Chapter 15: Collection
[Edited by ArchmageNaoki and Arthur300000]
[Deathbricks did a thing]
I admit that I've had a few moments in my previous life that I wished to be a girl. But now I’m actually one and know what a girl goes through. I wished to be a guy again. Man, even doing my “business” in the wild is difficult. I have to survey the area carefully before doing the deed. Just a poisonous snake biting my ass when I’m squatting then I would suffer a humiliating death. Well, I might be able to survive, but the humiliation part is still there. I started to understand why anxiety is hardwired to women’s brain. It’s a part of the evolution, huh?
“What was your previous world like, Kuro-chan?” Sophia suddenly asked me when we’re taking a rest stop on top of an enormous fluorescent mushroom. Physically I can still go on, but right now I'm mentally exhausted. My siblings also stopped what they're doing and listened to us attentively.
“Ummm, I don’t want to talk about it.” I really don’t want to talk about it. I’ve only got sad memories from there. My brother just nodded and resumed what he was doing while my sister moved closer to us.
“Then what do you think about this world?” Sophia is still not giving up in conversation yet. Is she trying to befriend me somehow? I don’t mind being friends with Sophia but I’m afraid of her fetish, though.
“Well, thanks to my new family I have a lot happier life than what I had in my former world. But there are still many troublesome things that I am not used to yet. That spaghetti monster is one of them.” I shot the flying spaghetti monster down with several explosive bullets when I detect it was creeping toward us. It splattered on the ground and wiggled for a few moments then stopped moving. If this kind of monster doesn't give me ten panties per kill, I would’ve suggested us all to turn back.
“So what else do you like about this world? Do you like someone yet? Have you-....” Her maniac nature drives shifted into full gear again, and she starts questioning me like a machine gun.
“Wait. Before I answer that, let me make one thing clear I don’t like BL novels or anything in that nature ok?” Sophia laughs and said. “It’s ok. It’s ok. I respect other people’s tastes. Well, it’s a little bit sad, though. I thought I would get a new comrade when I saw you reading that book on the train. So it wasn't a BL novel?”
“Absolutely not!” What blasphemy she is spouting. How can she compare that masterpiece of art with that BL novel! *Huff* My sister suddenly hugs me from behind my back while saying “Charging Kuronium!”
“Hoo? It’s Kuro hugging time!” The heretic woman also plays along and jumps at me from the front. Having two set of fluffy mounds push against my body from both sides, my stress and fatigue melted away quickly.
After we rested for several more minutes, we continue to move carefully through the forest, though with the trees blocking out the sky it feels more like an underground cave. The air here is warmer than outside thus there is some melted snow dropping down from the tree branches. I follow my brother who’s holding some sort of 3D compass closely with my sister watching our rear. This formation is different from what I imagined, though. I thought my brother always shoots from the back of our group. He's surprisingly brave, huh?
While we killed a lot of monsters, we didn't encounter them frequently; because when they come they come in pack or horde. But there are exceptions like those spaghetti monsters for example; they seemed to be scattered around in the forest.
Nevertheless, there are moments where we walk for an hour without encountering any monsters. At those times I could relax a bit because I began to understand most of the sneaking and creeping monster’s behavior after several confrontations. So, I could enjoy the beauty of fireflies lazily floating everywhere and those fluorescence mosses and mushrooms. Sometimes, I intentionally brushed the bush of a dark leaved plant just to see colonies of fireflies burst out from it. It’s like millions of stars surround me. The mushrooms are even funnier when I snapped part of its cap there was a puff of fluorescence smoke from it. Isn’t this a magic mushroom? However, my brother warned me not to inhale the fluorescence smoke too much because it has hallucinogenic properties. Oh, a magical shroom get! I stored some of them in my bracelet. Why? For the science of course!
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According to the display on the side of my gun, we have arrived at the planned campsite at 5:47 pm. Along the way we only had one close call; Sophia stepped on a man-eating plant tendril, and she was quickly pulled to the razor sharp teeth mouth on the plant’s bulb. Luckily my brother and I killed it before she reaches the thing’s mouth. Seeing that array of teeth, Sophia would be deader than Bambi’s mom in just one bite. However, instead of fear she had a blissful expression on her face. I hope she wasn’t doing this intentionally because she could've died.
