Preta and his friends set up camp in the forest after riding their horses at high speed for four hours.
Actually, their horses could still run further, but the really dark sky made it hard for the riders to see the path.
The forest was filled with tall trees with thick and sturdy trunks, some with thorns. Like any forest, the one they were in was also full of many animals.
Gans, Hexon, and Dens were assigned to hunt animals for their first meal when they re-enter WoW, and also their last meal of the day.
Meanwhile, Preta and Vector were assigned to find a water source and bring it back to their camp. Finding water in the forest wasn't hard, but carrying it to the camp without any containers was a challenge for them.
The rest stayed at their camp, which was only covered with long leaves from the harbovulya tree. The harbovulya tree was famous in the WoW world for being used as a bed and blanket because of its long and wide leaves, which had a warming effect on the body.
However, the harbovulya tree had tall trunks, and the trunks also had small sharp thorns. They didn't cause serious harm, but they were still painful to feel.
Crocils and Zhendra had to climb the tree, while Natasha, who was under the tree, would be in charge of collecting leaves. It's not because they're discriminatory towards gender, but it would be very risky for their team if Natasha got hurt while climbing the tree since Natasha is their only medic.
All tasks carried out by each member of the Sun of Lion Knight aren't decisions of Preta or Dens, the leader and co-leader of the Sun of Lion Knight. Instead, the assignment of tasks is done through drawing lots.
The draw they do is pretty simple. Preta grabs ten pieces of tall grass and cuts them to different lengths. The three longest for hunting, two fairly long ones for finding water, and three small enough for making a camp, while the remaining two smallest ones mean they get to choose.
#- Hunter Team -#
It's not the first time for Gans, Hexon, and Dens to go hunting. The three of them have hunted several times, so they're used to it and have pretty good teamwork coordination.
Hexon and Dens will use their skills to hunt wild animals, while Gans will use his skills to hunt tame animals.
Just need to sneak around and shoot three arrows, but only one hit the deer right in the head that Gans had been eyeing for a few minutes.
After the deer was injured, Hexon and Dens would do their job to help Gans, chasing after the wounded deer and finishing it off.
One deer down, Hexon skinned it and then brought it back to camp with Dens, while Gans was still on the lookout for another deer.
Back at camp, Hexon and Dens found Crocils and Zhendra climbing harbovulya trees, while Natasha just watched the two of them.
The same things for the second deer. After that, they went back to hunt wild animals.
###
They were on the lookout for a forest bear. The forest bear had thin fur compared to polar bears, and its color, similar to the soil, made it hard to spot when they lay down.
When Gans found one forest bear, he immediately climbed a nearby tree and prepared to shoot an arrow at it.
However, Gans didn't shoot right away because even if his shot hit, it wouldn't be enough to kill the forest bear.
Apart from having high total HP, the forest bear could also detect attacks from a distance. Therefore, close-range attacks were recommended to kill the forest bear, unless long-range attacks had very high damage and much faster speed.
Hexon and Dens slowly but surely tried to approach the forest bear. They could sneak around, but not good enough.
Feeling close enough, Dens quickly prepared his shield for protection as he moved closer to the bear. This time, Dens wasn't sneaking around, he even made weird sounds resembling an animal he could think of.
Meanwhile, Hexon, positioned in the opposite direction, remained hiding behind the trees, waiting for the right moment.
The main weakness of the forest bear was its hind legs. Injuring the hind ankle would leave the bear with no chance to escape or defend itself from attacks coming from behind.
Dens was tasked with diverting the forest bear's attention, while Hexon was tasked to slash at its hind ankles.
As the forest bear began to shift its focus to Dens, Hexon came out from hiding but still sneaked around since the distance was quite far from the forest bear.
Once he got close enough, Hexon swiftly took action. The forest bear couldn't fight back, except for attempting to attack Dens in front of it.
With the bear immobilized, Hexon finally stabbed its neck and ended it.
This time, they needed the strength of three people to bring the forest bear back to their camp.
#- Water Team -#
Preta and Vector easily found a water source while following a teloan —an animal like a deer but with a much longer neck— leading to a small, swiftly flowing river.
Vector looked at Preta, who took a sip from the river, and said, "So, how do we carry it?"
"Skålawraq, we just need to find it," replied Preta, after drinking his fill, looking around.
