Chapter 139 - A Trip for the Deadly Ghost Tree(2)

"Goddamn King! With his Goddamn rules. Sending me alone in this...Goddamn Ghosts. I hate Ghosts, why do i need to fetch the stupid branch?! I'm a Guard Commander Goddamnit. This is no Job for me. What if i get possessed? I will haunt the King for life if I get possessed by a Goddamn ghost. Or i'll haunt his wife. What maniac got in bed with this diseased maniac after all. He can't finish a sentence without having a rage outburst. Unstable cunt." Murmured Guard Commander Chan with himself. Cursing out the King, the Ghosts, trees or plants that slow him down, basically anything he could think of. Neighbours, Guards he doesn't like, people he doesn't like, insects that have been bothering him for days. Everything. Best part about all of this, is that he is travelling alone. Is the Forest making him insane?

Letting out rage by stabbing or cutting trees or basically anything that a dagger can cut! If an enemy faced him now, he would have obliterated the opponent even though he isn't exactly the best fighter. Because Guard Commanders need to reach a certain level of Swordsmanship in order to be a Guard Commander. He certainly didn't reach that level yet, he got in differently. Let's say the colour of his skin didn't have anything to do about it, this time.

He has been travelling for a week, sleeping in the forest for 7 days straight has got the best out of him. If walking all day wasn't enough, he had to sleep while trying his best to avoid the freezing cold weather. He is sick of pavement ants climbing on him and biting him while he is asleep, you would think that all ants would hibernate in winter but no. Pavement ants climbed on him apparently finding "warm spots" he had to take his pants  off in this severely cold weather several times now. He is in a continent where it's mountains are covered with snow all year round, the weather is even colder here.

But fortunately, he didn't run into any big animals. Such as Wildboars, Wildcats, Source Bears, or any other sort of normal bear, not to mention other predators. If a TitanoBoa was to be found in Ignis, what else is hiding in these lands? This forest is thick in vegetation, leading to more insects living in it, leading to more birds being around who eat those insects, leading to bigger omnivores who eat those birds living in the forest, leading to predators who eat every living being living in those areas. Thick vegetation of course leads to animals like deers and wildboards to roam around in great numbers.

The Continent has more Boars than people. Underpopulation works to their advantage at this point, because as long as domains have enough hunters, food is considered limitless for an overall population of 126,000.

In Fact it is a surprise how he didn't run into any wild boars. If he did though, he simply doesn't have the brains to deal with one.

"Well isn't this perfect. Now i need to look for a village to buy food. Again!" He yelled after he reached in the bag he was carrying, noticing there is no food left, with a sigh he said "I swear i hate this Goddamn forest." He yelled as he kicked a rock in rage and cursed out several times after because it hurt his foot. Badly! "Wait, what do we have here." He noticed a short black figure disappearing in the woods and ran after it right away, ignoring the pain on his foot, see if something is able to move, it means its food. And he needs food. See this is another bad idea he followed, When did a figure who disappears fast ever represent something safe? He completely ignored the King's orders of "If you are to sense... danger, your first thought should be... to run away!" But no, "Guard Commander" Chan is running towards the black figure that flashed in front of his eyes a while ago.

He met at the point where he had to run up a short hill. Only to find himself on a higher vantage spot. He found himself above a boulder, about 10 feet above the ground, giving a short view of the surrounding area, he didn't see anything yet. But his attention was grabbed furthermore when he heard a squeal from the left which made him turn his head towards that direction right away. He noticed that about 30 feet away, there was a Wildboar. Indeed that black figure that disappeared in the forest in a blink was a Wildboar covered mostly in pitch black fur.

It is Hard for Chan to define how dangerous this WildBoar can be. The bigger a Wild Boar would be, the more dangerous one is. And if it looks tall but thin, the boar could be very old in age which would make it less dangerous or more dangerous. It varies from boar to boar. Starvatation wouldn't be a problem because this forest is thick in vegetation, it can almost be considered a jungle. In Fact if vegetation keeps growing like this, it will be considered a jungle. Even at Winter, where snow covers the ground it wouldn be considerably difficult to find food, but not impossible. It offers survivable resources if not fattening ones.

The snow covering the ground helped Chan figure out where that squeal came from. When he witnessed the Wild Boar, he noticed that it isn't too big. A bit above half a meter tall. This could either be a mature female wild boar or an almost mature male Wild Boar. Either way, the Wild Boar was thick. When Chan saw it, he saw a walking big fat meal. This wild boar is no doubt only a couple of years old. Considered mature enough to breed but definitely not fully grown. This one seemed to be just above 70kg heavy. Due to overhunting not being common in Ignis, these wild boars can grow very large. There are tales of hunters who managed to bring home a 300kg WildBoar.

While at some regions of Ignis where vegetation is thicker, the average weight of these boars breaks nearly 200kg, but their average overall size in most of the continent reaches 100-120kg and less commonly above 150kg and they averagely grow up to 1 meter tall in shoulder length throughout most of Ignis.

Humans don't overhunt them but there are other species who see them as a good meal. Like wolves or bears. If there weren't any predators in sight, these Wild Boars would reach a terrifying weight of 300 kilograms on average. But of course, any Wild Boar reaching over 150kg is hard to be put down by wolves, so that can also lead to a population increase for the WildBoar species. Wild Boars are heavily overpopulated here which helps other predators survive, ultimately forming a strong ecosystem and making the forest rather indomitable by humans. There are only a few villages and Kingdoms living very near or in the forest, their population is scarce and their life isn't easy either.

But witnessing the Wild Boar, Chan figured out why it squealed. It or better now called, "she" had little ones to care for who were jumping around their mother in joy. Or could it be a form of training? Who knows! Wild Boars are known to jump high! Imagine a 100kg Wild Boar running at speeds equal to a human being's running speed and jumping high towards your face with their horns in front, deadly indeed but not common. And the constant squealing between them seems to be a form of communicating. They seem rather happy as well although weird that their breeding time is in the toughest months of the year, they seem to handle themselves quite well.

Touching his stomach afterwards pulling out a wooden spear he carved with his dagger for extra protection, he figured that this will be an easy meal for him. He could kill the mother and have meat to eat for weeks, and he can also kill the little piglets for a smaller snack. There are 6 of them so that can prove handy as well. He looked at the WildBoar again, touched his stomach and was ready to attack. But! A thought flashed in his mind before he started moving in for the kill.

No, not the thought of Xakro killing him if he delayed the delivery because of an injury caused by a wild boar, he remembered something of greater importance to him. His parents. He lost his parents long ago due to an Ignite led revolt. The revolt didn't last long but they killed every ill.u.s.tratio in sight, his parents were also victims. He knows how much he misses his parents and would do a lot to see them again. If let these Piglets live, why would he leave them without a mother to care for them. What will the piglets understand from all of this. They are innocent. He pulled back the spear, decided to not kill them but what he heard after made his heart sink. A growl was heard behind him, he turned around to see something he really didn't expect.