16 The Path to Cultivation II Edited

DDuring her exploration of the cave, Jayde had found piles of beast skins, strange stones, and metals. In a corner, Jayde found a cauldron and furnace of some sort. All of these items made Jayde curious about the old guy who used to live in the cave.

Walking over to his skeleton, she looked at him carefully, then bowing down she paid her respects. It was thanks to him that she had gained so many things, and everything would come in handy, helping her to survive in this strange new world, she shuddered to think of just what sort of situation she would be in now if she hadn't stumbled upon this cave.

Straightening up, Jayde saw something glittering on the ground near his hands. Bending down she had a closer look, it seemed like some sort of ring. Picking up the ring Jayde examined it. The ring was intricately carved, and it had a beautiful amber stone embedded in the center, it was made out of some strange metal, that had a slight blue sheen to it. Placing the ring on her thumb, she would ask Isha if he knew what the strange glyphs meant that were carved into the ring.

Noticing a small satchel just to the side, Jayde picked it up and had a look inside, taking out one of leaf covered items, Jayde had a closer look. Her eyes widened as her lips curved into a small, tentative smile, she knew what this was — it was elven wafer bread.

The only reason why she knew about it was due to the previous host's memories. Za'thul liked to show off the one he had received years ago. He had received it as a gift from some son visiting the Lower Realm from a noble family from the Mid Realm, elven wafer bread was a luxury ration only available in the Mid Realm, and according to Za'thul, it was quite rare there too.

Only the most affluent clans could afford it. Jayde was not sure why it was called elven wafer bread, as it was not made by Elves, but the story went that the recipe came from the Elves. Jayde wasn't quite sure if she believed that Elves even existed, her inherited memories contained no actual sighting of Elves all the information available in the Lower Realm was from legends and fairytales.

Elven wafer bread was said to last forever, never to rot and was suppose to always be fresh, it was rumored to taste delicious, and a person only needed to eat half a wafer a day. According to the conversation the previous host had overhead, Za'thul had boasted that if a mage ate an elven wafer bread every day their body's constitution would improve.

Well if the rumors were true that would mean that this elven wafer bread was very nutritious and was beneficial to one's health, Jayde thought.

Eagerly taking out the rest of the wafers, Jayde counted the leafy packages, and she was happy to note that she had over thirty wafer pieces of bread. If what they said was true, then she had enough food for two months. That was more than enough time for her to train this body so that she could enter the Dark Forest and hunt her own food.

Removing one of the leaf covered, elven wafer bread Jayde took a cautious bite.

Yummy! They weren't lying about it being delicious, it had a sweet fruity taste. It tasted similar to Zirconina peaches Jayde had once eaten when visiting Xi Corporation headquarters. Zirconina peaches were one of the most expensive luxury products available in the Federation and cost thousands of credits each.

Feeling quite pleased with her discovery, Jayde quickly ate half of the wafer and was surprised to find that she was feeling pleasantly full. Wrapping up the leftover wafer, she put it back in the satchel.

Walking to the desk, Jayde had a look at all the books available on the shelves above the desk. Opening one, she couldn't understand a word written. The previous Jayde had never been educated, so Jayde had no memory of learning to read or write.

Looks like it another thing to add to the list to ask Isha, thought Jayde. Her list was growing quite long as Jayde was feeling a bit impatient, she couldn't wake for Isha to wake up as she had so many things to discuss with him.

Taking one the cooking pots, Jayde gave it a good scrub with the cleaning soap she found. Then she filled the pot with water from the deep pool and placed the pot on the fire to boil. Once the water had boiled for at least 5 minutes, she removed it from the fire to cool down. At least now she had safe drinking water.

Standing up she looked around her cave, she was really quite lucky she had found a safe haven to live in for a while, she had food, water, and a roof over her head. Really not bad — not bad at all, she thought.

Finding a broom, she gave the cave an excellent clean, taking the bedding outside and using a wooden stick she beat the bedding to remove the dirt and dust from it, then she made up a new bed for herself. Once the whole place had been cleaned, Jayde looked down at herself and found she was filthy.

Pulling the wooden tub she had found closer to the pool, she used a bucket to fill the tub up with water, then she dropped one of the heating crystals into the water. She waited for the water to heat up. Once the water was hot enough, she removed the crystal, undressed and jumped into the tub.

Leaning back against the tub, Jayde let out a deep sigh, she was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted — it had been a grueling couple of days for her.

It had only been two days, but Jayde felt like she had lived a couple of lifetimes. Jayde summed up all that she had gone through over the past two days. She had been in a fight for her life, been shot multiple times, betrayed by her brother, died, resurrected in a strange body on a strange planet, smiling bitterly Jayde thought, it really feels like I am living one of those weird dramas that humans liked to watch.

Giving herself a good scrub, and washing her long hair, Jayde climbed out of the tub. Drying herself off she then put on one of the tunics that she found as well as a pair of trousers. Both were too large for her tiny frame, and she had to find some rope to tighten the pants.

After dragging the tub outside to empty it down the deep ravine Jayde returned to the cave, by this stage Jayde was too tired to even think, staggering to the newly made bed, she climbed in, after covering herself with the blanket she instantly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

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