Camping And Exploring (3)

Hey, Shun here!

I remember playing a virtual PvP fighting game as a kid in this world and it was pretty similar to the popular titles from my past life's Earth like King of Fighters, Street Fighters, Tekken, and etc. I still play that game from time to time but I don't visit it as much nowadays.

Don't get me wrong, the game was fun, but I got more immersed in training my body in real life.

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I looked at everybody's faces and, while I didn't mean to create a tense atmosphere, I somehow did.

"Now, the real question is, which place do you guys want to go? Depending on where you want to go, we could divide our group accordingly…"

It didn't take long for everybody to answer my question. The first to decisively answer my question was the three top crafters, Lyly, Cloude, and Magi-san.

"I definitely want to go north~! Almost all the things we needed are there~."

"Lyly is right. Most of the things we needed are in the North."

"There's a mountain in the North so that's of course where most of the items I needed should be. What about you guys, Shun-kun?"

I looked at the remaining people on our group and waited for them to say something. After talking for some time, Miu raised her hand and, with a confident tone on her voice, said to me.

"Me and my party wants to go to the ruins to the East. There should be many unique monsters to encounter there."

"Sorry if we arbitrarily decided on this, Shun-san. Myu-san just wanted to go on an adventure…" Lucato-san said while giving Miu a sideways glance.

"Hey, Luca-chan!"

"Yep! She just said 'us' because she didn't want to get scolded by you for coming to a decision arbitrarily." Hino-san added.

"Even you Hino-chan!? I totally didn't say that just to not get scolded, right Tobi-chan!?" Toutobi-san was her only saving grace at this moment so she looked at her, thinking that she would support her claims but…

"No… Lucato was right…"

She was betrayed by her party members.

Instead of feeling angry that she wanted to go on her own adventure without taking our guild into account, I kinda felt pity for her. That said, I won't let her off too easy.

"Well, seems like we'll be eating some vegetarian dishes for a week…" I said with my eyes squinted.

When she heard what I said, Miu showed an unpleasant expression on her face. Tama and Pochi, the meat enthusiasts of our group, showed an even more unpleasant expression upon hearing this, to them, brutal punishment.

They both looked at Miu with expressions of sadness, seeming like they're giving their condolences on her.

"NOOOOOO! I don't like veggies and you know that!"

"Atleast you could enjoy meat dishes while this event is going on. You could also go on your adventures. However, after this, that will be your punishment. And you can't skip it because I will tell Mom and Dad that… You know their position in this game, right?"

Miu was silenced by what I said. Well, I don't really plan on making our meals into a vegetarian diet for a week though. Three days is enough.

That way, she should know that she should take other people surrounding her into account before doing something on an impulse.

"Alright. Myu and her team will be going on the East while the crafters wanted to go to the North. What about you girls?"

"Pochi wants to hunt more meat nodesu!"

"Tama, too~? More meat, more happy~!"

Pochi and Tama unsurprisingly want to go back to the southern parts of the map to catch more prey. Fenny, Tsuka, and Rokuko seems to be eager to go there as well.

As for the rest, Rikka, Mutsuko-san, Satania-san, and Kaede-san wanted to go to the south, east, east, and south respectively.

"Alright. Since it's like that, we will be dividing our group into three parties. Magi-san, Cloude, and Lyly will be going to the North, Me, Kaede-san, Rokuko, Rikka, Fenny, Tsuka, Pochi, and Tama to the South, Miu, Toutobi-san, Lucato-san, Hino-san, Mutsuko-san, and Satania-san to the East. No one wants to go to the West for now I see…"

Well, since no one wants to go there, I guess the information that we'll get there won't be coming from our first-hand experience. After knowing how we'll divide our group for today, everyone went there own way to prepare their things.

Some of the girls even went to prepare lunch boxes for everyone.

"Well, since there's many of us going to the South, how will we divide our group even further?" I asked to the seven girls who's still surrounding the table with me.

"To meat, or not to meat~?" Tama suggested. Uh… Good suggestion, I guess?

"Alright… It seems like we will be dividing our group according to those who want to meat and those who doesn't?"

Kaede-san and Rikka giggled in amusement at my cause but I chose to ignore them for now.

"So, those who wants to meat, raise your hands."

"Nyu~? Tama will~!"

"Oh, oh! Pochi wants to, nanodesu!"

"I will go with Pochi and Tama today, Shun!"

"Fenny will… go with, Master…"

"I'll also go with Pochi and Tama! I want to hunt more Unique Seasonings…" You mean Spice Spiders, Rikka?

