Winston sat proudly on Erynd’s shoulder as they left the camp with the rest of the group. Their party had dwindled to five members after Roderic’s death. Of the remaining Caltherans, Winston only knew Norra. The rest were a mystery.

  As they neared the end of the tunnel out of the camp, the group grew restless. Winston’s ears were pressed back as he felt Erynd tense under him.

  When they emerged, they found that the floors had been scrubbed clean, and any bodies had been carried off to be buried. The mines were repopulated, but looked much safer. The entire area was illuminated with lanterns, and a dozen guards stood watch. As well as that, they had a small tent with a few Caltherans ready to run and alert the main camp as soon as something happened.

  Their group exchanged greetings with the other parties as they passed. Many of the soldiers wore grief-stricken faces as they patrolled, as if they were barely holding back tears.

  As they emerged from the cave’s mouth, Winston got his first good look at the area surrounding the camp. To the right were lush green fields, and to the left was a seemingly endless forest. Past the fields, Winston saw a vast desert. On the dunes, he could just barely make out the vague shapes of tents. It seemed like there was another camp there.

  Seeing Winston stare, Erynd spoke, “There’s another camp out in the desert. We don’t know what faction it belongs to. Or why, of all the places, did they choose to settle there?”

  That confirmed Winston’s suspicion that just like humans, the Caltherans were a divided species as well. He’d realized a while ago that the camp he was at was far too small to hold a full hundred thousand Caltherans. He’d just needed to wait until he saw another camp to confirm it.

  Erynd relaxed as he spoke. Leading the team into the woods. At the beginning, they would occasionally kill a passing bird. As time went on, they stopped hunting the birds, and Winston heard them talking about how little energy they were gaining from the kills. The birds, Winston noticed, were mostly the same as those he’d seen on Earth. Still, a few had obvious mutations, such as extra claws or sharp wings. It seemed like everything here was evolved to kill.

  “These finch creatures are quite cute,” Norra said as they watched a flock of birds fly above them. “I’m glad they give so little experience. We don’t have to kill them this way.”

  When the others weren’t looking, Winston, who was walking along with them, had darted and grabbed a few of the bird corpses to put in his spatial ring. Once he was back on Erynd’s shoulder, he decided to do some experimenting.

  He hadn’t yet used the System Shop to sell items, but now, he tried to sell the corpses straight from his spatial ring. To his surprise, it worked without a hitch, and a screen appeared before him.

  [Would you like to sell ‘Finch Corpse’ x2 for 0.1 credits?]

  Winston huffed. That explained why the party had left the corpses behind. 0.05 credits per corpse was a ridiculously small amount. With a small sigh, he sold them. He winced as he checked his credits. He had forgotten how expensive that cultivation guide had been. He now sat at 1.1 credits, though the System still showed only 1.

  As Winston interacted with the shop, Erynd called out, “We’ve reached the more dangerous area of the forest! The beasts here should be strong enough to pose a threat to us, which means they should reward us far greater than anything else we hunted on the way here.”

  “I wish we still had Caedric. What even happened to him?” Someone asked.

  Winston’s eyes widened. He remembered Caedric. Caedric was the one who got him found by the Caltherans in the first place. At first, he’d resented him. But now, he was grateful. Without him, he might still be stuck out in the forest, or maybe even dead.

  “He got turned away from the camp when we arrived,” Erynd said. “The guards wouldn’t tell me why, and I haven’t seen him since. It really is a shame, though. His scanning abilities would’ve been really useful. Now, then, everyone get in formation!”

  The rest of the party nodded and drew their weapons, spreading out as they combed the forest. After about half an hour, one of the scouts near the front made a gesture, and the rest froze. Setting Winston on the ground, Erynd held a finger up to his lips.

  Creeping forward, Winston pressed his small yet chubby body against the forest floor. Eventually, the scout raised a hand, and they all drew to a stop. In the clearing before them was a buck easily the size of a small car.

  [Iron Antler Deer - Initiate 7]

  True to its name, the buck's antler gleamed like metal. Unlike a normal deer, its antlers were jagged and serrated, as if designed to cause pain and suffering.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Erynd nocked an arrow and gestured at the rest of the group to cut off any escape routes. The arrow shot forward, punching into the buck’s side and narrowly missing its heart. With a roar of pain, the deer tried to flee, but Norra was there, hammer swinging down.

