Chapter 2: Day 1

Entering the forest, Chris is at the front and Harold focused his senses to his surroundings. Bringing their backpacks, the two began to harvest that looked like edible like mushrooms, herbs, and fruits. Chris reminded Harold that they do not need to enter the forest deeply for now and that they need to set a perimeter and scot so that they know they are safe for the night.

“What do you think?” Chris asked questionably.

“Good plan, let’s do that” Harold said.

Thirty minutes of searching, the backpacks of the two are now half full of unknown. Fortunately, the two finally saw a group of five bunnies but the weird thing is that the bunnies has a two meter horn protruding on its forehead and their fur is crimson red. The two startled at what they are seeing has started to regain their bearings, Chris instructed Harold to wait to strike and that Chris will go lure them one by one.

“Roger that” Harold said.

Focusing, Chris started his plan slowly so that the bunnies wouldn’t notice him. Fortunately not long enough, one of the bunnies separated with its group to do its business but what surprised Chris is that it’s coming to his place where he hid so he signal Harold to get ready. The bunny stopped on it’s track seemingly noticed something but with its little brain, the bunny dropped the subject and continued its way to Chris. Chris thought that this bunny’s instinct is weird because it seems to notice him but still continued its way to him so he started to be suspicious and focused all of his attention to the bunny.

The bunny found its spot to do its business and Chris waited to finish its business but after the bunny finished, Chris swinged his blunt weapon that looked like a baseball bat to the bunny but after he swung his blunt weapon, the bunny was gone and fear has started to crawl its way to Chris so he put up his shield and once again focused his all to his surroundings. While Chris is panicking, Harold saw that the bunny escaped Chris attack so he as well focused, Harold knows that the bunny’s aggro is focused on Chris so he waited for the bunny to attack Chris and since Chris’s job is ‘Guardian’ Harold has the confidence that Chris will withstand one blow from this bunny.

Thankfully after so long, the bunny finally attacked Chris with it’s frightening speed and its hor pointing at Chris’s chest so Harold started to speed up as well to catch up to the bunny but the bunny is faster and one step ahead of Harold, the bunny reached Chris chest but Chris didn’t know but he felt his left hand with the shield to raise instinctively with a little grunt and protected his chest.

‘T-this is [Cover]!’ Chris said while relieved that he blocked the attack of the bunny.

The bunny bumped the shield and felt light headed but with this Harold catched up with the bunny and Harold swinged his blunt weapon just like Chris’s with the pose of hitting a baseball while sliding to the bunny.

‘[Slash]!’ Harold said in his mind.

The blunt weapon hit the bunny and it let out a soft shriek and flew a little arc then hit the trunk of the tree, the bunny twitched a little for a while then stopped breathing its last breath. The two successfully hunted one rabbit.

Feeling tired from their hunt, the two walked slowly to the dead bunny so that the other bunnies won’t notice which they let out a sigh of relief because with all of that ruckus the other bunnies didn’t notice anything and focused eating grass or playing with each other. When the two reached the dead bunny, they were surprised that its body is still intact but thankfully its eyes were devoid of life which guaranteed it’s death. Harold picked up the dead bunny and wrapped it with a large leaf and put it to his back pack, thankfully the bunny was large and can supply the dinner for three people so the two started to walk to their base slowly.

On their way back, Harold told Chris that he levelled up to two and all of his stats raised by five. Chris was not surprised because early on while walking, Chris opened up his status but he didn’t levelled up like Harold which made him go through a conclusion that last hit kill is a rule and that they were not treated as a party so Chris thought that he’ll explore his game like elements they got back to their base.

The two finally returned to the base and saw that Cathy finished doing her job so when she saw the two, she ran to them with sparkly eyes and asked.

“Did you two got something?” Cathy asked.

“Y-yeah” Harold stuttering.

“Just one bunny but enough for us three” Chris said.

“Great!” Cathy said happily.

After the talk, cathy told the two that her skill levelled up too after using her skill non-stop to create items for all of their classmates but Cathy also told them that some of them were mages and archers which mage didn’t need the item and the archer were useless for now since they can’t even lift the blunt weapon.

