Solomon's Crucible 13. A Short Flight (Patreon)

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Solomon scooted himself along the branch until he could rest his back against the trunk of the tree. The extra point of contact had him stable enough that he could have used his free hand to fish out some snacks and water. He could use a quick pick-me-up. Combat was hungry work.

Unfortunately, his food and water were safely tucked away in his inventory. It was wonderfully convenient to be able to carry things in a secure and out of the way spot. He might not have escaped from his bout of close combat so relatively unscathed if he'd been lugging a backpack of supplies around with him. At the moment, though, his inventory might as well have been on the moon.

It was frustrating that his inventory couldn't be opened while he was in combat. Solomon looked down at the boars that had followed his motion along the branch from the ground below and even now were staring at him with murder in their piggy little eyes. They could see him, they weren't that far away from him, and they'd certainly kill him if they could. He could understand how it would seem like he was in combat from a certain point of view.

He supposed he could count himself lucky. He'd almost decided to stow his spear and shield so that he could better sneak his way into the dungeon. That would have been a disaster.

His current circumstances weren't ideal, but they weren't quite a disaster. Solomon kept a close eye on the boar that was still wearing his spear like a body piercing. It might have just been his imagination, but it seemed like the flashes of System granted healing had been slowing down.

It was taking a lot longer than he'd expected. Solomon pulled up the system interface again and looked up the abilities on the Berserker grid. No, those abilities would let him fight through pain, but they wouldn't do much if he got himself skewered. He could imagine the system handing out some kind of supernatural resilience ability, though. It stood to reason that monsters must have access to tailored abilities of their own.

The system was fair, after all.

The flashes of healing finally stopped altogether. The boar squealed like, well, a stuck pig. It was as though it hadn't even noticed the wound until now. It shook itself and began jumping around in panic.

All the motion didn't do the boar any favors. The hole in its body tore wide open, bleeding freely. It wasn't long after that before the boar's motion slowed, then stopped. It toppled over as it finally died.

The other boar wasn't much bothered by the death of its companion. It gave Solomon one final glare before it turned and headed for the other boar's body. It worked its way around so that it was facing in his direction, lowered its head, and began to eat.

Solomon wrinkled his nose in disgust. He knew even ordinary pigs would eat just about anything, but it was still disturbing to see the system-generated monsters resort to cannibalism without a second thought. For a moment, he wondered if people would resort to the same sort of behavior if the system handed out rewards for it.

He shook his head. He could worry about larger problems later. For now, he had a boar to kill.

Of course, he wasn't going to kill it with his bare hands. He needed a weapon.

Solomon held his hand out towards the shield strapped to his arm.

"Molding."

The MP from the spell flowed out, rendering the metal shield pliable. Solomon used his free hand to draw down on the bottom half of the shield, adding what was effectively a spiked extension to the circular shield. It took a little extra effort, but he was able to get it reasonably sharp. When he cut off the MP flow, he still had enough left for one more spell.

Solomon held his hand over the shield once more.

"Toughen."

According to the system, magical chalk could be used to guide the flow of MP as it enhanced an item. That was one reason Solomon had stuck with the simple toughness spell instead of going for one of his fancier enhancements, seeing as his chalk was stuck in his inventory. Everything seemed to go smoothly as the MP seeped into the shield. The flow felt different than when he used the Molding ability, more deliberate.

Adding the spike to his shield had thinned out the metal. Solomon felt better about his chances as he felt the toughness spell take hold. With this, the shield should hold up what he had planned.

While the boar had shown some caution and made the effort to keep an eye on him, it hardly seemed to notice his actions. The more it ate, the more it seemed to focus on its meal. Solomon would have liked to wait for his MP to recharge to give him another chance to enhance his shield, but it didn't look like he would have enough time before the boar finished eating.

Solomon carefully scooted his way back out along the branch. He almost took a chunk out of his remaining hand with the spike on his shield with his first scoot. After that, he was more conscious of the new danger. Soon enough, he'd gotten out as close as he could to the gluttonous boar.

Unfortunately, the dead boar hadn't had the courtesy to die immediately underneath his branch. It had instead expired a few feet away. In turn, the remaining boar had positioned itself on the far side of the body, although it had worked its way closer as it kept eating. All told, there were maybe five or six horizontal feet between Solomon and his target.

The boar had looked up at him when he moved. Once he reached his goal and stopped, though, it soon lost interest and turned back to gnawing on its erstwhile companion.

Solomon took a deep breath and swung his leg over the branch, pivoting carefully to stay in balance. With both legs on the same side of the branch, it wouldn't take much to send him falling to the ground.

He held his shield out in front of him, leaned forward, and pushed off the branch as hard as he could.

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