Martial Online.

"Well, what is the plan?" Ambrose asked.

"Hmm..." RedBand caressed his chin and said. "We need to bait the wild hog to come here, where we can fight it without other players interrupting."

"So, who will be the bait?" Ambrose asked with narrowed eyes.

"Heh, you catch up fast." RedBand chuckled and looked at him. "I will be bait first. You next."

Ambrose shrugged his shoulders and said. "Fine by me."

"Be ready." RedBand said and ran out of the forest.

Ambrose leaned against a tree and watched as the brown-haired player rushed towards an angry-looking wild hog, which was stomping around madly like a raging bull.

RedBand caught a small pebble from the ground and hurled it towards the wild hog. It landed on the wild hog's face.

The wild hog turned to the brown-haired player, and it was like there was invisible fire in its murderous red eyes. Without further ado, it began chasing after RedBand.

Ambrose stopped leaning and held the wooden sword in a tight grip. Beads of sweat trickled down the side of his face. He was still quite exhausted from previous fights.

RedBand stopped running and spun around to face the running wild hog. He pulled out his wooden sword.

"Flank him!" He shouted and used the wooden sword as a block while the wild hog charged at him.

The wild hog struck the wooden sword, and its charge had a lot of power behind it. RedBand's feet slid across the ground as he crashed into the tree. His block did not have enough strength to block the charging wild hog.

"Ugh." RedBand let out a gasp and saw the wild hog charging for another attack. His face paled significantly.

At that moment, Ambrose appeared behind the wild hog with the wooden sword flying down.

The wooden sword slammed into the wild hog's body.

"Kruh, kruh!" The wild hog screamed painfully and fell to its knees.

RedBand saw an opportunity and rushed forward. He raised the wooden sword above his head and slammed it into the wild hog's head.

The wild hog became limp, and it disappeared into light blue pixels. It left behind a tusk, which RedBand grabbed and stored inside his inventory.

[You assisted in killing Wild Hog!]

[5 XP Earned!]

"Let's continue. Your turn." RedBand said.

"Mm." Ambrose nodded and saw wild hogs running around, some getting chased by players and others doing the chasing. There were not many free ones, meaning he had to steal a wild hog from someone.

'Let's do it like this then...' He thought and started walking towards his prey.

A distance away, a player was swinging his sword around while chasing a wild hog.

'One more kill, and I am level 2!' He thought desperately, but he couldn't deliver the finishing blow.

The wild hog was running away from him at full speed.

The player breathed heavily, as he had been running for the entire day. He was relatively athletic in real life, and felt relatively well in game as well as if his physique was transferred to this game, but after fighting for several hours, he realized it wasn't nearly enough.

He slowly stopped running to catch his breath.

"God... damn it..."

At that moment, a wooden sword struck him in the neck.

The player's vision swam as he lost his footing. The last thing he saw before his vision turned dark was the expressionless face of a black-haired youth.

[You killed a Player!]

[0.5 XP Earned!]

Ambrose didn't care about the experience point, but instead he was looking straight at the wild hog, who was also staring at him. They had a silent staring contest.

Then the wild hog stomped powerfully on the ground and started charging after Ambrose.

He quickly turned around and ran back towards RedBand.

RedBand was already ready with a wooden sword in hand.

Ambrose glanced over his shoulder at the wild hog, who was approaching him with scary speed. Then he did a quick sidestep to the left, but the wild hog's eyes followed him and seemed to be preparing to follow.

However, then Ambrose did another sidestep, this time towards the right. The wild hog tried to stop its momentum, but it was running too fast and missed the black-haired young man.

Since the wild hog's eyes were occupied by Ambrose's presence, it didn't notice a wooden sword moving towards its face.

RedBand slammed its wooden sword into the wild hog's face. The wild hog fell to the ground with a thud. It was still breathing, but barely, and seemed to be too injured to stand up.

