Once they've all settled all of their mental states to a certain extent, they get back to hunting. Everyone loads up in the gravity vehicle, and they fly off to the area that they found the chameleon snakes in. The ride there is relatively silent, with a bit of chatter about where the chameleon snakes came from.
There had been quite a few reports of groups of them, but the group is confident that they can handle them so long as they number fewer than the group. Chameleon snakes are very dangerous if you're not expecting them, but aside from that they're among the weakest C rank monsters. Not only that, their crystals increase mainly energy, which makes them quite valuable if one trades them in.
Once they arrive, they go with the formation that they went with last time, Julie and Alice in the center while the other girls spread out some mist to be able to sense the chameleon snakes, while Sen simply uses his sense for the air to spot them.
They don't run into any groups of them, simply one or two at a time, and they're very easily dispatched, not being able to ambush the group. The group is excited at the easy gains, and gets frustrated each time the run into an ironwool sheep, as they take far more effort to deal with.
The first day ends with an excellent haul of crystals, and Sen has to ask why they haven't run into any other groups.
"Something like seventy percent of all hunters choose to go with fire body enhancement skills, either due to wanting explosive force, the flashy fire skills, or the disease and poison resistances. Let alone the fact that there aren't very many C rank hunters at such a new city. Without a way to sense the chameleon snakes, there's no point in hunting them," Julie explains.
Sen thinks back to the large scale battle. There had been an awful lot of fire flying around. He wonders why so many of the members of Alliance hadn't been using fire skills, but guesses that the bigger groups would be smarter in choosing their element.
Once they get back to the gravity vehicle, Sen is impressed once again by the vehicle. It's the size of a bus, with sleek lines, and no wheels, simply having landing gear. he still finds it interesting that the gravity drive has made personal flying vehicles actually common.
Once they get inside the vehicle, Sen only bothering to admire it for a while, everyone takes turns using the small shower before heading off to their tiny individual beds. They fall asleep mostly without an issue, but Lynna's mumbling and turning in her sleep wakes up Sen a few times.
The next day, they head back out into the plains they're hunting in. They simply walk around, trusting in the mist they have out and Sen to catch anything that gets close enough to be dangerous. They're relatively relaxed until the run into one of the ironwool sheep that is about half again the size of the normal ones, and everyone tenses up.
The group raises their weapons, and Julie starts putting up arrays as fast as she can as the sheep monster charges. It flies by Lynna as she dodges to the side, and everyone closes in on it so it doesn't get enough distance to make another charge.
They surround the beast, taking turns to go in and try and stab through it's thick wool. Their blows barely get through it, and the girls start using their Piercing Icicle skill, which does damage, but doesn't fatally wound it. After seeing that, they simply go back to slowly wearing it down. They do their best to target the face, which isn't covered by the wool, but it keeps getting its horns in between the blades and it's vulnerable face.
The group is getting quite frustrated with the annoying beast. It keeps turning and kicking out with its hind legs, which sends someone hopping back every time, excluding the times it goes for one of Julie's images. Sen is the only one who is fast enough to dodge it, practically subconsciously using the wind to speed up his body that is already faster than the rest of the group due to the element he chose to specialize in.
It's attacks with its horns are usually met by shields, but the strength of the monster always knocks whoever blocks back. After a bit it starts to try and hook its horns under the shields, trying to get at the soft bits of the humans, but after Lynna has to kick off of its face to free her shield arm they don't have anyone else get caught. Unfortunately, Lynna is left with a cut in her arm from the maneuver.
The annoying beast eventually starts to slow down from the many small wounds left on it, and collapses after a fight that was far too lengthy. Everyone lets out a sigh when it finally collapses, sitting down to take a short rest after Julie sets up another array.
"I don't want to know how frustrating fighting a high C rank ironwool sheep would be like," Sen complains. He's met by nods all around.
Once the group has finished their break, they start hunting again, not avoiding the ironwool sheep, but Sen can see a look of annoyance on everyone's face each time they run into one. The rest of the day goes in a far more relaxing manner than the fight with the larger sheep.
Eventually, they head back to the gravity vehicle. They all make sure to stay alert, even if they're heading back in the same direction they'd come, and it's a good thing they do, as they run into a few more chameleon snakes.
Sen is honestly impressed by how many chameleon snakes there are. While they tend to not group with the sheep, which Sen is very thankful for, they do tend to show up in pairs, which, while still easy for the group to deal with, are quite annoying when they just want to head back and rest.
Eventually, they make it back to the vehicle, which hasn't been bothered by monsters due to the array that Julie had set up. Everyone takes turns using the single shower, and enjoys an actual cooked meal rather the instant ones they'd eaten while hunting for the UFoH.
They all go to bed peacefully, and wake ready for the day of hunting, having a quick breakfast. They talk a bit, trying to decide if they should stay where they are, or if they should fly to a different area for more monsters, but with how many they ran into the day before, they shouldn't be running out any time soon.
Regardless, they head in a different direction than the day before, and the numbers of chameleon snakes soon starts to rise drastically. It seems like every few meters they'll run into a new one, and while they won't be attacked so long as they didn't go within striking range of the hidden beasts, they have to make sure while they are fighting to not stray too far.
Sen is starting to get sick of them, as they don't run into any ironwool sheep or anything else to break up the monotony, but isn't complaining too much due to the easy crystals. They're fighting a group of three of the chameleon snakes when they hit a bit of a snag.
