Chapter 4: The Food Conundrum

  The caves were separated into three layers: the lower, middle, and upper layer, all connected by a set of slanted platforms that one could walk up and down. Allocation-wise, it was pretty much first-come, first-served, so Fel randomly picked one on the upper layer.

  His reasoning? It had a good vibe.

  Also, with the extreme rainfall Uligo Valley experienced, it was good to be elevated just in case the ravine were to experience any flooding.

  ‘Hopefully I get a good weapon.’ As a hunter, Fel was experienced using a hunting bow to kill game and a dagger to dissect hide, leather, and meat. He wasn’t expecting a perfect fit since Thatcher had stated that all the weapons were random, but hopefully he wouldn’t get something too troublesome to learn.

  “Eh, could be worse.” He muttered upon entering his cave.

  He had been handed a reasonably plain-looking shortsword with a bronze hilt, with an insignia depicting a hawk crossed by a spear carved into its exterior, which was probably the Bloodrend Sect’s logo.

  He picked the weapon up, the weight of the blade feeling much heavier than he expected it to.

  ‘Maybe they used some kind of special method to create it? I don’t know much about Virth Lord’s, but they probably create special weaponry since they’re way stronger than us mortals.’

  After seeing Thatcher’s strength, Fel was confident the old man could break any of his hunting tools with just his pinky finger.

  Fel performed a few practice swings here and there with the shortsword, sighing upon the realization that getting accustomed to it would take quite a bit of work.

  Fortunately, Thatcher stated that each of them would be given a guide on using the weapon they were given.

  “Here we go.” On the ground was a book with the rough drawing of a swordsman on the cover, labeled “Bleeding Scale Technique”.

  But before he could begin reading, his trained ears twitched, picking up on the sound of someone approaching his cave.

  ‘Woah. We literally just started this whole Ravine of Tribulation thing. Isn’t it a little early to be socializing?’

  Out of sheer reflex, Fel’s grip on his shortsword tightened.

  “Uhm. Hello?” A nervous, high-pitched feminine voice poked its head through his cave.

  She seemed to be a year or two younger than Fel, with long, black, disheveled hair, thanks to the bumpy carriage ride.

  Her eyes were dark red, not that exotic pigmentation was all that rare in the Western Divide, and she had thin, sharp eyebrows.

  “Hi?” Fel replied hesitantly.

  “I was wondering if you could help me with something?” She pulled out her weapon guide, one that seemed dedicated to some kind of axe. “It’s a little embarrassing, but I don’t actually know how to read.”

  Fel’s expression quickly softened as he inwardly admonished himself for his needless caution.

  Most, if not all, of the people brought here were peasants. It wasn’t surprising that there would be some illiterate people among them.

  The only reason Fel was literate was because of Typhon’s Village Chief, who forced everyone to learn how to read and write to broaden their horizons and hopefully secure them an opportunity or two in the future.

  “Do you want me to read your guide for you?”

  “Would that be alright? Ah! I hope I’m not being intrusive. I don’t mean to pressure you or anything.”

  “No, not at all.” If you couldn’t read, then it meant you weren’t capable of learning your weapon or the cultivation technique everyone had been assigned.

  And with a fatal time limit over their heads, Fel couldn’t leave her as is in good conscience.

  She heaved a sigh of relief, “Thank you. My name’s Erin by the way.”

  “Fel,” he replied, taking the weapon guide she had handed him. Upon doing so, he noticed something strange.

  Erin’s hands had surprisingly deep calluses on them, which were normally the result of highly repetitive physical labour. Even Fel’s calluses weren’t as deep as hers, and he had been trained to hunt ever since he could walk.

  Also, the shape of Erin’s arms was a little strange upon closer inspection. Honestly speaking, they kind of looked like a guy’s. Even her body shape seemed slightly off from the girls he had seen in his village, even though her beauty eclipsed theirs.

  “What’s wrong?” Erin asked, noticing that he had fallen into contemplation.

  “Nothing,” he hastily replied.

  Fel quickly shook his head. ‘Now’s not the time for stupid thoughts! Some villages also have women who do a lot of intensive labour.’

  The guide was labeled “Virulent Rancor Technique”, and upon opening it, he was met with a pleasant surprise.

  “All the explanations seemed to have diagrams and pictures corresponding with them, this shouldn’t be too difficult for you to memorize at least.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “I see,” she nodded contentedly, looking out of the cave entrance with a sense of concern. “How many of us do you think aren’t able to read?”

  He shrugged. “No clue, I’m not psychic. I don’t recognize any of the people here, so I think the sect kidnapped us from a pretty wide area. It could only be a few of us, or it could be a large portion.” He continued to flip through the guide. “By the way, where’s your weapon?”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh! I forgot!”

  She quickly stormed out of his cave into the adjacent one, causing Fel to exhale and shake his head.

  ‘Someone’s a bit of a clutz, aren’t we?’

  “Here it is!”

  And once she returned, he saw a sight that dropped his jaw.

  Not only was she effortlessly carrying a large battleaxe in her hands, but she was doing so with one arm!

  ‘What kind of sorcery is this?’ He couldn’t help but wonder, wielding his shortsword already required a bit of exertion.

  How could Erin wield a weapon of that caliber with no struggle whatsoever? Was she secretly part-beast or something?

  “Before we start,” he anxiously cleared his throat. “I think it’s best we first look at the cultivation guide, since we need to reach one of the stages within three months if we don’t want to die.”

