- Now you. - stretching out her hand with a bow, Ciare pulled out several arrows from her quiver and stuck them into the ground. With a certain skepticism, Rei picked up this, yet unfamiliar, weapon - he liked close combat much more.

“Repeat my stance, if you were watching carefully.

The guy without much difficulty recreated in his memory a still fresh image of the shot that had taken place a few seconds ago. He raised his bow and turned a little.

"Good, but let me help you." With those slightly ambiguous words, Ciare approached Ray from behind. Clinging to him with her whole body, she grabbed his hands, but the guy was worried about something else. Now his whole back felt incredibly soft. Approximately the fifth size.

"Is she testing me?" - the idea seemed quite probable to Ray, so he tried not to pay attention to the woman who, for some reason, correcting the position of his hands, at the same time rubbed her chest against his back with suspicious activity.

Despite the fact that the weather was cold, the bodies of the forest were more adaptable. And right now, Rei was very sorry that he and Ciara were wearing such thin canvas clothes.

Noticing that the guy did not even blush, the woman, puffing out her lips a little, let him go. Rei saw this slightly childish gesture, but he didn't dare forget the shot she'd just fired.

“Someone who doesn’t know her well might not see a predator because of this behavior.” Pushing stupid thoughts out of his head, he, according to Ciara, pulled on the bowstring, which turned out to be unexpectedly tight. Remembering how easily the woman standing next to him cocked the bow, he once again confirmed his guess.

“My body is much stronger than that of an ordinary forest, but even I need to make an effort to fully cock this weapon. This woman is far from simple. - the guy nodded to himself, but a sweet voice from the side again distracted him:

- And you are strong. I like strong men.

But Rei was unshakable, like a thousand-year-old boulder, however, several “cracks” had already gone through him. Quite steadfastly enduring the already almost unambiguous words of Ciara, he did not answer, but, remembering the position of his hands, took one of the arrows. As soon as he put it on the bow, the woman hugged him again, helping to properly set the arrow on the bowstring. Unexpectedly for him, she whispered in a gentle voice:

“At first, you should close one eye. Once you understand the basic principle, it will no longer be necessary.

Rei felt himself starting to turn on, yet the charm and perseverance of this huntress were to be commended. But he did not want to fail this little test, and for some reason the guy did not want to consider it anything else. Cooling his mind, Rey took aim at the nearest tree and unclenched his fingers.

The arrow hit the target, but closer to its edge. As it seemed to the guy himself, the result was not bad for the first shot, because the target was a full thirty meters away.

The unsuspecting guy almost instantly found himself in the strong arms of a woman. Something told him that Ciare didn't even look where the arrow had landed - it was too fast for her to get close.

What a talented student I have. The gentle whisper could no longer be interpreted in any other way, but Rey still remained calm. Well, or almost calm, so he was still able to answer:

- Yes thank you.

Unexpectedly, the woman pushed him away and in an offended, but no less sweet voice answered:

You should have said that you have a good teacher!

It was impossible to blame Ray for the fact that his apathy cracked when looking at this strange, but no less seductive woman, who now, wrinkling her nose and clenching her fists, was looking at him with a look that was far from being a teacher.

***

“It’s hard to say whose lessons are harder. Why couldn’t ordinary teachers be chosen?” Thinking like this, Rei returned to the hall where he practiced dagger strikes. He was rather tired now, but mostly mentally. After three hours of training, Ciare relented and left.

“Although, these two, according to Thea’s words, can be called the best in their field, so it’s worth it…” Rei took the daggers standing right there, calming himself in this way. He decided not to use the Inventory, because he did not know how others would react to this. Perhaps in this world there are no such things, and what the players are considered here, he did not even know, and he was not interested in it either.

Standing in a familiar stance, he continued to practice blows.

So it was noon and there were two problems: Rey was tired and he had run out of souls. At night, the guy killed eight animals, but he broke two souls during the hunt. Therefore, the remaining six did not give him the opportunity to hold out even until the evening. Deciding to take a break and re-energize in a different way, Rei exited the training ground.

He was heading to his house, intending to eat, but stopped halfway, remembering that there was no point in going there. Before that, he ate only in the hospital, but at home he had neither ready-made food nor products to cook it. In addition, he had no idea how to cook even elementary dishes, in his world machines did all this, so Rei was quite far from cooking. Here, it was not even worth thinking about it, because all the writing was actually cooked on an open fire.

"What to do? Maybe go hunting right now?”

“No… It would be bad if anyone noticed.”

The guy's thoughts were interrupted by a hail and the voice was familiar to him:

Ray, how are you? Your brother doesn't put much pressure on you, does he?

Turning his head to the side, he noticed a girl hurrying towards him.

- Hello, Thea. I'm fine. - at that moment the guy realized that he had found the one he needed. By the way, can you help me please?

Tilting her head to one side, she asked curiously:

- Of course, with what?

- I wanted to eat, but I don’t know where to get groceries, and to be honest, I don’t know how to cook.

Hearing his words, Thea was surprised at first, and then, almost crying, began to apologize:

- Sorry! I completely forgot!

Ray understood the reason for this behavior immediately, but the girl needed to be reassured.

- Don't worry so much. He tried to sound soothing, but it didn't seem to work. Or Thea did not hear his words, because she did not calm down for a moment.

- Have you eaten anything yet? Tears were already in the girl's eyes. - Let's go soon!

Grasping Ray by the hand, Thea dragged him by force. They were moving quite quickly, so after five minutes they entered a large spacious house. According to the local interior, the guy realized that this was some kind of bar or cafe. There was a counter with a middle-aged woman standing behind it, many tables that were also not empty - almost all of them were occupied by visitors.

“Again, excuse me. Here you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. - the girl's face really was guilty, but Ray was now interested in something else.

- Is that nothing? I don't work anywhere...

As the guy found out, the forest people did not use money or anything like that. There was not even an exchange system here, all resources were publicly available, but everyone took exactly as much as he needed, which even created a rather large balance of food. Besides, they had no such thing as unemployment. Everyone was busy with something and did something for the settlement.

Such a device seemed to Ray too utopian, and therefore impossible, because he heard about it only from the words of the girl, but now he was clearly convinced of this.

- It's okay, you were injured. In addition, if you are so worried, then know that now you are preparing to become a hunter, and this is also work and very difficult. The girl raised her finger up.

“Okay,” Ray agreed without much resistance, “you're right. - since this does not arouse suspicion, there is nothing to argue once again.

Smiling, Thea replied:

- Of course, let's go. I will feed you myself.

Ray walked after the joyful girl and the thought itself crept into his head:

“They are so similar to people and at the same time, completely different from them. Strange people."