The players had cleared out a large number of trees just to make the village and were clearing out more every day, so Yin and Yang had to walk for quite a bit before finding any Maple Trees. The two sisters had tried to talk during that time but after Yang's earlier outburst it felt too awkward, and it certainly didn't help that there wasn't much for them to talk about.

Aside from a few pitiful attempts at small talk the most they were able to discuss was how Yin should allocate her EXP points. As much as Yang wanted to protect her sister she didn't just tell Yin how to build her avatar, instead trying to explain the system the best she could while offering advice from her own experiences with RPGs. To her credit, Yin was a very fast learner and was able to easily figure out the basics despite having had no interest in video games prior to New Eden Online. The only reason she needed help now was that she had already done everything she could think of.

Yin has officially raised all of her Skills to level 10, and while she still had tons of EXP left she didn't just want to use it to level up but didn't see much reason in learning any of the other Skills available. The only one that stood out was [ANALYSE] but both Loran and Soze knew it and they were going to stay in a party with them for the foreseeable future, so her learning it too was somewhat redundant.

Eventually, Yin decided to just raise her level to 12.

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 12

[EXP]: 1065/1600

[STATUS]

    {HP}: 80/80

    {SP}: 240/240

[END]: 16

[STR]: 9

[AGI]: 22

[DEX]: 22

[PER]: 25

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 3

[SKILLS]

[CRITICAL STRIKE] Lv.10

    (Active Cost: 20 SP) Increase damage of next attack by 50%.

[FAR SIGHT] Lv.10

    (Active Cost: 1 SP/sec) Increase range of vision by 200%.

[HUNTER] Lv.10

    (Passive) Increase damage against beast targets by 30%.

[SP BOOSTER] Lv.10

    (Passive) Reduce HP and increase SP by 50%.

She had enough Ability Points remaining to learn new Skills if any are created in the near future, as well as enough EXP to quickly level them up.

"Alright, as long as you're sure," Yang told her. Yang then took one last swing at the Maple Tree before a great creaking and snapping sound could be heard from the base of the tree. Yang stepped to the side as the tree fell with an enormous crash. Yin had kept out of the way by sitting in the branches of a nearby Birch Tree. "Okay, I'm pretty sure that will be enough for Rika to make the armor."

"Yes, I certainly can't imagine one set of armor requiring more than a whole tree, but..."

"But what?"

"How exactly do you intend to get this back to the village?"

Yang stared blankly for a moment before taking in just how massive the tree was. "Son of a-!" The trunk of the tree was nearly a foot and a half thick for most of its almost 20-foot length, even without the branches it would weigh more than a ton, and the whole thing might be double that. "Okay, you know what, give me a second." Yang then tossed her Stone Ax to the side and rubbed her hands together, approaching the base of the tree.

"Yang, there is no way you can carry that back to the village."

"I just raised my STR to 25, I at least need to try."

"Of course you do," she sighed with a slight smile. 'Always so headstrong.'

Yang bent down next to the trunk of the tree, her left arm over the top holding it to her side while her right went under to lift. With a determined grunt, she attempted to stand.

Yin had expected the trunk to move slightly, maybe for it to come off the ground; but she certainly hadn't expected to see her sister cleanly lift the tree off of the ground!

Although the players hadn't fully discovered how their stats compared with reality, many understood that gaining even a few levels gave them superhuman abilities. In truth, having a 10 in any stat was the absolute limit of what a human being was capable of, though dulled slightly to compensate for the variety of ways they can be applied. Yang's 25 STR gave her lifting strength that easily surpassed Olympic heavy lifters.

"See... I told... you... I got it," Yang grunted. She then tried to walk forward, but she felt like her legs were locked to the ground. Even with superhuman strength, she was still lifting something too heavy for a human to budge; it was only stubbornness that let her get this far.

"Yang let go, it's too much!" Yin ran over to her sister in a panic.

'I... can... do... this!' Yang didn't respond, but Yin easily read the determination on her beet-red face. Her nose began to bleed as her blood pressure increased from the strain.

"NO, YOU CAN'T!" Yin grabbed Yang's shirt and neck. "SORRY!" she yelled as she pulled her sister away from the tree.

Ordinarily, Yang was strong enough to easily shrug off her sister's efforts, but her hands were already struggling to hold on to the tree trunk. The two girls fell to the side, panting on the ground, while the tree trunk fell to the ground with a loud, dull thump.

"You... didn't have to do that," Yang said through labored breaths.

"I'm not going to just watch as you kill yourself trying to LIFT A FUCKING TREE!"

Yelling was already out of character for Yin, but Yang was certain that she had never heard her sister cuss before. "I- I wasn't going to die from this."

"Check."

"What?"

"Check your menu."

Just wanting to calm her sister down, Yang opened her menu, not expecting to see anything of note; but much to her surprise, she had lost a few points of health from lifting the tree. "Oh holy shit, I actually lost HP from that."

