Yawning and stretching with both of his arms pointing up, forming a victory symbol, Zalanir immediately looked up to the top right corner of his viewport. The health bar was finally full after his third sleep. This was the first time his condition didn’t replenish to its top form after sleeping like a log, which, according to Hiina, was because of how severe his injuries were. Turned out that a full sleep wasn’t the omnipotent medicine that he had given credit for. Critical wounds still took days to heal.

  “That wake-up pose of yours is the most stupid thing ever.”

  Zalanir lifted his head, saw Hiina standing straight near a rotten, swelling pile of bat carcasses, and dropped down to the hard cold ground again to continue indulging himself with the addicted half sleep half awake state. The struggle to get up was real, even after coming to this now no longer strange, but still distant world.

  “You just have no idea how to enjoy yourself,” he said.

  “True pleasure comes from how many enemies one has killed, not from being indolent or aversion to exerting oneself.”

  “Both aren’t mutually exclusive. You just need to balance your time around that one activity. For me, it’s sleep. Nothing beats a good sleep.”

  Zalanir heard a mumble, but nothing was of importance. Ever since she woke up from meditation and steadied herself from the shock of Makin’s death, she had reverted back to the annoying, cold, and intense behavior. Just a woman who didn’t know how much she missed by just meditating instead of sleeping. Nothing best a good sleep. He could train or play matches all day, but a sound sleep to recover was always a top priority, though he knew that it was kinda an eyesore to someone who put a higher value on meditation. Just like a certain girl standing there.

  “What?”

  Zalanir didn’t realize that he had been staring at Hiina all the while pondering the importance of sleep, which earned him a provoking glare back.

  “Nothing. I’m good now, so let’s get out of here.” He shrugged it off. In between those sleeps, Zalanir continued to feed the soul his mana, but nothing had happened.

  Getting out of the cave and seeing the snowflakes continue painting the landscape, Zalanir had to give a mental clap. Darkness had become one of his preferred conditions now thanks to Sound Sense, but seeing the light and clear objects again still invoked immense joy and gratefulness.

  A short scouting trip to this cave had somehow developed into a full fight with one of the three leaders of the cult. Fortunately, it didn’t get too out of hand for him, but two other enforcers didn’t have that luck. From the perspective of efficiency, they only lost two in a trade for ten cultists and one monster, which implied that the battle was a success. However, sadness still filled his heart. It was a short time with them, but both Rafnick and Makin did give him a sense of teamwork, something that he had kind of missed after coming to this world.

  He had a last look at the cave mouth and sighed before following Hiina’s lead. Time to get back to the camp.

  Zalanir bent his back hard. His face was centimeters away from the wiggling green caterpillar on the leave, and even though he detested its chubby body and just wanted to brush it away, he just couldn’t do it unless he wanted to give the cultists below a helping hand.

  Not too far from the cultists’ spot, Hiina was crouching inside a blueberry bush. Her place was definitely closer to the enemies, but it was much safer because of the two big rocks on both sides acting as a hindrance compared to his hiding spot behind the current precarious branch canopy.

  They had followed the path earlier to get back to the enforcer camp, but the sudden emergence of this group had prompted them to hide. There was no way they would win against eight cultists in an open field like this. The odds were just not in their favor.

  “How far is that damn cave that you lot have been whispering about? Remember, he is not a calm person, especially towards betrayal. You better not do anything funny, you hear me?”

  “It’s close by. There is this hill, and the cave mouth is in the middle. At least, that’s what I heard. I have never seen it, you know?” A man wearing a beige double-horned hat snapped.

  “I don’t care. You think he cares? Find the way, or accept that today will be your last.”

  Zalanir could see the man shuddering at that threat through the gaps among the leaves, but he was leading them in the right direction, if the cave Zalanir had just got out of was indeed the one they mentioned.

  Oh, shit. The caterpillar had just jumped onto a leaf right in front of his nose. Please don’t come here. His body stiffened when the small creature started to crawl and drag its grotesque, wobbly body around the leaf.

  Why don’t they move out already? Zalanir was annoyed at the indecisiveness of the Beige Hat. Trust your gut, dude! You are on the right track. His annoyance turned into a series of rumbling in the stomach when another caterpillar fell down from god-knows-where and … landed one centimeter away from his right eye. He had killed a fricking summoned birduomera before, but now was helplessness against these hairy little rascals.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  It was a nightmare in the daylight for him. He had shrunk his neck back as best as he could to the point where his clavicles had started to stiffen, but the first caterpillar had still found its way onto his nose tip. His body shivered with goosebumps.

  The torture reached the zenith when the second caterpillar gnawed on his eyelashes, sending Zalanir down the hellhole. He had no words for what was going on. Someone must’ve been messing with him and creating this bizarre situation.

  Fortunately, the group below had finally moved away after the bickering that Zalanir couldn’t even eavesdrop on because his attention had to be somewhere else. He brushed off both of these pesky monsters, sending them on an airborne journey that was premature for their state. But whatever. They would have to learn how to fly anyway. This way, he actually helped them to gain an advantage over their peers. How many caterpillars out there could say that they fly before even becoming a butterfly?

