chapter 11

How to Live as a Hero in a Magical World

Kaian screamed when he heard a suspicious cracking sound coming from the tree.

“They said something this thick would withstand at least ten hits…!”

Grills, the survival expert and author of Come at Me, Wild Beasts, had definitely written that in his book.

Of course, he had also mentioned that the number could vary depending on how much mana the Obsidian Boar had absorbed.

‘But still! Only three hits? Isn’t that a little ridiculous?’

At that moment, Eldarin’s words came to Kaian’s mind. It was something she had said while happily chattering about how quickly his body had been recovering.

—That simply means the mana in this Elder Grove is that abundant. Always be grateful for mana.

Kaian bumped his forehead against the tree.

‘What an idiot! Of course that makes sense.’

There were plenty of fields and farmland in the Empire, too.

But he had never heard of anywhere having healing properties like the Golden Plains.

In the end, just as Kaian had gained his recovery ability from the Golden Plains, it was reasonable to assume that the Obsidian Boar had absorbed far more mana than it normally would in an ordinary volcanic region.

With his forehead still pressed against the tree, Kaian let out a sigh.

‘Let’s stay calm.’

The tree was still making ominous cracking noises. If the boar rammed into it just once more, it would surely topple.

The Obsidian Boar seemed to know that as well, because it had backed farther away than before.

‘…The next attack will be the last.’

To steel himself, Kaian deliberately spoke aloud.

“Phew. Okay. Let’s do this. Let’s do it.”

He pulled out the staff that had been hanging from his shoulder.

It was the very same staff Eldarin had given him when he first started working in the fields. The only difference was that one end now had a sharply honed stone blade attached to it instead of a handle.

He had made it as a weapon to use in case he ever encountered a magical beast.

‘I made it in case things got bad, but I’d hoped things would never get this bad… Still, there’s nothing I can do.’

Kaian pointed his makeshift spear at the Obsidian Boar and shouted.

“Sorry, Piggy! But I have to live a long time!”

His voice cracked as though he still hadn’t managed to shake off all his fear.

‘Ugh, that made it way too obvious I’m scared.’

Kaian cleared his throat and shouted even louder.

“My dream is to live a long and healthy life!”

“Frrrroink!”

Longevity and good health.

It was a word Kaian had first discovered while rummaging through the books in Eldarin’s study. After looking up its meaning in a dictionary, he immediately realized it.

It was the perfect goal to have in life.

Simply living a long time wasn’t enough.

He wanted to live a long, healthy, and happy life.

When he considered his father, mother, and two older brothers as well, perhaps he would need to live for at least six hundred years.

‘To do that, I need to heal my Inner World, learn magic, and get my revenge.’

On top of that, being a hero was a profession filled with danger. There would be plenty for him to prepare for and study.

That was right. He still had a lot left to do.

‘But if I lose to this pig and die here, how unfair would that be? I’d never be able to escape the flames even after death.’

Having made up his mind, Kaian jumped from an appropriate height down to the ground.

—Thump!

A sharp pain shot through his swollen legs after a whole day of running and walking. But—

‘Ahh, it’s happening again.’

A strange smile kept escaping his lips.

His heart was pounding so violently that it felt as though it might leap out of his chest.

—Thump! Thump! Thump!

‘Phew. Calm down. Clear your head. Remember what Eldarin said. I mustn’t let myself become consumed by the flames.’

The Obsidian Boar stamped its feet as it prepared itself.

—Pah! Pah! Paaah!

“Frrrroink!”

Kaian also steadied his breathing and prepared to attack.

‘Mr. Grills, I’ll trust you one more time. Just you wait if I don’t survive this…!’

The Obsidian Boar shook its snout vigorously before charging toward Kaian.

—Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Kaian lowered his body as much as possible and pointed the spearhead at the Obsidian Boar. Then he firmly braced the bottom of the spear between the ground and the tree.

‘They say it’s a magical beast that has absorbed fire mana, but in the end, its original form is still a wild boar.’

In other words, it had evolved within the traits inherent to wild boars.

According to Grills’s book, wild boars had a strong tendency to charge in a straight line, making it difficult for them to change direction once they began an attack.

