“Okay, family, we need a game plan.”

  James addressed them the next morning in their makeshift meeting area. “We’ve officially cooked the last of the food we brought with us. We’ve still got some random breakfast stuff and drinks, one large can of coffee, some hot cocoa, and a box of tea, but that’s it. We need to figure out a long-term food solution.”

  “I thought we earned enough money yesterday?” Nikki asked, clearly annoyed.

  “We earned enough for a day or two at best,” James replied. “We haven’t even gone shopping yet. Who knows how far that will actually stretch, and there are seven of us to feed.”

  He reached down to pet Luna, who was posted up at his feet like a fuzzy footrest, as the discussion continued.

  Hunting came up first. It was not a bad idea, but they would need to do some research, what was edible, what was not, and what would not try to eat them back. Farming was suggested next. James technically had basic farming skills from one of his achievements, but that required time and space, neither of which they had right now.

  That said, one of the stranger RV upgrade options drifted back into his mind, a greenhouse.

  He still could not believe that was listed as an option. It also required several components still marked with question marks. He had a decent idea of what some of them might be, but he had not had time to test anything yet. Then again, the RV had already grown an extra bathroom and somehow gained additional interior space without affecting the exterior, so at this point nothing was completely off the table.

  He also needed to dig deeper into the expansion options once they solved the fuel problem. And while he was at it, figure out why the RV had received a free engine upgrade while the motorcycle had not. That felt suspicious, but could be tied to them getting their slates unlocked.

  Eventually, they circled back to a working plan, hunting larger creatures. If they could bring in meat and potentially mana crystals, it might be worth the risk. With the trailer, hauling larger carcasses, or parts of them, was at least feasible. Kill two birds with one stone.

  The family made their way into the market, browsing the various meal options. James quickly realized that his small collection of cookbooks had been left behind on Earth, which meant he would have to make do with what he already knew. Fortunately, both he and Christine had received cooking related skills during the initial barrage of onboarding achievements, so they at least had a functional sense of what flavors and techniques worked together.

  While they were out, James tracked down a meat processing area, fortunately he found butchers, tanners, and hunters all in the same area. He asked around about nearby hunting grounds. The men proved helpful, pointing him toward several areas that immediately updated his map, still blacked out for now, but ready to reveal themselves once they traveled in that direction. There were reports of large boars in one region, a type of bison he hoped was close enough to beef to be worth the effort, and rumors of sizable game birds farther out.

  James had not butchered an animal himself since high school, more than twenty years ago at that, but between his own skills and those of Christine and the kids, he was confident they could figure it out without embarrassing themselves too badly.

  Rather than picking up another guild job, they decided to head out in search of food, and, if they were lucky, mana crystals they could trade for coin, or use as fuel. The game birds seemed like the least dangerous option, and the hunting grounds lay in the opposite direction of the goblin zone, thus giving them a chance to see more of what this world had to offer.

  “Nikki, try that arrow with the green fletching.”

  She glanced back at him. “Why? What did you do to it?”

  “Just trust me.”

  She begrudgingly pulled that specific arrow out. From their hidden position, Nikki nocked and fired. The arrow flew true, striking the massive chicken, nearly the size of a horse, in the neck. Brown and black feathers exploded outward on impact. For a moment, they were sure it was a kill shot.

  Then the bird shook itself and started searching for them. Jessie, Luke, and Christine were a few yards back, ready to move if things went sideways.

  Nikki quickly nocked another arrow just as the chicken, the first shaft still jutting from its neck, locked onto her position. James loosed the dogs, sending them forward to pin it down and buy her time.

  For dogs that had never hunted before, they were doing surprisingly well. Their boosted stats helped curb the usual overexcitement, especially Luna, who normally tried to turn everything into playtime with Ruby. Most breeds did not appreciate how Malamutes liked to play, and it used to be a problem when they got riled up. Lately, though, they moved like a solid unit. James could still sense Luna pestering Ruby in some non physical way, but at least she was multitasking.

  Just as the dogs reached the chicken, the arrow embedded in its neck tore itself free and shot backward, flying straight into Nikki’s quiver.

  She blinked in surprise, and her next shot went wide.

  “Sorry, my bad,” James called. “I probably should have mentioned it does that.”

  He raised his voice. “Jessie, Luke, get ready. It’s coming this way!”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  The bird advanced, seemingly unconcerned with the dogs clamped onto its feet, its beady eyes fixed on James and Nikki. Up close, it was much larger than they had first realized.

  Just as it closed to striking distance, Jessie burst from the brush, slamming her axe against her shield. Her taunt activated, dragging the bird’s attention onto her.

  At the same time, Luke exploded out of the bushes behind it, leaping nearly six feet into the air. His daggers flashed as he struck for its neck.

  The moment he made contact, the bird flung its wings wide and performed a small hop. A powerful gust blasted outward, throwing Luke back along with both dogs. Jessie braced behind her shield, while James and Nikki ducked behind the trunk of a nearby tree.

  Nikki rolled out, loosed another arrow, and hit the bird in the neck again. This time, when it tried to screech, the sound came out hollow, air rushing uselessly through the new holes in its throat.

  Still, it reared back, wings flapping wildly. It was not done yet.

