Whatever that is, it’s big, and it’s approaching from my right. I turn on my heel so that I’m face to face with it, and it’s on my left instead of my right, and god is this thing ugly. It’s taller than me, and somehow even more lanky, its skin is the colour of Ink and it doesn’t have any hair that I can see. There’s two tusks jutting out of its face, and I can’t see any claws on its arms or legs, so I’m assuming the tusks are how it fights. First order of business is to get rid of those tusks then.

  I jump to my left as the thing charges at me with its face first, one of its tusks brushes briefly against my side causing a spark of pain as it tears through my shirt and manages to cut into me, not very deep but it’s still bleeding enough to cause some concern, however it doesn’t hurt enough that I can’t stay focused. Thankfully its tusks have gotten it trapped with its face against a tree. Can’t help but be glad that missed me because its tusks are buried fully in that tree, and I’m definitely a lot squishier than a tree.

  I hold my side with one hand, run up to the thing, and slam the bottom of my boot into the back of its head as hard as I can, I hear a faint crack which I hope is its skull and not my foot. The thing lets out a disturbing screech and starts flailing while still trying to free its tusks, so I do as any sane person would, I slam my boot into the back of its head, over and over until I hear a loud crack and the thing throws its head backwards, causing me to stumble back while it stands back up to its full height and turns to me rapidly, now prominently missing a tusk and bleeding from the left side of its jaw were the tusk was attached.

  Shit, this fucking thing is trying to circle around to my right, it knows I won’t be able to see it if it gets far enough to my right, so I’m forced to circle with it to keep my eye trained on it, thankfully it’s patience isn’t better than mine and it charges me once again, Its a great for me that the thing doesn’t have any real way to attack other than its tusks, as all I have to do is jump to the left, getting me behind it once again, and while it’s still in its charging posture, I Slam my boot into the back of its head again, this time to knock it off balance. Fucking thing shouldn’t have stopped its charge and it would have been safe from this.

  I turn it over, slam my knees down on its abdomen, grasp its remaining tusk in my right hand, and start pummelling its face with my left hand. I punch and slam and punch some more, ignoring the way my hand grasping its tusk is cut open by the jagged bone that its tusk is made of, ignoring the burning feeling in my muscles, even ignoring the way it flails in pain. This thing attacked me on sight without even a threatening gesture, clearly it thought I was prey, an easy target. Sadly for it, I’ve fought idiots with sharp objects more times than I care to admit. Eventually I’m blessed with a notification from the system.

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  [Lesser tusk maw lvl 1 slain]

  …This thing was only level one, if it wasn’t somehow dummer than I am I’d be dead, if it managed to hit me when it was charging at me, I’d be dead. I had to pummel its skull for god knows how long to kill it, it survived me stomping the back of its skull as hard as I could, time after time, and it was level one. I didn’t even level up from killing it.

  Although I suppose as the system registers this as a lesser variant of something, that means it’s not a sentient race, so it should count as prey for champion of Mixcoatl if I eat it, but I’m not going to eat this one, I’m going to test some stuff on this one, see if I can’t figure out how to kill these things more easily, and then I can kill and hunt a higher level one, because surely the stronger the prey I eat the better the aspect I can get, after all each species can only give me one aspect, so a prime member of the species should give me the best possible aspect. I hope…

  I shakily stand up from the tusk maw’s corpse and go to grab the tusk that broke off in the tree. Once I have it, I rip the hem of my shirt and wrap it around the base of the tusk to act as a handle, then I rip the rest of my shirt into strips to bandage my side. I shouldn’t need my shirt for warmth as this forest seems fairly temperate and not very humid. Armed with my new tusk dagger, I return to the Tusk maw’s corpse, and give a few test stabs to the body, obviously its skull is extremely solid, same for its neck, ribs, and even its shoulders. The muscles of its legs and arms are fairly tough, hard to stab through, but its abdomen, oh its abdomen is the perfect place to stab these things, no bone to get in the way, and surprisingly not much muscle, then again this thing wanted to kill me, most likely for food, so it’s safe to assume it’s abdomen doesn’t have much muscle on it to leave lots of room for whatever prey is unlucky enough to die to it.

  [You have shown a feat of intelligence, your patron deity is pleased]

  …So the system can even show me what Mixcoatl feels in response to things I do, or at least I’m assuming my patron deity is Mixcoatl as I have the skill for being his champion. Good to know that both the system and Mixcoatl think I’m a complete idiot. I mean yeah I have a two in intelligence and dropped out of school early but that’s not because I’m as dumb as a brick shit house, I just couldn’t be bothered to focus on the intellectual stuff.