Me and Luntra then were looking around for a source of voice. We both were ready to engage in attack. But the one who showed up was a man with stone axe. His curly dark hair really caught my attention along with his green eyes. His body seemed like something between fit and thin. But his expression was pretty neutral. His voice was deeper than average man's but it was calm:

"I didn't mean to scare either of you."

"Alright. I've heard enough. Who's your gang's boss and where are others hiding?"

"What do you mean?"

"Answer the questions and get your ass ready for some whopping beating."

"Is he this retarded?" he said while looking at Luntra.

"He has never ceased to amaze me with his retardation but his point stands."

"Have you heard that? Reply or get your ass beaten!"

"I don't know if you mean your retardation or your point, but I answer and... Wait a second now. Haven't you told me to answer and to get my ass beaten?"

"You've heard that right."

"Then what point do I have in answering?"

"You'll get your ass beaten."

"So regardless of how I answer you'll try to beat my ass?"

"Depends on whether I like the answer."

Luntra did not like where this conversation was going, so she decided to clarify:

"Apparently he meant that your ass will get beaten if you lie."

"Fine. I basically went outside safe zone but I was quite familiar with this type of games, so I quickly figured out what to do and how. I happened to find you both just as you were chopping the smaller trees."

"An ass beating it is."

"Calm down now," a sudden strike with a fist on my head from Luntra and 2 more lost HP managed to switch my anger towards Luntra.

"Now that's 2 hours' worth of healing!"

"Whatever. I just don't want us to lose a potential ally."

"If you further doubt me," the man said without even letting me to speak, "I can help you."

He switched axe with some raw meat.

"I have fire affinity so we shouldn't have troubles with making a campfire."

A normal person sure would not want to reveal something like that. And it was indeed better for us to survive if we were in a group. We then promised to send each other a friend request once we had that option unlocked.

"Oh, it's rude of me to not introduce myself. Meqro."

"Kuronto," we then shook hands as hopefully a sign of peace.

"Luntra."

I had not forgotten about campfire and checked it in Crafting and then Building. 6 wood and 4 leaves. Oh, I remember getting some leaves from those trees as well. I crafted it within a second and there was that usual game design with red and green lights indicating whether an object can be placed or not, but it was seen by everyone around. I then moved it back in my inventory as we needed to get to the river. While walking to our destination we would chop down small trees to stack up on wood.

"16 wood," Meqro stated out of blue, giving us the overall idea of what we were supposed to say.

"23," I replied.

"31."

"And that makes it 70."

"Hopefully enough to make a shelter," Luntra added.

"I just hope we won't have to face need in more web or slime."

We would just walk around as I was checking the map. I could not tell how much time passed for I had not cared at all.

"We're almost there," finally came out of my mouth after hell knows how long.

Pretending to look at my map, I was thinking of scenarios where either Luntra or Meqro or both try to betray me at night. There was clearly no need of sleep so all of us could stay on guard. An important thing would be to not get seriously injured as chances of betrayal could rise easily. The others should have been thinking of the same scenario as well. Luntra's happy scream interrupted my thoughts:

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Look, we're finally here!"

Happily running, she forgot about stamina limits and was looking as stupid as ever. We then all arrived near a river and tried to drink from it but failed. Suddenly, a new intstruction popped up:

Craft A Leaf Cup To Drink Water

Of all things, I was expecting it the least. Never before have I thought that I would not be able to sip water with my damn hands. But the craft recipe just included 2 slime and 4 leaves so everyone had crafted the cup and sipped water. Our thirst bar was filled but then another thing happened. There was a new hidden quest that I somehow completed.

The Way Of The Water:

Drink Bad Water While Having Water Resistance To Avoid Poisoning!

Not only I leveled up, but also got 3 disinfectants, which gave the couple some ideas as they each quickly drank the disinfectant in one gulp.

"It's so transparent though..." Luntra disappointment was getting pretty high.

"But how do we even get good water?"

"You did not even get poisoning because you have water resistance!"

"Don't blame me for choosing water affinity!"

"Alright you both can shut up! We should've got the recipe for safe water or whatever."

"If it's just boiled water we should consider alternatives."

As all of us checked, it was indeed just boiled water. The problem with that was lack of container to boil water. We would hopefully get metal for that later. I then remembered the berries I had and I found out that they filled more thirst bar than hunger bar. As I told everyone about my discovery we were gone collecting berries. After we thought we collected enough, we came back and the first thing I did was check the time:

19:43 (24 hours)

"Assuming how dark it is right now," Meqro started, "the night will begin at 21:00."

"We should still hurry. Not like the time will freeze so that we prepare properly."

"Good point. Now let us get to building."

We all quickly agreed that a huge tree near the wide river was a good place for building a base as we could use the said tree as the fourth wall. Quickly going in our Crafting section, we easily and quickly made walls, a rooftop and a door. The ground could serve as a somewhat decent floor. It looked more like a box attached to a tree but was nonetheless enough to complete one of side quests. As a reward I got sometihng called "The Evil Repel". And it appeared that everyone got it but I was the one to use it. It should be pretty effective so I just accurately sprayed it around the walls, near the entrance and using some shit acrobatic skills of mine I even managed to get some on the roof as the can of it disappeared.

"So this is our small safe zone until the night is over," Luntra marked.

"I guess we can fry some meat now," I suggested.

"Oh, we can leave that to Meqro. You just need to place a campfire."

And so I did. I walked inside the shelter to check my profile that turned out to be updated:

Name: Kuronto

Level: 2

EXP: 1045/1500

HP: 105/105

HP Regen: 1 HP/h

MP: 55/55

MP Regen: 2 MP/s

SP: 25/25

SP Regen: 2 SP/s

Armor: 1

Affinities: Water

Gold: 267

So apparently I missed whatever rewards I got for completing that hidden quest and side quest, which did not bother me actually. I then checked details of the main quest:

Survive A Night

Survive a full night outside of safe zone

Rewards: +2500 EXP, 200 Gold, The Evil Repel x1, Disinfectant x5, Fried Meat x5.

So tomorrow I will have new stuff unlocked as everyone else. And additional stuff should be good for surviving one more night at least. I really could not wait for night to fall.