Arthur stepped back, watching the boar’s body disperse into nothingness before shoving the fang back into his pocket.

He could still feel his heart rate picking up, as the beast’s last attack replayed again and again in his mind.

John crouched next to the vanishing carcass and muttered seriously,

"Damn... This thing was way too quick for its size. It really caught me off guard there for a second."

Arthur stared at the drifting motes of light and nodded in agreement.

It wasn’t just the boar’s speed. The way it had slipped past John’s first strike without even looking at him was the part that shocked him.

Was that intuition, or some kind of innate skill these Iron Boars had?

The mist kept swirling around them, and it was only after the corpse had fully vanished and Arthur and John confirmed that there were no drops that the two of them stood back up.

John didn’t look disappointed. If anything, he looked eager.

He slung the spear over his shoulder and turned to Arthur. "Hey, Art. Let’s go find another one of these things. I really want to see if I can get that ’Roar’ skill, you know."

Arthur grinned and the two of them set off, disappearing further into the white haze.

...

The next Iron Boar came sooner than expected.

Arthur and John had barely gone fifty meters deeper into the mist when another grunt echoed ahead of them, followed by the familiar scrape of hooves on the ground

This boar was a bit smaller than the first one they met, but it charged at them with the same single-minded ferocity.

Arthur and John didn’t even need to speak this time.

Arthur’s [Water Arrow] caught the creature in the shoulder mid-charge, slowing it just enough for John’s spear to punch deep into its flank. The boat went down after only a couple more strikes.

[Iron Boar defeated. +26 EXP]

There were no item drops this time, either.

"Figures," John muttered as he scratched the back of his head.

Arthur wasn’t surprised, either. He knew this made sense. After hunting goblins for so long, he’d figured out that an item drop usually came once every seven or eight kills. As for skillbooks, well... let’s not even talk about those.

So without another word, the two of them kept heading up the mountain.

...

After walking for another ten minutes or so, the slope ahead suddenly leveled out, turning into what looked like a broad, rocky ledge. The white mist pooled low, hugging the ground like a cloud of white smoke. Visibility was still poor, but it was marginally better than farther down the mountain.

And yet, this place was quiet. Too quiet. There wasn’t even a gust of wind.

Arthur’s brow furrowed as his footsteps suddenly came to a halt.

John gave him an inquisitive look, but Arthur didn’t say anything. He just stared at the scattered rocks ahead of them.

Nothing stood out at first. ...But Arthur was sure he’d seen it.

One of the ’rocks’ had shifted, ever so slightly.

John was about to ask what was wrong when it happened.

As if realizing it had been spotted, a shape slowly uncoiled from amidst the rocks in front of them.

It was long... way longer than the Iron Boar, with a scaled body, a flat, broad head, and a ’tongue’ that flicked out of its mouth. The thing’s body blended almost perfectly with the gray stone around it, but its eyes flashed a faint yellow light even through the mist.

[Rock Serpent.]

[Level 7.]

[Type: Monster.]

The creature moved fast. Faster than Arthur or John had expected.

One moment it was coiled and shaped like a rock, and the next it cut through the mist in a blur of stone and scales as it shot towards them.

The moment the creature started moving, Arthur was already summoning his [Water Arrow].

He’d been prepared.

By now he’d already figured out that it cost him about 20 mana each time he used it... which wasn’t really a lot.

With his current mana capacity, he could fire off nine arrows, as long as he had enough time to channel them uninterrupted, and the count was only going to go up as he leveled up.

So Arthur braced his feet as the serpent closed the distance in the blink of an eye. It seemed to have already locked on him with its mouth wide open, as if to show off its two rows of needle-like teeth before it chomped on his head.

Arthur’s fingers tightened instinctively. In the next moment, his [Water Arrow] exploded forward, flying at the serpent’s head without warning.

It hit... but the arrow only sank a few centimeters in before splashing apart, scattering across the beast’s hard-rock scales.

The serpent hissed in anger, but the minor wound did nothing to break its momentum.

At the same time, however, John moved.

In a single, surprisingly fluid motion, he thrust his spear forward, as the tip slammed hard into the creature’s neck.

The serpent’s body jerked... but not in the way Arthur or John had hoped.

The scales along its body were like layered stone, and John’s spearhead skidded off them with a harsh scrape, leaving what Arthur thought was a faint white mark on them, before the creature’s tail lashed violently towards him.