Chapter 2 - Section 3 - Rustic Life

Placing my pack on the ground I reached into it and pulled out a rectangular box with a hinged lid.

"Whoa, what the heck!" <Marked Wolves> <Raisa>

Continuing on I pulled 5 futon bedrolls out and placed them atop the box.

"Satou! Is your pack enchanted with the item box spell as well?" <Raisa>

"Uh no, not exactly it's similar to item box though i heard them say it was a magic pack when i bought it." <Satou>

[Great didn't think this through how do I explain this]

"So on day I was messing around with my item box skill, and somehow I managed to enlarge the capacity of my pack to an extent, but once something is taken out of it, I have to be the one to put it back in otherwise it won't fit… I don't know enough about enchanting so I think it's more like a half-enchantment or a broken one at that" <Satou>

"Wow that's amazing I mean to have a skill is one thing, but to be able to manipulate Dimension magic like that even as an accident is impressive" <Quinella>

[Great they've accepted my reason but now I stand out even more… to be safe I should spend time tonight creating another escape plan, I still don't know if I can trust any of these people sure it sounds bad since they've protected me thus far, but once I'm completely exposed while sleeping who know what might happen, or even worse when we get to town and the pretense of friendship disappears they might plot to cart me off as a slave or something to another land since we'll be near the border, and to black-market groups my value just keeps going up and up]

My thoughts continued to go into overdrive as I worked to setup the 4 person tent and laying out the bedrolls within, the tent was of simple construction but completely blocked out all wind, we draped one sheet of canvas from the center of the tent to separate out the men from the women to allow a small bit of privacy.

Dinner was a letdown since all we had to eat were our travel rations.

Some sort of dietary cracker that was highly nutritious but tasted like cold medicine to me, and overly salted dried meat like a really poor man's version of jerky, but try as hard I might I couldn't figure out what kind of meat it was.

Just when I was about to ask I stopped myself, as they say ignorance is bliss, and I don't want to ruin my only source of food by finding out what it actually is.

"Alright with dinner done, let's break up into shifts for night watch, Satou do you have a preference for time?" <Larr>

"Uh right night watch no I should be fine whenever" <Satou>

[Worst case scenario I can order up coffee or something caffeinated from my menu]

"Is that so, alright well then if you don't mind we'll pair you with Quinella on the morning shift, it's not that we don't trust your skills just that the middle of the night is most dangerous so we like to have the vanguard watch then, and Tony will take the first shift" <Larr>

Without any complaints I joined the others in the tent, turning in for the night.

Closing my eyes slowly drifting off into slumber the voices from both sides of the tent could be heard in faint whispers

"How can this roll be this soft and squishy, I feel like I'm laying on a cloud" <Quinella>

"So you agree right Ko has to be a noble or from a fallen family.." <Roseanne>

[Their not bad people at least I don't get that feeling from them, still their preconceptions can become dangerous if they spread those rumors around]

Hours passed and the night descended into darkness, until the stillness of the night was disturbed.

A thick hand shook my shoulder quietly rousing me from my sleep. Groggily opening my eyes while rubbing them with my balled up fists.

"Sorry to wake you, you were sleeping so deep, but it's time to switch out" <Larr>

Whispering towards me.

As soon as he saw I was fully awake and dressed he proceeded to remove some of his equipment to return to his own sleep.

[The mid-shift is pretty rough to have to sleep only a couple hours, to then wake for a couple, and then return to sleep, I'm so happy I didn't draw that straw]

Heading out of the tent I saw Quinella already sitting by the fire, staring deeply into the flames licking across the logs.

Taking a seat on log next to her allowing the warm of the fire to wrap around me, pulling the corners of my mantle around to ward off the chill of the night.

[This world is so foreign, even looking at the sky… Twin moons shining like a pair of eyes in the dark of the night sky, and here I thought the daytime was weird enough with a pair of suns up in the sky, but it really just helped to confirm the reality that this isn't earth, since we've only got a single yellow star but here it seems they've got a binary star or something like that and what even weirder ones kind of purple while the other is green. Most of the lakes I've seen in passing from a distance looked green as well rather than blue]

"Oh hey Kokei sleep well?" <Quinella>

"Morning Quinella, and its Satou not Kokei remember?" <Satou>

"Oh shoot I'm sorry I forgot" <Quinella>

Whipping her head around scanning the surroundings.

"What're you doing?" <Satou>

Tilting my head as I gazed at her.

"Well…" <Quinella>

Her cheeks flushed.

"I was just seeing if anyone would've been in earshot who might've heard me and put you at risk" <Quinella>

"Oh I see, thank you for your concern" <Satou>

The night watch went pretty well, though I can say my concentration was completely absent I spent the entire time navigating my menu, I used some gold to unlock some features and applied them to my heads up display, first off was a clock sure i could see the time when in the menu but with this i could now always have a clock present in my view, next up was the purchasing of a mapping feature, after some effort I got it to display a semi-transparent minimap in the top right of my vision, course it only shows area's I've been to already. Maybe I should test what happens if I see a map in town, will it fill in the blanks on my World Map / Mini Map

*Yawn*

[Oh man it's still a two hours from when I'd expect the sun to start rising, I should get myself something to drink alright don't want to fall asleep, but if I pull something out Quinella might question me further]

Quickly closing my menu I glanced over at Quniella prepared to make an excuse…

"snnnnnrrr" <Quinella>

As I stared over my mouth slightly hung open, Quinella's body was slumped over, with each breath her heaving body threatened to totter her over into the fire.

