They all aimed their crossbows at the deer as they slowly walked back because the group didn't want to meet such a deer so quickly. They planned to observe a mutant from a distance before even attempting to interact with it.

As the group walked back, the deer plodded along the path, making strange loud noises.

"Change of plans. Before it spots us, we'll take advantage of the fact that it hasn't seen us yet," Francis commented with a serious expression while turning to Luz and handing him something.

"Here, Luz, take that compass. If you ever get separated from us while escaping, run south," Francis explained, and Luz quickly pocketed it with a nod.

"On my command, we shoot," Francis whispered as he positioned himself on the ground and slowly counted down, "3...2...1." and the group fired their arrows.

A slight hiss echoed through the forest, followed by an agonized scream of a deer. Three arrows bore into the deer's body. Anne missed her shoot because she got too nervous. All except Luz aimed at the head while the former aimed at the chest area.

'I'm not aiming at something I won't hit with a high probability,' went through his head before firing.

After crying out loud, the deer ran towards the group.

The deer didn't even slow down in the slightest, even though two arrows stuck in its head.

Luz reloaded immediately, while Francis put his crossbow aside and used a magic spell.

"[Wind Blades]," Francis gave out, and air gathered in front of his hand.

In contrast, the deer ran toward the group, and it took around two seconds before a giant 2d Wind Blade shot straight out, severing the deer's body from the neck area horizontally in 2 pieces.

"That was close," Francis whispered before adding, "From now on, we'll only use mana arrows and magic. Physical arrows may only be used with a combination of magic."

The rest just gulped before nodding. After the group calmed down, they decided to walk to the corpse in order to inspect it.

"Each of you better summon your mana membrane here already. That's the least protection we should have. But you'd better put on your mask and gloves," Anne commented as she handed each of them a mask.

Everyone put on the mask, which went around the whole face.

Francis began to tell them: "The magic medicine institute believes that the infection would be passed on through fluid exchange and bites. We will still wear masks with breathing filters for safety reasons."

He was the only one to put on gloves, and it wasn't long before the group was standing in front of the carcass. The deer's head and eyelids twitched from time to time. Furthermore, a black consistent liquid ran from the severed neck.

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Francis knelt and used a spell to fill the black liquid into the container before closing it with magic.

Anne conjured a sphere of water to confine the container while Alice cast the spell [freeze], and it took only half a minute for the container to turn into a block of ice.

Francis only nodded before his consumed voice was heard saying, "This is for safety in case the container does leak."

The container was slowly placed in his space storage ring.

"What kind of magic is this," Luz asked, fascinated as well as confused.

"It's just an item I got from the institute, and one can store stuff in it. It's called a space storage ring, but this particular one has a tracker in it," Francis replied while showing it to Luz.

'I want one of those too someday.'

"So time to burn the body," Francis said, and the group used all their fire spells on the cadaver until only ashes remained.

"Only five more samples. I heard that they would give us more than 1000 gold coins if we catch a living specimen for them. We can also get around 50 gold coins if we could bring them a dead specimen with as few wounds as possible," Alice told them while the greed in her eyes was visible.

"I think we should abandon trying to get a living specimen. The risk is way too high," Luz interjected, and the rest just nodded in agreement.

Anne, on the other hand, added: "It's also enough if we can mark and enumerate mutant deer. We'd even get silver for that."

Before the group decided to move on, they all charged their crossbows with as much mana as possible.

'That was now 10% of my mana just to create the strongest possible mana arrow.'

"One arrow from these should be enough to kill a deer," Francis gave out. A blue arrow materialized on the crossbows of the group.

The group went deeper into the forest, and the sounds became even more intense. At the same time, the blood-red evening sun hung on the horizon. Every now and then, they encountered a zombie deer. But unfortunately, all of them were too far away or were walking in groups. Therefore, the group decided to return home.

"Let's rather go home and go hunting tomorrow at 10 o'clock. Then we can go even deeper into the forest. The chance of hunting these creatures should be much higher there," the group leader said, and no one objected.

But on the way home, they heard footsteps and voices on the trail. Each of them immediately raised their respective crossbows before following the trail. It took less than a minute before they saw a hunting party of around 10 people.

Their equipment seemed to be on par with their own. At the sight of the four, the other group members immediately fell silent and settled into position.

"We have no interest in a conflict," a girl in iron armor announced coldly.

"Neither are we. But as you know, it's better to be safe than sorry," Francis replied as he continued aiming his crossbow at them.

"Understandable," she said to Francis before turning to the rest of her party and telling them, "My fellow party members, please make way for them. We don't want to lose a few men for cheap equipment."

She smiled after informing them, and Anne nearly wanted to respond to her provocation. Her group members just nodded and made room.

Francis only replied with, "Thank you," and lowered his crossbow. The four of them continued walking down the path, and Anne only asked, "You're also here because of the magical medicine institute, right?".

"Yes, we are all here for that. What's the situation?" the leader of the other group admitted.

"We were only able to hunt one infected deer. We saw a few more infected deer, but they were in groups of ten," Anne told them out of kindness.

"Thank you. Would it be okay if we left the forest with you?" She asked before quickly adding, "If you didn't find anything, I don't think it's worth it for us."

"Tough question. Are you ready for a soul contract that only lasts until we leave the forest?" Francis asked coldly.

Her eyes narrowed to slits before she commented, "Hoho, another mage, and yes, I'm willing."

The two group leaders made a non-aggression pact before walking the same trail in silence.

But their way back won't be as peaceful as they expected.