"Juli, please lead the way."

Juli’s forehead creased, a look of disbelief staring straight at his innocent eyes.

"Me? You dragged me here!"

Eli gave her a little push on the back.

"You know this forest like the back of your hand, no? You literally trained here."

"That was years ago!"

He shrugged.

"So? You still remember."

Juli opened her mouth to argue, then decided to close it.

"...Okay, yeah, I do."

"See?"

"Shut up!"

She started brisking ahead. Her eyes swept from one side to another, and she pointed east without slowing down.

"Past that slope, there’s a clearing where the Mossbacks hang out. Ugh, I hate those things."

Eli’s eyes sparked with curiosity.

"What are they?"

Juli maintained her pace.

"They are giant boars covered in bark. They’re so stupid, Elise! They just charge at you over and over and over, and every time you hit them it sounds like you’re punching a tree! Like their skin is super hard."

She sighed.

"Three of us jumped one during our first ever drill, and it threw Harmon into a bush so hard we had to dig him out."

Eli snorted.

"Hey! You’re laughing now, but that’s going to be you in about five minutes."

After cresting the slope, the uneven clearing littered with rocks and roots appeared in front of them.

Juli stopped and held her arm out.

"There."

At the far end of the clearing, a Mossback was shoving its snout into the dirt. It was bigger than Eli expected, easily twice the size of a normal Frostfang, thick plates of bark armored its back and shoulders, with moss clinging to the crevices like jade gems.

Every time it moved, the plates shifted and scraped against each other with a dry, grinding sound.

’It’s kinda cute from afar.’

Cute or not, Eli drew his sword.

"Elise, you sure about this? It’s an F-Rank monster."

"Hm..."

In this world, each monster has a mana core, much like the old days of magic and swords, and they were ranked by the number of rings circulating around the core. Frostfangs, for example, had no rings, thus were considered a regular mob.

On the other hand, starting from one Ring, the monsters were ranked by letters. Mossbacks had one ring around their core, so they were categorized as F-Rank monsters. Two rings were E-Rank. Three rings, D-Rank, and so on.

The jump between a ringless mob and a one-ring was massive. Twenty Frostfangs had given Eli a workout, sure, but a single F-Rank Mossback was one that could sent first-year cadets home with broken bones.

In the in-game UI, however, rank was displayed as a specific number of stars, along with the monster’s level.

’Fuck. Can a Level 2 even beat this? Am I too much of an overachiever?’

Juli was already walking toward a rock at the edge of the clearing. She sat down, crossed one leg over the other, and rested her chin in her palm.

"Go ahead. I’ll be right here."

"You could at least cheer me on."

Juli shooed him away.

"Go Elise. I believe in you! Though try to keep the crying to a minimum, okay?"

’Thanks Juli, great encouragement from you there!’

Eli heaved a sigh and stepped into the clearing, tightening his grip as the nerves started kicking.

As the distance between him and the Mossback shortened, its ears twitched. It lifted its head from the dirt, beady eyes locking onto him, and let out a low grunt that rattled through its bark plates.

Eli planted his feet and raised the blade.

’If I can’t beat a single one of this dumb-looking boar, how am I supposed to survive the academy event?’

He took in a deep breath.

’Alright, ugly. Let’s see what you’ve got!’

The Mossback charged instantly as if it heard what he had said in his mind.

It was nothing like a Frostfang. Where those wolves lunged in straight lines, this thing barreled forward like a boulder rolling downhill, shaking the ground with every completed rotation.

[Maid’s Intuition] screamed at him to move left, but he had known better not to trust it completely.

Before Eli made a move, he studied the charge in a matter of seconds. The Mossback ran with its head low, so the momentum would carry it far and away. It was fast for its size, but it ran in a straight line, and its weight made the trajectory obvious.

Eli sidestepped right instead of left, just to see whether he could go against [Maid’s Intuition]. Simultaneously, he swung the blade as the boar passed.

’It worked!’

The blade connected against its flank, but it didn’t even leave a scratch on its bark armor. The impact shot up through his wrists, all the way to his shoulders.

’God damn!’

The Mossback kept going like he’d just smacked it with a stick.

’I put everything into that!’

Swinging definitely wouldn’t work unless Eli could use aura, which he definitely did not possess.

The boar skidded to a stop, tore up a line of dirt, and turned around. It grunted twice, looking annoyed more than hurt, and lowered its head again.

Then it charged once more, this time way faster.

’What the hell!?’

The enraged boar came at a speed so fast Eli had no time to analyze its movement. He immediately dove and rolled to the side.

The Mossback blew past him and slammed into a rock behind where he’d been standing, and the rock cracked into pieces.

’WHAT THE FUCK!? That rock was bigger than the boar and me combined!’

The boar shook itself off like it had only bumped into a soft pillow and turned around for another charge.

Eli scrambled to his feet and stabbed instead of swinging, but his blade struck all bark, not the gaps that he had aimed for.

The boar didn’t even flinch.

It swung its head sideways and caught Eli in the ribs with the flat of its tusk.

"Argh!"

He went airborne for a full second before his back hit the dirt; all the air left his lungs at once.

’Holy shit! That hurts so much!’

Eli glanced at the rock where Juli sat, her hands cupped around her mouth.

"That’s one!"

’She’s COUNTING!?’

Eli could see Juli holding back her laughter.

"Told you it’s gonna be you in five minutes! It’s not even three yet!"

He clenched his teeth, seriously resisting the petty urge to lead the boar straight for her and see how high it could launch her into the stratosphere.