That's Ridiculous—This Pig Has More Skills Than Me

Something moved in the shadows of the trees. It was a pig.

More precisely, it was a pig that, when standing up, reached Gan Ming's chest.

Its dark gray hide was covered in a layer of dark red, hardened bristles.

Two tusks curled outward from its lower jaw, their tips glinting with a rusty sheen.

It had its head lowered as it rooted through the ground, its hind hooves kicking up dirt as it let out low, snorting breaths.

Gan Ming hurriedly stopped.

The next moment, a translucent panel automatically appeared before him.

The information-reading function of his Soul Seizing Talent activated on its own as he looked at the target.

[Soul Snatch Target: Monster]

[Species: Iron Bristle Wild Boar]

[Level: 3]

[Skills (4): Ambush, Fanged Charge (Passive), Gluttonous Recovery (Passive), Potential Stimulation (Passive)]

What?

Gan Ming rubbed his eyes, making sure he was not seeing things.

A pig with four skills?

He, Gan Ming, had zero combat skills.

Even counting Healing, he only had one support skill.

In terms of skill reserves, he was getting crushed by a pig?

Gan Ming slowly placed his right hand on the hilt at his waist. His gaze never left the pig as he quickly scanned the descriptions of the four skills.

[Ambush]: Charges at the target, dealing physical damage and knocking the target airborne, stunning them for 1 second. Cooldown: 15 seconds. Mana Cost: 10.

[Fanged Charge (Passive)]: After every two basic attacks, automatically unleashes a charged attack, dealing 150% physical damage.

[Gluttonous Recovery (Passive)]: Restores 1% of current health after eating. Effect lasts 5 seconds and triggers once every 30 seconds.

[Potential Stimulation (Passive)]: After taking damage, restores 10 health every 5 seconds for 15 seconds. This effect can be triggered repeatedly.

One charging skill, one charged-attack passive, and two healing passives.

It had damage, recovery, and mobility.

Gan Ming sucked in a sharp breath.

This pig's skill setup was more reasonable than the Awakened Association's recommended pick-one-out-of-six package for newcomers.

He lowered his body slightly and used the tree trunks for cover as he slowly approached.

Twenty meters.

Fifteen meters.

Ten meters...

At that moment, the Iron Bristle Wild Boar's snout twitched.

It suddenly raised its head, and its two cloudy little eyes immediately spotted Gan Ming.

The next instant.

Oink! Oink!

It kicked off with all four hooves, its three-hundred-pound body shooting forward low to the ground.

[Ambush]!

Gan Ming instantly felt the skin on his face tighten. His body instinctively dodged to the right.

But the pig was faster than he had judged.

A gray blur swept in from the edge of his vision and slammed hard into his left hip.

-13!

Gan Ming was sent flying.

His back smashed into a tree trunk.

His head buzzed, and for an instant, his mind went blank.

[You were hit by "Ambush" and stunned for 1 second.]

One second was not long.

But that pig ran far faster than he had imagined.

By the time his vision cleared, the Iron Bristle Wild Boar was already in front of him, its tusks driving straight toward his abdomen.

Gan Ming gritted his teeth and rolled to the side, barely avoiding a fatal hit.

Rip!

The tusk slashed past his ribs, tearing open his leather armor and taking a strip of flesh with it.

-22!

Damn, he had lost nearly half his health in a single exchange?

Gan Ming flipped back to his feet and gripped his knife tightly.

The iron short sword was only as long as his forearm, its edge reflecting the light filtering through the forest.

By then, the Pig Monster had already turned around. Its beady eyes stared fixedly at him while its hind hooves pawed twice at the ground, its breathing heavy.

Gan Ming did not retreat. He assumed a fighting stance as well.

Come on!

The battle that followed could only be described as a painful slog...

Gan Ming slashed at it. The iron blade cut into the Pig Monster's hide, caught briefly on the hard bristles, then finally sank into its flesh.

-13!

Not much damage.

His physical attack was 19.4, which meant the pig's defense was above 6.

The Pig Monster did not even grunt. It turned and jabbed at him with a tusk.

At the same time, its body burst with red light.

[Iron Bristle Wild Boar's passive skill "Potential Stimulation" has triggered: Restores 10 health every 5 seconds for 15 seconds.]

