Without equipment in our backpacks we head on our journey.
For Deep Forest looks lush and green spring with life and sounds. We walk in silence since the dangers are unknown. I keep Krikos close so can warn me about the dangers ahead of us. Cynthia and I walk slowly but steady.
We stay clear of brightly coloured wild life like plants and bugs since Cynthia confirmed that they were all poisonous. Some were just regular and bugs camouflaged as poisonous counterpart. But Cynthia said she couldn't tell the difference so it's too much of a risk. To try to collect them.
At first, our journey was exciting, the thrill of new dangers and new possibilities adrenaline rushing through my body.
But after a few days of just walking eating and sleeping doing the same same thing over and over again again, it became monotonous.
The only excitement I got from the trip was when Krikos would warn us of the dangers ahead.
The journey was slower than Cynthia thought it would be.
Because we're sneaking slowly our speed was slower than if we strolled through and if there were any dangers ahead we would have to circle around thus adding more time to our journey to the town.
Hunting was a dangerous action because the blood from the prey would attract predators and if we did catch some prey we wouldn't be able to cook the food since the smoke from the fire would still attract curious beasts.
Cynthia said if we had a party of five of D rank adventurous we would be able to hunt and cook easily since most of the animals would smell the group and wander away. But since we only had one party member with a magic core then beasts would hunt us as normal prey.
When Cynthia was explaining this I asked.
"What was a magic core?"
Cynthia explained that a magic core was a focal point where mana gathers, there were three known points where a person can create a magic core, the brain, heart, or at the Dantian right under the belly button in the centre of your belly.
Where you formed your mana core was how you used magic.
The brain was a spell caster, a mage who had a keen sense of mana around you. Typically for people who are studious and like studying and don't like close combat. They're known for being glass cannons because their body is weak and frail compared to the other occupations. But long range fighting abilities were at the top. Generally their ability to attack multiple targets at range made them great for wars.
People who formed a core in the heart were called body martial artist. They're excellent tanks, their body was strengthened by mana and that was their sole focus, so they're inherently more robust and taller. But their sense of mana was the weakest compared to the magic martial artist and mage.
Great front line tanks or close combat. Focused on external strengthening. Basically body builders with mana.
People who formed cores in the dantian were called magic martial artist, they also had a strong body compared to Mages but they focused more on weapons and how to handle them. They're great for mid range combat. Great handling a handful of people. They're basically in between a mage and a tank. Focused on internal strengthening. Focused on their weapon arts.
Cynthia said don't look down on any of these occupations, because compared to a normal human without a mana core, any one of them could crush my bones.
I looked at Cynthia confused, while thinking to myself, how is she so weak that she got caught by a group of goblins?
Of course, since this was a sensitive topic, I didn't bring this up and just kept it to myself.
On the other end, Cynthia caught my look and just stayed silent.
I was thinking at some point when she's comfortable she will explain until then I'll just leave her alone.
After two weeks of travelling through the jungle, our food supplies start running short.
Water is easy to find since Cynthia knew where to look, like when she collected water from safe vines and plants. Food on the other hand was scarce. Most of the edible plants were either potentially poisonous, already eaten by animals within the forest, or within the territory of vicious predators.
Even though we rationed our food, we were starting to get desperate.
So Cynthia and I cooked up a plan. First we need to find a predator's territory like wolves or bears, then hunt within their territory and leave the prey for them to feast. Once they're all full, me and Cynthia can start hunting for ourselves and those wolves or bears won't disturb us since they wouldn't have the need to. It sounded like a genius plan.
But keep in mind me and Cynthia were just short of starving. We are both low on energy, tired from the journey and weak from the endless hunger.
Krikos on the other hand hunted rodents, like squirrels and mice to keep himself sustained.
Are you wondering why we didn't do the same? Well it was because Cynthia told me that those squirrels and mice would consume small amounts of poisonous plants or bugs.
Since Krikos was so small and didn't need to eat much, he was fine. But since we're both larger in size. We would have to consume more and it could potentially be fatal to us.
Plus Cynthia said that even those rats and mice weren't hygienic, they could be carrying diseases.
At some point I thought to myself maybe she just didn't want to eat rodents in general. Since she was a girl and stopped me from doing it. Since if I started to eat them, I would make her consume them too.
She was adamant about her statement. That they were dangerous to us.
but I thought to myself one or two rodents wouldn't hurt. But since she's leading the way and she was my new friend, I wasn't gonna argue with her over this small issue.
So we found a big tree canopy to rest under, as birds and bugs buzzed with life all around us.
As we rested we talk about ways to hunt for food without getting attacked. Since the deeper you head into the forest the more likely the beasts that you encounter are enhanced with magic cores.
After a few minutes of me brain storming and getting all my ideas rejected by Cynthia. She had enough and said
"Let's just over feed a predator."
I said
"What?! We don't even have enough to eat as it is and you want to feed the rest of our food to a random predator?"
She quickly cuts me off by saying.
"Listen for a moment, do you think I'm a novice? I even taught you how to handle your weapons. Just listen"
Her idea was to hunt near a single predator's territory and over feed him, so he'll fall asleep or at least not need to eat . So then we hunt for ourselves and have them not come to us when he smells blood. Since we were going to be near there territory there won't be other dangerous predators in the general vicinity. This keeping us safe.
The idea was brilliant and risky, but it was our only option so I had to accept it.
Then I said.
"We could just eat the rodents and play it safe?"
She responded with.
"No! NEVER!"
"Well I guess we're hunting then."
Then she sighed with relief.