Volume 1 - CH 8

“Living here was like trying to survive in the wilderness. Although I wasn’t ‘Bear Grylls¹’, I was still alive. Also, I wanted to improve our living conditions.”——In my diary, on the entry for the 11th day, I wrote this goal down.

I haven’t really seen much of the environment outside the cave. Since we were going out for a walk, I used this opportunity to explore the scenery around the cave.

The first thing was positional recognition. In a situation where not much is known about this world, the simplest way to explore it was by setting your own house as the point of origin, and memorize the environment around it.

I decided that the direction the cave entrance was facing would be considered ‘North’. A place that I have walked through before, taking 300 steps into the thick vegetation would lead me to a large thicket. After which would be the foot of the mountain near the plains.

Furthermore, there was a trail at the foot of the mountain.

Then, let’s start exploring from the East, where, coincidentally, we first hunted for girabbits. While maintaining the appearance of taking a stroll, I committed the geographical layout of the area into my memory.

“This, what is this called?”

I pointed at a red fruit that was hanging off a tree and asked her.

“Oh, this, Holica.”

“Holica?”

“Yes. Holica.”

Although I suspected that I have heard it wrongly, why did it feel like if I ate that fruit I would be full of vigor²?

“Oh….then, eat, can?”

“Can, maybe.”

She had a very understanding look on her face..

Hey, which is it? Could I or couldn’t I!?

The red fruit was the size of a crabapple and had a smooth surface. Though, it looked like the type of fruit that grows singularly on each branch. It looked like it was edible, with the skin having such a bright and attractive colour, one could already imagine the taste to be deliciously sweet and sour..

Still, I knew that it may not be edible as it seemed……

I knew it. Even though I knew it, I still plucked one of the fruits……

“Me, eat?”

“Yes, eat. Hehe……”

What’s so funny about me eating a fruit?! Or are you messing with me, knowing that this fruit wasn’t edible?

Ugh, whatever. Since I had already plucked it, I might as well eat it. It didn’t look like it was poisonous anyways. And if it was, she wouldn’t let me eat it. At most, it would just taste bad.

The moment I took a bite out of it, the extreme sourness spread through my mouth. The fruit was even more sour than wild hawthorn, smelled like it was a mixture of white vinegar and freshly mowed grass.

Even though it tasted like that, I still continued to chew on the flesh.

“Delicious?”

“Deli…uuu…”

I can’t put up an act anymore. It feels like my whole face had scrunched together³, with my saliva dribbling uncontrollably out the side of my mouth.

I spat it out. If I had continued, it would be a threat to my life.

As I was trying to alleviate the sourness by breathing through my mouth, I watched her laugh so hard that even the little snakes on her hair were swaying wildly around.

Medusa, you are definitely like those gangsters who would deliberately pick on foreigners at a train station.

Sigh……it doesn’t really matter anyways. Didn’t the Divine Farmer³ eat more than a hundred plants by himself? Compared to him, I would be nothing.

Wiping away my tears, I let on bitter smile——‘Taste bad, really taste bad”

“Hehe~” she laughed as she pulled my hands.

“Let’s go.”

If she was holding my hands to lead us, our speed of walking would be faster than when I’m holding hers. I didn’t like the feeling of being ‘dragged’ along by her.

However, I didn’t mind it this time, because I came upon the legendary Golden Fruit.

I’m sorry for giving it such a lame name. It’s just that I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate.

The fruit was so bright and yellow in colour that I could even feel the sunlight reflecting off it. With each of the fruit’s size being almost identical, it felt like a masterpiece.

Just by looking at it, one could already guess that it would be delicious——many small bugs were buzzing around clusters of the fruit.

She quickly plucked a bunch for me. There were only 15 fruits in a bunch, but it was as heavy as a regular bunch of grapes.

Putting one of it in my mouth, the liquid-like flesh flowed inside my mouth, releasing a musky fragrance that travelled into my nose.

The refreshing sweet and sour taste completely washed away the horrible sour taste that was lingering in my mouth. If God eats fruits too, this would definitely be the most favoured one on the plate.

“This, what is the name of this?”

“Bolisnier Naca⁵”

“Bo…Bo what?”

“Bolisnier Naca. How is it, delicious?”

“Very delicious.”

While we were eating the bunch of Bo-something fruits together, I started recalling the road we had just came from. If my memory serves me right, we were walking towards the NorthEast area.

On a side note, there were only 5 trees that bore such golden fruits. It may be hard to find such trees in the future, so I committed the surrounding area into my memory, for good measure, before continuing with our stroll.

Once we were out of the forest, we discovered that the entire Northside was covered with shrubs. It was impossible to finish the walk through it today However, from that, I could tell that the mountain’s shape is curved.

After mulling over the distance, we started walking towards the West.

Compared to walking through countless shrubs, I would rather walk through a forest. After all, being unable to see much around your legs was something to be terrified of.

Also, I wouldn’t get lost if I walk along the edge of a forest and the shrubs.

Although chirping sounds could be heard from the forest, I rarely saw any birds, with the sole exception of a sparrow-like bird that has yellow feathers.

After walking in the shade of the trees for about half an hour, I finally spotted a small stream, which, to me, resembles a small river. Based on my geographical knowledge, this river, which originated from the top of the mountain, should have been formed from melted snow.

The water should be very cold, and, based on the above deducement, the mountain should be very high……

Actually, that was no educated deducement, I just randomly guessed it. Though the water was genuinely cold.

Squatting near the river, I tried a mouthful of the water. It was somewhat better than the spring water back at the cave.

Following the river North, I discovered that the river was coursing towards the west. It was possible that there were many similar small rivers along the mountainside, eventually merging into a bigger river further downstream.

Still, the water was really clear. I could even vaguely see the reflection of my face. Hmm, my hair was getting long, and it had been some time since I shaved. My glasses was still firmly attached to my face.

Uhh……I know that your face is far more beautiful than mine, but please don’t lean on my back. My center of gravity will……

“Hmm? What you looking at……” she asked with a giggle.

“Uhh, I……”

“Ah!”

“This!”

With a big splash, we both fell into the river. Even though I wasn’t being reckless at all, why did this have to happen?! Don’t you have any awareness of your own body weight!?

In the ice-cold river, the first thing I did was to make sure that my glasses were still on my face, and then I quickly returned to the shore with her. I’m pretty sure no one likes having an Ice Bucket Challenge for an extended period of time.

Under the setting sun, a human and a Medusa could be seen hugging each other, shivering in each other’s arms.

This was just too damn cold. As a North-Eastern Chinese, I should just admit that I have lost to this cold.

Besides, it should be reasonable that I am shivering from being cold, why are you, a Medusa, shivering too?!

“Cold.”

I, who had limited vocabulary, could only repeat that word again and again.

“So cold.”

Even she, who had a better grasp of this language than me, could only mutter a word more than me.

I felt very uncomfortable with the wet clothes sticking to my body. Once I thought about how she is also soaked to the bones, I can’t help but feel like I was hugging an explosive item that can easily blow up on me at any time.

However, at that very moment, we were very ‘calm⁶’’.

In the North West direction from the cave entrance, there was a small river that could freeze a person to death. Yep, got it.

……

By the time we returned to the cave, night had already fallen. After changing into clean set of clean clothes, both of us didn’t hesitate to bundle ourselves with three layers of animal pelt.

Screw memorizing the layout of the terrain. All I want to do now is have a nice and warm sleep……