Now it's Vector's turn to drink from the river, but before he drinks, he says, "I didn't see it, but are you sure it can survive in this forest?"
"If the world map is still the same as before the update, I know its location. Let's try heading there."
Vector nods and drinks from the river again.
Skålawraq is a medium-sized plant, about 50 to 100 centimeters tall and 20 centimeters wide. It's a type of monophyllous and macrophyllous plant, meaning it only has one large leaf when mature.
Skålawraq's leaf has a perfectly straight line with a surface that has a water-resistant layer, preventing water from passing through the leaf.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
In WoW, many players use skålawraq as a container for water or as protection from water. Processed skålawraq leaves are used as a low-class wooden shield's protective layer to protect it from enemy water attacks.
Skålawraq leaves have a long, bowl-like shape, which is why Preta and Vector are searching for skålawraq plants to use as their water containers.
###
Preta and Vector move a bit away from the river they found, and as Preta's habit, he always marks a tree as a guide for their way back.
Upon reaching their destination, Preta sees two people lying on the ground. Parts of their bodies have been eaten by wild animals.
"NPC? Player?" asks Vector.
Preta looks around, including up at the sky covered by dense trees and leaves. "Whatever it is, we need to be careful. They might have died from getting trapped, attacked, or preyed upon by animals. Stay alert."
Preta and Vector picked up some pebbles around them and threw them at the bodies of the two people. Vector even went on to cast a spell and launched an attack using his shadow of arrow around the bodies.
"Safe?" Vector asked after launching a few attacks.
Preta walked closer slowly, "Perhaps."
After reaching the skålalawraq leaves, Preta immediately drew his sword and cut some skålalawraq leaves.
Meanwhile, Vector stayed alert with his shadow of arrow, looking around, anticipating any enemy attacks.
Skålalawraq leaves were easy to cut through, so in a short time, Preta managed to get eleven skålalawraq leaves. After that, he quickly returned to Vector's side.
The sound of strong wind blew towards them accompanied by a gust of air. Cautiously, the sound and the gust were enough to startle them, leaving them frozen for a few seconds.
"Just wind, shit of wind," muttered Vector.
"Come on, we need to hurry," said Preta, now picking up the pace.
###
They both made it back to the river and gathered water using two skålalawraq leaves.
Of course, before returning to the camp, they took a moment to drink from the river.
Their way back to the camp went smoothly without any life-threatening obstacles.
#- Camp Team -#
Crocils and Zhendra utilized the abilities of their shadow of sword to cut the thorns on the harbovulya tree, giving them relief from pain when climbing the tree.
The climbing process took quite a while. Besides their characters' attributes making it difficult for them to climb, they also lacked basic real-world skills for tree climbing, which made it challenging for them.
However, after a few failed attempts, they finally managed to climb the harbovulya tree, even if it was only a few meters high.
But that wasn't much of a problem, they at least got the harbovulya tree leaves within their attack range.
One of their hands gripped the harbovulya tree, thrusting their staff into the holes they had previously created using shadow of arrow. The staff stuck in became their grip to strengthen themselves against the trunk of the harbovulya tree.
The other hand was used to cast a spell mantra. Their uses shadow of sword because the slashing attack type was much more useful for cutting harbovulya leaves compared to the piercing attack type.
After a few attacks, they climbed down again from the tree to recover their SP.
Once their SP was restored, they repeated the same process again and again until they had gathered enough leaves.
Meanwhile, Natasha was solely responsible for capturing, collecting, and cleaning harbovulya leaves to ensure no parasites inhabited them. After that, Natasha promptly arranged the leaves to be used as a bed for all of them, including their blankets.
#- Gathering Again -#
After each team finished their respective tasks, they immediately cooked their food. But before that, they drew lots again.
This time, they used eight tall grass with four different lengths to divide their group into four teams that would take turns guarding at night.
After the drawing was done, there was a small cheer heard. Happy faces were shown, but there were also some gloomy expressions. As usual, whenever there's a drawing, there are always those who lucky and those who face an unlucky.
Preta and Hexon fist-bumped with smiles on their faces. They teamed up for the last shift after getting a long, uninterrupted sleep.
Natasha and Zhendra found themselves as teammates once again. They sighed at their fate since their shift was during the undesired second.
