The next day, Bob and Yu woke up shivering and quickly decided to get to the village as soon as possible. As soon as they crawled out of the hollow tree, they were greeted by a blanket of white covering everything. As it turned out, it most likely snowed all through the night and almost half a metre of snow had piled up on the ground around them.
Trying to walk in this was essentially the same as signing their own death certificates. However, remaining right here was equally as stupid of an act. At least, if they headed out, there was a chance they might make it to their destination in time.
After pondering for a moment, Yu decided to head out.
"We go now," Yu said.
"But it's cold and lots of snow. It will be hard to walk and painful also! I heard from father that walking in the snow for too long will give you the black toe disease and you will die soon after!"
"…We head out now. If you want to live, come with me." Yu said as he did not wait for an answer to his question and dragged Bob out of the hollow in the tree and began wading through the snow.
…
Meanwhile, The baron got up and began instructing his men after a light stretching.
"Light a fire and prepare some breakfast before we set out. Check the condition of the horses. Kill any who are not capable of riding; we have enough to spare. Also, check the condition of the snow outside. If it is not more than a metre deep, and if it has or has not frozen solid on the surface layer."
Almost immediately, the sleepy knights equipped their gear and began to follow through on those orders.
"We have to put down two horses. They have their hind leg injured from some thorns on the way here. They will not be able to move much due to the pain."
"Good. Kill them That will be our breakfast." The Baron ordered in a cold and unnerved tone.
Eating one's mount was something you would only do in times of desperation. The soldier who heard the baron's orders gulped, but still followed the instructions to the letter.
Not long after having breakfast, the group set out once more.
…
Yu found a tree with rather long and string-like vines on it and decided to use it. Bob and he had walked a considerable amount already, but it was really using a lot of their energy to walk in this thick snow.
"We take a break for 10 minutes here," Yu said as he approached the tree and began hacking down the vines, as well as some tough and small branches.
"Hoo," Bob immediately sat down in the snow, only to realise he was wearing merely two layers of clothing to protect against cold winds, and not the snow. Immediately, he stood back up and approached a nearby tree to settle down on its lower branches.
Yu placed 5 small branched vertically, and three smaller branches horizontally, before using the vines to tire them together to create a solid mesh-like surface. Next, he used some leaves to cover one side of the mesh to make it flatter, before repeating this process 8 times, and creating 8 such surfaces.
He also ensured that he had holes between the leaves to allow for snow to leave the structure.
"Come here, Bob" Yu said while waving his hand. The sun was already out by now and it was no longer snowing, so it was the best opportunity for them to make as much of the journey as possible.
Using the vines, Kai secured 4 of the surfaces together and onto his back, along with some extra vines and branches, right next to his bow and arrow.
He then tied a surface to each of his feet to create rudimentary snow shoes. Tying the snow shoes to each of Bob's and his own feet, Yu stood up.
Unlike before, Yu did not sink into the snow immediately but rather remained on the surface. Of course, the moment he tried to move and walk forward, his other foot sank about an inch into the snow until it reached snow with denser packing that could hold his weight.
At this depth, Kai could continue walking.
"Wow! Yu! This is amazing! I can stay above the snow and walk so fat with this!" Bob exclaimed.
Yu nodded and began walking West, he hoped they would reach the destination as quickly as possible.
However, not too long into the morning, Yu located a brown rabbit, nibbling on a sprout of grass which had somehow poked through the layers of snow.
Yu stopped Bob from moving or speaking as he put down the luggage from his back and pulled out the bow and arrow. Unfortunately for him, he did not know how to use it properly. Still, Yu put the arrow on the bow and pulled back aiming for the rabbit.
Kai, who was on the horse clenching his buttocks to better bear the pain of horse riding, asked the system.
'Can you help Yu kill the rabbit?'
[Establishing Task]
[Time until completion: 0s]
[Task complete]
[No. The system only has only one host and can only instruct the host on how to execute tasks.]
'… Alright then. Can you at least see what Yu is seeing? After all, he is at the very least partially me.' Kai questioned back.
[Establishing Task]
[Time until completion: 0s]
[Task complete]
[Yes. The system is linked to the host's soul, and so is partially connected to individual 'Yu']
'Good. Then tell me, if I had the body of Yu, and were to be there, how would I kill the rabbit?'
[Establishing Task]
[Time until completion: 0s]
[Task complete]
[Hypothetical situation established]
[Host should…]
Kai read the system's instructions in his mind, and Yu immediately understood as well and followed through.
Yu straightened out his elbow while lining the arrow such that it was pointing two meters above the rabbit, exhaling to control his body's movements, before letting go of the arrow.
*Swoosh*
Seeing the trajectory, Yu knew he had missed, and the arrow would go a good distance above the rabbit.
However, the rabbit's ears flinched up as though hearing something, just enough for the arrow to hit the ear, and continue on its path into a tree, dragging the rabbit along with it! Somehow, everything had worked out in a way that not even the system had expected.
Based on its database, rabbits would immediately run at the sound of danger, and not extend their ears straight up as though signalling other creatures of their location. But for some reason, this rabbit did exactly that, and Yu's missed shot somehow managed to hit the rabbit.
"Dinner is here" Yu mumbled as he shuffled closer to the rabbit, and used his dagger to end it's like. However, he did not waste any time and quickly gutted the creature based on Kai's reading of the instructions from the system, and drained its blood.
"It tastes disgusting…" Bob mumbled with the cooked rabbit meat in his mouth.
Yu also thought the same, however unlike Kai who had access to the spices the baron brought along, Yu and Bob had to eat the meat plain, which was not very appealing to the taste buds, but was enough to satisfy their hunger.
The fire was created using sparks from hitting the back of the sword against a nearby boulder, and using the fur of the rabbit as natural tinder.