I looked at the two who raise their hands, namely Tsuka and Kaede-san, and they just shook their heads stating that they will come with me. Alright, seems like I lost to the two beastkins in terms of charisma this time.

"Since it's like that, the three of us, Tsuka, Kaede-san, and I, will be going to the lake while the remaining five will be on the forest, is that right?"

"Yes~!—"

"—nanodesu!"

"Don't forget your promise, okay Shun?",

After that, we all separated and went to our own destinations. The eight of us were together until we arrived at a crossroad where the way to the lake and the forest are separate.

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Accompanied by Kaede-san and Tsuka who are traveling hand in hand, we managed to encounter more varieties of monsters and, in the middle of our journey to the lake, we encountered yet another Spice Spider. It was an easy fight with obviously no casualties.

By the way, Spice Spiders sounds like a tongue twister to me. A Spice Spider screeching and swinging at a willowy tree…

"Here Kaede-san, a set of Unique Seasonings." I gave the second Unique Seasonings that the Spice Spiders dropped to Kaede-san who could make use of it much more than me. If we could get more, I'll give them to Mutsuko-san, Rikka, and Rokuko.

During our journey, we eventually found the river.

Since I here was really nothing exciting around, I just swam towards the bottom of the river using my high leveled [Swimming] Sense to collect some rocks. Meanwhile, while I was doing that, Tsuka and Kaede-san was busy fighting some mobs that we encountered along the way.

Mind you, I was fighting my own battle underwater as well. There was some fishes who went to attack us but, even though I had a little bit of difficulty maneuvering underwater because I don't have much experience battling underwater, I still managed to defeat those fishes with ease.

It's all thanks to my [3D Restriction Release] Sense who helped me in to adapt in underwater battles fast. I was like the embodiment of a fish as I swam freely, outmaneuvering the fishes. That was quite the surreal experience, seriously.

As we went south along the river, the landscape that remained unchanging for hours saw some minor changes in its looks. The sight that was once filled with natural landscape that you find in majority of the rivers, to that filled with stacked stones on the riverside, and an artificial water canal that was obviously made by an amateur on the field.

The water canal seems to be directed towards the southeast. As we advanced to see what's ahead, Kaede-san suddenly let out a voice of admiration.

"Whoooooah! Look, [Admin] Shun-san, its a wheat field!"

Tracing her line of sight, my gaze landed on a vast wheat field.

The waterway that we were following ended at a reservoir on the hill. Right beside it there was a pasture. The vast, golden wheat fields spread over it.

At first glance, it seems like there's nothing wrong on the wheat field. However, when I looked at it closer, I saw many players who are waving their weapons like some kids who got their hands on a stick for the first time and started waving on the patches of grass that they encountered.

*swish**swish*

That was the sound of the players who are waving their weapons to harvest wheat. Deeper into the open area was the remnants of an old field. It seems like the players thoroughly removed any traces of wheat from that field.

"Wave your weapons faster! We need to gather as much wheat as we can! Don't slack off!" Shouted a player who seems to be the leader while crazily waving his own axe.

Looking at the players who had crazed expressions while swinging their weapons, you'd think that they're in some kind of intense battle. Tsuka seems to have the same opinion.

"Ugly, Bandits~?"

"Where did you learn that word, Tsuka-chan?"

"Heard from, tee-vee?" Tsuka answered while tilting her head, wondering why Kaede-san asked.

When Tsuka said that, Kaede-san looked at me with a stern gaze, something that I've never seen her do, and said.

"Why are you letting Tsuka-chan watch the TV, Shun? What if she learns some bad words from them?"

Whoah there, that's totally unexpected. The polite Kaede-san got angry. This is the very first time I'm seeing this.

However, before that, we need to join these guys in gathering wheat. We'll need the carbohydrates, I just know it.

What? You're saying that it's just a game?

Eating healthy food is still eating healthy food. You can't skip on it, even if it's a game.

"I'll explain later, Kaede-san. Also, you should keep on calling me without honorifics. It feels more informal and, we're already friends so I think that's just a given."

After saying my piece, I immediately made a beeline towards the wheat field, totally ignoring Kaede-san who was calling for me.

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ Enjoy the chapter! It was a lot of hard work to finish this one due to the constant unpleasant voices that kept on reverberating throughout our neighborhood. I hate it when there are parties, people who can't really sing always thought that it would be a good idea to disturb their neighbors with their singing. *Sigh*😆