Chapter 244: Survival Contest (2)

Chapter 244: Survival Contest (2)

Four hundred students were dropped in the jungle.

Despite the fact that they were separated by a wide distance from each other, it wasn't long after the competition started that they were dropped one after another.

"Ugh... stomach, my stomach hurts so much. Wasn't I supposed to eat that fruit earlier?"

"Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! I drank some stagnant water from the trough earlier and it made me vomit...."

"Ouch! Ouch! I've been bitten by something, my eye is tingling!"

The competition's map, "The Red and Black Mountains of Jungle," was a harsh place in itself.

Poisonous mushrooms and fruits, contaminated water, insects armed with venomous bites, sweltering air and heavy humidity, vines and leaves that cut, sting, and sting, and the sheer density of it all was enough to keep them going for hours on end.

Sweat poured down their faces even when they stood still.

Simply holding on to the barrels of poisonous insects was a struggle.

Add to that the rapid dehydration, fatigue, and hunger, and if you eat something, you're immediately poisoned or get food poisoning.

HP was melting like butter on a hot frying pan.

The HP stored in the specially designed suit increases and decreases with the wearer's physical fitness and stress levels.

This means that the students must do their best to keep the HP in their suits from reaching zero in order to survive.

If it does, they will be forcibly teleported back to the waiting room.

Meanwhile.

"...Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm."

Grenouille des Leviathans, the vice head of the Colosseo Academy's Hot Class and a member of the aristocratic faction, was now sweating profusely and breathing heavily.

The reading on his HP suit read 74%.

Even though Grenouille hadn't fought anyone since falling into this forest, 26% of his HP had already evaporated.

"This is insane, this jungle is hell. Are jungles like this really real?"

But no matter how much he complained, nothing changed.

Grenouille stared at the rainwater pooling in the hollows of the trees.

At first glance, it looked like drinkable water, but when Grenouille put his nose to it, he smelled a foul odor.

Straining his eyes, he saw tiny thread worms squirming and floating beneath the surface.

"...ewww!"

Grenouille stepped back, suppressing nausea.

If I drink something like that for thirst, my stomach would immediately give a signal.

And I will lose a ton of water through diarrhea.

'If I do that, I'll have zero HP, and I'll be eliminated before I can do anything.'

Grenouille turned away wearily.

He looks down at his waist and sees the fish he caught earlier.

As soon as I caught it, I scooped it up and dried it myself, but the humidity was so high that it didn't dry quickly.

I put my nose and smelled it, and it smelled like it was already spoiled.

"Ugh, I can't drink water and my food is spoiled. What can I do?"

Grenouille thought he could see why his seniors considered the Jungle of the Red and Black Mountains to be the worst of the maps.

The real wilderness was terrifying enough to make Grenouille, the heir to the Leviathan, shudder.

Every poisonous mushroom or poisonous plant in the book looked a little different in real life.

They can be larger or smaller than they appear in the book, dusty, torn, upside down, dried, in the dark, or in the light.

And there are tons of variants, subspecies, and new species that aren't even listed in the book.

"...Huh, yeah. If this body, which has mastered all sorts of poisons, can't do this, I wonder what other lesser things it can do."

Grenouille wiped the sweat from his brow and turned his head to see how his teammates were struggling.

... but.

"Oh, this is delicious."

"Delicious."

"Delicious."

Over a roaring campfire.

Grenouille stared at it, drooling, as if having forgotten what he had just eaten, and then spoke shyly.

"There, there...."

"Eat more, there's plenty."

"kuh, kuh, kuh, keuhm. hm, thank you...."

Grenouille coughed a few more times, avoiding eye contact, then tilted the coconut bowl to scoop up the broth.

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm...

Grenouille gulped down another fifteen bowls before letting out a long burp as if to say thank you.

His HP, which had dropped to 41%, was now 92% full.

Grenouille patted his bulging belly.

Even with all the food he'd eaten, there was still a lot of spicy soup left in the big coconut.

Grenouille scratched his head and turned to Vikir.

"Hey, commoner... Vikir."

When Vikir turned his head, Grenouille cautiously asked Vikir what he wanted to know.

"What is this fishy red stew, why did you make so much of it, from the looks of it you didn't even eat much."

Suddenly, Highbro, Midbro, and Lowbro turned to look at Vikir.

They didn't say anything, but they must have been wondering.

"...."

Vikir was silent for a moment and closed his eyes.

Then, stirring the coconut pot slowly with a broad leaf, he answered.

"Fishing."

Everyone's heads tilted, including Grenouille.

Vikir making spicy soup with the fish he caught, and he's going fishing again?

Vikir, in an unusual act of kindness, offers an explanation.

"I'm waiting for the prey to bite the bait."

Even now, the leaf that Vikir is slowly stirring has become a fan, spreading the spicy and savory smell of hot stew.

It was slowly spreading across the jungle, accompanied by the faint glow from the residual fire.

And then.

...Rustle!

The prey, drawn to the warmth and delicious smell, had been trapped.

The sound of their approach to the bait grew louder and louder.

Thwack!

Highbro, Midbro, and Lowbro half-sheathed their swords at their hips.

Even Grenouille, who has removed his grimoire and staff, has a tense expression on his face.

"...."

Only Vikir remains calm, hiding behind a clump of bushes and watching the bonfire.

And then.

...Crisp!

A figure emerges from the bushes, drawn by the smell.

He looks exhausted and troubled, his tattered clothes covered in leaves and ashes.

The faces of Highbro, Midbro, Lowbro, and Grenouille turned in horror as they recognized the visitor.

And then.

"...?"

Vikir was just as surprised.

The voice from beyond the bushes was tired, but still clear as day.

"Whoa... what's that smell?"

It was Dolores's.