The woodland had no roads.
This was the first thing Hikaru noticed as he walked. Instead of roads, it had paths that twisted between the trees and vegetation, the ground was soft and layered with fallen leaves.
As he walked he thought about the Astral realm, this place had its own logic and it was a more primitive one. The modern social concepts such as job and religion didn't matter here, what mattered was things like your strength, and how much you could hunt.
It was like returning to the Stone Age.
This made Hikaru a little wary, if people returned to their most primitive selves here, then would they be more savage? Would they rob each other or kill each other over whims?
Or was the violence only restricted to beasts.
Beside him, Nameless was quiet, as he walked his eyes were scanning constantly. He would scan above, scan left and right of them, then scan the ground as if something would pop up from the undergrowth to attack them.
He still had the relaxed look on his face and his steps were lazy but he looked like he was ready to spring into action if there was any problems. This made Hikaru feel a little safe, even if he was attacked, Nameless was strong enough to save him or buy him time.
And soon Hikaru himself would get stronger and be able to defend him.
This made him hurry his walking step, the faster they started killing beasts, the better.
Hikaru and nameless walked for a while without speaking, then their silence was broken by a sound.
The two of them stopped at the same time and Hikaru's hand moved quickly to his sword hilt. He drew the sword and held it in front of him.
Nameless however didn't draw his sword, his hands didn't even move to the hilt, instead he just watched the undergrowth to his left more intently.
Then the bushes moved and a wild hog came out of it. It was a large beast, with bristled fur and an ugly face. It stopped moving when it saw them and snorted at them.
Hikaru could see its eyes gleam with curiousity and a wave of fear hit him, he tightened his grip on the sword.
He became aware of the human standing near him and relaxed slightly. "Right, I still have nameless"
The hog's eyes moved between Hikaru and Nameless, as it tried to pick a target. Then it settled on Hikaru and grunted loudly.
Why always me? Hikaru cried in his head.
"Don't worry master!" Nameless cried out. I'll protect you from this sniveling beast!" As he said this he pulled out his sword and brandished it.
The hog charged at Hikaru with all its killing intent, but before it could reach him, Namless had jumped in front of him and launched a debating kick at the hog.
It squealed as its body left the ground and flew in the air before crashing into a tree trunk.
Woah. Hikaru exclaimed as he watched it fly.
The hog scrambled to its feet quickly but Nameless had already reacted.
He rushed to the pig and swung his sword in two slashes at the hog, the sword cut cleanly through and it squealed before dropping to the ground.
It didn't move again.
[Wild Hog slain.]
[+1 Soul Core]
His profile now read:
Nameless sheathed his sword quietly and knelt before the hog, he stuck his hand into its chest and began to dig around.
Then he pulled out a beast crystal and held it out to Hikaru with an expression of glee on his face.
"Master, take this! We will collect many of these an become unbelievably rich!"
Hikaru collected the small pink crystal from Nameless and admired it for a moment, it was then he realized he had not prepared any means to carry the crystals and carcasses he got in the astral realm.
Nameless suddenly straightened and gasped. "Forgive me master, I've been thoughtless". He hurriedly put a hand in his pocket and pulled out a plastic bag. He took the crystal from Hikaru's hand and put it inside the bag, he then held it up as if he was presenting it to Hikaru.
"I will carry this, I will not burden you with unnecessary tasks from here on."
Hikaru was surprised at how useful Namless actually was, also he was a little weirded out by the summons' behavior. "Okay, thank you."
He looked back at the hog. "We should take the corpse as well, we can sell it."
Namless looked at the dead hog with a contemplative face. "I didn't bring a large enough bag to contain many beasts."
Hikaru thought about it for a moment. "It's fine, we can take the heads today, tomorrow we'll be better prepared and we can carry full carcasses."
Nameless nodded somberly. "That is wise, Master."
He brought out a second bag and handed the first bag to Hikaru. Then he cleanly severed the hog's head in one motion unceremoniously.
Hikaru flinched.
Nameless then placed the head in the bag and stood up. "All done master!"
"Right… uh, good job". Hikaru said and Nameless beamed.
They continued their journey.
They hadn't walked for too long when there was another sound and the bushes near them rustled again.
As they stopped to observe, another wild hog came out and stared them down.
As it sniffed the air and grunted violently at them, Hikaru wondered if it could smell its dead comrade in the bag.
The hog let out a loud grunt and then tensed to launch itself at them, however before it could even move, Nameless was already in front of it, he slashed it once across the neck and its head rolled to the ground.
[Wild Hog slain.]
[+1 Soul Core]
Incredible!. Hikaru inwardly yelled, utterly terrified by Nameless's power.
Nameless calmly plunged his hand into the beast's chest and fished around before bringing out the crystal and holding it up toward Hikaru.
Hikaru collected the crystal and gave him a thumbs up.
Nameless smiled and gave a thumbs up in return before picking the head and dumping it in his bag and returning to Hikaru's side.
They continued walking.
They had now gotten two crystals and two hog heads in almost no time and Hikaru hadn't even had to break a sweat. He was right, we're going to be freaking rich! He rejoiced internally.
He was still thinking about this when he heard another set of growling.
As they came to a stop, Hikaru suddenly felt uneasy, like there was something wrong.
As he tried to figure out what made these growls different from the rest, the bushes suddenly parted and four hogs stepped out from it.