A Failure's hopeful Journey

The sun rose from the east and shone upon the black leaves, making them look like black gold. You Xi Wang, looked at his teammates as they all woke up groggily. Fenny saw Maya curled up in his lap, she wanted to pat her but her movement alerted Maya as she flinched back a bit.

Fenny said, "Such a sharp little one, Wang, you better look after it or you are having it from me, okay?"

You Xi Wang replied, "Yes, momma fenny."

She patted his head, "Good boy." was the remark she left as she walked up to Allan to eat the breakfast.

The rest of the cubs woke up and cautiously approached the group, the group let them be and kept doing what they were doing, Maya growled and the cubs relaxed. Turns out she was the eldest and was also the stronger one.

Neo walked up to the cubs and crouched in front of them, he saw a beautiful cub looking at him curiously, the cubs were all as big as two human palms placed together. He stretched his hand to reach her, the cub flinched a bit yet still allowed him to touch herself, Neo smiled while he gently stroked her small head, after a few strokes the cub rubbed her head against his palm, showing acceptance.

The cub was silver-furred and had deep blue eyes, a streak of white fur was stretched across her side, it was arced like a crescent moon. Neo happily picked up the silver furred beauty in his arms and fed her food, Allan walked up to the cubs too and he served them all with some meat shreds, the three cubs ate it quickly and a jet black-furred cub growled when a white-furred cub tried to take a bite of his food, Allan crouched down in front of the cubs and said in a soft voice, "Don't worry we have enough for you to eat." he served more meat in front of the cubs as he watched them eat contently.

Yuki noticed a cub was almost invisible as he sat in the tree's shadow and she walked up to him and crouched down, she said, "Hello, little one, would you like to be friends with me?" her voice was like silver bells, the cub moved up to her and sniffed her before rubbing her head against her leg, Yuki happily picked her up, she walked up to You Xi Wang.

She showed him the cub in her arms and asked, "This little beauty was invisible in the shadows. How about we name her Shadow?"

He nodded as he kept stroking Maya's back. She seemed to like his affectionate touch because she just laid in his lap with her eyes closed. Allan picked the black-furred cub just like him in temperament, diligent and orderly. The white-furred cub noticed all his siblings, getting along with a human, he was upset for being left out but then he saw a cute chubby girl eating food, he walked up to her and sat down looking at her.

Fenny sensed a gaze, as she lifted her head she discovered that the source was sky-blue eyes and a snow-white furred cub, she passed on a piece of meat to him which was an appreciated gesture and the cub became good friends with her following that.

Following the quick breakfast was the cub naming session, You Xi Wang already named his partner Maya, Allan named his partner Shroud, Neo named his silver-haired partner Luna as she had a crescent moon on her side, Yuki named her cub Shadow while Fenny choose the name Snowflake.

Maya was proficient in dark and ice elements but also had an illusion creating skill as a bonus, Shroud was a typical Night Hound jet black and proficient in dark element, Luna could manipulate water and darkness her prowess increased at night, Shadow could walk through shadows and could cast cold mist in surroundings, Snowflake was all snow element and no darkness at all.

Allan spoke up, disrupting the careless mood, "Guys, we need to hunt, what approach should we take for that?"

You Xi Wang answered, "Two-levels high beasts during daylight, we hunt solo, stay close in case of something unexpected happens, also Neo you better call if the beast is any stronger than mid-level spirit formation or I will make you remember a good lesson this time."

"Yuki, if you feel like adventuring the deeper zones informing no one and alone, and bad happens, then after we save you, you can forget about talking to me." his voice was serious and calm. The group realized how serious he was in his instructions and warnings.

"We meet here at sundown also stay within two hundred meters radius that way we can provide support to each other," he said these words and kept Maya on his shoulder and patted her head. He took his weapons and fastened his sword and bow on his waist and back while he held his spear in his hand.

He turned to see all the group ready to go hunting. He recalled a scene from a movie in his past life. He raised his spear to the sky and said, "Let the hunt begin."

The others all followed his enthusiasm and yelled, "Let the hunt begin." they all just stood there and suddenly started laughing together.

Yuki gave You Xi Wang a quick kiss, and she ran in the forest, "I won't go deep in the forest." was what she left behind as she ran away.

Fenny was the next one although she was a logistics head still she needed to have some combat experience, and she was a master at sniping. Snowflake was sitting on her head with a smug expression as they left to hunt.

Neo and Allan also followed and You Xi Wang moved to the place he had fought with the Blood Bane Tiger to find his den, nearby. Beasts usually have stockpiles of beast cores.

Yuki left for the northern area, Fenny left for northwestern woods, Allan moved to northeastern and Neo left for East. Every other direction led to either inner or outer zones of the forest. You Xi Wang moved close to the inner edge of the first layer of the forest.