[Hehe looks like I wasn't the only one who was getting drowsy but to think she'd actually fall asleep, maybe this is my fault if I had chosen to converse with her that might've staved off Morpheus for the both of us]

I quickly manipulated my menu purchasing a couple of food items quickly that i had found during my investigation into the shop, and pulling them out of my inventory, I poured the drinks into a couple of mugs, and collected some cutlery before I carefully approached Quinella, giving her a quick shake before backing off.

Since she's trained for night watch who knows how she would react to being startled awake.

A few moments later she rose up and resumed her former sitting position blinking rapidly while taking in her surroundings.

"Oh… Oh… Oh my god" <Quinella>

She began to panic frantically as she'd looked to the surrounds and back to the log where I was sitting before, finally she turned her head enough to catch a glimpse of my form illuminated by the moons light with the fire light contrasting.

"Satou… I'm so sorry" <Quinella>

A deep sense of shame tore across her face.

"Don't worry about it, I honestly didn't even notice until I was about to mention how I was going to make some food and drink to help us stave off the fatigue of night" <Satou>

Moving my eyes downward to the covered bowl and a cup I now held in my hands.

"This.. wait was I out that long you could cook something?" <Quinella>

"Well sort of, it's more like I re-heated it really, it's nothing fancy but I find their perfect for bring back ones alertness and energy" <Satou>

She happily accepted the bowl and cup from my hands, afterwards I returned to my log and placed my own cup next to me and a covered bowl on my lap, the steam was visible rising from the cup, and the warmth emanating from the bowl was pleasing to both my thighs and hands.

"Well no sense letting it get cold again, hehe" <Satou>

Placing both hands together like prayer I chanted

"Itadakimasu" <Satou>

Pulling the cover off the bowl a pleasant aroma rose with the thick cloud of steam rising from the dish, digging in only stopping to take a drink from my glass.

"Oh yes you're right of course" <Quinella>

She still stared at me with a look of caution, was it because I just used Japanese which i hadn't heard here once since arriving?

[Wait since I came here I could understand everything so why did my 'thanks' just now not get translated?]

Pulling the cover off her own dish her eyes now gleamed with anticipation, she licked her lips, her face changed completely the moment the steam from the dish coated her face. Completely captivated she dove right in pulling a heaping spoonful out and placing it in her mouth.

"I hope you like it?" <Satou>

I raised that question because as soon as she'd placed the spoon in her mouth her entire body froze. I mean to me it was delicious compared to the food I've seen in this world so far, but even as far as MMO food's go this one's among the cheapest, but also least likely to raise suspicions.

"THIS!… what even is this?" <Quinella>

Her question bordered on almost becoming a yell, but her tone wasn't angry or scared, it was more like she was filled with passion.

"This, oh it' not much just some Buttered Turnip porridge I threw together, I think it pairs nicely with the Low Whisper coffee" <Satou>

Continuing to eat my breakfast, Quinella's movements began to speed up eating the dish like she couldn't get enough and when she took her first sip of the coffee her eyes shot wide open.

"Oh right sorry I forgot to mention, if you've never had it before coffee tends to be pretty bitter, so many tend to add milk or sugar to it.. to.. mellow" <Satou>

My voice trailed off, since this no longer seemed to be an issue completely ignoring me, Quinella proceeded to chug the entire contents of the cup.

"I see you like it then? Would you care for another cup?" <Satou>

Reaching out I grasped the handle of a Stainless steel coffee pot with a long pour spout I had sitting next to the fire.

"You don't mind?" <Quinella>

"No no not at all, I've got an entire pot here after all and it's perfect for allowing one to remain alert no matter how tired on is" <Satou>

[Actually truth be told I have 20 pots, the store only let me purchase a stack of 20 in one lot, when that happened I thought maybe it was 20 cups of coffee but after pulling one out it was instead an entire pot of freshly brewed coffee]

"Then I'll happily accept I've never drunk anything that tasted like this before, and even from that one cup I feel like I've just gotten a full night sleep" <Quinella>

[That would be the effect of the coffee, the flavour text said it can only be drunk while sitting down, but restores 30% vitality, to me vitality would be energy but translated to our stats that should be Fatigue, and Stamina, but is that per cup? Or if you drank the entire pot?]

Refilling her cup I placed the pot down between us next to the fire once again. The rest of the time spent eating our breakfast was pretty quiet.

"You really are pretty amazing Mr. Satou" <Quinella>

"Where'd that come from all of a sudden?" <Satou>

Waving her hands around in front of her frantically

"Oh dear please forget I just said that! I'm.. Yes I'm going to go to the river and splash some cold water on my face." <Quinella>

Watching as her form receded into the inky blackness of the night.

[Great I tried to earn some points but if anything I'd say I drove a bigger wedge why can't I seem to do anything normal and not draw attention]

'ping'

Just then a system alert rang through my ears, and my mini map flashed, expanding the map I saw about 7 red dots moving quickly towards our camp. Staring out at the plains I was unable to see anything but I never did have great night vision.

I'd setup the map display to show hostile things as Red Dots, Allies as Blue, and anything else as Yellow.

[Should I wake everyone, should I run and get Quinella, no there's no time better to act now otherwise we'll all be in danger, from their speed whatever's coming here is moving quickly]

I drew my blades and headed off away from the camp to engage in my first ever night combat.