Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 38: The Master of the Wilds

The <Tested Wilds>. A forest filled with dangerous beasts and guardians who protect the sacred treasures hidden behind trees filled with large amounts of mana. It is said that these treasures hold the keys to power and greatness to whoever conquers the forest, and if they manage to defeat the master of the wilds, they will be granted the forest's secrets and knowledge. However, you have to prepare yourself if you're planning to face the master. Because if you charge into battle ill-prepared with weak equipment and unhoned skills, you may end up getting the worst of the forest's storms.

And unfortunately for me and Wind, we had found ourselves face-to-face with the master itself.

"RROAAARRR!!!!"

My eyes widened when I heard its roar, at which I bearly dropped my staff in shock. If what I sensed with my [Magical Affinity] skills were true, I may have just jumped into an impossible battle without any thought to it.

"Kazu, what the hell did you drag us into?!" Wind shouted as he drew his bow and arrow, and his arms started to quiver.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't know that this place was the boss level area of that wilds!" I panicked apologized as I tightened my grip on my staff. "But I doubt we'll be able to escape easily, though..."

"I agree. I would go with the option to fight, but even I'm not stupid enough to choose that option so quickly. And just using an escape item might also lead us to our deaths if we're not careful.

When it comes to boss monsters, escaping from them was not as easy as in most tabletop RPGs we played in the past. Most of the time, they would have the ability to block off the entryway of the area. The only way to remove the block is to either kill the boss monster or use a spell or item to escape from the fight, the latter of which could only be used when players either accidentally stumble into a high-level boss area or didn't have enough items to survive the fight. However, the monsters would do everything to stop escape such as disabling the player's items and spells, such as knocking them from their hands or using a special spell to prevent any kind of escape. Even more, their behavior could be unpredictable and could change depending on the players' actions.

As for both of us, we knew that escaping here might cause our deaths if we didn't know what this monster could do first. If we tried to use an item right then and there, it might find a way to stop our escape. We needed a plan to get out of the area safely without provoking the tiger in the process. Looking around, all I could see were trees surrounding the whole field and sunlight peeking through the leaves above us. Plus, I could only see one passageway out, which is where we came from in the first place.

This was tough to figure it out... But I had to do it if we wanted to get out of here.

"Wind, think you can distract the tiger with your [Hunting] skills for a bit?" I whispered to my brother's ear as I pulled out a bottle from my satchel (which was my [Inventory]) and held it very tightly as I aimed it near the tiger.

"Wha- Are you nuts? Can't you see how strong that tiger looks?! You can't win against it by yourself!"

I just sighed by his response and said, "You think I don't know that? Just don't try to hit it. Use your arrows to divert its attention and I'll try to blind it with my [Tempest Blow]."

Wind's eyes widened as he scratched his chin and looked into the tiger's menacing yellow eyes. "Are you sure that'll work? You might get hurt if you try that."

"Just trust me, Wind. I know what I'm doing. We have to work together if we want this plan to work."

While most of my [Wind] spells are offensive-type, [Tempest Blow] was a buffing-type spell that imbued our weapons with its [Wind] attribute for a few minutes. While it wouldn't damage the tiger, it could affect the surroundings. In other words, I could combine it with the forest's gravel to blind the tiger's vision, which would allow us to make our escape from there. I doubted it would be effective against the boss, but it was our only chance to escape.