Yuri’s motive behind her plan was so blatant, that even a Dark Devouring Snake could see it from miles away. And Dark Devouring Snakes were one of the Oren Beasts with the worst eyesight. Still, he could not deny that her plan worked. At the very least, it fired him up enough to not complain when Yuri asked him to butcher the Shadow Panther. Otherwise, he surely would not have chosen the hard meat of a feline type of Oren Beast.
Unfortunately, the days when he could be wilful with what he could eat, and what he could leave, were gone. He was not alone anymore, after all. And neither were the girls. They were a team. They were going to live together. As such, wasting a potential source of food just because it might be a little hard to chew was no longer an option. But…
“…Why do I have to be the one to carry all the meat?” Alnea grumbled, taking one heavy step at a time. “I can understand why we are not storing all the meat in the storage bags, but I cannot understand your logic of letting me carry all the meat.”
“It is for your training,” Yuri said. “You need to exercise a little, and gain some muscles. Look at how thin you are… Even Cecilia is stronger than you.”
“…Cecilia is a musclehead.”
“What did you say?”
“I said, how can you compare me with the great Serpian heir? At least give me some time to catch up with her.”
“You do not have time… Besides, big sis Nyssa handed your training to me. I am just fulfilling my responsibilities.”
“This is stupid,” Alnea grumbled once again, using the ring to discreetly send a few messages to Yuri. “You are using maser’s name to take your personal revenge on me!”
“Show me some evidence before you go around slandering me.”
“…I will remember this, Yuri!”
“Good, I want you to remember this. Remember how much I am sacrificing to train you…”
“…When did you become so shameless?”
“She is not wrong, you know,” Cecilia said, slowing down to walk by his side, while trying hard to hold in her laughter. “You can indeed call it a kind of training…”
“How?” Alnea asked, adjusting the strap of his bag digging into his shoulders. “Even though I have a storage bag to keep all my essentials now, using my leather bag to keep all the meat, and then forcing me to carry it…”
“That’s not my fault,” Yuri said. “You don’t want us storing meat with such strong odour in our storage bags, do you?”
“…That brings me to the second point,” Alnea said. “Why could we not have just simply dried up the meat to remove some of that nauseating smell?”
“Because we did not have the time to do that,” Yuri said. “We spent too much time on discussing our plans, and on butchering the panther. Staying there any longer would have been too dangerous. Besides, if the smell had not been so strong, it would not have been training, would it?”
“…What kind of stupid training is this?”
“The training to make you accustomed to the thought of killing Oren Beasts,” Cecilia added from the side. “The longer you spend surrounded by the smell of dead bodies of Oren Beasts, the more accustomed you will become to that smell, and to the idea of killing Oren Beasts. It may not be enough to help you counter the side effects of using your Arcana, but it will surely be able to help you mitigate it.”
“…Such a twisted logic. Do you think I—
“And so, I have decided that in the future, all our butchering work will be handled by Alnea.”
“No, wait—
“And he will also carry all the meat.”
“Wait a moment!”
“Basically, anything related to dead bodies will be dealt by him.”
“…I will remember this,” Alnea grumbled staring daggers at the giggling girls. Still, he did not drop the bag, or stop cooperating. Though he did not like it, as they had said, it was for his own benefits. Even he was beginning to see that. The doubts that his Nightmare Arrow had left were already starting to dissipate. So, even though he grumbled a little, he still trudged along, braving the darkness of the canyon along with his two friends. His two teammates.
“Alright, you have led the way for long enough, Yuri,” Cecilia said. “My Spirit Power has recovered enough for me to lead the way for a while.”
“You were quite reckless with your Martial Styles before,” Alnea said. “Let me lead the way for now.”
“Is your headache all better now?”
“…It is still there, but it is much more subdued.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“So, shut up, and let me lead. You can take over when your headache subsides completely.”
“…Alright.”
“…Should I not get an opinion on whether I continue leading the way?”
“No,” Alnea said in unison with Cecilia. “You are the strongest of us right now.”
“You need to preserve your strength for emergencies.”
“Besides, we are a team.”
“And a team shares all responsibility.”
“…Except carrying the smelly meat.”
“Hey! That’s discrimination.”
“And your training.”
“Tsk… I thought I might be able to slip that in.”
“Anyways, like you said earlier, Yuri. This is a training… and a test. If we want to fight those Heterodox Wanderers, we need to become a true team. We cannot let you carry all the burdens by yourself.”
“…Fine, but tell me when you are starting to feel tired.”
“I will.”
And just like that, Cecilia began to lead them along the dark paths of the canyon. If they could even be called as paths. Hard, cold rocks, with a few growths of unusual grasses here, and there, which they tried to avoid whenever they encountered. Their encounter with the Shadow Panther was still fresh in their minds. And they had no wish for fighting another Beast any time soon.
