Chương 75: Chapter 76: Hunting.

We're moving through the territory of the Sylvan Lords when I come across the tracks of a dire bear. This one isn't running in terror from a dragon, either. It's just – no, wait. They. They're just regular tracks of dire bears moving through the forest. I think there are three of them. This'll be perfect for my quest.

"Dire bears?" I ask, looking at the two girls in turn.

"I mean, do you want to fight them?" El shrugs.

"Sure," she says.

"I'll fight anything."

"What level are they?"

"Twenty four, last time I saw them," I say.

"Six thousand hit points a piece."

"Oh, yeah," Ash says.

"Let's get it." So we follow the tracks, not to their den but rather to where they are now. We can track them back to their den later, in case there's a monster generator. But I don't think there will be one. Dire bears aren't monsters; they're beasts. I nock an arrow in my bow and prepare to use my new abilities for the first time as we get close. Sure enough, it's the same type of creature as the last one I saw. Dire Bear. Very Rare Advanced beast, level 24. HP 6, 000/6, 000.

I draw back my bow and first take a Sniper Shot at one of them. I then immediately follow up with a Rapid Shot and then a Power Shot. 1938 damage, then 1523, then 1104. The dire bear that I attacked takes two steps to turn around and see the source of all that damage, then keels over dead from the bleed. It falls before Ash and El can close the distance. I shoot over their shoulders as they fight the dire bears, but it's not a long fight.

I don't know exactly how much damage Ash's mace does, especially when she has it glowing like that, but I have to believe it's in the three to four hundred range, if not higher. And El's attacks must do at least two to three hundred a piece. Which is bad enough, but made worse by just how fast she attacks. She must also have the Fast Reflexes talent, or get that effect from her weapons, because I'm pretty sure she attacks faster than I do.

It doesn't hurt that she isn't wasting any of her time with defense of any kind, just all out attacking without regard for her own well being. She gets hit several times, but despite the obvious strength in the dire bear's claws, she doesn't even lose her footing. She just takes the impact with a grimace and keeps fighting. I know she's recast Shell, so she isn't taking any actual damage right now, but it's still impressive.

I end up focusing my archery on Ash's opponent rather than El's because it's harder to get a clean shot with the way El whirls around and just keeps getting up close and personal with a bear that's three times her size. In our old world, she'd be long dead. I wonder if she thinks about that. The dire bears do go down, and we get the experience for killing them. Then I start to skin them, and find out that unlike regular bears, their hides are worth three hides a piece.

That is to say, I manage to get three complete hides off of each dire bear, just scraping along the bones and peeling the fur from their flesh. Ash takes the bear meat and build a fire, starting to cook some of it for us to eat. I've never had dire bear meat. I've had regular bear, which has a flavor somewhere between beef and pork, though a bit sweeter than either one. I wonder if dire bear meat tastes the same or different.

I end up with six dire bear furs in my inventory, which is not enough to complete that quest. We're going to have to kill more of them. That's okay; they're relatively easy to kill. And they do taste like bear. But a big more earthy, if that makes sense. Like, it's a distinctly different taste than regular bear. I notice also that Ash doesn't cook it as thoroughly as I probably would. The meat is on the edge of being raw, still bloody and very juicy. It's delicious.

"Did we ever find out what those potions do?" Ash asks while we eat.

"We did not," I say.

"I should've gotten them identified while we were in Elmspire. I'm sorry, I forgot."

"No problem," Ash says.

"We can figure it out together. How many do you have?"

"Four of each one." I say.

"The red one recovers health," El says.

"I drank one the other day, and it increased my regeneration to 10 per second for a minute."

"Did you drink the others?" I ask. She shakes her head. I wish she'd told me that she drank the one; would've saved me the trouble of – actually, it doesn't much matter. She told me before I tried to figure it out. That works.

"We're guessing that one increases stamina regen and one increases mana regen, then?" I ask. The girls both nod. My MP hasn't fully recharged from using Mab's Rage yet, so I can test that out.

"Which one do we think is mana? Probably the blue one, right?" The blue one is always mana in video games. The gold one has to be stamina, both by process of elimination and just because gold for stamina somehow makes sense. I take a swig from the blue potion. It tastes like charcoal, coating my tongue and making me feel like I have dry mouth even as I gulp down more of it. It's not a pleasant taste, but the aftertaste is even worse. I make a face.

"Not good," I say. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Then a notification shows up. Sure enough, my MP is regenerating 10/second for 60 seconds. That's more than enough to fill my MP back up. The gold one tastes much better. It's a smooth honey flavor that coats my throat in a pleasant sort of numbness while I drink it. I bet this would be heaven on a sore throat. The aftertaste is also pleasant, like sweet nectar.

And it does the same for stamina that the other potions do for health and mana.

"It's good to know what they do," I say. I give them each one of each potion.

"Makes no sense for me to carry all of them," I say. I do keep an extra health potion for myself, but that's just because the numbers didn't divide evenly. We leave the extra bear meat to smoke on its own and go out and hunt down another trio of dire bears. They fall as easily as the first group, and put me up to twelve hides. We can get more if we need them, but I have enough for my quest at least. I'm also just twenty thousand experience points away from level thirty two.