"Exactly," Yin huffed, "now shut the fuck up and don't scare me like that again."

"Wow sis, never seen you this angry before."

"I can't say I've ever been this angry before."

"...Not even when I-"

"Stop." Yin silenced her sister, sitting up and putting her hand over her mouth. "I know what you're thinking, and it. Wasn't. Your. Fault."

"Of course it's my fault," Yang said, pulling her sister's hand away, "if it wasn't for me you wouldn't be-"

"Shush, none of that matters anymore." Yin locked eyes with Yang. "I don't care and you shouldn't either. Now take a moment and calm down." She then lay back in the grass.

The area was far from the noise of the village, and the falling of the tree had caused most of the animals to flee. A moment of quiet came over the two sisters, silently staring at the clouds and sky between the branches.

"Hey," Yin was the first to break the silence.

"Yeah?"

"Would you say this place is a good game? Aside from the whole 'trapped' part."

"...Probably. It's as pretty as most nature sims despite being an RPG and the game mechanics themselves seem decent enough. Why?"

"I'm just starting to see why you like these games so much. I never saw much point to them, it just seemed like a waste of time, but maybe that's the point? You make your choice and it matters for no other reason than because you chose to do it. It's all so very..."

"Fun?"

"Liberating."

Yang scoffed, "can't you just say 'fun' like a normal person?"

"I prefer liberating," Yin smirked.

"Yeah, yeah," Yang pulled herself to her feet. "Anyway, let's go. I need to get Alexx to help me with this, if I can lift it the two of us can probably pull it. He'll probably hate it though." Yang held out her hand.

"Why would he hate it?" she asked as she was pulled up.

"Oh, sis, you are going to love this story."

