~~~~
“Finally, we’re here, adventure
awaits,” Roderick, the warrior, said to himself as they stepped off the lift
into the mountain town. It was a long ride from the sky city down to this
outpost, and it cost a pretty chunk of change, but it would all be worth it.
This humble outpost became famous overnight for its constant stream of quests
that adventurers like Roderick were needed to complete. And a long stream of
quests meant a healthy living for the working class adventurer.
“The quest board is up in front of
the tavern,” Anna, the sorceress, pointed out. “Strange, it’s noon, but no one
is at the board.”
“More quests for us then,” Mary, the
ranger, declared. “Come on.”
“I have a bad feeling,” Eric, the priest,
expressed his concern as the group of four made their way to the quest board.
“I hate it when your right,”
Roderick sighed as he observed the quest board. From what he heard about the
town, he expected the board to full of quest posters and requests for help, but
that wasn’t the case. The quest board was practically barren and mostly
featured mundane requests that paid a pittance. There was only a handful of
extremely dangerous quests that were far out of their league.
“What about this one?” Mary pointed
at one of the posters, which had a rating of 6 out of 7 for how difficult it
was. “Slay the wyvern that has roosted on the nearby mountain, reward 100,000G.
Hey, that’s more than most people make in a year.”
“I believe a wyvern is a little
outside our capabilities,” Anna shook her head. “Besides, we don’t have the
equipment to scale any of the adjacent mountains.”
“Yes, let us take something more
simple,” Eric agreed, “how about this? I need some extra hands to harvest my
crops and chase moles out of my garden, reward 20G per person.”
“That’s not the kind of work we came
down here for,” Roderick exclaimed. “There has to be something closer to our
comfort zone.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” someone
walked out of the tavern and approached the group, they looked like a
bartender. “You four are late to the party, all the other adventurer types
cleaned us out of quests. Things have been mostly quiet since the beginning of
last week.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mary
clutched her forehead, “isn’t there anything left?”
“Well, there’s one, but I’m not sure
you’ll be interested,” the bartender explained.
“We’ll take it,” Roderick assured.
“Okay,” the bartender shrugged and
pointed to one last quest poster tucked into the board's corner.
“Let’s see,” Anna looked closer at
the poster, “slay the fire boar terrorizing the mountainside. The reward is
2,000G, and the difficulty is only 3 out of 7.”
“Wait, 3 out of 7 sounds a little
high for slaying a boar, even a fire boar,” Eric commented, “that would
normally be 2 out of 7.”
“Well, that boar’s been a slippery
bastard. They upped the difficulty a few weeks ago,” the bartender explained.
“Sounds good to me,” Mary smiled,
“let’s go hunting.” The ranger skipped off for the town’s exit.
“Mary wait, we should have a plan
first,” Anna rushed after her.
“Oh, dear,” Eric followed as well.
“Things are looking up,” Roderick
boasted and walked after his friends.
“That’s what they all say,” the
bartender sighed, but Roderick didn’t hear him.
~--~
At first, the group thought tracking
their target would prove troublesome. However, a long trail of destruction
through the countryside proved that wrong. The scorched grass collapsed trees,
and torn up ground marked a clear path to wherever the fire boar may have gone.
Roderick smiled at this fact, he saw this as a sign that the hunt would be
quick and painless.
“This is boring,” Mary groaned,
“where’s the fun if it practically leads us to its lair?”
“This is not about fun; this obvious
destruction is a sign this problem must be resolved,” Eric argued, but Mary
only shrugged in response.
“Hey, who are those guys?” Anna
pointed at a couple of people approaching the group. They looked to be
adventurers, a pair of warriors at that.
“You’re a group of new faces,” the
first warrior greeted them, “what brings you to the mountainside?”
“We accepted the quest to slay the
fire boar,” Roderick answered with pride.
“The boar?” The second warrior gave
him a quizzical look. “Good luck with that,” the two adventurers stifled a
laugh.
“You got an issue with us?” Mary
glared at the pair.
“Nah,” the first warrior tried to
hide his smile. “Let’s just say, you aren’t the first to go after that thing,
and you most certainly won’t be the last.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Roderick inquired.
“You’ll see,” the second warrior
grinned as he walked past the group alongside his companion.
“That doesn’t bode well,” Eric
gulped.
“They’re just trying to scare us,”
Roderick assured.
“I hope so,” Anna fidgeted.
~--~
After about an hour’s walk, the
group found themselves at the end of the beast’s trail, a small clearing past a
row of trees. There the boar slept next to a large rock; its coat was shiny
black, and its tusks a shade of ebony. Even lying down, it was taller than any
of the adventurers. Anna, Eric, and Mary felt a wave of fear roll over them as
they stared down the creature, but Roderick stood tall.