El and Ash should be leveling up soon as well, but I might close the gap a bit more before they do.

"I think we've got enough bears," El says when we get back to the little campsite and collect the hundred or so pounds of bear jerky that's there waiting for us.

"Let's find something more challenging."

"More challenging, or less related to you?" I ask. She gives me the finger. I definitely deserve it. We go back to the road and start moving faster again, trying to get out of the Sylvan Lords' self proclaimed territory. We don't see any more of them on the road, but I do spot a few spots where groups of them left the road for a while. Presumably to do their own hunting, which is what they are currently doing. The other groups that I spot are bigger than the one we encountered.

I wonder if they're the same level as the first group, or if they're lower levels trying to level up. There's no way I'm the only person who has died since we all got here. There have got to be other people who have bitten off more than they could chew, who delved too deeply and too quickly. And there must be other people who got killed because they were stupid and challenged other players to a fight that they couldn't win. There must be others who have died, probably who have died as many times as I have.

They've been here a week longer than I have, after all. Even if they didn't die during the tutorial, there have to be others who have died. So maybe these other groups are made up of people who are trying to get back up to level thirty, not people who are trying to get there for the first time. I shouldn't underestimate anyone. I know how fast you can level, and how fast you can relevel. If they're even half as smart as I am, they're going and doing quests to keep as a safety net for if they die.

I don't bother pointing out the tracks of these other groups to the girls. If they spot the tracks, that's great for them. But we're not going to ambush other players and make this guild even more angry at us. It's just not worth the experience points. I don't know if we're still in their'territory' when we decide to make camp, but it's almost midnight and I don't care. Ash is not happy about having the middle watch, but she doesn't argue about it, aside from telling me that she'd rather take first watch.

But I shake my head at her.

"I have to set up traps around camp," I tell her. It's not entirely true, but not entirely a lie, either. I don't actually have to, but having the traps will help us be a little bit safer in case of intruders. And I'm now expecting intruders in the form of the Sylvan Lords, so I want to keep a better eye out than normal. El doesn't care. She knows she has the last watch, and she just goes to sleep.

Ash reluctantly joins her in the tent, and I set about making traps that will make noise and alert us if anyone is sneaking up on the camp. Though I don't know how well they'll work. I mean, anyone sneaking up on the camp is likely to be able to get around the traps too, right? They will presumably have detect and disarm traps as part of their skill set if they're the sneaky types. I need to improve those two skills. My trap making skill goes up. So does my survival with the set up of camp tonight.

And my tracking has gone up at some point too. That's good. I like getting more levels of skills. And I especially like getting them for doing things that I was going to do anyway. I love getting levels of skills from actually using them, and not from just training in them. I don't know why, but the points feel more earned when I get them through practical use. By the time I finish setting up the traps, my watch is over, and I go to wake up Ash.

She groggily rubs her eyes and looks at me in confusion when I shake her. Seems she's a heavy sleeper, too.

"More sleep," she says. Then she lays back down. I shake her again.

"It's your turn to watch," I say. She swats my hand away.

"More sleep!" she insists. I'm not entirely sure what to do here. I could do a double watch, and just get two or three hours of sleep instead of the four that I'm used to. Then tomorrow I could make Ash do a double watch and just sleep the whole night through. Or I can try to wake her up now. She should be able to wake up partway through the night. I mean, what would happen if we were attacked? Would I be expected to fight off whatever came after us by myself? No. They'd have to get up and help.

They need to be ready to wake up at a moment's notice. I shake her again, more roughly this time. She groans.

"Come on," I say.

"Get up."

"No, snooze," she says, waving me away. She still hasn't opened her eyes. I reach down with both hands and peel her eyelids open. She freaks out a little bit and swats at me, but she wakes up.

"What the fuck was that for?" she demands, frowning as she sits up.

"It's your turn to watch," I say.

"You didn't have to peel my eyes open," she grumbles.

"You didn't wake up the first three times I tried," I say.

"You're still a jerk." She grumbles, but she gets up. We aren't whispering. We aren't being considerate to El at all. But it doesn't matter. El doesn't wake up. She just keeps sleeping, snoring softly. And I'm left to wonder if I really will be on my own if someone attacks us during the night. That does not sit well with me. I lay down on the blanket, and I notice how different Ash's smell is from Gigi's. Gigi smelled like cat and like flowers. Ash smells like blood and sweat, with a little undertone of brimstone.

It's not unpleasant, not even the brimstone. It blends together into a unique scent that makes me think of Ash as I drift off to sleep. I don't normally have sex dreams. But sleeping wrapped up in Ash's smell changes that. I know it's a dream, though, because she doesn't look like she does now. She still looks the way she did in the tutorial. The sex is rough and wild; she rakes her nails down my back, I bite her neck. She snarls at me and wraps her legs around me. We roll around a bit.

It's hot and heavy, and more than a little bit bestial. Now, I've never been what you would call vanilla. I like my sex to be spicy. But I've never been primal, not really. I've never liked combining sex with wrestling, with growls, with tooth and with claw. But that dream was hot. Like, really hot. Hot enough that there's something icky about the circle that I create when I cast Refresh in the morning.