Srsli
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23: Hunted
🕑 Added 2025-08-09 13:51:59 +0000 UTCWhen I woke up the next morning, I was shocked by the notifications waiting for me. As it turned out, Liane really had gone hunting last night.
and she had killed a lot!
In total, I had gained 2,800 experience, along with 28 notifications of buffs being used in combat.
Notifications:
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
…
You have reached Level 11 in Arcane Chef
You have +2 unspent stat points
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
…
Name: Trevor
Class: Arcane Chef
Rarity: Rare
Level: 11
Experience: 2488/5893
Hit points: 160/160
Mana: 320/320
Stamina: 160/160
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 21
Endurance: 16
Intelligence: 32
Wisdom: 14
Charisma: 10
Willpower: 13
Perception: 8
Luck: 6
Unspent: 2
Active Evolution Quests: 1
Perform 50 perfect cuts - 6/50
Wow, I could barely believe what I was seeing. She had nearly gotten me a full level in a single night—while I slept!
I practically launched out of my bedroll, and what I saw sent a shiver down my spine. Three bags were sitting on the bench Milo had made for me to prep on, and two of them bore the same black stains I remembered from yesterday’s spider bag.
Deciding it wouldn’t get better by ignoring it, I went over and opened them. As expected, the first two bags were full of spiders. How had she even found this many?
The last bag, which was considerably larger than the others, contained a mix of things: about eight rabbits stuffed inside, and two creatures I had never seen before. They looked like birds—if a hawk and an owl had somehow been combined into something terrifying.
Having placed all the bags into my storage, I at least got a name for the unknown birds—they were called Blood Owls. I figured I’d deal with them later. I noticed the stone stakes Milo had made for me sitting in a neat pile and decided to store them as well, figuring they’d be useful for making more spiders on a stick in the future.
Once everything was put away and the bench cleaned, I pulled out the boar and pea soup. I carefully removed all the bones with my ladle, leaving as much meat behind as possible—a fairly straightforward task since everything practically fell off the bones by this point. After that, I put the pot back by the fire, which I had also restarted, and contemplated pulling out some more rolls. I still had another twenty in storage, but that would only last two meals for the group, and I wanted to save them for dinner.
Deciding against it, I headed outside to stretch my legs where I wouldn’t wake anyone up.
“Morning, Trev,” Milo said from his stone chair near the entrance to the structure.
“Morning, Milo!” I called back with a little chuckle. “Liane was busy last night.”
“Yeah, she only got back a couple of hours ago carrying those sacks. She was going to wake you, but I told her to just leave them inside if you hadn’t gotten to them already,” Milo explained.
“I got them all, I think. I’d never even seen Blood Owls before,” I said, leaning against the structure beside Milo and watching the sunrise break above the trees in the distance.
“They’re not very common, but they hunt at night and are drawn by the smell of blood. I’d say all the killing she did drew their attention.”
The morning passed quickly. Everyone enjoyed their soup, and I couldn’t help but be puzzled by the buffs from the food so far. There seemed to be a pattern. For example, the rabbits had consistently provided a dexterity increase: roasted rabbit gave a +1 bonus, while the Cacciatore gave +2.
Meanwhile, the boar was different. Roasting it with fire salt granted a fire resistance buff, but using that same boar in the soup instead gave a +1 strength buff.
I’d need to pay closer attention to this and do more testing to really understand it.
As we loaded up the wagons and prepared to set off, I noticed the people from the village were already waiting. Amusingly, Liane was fast asleep on the back of her horse. I really needed to ask how she managed that.
——————————
Two days passed without much happening. I hadn’t used the owls in cooking yet, but I had made Liane four spiders each night, along with roasting the rabbits and preparing a rabbit and mushroom stew.
Today, however, was an exciting day for a couple of reasons. First, we were getting closer to the edge of the Dark Forest. There was no more farming or logging this far out, and the adventuring team seemed noticeably more on edge. The second reason was far more personal: when we stopped for lunch, I was finally going to use my Arcane Foraging skill. Liane and Milo would come with me, while Jen and Hari stayed behind with the group at camp.