Still, that they avoided such growths did not mean that they were safe, or did not need to be on the lookout. Like Yuri had said, the Night Canyons was a truly devious place. At times, when they were walking, the cold hard rocks on the ground would suddenly give way to softer, spongy earth, which seemed as if it was ready to suck them in. Using Spirit sense to check on them was not enough either. Without actually stepping on them it was hard find which part of the ground was spongy, and which was not.
But that was not all the danger that the ground had. Once, while they were walking, they did not notice anything strange, until a snake like Oren Beast tore its way through the ground, and jumped straight at him. Or to be more precise, at his bag. Thankfully, that was when Alnea had already changed shifts with Cecilia, and was leading the way. So, he was able to sense the snake the moment it came within the range of his Spirit, allowing him to dodge in time.
In the next moment, while he was still recovering from the surprise attack, and was about to draw his dagger, Cecilia, and Yuri had already made their move, taking care of the Beast within moments. It looked like the snake was just an Infant Stage Oren Beast. Still, it may have been just an Infant Stage Oren Beast, but if he had been just a moment too late, then it would have surely left him with a grievous wound. And if it had been an Adolescent Stage Oren Beast, then…
Shaking his head to rid himself of the ridiculous thought, Alnea packed the snake in his bag as well, before resuming their search for their base. An inconspicuous place, that would just blend right into the dark environment of the canyon. A place that was not surrounded by Oren Beasts from all sides. And most important of all, a place that was not too far away from a water source.
They did come across many water sources in their search, but none of them had any of the other things that they were searching for. But they were not too bothered by apparent failure in securing a base. The canyon they were in was a large one, one that probably ran of tens of kilometres in length. Of course, that also meant that there were many Oren Beasts which were beyond their ability to contend. Especially in the condition they were in. And so, they had to carefully look for any signs that might demarcate the territory of the Oren Beasts, and circle around that area, before continuing with their search. A long, long search.
It was only when hunger was starting to gnaw at him, with his muscles screaming in pain, that they finally found a place similar to what they were looking for. Located roughly a kilometre or so away from a stream, a cave had been carved into the wall of the canyons. Most probably by some Wanderer. And quite a long time ago at that. Dense foliage, of normal climber plants, along with some shrubs, and bushes were covering the entrance of the cave, showing years of neglect, and disrepair. Or maybe, that was an intentional design.
In either case, the cave was so ingeniously hidden, that if Alnea had not had experience of finding hidden crevices in the walls of the canyons, he might not even had noticed the cave. And though there were territories of Oren Beasts around it, most of them were just at the initial phase of the Adolescent Stage. So, the presence of Oren Beasts was not a problem either. It was the perfect place they were looking for.
“How about it?” Alnea asked, looking back at the two girls with a smug grin on his face. It had been under his lead that they had found the cave, after all. “Do you think we should make this as our temporary base?”
“We should check its inside first before coming to a decision,” Yuri said, stepping past him, and into the cave, with Cecilia following right behind her. Seeing their rather nonchalant reaction to his find, made the grin from his face disappear, replacing it with a pout, as he grumbled to himself about their pickiness, following behind the girls.
“…I think I am going to faint from hunger,” he said, gently shifting the curtain of the climber plants to make way for himself. “Even if we do not plan to stay here, let us at least rest for a while, alright?”
Stepping into the cave, Alnea felt as if he had stepped into a completely different world. There was, of course, the ever present darkness of the canyons in the cave. But once he had let the curtains of the plants fall back, and block off the exit of the cave, the darkness inside the cave seemed to magnify, making it hard for him to even see the girls. And that despite the fact that they were standing just a few steps away from him.
Then there was the eerie quiet, and the coldness permeating within the cave. Even the air with the cave seemed to be a bit stale, and humid. No, not seemed to, but it was indeed stale. Except for the bare necessary circulation of air through the curtain of the plants, the cave was practically cut off from the rest of the canyon. It even had—
A resplendent white light burst forth in front of him, driving all the darkness away from the cave, before gathering in Yuri’s hands. Her Aspects. Maybe even the one he had chosen for her. Shaking his head to supress that thought for the moment, Alnea took advantage of the light to observe the cave in detail. It was not a large cave, barely around three metres wide, and five to six metres deep. Even its height was just about two metres. Still, the cave was large enough for them to live together.
“This is fine, right?” Alnea said, as he glanced around the inconspicuous corners of the cave for a double check. “There are no strange growths here, so no traps. And even if it is not comfortable, it is large enough for us to live.”
“This cave is indeed good enough… for now. We will see if we can find a better place later. But I guess we can stay here for a while.”
“That’s good,” Alnea said, sighing in relief, before removing the bag from his back, and putting it on the ground. “So, who is going to cook?”
As his words rang out in the cave, they brought a silence with themselves, that settled down for a few moments, before whispers, and groans of complaints tore it apart, as all three of them tried to shift the responsibility to the others. In the end, after a lengthy, and heated discussion, they decided to divide their tasks, and complete it together. A decision they soon came to regret.