A Hungry Elf, Boss Fights, And Their Encounters (3)

(Third Person's POV)

"Then, why didn't you join a party? I heard from Shun that you could also exchange the items you have for food. Rabbits from Tsuka's dungeon do that all the time…"

At the very edge of a small clearing deep inside a forested area, six animals; a puppy, three kittens(two baby cats and one baby rabbit), and two hatchlings(one blue colored chick and one baby Mill Bird) could be seen playing with each other under the supervision of two blonde girls. These two blonde girls are of course none other than Rokuko and Letia.

Although these two girls both have blonde hair, they really have a lot of things in which they differ. Take for example, the color of their eyes. One have a beautiful aquamarine color while the other have eyes that are as green as the leaves of a tree.

Although Letia looks like she's one to three years older than Rokuko, Rokuko have bigger assets than her. Not like Letia minded though. She doesn't seems like she's insecure or anything about her chest's size.

Upon hearing Rokuko's question, Letia showed an embarrassed smile as she sheepishly replied.

"Consumables, in general, could only restor a small amount of satiety. I have eaten them all, but if was still not enough. I picked up and ate any herd or food stuffs I could find to stay alive, but I would receive an abnormal state after eating the almost everytime… I'm actually proud that I have made it this far just by doing that!" By the end of her explanation, Letia sounded a bit proud.

For someone who straight up ate anything she could find instead of using them as a food ingredient to gain more satiety, she sounded a bit smug.

"Hee… I know how to cook! Maybe I could teach you how to make safe to eat food? Mutsuko taught me how to do it yesterday. I also know the descriptions of the safe to eat things so I could teach you it!"

Letia seems to be amazed at Rokuko's words that are brimming with too much enthusiasm.

"In other words, even if I'm already satiated, I would still be able to eat in excess, is that right?" It seems like she's excited about a different thing though.

"Yup! You could eat everything that you could cook!"

"You want me to eat Haru's and Natsu's portion as well? You're a demon. So evil."

"Demon? I'm not a Demon King though?" As Rokuko misunderstood what Letia said, thinking that she was talking about her being a member of the Demon King Faction, Letia shook her head before smiling.

"I'm just joking. Thank you very much for taking care of me, you and Fenny-chan. You two are so kind and gentle…"

"Ehehe, I didn't think I would be praised by an elf. I should tell this to Shun later."

"—So… I've been meaning to ask this for a while now but, does these five little ones that are with you have a name already?"

"—I bet he will be surprised… Eh? Five? There's only like, four little beasties that are here though? There's the black kitten MiiMii, the white one is Yuri-chan, the puppy Fuyuku, and the bird Phi-chan."

At Letia's suddenly inquiry, Rokuko could only tilt her head in confusion. The last time she counted, there was only like, four little beasties that came with them.

"So you're saying that it isn't yours? A rare beast, huh. I want it. Can I have it?" Letia eyed the young beast who's currently resting beside Rokuko, surrounded by the six smaller young beasts.

Rokuko followed Letia's sight and found something that made her eyes shine.

"Ooooh! A white horsie! Hello little guy~!" With her eyes shining bright, Rokuko gave the young beast who was fully intent on relaxing a big hug.

It has been ignoring the other young beasts who were trying to play with it for a while now, looking so aloof, but despite its apparent aloofness, it allowed Rokuko to do whatever she wanted.

"I finally have my own beastie. Hey, do you want a name? I'll give you a name! Let's see… How about Hakouma?" Rokuko was so excited that she didn't even give the opposite party a chance to so much as let out a squeak or something.

However, despite all of this and Rokuko's pushy attitude, the young beast, which is a white horse — as you could probably tell by what name Rokuko gave it — only gave Rokuko a brief glance before nestling its head on Rokuko's shoulders.

"Oh, you like your name? That's a good Hakouma. You're very white and beautiful so Hakkou will be your nickname!"