“So? What can you create now?” Chris asked.

“Hm~ I can create hammers and mace now but the materials here would downgrade the weapons” Cathy said grudgingly.

Cathy told them that if she used rock, some vines and the wood from the branches, the finished product would looked like some prehistoric weapons and told them that it seems like some of their classmates decided to leave this place and see what’s out there but some of them also said that they should remain here and wait to save them which made Chris twitch his eyes and thought.

‘What are they? Teenagers from some novels? They’re too naive’ Chris thought.

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Humans are great since they can adapt quickly to any situations and climate but this is also depended to the person itself if that person has low mental strength then the skill the humans has is useless to this person. Just like Harold, Chris, and Cathy, these three were fast to adapt because they quickly accepted that they were not safe anywhere right now even  here or somewhere, the two Harold and Chris experienced it first hand that they need to be strong physically and mentality so that they can keep their lives.

“What do you think Chris?” Harold asked.

“We should study first the things we picked up then grind carefully for levels and I would test something first then we talk about this again” Chris said while touching his chin, he looked like deep in thought.

“Sounds good, look Cathy this the bunny we hunted” Harold said with a triumphant look.

Harold showed and gave the bunny with the horn protruding on its forehead to Cathy which surprised her and told to Harold.

“Harold! Your so lucky you know that?” Cathy said excitingly.

“Yeah I know hahaha” Harold said laughingly while touching his waist

“I can make a blade with this bunny’s horn but i need three more so i can make you the basic longsword” Cathy said.

“You’re sure?!” Harold said while exclaiming.

While Cathy affirmed Harold about her making a longsword, Harold ran to where Chris has gone to test his experiment then told Chris what Cathy told him and with this Chris’s eyes sparked and Chris told Harold that they would hunt the bunnies tomorrow since the sun is setting and that the moon has started to show which would make them in disadvantage.

After Harold agreed to Chris’s suggestion, the two started to rest and Cathy who Harold left ran to them and told them that what should they do to the bunny, Chris told Harold that he should look for a person who has a job that has a relationship to skinning a monster but then before Harold agreed, Cathy told them that there’s this person that has a job called ‘Hunter’ but this person started to panic from the start and seems like no one is speaking to this person since this person looked like useless. While sighing, Chris told Cathy to bring him to this person.

“There she is” Cathy said while pointing to a person who is curled up like fetus while shaking and muttering things.

“Her?” Chris said under suspicious.

“Yes” Cathy said.

Chris was surprised because his person was a girl and that this person was his ex-girlfriend named ‘Elise’ she has a soft blonde hair, a body that you can compare to models, and a pretty face, Elise has a confidence that rocks the world  but now that confidence was gone like it was fake from the start. Chris slowly walk to her place but when Elise saw Chris nearing her, she let out a loud shriek and run to the forest which surprised Chris so he shouted to Harold.

“HAROLD!! WE NEED TO CATCH HER OR SHE’S DEAD!!” Chris said while worrying for Elise.

“Got it!!” Harold said losing his carefree air.

“W-wait!” Cathy said while losing the sights of their backs.

The two rushed to chase Elise but even Harold’s level stat, Elise was one step ahead of Harold and Chris at the back trying hard to catch up to the two. The forest was composed of short and tall trees, bushes and shrubs, weeds all over and protruding roots from the trees. This obstacle was hard for Chris and Harold had it slightly easy but Elise was moving like this obstacles where nothing to her, running, jumping through the roots tuning swiftly, this made Chris thought of the fight they had with the bunnies where he instinctively activated his [Cover] skill which seems like is happening right now to Elise.

Twenty minutes of chasing, Elise finally lose her stamina and started to slow down but Chris and Harold’s stamina were far worse but they still run through willpower, fortunately Elise stopped and looked at the two and it seems like with this chase she regained a little of her composure.

“W-why are you chasing me?” Elise asking dubiously.

“Why are you running?” Chris sain while chasing for air.

“W-what?” Elise said surprise is showing in her eyes.