I was really excited—and also nervous—as Milo had spent most of yesterday instructing me on what to do if we ran into trouble. His advice was simple: hide in a stone box until they dealt with it, or, in the worst-case scenario, run.
And run fast! Because that option was reserved for anything too strong for them to handle, and if the box wouldn’t hold. That said, Milo assured me that this far out, on the border of the forest, the likelihood of that happening was exceptionally low. If it did, though, he admitted we’d probably be dead either way.
When we stopped for lunch that day, we could barely even pull off the road; the trees were getting so thick. We mostly just pulled to the side, leaving only enough room for a single wagon to pass—not that it mattered. We hadn’t seen a single wagon heading the other way yet.
I pulled out a rabbit and mushroom stew I had prepared and set it out for everyone to help themselves. I still had another stew ready to go, along with twelve roasted spiders I’d made in advance—mostly so Jen would stop getting angry with me every time I cooked them.
As I got ready to head into the forest, I activated Arcane Foraging, and already, just along the road, I could see items glowing.
Amusingly, I’d discovered a bit of a workaround for identifying items. I didn’t have the Evaluation or Identification skills that merchants used, so I couldn’t pull up any detailed information on the items themselves. What I could do, however, was attempt to store them. Doing so brought up the name of the object I was trying to store, and from there, I could ask one of my travelling companions for more details.
Staying close to camp, I approached the plants on the forest’s edge that glowed the brightest. I found a small patch of Lemon Tea Grass and something called Virfolium leaves. Interestingly, only the leaves glowed brightly; the small white flowers attached to the plant looked dull and lifeless in comparison.
As I was picking the leaves, Milo approached from behind.
“What did ya find?” he asked.
“I’m not really sure. First, I found more Lemon Tea Grass, but I also came across another plant glowing brightly called Virfolium,” I replied, holding some of the leaves in my hand and showing them to Milo as I spoke.
“Oh, I know those. I didn’t realise they were used in cooking, though. They’re a common ingredient in alchemy—mainly used in restoration potions, among other things,” he explained.
That was good to know. I wondered if using it in cooking would alter the buffs I got, like the Fire Salts did. I stored the leaves away for testing later, just as Liane came up behind Milo, ready for our trip deeper in.
As we began to enter the forest, I couldn’t help but feel a strange pressure, almost an ominous weight in the air.
“It feels weird,” I said to my companions.
“Yeah, it gets worse the deeper in you go,” Milo replied. “What you’re feeling is the ambient nature of the Dark Forest. The closer you get to its heart, the more intense that pressure becomes.”
Liane had already vanished into the shadows, saying she was going to scout around us.
I looked around with Arcane Forage and saw magical ingredients everywhere, but I focused on the brightest ones. Near the base of a giant tree was a fist-sized glowing lump—likely another truffle. Deeper in, I spotted small flowers that glowed even brighter, and most striking of all was a melon-sized shape hanging from a branch.
I explained what I saw to Milo, who suggested we go for the truffle first since it would be the easiest to reach with his abilities. I nodded and followed behind him, giving directions.
The truffle was less than a minute’s walk away, but as we moved, I caught sight of movement in the corner of my eye. When I turned though, there was nothing there.
“Did you see that?” I asked Milo.
“See what?” He stopped and scanned the area carefully.
“I’m not sure.. just movement out of the corner of my eye. When I looked, it was gone,” I explained, not thinking much of it.
Milo, however, turned serious. “What direction? How far away?” he asked in a low voice.
I pointed to where I thought I’d seen it.
Milo made a quick gesture with his hands, and a faint sound of wind stirred through the trees. A moment later, Liane appeared behind us.
“Trev thought he saw movement directly in front of us just now. Could you scout it out?” Milo asked her. She simply nodded and slipped again into the shadows, heading in that direction.