  But from his spot, he saw one of the cultists looking his way with an open mouth and a wavering hand. Why did this man return? Wasting no time, almost instinctively, Zalanir grabbed the sound affinity from the nearby swaying leaves and unleashed a salvo of sound bolts.

  At the same time, three kunai also hit the man’s right flank. This combination of attacks and surprise did wonder, as the man just stayed rooted on his spot before a kunai pierced his chest from behind and brought him down.

  Zalanir earned a reprehensible gaze from Hiina, which he screamed in his mind that he was innocent. It was these damn caterpillars’ fault, not his. But on the outside? He just shrugged and shook his head.

  “Let’s go before they are back,” Hiina ordered and led the way without even waiting for his confirmation.

  They had to take a detour after encountering yet another big cultist group before finally arriving at the foot of the cliff. This time, Zalanir opened his eyes wide to see what Hiina did to unveil the defensive formation.

  It wasn’t as random as he might’ve thought. She observed the vacant area in front of the cliff for a little while before firing off three kunai. All three of them were stuck in the air again, but there was a bit of a space among them. The first and second kunai were floating high and low, whereas the third one was launched with a greater force that ended up right in the midpoint of the other kunai. The undulating waves in the air appeared right after that.

  He went in at the same time as Hiina this time around. The blurred area marking the door into the camp only became visible to his eyes after he was already in, but a moment ago, even though he had focused on scrutinizing the three kunai, he just couldn’t detect it in the slightest. This camouflage formation just offered too much defensive and hiding power to whoever was inside. A question popped up in his head, prompting him to turn toward the woman on his left.

  “What will happen if the enemy attacks? For example, I know that the camp is here, but will my attack hit?”

  “Learn to make one, then you can find out for yourself.”

  Zalanir could see her lips twitching at the left corner. He disregarded it, though. It was an obvious provocation, and she enjoyed it, so no need to walk right into that. He could just do what she had told him. Learning the crafting of formation was something he planned to do anyway. Also, based on her reaction, seemed like the answer to his question wasn’t anything serious; otherwise, she could have reacted more intensively at his probe. He wasn’t one of them enforcers, after all.

  She did turn to look at him, as if she was disappointed that she didn’t get a follow up after that, but then she trod on like nothing happened. Hope you had a good taste of your own poison. Zalanir grinned after she moved to the front and led the way.

  There was fewer people here compared to the last time Zalanir came by. A man was throwing some ingredients into a pot kept hovering above the fire by a long stick. He had to go there and wait for her signal, as told by the woman before she ran off.

  It was such a sad reality, but he hadn’t had a single proper meal after popping up in this world, and based on how concentrated the man was in designing the food, Zalanir could already picture a fabulous dinner for his stomach.

  At the foot of the hill, two enforcers were sparring. On one side was a female warrior with good speed, attacking using two blue short swords. She must’ve had a speed boosting of some kind, since her pace of darting and rushing around the battlefield varied based on the speed of the arrows firing at her.

  On the other hand, there stood an archer on an elevated stone using a short black bow. His attacks altered from rapid firing arrows, explosive arrows, and homing arrows. The homing arrows were rather interesting, as Zalanir had ignored the same modification for his Adaptability Bolt, and from the look of it, seemed like a major boost for an attack. He didn’t value the homing aspect too highly, but against a nimble opponent, that feature shone through.

  The female warrior at one time was running away from four arrows in three directions, which really narrowed down her path to the archer. That soft counter to her speed was handy for the man to hit her with two explosive arrows, earning him the victory in these exchanges.

  The last enforcer at the camp at the moment was a tall and fat middle-aged man, whom Hiina was whispering with at the moment. The man got out of a hut to greet the annoying huntress not long ago.

  Seeing that it might take time, Zalanir turned to the chef. His stomach got more eager the closer he was to the cooking pot, rumbling with a steady line of rioting sounds. That earned Zalanir a burst of laughter from the chef, but he needed to please his dear belly, so he acted thick-skinned, took a bowl nearby and stood waiting. That secured him a tasty meal of stewed bear’s leg mixed with carrots, several veggies, and a spicy orange herb that Zalanir had no idea what it was.

  You have eaten [Dakrua Stewed]

  +10 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +8 Endurance for two hours

  What? Zalanir couldn’t believe his eyes. The rice ball he ate at the fighting pit and the blueberries he got randomly in the forest provided merely one or three attributes for one hour. This stew he just ate not only gave him twenty-six stats in total but also doubled the duration! Did the buff scale of how good the food tasted? Because this stew was truly a blessing to his tongue. The Earth flavor was back. True cuisine was back.

  Zalanir gave the chef a thumbs-up and praise on how good the stew was, which unintendedly netted him another bowl. He had asked what other buff could the chef make, but the man had just laughed it off.

  Well, perhaps it was too personal of a question, but still, this was such a good change of pace, slurping yummy dinner while watching a free bout instead of killing bats or fighting to death with enemies. But that only lasted for so long, cause later in the night, the captain was back.