Before sitting, we spend another hour to survey the area around the campsite for monsters. The only new type of monster around here is the one which looks like a giant bat with the head of a coyote which I decided to call Batyote. They have translucent fields that can deflect some of our magics. Moreover, they came in a packs of at least 30 Batyotes. However, with visible vital spots and having no sneaky and disgusting behavior, they are easier to deal with than those spaghetti monsters. Several of them managed to enter close range combat with us. However, with my sister and me working together, it’s not hard to deal with them. Sadly, they gave us only small dark red monster cores, though.
When we walked back to the campsite the cooking and the crafting team had already started constructing camp and cooking. I follow the smell of tenderloin steak to meet the kind woman who promised to treat me. I helped her for a while and learned that her name is Vicky and she is not really kind. When it came to cooking, she is really serious. She yelled at her teammate, a dandy looking boy who apparently sliced the meat a millimeter too thin. She also made another girl on her team cry by throwing the meat that was only a little burnt on it away and screamed: “We don’t serve junk to customers!”. Luckily, I only helped them do the heavy lifting, not the cooking. Please spare me from that Spartan training.
The sizzling sound of the griddle pan and the robust scent of the caramelized meat with oil, sea salt and pepper on it makes my mouth water. The dinner was served when we sat together with the crafting team and Mr. Professional Adventurer. There are some boys in crafting team that was avoiding making eye contact with me while blushing. I kind of understand them, though. Anyway, the steak could only be considered perfect, as expected of our Spartan chef Vicky. The scent of my medium rare steak is so heaven like. Each bite is so juicy, with striated texture, crispy on the outside with a tenderness that melts in my mouth. Combined with the taste of its sauce, ahh I'm in heaven! I wonder how does she determine how much the steaks cooked so perfectly without cutting it open? Vicky said I could use a sense of touch to differentiate them. So I asked my sister to compare mine with her well-done steak. Uhmm, it’s quite different. Mine is more elastic while my sister’s well-done steak is firmer.
After dinner, we set up night watch duty. The watching shift consisted of my sister and me on the first shift, Mr. Professional adventurer on the second shift, and my brother and Sophia on the last shift. People from crafting and cooking team were exempted because they're in a non-combat oriented program, though the crafting team deployed some traps and sensors around the camp area.
The camp area also has a natural hot spring for bathing, but sadly I’m still on my period, so I have to be content with washing myself outside the bath. The water also smelled a bit sulfuric, but I felt good after the bath nevertheless.
We gathered around the bonfire to introduce ourselves and chatted for a while before some of us went to our tents. Mr. Professional adventurer taciturnly watched us from the edge of the camp, so I still don’t know his name. Marcus is a freckled boy who seems to be the leader of the crafting team who thanks us for today’s bountiful harvest. He said that it’s a lot more than what they usually acquire. There were also some awkward moments like when Sophia suggested one of her books to a girl on the cooking team who was scolded by Vicky. Does she really respect other people's tastes? Her excuse is “I tried to console her.”...
“Kuro-chan, what is your favorite food?” My sister asked me when I sat on her lap. Today she’s a bit more clingy than normal, but I don’t mind because she’s warm, soft, and smells nice. Right now everyone is already in their tents, so we have time to chat on the impromptu watchtower the crafting team set up for us.
“Uhmmm, I don’t have one yet, but if I had to choose something now, it’s mother’s cooking.” Well, everything here is 1,000 times better than what I had in my previous life. Also, eating love-filled food with everyone is a million times better than that ready-to-eat food I ate on my own. My sister turns silent for a while then looks at me with determination.
“I will have you taste the best food in the world, Kuro-chan!” Oi! Why are you so fired up, Pristia? Best food in the world? I’m already content with the current situation, but I accept your challenge, my sister. Once our shift ended with only my sister’s challenge the only notable event, I called Mr. Professional Adventurer to take our shift and sleepily walked to our tent I shared with my sister. After I had turned off the camping lamp, we slept together with her hugging me the entire night…