Setting Up Camp And The Hunt For Preys

Hey, Shun here!

Have you ever gone camping before? I tell you what, camping sure is fun but there's also many not so fun aspects of it.

Take for example the many insects that you may encounter, like mosquitoes and stuffs? I'm sure people with a huge insect phobia would never want to go camping in a forest.

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(Shun's POV)

After we found a place to camp in, we split our group into three parties, namely; "Home Security Guards", "Super Awesome Food Prowling Team 1", and "Super Awesome Food Prowling Team 2". I wasn't the one to come up with the names, it was Pochi, Tama, Fenny, and Tsuka who came up with it.

They in fact wanted the 'food' on the name to be meat initially but I decided to change it. They of course 'boo-d' me in protest but they can't make me budge this time.

"So, where were we? Right, before we set up our camps, I think we should first conduct some experiments?" I remember that the gamedev guy was talking about the [Survival] Sense and whatnot so it's safe to assume that there's something in that Sense that we needed.

[Survival] Sense is, as the name implies, a Sense that could help the user survive in any location. It wasn't explained as much so it's functions are unknown.

Thankfully, we have someone here who have that said Sense and it's in such a high level, too.

I crouched down to pick up a few blades of grass from below my feet before showing it to everyone.

"Miu, Maple, Magi-san, Lyly, Cloude, and Lucato-san, can you tell what kind of grass these blades of grass are?"

"No? All I have are combat skills, Onii-chan, remember?"

"Uhmm… Unnn… No. I can't see anything [Admin] Shun-san."

"I don't see any difference between each of them, Shun-kun.

Similar to Miu, Kaede, and Magi-san, Lyly, Cloude and Lucato-san said also said the same things. If anything, I gained a new nickname coming from Lyly which is Syuncchi.

Anyway, back to the blades of grass.

"So? Anyone here who could tell the difference between these?" I looked at each and every member of our group and finally saw someone who raised their arms.

Amongst our group consisting of 17 people, only two were able to tell the difference between the blades of grass that I just showed everyone. These two people are none other than Rikka-san and Mutsuko-san, also known as Dream and WickedLord in-game.

Mutsuko-san being able to appraise the blades of grass didn't come as a surprise since her Sense Build was kinda… Well, her Sense Build is like this.

Possessed SP: 25

[Throw Lv28]

[Sorcery Lv15]

[Survival Lv38]

[Might Lv32]

[Physical Attack Increase Lv20]

[HP Increase Lv34]

[Hawk Eyes Lv38]

[Engraving Lv19]

[Dosing Lv23]

[Crafting Knowledge Lv39]

Unequipped Senses:

[Enchant Lv28]

[Alchemy Lv20]

[Cook Lv10]

As you've probably noticed, Mutsuko-san have 4 crafting Senses of different kinds: [Alchemy], [Cook] a Higher Sense for [Cooking], [Engraving] a Higher Sense for [Smithing], and [Dosing] a Higher Sense for [Mixing].

[Alchemy], [Engraving], and [Cook] could be ruled out since Magi-san have [Engraving] as well but couldn't see the difference between the blades of grass. [Alchemy] and [Cook] are also on the same boat.

This leaves [Dosing] and the Sense that Mutsuko-san spent most of her time leveling up, [Survival]. To pinpoint which one is helping her appraise the grass, she unequipped and equipped the two alternately and found that both of them allows her to appraise the grass.

It seems like the [Dosing] Sense is more informative though.

As for Rikka-san, the reason why she could somewhat differentiate the grass with each other was because of her Sense, [Collector's Eyes]. The information was vague though. It just tells her the potential price of the grass and what it potentially is.

"Alright. Since Mutsuko-san is able to identify the grass apart from each other, I'll assign her as our plant appraiser!"

At my rather purposefully dramatic announcement, Rokuko, Fenny, Tsuka, Pochi, and Tama couldn't help but let out a voice in surprise.

"""""Ooooh…"""""

"Now that we all know that, let's not eat anything from this place recklessly. Gather the food first and we will sort it out here. Capiché?"

"Capiché~—"

"—nanodesu!"

"Understood. We'll prepare the best beds there are." Cloude said while adjusting his spectacles.

"I'm looking forward to it! I'm excited about the thought of staying over for the night." Lyly was bouncing around like a merry child. I wonder why the system didn't mistake him for a girl with how girly he looks though?

With that, we all separated, with the Home Security Guards left to make the camp and the Super Awesome Food Prowling Teams going at opposite directions to search for, if it's not already obvious, food.

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Since there are no clocks that you could buy in-game we had to rely on the sun that's high above the sky. From the looks of it, it'll set in about 7 or 6 hours, which is good for us since that means we still have time to search for food.

