Golden Experience
Chapter 9: “An Outing”

Rare wanted to leave the cave with the girls and explore.

But first, the four of them were filthy, so everyone went down to the underground lake to wash up. They only had plain water, so there was no way to get really clean down to the cuticles, but they could at least wash off most of the dirt. They were so dirty that the color of their washed hair barely changed compared to before, but after some patient, spirited scrubbing, it was at least evident under torchlight that they had each different colored hair.

Kerry’s hair was probably a bright reddish-brown. Maybe like a copper red. In a well-lit area, it would surely shine brilliantly. Though Rare couldn’t say if she’d ever get the chance to see it. Riley’s hair was sepia-colored, something close to an olive-brown. In the cave, it was the least eye-catching color. Remy had the brightest-colored hair. Yellow ochre… might not be the most flattering image, but once her cuticles were healed, it might be a nice, deep blonde. Marion’s hair took the most work to clean. It felt like she could scrub forever and dirt would continue to slough off, but it was also apparently just a brown color. It was much darker than Riley’s.

She wanted to replace some kind of hair-cleaning oil or chemical to get them even cleaner, but for now, this was all she could do. Scissors would be nice too, so she could cut it, try to untangle it a bit, and generally just tidy them up, but she’d just have to settle for this kind of wild, disheveled look for the time being.

They may be leaving, but since the cave was now her personal area, only Rare and her followers were allowed to enter it. No need to leave someone at home.

This meant that the cave could no longer be randomly chosen as a starting location for a new player. Rare certainly hadn’t intended to completely take over one of the monster race’s random spawn points. But then again, considering the size of the continent, there must be countless caves like this out there, so even if the number of spawn points went down by one, it’s not like suddenly new players couldn’t start a new game or anything.

It was dark outside the cave, enough that it was hard to see anything right in front of you. It must be way past sundown. Something Rare welcomed. She didn’t have to worry about sunburn, and either way she wouldn’t be able to see too far in front of her anyway. It appeared that the moon was out, but the dense trees completely covered the sky, so no moonlight could get through. She could hear the high-pitched cries of some faraway animal. There must be a lot of nocturnal beasts.

“Kerry, are you familiar with this forest?”

“Nah, we haven’t been in this area that long, so I don’t know much. We only just found that cave earlier this morning.”

Now that she mentioned it, Rare felt like she had already been told that. Even though they just got here, it had already become the [Mountain Cat Bandit Group’s Base]. Perhaps it was a seed planted for future development. The base designation and becoming a unique boss, that is.

“Boss, where were you hiding in the cave? When we found it, we searched the whole thing, so there shouldn’a been any monsters or anything in there.”

“Ahh, I actually don’t know myself. I don’t know how I ended up all the way in the back of the cave. And then you girls… a bunch of armed strangers found me, so I just ended up attacking you.”

“’Zat so… I guess weird stuff happens sometimes.”

Maybe it was because we were bound together as master and follower, but she was damn gullible. Or maybe she was just an idiot since her INT was low—she just blurted out whatever was on her mind. If that really were the cause, even though she was a melee DPS, she still needed a certain amount of INT. Rare could boost it, but her current store of XP was too low. In any case, the five of them needed to farm XP.

Their current objectives were furs, food, and XP. In other words, they needed to replace something furry and edible to beat up. After explaining that, Marion crouched down and began sniffing. She had the [Enhanced Smell] skill, which she must have activated.

“Boss, I smell a wild boar.”

Rare indicated that Marion should follow the scent, and Remy focused on listening to their surroundings. Remy had the [Enhanced Hearing] skill. With Marion at the front and Rare in the center, the group of five slowly and carefully traversed the forest. Having lots of experience walking through woods from other games, Rare skillfully avoided all the roots and leaves on the ground. Marion and Riley in front cleared all the hanging vines and impeding underbrush with their hatchets.

“…Stop,” Remy said to hold back the group. “…I hear fighting. Another beast?”

Marion also spoke up. “I can also smell blood. Probably a boar and a wolf.”

“Riley, go up and sneak a peek,” Kerry directed.

“’Kay.”

Riley went to go scout alone. She had both the [Enhanced Vision] and [Hawkeye] skills. [Hawkeye] was in the [Archery] tree and gave a bonus to accuracy when shooting at long-range, but it also had a secondary effect of making it easier to spot objects beyond long-range. If you couldn’t see it, you couldn’t target it, after all.

“Ah, sorry Boss, for giving orders. It’s just a habit…”

“Not at all, I don’t mind. Rather, when we’re in a small group like this, or when an immediate decision is necessary, just get my permission after. Actually, we’ve been talking normally, is it all right not to hold our breaths or something?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Boar and wolves both have noses better than ours, so they’d know about us way before we know about them.”

“Ah, gotcha.”

In other words, it’s hard to ambush wild animals in a forest. Obvious fact is obvious.

But if a beastkin, who already had enhanced senses, strengthened their sense of smell with skills and was still outperformed by a wild wolf, she wondered how normal players were supposed to hunt wolves. Rare, who hadn’t explored the forests much during the closed beta, had no idea. After a bit of time, Riley returned. Since everyone’s range of vision was so severely handicapped, it almost looked like she had just suddenly popped into existence.

“Just like Marion said, it’s a wolf. It probably attacked the boar we were tracking.”

“Got it. Boss, what should we do?”

Apparently Kerry decided her role was to handle minor orders then check with her boss, Rare, for feedback and direction. They had a surprisingly competent command structure… or something that felt kind of close to how a wild pack of beasts operated.

“We’ll be opportunists; wait for the boar to go down, then attack the wolf… although we actually want the boar to still be alive then take them both out. XP is precious.”

“Got it. Let’s move, girls.” As soon as Kerry said that, she immediately turned to Rare. “Ah, Boss, s’all right if we go?”

“Of course. If that’s what you’ve decided, Kerry, then don’t mind me, just bring me their heads.”

With a ferocious smile, she melted into the darkness. The other three followed after her. Rare listened for the sounds of battle to make her way to where she thought it was taking place.