“Is that truly the fire boar, where
are its flames?” Roderick wondered aloud. “It seems the rumors of how
troublesome it was were overblown.”
“Don’t get cocky,” Anna urged, “it
might light up the second you disturb it.”
“I will give it no chance,” Roderick
drew his sword. “Mary, prepare your bow, Anna ready a strong water spell, Eric
you’re on support duty.” His three companion gave a salute and moved into
formation as Roderick marched forward. “Take this beast,” the warrior stabbed
the boar’s hide.
Upon feeling the sharp surge of
pain, the boar’s eyes widened, and it bucked at Roderick. The warrior was
knocked aside, but maintained his balance and kept a tight hold on his weapon.
The boar bled a little from its wound, but some black substance quickly covered
the injury.
“Now, what’s that?” Roderick
observed the strange phenomena before looking down to see he was covered in the
same substance. “Oil?” He immediately recognized the scent.
“Here it comes!” Mary announced as
she fired a volley of arrows into the boar, which had started to charge. The
arrows struck true, but the beast showed no signs of slowing down, and Roderick
was knocked off his feet.
“Roderick,” Eric cried out to his friend.
However, his panic only grew worse as the boar ignited into a ball of flame.
“I warned you!” Anna released a
surge of water magic, which extinguished the beast for a moment. Roderick
quickly noted that the creature's flames were already returning and took his
chance to roll out the way of its rampage.
“Brace yourself,” Eric cast a spell
of reinforcement on Roderick as the boar turned around and charged him again.
The warrior managed to hold off the beasts charge for a few seconds. With
Roderick holding the line, Mary and Anna had a chance to pepper the beast with
their ranged attacks. Another bundle of arrows and another surge of water
struck true.
“It’s slowing down, keep on it!” Mary
exclaimed, but Roderick could not hold his ground any longer and was forced to
jump away from the beast. The again extinguished boar snorted at the warrior,
but quickly turned its attention to Anna and Eric and charged them instead.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Roderick tried
to grab the boar, but even with its flames gone, he could not grip the
creature’s oily hide.
“I knew this would happen,” Eric
cried as he and Anna dived out of the way of the boar’s charge. The creature
broke through the tree line, but suddenly stopped on a dime and turned to face
the group again.
“It’s injured, but it still has a
little fight in it,” Roderick pointed out. “All things considered it is still
not that strong, how is this thing rated 3 out of 7 in difficulty?” As if in
response, the boar let loose a loud squeal that echoed across the mountainside.
“Forget it, let’s claim our loot,”
Mary jumped in front of Roderick and fired an arrow which nailed the boar in
the eye. The creature squealed again right as Anna fired off another water
spell, which slammed it to the ground. It did not stand back up this time.
“Well, that went a little off the
rails, but still fairly well,” Roderick puffed out his chest in pride and moved
to check the beast for any signs of life. “Hmm?” The warrior turned back to his
group, “do you hear something?” The entire party flipped around as the ground
began to shake. Emerging from the other end of the tree line was another fire
boar, that resembled the one they had just fought. However, this one was much
larger and more mature, its tusks were thick as logs, and its fiery mane
ignited the trees around it.
“Oh, so that must be the fire boar,”
Mary pointed out, “so we’ve probably been fighting its baby.” The ranger let
out a forced laugh, “Uh oh.” The small boar behind them let out a squeak of
pain, which prompted an ear-splitting roar from the parent.
“Should we run or-?” Anna tried to
ask.
“Run!” Roderick exclaimed as he
turned on his heels, the rest of the group followed suit and sprinted away. The
giant boar chased them for almost half-a-mile before finally giving up and
letting them go.
~--~
The adventurers did not stop running
until they were back inside the town. Exhausted and out of breath, they all
collapsed in front of the tavern. The same bartender from before peeked out the
window and shook his head at the sight. However, the four were too tired to
even register his arrival.
“How’d your boar hunt go?” The
bartender asked.
“It went well at first, then very
poorly,” Mary exclaimed between deep breathes.
“Why did no one warn us there were
two?” Roderick let out a half-yell.
“I tried to,” the bartender shook
his head, “that quest is this town’s famous rookie trap. It seems easy enough
at first glance, but then it pulls out the rug from under you. Most adventurers
around these parts avoid that quest like the plague. But, they always encourage
others to try so they can have a good laugh at their expense.”
“Lovely,” Anna replied as the
bartender left the four to their own devices.
“Maybe,” Roderick began, “maybe we
should just take one of those easy quests.”
“Amen.” “Agreed.” “No complaints
here.” The party collectively agreed.
~~~~
As a beginner in any field there are many beginner's traps you must be wary of. The problem is, as a beginner you have no idea what a trap even looks like. Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy
~~~~
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