Chapter 373: Ironblood Boar

Julius looked around, trying to find the remaining monsters. He hadn’t gotten a notification about it ending quite yet and was curious about whether or not he had completed the objective. He didn’t see any goblins nearby but made sure to extend the range of [Absolute Spatial Perception] to get a better view.

However, when he finally sensed something, he didn’t know whether to laugh or be confused. There was indeed one last goblin alive. This one appeared to be much larger than the other goblins and was presumably the leader he was supposed to take care of.

What was shocking was that this goblin was in the process of running away. Its pale green body was dashing toward the more densely covered forest. He didn’t know if it was scared after seeing all of its underlings razed to the ground. But it must have decided that running away was a better fate than fighting Julius.

However, he wasn’t about to just let it leave without saying goodbye, and quickly went after it with a liberal use of kinetic energy to boost his speed. He probably could have used [Void Step], but the costly technique would be a waste of mana. Mana, that would be a very valuable resource later on.

He leaped over some logs and bushes along his way. The goblin didn’t even seem aware that Julius was almost right on top of it. It merely continued running as fast as it could. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much good, and Julius was right on top of it. He didn’t waste any time and smashed his fist down on the leader’s head.

There was some resistance from whatever defensive skill protected the goblin, but all he needed to do was use his aura to degrade the barrier’s integrity and shatter it. With no more protection, his fist slammed into the now unprotected skull.

He dusted himself down and glanced at the notification he got.

Congratulations, First Floor Cleared. You will be transported to the second floor automatically in ten minutes or if you would like to immediately head to the second floor, just say “Next Floor” out loud.

Julius was tempted to just head immediately to the next floor, but he reminded himself that regenerating whatever mana he used might come in handy later. Therefore, he stayed patient and waited until his mana regenerated.

While he did that, he went back to the area where the dead goblins were. His discs of sharpened mana were still embedded in the bodies or laid on the ground. Not seeing a reason to waste this mana, he quickly took control of them and molded them into some pieces of armor.

He decided only to use gauntlets for the time being. He didn’t know what the next floor challenge would be, but wanted to be prepared.

It didn’t take the full ten minutes for Julius to recover his mana, and once he was capped off, he finally said aloud, “Next floor.” Finding himself getting transported once more.

This time, he found himself in a similar environment. It was a large glade in the middle of a forest. He could hear the sounds of a nearby stream and chirps of wildlife all around him. It was already quite a bit more lively than the last floor.

He read the new notification that explained what he would have to do.

Second Floor Clear Condition: Defeat the Ironblood Boar.

Unlike the previous floor, it would seem that he would only need to beat a single opponent. He was curious if this was something that was done intentionally. Was the rift purposefully testing the participants on their combat ability? For example, was the last floor a test to see how well they would fare when fighting a large group of weaker opponents? Would that mean this floor was testing them on how they would perform against a stronger solo opponent?

He shrugged his shoulders. That seemed the most plausible explanation, but he wasn’t the creator of the rift, so he would never know for certain. The only thing he could really do was finish this without expending too much energy.

He hadn’t quite seen the Ironblood Boar as of yet. The glade was huge, and it would seem he would need to look around first. Not seeing a reason to waste any time, he went off searching for the boar.

Along his little adventure through this floor, he came across several monsters who were Tier 2 and Tier 3. However, unlike what he had been expecting, they didn’t decide to attack him. They seemed more curious than anything else. Their lack of aggression didn’t match up with his own experiences. There were usually at least a couple of monsters who wished to attack him when they spotted a tasty human in their sights.

One particular bird was brave enough to fly pretty close to him. It was only about the size of his fist, but he could tell that it was Tier 3. It hovered a few feet in front of him and eventually landed on his shoulder, gently prodding his face with its beak.

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The creature seemed very fascinated with his black hair and started to play with it, without fear of Julius. Not seeing a reason to disturb it, he continued on his way and searched for the boar, now accompanied by a new friend as well.

It took longer than he had thought it might. But after around ten minutes of not finding anything, he ended up just following the stream. He thought that it would make sense if this boar wanted to stay near fresh water.

He didn’t know if this was the right move since he was in a rift, and sometimes logic didn’t always work in such a place. However, he was thankful when he finally sensed what he believed to be exactly what he was looking for.

Up ahead, lying in the sun was a large boar with a deep, blood-red coat covering it. Julius was somewhat surprised at the beast’s immense size. He had been expecting something large, at least larger than a typical boar might be, but this thing was huge. It was the size of an SUV.