Hunter in the One Piece World

By the time Sherwin reacted, another boar king was already right in front of him.

"Crap!"

There was no time at all to raise the longsword in front of him. Sherwin could only curl up his body as much as possible, using his arms and legs to shield himself from the boar king charge.

Bang!

As expected, Sherwin was sent flying.

Luckily, due to its size, the boar king tusks didn't pierce into his body. They only left a not-so-severe wound on his shoulder.

Also, though his whole body was aching terribly, Sherwin noticed that the damage he took didn't seem as bad as he'd imagined.

Sure, according to the inherited memories, some hunters could take a few tail slams from a Fatalis, but that was under the condition that they were all wearing gear forged from high-tier monster materials.

If it were someone like him—completely unequipped—even a Popo could deal considerable damage to a hunter.

Not to mention, his current body was still that of a child!

So… was this thanks to Sanji Felyne Rice? Or was it some kind of transmigration perk that boosted the strength of my body?

But now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

As soon as he hit the ground, Sherwin rolled and forced himself to stand despite the pain. He gripped a tree branch—who knew where it came from—with both hands and faced the boar king in a defensive stance...

…Crap! Where my sword?!

A proper Hunter would, of course, never let go of their weapon just because they got hit by a monster. But Sherwin was only a half-baked Hunter—he couldn't manage to keep hold of his blade under all circumstances...

In fact, even a real Hunter could lose their weapon mid-fight. After all, this was reality, not a game—just because you got knocked around like a ragdoll didn't mean your weapon would stay glued to your hand or automatically sheathe itself.

Naturally, the boar king wasn't about to play fair and wait for Sherwin to pick up his weapon before continuing the fight. Before Sherwin even had a chance to search for the Longsword, its second charge was already incoming.

Sherwin dropped the wooden stick in his hand and dove forward, dodging the boar king charge as he quickly scanned the ground nearby.

Even though the area was overgrown with weeds, the Longsword was pretty eye-catching in terms of size, color, and shape, so Sherwin quickly spotted his weapon.

Good thing this time the opponent was just a boar king.

While dodging its attacks, Sherwin ran toward the Longsword, feeling a sense of relief in his heart.

Boars, by their very design, had a limited set of attack patterns. As long as you had enough speed and reflexes, it wasn't too hard to evade them.

So Sherwin quickly retrieved his weapon, then turned around and slashed directly at the boar king leg.

"Huh?"

But this time, the attack dealt noticeably less damage, and the boar barely even flinched.

Was it because this one had tougher hide? Or was there some other reason?

As he calmly maneuvered around the boar king, Sherwin continued analyzing the big difference in damage between the two attacks.

Come to think of it, when he took down the Forest Ram yesterday, aside from that Rising Slash, the only move that caused a "severing" effect was the final Divine Sheathe.

And what did those two moves have in common…?

He had activated Demon Mode during both.

Could the boost from Demon Mode really be that huge?

Sherwin decided to use the boar king in front of him to run a proper test.

So...

He popped a meatball into his mouth.

There was no choice. Given his current physical state, even that brief few seconds of Demon Mode earlier had already drained almost a third of his stamina. To play it safe, he needed to recover a bit first.

After swallowing the meatball, Sherwin immediately felt his stamina surge back, and without hesitation, he activated Demon Mode.

Naturally, what followed was every hunter favorite activity—leg slashing.

However, after a few good swings, all four of the boar king legs were still very much intact, though it was clearly limping.

Looks like Demon Mode alone wasn't enough.

Sherwin stayed calm and analytical. After all, back then he hadn't only used Demon Mode—he had also executed moves like Spirit Slash and Divine Sheathe.

But judging from the Forest Ram fight, Spirit Slash alone didn't seem to cut it either. The Rising Slash did have some effect, but even then, it didn't feel nearly as smooth or effective as when he had just sliced through the boar king legs.

The right answer was basically obvious now, but Sherwin still wanted to test whether Divine Sheathe—or even a regular Sheathe attack—could be decisive without the boost from Demon Mode.

So, after deactivating Demon Mode, he stuffed two more pieces of smoked meat into his mouth...

Yeah... Hunters with short stamina bars had to do stuff like this.

That said, this was actually Sherwin first time relying on Hunter meals so frequently to restore stamina. So far, the recovery rate hadn't shown any signs of slowing down, but...

He was starting to feel a bit full.

"Whew—"

Sherwin let out a long breath, trying to ease the bloated feeling in his stomach, then returned the Longsword to its sheath.

the boar king before him had injuries on all four legs, and its movement was significantly impaired. There was no need for Sherwin to keep dragging the fight out—there were openings everywhere.

Besides, the main goal now was to test the destructive power of his techniques, so there was no point in fixating on leg strikes.

Sherwin sidestepped a few paces, took brief aim, then swiftly unsheathed his blade—a simple, unremarkable Iai Slash cut across the boar king side.

Blood splattered as the boar king let out a miserable howl and collapsed sideways onto the ground.

The feeling was a bit dull.

However, Sherwin didn't care much for the result. He focused instead on the feedback from the strike and observed the wound on the monster body...

It probably hadn't hit bone.

Judging from this, the power of a regular Iai Slash, while slightly stronger than Spirit Slash, still wasn't enough to cleave through cleanly.

So Sherwin resheathed the blade once more. This time—it was Divine Sheathe!

Just as the boar king struggled to rise, Sherwin struck again, this time directly to the head. The blow not only shattered one of its tusks, but also split its skull wide open.

the boar king dropped back to the ground instantly—and this time, it wasn't getting up again. It was dead. Completely.

Hmm... While not as effortless as when using Demon Mode, Divine Sheathe alone was enough to deal with large monsters that didn't have particularly high defense. This was an important fact for Sherwin, whose stamina bar was still fairly short.

After putting his Longsword back in its sheath, Sherwin turned his gaze to the other boar king he had taken down at the beginning.

Having lost two legs, it couldn't even stand, and with so much blood lost, even if it wasn't dead yet, it didn't have much breath left in it.

"Sherwin, are you okay, meow?!"

Sanji-meow jumped down from the tree where he had been hiding the moment he saw both boar king were defeated, sprinting straight toward Sherwin.

"Don't worry, just a few scrapes," Sherwin said with a grin, ruffling the top of his head. "Looks like my body tougher than I thought."

"You idiot! You scared me to death, meow!" Now that he saw Sherwin was fine, Sanji-meow finally let loose his temper.

"How did someone like you even earn the title of Hunter? You spaced out in the middle of a fight, meow!"

The more he spoke, the more agitated he became. Sanji-meow jumped onto Sherwin, raised his little paws, and launched a flurry of cat punches at his head.

"If a dumbhead like you dies, who going to take me to find Beautiful big sister Felynes, meow?!"

Faced with this peculiar kind of concern from a little cat, Sherwin could only force a wry smile and plead for mercy.

"By the way, speaking of Beautiful big sister Felynes, don't you want to know if there are any new updates in the Hunter Manual?" Sherwin suddenly thought of something and said to Sanji-meow, who was still relentlessly pestering him.

Sanji-meow immediately jumped off Sherwin. "Hurry up and show me, meow!"

"…Tch!"

Even though the plan worked, Sherwin still couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed.

Still, he pulled out the Hunter Manual, and sure enough, the entry for large monsters had been updated with information on the boar king...

And that was it.

"Meow…" No new Summon Ticket fragments appeared, and Sanji-meow ears and tail drooped instantly.

Looking at the disappointed and dejected expression on the cat face, Sherwin mood suddenly improved quite a bit.