Chapter 4: A New Encounter, A New Bond

<MC PoV>

I'm walking towards the source of the bitter smell. From my sense of smell, the source of smell itself isn't even that far. It's only a small walk from the river. Another thing to note, is that I actually heard something's moving near the source of the smell.

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"Ehhhh, so this is the source of the smell." I'm right now looking at a thing. Or more spesifically herbs and plants leaves tied together and set on fire. I've put out the fire burning the thing but the smell still lingers around.

"Why is this thing here anyway? Are they out of their minds?" I complained while looking  around looking for the culprit of this.

"Oh right, the movements that I heard." I looked towards a spesific direction that I heard the movements. I then began to walk to that direction while focusing my hearing. Not long after my ears twitched a little because I heard something moving near me. I then raised my guards, because it could be something dangerous.

I then heard something behind me and when I looked behind me a giant bear showed itself while walking on it's four legs. I'm startled at the sudden appearance of this bear and instinctively took a step backwards. The bear itself is growling aggressively towards me. I could 'feel' it's hostility towards me.

"Eh, why are you hostile towards me?" I asked subsconsciously. I also realised that since I was transferred here to this body, my mentality actually changed quite a bit. My personality becomes more playful and childish. But, I also subsconsciously act more elegant also. 

'So, changing your body also changes your mentality isn't it?' I concludes.

'I mean it's not a bad thing... right?' I thought while smiling completely forgetting the bear in front of me that was still growling aggresively. The bear becoming more and more angry every second finally snapped. It stands up on two feet and used it front legs to try and slice me in half.

But for some reason instead of me becoming scared, I only smiled at it unamused. When it's front legs almost reached me, I catch both of it's leg with one hand. I then push it back making the bear lost it's balance and falls down on it's back.

"Awww, don't be so grumpy. Come on, I know you're just hungry. Let's get you some food." I said while walking towards the river. I could sense the bear following me in silence behind me. I only let out an amused smile at this behaviour and keep walking.

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"Mhmm, this is pretty sweet, why don't you try this?" I hand out a weird fruit that taste like apple but looked like lemon. It also has a texture of a watermelon. The bear smelled the fruit and bite into it. Once the bear swallows the fruit, it's eyes widens a bit and now is happily chewing the fruit.

In this forest, I've been seeing quite a bit of weird shaped fruit and berries everywhere. Like this fruit right here that I'm holding. It has a shape like a pomegranate, the inside of the fruit itself also looked like a pomegranate. But, the taste of it is very very citrusy. It's quite weird tasting it.

There are a lot of them so I grabbed a leaf of a weird tree. It's leaf is quite big and shaped like a banana or a coconut tree leaves. The width of the leaf could cover my whole height and the length is even taller than me.

So after collecting damn near too many berries and fruits, I somehow tied a knot to the leaf and ask Mr. Bear to carry it for me. Another thing about poisonous berries, I used my 'aura' to kinda 'identify' the berries if it's edible or not. 

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I'm right now sitting on a rock next to Mr. Bear while it's eating a fish that I catched. The reason for that is even after eating that many fruits and berries Mr. Bear is still hungry so I decided to just catch some fish. I of course am still eating all the berries and fruits I collected. We were eating and sometimes 'talking' peacefully even though it's just me who is talking meanwhile Mr. Bear is answering either with a growl or with his head movements. 

It's quite peaceful until I heard some footsteps quite near us. I also smelled some trace of the herb on them that means they are the ones who put that thing there. The sound of the footsteps are light, slow and stealthy. But those are not enough to evade my hearing now.

"Let's just ignore it. They're probably not dangerous anyway based on my senses. Let's just wait until they got here themselves." I muttered to myself. Mr. Bear heard this because his ears rised a bit but decided to not question it.

"It's surprising how we became friends that fast" I said while hugging Mr. Bear.

'It's warm, great for sleeping' I thought while releasing my hug. I then just continued to eat while my tail is subsconsciously wagging around.

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The bushes in front of me were moving. So that means that they are here. I won't do anything and just wait for them to come out. I just smiled innocently and looked towards their general location while still eating some fruits.

From what I could tell they have a trace of 'something' around them. That 'something' made them to blend in with the environment quite well. I could see them clearly though, so I don't think that quite works. They also still smelled like the smelly herbs. That 'something' is probably a thing I will ask to them.