  James stepped out from cover and began firing off a barrage of elemental shot spells. He was still wary of friendly fire and had not practiced on targets this large before, even though the option for bigger spells was there. Today was not the time to practice and cause more chaos.

  Everyone managed to regain their footing and kept pressure on the oversized bird. After another half minute of wing flapping, dirt kicking, and what James generously classified as aggressive poultry behavior, it finally stopped fighting.

  James moved fast. Experience, and a healthy respect for food safety, told him hesitation was how things went bad.

  He pulled out his axe, made it quick, and removed the bird’s head in one clean motion. Then he grabbed some rope and flagged Luke over. Together they tied the bird’s feet, tossed the rope over a sturdy tree, and hauled it up to bleed out properly. James stepped back and nodded, satisfied.

  “Well,” he said, “that’s one problem solved. Several dozen new ones pending, but dinner’s no longer one of them. And now you can all say you know where dinner comes from.”

  The kids all visibly cringed.

  While the bird hung upside down and continued draining, they explored the surrounding area. Before long, they found a nest containing three eggs roughly the size of ostrich eggs, along with a scattering of large animal bones. Seeing value in just about everything, they packed it all up, bones, eggs, and discarded feathers.

  James focused on removing as many feathers as he could from the large bird, storing them neatly in his magic bag. While he worked, something glowing tumbled free from the carcass and hit the ground with a soft clink. He picked it up. About the size of a golf ball, it glowed with an odd, prismatic light.

  “A mana crystal?” he muttered, pleased. He had expected them to be rarer, but he was not about to complain.

  The next challenge was storage. James’s bag was still fairly empty, and it could easily hold the bird until they were closer to town. From there, he could transfer it to the trailer for the final stretch and keep things relatively clean.

  He held the bag open while Luke cut the rope. The bird dropped toward the opening, and the bag stretched impossibly wide as glowing runes flared briefly around the rim. The carcass vanished inside.

  The weight of the bag increased, but only slightly. With the bird added, it felt like carrying a fully loaded hiking pack. Doable, but definitely not something you forgot was there.

  “Dad,” Luke said, staring at the bag, “that thing is insane. We need to find more.”

  James snorted. “I have a feeling these are a lot rarer than I first thought. Still, let me poke around with it when I have time. I might be able to make more.”

  “Well, make mine black when you do.”

  “You know ninjas did not actually wear black, right?” James teased.

  Luke frowned. While he was no stranger to the nerdy life his father had lived, he was still working off anime tropes and rule of cool logic, not yet old enough to separate historical reality from stylish fiction.

  “Oh, leave him be,” Christine chimed in with a laugh as she approached. “Don’t act like you didn’t go through that phase. Besides, you will have to make mine teal with green accents.”

  She had clearly been following the conversation thanks to her enhanced hearing. Her build leaned heavily into support, and during the fight she had been ready to heal wounds or throw vines to help restrain the bird, neither of which ended up being necessary. Between boosted stats and natural regeneration, they had walked away with little more than a few bumps and bruises.

  James slung the bag over his shoulder and grinned at the group. “Well, white meat’s taken care of,” James said. “So… where’s the beef?”

  The family groaned and laughed in equal measure as they made their way back toward the RV.

  They rolled down the dirt road toward their next stop. Everyone gathered near the front of the RV while James drove. He pulled the mana crystal from his pocket and dropped it into a narrow tube beside the console.

  Everyone watched as the fuel gauge jumped up by a full twenty-five percent.

  They had just started dipping below the halfway mark, so the timing could not have been better.

  A message scrolled across the console:

  E rank mana crystal added to fuel.

  “So… was that chicken E rank then?” one of the kids asked.

  They had all felt the experience gain, but the system never showed numbers, just impressions. Progress was something you felt, not something you calculated. Health was not a bar or a value, only broad states, healthy, bruised, hurt, or worse. MP, oddly enough, was a finite number. James’s spells barely made it budge, and after his recent stat adjustments, the total had actually gone up. MP was clearly tied to a couple of his Mind stats. Health probably worked the same way, just using Body stats instead.

  Regeneration was fuzzier, maybe the same system, maybe the mana rich air doing some of the heavy lifting.

  “It really is like a game world,” he muttered.

  “Dad, when can one of us drive?” Nikki asked.

  “When you have your licenses,” he replied without missing a beat.

  “So… when we get back to Earth?”

  He stuck his tongue out at her.

  Truth was, he did not actually mind the idea. He had already started teaching the younger two the basics, and Nikki technically had her learner’s permit, she just kept failing the practical exam. Mostly because she could not bring herself to respect traffic laws after watching half of Arizona ignore them daily.

  “I don’t want to drive,” Jessie said. “I wish we had found a dirt bike back at the camp. That would have been awesome.”

  She had been saving up for one with her part time job. Another thing left behind when they woke up here.

  “I’ll show you how to ride the bike in the trailer once I figure out how to get it running,” James said.

  Thanks for reading!

  This is my first time publishing anything publicly. I'm writing this for fun and learning as I go, so feedback is welcome as long as it's constructive.

  And a reminder new chapters set to post Monday / Wednesday / Friday all the way through what would make up a "book 1"