While I was busy mapping out the surroundings with the help of my [Hawk Eye], the kids behind me and Rikka-san were skipping happily while singing along with Pochi and Tama's meat song.

"—Meat~, meat~, meat-sensei~!"

"How's your gathering going, Rikka-san? Found any good materials yet?"

"Not really… There's nothing good around here."

Suddenly, while we were on our merry way through the forest, the kids suddenly stopped singing and is now looking at one direction with a sharp look on their faces. What is it, I wonder?

"Meat~!"

"It's meat-san nanodesu!"

Pochi and Tama said before jumping up into the forest to catch whatever it is that they sensed. Not even a second passed before Fenny and Tsuka followed suit while shouting like "Tsuka, catch prey~!" and "Meat…sem-pai?"

As we tried to fill up the map with more and more details as we go, the kids also enjoyed themselves hunting Big Boars that we encountered along the way. There's also a cow monster Forest Lurker Cow that drops Wagyu Beef.

It's a cow with darkish brown colored fur coat mixed with some brown — which made it hard to spot among the dried leaves when its lying down — a huge horn like a bull's, and a piercing on its nose. It's eyes were constantly blood red in color and it has the uncanny ability to hide its presence perfectly. It's great when in comes to setting up and capitalizing on ambush situations.

Along the way we located the places in which plants were growing in abundance and continued to collect information on collection points on map. We also marked where the monsters spawn so that we could go and hunt them again if we needed more meat.

This was also because Pochi and Tama wanted to make a few trips to this place so that they could teach Fenny and Tsuka in a more in-depth manner. Also, fruits like apples and bananas could be collected. Although the climatic requirements were completely ignored.

Since among the only items that could be collected were wild grass and vegetables, it seemed like we will be eating healthily for a while. Good thing we first found some meat source or the kids would rally in protest.

About two and a half hours into our exploration, and we have managed to cover about 20% of the map. The areas we uncovered had a radial shape and started from the centre.

We could see a mountain far in the north, there were two rivers flowing from it down south drawing arcs and downstream there was a lake. Since our base camp was sandwiched between those two rivers, it would be good to look for fish in either the east or west river.

Whilst we were busy filling up the map, we passed through a few other safety areas and, unlike us, they were too busy looking for unique monsters rather than collecting food. These guys would probably be eliminated within two or three days if they keep this up.

"For a change of scenery, how about we go to the river for some fish? Anyone who's with me here?"

"Sure, why not? My [Tyrant's Eye] is beginning to twitch due to this repetitive scenery. It might just reawaken if this keeps on happening!" A rather dramatic way of saying you're tired of seeing forest for hours on end.

"Ai~!"

"Pochi will go, nanodesu!"

"Tsuka, too~! Fish, taste, like fish, good!"

"I will, go with, Master's Master." That's a weird way of calling me and I'd rather you call me by my name but, eh, I tried to correct her already but she never listens.

"Alrighty then, let's go and fish in the river."

Just when we were about to go and make a beeline for the river, I heard a low growl coming from someone's stomach. When I turned around to see where it came from, it was from Fenny who are still obediently following us.

She didn't notice that her satiety is getting low?

"How about… we take a break for now and eat some of the hamburgs I made?"

"Yeah, let's do that. My satiety level is also getting kinda low…" Rikka-san seems to have noticed it as well as she plopped right down to the ground before urging the kids to do the same.

"Mmm~ delish~!"

"Master [Admin-sensei's] hamburg-sensei is still the strongest nodesu! Without a double, nanodesu!" Pochi said while relishing on the hamburger on her hands.

"It's without a doubt, Pochi, not without a double…"

"Is that so, desu? I understand, nanodesu!"

"Tsuka, want more, please!"

"More… please…?"

Tsuka finished her hamburger fast and wanted more while Fenny is still halfway through hers but asked for one as well because she saw Tsuka do so.

"Alright. Here you go, Tsuka. As for Fenny, you have to finish yours first."

Fenny looked at the hamburger in her hands before nodding slowly and continuing to eat like a rabbit, munching on the hamburger slowly.

Tsuka, on the other hand, who was about to take a bite on her new hamburger stopped midway through.

"Friends?"

I couldn't track anyone around the vicinity with my [Hawk Eyes] but it seems like Tsuka and the other kids were able to see something that I couldn't.

"What happened, Tsuka?"

"Something is theeere~?"

"Pochi could smell it too, nanodesu!"

I traced the direction where the girls are staring at. As I looked at that particular location more intensely, I saw it.

There they were… the young animals that our quest wanted us to befriend.

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ Done with this chap. Man, FINALLY, some free time! Looks like I'll be able to finish another one later my dudes. I didn't want to end it with a cliff but it somehow ended that way so, sorry?