The two sisters made their way back to the village, laughing along the way.

~~~~~

As Loran woke up from his nap he could see the sun beginning to set in the sky, he had slept through the rest of the day. 'Damn, must've been more tired than I thought.' Crawling out of his shelter, he stretched for a moment before making his way to the Kitchen. A few people tried to talk to him along the way, mostly about his party's run-in with the Moss Wolves, but he just grunted and kept walking. 'There were five people in the party, why do they all want to talk to me?'

Soon enough he was at the Kitchen and grabbed a Wolf Meat Skewer from one of the cooks, thankfully most if not all the cooks had learned that Loran wasn't one for idle chit-chat, so they didn't bother with anything beyond basic pleasantries. Much to Loran's surprise, there seemed to be a new kind of animal being butchered; he was about to ask about it, but then he turned to see Aman mixing some kind of black paste with a mortar and pestle and decided to leave. He didn't know what was in that bowl and he had a firm desire to never find out. 'It's getting late anyway, I should be heading for The Pit.'

Ordinarily, Loran wouldn't bother going since there would be so many people, but he also wanted to try announcing his idea for creating a new sensory Skill. This would be the quickest way to know if others had tried it, and if not get more people trying it to create the Skill faster.

The path between The Pit and the Kitchen was very short, and soon Loran had arrived. As usual, the area was bustling, with about a dozen people milling around and at least three times as many sitting around and chatting in their own little groups. Loran continued walking around, trying to find a place without too many people.

"Loran! Over here!"

It was Alexx, along with the rest of the party near the center.

"Oh hey, didn't see you guys."

"Mh, surprised to see you here," said Soze, drinking from a wooden bowl.

"I have my reasons. Besides, I ended up sleeping the whole day, may as well see if anything interesting happened."

"Did the hunt really tire you out that much?" Yang snarked.

"You really need to sleep better kiddo."

"Again, not all of us are used to sleeping in hell, Soze."

"I think you're the only one who's been complaining about being tired," Alexx said.

"...Am I seriously alone in this?"

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"Just you kiddo."

"That seems to be the case."

"...I fucking hate this game," Loran groaned, lying back in the grass. "Whatever, what did you guys do while I was asleep?"

The four began recounting the events of the day. Alexx talked about his new battle strategy, Soze mentioned the possible plans to grow Wolf's Boon in the village, and the twins just said they chopped down a tree for Yang's new armor. They hadn't really accomplished much past that. Yin and Yang had grabbed Alexx to help pull back the tree, Soze decided to tag along, and that ended up taking most of the day. Yang also brought up her new Skill and Loran told them his plan to create his own.

"Your attention please!"

The five were going to continue talking, but someone had spoken up, there was no specific time for people to start making announcements, so everyone was basically just waiting for someone to start.

As it turned out, the person to start was Maxie. Her injuries had recovered enough that she decided to go out with her party today. The hunt was mostly uneventful, avoiding large animals for the time being, but they had discovered a new kind of plant, which they had named an Energy Berry. The small yellow berry apparently had an energizing effect on anyone who ate it, making them feel wide awake in a matter of seconds. Immediately The Pit was filled with cheers and a few players that tried to ask for some berries right away. Many players were used to starting their mornings with a cup of coffee or some variety of energy drink, things totally absent from the world of New Eden Online. While it might not be the same, an instant morning pick-me-up was something they were craving and the players would take what they could get.

After that, some of the hunting parties made announcements of their most recent hunts, but this wasn't really news to anyone. It was just a bit of boasting between some of the more competitive players.

Soze then made his announcement about the Moss Wolves and the Wolf's Boon, which also saw a round of applause. Loran was about to speak up about his plan, but before he could the leaders of two other hunting parties stood up. As it turns out, Loran and the others were not the only ones to discover a new batch of animals.

The first party discovered a creature they decided to call the Hell Pig, which was apparently the animal Loran had seen in the Kitchen. As the name implied, it looked a fair bit like a wild boar, but it was at least twice the size, had much larger tusks, and was seen in a group of three eating a Spined Deer. According to the description given by [ANALYSE], Hell Pigs were omnivores that primarily scavenged but can easily hunt even the most aggressive targets when necessary. The fight consisted primarily of dodging the boars' [CHARGE] attacks, followed by shooting arrows at them as they retreated for the next round. Their skulls were also incredibly thick, Stone Arrows would just get logged in without doing much damage, although one lucky shot had pierced its eye and killed it. Otherwise, only the few Spined Arrows they had were usable from the front, and the damage was still greatly reduced.

While the Hell Pigs were intimidating, they were nothing compared to the monster discovered by the other party, the Demon Bear. For the most part, it looked like a normal grizzly bear, just being larger and having an additional pair of hind legs, but as the party leader continued his description the mood in the Pit continued to fall. The bear had been fighting against a pack of Moss Wolves, and every swing of its huge claws was an instant kill. Rearing back on its hind legs it was easily 10 feet tall, and since it had four hind legs it could still move quite easily. The attacks of the wolves barely had an effect on it, possessing a Skill called [TOUGH HIDE] which provided Armor based on its END stat. Its two main stats seemed to be STR and END, but all of its stats were over 40 thanks to the bear they found being Level 30, the highest level found in the game so far. The description provided the most relevant piece of information though, classifying the Demon Bear as an apex predator.

Being an apex predator didn't simply mean it was strong, it meant there was nothing in these woods that could reliably kill it. Such animals had no predators of their own, they were more likely to die from old age than from anything else in their ecosystem. No matter how difficult the players found the other animals of the woods, none of them held a candle to the Demon Bear.

Many of the players were frightened at the very thought of such a monster, especially if it were to appear near the village. However, among some of the players, another thought occurred. 'The first Boss!'

Even if the threat of death was looming over their heads, the simple fact was that these people were all avid gamers and they were trapped in a video game. While the danger of their situation had left most of the players shaken, there were still plenty of them that were unable to completely shake off habits and feelings that had been built up over the course of years. As much of a threat that the Demon Bear posed, it also held a promise; becoming stronger than the Demon Bear meant being the strongest beings in the woods, nothing else would pose a threat to the players after that. And so, the more courageous players already began making mental preparations, imagining a future where they were the rulers of the woods.

Next was the introduction of some new players, who were found by another of the hunting parties. Despite the fact it has been nearly a month since everyone became trapped in New Eden Online, there were still a few players wandering the woods. The five weren't in the best condition, they were unable to find a reliable hunting method and fed themselves purely off foraging; surviving these woods was difficult, even before dealing with predators. They had spent the afternoon stuffing themselves in the Kitchen and would be fine after a day or two of rest.

Once they were done, Loran decided to make his own announcement about creating a new Skill, explaining how he figured that players with high PER would probably trigger the Pioneer System by training blindfolded. Although there were a few that said they tried it, none of them had a PER stat greater than 15. Loran said that anyone with a high PER stat interested in creating the Skill should join him at the training field tomorrow.

Yang then announced the creation of the [SHIELD BASH] Skill. While there were more than a few players that were interested in the Skill, Yang explained that she hadn't mastered it yet, so others would need to either get it themselves or wait for her to level it up.

The final announcement of the night came from Demeter, announcing some of the results from her field which was starting to sprout. It would still be some time before they were ready for harvest, but she explained that if the field was expanded, the village could have a large harvest of berries, wild vegetables, and even grains within a few months. Just as with the announcement of Wolf's Boon, many players cheered at the promise of better food to eat, and there were many who agreed to help expand the field.

A few voices of protest questioned whether there was a point to such a long-term goal, but they were quickly silenced; the simple fact was that finding Dr. Zheng meant finding one person out of one billion players, it's not just finding a needle in a haystack, it's finding a specific grain of sand in the desert. No one had given up completely on the possibility of finding him, but everyone assumed that rescue would come far sooner than if they were to try getting out themselves; but even if the authorities were working on freeing them from the outside, the time dilation effect of the AetherGear meant that they still had to survive in the game for five times as long as it took to get them out. If that took a year in reality, that would be five years in NEO. Long-term survival had to be the goal.

Most of the crowd dispersed after that, turning in for the night. The next morning the village became far more active than usual.