Chapter 264 – Wild Boar Valley

One or two wild boars posed no problem for Mo Lan.

But a herd of them—at least seventy or eighty—was a different matter entirely.

They might be mere wild beasts, but the wildlife of Valen was on an entirely different level from that of Earth.

Among wild beasts, the most troublesome were those with strong defenses and fast speed.

Black-haired wild boars were known precisely for their defensive capabilities. The key issue was that their charging speed was also remarkably fast, making them one of the most formidable creatures among wild beasts.

Mo Lan had once come across a description in a book called Mo Lan had once come across a description in a book called 《Natural Sewing》 that said the straightest black hairs from the backs of these boars could be used as sewing needles, superior even to gold or silver needles—impervious to water and fire, imperishable for a thousand years.

That alone spoke volumes about the defensive power of the black-haired wild boar’s coat. Many magical beasts couldn’t even compare.

The boars were also massive in size. If she tried to kill them with the Air Blade technique, at her current skill level, she feared she could use it repeatedly and still fail to sever one’s neck.

Fire-element magic couldn’t break through their defenses either, and it would also damage the valley’s environment. Mo Lan was considering this place as a potential residence for her fourth year.

Among water magic, only the Water Drowning Technique might be useful, but her Water Drowning Technique could at most fully envelop and drown a few small boars.

Adult boars were simply too large to fully envelop. Without complete coverage, there was no restraining effect, and they could easily break free—at which point the drowning effect would be lost entirely.

Using Vine Sorcery to control the valley’s wild grass for binding wasn’t viable either. The black-haired wild boars were too powerful, and the valley grass too fragile. Even when reinforced by Beginner-level Vine Sorcery, the boars could easily tear free.

However, she could use Vine Sorcery to suspend herself partway down the cliff face while casting spells.

The black-haired wild boars had high defense and tremendous charging power, but at the end of the day, they were still just wild beasts incapable of magical attacks. From the cliff face, the boars would be within her casting range, but they couldn’t reach her.

If the boars charged into the cliff wall, even better. No matter how powerful their charge, they couldn’t bring down a mountain—they’d be more likely to kill themselves on impact.

This would make spellcasting much safer. The Metal Arrow spell, Flying Leaf, flying dagger technique… all manner of precision-strike magic could be put to the test.

The boars’ hide was highly defensive, but they still had weak points like their eyes.

The more she thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Mo Lan found several thick vines on the nearby trees, then used Vine Sorcery to stimulate and control them, wrapping them around her waist and lowering herself down the cliff face.

The boar herd had long since noticed this two-legged creature.

Originally, she’d been far up on the cliff, outside their territory—and since she wasn’t a fragrant fruit or an edible root, she wasn’t on their menu, so they couldn’t be bothered with her.

But now this two-legged creature was descending from the cliff.

Dozens of beady black eyes tracked her gradual descent, their fury at a trespasser entering their territory steadily rising. They were just waiting for her to touch ground before swarming in and trampling her into fertilizer.

But to their surprise, she suddenly stopped.

Mo Lan halted about seven or eight meters above the ground.

From here, the boars couldn’t reach her, yet she could “attend to” as many of them as possible.

Watching the herd snort angrily and glare up at her, Mo Lan knew her chance had come.

A golden elemental arrow shot straight toward the eyes of the lead boar at the front of the herd.

Just as it was about to strike, the boar leader suddenly lowered its head, and the arrow hit its skull instead.

It let out a pained cry, but the attack clearly hadn’t caused serious damage. If anything, it only enraged the beast further. At its command, the entire herd charged toward the section of cliff where she hung.

Mo Lan was seven or eight meters up. Despite the boars’ fearsome momentum, they couldn’t touch her.

But by the same token, as long as they kept their heads down, she could hardly hit their eyes either. If even the Beginner-level Metal Arrow spell couldn’t breach the boars’ hide, there was no hope for Flying Leaf, Fire Arrow, or the flying dagger technique, all of which were at even lower proficiency levels.

Since precision-strike spells weren’t working, she’d have to try area-of-effect magic instead.

The tried-and-true combo of trapping them with Earth Wall and crushing them with Falling Rock failed at the very first step.

The earth walls she could currently produce couldn’t withstand even a single charge from a black-haired wild boar.

Without being able to confine them within the walls, there was naturally no guarantee that the already limited range of Falling Rock could hit many boars.

Before long, the boars had run beyond the Falling Rock’s range—even beyond her casting range entirely.

“I’ll just have to try the Swamp Spell!” Mo Lan ceased her casting and waited for the boars to wander back into range. Then, without warning, she transformed the grass beneath their hooves into a swamp.

Two boars sank in immediately.

One sank in up to half its body. The other only got its two hind legs stuck in, but since it was at the edge of the swamp, it quickly struggled free.

She then used the Water Drowning Technique to cover the trapped boar’s mouth and nose. By the time the Swamp Spell wore off, all that remained on the grass was a single drowned boar.

The loss of a companion left the herd both furious and frightened.

Though they possessed little intelligence, their survival instincts were stronger than anything else.

Wary of the swamp that had appeared out of nowhere, the remaining boars refused to come near her again no matter what, only bellowing at her from a distance.

Mo Lan waited for quite a while, even refreshing her Vine Sorcery twice, but not a single boar ventured back into her casting range.

At that moment, she desperately missed her broomstick.

If she had her broomstick, she could simply chase them down and sink every last one of them into swamps, then drown them all.

Without the broomstick, she would either need to practice the Swamp Spell further—expanding its range to trap more boars at once—or she’d have to master the confusion spell from Psychic Magic, luring them to march into the swamp in an orderly line. Only then could she safely and reliably wipe out the entire herd and claim this valley for herself.

“What a shame,” she sighed.

Truthfully, if she were willing to take some risks, it wasn’t impossible to take down these boars.

But Mo Lan didn’t want to take chances when the odds weren’t firmly in her favor. Even though she was currently in a wilderness survival class, and being rescued by the Guardian Headmistress after encountering danger carried no penalty, she still refused to recklessly put herself in harm’s way.

Sooner or later, she would deal with this boar herd. Just not today.

She used the Levitation Spell to float the dead boar up into the air, then had the vines pull them both back to the top of the cliff.

She shrank the boar carcass and stowed it in her leopard-skin bundle.

With the valley occupied by boars and temporarily inaccessible, her only option was to head down the mountain and find the stream that flowed out of the valley, completing today’s lesson objectives.

If she hurried down the mountain, she could finish the task before noon and get out in time to stew some snake broth.

The holly snake was too large to process here—it would be difficult to carry, and the scent might attract wild beasts.

The thought of delicious snake broth quickened Mo Lan’s pace.

Along the way, she practiced her magic on a few unlucky small animals—but that hardly bears mentioning. She finally reached the stream at the foot of the mountain, well away from the valley, just before noon.

“Headmistress! Headmistress! I’ve completed the task!” Mo Lan announced eagerly.

The moment she finished speaking, a dark portal materialized before her. She quickly gathered her things and stepped through.