I was just thinking about those things when I see them talking to each other forming their next moves. Of course, I could hear them but I just pretended I don't and ignored it. They are forming a plan to get away from there as quickly as possible. When they both finished planning they nodded to each other and turned around ready to run away. So because of that I just decided to approach them. Mr. Bear noticed this and also followed suit.

"Hello? The two of you can come out you know? What are you doing?" They stopped moving and is now standing still like a log. They slowly turned around to looked at our direction. My eyebrow twitched a bit seeing their slow movements.

'Can't you turn faster, damnit?'

When they finally saw me,they visibly gulped, then trembled, then.... passed out. My whole face twitched seeing this.

"Ehhhh, why did they pass out? I just wanna ask what are they doing here." I said while sighing.

"All that slow dramatic turn around just for them to pass out, seriously?" I said with now visible annoyance on my face before quickly returning to normal.

"Mr. Bear, can you bring both of them to the rock" I asked Mr. Bear to bring them to near the river. Mr. Bear only growled and started to lift them up with his mouth.

"Good Grief, What's with them?" I said while catching up to Mr. Bear.

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<Time Skip ???>

The sun is now already very low. The sky is getting darker and darker Bear said he needs to go a few moments ago. It's now only me here with this still unconscious duo. To pass time I usually just doing some weird stuff like, sculpting an ice statue , meeting some weird animals passing by to drink at the river, I also made a campfire. How do I make the fire and the Ice statue? Well, magic simply.

I just need to mentally picture something that I want to create and boom! It is done. Well I could do it in large quantities but I prefer not. Because I couldn't dismiss the Ice so the Ice will stay there for I don't know how long. As for what I'm sculpted. I sculpted myself. Kinda cool isn't it?

"Hahaha praise me for my creations, mortals!" I laughed out loud while spinning on my spot. Apparently this caused the two guys to wake up because of my loud noise. As both of their eyes started twitching and one of them started to open his eyes. When the guy is fully awakes he sit up and rubbed his eyes. He then looked around and when his eyes landed on me he immediately remembered what happened earlier and became vigilant immediately. He looked to his side and see his teammate still struggling to wake up. I only chuckled lightly to this scene and stayed silent mostly. For some reason my tail is now wagging around like I'm excited about something.

"Wake up! Wake the hell up!" He shouted to his teammate loudly. His teammate startled by his shout immediately got up and is now awar e of his surroundings. Because they both are awake now I decided that I want to talk first until...

"So he-" They cut me off with a loud question.

"Who are you?" The guy asking me is now standing with his sword now pointing at me. On his left hand he is holding a shield that has a snake head imprinted on it. He has a rough looking face, with a rough beard and a vertical scar on his eye. He looked like a ruffian. 

The other guy is the complete opposite of him. He looked young like in his 20's. He had a calm and stoic face. But even if his face is pretty emotionless, I could tell that he's very observant of his surroundings. He is holding a small pair of daggers and his main weapon is a bow based on the large bow on his back.

"Ehhhh, why should you be the one who's asking? I don't actually even know where I even am right now." I just said to them with a playful tone. They still remained vigilant but now more questions popped inside their heads.

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"So can I no-

"Why are you with that Red Furred Bear?" He cut me again with yet another question. But now my eyebrow visibly twitched and my tail even stopped moving. The only bear I know is Mr. Bear so I assumed it's him.

"Why should I know? Mr. Bear is only hungry after all. So I just gave him food. If that's all can I now ask you some question" I said with annoyance in my tone but my face is still smiling. They gulped seeing my smile and can only nod. 

"So are you guys the one who throw that bundle of herbs?" I asked them. But instead of the ruffian answering the stoic boy is the one who answered.

"Indeed, we used it as a bait so we can escape for a while and set up traps" He said which is pretty smart from them. From what I can see Mr. Bear do run quite fast, so they probably can't outrun it too far.

"Are there more of you guys?" I then asked them again. They for some reason looked at each other and widens their eyes with a panic expression on their face. 

"Shit, we forgot about her" The ruffian said.

"She should be still in the cave" The calm boy said. They then continue to bicker and ignoring me fully. I waited and waited but they still are talking to each other. The edge of my mouth twitched a bit as I looked at them. Because of how mad I am, I accidentally let out a bit of my 'aura'. They both then suddenly went silent and turned to looked at me. They felt the pressure from the 'aura' that I was leaking. 

I noticed them looking at me weird until I realised, I accidentally let out my 'aura. I retracted it quickly but they are still silent. Because of that I can finally talk.

