The party finally made it back to the village a little after midday. Now that they were aware of the predators in the woods they had decided to pick up the pace, leaving them exhausted from having practically run for over a kilometer.

Upon their return, there was a huge commotion, just like with the discovery of the Spined Deer, but despite being more dangerous as predators the players were more excited than frightened. While the Spined Deer could provide stronger weapon materials, that was nothing compared to the introduction of a healing item.

After making it back to the village, the players dropped off the Moss Wolf pelts at the Workshop and the carcasses at the Kitchen before going their separate ways.

Loran went to get himself cleaned up at the river; not having anything that needed to be done immediately he just wanted to rest after a harsh fight. 'How the hell was a five-minute fight more exhausting than a full day of hunting?'

"Hey, Loran!" Before he could get anywhere near the water a voice called out to him, and a group of five approached. At the front was Bates, a leader of one of the larger hunting parties, dressed in the standard hunter gear.

"What do you want," Loran grumbled.

"Chill man, I just heard you and the others just came back with a new mob."

"Yeah?" 'So you should know I'm hurt and exhausted, why are you bothering me?'

"Well, what were they like? I think someone mentioned that they were wolves."

"Yes, they are." 'If you're so interested, then can't you go look at the bodies yourself?'

"C'mon man, you're the master analyst, tell us more," one of the others said.

"Hah...," he huffed. 'Are they seriously asking me to give them the full description?!'

"Alright guys, why don't you drop it for now," a new voice said.

Loran and Bates turned to see Zed, still covered with small cuts from yesterday's sparing, but clearly having taken the time to heal.

"We're just asking questions," Bates defended.

"Yeah, well Loran just got back from fighting off a pack of wolves, so I'm telling you to leave."

"And since when can you just-"

Bates was quickly shut up by Zed thrusting his spear at him, stopping with less than an inch between the sharpened tip and the soft flesh of his jugular. "If you have a problem, would you like to meet me in the field?" Zed asked with a grin.

"... Let's go." Bates and his team walked off.

"Haa..." Zed sighed, "I swear, no one around here is any fun."

"True, but it's kind of hard to have fun when death is on the line," Loran noted.

"Eh, sounds like a drag."

"....Thanks for getting rid of them."

"Why didn't you just do it yourself?"

"I'm... not good with people," Loran said, crossing his arms sheepishly.

"You're joking right," Zed asked, honestly confused, "you willingly jumped into the path of my spear yesterday, but talking is more intimidating?"

"It's just..."

"Hm?"

"Forget it, fighting is just easy, people aren't and I hate it."

"...I guess, if that's how you see it," Zed began to walk back towards the training field. "anyway, rest. I want you to tell me all about those wolves later. They seem like fun."

"Whatever," Loran yawned, watching the taller player's back. 'Why is the crazy one the easiest to talk to?'

Loran quickly made his way to a part of the river near the South Gate. Since the area was downstream it was generally regarded as the bathing area, and a few other male players could be seen lazing in the water, wearing only their default player boxers. No female players though. They didn't have any way to bathe privately, so the women either took the risk of going further downstream or, more commonly, waited for nightfall when all the women took the area over and forced the men out. Half would stand guard to keep out any peeping toms, and while this mostly worked more than a few players had been introduced to the business end of Yang's Stone Ax or more frighteningly, been pincushion by Yin's arrows. Even the worst offenders never tried anything physical, so they were still tolerated around the village....mostly.

After rinsing himself off Loran made his way back to his shelter, thankfully without any more interruptions. Crawling inside and making himself as comfortable as possible, he opened his menu and began planning how to use his EXP from earlier.

'If I'm going to be fighting more Moss Wolves I'll need to plan my stats out better.' Loran was deeply unsatisfied with his performance in the fight, he began thinking through everything that happened to find where he should improve. 'My damage output was okay, ranging from decent to fatal depending on where I hit them. I was able to dodge them pretty well too, except for...' He recalled how he needed to be saved by the others not just once but twice. 'I need to have better awareness, fighting that many wolves is just way too chaotic.'

Loran had plenty of experience with messy and overcrowded fights in other games. He has been surrounded by goblins and orcs in fantasy RPGs and kept track of entire simulated battlefields in a few RTSs, but he was struggling here in New Eden Online.

'...Is it because of the danger?' In those other games, Loran had been able to detach himself and track the situation calmly because he understood, on every level, that it was just a game. NEO was different, not only was the danger of dying real, but the fact that he couldn't adjust the game's pain sensitivity meant that he was triggering his body's natural aversion to pain as well. No matter how cool-headed he thought he was being, a part of him was still panicking.

