Hajin got a knee onto the boar and held it there while the three Shards jerked around its tusks without settling.
The evolution had failed somewhere in the middle, which spared him an animal that could use what it was carrying.
He pulled the last of the mana in reach up through his arm, the links closing over his knuckles with flat clicks.
Then he put the fist down through the skull.
The clearing took the impact, the boar stopped moving, and three darkened Shards came loose from the tusks.
Golden light came off the body before it finished cooling, then it split into two streams that went in opposite directions.
One sank into the Ring turning above his right wrist.
The other crossed the grass to Juna and went into her without waking her.
Heat came up behind his eyes and put him down on one knee, so he stayed there while the panels stacked in front of him.
[ EXP Gained: 15,000 ]
[ Rank Progress: 16,500 / 500,000 ]
[ Summon Juna gained: 15,000 EXP ]
[ Wing Progress: 15,000 / 300,000 ]
[ Loot dropped: Corrupted Boar Tusk (Common) ]
[ Passive Trait Triggered: Fragment's Blessing ]
[ Rarity Upgrade: Common ➔ Mythic ]
[ Obtained: Tusk of the Earth Render (Mythic) ]
He read the list twice while his breathing evened out.
'Fifteen thousand off one animal,' he thought, sitting back on his heel until the heat left his face, 'off a fight I very nearly lost twice over.'
"You were almost something," he said to the corpse, wiping his hand down what was left of his shirt, "so thank you for failing at it."
The reward had nothing to do with how long the fight ran, so the system paid for danger rather than work.
'Stronger monsters, better numbers,' he thought, standing up with both knees complaining, 'a terrible plan with good arithmetic behind it.'
He flicked his wrist on the way over and brought up the weapon panel.
[ Chains of the Goddess ]
[ Type: Growth Weapon ]
[ Status: Active (99% Damaged) ]
[ Note: Repairs and evolves through the absorption of divine or corrupted essence. ]
That note had not been there when the shop handed the weapon over, or he had been too busy bleeding to read it.
Corrupted essence was what had been turning inside the boar, so every monster like it was now material.
'Ninety nine percent broken,' he thought, closing the panel, 'so I am carrying a divine weapon that eats the exact thing trying to kill me.'
He knelt beside Juna and put two fingers under her jaw.
The wound along her side had soaked her clothes through, though nothing under it had opened as far as the blood suggested.
He tore another strip off the ruin of his shirt, then pressed it down over the cut until her chest moved steadily against his hand.
'Thank god,' Hajin thought, letting out a breath he had not noticed he was holding.
'Rest and a healer,' he thought, holding the pressure while the leaves settled, 'not a miracle, which is fortunate, since nobody here can produce one.'
"You are very heavy for someone who weighs nothing," he told her, working one arm under her knees, "and I would like that noted."
He got the other arm behind her back and lifted her slowly, keeping the injured side clear.
The stream panel slid back into his vision as he stood, the comments running faster now that nothing was trying to gore anybody.
[ JunaFanClub: ] is she okay?? someone say she is okay
He shifted her weight until her head stopped hanging off his arm.
[ ShadowMage44: ] tell me the wolf girl made it, i am begging
"She is fine," he said, glancing down at the face against his shoulder, "she just needs to sleep somewhere that is not a field of pig."
[ CringeSlayer91: ] if she died i am uninstalling this app
Their worry landed stranger on him than the viewer count did, since these were people who had met her through a window, yet several of them sounded genuinely afraid of losing her.
He walked away from the corpse while the number climbed at the corner of his eye, where they went on treating all of it as a production, which bothered him more than being watched ever had.
'Do they think any of it is real?' he wondered, stopping where the trees opened to look into the space where the watching seemed to come from.
Being called entertainment should have cost him nothing, except their donations had changed the shape of his days more than he wanted to admit.
"Do you people still think this is a show?" he asked the air, adjusting his grip on Juna, "or has anybody changed their mind about the world part?"
The comments held for a second before they came back different.
[ CringeSlayer91: ] tbh the way you talk to us is pretty wild
He held still while the next line pushed up the panel.
[ ShadowMage44: ] bro can hear us and answer, no chat bot does that live
'They are arguing about whether I exist,' he thought, watching the lines shove each other upward, 'while I hold the person who nearly died.'
[ NewViewer_02: ] the donations work too, i sent 5 credits after the shop and it landed instantly
The count went from twenty to thirty, then past forty as people handed the stream to whoever would take it.
[ LurkerNoMore: ] the animation is too clean, the voice acting too natural, and it talks back live. i do not know what this is anymore
He kept walking, since standing still to read a panel did nothing for Juna, whose bandage had stopped darkening somewhere back along the trail.
[ CringeSlayer91: ] if this is AI then whoever built it just broke the entire industry
"I will take that as a compliment," he said, stepping over a root without looking, "since I have no idea what you just called me."
[ ShadowMage44: ] another world though? come on, that is a stretch
"That is funny," he said, watching them fight it out above his head, "because I spent my first week here deciding whether any of you were real."
[ NewViewer_02: ] a whole parallel universe? that is insane
"Your side is easier to believe in," he added, shifting Juna higher against his shoulder, "on account of your side keeps sending me money."
[ LurkerNoMore: ] if it is real then this guy hunts monsters for a living
He let the argument run itself out.
[ CringeSlayer91: ] or it is the most elaborate game ever built and we are playing along
The demand came in three lines that wanted the same thing.
[ ShadowMage44: ] hey hajin, if this is another world then prove it
'Prove it,' he thought, looking from Juna to the corpse behind them, 'to people who just watched an animal grow a third Shard.'
[ NewViewer_02: ] show us one thing that cannot be faked
Arguing with a distant world was a poor use of the air his ribs rationed.
[ LurkerNoMore: ] do something no rendering could copy
"I cannot prove anything to you," he said, moving Juna carefully as her head slid, "so you will have to keep watching and work it out yourselves."
The panel went quiet for several seconds.
[ CringeSlayer91: ] fair answer honestly
He watched the pause stretch, since the chat had never run out of things to say.
[ ShadowMage44: ] he is not even selling it. a production would be pushing this way harder
That one landed closer than the rest, so he let it sit.
[ NewViewer_02: ] or he is a very good actor
Gold ran across the panel before he could read further, one notice dropping into the middle of it.
[ashley donated: 100,000 credits]
He stopped in the middle of the trail with Juna in his arms.
[ ashley: ] hi, i know this is insane and i probably should not be doing this, but i want to mod your channel. let me run the community, sort donations, keep chat clean. i will not disappoint you
'One hundred thousand,' he thought, reading the number twice in case the panel had miscounted, 'and I have no idea what that converts to in anything I can spend.'
He had no idea who she was, or why a stranger would hand that to a man she had watched punch a pig.
"Ashley," he said, testing the name against the empty air while the count kept climbing, "I do not know what a mod is."
[ ashley: ] that is fine, i will explain, just say yes
Juna moved against his shoulder, saying something into his collar that did not survive the trip.
"Go back to sleep," he said, adjusting her before she could work herself awake, "a stranger is buying your fan club a manager."
"Mm," she said into his shirt, without opening her eyes, "smells like pig."