They didn’t have anything else besides the tasteless meat. Once again, the Wushi couldn’t help but feel slighted by everything in this place as she ripped into her meal, feeling the urge to simply dash out to the forest to try to find something, anything.
That being said, she shouldn’t be so harsh. After all, they did try, from what the capped man told her. In fact, they have found some goodies within the forest. However, the problem was that they weren’t entirely sure whether something was edible or poisonous.
Which was why the two of them were sitting down in a nearby home, looking at all the goods that were foraged from the forests nearby.
“I can tell you that no one had any difficulties picking all of these items right from the start, so the poison definitely isn’t on the outside.” The capped man said as he took a large gulp of water from his wooden water bottle, “Besides that, these all don’t look particularly appetizing, you know? We just collected everything because you asked us to find stuff that was possibly usable.”
And right he was. Truth be told, even the Wushi felt some fear at the thought of devouring these items that were laid right in front of her, something she hadn’t expected to feel this entire time.
There were a total of nine items. However, each of them ranged from being merely plain to outright vile in appearance.
From the single vine that contained a horde of black and red striped giant berries to the excessively furry white leaves, all these items seemed outright toxic or even downright horrendous to swallow. Every single one of these items did not seem like something she wanted to try and now she understood why people were so focused on devouring the meat of the monsters.
That was the most appetizing option around.
Though, that being said, she was quite curious. Considering the state of the world and how rare food could be, why hadn’t anyone been so desperate to go and try out all of these weird vegetation, just to see if they were edible or not?
That answer came from the capped man himself.
“Miss, we always have a reliable source of food from those beasts,” he explained, “Typically, hunting can either be a chore or a dangerous endeavor, but that depends on the monster. Many of us have become quite good at finding small creatures that pose no threat to us and those are quite plentiful, all one needs to do is know where to look.”
“They’re not dangerous at all?”
The capped man shook his head. “Thankfully so. Some of the creatures are far too weak to even be a threat to us, though that is related to the fact that they can be considered rather pathetic. Some of them are mere large worms, those that can only crawl forward and whine, while others are simply crippled from infighting which allows us to go in and collect the monster without having a fight.”
That was a surprise to the Wushi. Though, it really shouldn’t have been. After all, these demons kept on trying to fight her even when a large amount of their pack got wiped out in mere moments, why should she be surprised that they were foolish and evil enough to commit to fighting amongst each other?
Well, she supposed she would never quite understand the minds of these demons. After all, she was a mere human, and a virtuous person like her could never understand the pure evil that dwelled in these monster’s hearts.
“So, all of these items were easily able to be taken without any kind of rotting?”
“Yes.”
“Do we exactly know why animals would rot when plucked but vegetation is fine?”
“Truth be told?” He shrugged. “I’m not even sure myself. That’s something far beyond what I would be aware of, after all.”
That was true. It wasn’t like she was talking to the tyrant or the same person that brought her here.
“Then, if these items turn out to be edible, then…”
“Indeed.” The capped man nodded, “We’ll be able to bring in some variety to our food and hopefully provide quite a morale boost for all the villagers.”
She returned that nod, before raising an eye as he scratched the back of his head and sighed.
“Speaking of the village, I did want to ask if you could set up those walls you mentioned earlier.” He looked away sheepishly, almost embarrassed to ask, “After all, we’ll need to have them to help fend off any incoming horde.”
“No worries.” The Wushi returned a smile. “I can go ahead and set all of that up in a moment, as well as create a few watchtowers to help provide some eyes to watch the area in case of dangers.”
“My thanks to you.” The capped man grinned. “Then, I suppose I’ll have to return some good news besides the bounty we obtained. We have started getting some better weapons, with some of our people crafting better spears with the materials we scavenged as well as some furniture and decorations going up soon. Another thing is that we have found a large source of water nearby, which means we won’t have to move away anytime soon.”
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“That’s fantastic.” She couldn’t help but feel glad about that. Finally, some good news in this dreary underworld that made her feel like all of her efforts weren’t for naught.
“Indeed. This was truly all thanks to you.” He nodded, “If it weren’t for you, we’d still be trying to create the cooking area as well as setting up all the shelters. Heck, we probably would not have enough time to find the water source, upgrade our equipment, and get food for tonight.”
