When I woke up, the sun had not fully risen yet. The moon was still hanging low on the horizon, but its dim glow was rendered almost invisible by the emerging sunrays. The sunlight shone on Kaelen's tense figure, outlining her with a golden aura. Elias was still asleep by the gates, and Hydra was lying on his stomach next to me. I sent him an emotion wave to greet him 'good morning', causing him to stir.
While waiting for Elias and Hydra to wake up, I brought up the gift notification that I had received from Nythirra. Clicking to see its details, I was relieved to find that it was not another weird ability stone that gave me shadow-ey powers - I was not complaining about the growth in power, but one is more than enough for now. Instead, I was given an item titled 'Temporary Shelter' and enough materials to build a small but permanent wooden cabin.
I wasn't lying about the last part. There were so many logs, planks, nails, tiles and stones stockpiled together in this gift that I couldn't help but gasp at how generous that Nythirra was. If I wanted to explore further into the woods, this would be necessary as a secondary base for the three of us to use when we were too far away to get back to this safe space in time to rest. We could not just stay in the vinicity of this fenced area forever.
I immediately opened Nythirra's chat request, hoping to thank her for it, and a System message greeted me.
Entering Chat Room with Player #FYNR-10598! All messages are automatically translated.
That solved the problem of communication. After the message flashed in front of my eyes for a short while, I was taken to a page that resembled the chat screens from before the System's arrival. A simple 'Hello' message appeared on the top left corner, followed by an option to Accept or Deny the chat request. I smiled, glad that I could choose to refuse to talk to them. My mind flashed to the mytherious someone who had sent me the transformation stone - I was seriously debating whether or not I should reject his request.
I mean, he did give me a powerful weapon in my arsenal...
I shrugged to myself, deciding to just leave his request be for the moment. Without another moment of hesitation, I accepted Nythirra's chat request, and the System prompted me to send a message. I typed in a quick 'thank you' for all the resources that she had given me. Now that I had checked out the gift, they should all be in my inventory. Grinning, I brought up my Inventory screen.
9440 New Gems, 5 Ancient Crystals
W: Weapons
M: Materials
C: Clothing
T: Tools
F: Food
CI: Cursed Items
MI: Magical Items
O: Other
2x Lion Claw, 1x Lion Hide, 1x Raw Lion Meat, 1x Green Bean Seed, 1x Rope, 1x Rope [Acid Resistant], 1x Magma Griffin Golem Feather [Unbonded], 2x Cooked Griffin Meat, 1x Magma Griffin Golem Cloak [Unbonded], 7x Stingers, 8x Worker Bee Venom Sacs, 1x Exoskeleton Armor [Unbonded], 1x Teleportation Crystal to City Grounds, 1x Teleportation Crystal to the location of your choice, 1x Skin Suit [Unbonded], 3x Mutated Bear Claws, 1x Skeleton Cage, 1x Human-Hair Wig, 1x Fox Tail [Evolved], 10x Three-Headed Cobra Scales, 2x Forest Deer Meat, 3x Horned Wolf Meat, 1x Ability Stone: Shroud of Darkness, 3x Darkness Bombs, 1x Concealing Cloak [Unbonded], 2x Python Meat, 2x Python Fangs (Venomous), 1x Temporary Shelter, 50x Wooden Logs (Basic), 50x Wooden Planks (Basic), 100x Nails (Strong), 50x Wooden Tiles (Thin), 100x Small Stones
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The items she gave me more than tripled the amount of items I had before. Sure, the things I received were probably quite cheap in their Integrated world, and easy to find even here in our world. We were surrounded by trees, and stones were not a rare thing to see either. Even so, the quantity was appreciated.
Could the System provide me with a detailed sheet of instructions on how to build a tree house?
As soon as I had that thought, a blue screen popped up in front of my eyes.
Build a Tree House?
[Yes] [No]
That was convenient. It was clear that I did not have to build the house myself, and the System would do it for me. I grinned, already imagining the three of us sleeping in the tree house a long distance away from this safe spot with all our loot stored away in our Inventories. Hydra could just find a resting spot on the ground beneath us or something. That was one flaw the tree house would have - No such structure would be able to house a fully grown dragon as large and heavy as Hydra was. I wouldn't be able to use his wing as my pillow anymore...
It was as if he heard my thoughts, because Hydra woke up fully at that moment and sent me a message through our telepathic link.
'Hatchling, you wake early,' Hydra commented as he rose to his feet, flapping his wings. He glanced at the sun, which was still not fully up yet, and continued, 'Too early.'
I was brainstorming a clever retort when Elias sat up too, yawning softly as he stretched, "Good morning, Terra, Kaelen."
Kaelen's posture relaxed when she heard his voice, turning back towards me with a mildly surprised expression as she said, "Oh, I didn't know you were awake, Terra. Good morning to you too, Elias."
Although I was a little embarrassed, I did not let it show on my face, instead smiling slightly, "I am just stealthy like that... and hungry. I'm hungry. Kaelen, do you still have any meat left over? I can share mine with you if you don't."
"No, I d-"
"Who cares about food?" Elias grinned, before realizing that both me and Kaelen did not agree with his words. Regardless, he insisted, "We can just head out now and eat on the way. If we wait any longer, Terra and Hydra might start training again."
Kaelen opened her mouth to shush him, but I shook my head. Unlike last night, his comment just now was more friendly and playful than it was scathing, so I could let it slide. I stood up too, stretching out my wings and beating them a few times to warm them up for battle. I took out a piece of horned wolf meat and bit into it while walking towards the gates, "I'm fine with that."
--
Very soon, we were walking deeper into the forest, having agreed to explore a little further in today. Kaelen let Alaric fly out not long after we left the safe spot, and he joined Hydra above the canopy a few minutes after he got used to the environment shift.
As we continued our hike, the air started to get colder and I had an uncomfortable feeling in my gut that told me that there were monsters nearby. It did not even take a full minute for that premonition to come true. With a fierce roar, a large purple wolf jumped out at us. Violet flames flowed with it fur like an extension of the monster. It growled as it circled us, hatred burning in its red eyes. Two horns protruded out from between its ears, and I had an idea of what it might be - the horned wolf meat I had just eaten this morning must have come from one of these creatures.
That did not tell me anything useful about it, but at least I have a name to call it by.
Kaelen was fast, casting a force field around us and taking out the archery set that I had made for her the previous night. Elias was a little surprised when he saw it, but didn't comment on the new weapon.
That reminded me to ask him for his weapon of choice so that I could make something for him too.
She shot an arrow, but it missed. However, when she went to pull another one back, I stopped her and pointed towards the wolf. The arrow was turning back, autocorrecting itself from its wrong flight course. It began chasing after the creature, much to the amazement of my companions. I grinned, proud, as it finally stuck itself deep into the forehead of the giant purple fire wolf. It stumbled, grunting from the pain, but it was not dead.
My satisfaction didn't last long, however.
Suddenly, from all around us, a chorus of growls and howls echoed, the sound chilling us to the bone. I shivered, doing a quick calculation of how many wolves there might be. A normal wolf pack would have about six or seven wolves, but if I had to judge purely based on my hearing, there were much more than that hiding among the trees near us.
We were surrounded. The wolf that had leapt out to meet us had merely been a bait to keep us here while the rest prepared to fight. I gritted my teeth and called down Hydra while Kaelen did the same with Alaric. We were outnumbered, but it did not mean that we had to lose.