Favian pushed the thoughts of the headmaster to the back of his mind after Licht and Dunkel were starting to get worried about him. He instead started to formulate a plan about what they should do. The first thing Favian did was to open up the tome which contained information about every beast range on the continent. After scrolling through the page of contents, he was able to find the Kalari Desert."It seems that there are some pretty strong beasts here. It says there are poison camels, blood wyrms and even fire dragons. But the most common beast in the outer area of the range is the sand wolf. It says that they are always in packs and are nocturnal." Favian said.
"Well, we sure as h.e.l.l won"t live to tell the tale if we encounter a dragon." Dunkel laughed as he said this.
The group went on to discuss what their priorities were in this unknown place, which they unanimously agreed to be finding shelter. Usually, they would need to find water, but since they all had their own s.p.a.cial pouches filled with food, water and other items, they didn"t need to worry about this step.
"Okay, looks like we still have about 10 hours left until nighttime, so we have lots of time to find a suitable spot. If there are caves somewhere that"d be nice, but it doesn"t look like there will be we can find before nightfall." Licht voiced her opinion as she munched on a snack that looked a lot like beef jerky.
The group proceeded to venture around the area, looking for a suitable spot to create their base of operations. The most appropriate place would have only one way of entry and be highly camouflaged in some sort of way. They would also want to make sure that there weren"t many magical beasts in the vicinity. They pa.s.sed lakes and ponds on their way, and even had some close encounters with magical beasts, but were able to detour around them.
Dunkel was in charge of leading them to their camping site, as he had the most experience out of all of them in living in the wilderness. His home was literally part of a large magical woods, surrounded by magical beasts.
After about 3 hours of searching, the group was finally able to find an area suitable to make a temporary home. They had reached an area covered densely in greenery, with tall trees and lots of foliage covering it, and there was a lake not too far from this area. The best part about this spot was that there was a large hill which they could use as protection from the rear.
Dunkel went to the brown sandhill, before touching it with his hands. He was deep in thought for ten minutes before he stopped, removing his hand from it. "Okay the coast is clear people, I don"t spot any nasty critters inside that hill, so we can use this place for our base."
Quickly they set up their camp, with the tents that all three of them had been given by the academy staff as they waited in line for teleportation. It only took a couple of minutes for everything to be complete, and they then placed bits of foliage onto their tents to hide them further from prying eyes. Favian started to realise that taking monster hunting as a lesson was extremely useful in this situation, as it not only taught about how to live in the wilderness, but it also gave extremely important information on the different types of magical beasts, which they would inevitably encounter.
"I"m bored... Should we take a stroll or something?" Dunkel asked. He"d already changed into his leather combat outfit, and had a bow readied on his back.
Licht just came out of her tent as Dunkel asked this question. She was now wearing her heavy armour. It gleamed with a bright light, and the utmost detail had been put into polishing it. She currently had her longsword on her side, and a shield on her back. She"d use a shield depending on whether she was the main source of protection for her party, or simply a sword in on hand and magic in the other for maximum damage output if she didn"t need to tank.
"I mean we"ve got a whole month to spend out here, why don"t we just take it easy for the first day," she replied. She wore her armour out of vigilance, she instead wanted to just rest and meditate for a while.
"Pleaase, I really can"t sit idly here, its already suffocating me," Dunkel said with puppy dog eyes, looking at Favian trying to incite some sympathy. Favian was now in his own dark black leather armour, his daggers sheathed on the side of his belt, and his face covered by a mask. He himself was also raring to go fight some creatures, wanting to test out the powers he felt like he had awakened.
"I"m down for it, I mean, let"s just fight something easy for now," he replied.
Licht looked at the two as if they were monsters, or rather, idiots. "Fine." she sighed, dramatically stomping towards the two who had already made their way away from the camp.
The group made their way towards the lake they had previously walked past. It wasn"t too large of a body of water, and could accommodate about 20 different animals for drinking at a time. The water glistened in a green light, and shadows of fish could be seen darting across. They walked slowly and carefully to get closer to the lake, making sure they made as little noise as possible.
*ROAR* *AWOO* *AWOO*
"What the h.e.l.l," Favian whispered as he looked at the two others. He could hear some sort of commotion close to where he was right now. He was pretty certain that there must be some beasts fighting in the vicinity, as he heard two distinctly different sounds.
Licht and Dunkel stared at Favian, blank-eyed. "What"s wrong?" Licht asked.
"Didn"t you just hear that? It sounds like some beasts are fighting near us!" Favian replied, shocked that she hadn"t heard a single thing.
"Uhh, I think that"s just you bro. I don"t hear a single thing." Dunkel said. "Are you alright? I mean I know this is ur first time in a beast range, but there"s no need to be so scared."
"What? No seriously I can hear some beasts fighting, they"re so close to us. Just follow me!" Favian was slightly embarra.s.sed, but he trusted his instincts. "Why can I hear the commotion but they can"t?" he thought to himself.
Quickly Favian weaved through the woods, taking what he felt was the most effective route towards his destination. He could hear the beast roars even louder now, but they were nowhere to be seen. They had already travelled for a whole kilometre, and there was nothing in sight.
"Hey man, are you sure about there being be-" Dunkel couldn"t finish his sentence because now he could also hear the roars of different beasts. The woody area ended about 100 meters away from where the group stood, replaced by an empty desert. "Shh, follow me," he said, as he motioned the two to walk quietly with him towards the edge of the woods.
Once they reached the edge, Favian could make out what was fighting. There were 4 wolf-like animals, with reddish-brown skin and huge fangs, fighting against a lone elephant beast. The elephant had long tusks and fur making it resemble more of a mammoth, and despite it towering over the wolves, it couldn"t seem to get the upper hand. Whenever it would stomp at a wolf or try to impale them with its sharp tusks, they would be able to move out of the way in just the last second. The wolves weren"t small by any means, each reaching 2 meters whilst on their paws. The elephant was simply gargantuan.
"What should we do?" Licht asked, ready to charge at any moment.
Favian wasn"t experienced in battling monsters yet. He had learned much about it during lessons but didn"t have practical experience. He, therefore, looked to Dunkel for answers, as he also took the same lessons on monster hunting, but had prior experience in battling creatures.
"I"ve got an idea, it shouldn"t be too risky either. We"ll wait for them to damage the elephant to the point it can"t run away, and then we attack the wolves. Two birds with one stone," Dunkel said.
Favian immediately agreed with the idea, not wanting to prematurely enter the battle which would mean they"d have to fight both the wolves and the elephant at once. The group waited for 30 minutes under the cover of the edge of the woods, before finally, they saw their signal to go. The elephant"s legs were slowly starting to buckle, and it was only a matter of seconds before it would fall in exhaustion.
Licht charged into the fray, somehow making the 100-meter distance between the woods and the beast fight within 5 seconds. Her heavy armour seemed to be of no detriment to her sprinting speed. Her sword and shield in hand, Licht slashed towards the closest wolf, catching it off guard, and slicing away one of its legs. The wolf howled in pain, causing for the others to quickly bring their attention to the intruder.