The carriage ride was short, it was only until the outskirts of the city so roughly an hour and a half after boarding it was already time to exit the vehicle. He thanked the driver as he stepped down from the cabin. There were four men waiting for him to arrive, all of them had a sword strapped to their waists and differing amounts of armor equipped. The man in front, who had plate armor but no helmet, called out to Noboru.

“Yo, you Noboru?”

His informal tone was not befitting his soldier-esque appearance, but Noboru didn’t mind that, in fact, to Noboru, this was preferred. Noboru nodded his head with a smile on his face.

“Yes, that’s me.”

The soldier nodded, then introduced himself.

“Name’s Junior, I’ll be taking you on your first hunt. These three behind me are my squad. There’s Jameson, Hicks, and Arthur. “ He pointed to each as he introduced them. Noboru nodded politely to each as they were introduced. “Don’t be nervous about this, yeah? We’re vets, we know what we’re doing. You’ll get the ropes down in no time.” The squad chuckled lightly at his remark.

Noboru bowed his head to all of them. “Please take care of me.” Junior’s smile twitched slightly. “Hey, we don’t really care for bein’ polite here. You can relax, yeah?” Noboru raised his bowed head with a sheepish grin.

“Ah, yeah, sorry. I was too used to being polite in the City. I’ll try to be a bit more relaxed, but it’ll take me a while.” Junior’s stiff smile loosened a bit after hearing that.

“Phew. I was scared you’d be like those nobles in the palace. Looks like we’ll get along great. Now we should get going, we’ll try to make it to the hunt site by today. By the way, how’s your stamina?”

“I’d like to think that I won’t slow you down.” Noboru opted for a more conservative answer.

“That’s good. Then let’s get going.”

The group of five departed towards the treeline, marching at a steady pace. They hiked through the trees for roughly twelve hours, taking breaks and resting as needed. The forest was hard to walk in, with low visibility due to the multitude of trees and bushes, the muddy dirt due to precipitation, and the threat of unknown wildlife all bearing down on the five men, their pace was slower than usual. However, they still arrived at the hunting site before nightfall. The four soldiers worked as a well-oiled machine when they arrived, bringing out supplies and setting up camp rather quickly. The area they chose to set up at was a small clearing in the trees which provided decent visibility on their surroundings and allowed for enough space to set up a fairly nice camping ground. They dug a small pit for a fire to ward off predators at night and to cook their food on. Jameson, who was the squad’s cook, began preparing the cans of quickly cookable food while the other three set up the tents. There were two tents for them to share, one would contain Noboru and Junior, while the other would house the three remaining soldiers. Junior had offered to let Noboru have his own tent if he was uncomfortable but Noboru did not want to make it harder for the four men so he politely declined.

Just as the men finished setting up the tents and preparing a few traps and alarms around the campsite Jameson finished cooking. The meal wasn’t anything luscious, in fact it was fairly bland and not very appetizing, but it wasn’t the worst thing Noboru had ever eaten so he ate with no complaints. After dinner they quickly went to get some rest, leaving only Hicks on watch. He would swap places with someone else after a few hours, Noboru was excluded of course, and they would repeat until morning. The four were used to this style of living and were able to fall asleep almost instantly after lying down. For Noboru, it was a bit harder. His body was tired but his mind was not. He had spent all day marching, and the monotone environment and motions allowed his mind to wander constantly throughout the day. The topic he kept coming back to was the one that was also on his mind currently.

Just how can I end this war as fast as possible? The main thing on Noboru’s mind was not about his upcoming hunt, nor about his aching limbs, it was about how he could end the fight as quickly as possible. The reason why he prioritized that over everything else was simple, he wanted to end the war before the others even had to take part. But to do that, he would need to get stronger as fast as possible. Which meant that while he could rely on the four men he just met, he had to do even more than that. This was obvious. The real question was, what to do? How could he gain strength faster? This thought dominated Noboru’s mind as he slowly slipped into a deep sleep, the day's fatigue finally catching up to him.

When he awoke, the others were already awake and ready to head out. Junior was the first to call out to him.

“Yo, I was just gonna wake ya. We’re goin’ hunting today, you ready?” Noboru shook his head to clear his bleary mind before answering.

“Yes, just give me a moment to get ready.” Noboru began equipping the gear that he had brought with him. It was leather armor and a medium length sword, just like the one he had been using in his previous matches, except this sword was sharpened and made of metal. Its weight was slightly more than that of its wooden counterpart, but it was of no consequence to Noboru. Even without his increased strength from his stats in this world Noboru would have been able to wield a sword of this weight easily.

After getting prepared, Noboru and the four soldiers left the campsite. They left most of their stuff there, leaving the tents setup and the firepit still dug. After all, they were planning on returning to the campsite after the hunt. They took only the essentials, and their food so that the wildlife wouldn’t invade the campsite and consume it all. They also left a fire burning in the fireplace to ward off curious animals, but it wouldn’t last the whole time they were gone. The soldiers didn’t mind, if an animal was in their camp when they got back they would simply kill it, and use its meat for dinner.

Noboru didn’t worry about any of this, he was not well versed in the art of camping so he trusted the soldiers to know what to do more than he trusted himself to. Instead, he focused on the upcoming hunt. They quickly came across their prey, the hunting grounds they went to were lush with this particular monster.

“Alright, Noboru, we’re hunting a Gorillama. It's got a strong upper body and runs on four legs, and its spit is acidic, so watch out for that.” Junior said, pointing at the creature ahead of them.

Noboru was stunned speechless. Not at Juniors description of the monster, it was something else entirely. A Gorillama, a gorilla llama, I expected it to look something like both but isn’t that just a gorilla’s upper half on top of a llama’s body. What is wrong with this world? Noboru was stunned at the Gorillama’s appearance, so much so that he almost started laughing. But he held it in, they were stalking the creature after all, it wouldn’t do well to get noticed.

Junior turned to Noboru after the Gorillama stopped to take a drink at a river. “Now’s our chance. You're up Noboru, we got your back so do your best, yeah?”

Noboru nodded his head. He took a deep breath then unsheathed his sword. You will become my first stepping stone. With that thought in mind, he charged forward.