Eian looked around and stretched as the first sun arose.
The meeting had been extremely awkward, the group had a lot more tension than before.
Alex seemed a little up front with Sarah and that was just weird, Alex had never lost it so far, he supposed it must have something to do with Jessica.
Jessica seemed to be the same, if a little less hostile to him, as if half had transferred over to Sarah, and of course she was staring at Alex every now and then.
He almost couldn't believe Jessica could now see the future, maybe she'd finally be useful and death magic wouldn't hurt, still it sucked she didn't get teleportation.
For some reason those two had been sneaking disapproving looks at Sarah and she returned them, he wondered if they were officially a thing now.
Jessica had been having a few fits that they called visions pop up and apparently none of them were good futures, must suck.
It all made him wonder what the hell happened while he was gone, but there was no tactful way to ask.
It also didn't bode well for the group, they'd have to be careful, but honestly he was a little glad, perhaps now they wouldn't give him as much shit.

The plan so far had been to fix up the cave and then try mapping out the area.
Sarah had said that they didn't want to have a base near somewhere potentially disastrous, so the mapping was to ensure there weren't dangerous dens of monsters nearby.
If there was something dangerous then they'd, well actually just he, would have to build and reinforce somewhere less dangerous.
Once they had the major landmarks they'd go to the city to hunt, by Sarah's estimate it wasn't too far.
Eian had somehow run all the way back near to the place Sarah had set grass on accidental fire, which turned out to be the 'signal' he had misinterpreted.
From that area it should only be about a two hours hard walk south to the city more of less.

He had described his new power rock armor to the group.
Sarah had said to hold it as a trump card, his thoughts were she was happy, but not too overly impressed.
Well to be honest he hadn't told her about his fights with monsters and it was a last resort, plus it was the first useful thing he had gotten from his element.
He didn't want to come off like he was showing off either, especially since Sarah's fire was constantly useful along with Alex's healing.
Alex even tried to cheer him up by saying he would likely increase in power when he gained higher spirit, he even complimented him and said he was already the best fighter around and the toughest dude he knew.
Jessica was indifferent and sulking the whole while looking at the floor, as if waiting for the executioners block.

'Another day another dollar.' Eian smiled to himself, he felt much better with his aches a bruises gone, though something deep inside still felt tired, probably what Ul meant by channels.

Alex had four in body now, he apparently had an upgrade waiting when he checked, he had devoured lots of cat and wolf meat to get stronger.
He looked a little thin now though, no-where near as fat-free as he did of course, but anymore would land him in Eian's shoes.
His attributes as is were: Body four, Mind three, Spirit eight for a grand total of fifteen.
Sarah had nodded to his upgrade and Eian felt better knowing Alex could hold his own in a fight better.

"Eian are you using the magic ring?" Sarah stared at his eyes.
"Um...No. Why?" Eian scratched the back of his head.
"Can I have it please? I might get more use out of it." Sarah looked away.
"Sure." Eian shrugged and handed her the ring, it hadn't been any help so far.

'Maybe we should train on our off-time? Ul gave me training, but I doubt Alex has any and I haven't fought a human-shaped enemy since that plant beast.' Eian close his eyes and inhaled deeply as he faced the rising sun.

Eian and Alex had spent a lot of time carving out the wolves during the night, Jessica apparently still had her dagger.
It was tiring, especially as they were trying to get the pelts.
So far they had only managed to skin one and it was a pathetic result.
It was easy enough for Sarah to smoke and cook the meat however.
Eian had fashioned a water barrel and a few other things too.

"Alright people. I think it's time to start checking the surrounding area for dangerous monsters. That's all we'll do today, maybe down a few trees for wood with Alex's axe." Sarah had her arms crossed as she looked about.
"You think we'll find something dangerous?" Jessica was looking about pouting miserably.
"I think so, we'll just kill most of what we find. If it's something too dangerous, we will have to move remember." Sarah sighed loudly at the thought, Eian couldn't help but agree.

They got out of the cave and wandered about marking the surrounding trees, the dirt outside was slightly damp, it had rained during the night.
They easily found the remains of the forest fire Sarah caused accidentally.
It had cleared out perhaps a few miles of forest, burnt husks of trees littered the area, but ash and smoke polluted the landscape and air.
The rain had poured here it seemed and must have put out the fire remains, because patches of muddy ash littered everywhere.
Sarah told them to check the other surrounding areas, as the southern part was obviously clear.
They then headed west.

Howls spooked them, Jessica let out a small surprised gasp.

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Shortly thereafter a white gorilla with four arms appeared nearby, Eian threw himself to the side to dodge the impact.
Drawing his damaged great sword he noted there were a grand total of four, surrounding them from different angles.
Eian saw a flash of light, heard Sarah shout something incomprehensible even as he positioned himself.
One was on the floor twitching, Sarah was channeling lightning at a second, another was being held at bay by Alex and Jessica's swings, the last was charging him.
Eian stabbed it's front arm while dodging it's charge, he used it's momentum to cut deeply, ignoring him it breezed past as it failed to tackle him.
He turned and noted the beast was charging him again, Eian timed it's charge and cut at it's leg deeply while dodging.
He saw the beast stagger into a pile and began trying to get up from floor.
He quickly sent cuts at the beasts other limbs, it rolled up into a protective ball, but Eian got good stab at it's neck it went limp.