“Let’s go, come back to the base, I have something to ask of you” Chris said.

“NO! I DON’T WANT TO!” Elise said while shouting.

“Don’t shout! You’ll alert the monsters!” Chris replied with some fear on his voice.

“Elise, come let’s go back and Chris and I will protect you so don’t worry” Harold said with a gentle voice.

“You don’t have to worry and you can tell us what happened why you became like that” Chris said while sighing.

“Really?” Elise asked while tears roll down from her eyes.

“Yes, we’ll protect you so let’s go, night has come and we might have attracted some monsters while we were chasing you so we got to slowly return” Chris said with slight confidence in his eyes.

“Okay” Elise said.

With this conversation, Elise followed the two and night has started to creep to the woods, Chris and Harold is starting to get hungry and Elise quietly following, thankfully Chris left markings to the trunks of the wide trees that they passed through and that they evaded some bunny monsters that seems like this place is their territory and that means that this place is low level which made Chris and Harold let out a sigh of relief. Three people finally reached their base and thankfully safe and sound, Cathy seems waiting for them to return walked to them anxiously asking.

“You all alright? No injuries?” Cathy asked.

“No, we’re all fine just some scratches” Harold said smilingly.

“I’m glad” Cathy letting out a sigh of relief.

“Where’s the bunny?” Chris asked.

“T-that is” Cathy stuttering.

Cathy told them what happened when they chased Elise and that some asshole threatened her to killing her if she didn’t give the bunny that Chris and Harold hunted which made Chris furrowed his eyebrows and Harold is still smiling but his air has noticeably changed from gentle to dominating then the two walked to the three people that robbed their food which Cathy pointed at.

“They changed too fast” Cathy said while amusingly looking at the backs of the two.

“Well, they’re stomach was making loud noises on our way back which made us scared shitless. I’m Elise by the way” Elise said while introducing herself.

“Oh, I’m Cathy! Nice to meet you!” Cathy said.

Elise’s mind seems to recovered when she was looking at the back of the two when they were travelling back to this base with confidence which made Elise mind to calm down and quietly pondered and when they came back the old Elise finally resurfaced back.

While Elise was thinking of these things, Chris and Harold reached the three people who were laughing and cheering that they finally got food which they stole, this made Chris and Harold’s anger boiled for more. Harold touched a man who looked like thirty years old but really this man is only twenty but looked like an old man, when this man turned and looked at Harold, he saw Harold’s smile which made the man’s body twitched. Harold’s fist was fast, the man who received the punch didn’t know what happened because with just one punch he fainted and when Chris saw this he came to conclusion that the man who fainted was a magician or a archer.

Next, Chris stood in front of one of the man who is still stunned to what happened to his friend looked slowly to Chris, then Chris said.

“You really had the balls to steal from us haa~” Chris said while frowning.

“W-what?” The man said.

But before he continue what the man’s gonna say, Chris’s shield touched the man’s temple and flew, unlike the first man who has fainted from just one punch from Harold, this man was just a little stunned and started to shout incomprehensible things to Chris like ‘You’re dead bitch!’ ‘I’ll kill you!’ but didn’t charge to attack Chris so Chris took the initiative and attacked the man. This move made the man lost his reasons and finally charged at Chris with a punch so Chris used his skill.

“[Cover]” Chris said.

“Gah!” The man looked surprised.

After the man met the shield, Chris didn’t use his blunt weapon still and just moved his shield to the face of the man. Chris attack reached the man’s face and was stunned again, and when stunned Chris punched the man and the man fainted. When Chris run around, Harold finished the other one and was looking at Chris with smug on his face.

“What?” Chris said.

“Well, those moves were beautiful” Harold said while smiling.

“Let’s just get the bunny and let Elise skin it” Chris said while walking to where the bunny is.

The surrounding people were surprised at how the two moved like that and overpowered the three man which made them feel fear from the two, Chris and Harold didn’t bother the gazes they got from their classmates so Chris picked up the bunny while Harold explained to the people why they did that which made the gazes softened a little.