+10! (Every five seconds)

Gan Ming dodged and followed up with another slash.

Squish!

This time, he changed angles and struck the pig's front leg joint.

-16! (Weak Point Strike)

The pig cried out in pain, let out a howl, and charged sideways with all four legs pumping.

Gan Ming jumped back, but his heel caught on a tree root. His body staggered, and he nearly fell.

In that brief opening, the Pig Monster's tusks stabbed at him again.

He twisted aside, then slashed backward with his blade, leaving a shallow gash across the pig's flank.

-19!

+10! (Every five seconds)

Gan Ming watched the wound he had just cut into the pig.

It was visibly closing at a noticeable speed.

The little bit of health he had painstakingly chipped away was steadily recovering.

"Damn it..."

Gan Ming tightened his grip on the hilt.

Fine!

You keep healing, and I'll keep cutting.

Let's see who gets worn down first.

One slash.

Two slashes.

Three slashes.

Just as he landed the fifth slash.

The Pig Monster's third basic attack came again.

Its Fanged Charge triggered, and a charged ram slammed into Gan Ming's leather armor.

Thud!

Gan Ming felt a heavy pressure in his chest and staggered back two steps.

-19!

Without hesitation, he raised his left hand, and a faint green glow lit up in his palm.

Healing.

+51!

Because his spell power was 11, the actual healing amount was 51.

Sure enough, 51 points of health flowed back into his body, and warmth spread from his wounds.

The Pig Monster gave him no chance to catch his breath and charged again.

Gan Ming gritted his teeth and met it head-on.

One slash, two slashes, dodge, then another slash.

The pig's health was dropping, but Potential Stimulation kept ticking, restoring health every five seconds.

He dealt seventeen or eighteen damage with each strike, while the pig recovered 10 health every five seconds.

He also had to keep dodging and repositioning in between, so the pig's healing erased more than half of his actual damage.

The evenly matched sides continued grinding each other down.

When the tense battle reached the one-minute mark.

Gan Ming used Healing for the second time.

The Pig Monster pulled away and launched another Ambush charge.

This time, Gan Ming was prepared. He circled behind a tree in advance.

Bang!

The wild boar rammed headfirst into the trunk.

Taking advantage of the half-second it was dazed, Gan Ming struck its joint twice in rapid succession.

-19! (Weak Point Strike)

-22! (Weak Point Strike)

The grinding continued.

Three minutes later, the Pig Monster's movements had clearly slowed.

Its body was covered in more than a dozen wounds, large and small.

Although Potential Stimulation was still healing it.

Gan Ming had already figured out its attack patterns and rhythm, and his efficiency had noticeably improved.

During the first minute, he had only landed a dozen or so strikes, dealing a little over two hundred damage.

But the Iron Bristle Wild Boar recovered 10 health every five seconds, which meant it could restore 120 health in one minute.

In other words, he had only dealt a little over eighty effective damage per minute.

Now, using the terrain and the nearby trees to circle around,

he could land more than twenty strikes in a minute, dealing over a hundred extra damage.

By the third minute, he could even land nearly thirty strikes.

That made the boar's healing speed clearly unable to keep up with the damage Gan Ming dealt.

Finally!

When the battle dragged on for five minutes.

Squish!

Gan Ming thrust his knife into the side of the Pig Monster's neck, the blade sinking in nearly half an inch.

-16!

The Iron Bristle Wild Boar let out a hoarse scream. Its four legs went weak, and it collapsed with a crash.

Boom!

Even the ground trembled.

[You killed Iron Bristle Wild Boar (Level 3). Gained 120 experience points.]

Gan Ming stood beside the pig's corpse, gasping heavily.

Five minutes.

It had taken him a full five minutes to slowly carve a level-three pig to death with an iron short sword.

"Other people calculate damage per second. I calculate damage per minute."

It would be embarrassing to say out loud.

But he had no time to be embarrassed.

Because he still had something important to do.

Gan Ming crouched and pressed his right hand against the Pig Monster's corpse.

Two words surfaced in his mind.

Soul Snatch.

An invisible force surged from his palm, traveled up his arm, and spread across the Pig Monster's body.

Three seconds later.

[Soul Snatch failed. Cooldown: 10 seconds.]

Damn!

It failed!