  “Yeah, that seems wise.” Erin nodded affirmatively, putting down her axe.

  Fel picked up the book beside the weapon guide, “Preparatory Realm Cultivation Technique—Cruor Filtration.”

  And once he started to read through its contents, his expression quickly turned to one of apprehension.

  “What’s the matter?” She scooted up to him, her head pressing against his shoulder as she glanced at the open book, despite not knowing how to read any of the words.

  He frowned, “Elder Thatcher lied.”

  “Eh?”

  “He said we had three months to reach the Viscera Stage, but we will have much less time once we start cultivating this technique.” He pressed his lips together, his resentment towards Thatcher building up. “To use it, we need to absorb the Chaotic Virth in this ravine from the Kryon material he mentioned.”

  Erin was taken aback. “But isn’t that the stuff that’s slowly poisoning us?”

  “Mhm, the more we use the technique, the more Chaotic Virth we’ll accumulate. Allowing it to poison us even faster, and reducing the time we have to cultivate until we reach the Viscera Stage.”

  At the same time, not cultivating would result in assured death. Whereas if you cultivated, you needed to do so with immense efficiency to advance to the Viscera Stage before you’ve absorbed too much Chaotic Virth.

  The manual stated that Cruor Filtration allowed one to advance through the Preparatory Realm faster than if you cultivated a technique that used normal Virth. However, normal techniques posed absolutely no risk of death, which is why no normal sect in their right mind would use such a technique.

  But alas, they had been kidnapped by a demonic sect.

  “Let’s go to your cave.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to check if everyone has the same cultivation technique, or if they gave us different ones like they did with our weapons.”

  “Oh, good idea.”

  They went to Erin’s cave, but unfortunately, everyone had been given the same technique. This meant they had no choice but to use Cruor Filtration.

  “Do you think it’s possible Elder Thatcher lied about the Chaotic Virth? Maybe he just said to scare us.”

  “Maybe,” he continued to flip through the pages of the cultivation manual. “But even though I’m not the sharpest nail around, this technique seems a little too thought out for something that was fabricated. Even if the three-month thing is a lie, we will still be tested in some manner in six months. So we have to cultivate one way or another.”

  It was starting to make sense why this place was called the “Ravine of Tribulation.”

  “But before that, we have a more immediate problem we need to solve.” Fel stepped out of the cave with Erin in tow, observing the ravine. “We need to find out how we’ll feed ourselves.”

  “I think it’s pretty safe to assume the beasts out there aren’t an option.” Erin chuckled dryly.

  “Yeah, no kidding.” Fel could still remember the screams of the unfortunate escapees, just the noises the beasts produced alone being enough to haunt him. “However, I think we might have an alternative.”

  He crouched down, picking up a beetle off the ground with a colorful, reflective light-green shell.

  Erin immediately clutched her hands, taking a step back. “No! Absolutely not! Denied! Rejected! Refused!”

  “Oh come on, they’re rich in protein, you know?” He dangled the beetle in front of her.

  “I don’t care! I’m not putting that disgusting thing in my mouth!”

  “You’re not going to make it here if you’re picky, a ravine isn’t really the ideal hunting ground.” He tossed the beetle into his mouth, chewing on it without hesitation. “See? Perfectly safe to eat.”

  Normally, you’d cook an insect before eating it, but figuring out how to get a fire started down here was going to be a whole different issue—and a rather challenging one.

  “Gross! You’re gross!”

  “Now you’re just being dramatic.”

  “You two seem to be having quite a bit of fun, despite the fact that we were all just kidnapped.” They turned around, facing someone who had decided to intrude on their little nutrition-based scuffle.

  A girl with a much more mature-sounding voice was standing behind them, one who looked to be a little older than Fel. Her appearance was a lot more striking than Erin's, with snow-white hair and blood-red eyes that gave her an almost demon-like presence.

  ‘Huh. No dude-like features. Wait, why am I still thinking about that?’

  She crossed her arms, holding an authoritative demeanor while practically demanding an answer from them with her facial expression.

  “Well? Did you suddenly forget how to speak?”

  ‘I don’t know why, but I’m getting a bad feeling from her.’ Unlike with Erin, he couldn’t seem to relax around her. And not for the same reason as most adolescents.

  “We were just thinking about handling the food issue.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I got that from watching you swallow a beetle, thank you very much. Just so you know, you shouldn’t eat those things raw—they carry bacteria when uncooked.”

  “I know, but my stomach's strong. I can handle it no problem.” He grinned, patting his stomach.

  “Uh-huh. Sure.” She nodded haphazardly, clearly deeming him an idiot. “I was also thinking about the food problem, and I’m pretty sure we might have another choice besides just eating bugs.”

  She pointed to a pathway near where all the caves were, leading further into the ravine.

  “You think there’s something there?”

  “Possibly, Elder Thatcher said we’d be protected from the beasts as long as we stay inside the ravine. So it wouldn’t hurt to check, would it?”

  Erin and Fel exchanged a glance and shrugged.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Fel agreed. If they were going to be spending six months here, then it would be nice to know the lay of the land at least. “What’s your name?”

  “Acina.”

  “I’m Fel, and this is Erin.” Fel reached out to shake her hand.

  But Acina simply ignored him and continued onward.

  ‘Well, that wasn’t very nice.’ Fel shook his own hand before following along.