Hunting Party

"Alright, the rest of you keep working on the camp; Kira, Paci and I will go get us some dinner and something for breakfast as well. Get the fire going and set out all the cookware! Trania, manage them well and get this camp up and running, alright? The next thing is..?"

"Defenses. I know, Alessia."

The Catkin woman just gave her fellow Talonmaster a quick nod, looking out at the various soldiers and tracking their progress before adding "Don't be too long; the sun is setting soon. Yngrave gets dangerous at night."

Alessia grinned, before glancing at the red haired soldier who was going to accompany us, saying "Paci can lead us out with her ability to see in the dark and Fire Magic. Besides, we're only hunting for a few beasts! Nothing big, nothing dangerous!"

Checking my equipment, I nodded at Alessia and followed the woman out of the camp, a basic spear loaned to me for this venture from one of the other soldiers.

"Thinking about the Frenak Clearing, Talonmaster? Should be teeming with wildlife this time of year..."

"Yes, that was the plan Paci. Take us there; you hunted these woods far more than I did as a whelp."

The other Dogkin chuckled, glancing back at the Talonmaster and winking before leading us into the forest, the bow in her hands being used to push the underbrush aside.

I could feel Alessia's gaze on me as I walked in between the two of them, and the heated gaze of my partner from last night made me a bit... heated, but I kept it under control for now as we slowly got deeper into the forest, my senses focused on the area around us.

The walk was silent as we all made sure to not disturb the forest around us, and it only took us a dozen or so minutes to reach this Frenak Clearing that Paci and Alessia were talking about, which was an absolutely beautiful place beneath the setting sun.

The red and violet leaves around us were illuminated by the deep orange rays of dusk, while the gentle breeze that ruffled the branches added to the serene atmosphere.

Crouching down, we looked into the grassy clearing and observed the various animals milling about, drinking from the crystal clear pool that was off to the side or munching on the grass, all of them happily living together inside the clearing.

Paci raised her bow and glanced at Alessia, who raised her own bow and laid an arrow on the string, nodding slowly to the other Dogkin and muttering "Take down what you can cleanly and in a single shot."

Her words were almost imperceivable, but Paci heard her perfectly as she mirrored her Talonmaster, nocking the arrow and taking aim at some of the animals inside the clearing.

Rabbits, deer, hares, birds... all kinds of herbivores and peaceful omnivores rested inside the clearing, and I took a moment to observe the unique twists on those animals that were native to Eden.

The rabbits had small antlers, the deer had longer tails that were spiked... small twists, but those weren't what made them dangerous.

Like everything else in this world, they had mana coursing through their veins that made them tougher and stronger than normal, and those with more mana were easy to spot; larger and healthier looking, the largest deer inside the clearing was easily eight feet tall, while the antlers added another three feet on top of that, branching out sharpened to a point that threatened to gore whatever angered the animal.

It was always interesting to see how different devs made different takes on normal animals, and I was curious to see if anything else had changed now that... now that this world was my reality.

Would these animals remain as cute and refreshing as I used to think of them..?

Though really, at the moment I was wondering if they would taste better now that I was actually here; simulating taste was difficult to do even in Full Dives, and some games cheaped out on those portions of the game, preferring to place more effort on the combat or other primary aspects of the game.

So... would they taste much better now..?

Last night wasn't something that I could particularly remember thanks to... the other activities that took place, and it wasn't actually my reality yet, so... this would be the first time I got to taste the food of this world.

Honestly, I was salivating already as well, since I was so very hungry... who knew that physical labor made you hungry?

Making sure my grip on the spear was tight enough, I waited for both Paci and Alessia to shoot, preparing to lunge forwards and see if I could catch one or two of the animals off guard with my Nature Magic before finishing them off with the spear.

Seconds drifted by in silence, before two deep thrums sounded from either side of me, two arrows whistling through the air followed swiftly by myself as I rushed forwards.

I watched as the arrows buried themselves into the necks of two separate deer, with a second barrage slamming into the deer's neck again.

Raising my hand, I summoned some roots and caught their feet as well as the feet of a rabbit, which I just smacked with the head of my spear before reaching down and twisting its head, killing it.

Alessia joined me as she finished off her deer, but as Paci was walking out into the clearing as well she shouted in pain, making the two of us look back to see a primitive spear lodged into her side, a pair of red hands holding onto the wooden haft.

Sadly for the Goblin, Paci wasn't too phased by the wound as she reached her hand back and erupted her mana out of her palm, an explosion of flames consuming the Goblin's head and killing it instantly.

Taking up our weapons, we turned and watched as a dozen Goblins and Hobgoblins stepped out of the forest, eyeing us up and snarling out challenges.