any further.

  “Oh, come on!” Rue cursed. He looked around the battlefield; the nearest boar and goblin were in combat with Gilbert and Alquin, and no Kobold was near yet. They still had times.

  All the wound, by now, is covered by not only his Frost, but thorny ice. The prospect of smashing his frail sword against ice does not appeal to him. So Rue created a new wound; he slashed down with all he had, raking a deep parting of flesh.

  Blood flew up before Frost started to sleep in. No ice manifest, Rue kept going. He let out another cleaved, this time he opened depth into its organ. Seeing his chance, Rue unsheathed his common steel sword; he should've done so earlier. Rue impaled his sword deep into the queen. Both hands pushed the handle. He pushed deeper and deeper, even wrenching the sword in a half circle. Before finally…

  (You Have Slain Queen of Boar, Gneliant. Lvl 20!)

  (You Have Slain the Leader of the Boar tribe, Gneliant. Skill option gained)

  (Level Up. General 12 → 13)

  (Level Up. Frost Apprentice 13 → 14)

  It has not been a fair fight; Rue could not even comprehend how to take down the Queens if he were by himself, especially if it were healthy. And a skill option for slaying it… It was a good reward, one that he could not help but feel underserved…

  “Finally,” The middle-aged age scout huffed. “Name is Tobias, by the way.” He wiped blood across his cheek.

  “I'm Rue”

  “Big thing wouldn't have died , if not because of its earlier wound,” Rino said.

  “So who the hell can do that?” The Warrior pointed at a specially ghastly wound, bigger than others, now sprouting with an ice thorn. “I'm Jeremiah.” The warrior offered his hand to Rue.

  He took it. And his eyes went behind the boar's body. A distant figure of golden scale glints under the moonlight.

  It's coming.

  ‘Beware of the Golden Kobold,’ Cel had warned him.

  “Get to Eve, all of you,” Rue said. “Get some healing, we're not done yet.”