In an instant, all the tension left Loran's body and he fell to the ground. Taking a deep breath, he felt a burning sensation on his chest, discovering some shallow claw marks that ran down his chest. 'How the hell did I not notice that?' Worried that he may not have noticed other injuries or debuffs he quickly brought up his menu.
[NAME]: Loran
[SPECIES]: Human
[LEVEL]: 9
[EXP]: 2410/1000
[STATUS]
[ARMOR]: 7
{HP}: 49/120
{SP}: 150/180
[END]: 15
[STR]: 9
[AGI]: 15
[DEX]: 17
[PER]: 19
[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 3
[SKILLS]
[ANALYSE] Lv.10(Master)
[HUNTER] Lv.10
[SP BOOSTER] Lv.4
[SPRINT] Lv.8
[STALWART] Lv.10
'I guess that's some decent EXP, but definitely not worth the risk. I swear this game is rigged.' He wanted to be angry, but he was just too exhausted mentally. "Everyone check your menus, are you dead or dying?"
"All good here." Soze was focused more on evasion than offense during the fight, so his injuries were fairly minor.
"I'm okay," Yin said. She was the only one unharmed, having shot down the few wolves that tried to climb the tree.
"I'll live... maybe," Yang groaned. Her [BLEEDING] debuffs had worn off, leaving her at 26.3 HP.
"Uh, I'm alright." Alexx was easily the least injured among them and was only winded while everyone else was too exhausted to stand. The wolves had quickly learned that a clean hit from him was effectively a death sentence, making them too frightened to bombard him with attacks like they did with the others.
"Great. Anyone ready to do more walking?"
"No."
"No."
"Not really."
"Hell no."
"Fantastic. Yin, can you keep watch?"
"Okay, I'll stay up here then," she readied an arrow and began looking around.
"Where did these things even come from?"
"Some of them had injuries before the fight started. They probably were the ones that injured the Spined Deer," Soze pulled himself to his feet, picking up his equipment, "we just finished it off before they could."
"Alright then, so we've discovered what is probably the main predator of the woods," Loran said, sitting up. "First order of business, what are we calling these things?" He opened an alert that had been flashing since the beginning of the fight.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
[YOU HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW SPECIES]
[PARTY MEMBERS HAVE BEEN AWARDED 1500 EXP]
[PLEASE PROVIDE A NAME FOR THE NEW SPECIES]
[ _ _ _ ]
"Uh... Green Wolves?" Alexx tossed out.
"But almost everything has been named after its pigment," Yin complained, "we need something better."
"Bastard Wolves," Yang grumbled.
"Understandable, but I'm gonna have to veto that one." Loran thought for a moment. "I say Razor Wolves, the description specifically mentions their secondary retractable claws."
"What about Moss Wolves?"
"...Why," the suggestion confused Loran, as well as everyone else. They all looked over to see Soze standing over one of the wolf bodies.
"Because they're covered in moss."
"Wait really?"
"Yeah, their fur is gray underneath. Check it."
Loran got up and walked over to another carcass. After pulling some off and confirming that their fur was gray, he used [ANALYSE] on the small pile of moss in his hand.
[NAME]: N/A
[RARITY]: 2
[TYPE]: Plant
[DESCRIPTION]: A moss that demonstrates medicinal properties when applied directly to wounds.
[EFFECT]: Removes [BLEEDING] and [SEVERE BLEEDING] debuffs. Reduces the duration of Flesh-based debuffs.
"Oh, holy shit, it's a healing item."
"Really?"
"Yeah, seems to be for closing wounds."
"Give it to me, like, seriously." Yang immediately perked up after hearing the moss could heal; being a tank with no access to healing was both painful and dangerous. She wished it could restore HP but with her legs in their current state, she would take what she could get.
"Definitely," Loran passed her the handful he had before dragging one of the wolf carcasses closer. "Honestly just take the whole wolf, we need you not dying from a paper cut."
"What do you mean dying?" Yin asked sternly. No one else had realized that Yang's injuries had given her a serious debuff.
"Yang has a Shredded Flesh debuff on account of her legs being more sliced up than deli meat," he gestured semi-sarcastically to Yang's legs. "Anyway, is it working?"
"Yeah, I probably will need the whole wolf, but I'll be fine." She had applied the handful of moss to the area of exposed bone on her shin, causing a sizzling sensation as the wound began closing in seconds. When the sensation stopped the moss was gone and the wound looked more like an ordinary cut. The duration of the [SHREDDED FLESH] debuff didn't seem to change, but since it referred to only the "afflicted areas" it would probably disappear once all of her cuts were either closed or at least less severe.
Soze was beginning to strip more of the moss off of one of the wolves before a thought occurred to him. "Hold on, did the wolf's description not mention the moss?"
"Give me a second, it might be in the expanded section." Ever since he leveled [ANALYZE] to Lv.10 the amount of information he could get about things increased dramatically, so much so that it couldn't all be read through quickly. Ever since then, the Skill had started limiting the information to only the most important parts while providing an option to go more in-depth. After skimming through the information for a little bit he found what he was looking for. "Okay, here it is. 'The moss that grows on the wolf's fur has mild medicinal properties that are then nourished by nutrients found in the wolf's sweat. Mothers will nuzzle frequently with their pups to allow the moss to transfer. It is yet unknown how long this tradition has existed or whether the moss still exists independent of the wolves.' We apparently found a species of wolf that has evolved to grow moss on its fur to heal itself."
"You think we can get this stuff to grow back at the village?"
"Maybe but probably not." Soze applied some of the moss to his wounds before looking around at all the wolf carcasses. "We won't be able to take back this many bodies. Loran, let's start skinning a few," he tossed Loran one of his knives.
"On it. So I guess we're calling these things Moss Wolves then?"
"Yep."
"Sounds good to me."
After deciding on the new name for the wolves, as well as choosing to name the moss "Wolf's Boon" a peaceful quiet came over the area. Yin kept watch, Yang tended to her injuries, Loran and Soze steadily cut up the Moss Wolves, and Alexx took a moment to relax knowing that he would soon go back to being the party's pack mule. He glanced around for a moment, realizing that something was missing.
"Uh... guys, where's the deer?"
"You mean it's not-"
"The wolves dragged it off," Yin said, cutting off Loran.
"What? When?" Loran asked, surprised by how casual she was being about this.
"Not long after he dropped it. I saw two of them pulling it off in that direction," she said pointing south.
Soze looked where she pointed, noticing a slight trail of blood and pressed grass, "...and you didn't think to bring this up why?"
"Well at the time you guys were still fighting, but afterward it just seemed too dangerous to go after it."
"Honestly, yeah," Loran agreed, "most of us are in no condition to fight, especially if there's another pack waiting for us. Besides, we can just take these wolves instead, no point going after the deer."
"Wait, we're going to eat the wolves?" Yin asked, so surprised that she stopped her watch to look down at the others.
"Uh, why wouldn't we?" Yang asked.
"I mean, people don't usually hunt wolves, right?"
"That doesn't mean we can't," Loran said, "or that we should just leave all this perfectly good meat."
"Well, I- I just..."
"Seriously sis, are you feeling okay?" Yang asked with a smirk.
"I'm fine," she said firmly.
"Well alright then, once me and Loran finish skinning some more we can all carry the rest back to the village."
"Okay. Alexx, you can carry two."
"DAMN IT!"