And compared to their sturdy backs, their bellies were covered only by relatively soft skin.

‘So come at me! Faster! Harder!’

—Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Kaian held his ground until he thought he was about to be struck and killed, then quickly rolled to the side.

—Whoosh!

By a hair’s breadth, the stone blade pierced through the Obsidian Boar’s belly.

—Thrust!

“SKREEEE!”

The speed of the charge, the force of the impact, and the support of the ground and tree allowed the spear to easily pierce through the Obsidian Boar’s belly.

—Crack!

—Thud…!

“SKREEEE! SKREEE!”

The Obsidian Boar collapsed onto its side and cried out in agony.

Kaian stared blankly as blood mixed with its ragged breaths.

“I-it worked. I’m alive….”

Reality slowly returned to him.

Only then did he finally pat his trembling chest and catch his breath while sitting on the ground.

“Skree… skree…!”

The Obsidian Boar’s cries had grown weaker than before.

If left like this, it would probably die before long.

Kaian forced himself to turn his head away.

‘…I don’t want to see it get to that point yet.’

He had supposedly killed people before, but that had happened while he had no proper memory of it.

He brushed the dirt from his clothes and stood up. Then he came up with various excuses for why he should leave.

‘I don’t know how to butcher it, so I can’t even use it as food. And even if I could, I don’t have enough time. Leaving it behind is the best option.’

Even so, Kaian couldn’t bring himself to leave.

His eyes kept drifting back to the Obsidian Boar’s wound.

‘I said I should just leave it.’

He knew.

He knew that, and yet—

“Frrr! Frrrroink!”

“Ugh….”

Kaian grabbed his hair in distress.

The boar’s pitiful eyes kept appearing in his mind.

If he left it there like this, he was sure it would haunt his dreams.

“Ahh! Fine! I get it, I get it!”

In the end, he decided to follow his heart.

Kaian quickly opened his backpack and pulled out a sealed jar.

When he opened the lid, the deep blue color of indigo and the cool scent of peppermint wafted out.

It was a medicine called Cobalt Poultice, made according to the recipe in The Wisdom of Humans from the Common Era.

At the sight of the beautiful blue medicine, Kaian squeezed his eyes shut.

“Damn it… I barely have enough for myself!”

Cobalt Poultice was made by mixing indigo, peppermint, aloe, and other ingredients, and it had an excellent evaporative cooling effect.

Apparently, people from the Common Era, before the Age of Magic, had used this medicine to pass through volcanic regions.

‘These days, you can just use heat-resistance magic or wear protective equipment enchanted with cold magic….’

But Kaian was still no different from an ordinary human from the Common Era.

‘If I don’t have the proper tools, I’ll just have to make do.’

All the ingredients needed to make the Cobalt Poultice had been taken from Eldarin’s glass greenhouse.

After all, Eldarin herself had ordered him to bring back Flame Veil, so he believed she would probably forgive him.

Probably….

‘Still, I should make sure she doesn’t find out. Yeah!’

And now Kaian was about to share the precious medicine he had painstakingly made with the Obsidian Boar.

“I must be crazy.”

He carefully approached the Obsidian Boar’s head.

Then he scooped up a handful of Cobalt Poultice.

According to the book, Cobalt Poultice had another effect besides evaporative cooling.

It could soothe the aggressive nature of fire mana.

“Easy, Piggy. It won’t hurt. Just stay still.”

The Obsidian Boar flinched where it lay, wary of Kaian.

But it soon realized that it couldn’t move and relaxed its body, going limp.

Its breathing was rapid and labored.

Kaian slowly placed the Cobalt Poultice on the bridge of the Obsidian Boar’s snout.

Immediately, the medicine’s blue color seeped into the red skin, and white steam rose into the air.

—Hissssss….

“How is it? Cool, right? Are you feeling a little calmer?”

“Frrrrrr….”

The boar finally seemed to realize that Kaian wasn’t trying to hurt it.

At its considerably calmer cry, Kaian finally let out a sigh of relief.

“You’ve had a hard time too.”

