Chapter 63：Bear Hunt (1/2)

Sam and Jack came back to the camp with fox meat and a shining dagger in their hands. By the time they came the sun is already set and it is becoming dark.

A while later the four members sat around the fire as the fox meat was left to roast over it. Sam took a bite off the roasted meat in his hands and said.

”Tonight, we will be staying here and from tomorrow onwards, we will be moving and everyday we will set a new camp by evening. We must explore as much area as possible in this forest in the remaining six days.

The main priority for us is to search for the animals and mostly the cruel ones.

Today we found a dagger when we took down a fox. As the Elder said, we have to search for the dangers for the opportunities.

But animals are not the only dangers that we are going to encounter. There are other places in the forest where we might get some benefits.

Get as much sleep as you can for tonight. We are going to take down that bear which chased us tomorrow.

Two people will sleep while the other two will keep watch, we will change in the middle.”

After they finished the dinner, Jack and Eve slept on the makeshift beds made of some large leaves and grass while Sam and Shor took the watch.

Shor didn't say anything as he kept watch on his surroundings while Sam worked with the dagger in his hands. He is using the dagger on the slightly thinner bamboo poles as he sharpened the edge of the pole as if he was making a spear.

All the while, he is keeping as watch and sharpening the poles one after another. The poles are not long as they are only three-feet each. He skilfully sharpened ten poles by the time Jack woke up along with Eve and took the watch duty.

Sam gave the dagger to Jack and instructions to sharpen the poles just like he did and went to sleep.

While the four are in a goo shape with the food and fire along with some comfortable sleep. The rest of the teams are not faring well. These guys don't know the bow drill or any other techniques that will make fire. Because, as far their knowledge goes, a fire can be made by a fire mage and if he is not available, a scroll or an articraft will do the trick. That was it. they clearly didn't understand the ways to make a fire.

All they could do was search for fruits and some wild vegetable to make do with for the food. Some teams are lucky to find them and some people are taking rest on their empty stomachs. Even more pitiful thing is that, now that they are ordinary people, they have to endure the cold weather of night and the mosquitoes of the wild as they huddle under a tree.

One of those groups is the one that left Sam. The group of four right now are leaning against a tree as they huddled themselves to endure the chill of the air. Never would have they expected that they would have to live life like this. The forest is truly a test to ones will.

After they left the other four, they started walking, but the forest path is much harder to travel than they thought. They are at least lucky enough to not encounter another animal like the bear, but they failed to find any fruits. The only silver lining is that they were able to get some water from the stream they encountered in the morning.

”It is all because of you. Jerk.” Jessie gritted her teeth as she scolded Dustin as he slapped a mosquito on her hand to death. Her face lost all the elegance and pride she has in the morning. Now she looked haggard and pale. Her clothes were dirty and she looked weak.

Dustin didn't know what to say to this pampered princess. He agreed that he was the one who proposed the idea to oppress Sam a bit to just satisfy their ego a bit in order to gain one over him due to their jealousy on the first- round scores.

But the remaining two absolutely agreed to it and they were even a bit happy at that time, but now this Jessie is blaming him completely. He just shook his head and diverted his thoughts to Sam. He was thinking how the remaining team was doing in the forest. He hoped that they would suffer a bit, so that he could feel better about himself.

Sun rose and the forest was full of chirping birds. Sam and Shor woke up. The fire has been exhausted by now and only some live charcoal was left.

Sam made himself lose the sleepiness and walked towards the fire and placed a fresh dry stick, but didn't let it burn, instead made it have a spark like a live coal. He then walked towards a bamboo pole and cut a section of bamboo and placed the stick in it as he covered the both open ends with some green grass and finally poked some holes on the outer surface of the bamboo pole.

He then walked towards some really tall bamboo trees and started checking them by tapping them on various sections, when he finally found the one, he wanted, he used the dagger a big stick to chop off the tree near its roots.

After that he cut some sections which he tapped earlier and in front of the surprised gazes of everyone, he poked a hole on the bamboo section and a transparent liquid immediately came out. He quickly put his mouth over the hole and drank the liquid with a pleasing expression on his face.

After emptying the section, he looked at the rest and said. ”This is one of the purest forms of the water sources in a forest, have some it will be refreshing.” Then he passed the remaining sections with water to them.

After everyone had the water, they looked at Sam to hear his instructions. He then looked at the group and asked.

”I am a warrior mage of fire element. What about you guys?” His question was intended to the two strangers but Jack also answered.

”I am a warrior. Swordsman.”

”I am a mage of earth element.” Shor said.

”I am a mage of wood element.” Eve replied.

Sam was dumbfounded by the situation. He didn't know whether it was luck or bad luck to have these two guys in the team. Because, both of their abilities are most beneficial in the forest at the same time he can't use it. After all, even if he gave them the scrolls that can be used for unsealing their cultivation, there is chance that they would betray him. Now he is feeling conflicted and he could only find one solution.

He has to find enough scrolls to everyone, if he wanted go use their abilities to ensure they won't have any thoughts of back-stabbing him. And giving them the scrolls first is absolutely impossible.

He quickly shook off the thoughts and said. ”Today our target is the bear. We have to make sure we can kill it properly and we cannot risk any mistakes in the plan as it may cost us our lives. But I can assure you that the reward would be high.

First of all, we have to reach the vicinity of its hideout without it noticing us.

For that we need to take some precautions and the first one is we need to conceal our scent. Bears are one of the beasts that have a keen sense of smell and if we give away the slightest scent, we would be done for. In fact, the scent is the main reason that we were discovered by it so soon yesterday.

Second thing is, we need to make sure that we make as little sound as possible. As it is a forest the bear wouldn't bother with every sound, but the big movements will alert it to make a move.