"Wow. It really agreed, just like that. You have talent in becoming a tamer, Rokuko."

"Hehe, I have? Thank you. Oh right, let's go and look for proper items. I'll teach you everything I know and then maybe you could teach me about [Taming]!"

"Is that right? Okay then. By the way, is something with poison find as well?"

"It's fine. Poison can be used as a crafting material for other things other than food. If you have a base camp somewhere we can trade the ingredients and products there."

"I understand. Let's do our best looking."

With that said, Letia used her two tamed beasts, the rabbit Haru and the Mill Bird Natsu, and started to look for items inside the forest.

She was then followed by Rokuko who's being followed by the five young beasts, Yuri-chan, MiiMii, Fuyuku, Phi-chan, and the new addition to the young beast squad, Hakkou.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

At the south eastern part of the map, a girl with red colored irises, red colored hair, devil horns and wings, could be seen chewing on some grasses alternatingly while chucking out some fireballs at some unsuspecting monsters from a distance. The girl beside her, someone with a long and silky black hair and reddish pink colored irises is looking at her with an approving look on her face.

However, the purple haired girl beside them is very much surprised by all of this. These girls are Satania, Mutsuko, and Toutobi respectively.

"Why are you… eating the poisonous herbs and the Antidote Grass alternatingly?" Toutobi asked, obviously weirded out by the situation.

"*munch*… *munch*… Hmm? I just wanted to see if what Mutsuko-san said is true. You know, that [Discerning] thing."

"[Discerning]?"

While Satania is busy eating, Mutsuko, who was just near the two, answered Toutobi's inquiry for her.

"It's the process where you will literally have your body learn which herbs are bad and which are not. That's what [Discerning] is. It's very important in Survival, you know? Want me to teach you too?"

Toutobi backed off a bit because of Mutsuko's intensity but she quickly regained her cool.

"Um… Yes please."

"That's great! This will make you the honorary member number umm… I forgot which number you are… BUT you are now an honorary member of my Survival Club!"

With that, while Miu, Lucato, Hino, and Satania are busy killing unimportant mobs in a monotonous manner, Mutsuko and Toutobi was engaged in a short lesson regarding herbs and etc.

Moreover, as they chatted away, though Mutsuko is mostly the one who's doing the talking, Mutsuko told her how to use each herb.

"If you have [Mixing], those herbs that inflicts status conditions, and some recovery items like [Potions], you could make a variety of items. Next one, it's a normal ingredient but…"

While Mutsuko is doing the explaining, Satania and Toutobi are voluntarily stuffing their mouths with these dangerous stuffs. If some bystander who didn't know any better were to see this, they would probably think that Mutsuko is bullying them.

"Looks like, even if I put poison inside my mouth, I could survive…"

"Well, you could appraise it normally and you wouldn't have to eat it in that case, but that's not what survival is all about! Survival is all about stuffing your body and mind many knowledge and technique in order to survive!"

""Oooh…""

*clap* *clap* *clap*

Satania and Toutobi clapped with herbs still stuffed in their mouths after listening to Mutsuko's passionate speech. While they were busy with they own antics though, thick wooden branches suddenly came out of nowhere and attempted to constrict the three girls who are not paying attention.

However, despite this being a surprise attack, the three girls still managed to avoid getting constricted by those wooden branches in their own way.

Satania blasted the incoming wooden branches to bits with her fireballs, Mutsuko dodged the branches by casually performing a ukemi before somersaulting midair, while Toutobi is like a leaf that's being blown by the wind, dodging all of the branches that came at her without getting so much as a scratch. Even though they were chatting, they were properly paying attention to their surroundings.

"Everyone get ready! There's a unique mob up ahead!" Lucato shouted while hoisting her sword.

"I'm so pumped up! Finally a unique mob!"

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ Aaaaand done. Man, that sure took some time. Anyway, here's the new chapter you guys! We'll see if I could end this event in a few chapters.