The Obsidian Boar was a magical beast that grew stronger the more fire mana it absorbed.

But that same fire mana also heightened its aggression.

During the Common Era, when people could not artificially regulate the balance of the five types of mana as they could now, magical beasts suffering from mana starvation would sometimes descend into inhabited areas.

The damage was particularly severe whenever Obsidian Boars appeared, because their mana starvation combined with the aggression inherent to fire mana.

People of that era, who were unable to use magic, had apparently used Cobalt Poultice to calm the ferocious Obsidian Boars….

At least, that was what the author of The Wisdom of Humans from the Common Era claimed.

‘Though… unfortunately, it had absolutely no effect on my Inner World.’

After confirming that the Obsidian Boar’s breathing had become relatively easier, Kaian gently stroked its coarse fur.

“It’s not easy to control, is it?”

“Frrrrrr….”

“They say that’s just how fire is. Eldarin said it has a tendency to disperse and divide. That’s why when you hold fire inside you, it changes your original form. I have plenty of that stuff inside me too. In my case, I got hurt, so I can just fix it. But for you, it’s an inherent trait. What can you do about it, right?”

Fortunately, Piggy’s condition continued to grow calmer.

Only then did Kaian pull out his dagger and cut off the shaft of the spear.

“Don’t pull it out. You might actually die if you do.”

He also applied some of the healing medicine he had brought around the area where the spear had pierced through.

This, too, had been made from herbs obtained from Eldarin’s glass greenhouse. Apparently, it was powerful enough to mend even broken bones.

Of course, since the recipe came from The Wisdom of Humans from the Common Era, it had been developed based on human physiology.

Kaian continued stroking the Obsidian Boar’s fur as he spoke.

“I don’t know if it’ll work on you. But hang in there for a little while. Once I get back, I’ll ask Eldarin to treat you. So you’d better pray that this big brother survives too, okay? It’s in your best interest! Got it?”

“Gwehk.”

Judging by the dissatisfied cry, it seemed to be asking why exactly Kaian was calling himself its big brother.

Kaian answered with a grin.

“Hey, that’s simple. I told you, didn’t I? I’m going to live a long and healthy life.”

He intended to claw and scrape his way to the age of six hundred no matter what.

By then, most animals and people would naturally be younger than him.

“Eventually, I’ll be your big brother anyway, so there’s no problem with starting now, right?”

It was completely nonsensical logic, but the Obsidian Boar seemed willing to accept it.

It relaxed its body and began resting comfortably.

Seeing that, Kaian felt a little more at ease as well.

He added fresh firewood to the dying campfire and sat down with his back against the tree.

From across the flames, the Obsidian Boar’s eyes seemed to gleam like obsidian.

‘It might actually… be kind of cute…?’

Kaian cautiously asked the Obsidian Boar,

“You… eat bread too?”

“Frrk.”

“You do, right? I think I read that you’re omnivorous.”

Kaian smiled broadly as he took a packed meal out of his bag.

For a moment, he wondered whether it was strange for him to feel a sense of shared suffering with a creature whose belly he had personally stabbed with a spear.

‘Ah, whatever.’

He tore the bread into small pieces and fed them one by one into the Obsidian Boar’s mouth.

“I made this myself. You’d better be grateful, okay?”

“Frrr. Frrk.”

Worried that it might be thirsty, he also poured some astragalus tea into its mouth.

“They say it’s good for restoring your energy.”

Even while injured, the Obsidian Boar eagerly gobbled everything down.

In the end, Kaian fed the entire other half of his bread to the Obsidian Boar and then let out a scream.

“AAAH! At this rate, I’ll never get any rest!”

With no other choice, he slung his backpack over his shoulders again.

The Obsidian Boar was a magical beast that lived in volcanic regions. If he followed the tracks it had left behind, finding Mount Ignis Mons shouldn’t be difficult.

“Piggy. Big brother’s going to find the herb and bring Eldarin back soon! Wait here!”

“Frrrk.”

Holding a torch and carefully examining the ground, Kaian slowly began walking forward.

For some reason, he felt as though the darkness tonight was somehow less oppressive than usual.