He counterattacked many times and injured the tiger many times. This made the tiger very angry. It roared and snarled at him many times.
Eventually, the tiger got impatient and leapt at him. What it got for its effort was a full-powered blow to its head with the giant sword.
The giant sword crushed its skull and split it in half. There was no doubt about it that it was dead.
He dragged the tiger out of the green forest and quickly took it to the beast hunting center to exchange it for hunting points. Then he returned the following day to hunt again.
This continued for a while. Most days, he succeeded in hunting, and other times he came back empty-handed.
He met other hunters in the forest too. They mostly avoided each other. But there was an occasion when he couldn't avoid the hunter.
He came across a trapped boar. The boar was impaled with many stakes from below. The sharp stakes had taken advantage of the boar's weight and softer belly to penetrate its defense.
The boar didn't die, but it couldn't move. It was struggling and grunting, which drew his attention to it.
He killed the boar only for another hunter to show up after and claim that he was the one who set the trap so the boar should belong to him.
This hunter had a scar on his left cheek. The scar ran down from below his eyes to his lips.
The scar made the hunter look ferocious. But the genuine smile and calm demeanor of the man offset the detriments of his scar.
He didn't argue with the hunter and willingly gave up the boar to him. The hunter was happy, so he taught him a few things about traps.
Arthur was impressed with making traps. If he could learn how to make traps, he might not risk his life much every day. He can just come to the forest and take whatever the traps catch. Then he will return to Agate City immediately.
What's more, he can set many traps, which will increase his chances of getting prey every day and even increase the amount of prey he can hunt every day.
The danger to his life will be the same regardless of how many traps he sets, and it will be low. So he decided to pay money to learn more about setting traps.
The hunter thought about it for a while and said, "I can teach you, but it is only because you're honorable, not because of your money. I don't teach people because it is my livelihood. If I am patient, I can earn whatever amount of money you can offer me without much danger."
"I will teach you, but you have to promise not to set traps in this area. Every trapper has to have their own territory so that there won't be mix-ups and conflict. It is for both of our own good. Do you promise?"
Arthur nodded and said, "That makes sense. I promise to make traps in another place."
The hunter said, "If you were not honorable, I wouldn't believe your promise. But I believe you, so I won't ask you to swear an oath."
Arthur extended his hand for a shake and said, "Thank you. I am Arthur, by the way."
The hunter took his hand and said, "I am Irvin."
After the introductions were done, Arthur spent the rest of the day in the green forest learning how to set traps from Irvin.
He was enthusiastic about learning, but he couldn't learn everything about setting up traps that day, so they made a schedule to meet back at the same spot the following day.
Arthur paid 100 gold coins to Irvin to learn how to make traps. It was a lot of money even to someone like him. So he took the lessons seriously and was present in the same spot very early.
He and Irvin had set the time for their meeting to be 11 am. He came more than 20 minutes early, so it was understandable that Irvin wasn't present yet.
But even after waiting for 50 minutes, Irvin was still nowhere to be seen. This absence made him anxious.
He thought to himself, "Did he run away with my money? I hope not because it won't be good for his health."
"I'll show him that I might not be good at trapping, but I'm very good at hunting. As long as he lives around Agate City and someone knows him, I'll find him and chop him to death."
He snorted and said, "No one can cheat."
Then he thought about it and said, "OK, I can be cheated. But no one can cheat me and get away with it."
While he was waiting, Irvin had arrived. But Irvin didn't approach him. Instead, he scrunched his lips and made some bird calls.
Someone nearby heard the bird calls and reproduced them so that someone else farther away from Irvin could hear the bird calls. This third person recreated the bird calls again. This way, the bird call was transmitted over a large distance.
On a mountain far away from where Arthur was, two men were waiting anxiously, just like Arthur.
One of them said, "I hope he comes."
Then he asked his partner, "Do you think he suspects something and didn't come?"
The other said, "Don't worry. I'm sure he will come. My plan is innocent. He has nothing to worry about."
The first man said, "I hope so. We are currently running out of time. Boss Jake only gave us one month for this job. It has been two weeks now."
The second man snorted. "That spineless Jake only knows how to order people around. He has no real ability."
The first man shook his head and said, "If he has no ability, we won't be here doing his bidding. Ordering people around is also a kind of power."
The second man said, "You have a point."
While they were chatting, they heard the special bird call.