  The buck roared again as its leg shattered under the force of Norra’s strike. Lunging with its antlers, it forced her back, only to be beset upon by the rest of the group. Even Winston joined in, biting down on the buck’s leg, only to find that his teeth couldn’t punch through the deer’s thick skin.

  Letting out a yip of frustration, Winston swung his paws wildly against the buck, letting out a victorious cry as he finally drew a single drop of blood.

  [You have killed Iron Antler Deer - Initiate 7]

  When Winston finally looked up, still huffing and puffing from inflicting the small cut on the buck’s leg, the rest of the party was staring at him. Several of them were smiling, while Erynd and Norra barely stopped themselves from laughing.

  After a few moments, Norra finally broke. “I’m sorry!” She cried in between giggles. “That was just so…I don’t even know what to call it!”

  One after another, the gruff-faced warriors of the party began chuckling as well. Winston glared dubiously at each of them. Turning to face Erynd, he marched up to him, staring straight at his face as he trembled with effort not to laugh. After a moment, Erynd finally calmed down, and Winston nodded his approval.

  “Alright,” Erynd called to the party. “I admit that was hilarious—” Winston glared at him. “I admit that was somewhat amusing, but we have to get going. We don’t want to fall behind the rest of the camp.”

  As the group began to disassemble the buck, selling the antlers, Winston decided to try something. Turning to Norra, he used Charm on her.

  As she was already preparing to cut off the hooves of the deer, her mind barely noticed when she severed the entire leg instead.

  Her eyes widened. “Why did I do that?”

  Before she or anyone else could react, Winston pounced, digging his little teeth into the leg. The leg barely budged. Winston sighed; he should’ve put some of his points into strength. With a thought, he stored the leg in his spatial ring.

  His—admittedly not well thought out—plan had been to drag the leg into the woods and [Consume] it. Now he realised that even if he managed to do that, the sudden disappearance of the leg would be suspicious. Before they had left the camp, Winston had decided to keep his abilities a secret. He’d already used them to save Norra in the fight against the Nightrender, but he doubted she remembered exactly what he’d done. Also, other than Erynd, he trusted her the most.

  “Erynd. Did you seriously buy him a spatial ring?” Norra asked, facepalming. “Seriously?”

  Erynd nodded sheepishly, picking up Winston and cradling him in his arms.

  Stalking up closer, Norra tapped Winston on the nose. “Did you really need to steal a whole leg?”

  Winston yipped enthusiastically.

  Norra sighed, “Alright then,” She turned to Erynd. “Are we almost done here?”

  Erynd nodded and shouted to the party, “Alright! Pick up the rest of the buck and let’s get going! If we can all advance a rank or two today, we should be well ahead of the curve.”

  Speaking of ranking up, Winston realized that he’d gotten a small amount of energy when the buck died. It was a negligible amount, but that was probably because of how little damage he’d done.

  The next hours passed smoothly. They would hunt a beast, and Winston would charm one of them into accidentally cutting off a big chunk of meat. In between the fights, Winston would pretend to chase a butterfly or bird into the trees before consuming the meat to make more room in his spatial storage. Eventually, he didn’t even need to use charm on the Caltherans, and they would willingly give him the meat.

  “Are you regretting getting him that ring?” Norra asked as Winston stole yet another hunk of flesh, head held up proudly.

  Erynd nodded. “Yes. Very much so, but it’s too late now.”

  “Really? Couldn’t you just confiscate it?”

  “Do you honestly think he would let me take it?” Erynd snorted. “Look how happy he is. He’s never going to part with that thing.”

  “Don’t you find it strange, though?” Norra said. “All of us cutting off chunks for him without thinking?”

  “I don’t know,” Erynd said, “My current theory is that he has an extremely high charisma stat and maybe a passive skill too. It just makes us more inclined to help him and make him happy.”

  Norra smiled, watching one of the scouts handing the thigh of an elk to Winston. “Well, whatever he’s doing, it’s working.”

  Their next target was another deer. As they readied themselves, weapons drawn, they found that they weren’t the only ones hunting the buck.