Eian then turned to look at his group.
Sarah had thoroughly roasted one and had another two twitching on the ground, she looked exhausted.
Alex was sitting on the ground and appeared to have recently healed himself, his shield was looking battered.
Jessica was of course kneeling next to Alex asking questions about his health.

'Oh! That lightning is so cool.' Eian smirked that was useful.

"Jessica, you kill them. I...We need you to get your magic as soon as possible" Sarah sweating and pointing to the twitching beast, Eian nodded.
"Fine." Jessica was frowning and sounded reluctant.

If there was one thing Eian agreed on about Sarah, it was that she sure did know what was usually best for the group.
Jessica had little trouble killing them with a clean stab to the skull each, though it looked like she closed her eyes as she did so.

"Do you think there are more about?" Jessica wrung her hands and was looking through the trees.
"Maybe, let's be careful when checking. I think I have a few more fights and I'll be out of energy or close to." Sarah wiping the sweat away.
"Maybe you should only use fire for now? Lightning seems to drain you more." Eian thought that was best.
"Lightning incapacitates them though. It's safer." Sarah shrugged.
"Yeah, but it's no use if you run out mid fight." Eian thought that made more sense for now.
"Then just be more careful. All of you. I'll use it if I see trouble." Sarah shrugged and conceded the point.

They kept searching the area and stumbled into a large band of four-armed gorillas on the floor.
Five gorillas were lined up in front of their animal-band, while the other beasts stayed back and held what looked like babies on their breasts.
The front line of beasts did threatening calls and charged after Sarah approached, she sent her fireballs at them after.
Focusing on one particular beast Eian aimed his sword at it's face, thrusting right at the exact time, it's sheer weight killed it.
Eian was barreled by the body and landed on his ass several feet away, before almost rolling.
Looking about he saw Alex sending reckless sword swings and blocking massive punches from a beast.
Jessica similarly swinging, but was retreating mostly from it's threatening display.
Sarah had two mutant-gorillas fully aflame, whom were howling and backing away from more fire.

Eian quickly grabbed his great-sword and pried it from the dead beasts skull.
Charging he chopped at Jessica's enemy tearing deeply near the neck, it howled and backed away holding it's bleeding at bay one-handed.

"AH" Alex's voice sounded pained.
"Alex!" Jessica abandoned Eian and went to help him.

'Bitch!' Eian focused on his new enemy.

Eian swung at it's arms as it attempted to protect itself, he scored several tears and soon the beast backed away.
It swung its arms and beat it's chest threateningly, but Eian kept lashing out.
Desperate the beast reared and charged, Eian split it's skull before it accumulated momentum, killing it without staggering backwards much.
Turning to look he saw Alex and Jess had killed their enemy, while Sarah had toasted both of hers as well.

"The other's ran away after they died. These must have been the males protecting the band." Sarah pointed at the now missing beasts.
"Will they be back?" Eian frowned, even if they were only females they looked plenty big.
"I doubt it, they probably think we are either predators or competitors and have claimed this area. They'll likely find somewhere else to settle." Sarah nodded, Eian shrugged he wasn't an expert at all thing animal.
"How are you Alex?" Sarah had turned to look.
"I'm good." Alex was sheepishly staring at the dead four-armed gorilla.
"Should we keep going?" Eian was looking about for more enemies.
"I think so. I have another fight in me." Sarah was staring up at the sky.

They wandered again for most of an hour finding nothing.
The terrain was damp at beast and muddy at worst, Eian was hating it.
The area soon begun looking like marsh.

"Stop!" Jessica startled him, and everyone apparently as they too stopped.
"Why?" Sarah furrowed her brows at her.
"Alex dropped in a bog. He died! I saw it!" Jessica's eyes were wide and she was backing away.
"What?" Alex sounded flabbergasted, though Eian couldn't see his face through the visor.
"Alright. We'll just mark trees for now and this place will be no-go-area then. Better safe than dead. We'll have to cut a few trees later to prevent us from running this way by accident if we're being chased." Sarah was studying the location.
"Guys so that's south and west checked right?" Eian looked about trying to see if he recognized anything.
"Yeah, we came from the east in a hurry and you probably came north so that might be safe, but we'll check both just in case." Sarah shrugged.
"I can't remember really. Everything was dark and monster attacks weren't helping." Eian rubbed his healed arm, he though he felt a tinge when remembering.
"That must have sucked man." Alex turned, Eian imagined he was looking at him with pity.
"Sucked ballsssss." Eian smiled, though they wouldn't see it through his helmet.

Chit chat over they marked trees and chopped bush, for a long time.
Once Sarah was satisfied they set out towards their base.
They took a break to rest, eat, drink and relax.
Then they set out north.