"Watch out!" Sen yells to Julie, who had been staying back in order to set up her arrays. She'd backed a bit too far away, and a chameleon snake has decided that it wants to see what the commotion is about.
She quickly spins around, but the jaws of the chameleon snake still close around her arm she raises in defense. She winces, as Sen rushes to her aid, but he stops halfway as flame seems to burst from within the snake's mouth. He simply watches as the snake rolls around in pain.
Julie has a bit of a grimace on her face, but it's mostly overridden by her look of triumph. She shrouds her sword in flame, and sends a wave of it flying to the monster. Sen shrugs, and gets back to the three chameleon snakes that the rest of the group had been fighting after he senses the writhing of the chameleon snake that had bitten Julie stop.
Once they've finished all of them off, Lynna decrees that Julie shall be staying next to the rest of the group instead of hanging back to set up her arrays. Julie agrees, as she isn't sure how the monster had spotted her when she'd had a simple illusion array up.
Sen assumes that like normal snakes, they have some sort of heat sense, but can't be sure. As they continue in the same direction, the groups of chameleon snakes grow from two or three to up to five of them at once. While the group can handle them, it's a bit annoying as they simply ignore even the better illusions that Julie sets up.
She eventually gives up on using illusion arrays, and switches to throwing waves of flame at the snakes, which lets off a scent that Sen finds quite mouthwatering. He even looks up chameleon snakes on his bracelet, and harvests some of their meat the second he finds out that they are indeed edible.
The others give him odd looks, except for Alice, who asks him to get some for her as well. Sen obliges, wrapping up the meat in a resealable bag that he has in his bag for harvesting parts from particularly valuable monsters. Chameleon snake scales are actually quite valuable, having iridescent patterns when harvested, which are quite popular among richer people. The fact that it will prevent smaller caliber bullets as well means that rich people can both look stylish and be a bit safer.
The group doesn't bother harvesting the skin and scales, as they don't need the extra money, and they are getting plenty enough crystals simply hunting. As the group continues, the density of chameleon snakes continues to increase, to the point that the group is running into groups of four or five every half mile.
The group can handle them easily enough, Sen simply chucks a few throwing knives at them while they're practically invisible. Once they're hit, they change to an angry red, and with them visible, anyone in the group can handle them one on one.
The group is celebrating such a good harvest, and goes back to the vehicle that night a bit early, more because they expect to run into more of them on the way back than out of a celebratory mood. Once they get back, Sen cooks up some of the snake meat, and everyone ends up trying it. Sen is a bit sad at the fact that the meat he'd intended to be for himself is split evenly among the girls.
They all agree to harvest more the next day, and go to bed in a cheerful mood after downing over half the crystals. They won't be able to check how close their energy stat is to B rank until they get back, but considering how many crystals it's going to take to get there, they're nowhere close, even with the extremely fruitful harvest.
The crystals of the chameleon snakes mostly increase energy, with a minor boost to the other two attributes. Sen hopes that if they continue hunting here for another couple months or so, they'll be able to increase their energy stat up to rank B. That would be ridiculously fast for the fifth dimension, but the combination of chameleon snakes being incredibly weak for C rank, and hunting in groups in this area means that they're getting crystals at a massively increased rate.
The next few days follow the same pattern. They head out, do a lot of hunting, and head back early, as the snakes never seem to be cut down in population. Sen ends up looking up why there are so many chameleon snakes out of curiosity. He finds out that the reasonis what he had speculated himself, a small entrance to the underdark having opened up.
The area he's hunting in is actually marked as a high danger area currently, and most groups are avoiding it unless they have someone practicing the air element body enhancement skills. That's still quite a few people, but considering how small the chameleon snakes are, and the fact that most people aren't nearly as skilled as Sen is with sensing the air, there have been quite a few fatalities as the person sensing the air fails to catch the snakes hidden in the grass.
Sen wonders why they don't have water users do the same thing the group does, simply spreading out a mist of water like his group, but soon finds that doing so isn't actually common practice. He's quite surprised by this. It had been a relatively common practice in game. He soon finds that the only reason it isn't used is that the range is shorter than the range air users can sense.
He shakes his head, he shouldn't be surprised for people to only want the optimal solution. Water users work just fine, but since they're not the best option, nobody wants them. He's sure that some of the smarter groups are using them for the same purpose if they don't have an air user to be able to farm the chameleon snakes, but he won't complain about less competition.
The next few days pass with practically no reduction in the amount of snakes hunted, and the group is in quite a cheerful mood. They slaughter their way through the field, and eventually reach an area where the snakes are simply too high in numbers for them to be able to get through. The rest of the week is spent hunting in the periphery of that area, as it's the best option for killing lots of snakes at a fast pace.
Eventually, their week of hunting is over, and they all head back to their gravity vehicle. Out of curiosity, they decide to fly over the area where they had to avoid hunting, and when they do so, they see pretty much what they expect. There's a tunnel in the ground, that has chameleon snakes pouring out of it in enough numbers that they are visible to the naked eye even with their camouflage.
The group marks the area on their maps, deciding to stay in the same area in order to be able to hunt the massive amount of chameleon snakes that are there. They make it back to the city, and everyone enjoys the much better showers, and a full course meal that Alice orders before heading off to their rooms to sleep.