"Is this enough? I don't think I can bring any more sharp rocks and sticks with me."

Her pockets were filled to the brim that the sticks could be seen sticking out. In addition, her hips looked unusually wider because of the rocks. Not sexy at all.

"Yeah...That's more than enough. More importantly, don't you think we need to cover our scent?"

After I told her that, she consciously filled her lungs with fresh air.

"Haaaa~ Hm? Scent... Ah, Right. That makes sense. What do we even smell like?"

I raised my arm and smelled myself. There was no smell. Wait a second. Doesn't this look bad? It looks like I'm smelling my own armpit in front of her!

Both of our eyes meet. Ah, she also did the same.

Another awkward moment occurred. Only the sound of the wind could be heard.

We rubbed our school uniform's with soil. It only made sense to rub ourselves with it. Now that's done, what's left is to choose which path we take.

We decided to trust what our gut feels instead.

Looking at the forest around us, it was clear that certain parts of the forest had a darker shade than the other. Does that mean it was farther? I didn't know. But, it looked more dangerous so we decided to take the lighter shade path in the forest.

"This looks safer."

I didn't feel scared that much. It's pretty exciting actually. Before all of this happened, I stayed at home mostly playing video games and barely went outside. But, it's not like my adventurous spirit has faded. Now that I'm in this world, it's like my true inner self is being rekindled! Although my body definitely have seen better days...

"Are you feeling scared?"

When I asked her that, she answered quickly.

"Not really. You're feeling the same right?... Excited, I mean."

She asked me back and I agreed with her. She seemed amused once she got my answer. We were amused with each other's similarity.

Soon, the village started to shrink the farther we walk away. On the way, we spotted some weird berries and took some with us. They looked similar to blueberries. Of course, we didn't eat it yet. It was only for the utmost emergency. Who knows what kind of effect we'll receive once we swallow it? We might even die!!

"My feet is getting heavy..."

I didn't hear what she said, but I realized that she was walking a bit far away from me. She was pressing her thighs and her knees were bent slightly while walking. At this rate, our exploration will slow down.

"Let's go back."

Seeing her at this state, I knew she wasn't completely exhausted. But, we are quite far away from the village. It took us probably around 30-45 minutes to reach here. We didn't walk that fast either. The terrain was quite bumpy so that probably affected her.

Still, we haven't spotted any creatures yet. Maybe this forest is cursed? No no no no, don't think negatively. Other than that, while both of us were walking, we got into a conversation about insects and stuff. Pretty interesting right? How does this world's bugs compare with ours? For the first part, the worms looked identically the same when we looked at the ground. But, we didn't dare touch it. Why would we?

Strangely, you would expect to find a lot of bugs in a forest but we couldn't even find a single one. How could this be? How does the food cycle work here? That thought stayed with both of us for quite some time. We reached to a solution that maybe some type of magic (if it even exists in this world) is filling this forest with something. It's an isekai after all.

So much talk for bugs. In any case, we were now halfway back to the village. The forest noticeably turned a bit darker since time's passed but it was still clearly visible. However, while walking back, our pace became much slower than it was. My feet felt a bit heavier and the bumpy terrain only made it worse. However, the person behind me is starting to look exhausted for real this time.

"Do you need a hand? You're looking pretty exhausted."

It took her a while to respond which shows how tired she was.

"Huh?"

"Okay. Fine," she continued.

Now that I'm in front of her, I didn't know where to touch or support her from. The school's girl uniform was pretty thick so it acted like a mini-armor The problem was her skirt. Rocks and sharp were sticking out from her pockets. I had to be careful not to get poked by it.

I placed my hand on her back while she placed hers on mines. This position worked but the pace was much slower. Because of this, I'm worried if we could head back in time,

Phew. The forest had become darker quickly. Time was running out. Fortunately, since we were walking slowly, she managed to recover a bit from my support so she's walking together with me now. The village could be clearly seen from this distance. If I could approximate how long it takes to reach, probably 3 minutes.

"H-Hey, look there!"

Suddenly, she whispered to me and pointed to our left side.

At a distance, I spotted something one under a tree. It was a creature. One that we've never seen before in our world. In contrary to our astonishment, we didn't care at all if its a unique creature.

"Food..."

"Food..."

Both of our eyes locked with the creature's body. The size of it was similar to a rabbit, but its body was similar to a pig. Which meant, it had lots of meat.

Unconsciously, I took out a sharp stick from my pocket. She also took out one from her pocket but I didn't mind at all. After all, we think and do the same thing. We only had just one minor difference. That's all.

Our primitive hunter senses activated, signalling the hunt to start.