"Snake men?"
Samuel was the first to break the tension hanging in the air.
Several heads nodded in agreement, but surprisingly, many others didn't.
"I had a different encounter. It was another participant, an old friend from school. He tried to kill me without hesitation," one of the boys who had gone with Samuel said, his voice carrying a certain sadness. No one needed to mention how exhausted, hungry, and thirsty everyone was. It was written all over their faces.
"You guys were attacked?" Nikki's voice reached everyone, but her eyes were fixed on David. He looked at for a few seconds before answering.
"Yes. Fortunately, we had the idea of making wooden spears to defend ourselves, a few hours before the attack. But not everyone made it." His gaze dropped to the corner where the two girls used to sit.
"Good thing he didn't say the idea was mine. I've had enough of these looks... It's like a fat guy like me isn't supposed to survive in this place."
"I see... We were ambushed too, but now we need food and water. Where are the bodies? We can eat the snake meat." Nikki took the lead, even with wounds all over her body. She looked fierce and reliable.
"I was gonna suggest that. We hadn't done anything earlier because our tools weren't good enough." David led the few who still had strength toward the three snakes he and the best friend duo had killed.
The rest collapsed right there. On the rocky ground near the angel's stone, totally wrecked. Their blank stares revealed more than they were willing to say.
Silence settled over the hill, only broken by the crackling fire and the sound of flesh being torn a few dozen meters away.
A cold, chubby hand landed on his shoulder. When Oliver looked, it was Aline staring at him.
"What is it?"
"Why didn't you let David say it was you?" she whispered near his ear, almost clinging to him.
"I... I just want peace. He's the leader." Oliver stammered, and she frowned, but left him alone.
When Oliver turned his face, his eyes locked with Luísa's glowing brown ones staring at him. Her brow was even more furrowed than Aline's had been, and she was looking at him with a strange expression.
He froze, but quickly turned his eyes to the fire when he noticed her gaze.
"What's she thinking? And why do I care?"
Some time passed until the group returned carrying white meat with a few pinkish spots in their arms, but the amount was massive.
"We couldn't get the scales off. Maybe they could be turned into leather. But honestly, I don't think anyone here knows how to do that." Everyone went quiet while Nikki threw a subtle jab at those who had picked tools over knowledge.
With the silence came the cooks' work. Branches became skewers, and swords became knives. It didn't take long for the smell of roasting meat to fill the air.
Many went to the water reservoirs and drank straight from the source. Others, less worried, started washing their wounds and their blood-covered skin right there.
Within hours, everyone was staring at the almost-ready meat, waiting to see who would be the guinea pig. After all, no one knew if the meat was poisonous.
"We could draw straws..." Luísa suggested, clearly not willing to be the one chosen.
"The chances of it being poisonous are near zero, but not zero..." David shared some knowledge I had no clue where he got from.
"No David, the chance is zero." His eyes fell on Oliver. If there was one thing he knew, it was snakes. One of the ways his psychiatrist had recommended to help him face his fear was to study what he feared.
"Venomous snakes produce enzymes in their stomachs that break down venom molecules, so they don't poison themselves if they ever drink their own venom." Oliver explained it as calmly as possible.
"Ahhh, then if you all don't mind. I'll be the first to eat. Bon appétit, everyone." That maniac's grin wasn't any smaller toward Oliver, but he was too tired to waste mental energy on it.
When everyone saw that David didn't drop dead, they dove in to kill their hunger too.
"This shit is awful. Tastes like chicken, but greasier and completely bland."
Eating a snake was still hard for Oliver to believe, but hunger and desperation made it easier to shove that thought to the back of his mind.
A few seconds later, while everyone was still chewing, they started staring at their forearms with confused looks. Even Oliver didn't understand at first, until...
Beep!
[Analyzing data...]
[Saturation: 1%]
He felt something burn in his stomach. His mind got lighter, and his wounds began to itch, clearly from healing faster.
"Shit, is this really an RPG? Does food heal you? Level you up? Or maybe..."
"Did everyone see that? Looks like we need to hit 100%." Samuel pulled everyone out of their focused stares at their bracelets, and several heads nodded.
"While we're at it, did everyone also get a notification called [combat]?" Nikki chimed in and was met with confirming nods from everyone.
"What now? It seems we're not the only ones here. Aside from Samuel's snake men, some saw other humans with no good intentions." Luísa dropped the elephant in the room that no one wanted to acknowledge. With food in their stomachs and calm settling in, it was clear everyone just wanted to sleep.
"Two didn't come back on my side. I'm almost sure those bastards who ambushed us killed them." Nikki spoke through clenched teeth.
"Three on my end. But they might've been killed by vipers or the humanoids." Samuel seemed calm, but Oliver knew that bastard well. Behind that mask, he was anxious.
"We could make a strike. What do you say? Let's head south, the unexplored area, all of us. But first, we retrieve the weapons left behind and arm everyone. No way they can ambush a group this big, right?" Luísa proposed, and silence fell over the clearing. The sky was full of stars, and not a single moon could be seen.
"This has all the signs of being a terrible idea. You don't know their numbers or how the ambush worked. How do you plan to attack?" Oliver kept his thoughts to himself. There were too many natural leaders here, and Nikki's aura was still strong. He didn't want to get in the middle of that.
"Tomorrow at sunrise, a small team of two will go with me to recover all the weapons left behind. We regroup here before noon."
Samuel looked for approval, and a few nodded. Kinda hard to get popular support when almost half your team is dead.
"Alright folks, let's sleep however we can. Tomorrow we'll figure out how to get home. I'm sure we'll make it!"
Luísa tried to raise everyone's spirits, but exhaustion had already taken hold. Slowly, they all began searching for somewhere to sleep.
"Guys... um... aren't we setting a watch so we don't get attacked in the middle of the night?" Aline asked timidly next to Oliver, raising her hand.
They all glanced around at each other, realizing that if it weren't for the chubby girl, they would've made the mistake of sleeping under the serpent-eyed gaze of predators.