Chapter 5 I Don’t Want To See

Holy shit.

I jumped back and turned around, looking away from the body.

That... that was a real person.

Fuck. I had never seen a real dead body before.

The corpse was somewhat degrading but I could tell that it was a male.

I turned and walked away without looking at it again.

If I'm not careful, that could be me.

Slowly, I made my way back to the crude camp thing that I set up previously. At the moment, the only thing I had was a small stone fireplace, but that was enough to act as a symbol of my tiny settlement. Eventually, I made it back and took a few moments to catch my breath. I did not want to see that.

I took a seat on the log near the fireplace and waited until my Warrior Minion returned.

[Your Warrior Minion has collected: [6x] meat, [5x] apple, [13x] rocks]

[Your Warrior Minion has gained [11] experience since its last expedition]

[It is now a little tired]

[Your Warrior Minion can level up!]

-

<Minion Level Up!>

+25% Strength

+35% Health

+10% Speed

+ [New Item!] - Lesser Wood Shield

-

Suddenly, a small yet sturdily-built shield appeared in the left hand of my Warrior Minion. After his level-up, I decided to send him out on another expedition. I was a little unnerved by the dead body but it was important that I make use of my time efficiently in order to gather as many resources as possible.

I had actually gotten enough materials to craft another Scout Minion. My Warrior Minion was at the point that I could basically craft a new Scout Minion after every expedition. It was great.

I crafted another Scout Minion, bringing my total number up to five; I made sure to also make it learn [Resource Gathering].

Suddenly, I heard some footsteps in the forest.

I took a few steps back as I had no idea what it could be. It was much louder and more chaotic than the footsteps of my Minions so I stayed on guard.

My Woodcutter Minion and Warrior Minion were out on their expeditions so all I had were the three Scout Minions.

Suddenly, out from behind the trees, appeared a girl.

"Hello?" She whispered.

She slowly ambled towards me and looked at my Scout Minions.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

As I got a closer look at her, I could tell that she was still in her school uniform, just like me. However, I couldn't recognise the school at all. I couldn't really tell but she seemed like she was a few years younger than me.

"Um... do you have any food?" She asked.

I had used up all my apples crafting Scout Minions, but I still had some animal meat in my inventory. I would have to light my fireplace and cook it, however.

"Um... where did you come from...?"

She was silent, struggling to get words out of her mouth.

"I-I don't know, I was going about my day, then all of a sudden... I woke up in a forest..."

Sounded like a similar scenario to what I was in.

"I guess I can spare you some."

"Thank you... I've been really hungry since I can't find food."

I had been surviving off purely apples and the breakfast I ate the previous day. So I was also feeling a little peckish. I made my way over to the fireplace and lit it with wood, a bright orange flame grew as the area became warm.

I took the meat out of my inventory. I picked up a few sticks and positioned them so that I could cook the meat directly above the fire. I created a little tripod of sticks and the fire quickly began cooking the meat.

"How long is it going to take?" She asked.

"Honestly, I don't know, I've never cooked meat like this before, I guess I'll cook it until it's decently brown on the outside."

She looked at me with eager eyes.

I sat and watched as the meat cooked. Eventually, the edge of the meat was getting significantly brown, to the point that the edges were beginning to char and turn black.

"Alright, I'm sure it's cooked."

She waited as I took the meat off the fireplace, I handed her one of the pieces and she quickly bit into it like a little chipmunk. I quickly dug into my steak as well and munched down on it. The two of us ate in silence for a little while until I finished my food.

"So which school did you come from?" I asked.

She bit into the steak and then answered.

"I came from Valencian's Girl School."

I remember hearing about that school. It was a pretty prestigious school somewhat near ours. I was surprised that I didn't recognize the uniform though.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to ask, what's your name?"

"I'm Rosie."

Suddenly, my Warrior Minion returned, giving her a little fright.

[Your Warrior Minion has collected: [9x] meat, [6x] apple, [15x] rocks]

[Your Warrior Minion has gained [12] experience since its last expedition]

[It is now quite tired]

I looked up at the sky and saw that it was slowly becoming night. It was probably a good time to recall my Woodcutter Minion. I turned off his automated actions and waited for it to return.

"Rosie, what system do you have?"

"I have the Botany System, it's really hard to level up though... I can't understand all of this."

"Well... I don't really know what to say to you. Do you have many resources on you?"

"I don't have much... only some plants and some wood."

"That's fine, I suppose... I'll make you a shelter for tonight and we can try to work together tomorrow."

"T-thank you."

Suddenly, I looked over to my Scout Minions and one of them had finished learning [Resource Gathering]. I opened the Minion menu and had a look at it.

I was then given more options on what it could learn.

-

<Learning (Stage 2)>

- [Mining]

- [Woodcutting]

- [Farming]

- [Hunting]

~

I was given another selection of choices. I decided that the easiest choice was to just make it learn [Woodcutting], it seemed the simplest to manage and it would always be useful. Once again, it pulled out another book from thin air and began studying.

The sky darkened and my Woodcutter Minion returned. There wasn't a return message as all of its resources were already instantly deposited into my inventory. It also levelled up again.

-

<Minion Level Up!>

+20% Efficiency

+25% Health

+5% Luck

[NEW SKILL] - Clear Tree

-

I decided to take a look at my inventory to see how many resources I had managed to collect.

-

<Inventory> 398/450

[129x] wood

[19x] apples

[201x] leaves

[16x] meat

[33x] rocks

-

It had collected quite a large amount of resources. My expanded inventory was already almost full.

It was about time to prepare for the night.

For some reason, Rosie was whispering to herself.