"Soooo, I'm guessing that there's more of you guys and you guys forgot about it." I guessed what are they stressing out for. They nodded in confirmation. I just sighed seeing this.

"Then, why are you guys still here?! Let's search for your other teammates" I said while jumping down from the rock I was sitting on. They both looked at each other and only nodded.

"I only following you guys because I have nothing to do, so let's go!!" I said while pushing them. They realised they need to be fast before their teammate got lost so they immediately go to the direction they came from. I followed them from behind silently. Because its now already dark they are holding a torch that they made from a stick from the fire I made. 

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After walking for a while, we finally reached their destination. It's a cave with a quite big entrance. They immediately ran in and I just follow suit. I could see in the darkness quite well. That's a good thing as they left me behind in this darkness. I sighed and just followed them to inside the cave.

The entrance of the cave was quite big. I would say it could fit 2 Mr. Bear stacked on top vertically. But once, I stepped in a crackling noise sounded and I instinctively tilted my head backwards. When I looked on my side an arrow has been etched into the wall of the cave. I look at the thing I stepped on and noticed it's a wired trap.

"They set up traps? For what?" I looked at the trap in detail.

"Lena!" 

"Are you there?" Two shouts came from inside of the cave. I once again sighed and rushed deeper into the caves while skillfully avoiding their traps. I've gotten the hang of this body quite quickly so it's quite comfortable. But I do wonder how strong is Mr. Bear really is that they need to lay out this much trap. Although I don't think any of them could hurt me, It's more fun to just evade all of them.

'It feels like I'm doing acrobatics' I though while doing a 4 back to back backflips. I landed with grace and continue running until I catched up to them.

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After running for a while, I finally catched up to them. While they're not fast they know about their own traps and can avoid them easily. That speeds them up quite well. When I arrived they both released a sigh full of relieve. They both are now a bit calmer and besides them is a girl that looks like she's in her teen. She has the typical mage gear with the witch hat and the staff. She is now sleeping soundly.

"There are only 3 of you guys here?" I said startling both of them. They seem to have forgotten about me. Despite being startled they both nodded contently. They both then slumped down to the ground. 

'What a good team they are. Worrying about each other is a good thing' I though with a mental nod. But then, the torch went out and we are now in complete darkness. Well it's fine for me as I could see quite well still. But it's still reassuring to have a source of light.

"Do you guys have any firewoods that you brought?" I asked them. They remembered about it and went to search for their bag like a blind person. I sighed seeing them looking everywhere and just went towards their bag to looked for it myself. 

The bag itself is nothing special. It just looked like a normal camping or hiking bag. But then I noticed on how much stuff they put in here. There are so much stuff that I think would not all even fit in here. But I just shrugged it off with the reasoning of.

'I'm in another world so anything could happen'.

I finally found the firewood they were bringing after searching for a while and picked all of them up. Surprisingly, it's not heavy at all. It's very light. So I just dropped it to the ground and use my assumed 'magic' to light it up. The firewoods immediately are burning becoming our source of light inside this dark cave. They said their gratitude to me and sit down circling the fire.

"Sooo, wanna introduce ourselves?" I tried to start a conversation with them. They looked at each other and just shrugged. After all, There are no reasons to not introduce ourselves to each other.

"Then I'll start first" The male with a rough voice. He has straight auburn brown hair. He also has a beard and a scar on his left eye. He again looked like a typical ruffian. He is sitting while leaning against his shield with his sword next to him.

"My name is Klein. Only Klein. I'm the oldest of us three siblings. My age is 20. Im the front guard of the team. We are mercenaries. My power level is on Rank B. Ah, I also have an affinity in earth. I'm sorry for our attitude early on, hope we'll have a great relationship" He introduced himself while smiling. He seems like the gentle type despite his looks. But from his introduction I got a lot of information from it.

Such as the 'mercenaries'. If I gonna assume what it is. It's probably gonna be like an adventurer from manga and games. They work by completing tasks or quests to rank up. There are also no level system here which is great. Another thing is the power level. I could guess power level is how strong you are in terms of combat and not just other measurements. But I could be wrong of course. The last thing is affinity.

'So it is magic isn't it?' I thought about the aura I used. 

'They also used affinities. I wonder how interesting this world will be' I thought with a visible bright smile that shines through the light of the fire.

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(A/N: Sorry for not posting for a while. School is a pain while I also got sick. I don't know how the frick I got sick but yeah. Enjoy the chap, Cheers!)

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