RedBand turned around and planned to deal the finishing blow.

At that moment, Ambrose rushed forward and hacked the sword down at the wild hog's face as if he were using an axe to chop wood.

Once the wooden sword landed on the wild hog's head, it disappeared and left behind two tusks!

Ambrose snatched the two tusks, which were good spoils since RedBand only received one from his kill. He then tossed them into his inventory and glanced at the brown-haired player.

RedBand lowered his weapon and looked at Ambrose with an apathetic expression.

Ambrose rested his sword against his shoulder and looked at RedBand with a simple smile.

"You are a very competitive person." RedBand chuckled.

"Am I?" Ambrose shrugged his shoulders. It was the first time he heard someone say that about him. He then walked to the death place of the player he killed and grabbed the wooden sword, which he tossed inside his inventory.

After that, he checked the notifications he had received.

[You killed Wild Hog!]

[5 XP Earned!]

"Hey, you two!"

RedBand and Ambrose turned around to look at the approaching player. The player was a young man with a long ponytail and a red bandana tied around his head and neck.

"What?" RedBand narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip around the wooden sword.

"You just killed my party member. I won't let that slide." The player with the red bandana said and took out his wooden spear.

"You alone?" RedBand asked with a smile. "Rather overconfident."

"Alone, nah." The player said with a smirk. "I have several other party members."

"Where are they then?" Ambrose asked.

"Hunting a few wild hogs." The player said. "You are at a disadvantage. I suggest giving all your inventory to us, and we will let you live."

"But if they are there hunting wild hogs, you are alone then." RedBand said with a smile and moved the wooden sword into an attacking stance.

"Uh, I am not alone." The player turned to look at his party members, who were nowhere to be seen. His face turned pale. "Guys?"

"Basic Slash!" Ambrose rushed forward and delivered the first blow. The sword hit the player in the shoulder, making him drop his spear.

"Ah, bastard!" The player screamed and tried to pick up his spear. But then RedBand appeared from the side and delivered a slash at the player's chest.

Ambrose raised the wooden sword and hacked it down. This time, it struck the player in the neck, causing an inaudible crack. The player's head twisted to the side as if his neck had been broken.

"Uh, oh..." The player vanished into pixels and dropped a wooden sword, a pouch of money, and six wild hog tusks.

"Uh, a pouch?" Ambrose took the pouch and looked inside. There were ten silver coins inside. "Wait, why did he drop the money?"

"Oh, you don't know?" RedBand scratched his chin. "If the player dies, they will also drop all of their money. Also, if a player dies, the XP they have gathered will also be halved."

"What? That is quite a serious punishment." Ambrose thought aloud.

"Not at all. It could be much worse, and there are ways of avoiding the fate of losing all money, such as storing them somewhere before leaving out for hunting."

"Ah, understandable."

RedBand then looked at the six tusks and felt slightly envious. "You delivered a finishing blow, so they are yours."

Ambrose looked at the items and first tossed the wooden spear into his inventory. He then held the six tusks in his hand and tossed three of them towards RedBand. 𝐛𝐞𝗱𝗻𝐨𝐯𝗲𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝐦

RedBand caught them awkwardly and looked at him with confusion plastered across his face.

"You helped," Ambrose said.

"Oh, you are surprisingly fair." RedBand smiled and didn't stand in the ceremony. He stored the three tusks in his inventory.

Ambrose placed the silver coins inside his inventory, and they immediately transferred to his interface.

[Silver: 10]

'I received half XP from killing the player too. There is still a long way to go, but it is doable.' Ambrose thought.

"Let's pick up the pace." RedBand said and rushed towards the horde of wild hogs.

Ambrose turned his gaze to the sky, which was turning orange. White clouds drifted across the clean sky, and the sun was slowly moving over to the horizon.

'The game is following real-life time. I also have to log out soon; my real life body is probably starving since I skipped breakfast. But before then, level 2.'