'I won't be able to just force myself to calm down, but if I can heighten my awareness that should give me more breathing room.' Raising his level to 11, he dumped 9 Ability Points straight into PER, deciding to put the last point into STR to finally get it to 10. 'Stats alone won't be enough to cover this, I need to get some kind of sensory Skill.' He briefly considered the starter Skill [FAR SIGHT], but that just increased the range of his vision, he needed something to cover his blind spots. 'Blind spots... What if I tried fighting blindfolded? That would have to create something right? I'll ask around later to see if anyone has tried it yet. If not, I bet Zed would be willing to help.'

With that he closed his eyes, trying desperately to stop any extraneous thought and get some sleep.

~~~~~

"You seriously can't make anything better than this crap?"

After everyone split up, Yang had gone to the workshop to complain to Rika, the person who made her armor.

"Look, I honestly don't know what you want me to do when all we have is rabbit leather, wood, and stone tools." Rika was a short but stocky young woman with vibrant red hair and green eyes, or at least that's what they looked like. It turned out that they had intended to roleplay as a female dwarven blacksmith type character and were male in real life, revealing themselves to not cause any confusing or unfortunate situations. No one made a fuss over it, and Rika just decided to go by their avatar name both for simplicity's sake and to not reveal their real name. "Honestly, as long as you're fighting things like these Moss Wolves, anything we can make right now is just going to be like paper."

Yang sighed, "Is there really nothing you can do for me? Even if it's paper it's better than nothing at this point."

"I mean, I do have an idea, but I'll need to ask around about some better tools; and I'll need you to get me some more wood."

"Got it," she quickly answered.

"And not just sticks or branches this time. This is going to need real lumber from the trunk of the Maple trees," they began walking off, "It'll probably be a lot heavier so be ready."

'Heavier huh? That probably means a higher STR requirement.' As lightweight as the previous armor was, it still had a stat requirement of 12 STR. Thankfully this wasn't a hard limit or anything. Rika had tested it with other players and not meeting the requirement just made it feel heavier and more cumbersome, meeting the requirement made it feel light and less restrictive. It was probably impossible for them to make anything too heavy to use with just wood.

'Still, I absolutely need to meet the requirement.' The simple fact was that if she didn't have the necessary STR she would probably be too slow to dodge properly, she would have to bet almost entirely on the armor's defensive capabilities.

'The Moss Wolves would still be able to tear me apart, I need to have full mobility.' With this in mind, Yang opened the menu and used all the EXP she had to level up and increase her STR.

[NAME]: Yang

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 7

[EXP]: 140/800

[STATUS]

{HP}: 33.3/236.3

{SP}: 213.8/213.8

[END]: 15(+7.5)

[STR]: 25

[AGI]: 10

[DEX]: 10

[PER]: 10

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 2

[SKILLS]

[HP BOOSTER] Lv.1

[STALWART] Lv.10

[SHIELD BASH] Lv.1

(Active Cost: 20 SP) The next attack using a shield will have its Bludgeoning Damage and Knockback increased by 3% of the user's STR.

[TENACIOUS] Lv.10

'Honestly, raising STR isn't even bad now that I have this new Skill.' Although it wasn't the agro-controlling Skill she wanted, being able to control the enemy's position is just as important for a Tank.

'Alright then, let's go chop some-' Yang then felt her stomach growling. "....Okay, lunch first, then trees."

Luckily, the Kitchen was rather close to the Workshop, so it wasn't long before Yang was heading towards her and Yin's shared shelter with a pair of venison skewers. There were plenty of people asking her about the hunt, but she just told them to either ask someone else or wait for the announcement at The Pit. Taking a bite, Yang savored the sweet yet tangy flavor, though she was still put off slightly, knowing what the ingredients were.

'Seriously though,' Yang thought, eyeing the meat skewer in her hand, 'how desperate was that guy that he was willing to use blood as an ingredient?'

"I wouldn't say it's that desperate," Yin said, having silently approached Yang from behind. "Things like blood sausages were created in multiple countries."

"I guess, but I still think sausages are kind of gross on principle. I mean, they're made from intestines for fucks sake." Yang took an exaggerated bite out of one of the skewers. "By the way, do you mind not doing that?"

"Which one, responding to your thoughts or just appearing around you?"

"Yes." After finishing the skewer in her right hand Yang was about to start on the other but offered it to her sister. "You hungry?"

"Not really," she waved her hand dismissively, "I'll get my own later. Anyway, it's not like I'm trying to sneak up on you, you just don't pay attention."

"Whatever," 'just keep your psychic powers to yourself,' she thought.

"I'm not psychic, you're just an open book."

"Oh, so this is my fault too," she asked aggressively.

"Y-Yang I didn't mean..." Yin's voice was thick with concern.

Yang's expression turned somber. "....Whatever." The two were silent for a moment. "Anyway, I need to go chop some wood for Rika, what are you doing?"

"Nothing much at the moment, may I come with you?"

"You want to chop trees?"

"No, but we can talk while you work right? Besides, I'm still not certain on how I should be spending my EXP right now." A gentle smile appeared on her face.

"....alright, sounds like a plan."