As we exited the dark room once more a humid smell invaded my nose. It was the smell of rain. The sight of a forest covered in both night and fog gave me a somewhat eerie sensation. Before us lay a long straight path surrounded by tall trees and fog on both sides. The air was humid and so were the trees. The sound of drops of water falling from their leaves was pleasant even though it was barely audible.
The moon dimly illuminated the path with its silvery light, barely enough for us to see. Not satisfied with it, I took out a torch and lit it with a match. Weirdly enough the fog seemed to dissipate slightly as I did so, as if it was actively avoiding touching the fire.
"Well this is unexpected"
Nayuta said as she too lit a torch, the fog once again dissipated around it. She was notoriously enjoying this place as it was obvious given the smile on her face. Turning around to look at Sophia and Haruto, I realized that they were just the same. It was probably because we had been trapped in a dungeon filled with mostly narrow corridors, even I got a little claustrophobic.
"I expected it to be another post-apocalyptic scenario, but this is really nice!"
Sophia had never been the kind of girl to enjoy camping, so it was a bit surprising to see her excited to be in a forest. It's not like I don't get where she is coming from, though, I also expected the same kind of place as the ones we found ourselves in before.
We had found the key hidden in the chief's quarters and it didn't take us long to get to the exit. The surface was nothing but a ruined city burned to ashes, covered in corpses and a weird kind of black goo. We walked around for about three days until we found the red gate in the middle of the city. We walked into it but didn't stay for long since we don't have any water and we need to find some quick.
Luckily for us, this forest is really humid, so there should be various sources of water, mainly rain. Maybe I could even find some of the herbs I need for the vials in here or hunt some animals for fresh food.
"This place does seem better than the other places, but I don't think it is safe at all"
Sophia looked at Haruto with a questioning look. She clearly thinks that there is no way that this forest could be as or more dangerous than the dungeon, especially after having gotten much stronger compared to a normal human, but reality is different.
"The first time we entered that red gate we ended up in that zombie-infested town, the second time we were trapped in a dungeon filled to the brim with giant mutants. The difference in danger was far too big between both locations. If there is a pattern, then this forest should be even worse."
Her face grew a little pale at my words. Regardless of possible danger, it is true that this is way more favorable than the dungeon or that town.
"Let's get going."
Nayuta talked with some boredom in her voice. The joy of breathing fresh air passed awfully quickly. She was a little different compared to before. Her right arm was now protected by the armor that the knight monster was using instead of the simple arm guard she was using before and she had the knight sword strapped to her back with a leather piece the monster had, which was somewhat comical because the sword was almost her height.
We followed her and started walking on the path of dirt. Our steps were loud in an otherwise silent forest. It didn't stay like that for long though. The others didn't notice but I could hear insects and small animals in the distance. Staring at the forest made me aware of the presence of some kind of birds looking at us. I couldn't see anything other than their glowing eyes but they were clearly pearched on the branches.
Their gazes were fixed on me, the one who noticed them. I could see their bright white eyes following me as I walked, turning with curiosity. No matter how much we walked, those birds were everywhere. They started making me a little uncomfortable. I unconsciously gripped my sword with great strength. The wooden handle cracked under the pressure of my hand.
Maybe they noticed it and took it as a sign of aggression since they immediately started vanishing from my view, slowly but steadily their bright eyes returned to the darkness of the forest.
"Shh, don't move."
Suddenly Nayuta stopped us, making us all raise our weapons expecting a threat. However she only took out a knife from her pocket and threw it at a nearby bush. A yelp of pain came from within the bush. She walked calmly towards the origin of the sound and stuck her hand into the bush, taking out what looked like a rabbit with the knife embedded deep into its skull. It seems that I didn't notice the rabbit because I was so focused on those birds
The animal was weird. Unlike normal rabbits this one had long and sharp fangs like those of a big cat. Their limbs were abnormally large and had long claws at the end of them. Had I seen that thing before coming here, I would have been shocked at such a creature, but now this was only a curious sight.
"It may be a little hard to prepare it, but we can eat it"
"I'll help you."
Both Nayuta and Haruto got to work on the dead animal quickly. While Haruto's cooking is awful, he does know at least the basics when it comes to preparing a prey. I on the other side, am clueless about such things.
Nayuta opened her bag and took out a skinning knife from inside. She made sure that Sophia couldn't see it when she did so as it was the same one that was used on her. It wasn't hard since she was looking away because she didn't want to see.
They began by making a cut around the front legs, just above the feet, and a similar cut around the hind legs, then connected these cuts with a slit down the inner legs to the rabbit's underside. Carefully, she began to peel the skin away from the body, using her fingers and the knife as needed to detach the skin without tearing the meat. The skin came off in one piece, like removing a jacket.
She tosed Haruto a bonesaw she took from the torture room and he immediately began to cut off the feets at the joint, just above the initial cut. Once he was done with all the legs he did the same with the head, cutting it off with a swift motion to the neck.
Nayuta then opened the rabbit's belly and chest cavity. She then removed the internal organs and bones with her bare hands. Once finished Haruto took a pointy branch from the ground and stabbed it through the rabbit's neckhole all the way through its body. He then tossed it onto his shoulder after somehow stuffing his mace into his bag.
"We don't have water right now so we can't clean it, we'll have to carry it like this until we find some or it starts raining"
That was quite a gruesome spectacle, not that it bothers me. Sophia looked a little disgusted by the sight of the impaled rabbit though. Almost all signs of the unnatural appearance of the creature were gone now that its corpse had been almost completely processed.
I was worried that the smell of blood could attract possible predators. I half expected a pack of wolves to suddenly appear and surround us, but contrary to my worries, neither my eyes, ears or nose could detect anything unusual. I did see the occasional bird appear in the distance and stare at the dead prey, but none of them tried to approach.
After some time, I heard the unmistakable sound of rushing water, steady and persistently flowing over rocks. It didn't seem to be caused by a river, it was too quiet for it to be one, but at the very least it was a small stream of water.
It wasn't hard to find it, as I suspected it was just a small stream. We carefully approached it and drank from it before filling our water bottles. Sophia wanted to rest next to the stream, but that would be dangerous since animals naturally gather around sources of water. Instead, we decided to sleep next to the path.
Sophia and I would sleep first while Nayuta and Haruto made guard. After three hours we would switch places. I tried to argue with Nayuta for her to sleep first, but she refused no matter what I said. Haruto seemed to think that she should rest first too but he didn't even try to convince her after seeing me fail.
That air head had already fallen asleep by now, so knowing that she wouldn't budge, I just decided to rest as well, lying with my back against a tree. It was hard to fall asleep like that but after a while i slowly started to lose consciousness, until i finally closed my eyes and everything turned dark.