Crocils and Dens exchanged a handshake, with Crocils letting out a happy chuckle. They got the first shift, meaning they get uninterrupted sleep.
As for Vector and Gans, their expressions differed. Gans was happy, smiling away, while Vector, disappointed with the outcome, remained silent and gloomy.
After the shift schedule was set, Hexon divided the two deer he got into several parts and handed them out to each of his friends.
Vector, on the other hand, crafted the skålalawraq leaves, shaping them into small cups. Once he had eight small cups, he filled them with water from the large skålalawraq leaf —their main water container. Then, he distributed them among his friends.
Meanwhile, Natasha checked on each of their friends' characters to ensure their health and vitality.
The rest, after being checked by Natasha, took out well-preserved tree branches stored in the Tigar group's horses.
Those tree branches were gathered, and Dens took charge of creating sparks and making a campfire for them.
Dens rubbed two nebeleldr tree branches together simultaneously, quickly enough to create sparks and ignite the campfire.
Nebeleldr tree branches were from the nebeleldr tree, a type of tree that only grew in the red forest or fire forest, quite a distance away from their current location.
The nebeleldr tree has branches that radiate heat and trap oxygen. With the presence of heat, oxygen, and the form of the tree branches, the three elements of fire are ready. Therefore, the branches of the nebeleldr tree are often used as tools to make a campfire.
"So, what's our next plan?" Gans asked while devouring the hind leg of the deer given by Hexon.
"Sell the forest bear, then we buy supplies and rent a tavern," said Dens, also enjoying the deer meat he got.
"If the selling price of the bear is still the same as the last time we sold one, then we might get five duits," Preta added to Dens's answer.
"Five duits, we can rent four rooms in a shabby tavern, which means we have three duits left that we can use to buy items, rations, and weapons," Natasha replied, sipping on fresh water after not having it all day in the WoW world.
"Yes, but that's still not enough. So, we have to find more," Vector suggested.
"It's probably better not to. Forest bears are indeed high-value for us right now. But it takes effort to carry them," Hexon replied, realizing that even he, with his high body attribute, struggled to carry one forest bear alone.
"True. Let's use that money to stay overnight at a tavern and buy rations. For the rest, we'll do other jobs that are easier and match our specializations," said Preta, then handed the remaining deer meat to Dens.
Preta easily gets full as a Jurak, so he drank his drink and immediately lay down on the bed made of harbovulya leaves.
"Juraks has fallen asleep, a sign that it's almost midnight," Zhendra remarked, recognizing the distinctive trait of a Jurak.
"Nat, are you sure you don't want your share?" Hexon asked, having finished all of his portion and still craving more food.
Natasha shook her head and handed her meat to Hexon, saying, "I don't know why, but I feel disgusted looking at that meat, so you guys can have it."
Hexon graciously accepted the meat. "So, what are you going to eat?"
Natasha stood up and walked away from them. "I'll look for berries or edible plants nearby."
Zhendra quickly finished his meal, then drank and stood up. "Nat, wait. I spotted some darkberries. Want me to guide you?"
Natasha halted her steps and looked back at Zhendra. "Thanks."
The two of them then went off to find darkberries.
In the middle of enjoying his meal, Dens said, "By the way, it seems we need to be extra cautious, considering Tigar has nebeleldr supplies on his horse, which means-"
"They are also camping," Gans interrupted Dens.
"Yeah. Besides, we don't really understand the new mechanism of the weapons," continued Dens.
"You're right, there are differences in weapon stats, and they don't even have names," replied Gans.
"They do have names, but they're not given. You can set the names yourself, as well as the weapon type," said Hexon.
Gans, who had finished eating and drinking, asked Hexon again, "So, you mean the weapon type can be changed?"
"You can give it a name. For example, my longsword can be changed to just a sword. But I prefer the usual naming."
"Wow, I haven't tried that," Gans said, his expression immediately blank as he entered the Self-UI.
"Yeah, besides the names, there are some details still locked. Seems like it's related to our intelligence level," replied Vector.
Preta, still awake and not fully asleep, listened to his friends' conversation and said, "Let's discuss the update changes tomorrow. You all need to rest soon, and most importantly, put out the fire. Enemies might spot it from afar."
Dens looked towards Preta, "Just a bit more."
The five of them shifted their conversation to rumors and funny things happening on the internet before entering the WoW world.