“Alright, let’s keep moving,” Milo said, trying for a more jovial tone, but I could tell he was much more on edge now.
As we approached the spot where I’d seen the glow beneath the soil, I noticed this truffle was buried much deeper. Still, Milo made quick work of it, and we pulled out a Mana Truffle even larger than the one we already had.
“Wow, that’s a nice one,” Milo said in awe, examining it in my hand. “But let’s not waste too much time. What’s next?”
“Well, we have two options,” I said, pointing toward the direction Liane had gone. “There’s a cluster of flowers glowing brighter than this one over there, and then there’s a giant melon-shaped object glowing like a sun much deeper in the trees, further off from the road we came in on.”
Milo thought for a moment. “Flowers first. I’m not sure how we’d get up to the melon if it’s really stuck high in the trees. If it’s hanging, a Wind Cutter should knock it down, and the wind will carry it.” He explained, so we headed toward the flowers.
It didn’t take long to find them. When Milo saw the cluster, he let out a soft laugh and said, “Look, Trev, if cooking doesn’t work out, you could always forage for alchemy ingredients. These are Mana Tears — the primary component in mana potions. I’ve never heard of them being used in cooking, but they’re highly sought after in alchemy.”
I knelt down and began picking the flowers — about a dozen in total. As I worked, Liane suddenly appeared beside Milo.
“Milo, we need to go. Now.” Milo hissed urgently.
I didn’t know what was wrong, but I wasn’t willing to take any chances. I quickly stored the flowers and hurried back to them, noticing both wore worried expressions.
“Follow me and keep up. Move fast. No talking, no loud noises.” He whispered, his voice serious. Liane’s eyes darted nervously as if her head were on a swivel, and without hesitation, we moved swiftly away.
I practically had to run to keep up as they moved through the forest. After maybe two minutes, I felt Liane grab me. “I’m sorry, Trev, this won’t be comfortable. Milo, run.”
With that, the forest blurred past, and my stomach twisted, making me feel sick as I hung over Liane’s shoulder like a sack of tubers.
In moments, we were back at the wagons, and I was doubled over, heaving, trying to recover from the trip. Milo quickly approached Hari and Troy and explained something urgently, because a second later there were calls and shouts, and everything was loaded up in a flash—including me, as I was lifted into the back of a wagon.
We moved fast—faster than I’d ever seen before. The horses were clearly struggling. I tried to ask Troy what was happening, but he hushed me. “I’ll explain shortly,” he said.
We kept that pace for half an hour to an hour before Liane appeared in the wagon. I didn’t even see her climb in. She told Troy we should be far enough away now.
“What happened?” I asked, hoping Liane would share more.
She sighed softly. “What you saw, I believe, was called a Shadow Cat—an incredibly intelligent and powerful apex predator in the Dark Forest, despite being only about the size of a large human.”
I was surprised by the worry in her voice. “You’d have been able to take it if it attacked, right?” I asked, remembering the fight I’d witnessed. They were high-level adventurers, after all.
“No, Trevor. If it wanted to attack, we’d almost certainly be dead. And I’m not just talking about the three of us in the forest—it could likely take on every person in the caravan at once and kill us all before we even had a chance to strike. I need to stress this to you: there are beasts out there that far exceed our abilities.”
“Oh, will we be safe?” I asked.
Liane grimaced slightly. “I think so. They’re usually territorial—that’s why we moved so fast to get out of its territory. But I need to get back out and scout. Sorry, Trev, I’ll answer more questions for you tonight.”
Troy sat silently across from me, taking it all in, as Liane left the wagon once more.
“Have you seen one before?” I asked Troy once we were alone again.
“A Shadow Cat?” Troy chuckled. “No, dear boy. Most people who see one aren’t alive to tell the tale. So, I’m glad we get to see another day.”
I stared out the back of the wagon, watching the trees blur past. Then my mind drifted back to what we had left behind. I wondered what that melon-shaped object was.