“I see.” The Wushi mused on all that information and started to think on her earlier plans. After all, if these people had been able to get some new equipment, then training them all became so much more important.
What was the point of having some new gear if they didn’t have the foundation to maintain those weapons? After all, it was one thing to have a spear that didn’t break after a thrust, it was another to know how to use such a weapon efficiently and effectively.
Thus, she had to intervene in everything now.
“Say, what exactly were your plans while I worked on the walls and the guard tower?”
“Well, we still have a large list of things to accomplish.” The capped man said, “We would have to stockpile on materials for repairs later down the line. We’d have to make a channel from the lake to the village, then focus on capturing another beast for the breakfast tomorrow. Ah, we’d need to set up schedules for the watch tonight, get some patrols going, and have some more scavenging for materials.”
Hm. That was quite the list. However, she could easily take care of two of the things on that list, so she might as well push her plan.
“How about training? Do you run any exercises or drills to maintain your skills and make sure you are more than capable of fighting off the hordes all by yourselves?”
He blinked. He looked up at the roof, before scratching his head and sighing.
“No, we don’t. After all, we have more than enough monsters to act as target practice, so–”
“But that means you have no real plans for when those demons come into melee range and become a possible threat then, no?”
The capped man looked a bit annoyed at her interrupting his explanation, before sighing and shaking his head.
“We have spears for a reason, miss. Those tend to be more than useful at warding the incoming beasts back a good amount. One single stab and they tend to back off temporarily, which allows us to keep the pressure off and continue defending.”
“But then what if one that doesn’t back off from getting hurt comes around? What if they are overly aggressive or worse, have armor to defend against such attacks?”
He sighed, before looking at the Wushi right in the eyes.
“Miss, I understand where you’re coming from, I really do. But we simply don’t have the time to commit our people to training everyday, not when we have so many tasks at hand. There’s also the fact that we still have limited equipment, not all of our men have bows and our supply of arrows are rather low. We don’t even have a surplus of spears as of yet, we just finished replacing some of the worn out ones with the brand new ones.”
“Then let me help you all out.”
The capped man blinked, before looking at the Wushi with a raised eyebrow.
“What on earth do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said.” The Wushi put a hand over her heart and gave him a reassuring smile. “Despite my current appearance, I am quite the teacher. I promise you, give me some men and some time and I’ll be able to train them all to the point where they would be able to go one on one with any of those unique demons that roam the lands.”
“I… don’t know whether to believe that claim or not, even after seeing you stomp out that horde without any problems.” He sighed as he covered his face. He kept silent for a brief while, before looking at her with a worried look on his face.
“Are you going to be okay? I mean, you’re already doing so much for us as is.”
“Hah!” The Wushi barked in laughter, before giving him a giant grin. “This is nothing compared to all the training I had to do back with my master. Back then, I would have to carry large rocks and buckets of water up and down the stairs, fight with my fellow disciples for hours, and practice my strikes against a wooden training dummy. This much is nothing, I can promise you that much.”
“I… see.” The capped man replied, before scratching the back of his head and grimacing. “Well, I suppose that having better skills at defending would be an attribute worthy of our future endeavors. Just try to exhaust them too badly, okay? We still need all the men to defend the village from the upcoming hordes.”
“I’ll make sure to train them accordingly.” She nodded, before getting up. “Well, I suppose I should get started on setting up everything then, huh?”
“That would be for the best, yes.”
“Then I’ll head out then.” She said as she proceeded to head out, before turning back. “By the way, how is the young girl I saved doing?”
“Her?” He mused, before getting back up. “She’s still resting last I checked. We had her patched up, so no need to worry. The moment she’s up, we’ll let you know.”
The Wushi nodded at that, before smiling.
“Once more, thanks. For helping.”
“I should be saying that to you.” The capped man chuckled, before picking himself up. “Well, I suppose I should head out too. I’ll have to organize everyone and get them all ready for the tasks up ahead.”
“Then I shall see you around.”
With that, the two of them separated briefly, with the Wushi going to investigate the nearby surroundings. After all, those walls weren’t going to make themselves and she had to make sure they were made in stable conditions.