Survive in the parallel world, please!

225 Find the goblin, please! part The next day we woke up completely refreshed after being able to eat to our heart’s content.

It could be said It was a poor decision on my side to distribute everything yesterday and leave only enough to last us until today’s breakfast, but it’s not the case. What good is it having provisions that would last us a little more than a day if we were to find an untimely death because of being too weak to defend ourselves? We also needed the goblins to recover as much strength as possible in case we needed some reinforcements.

We set off from the camp again, but this time we moved faster and our mood had improved by leaps and bounds. Just as I thought, food is so important for morale that even if we could survive without food, it would probably drive us crazy.

It still amazes me how most people and adventurers alike don’t see the importance on proper eating.

Nutrients turn into energy, and energy becomes mana, stamina and health. It doesn’t matter how strong someone is, if they don’t eat, they won’t replenish their energy and they would be left in a tough spot. That’s precisely our case right now, even Bob and Luke who have stats that surpass that of regular humans, if they don’t eat properly they’re not able to draw their full potential.

Our party is basically the same as yesterday, with the sole difference that I asked the amarok to wait for us back at the goblin camp. Not only was it poorly defended and open to attacks, but also keeping the amarok under control would only bring me more stress than I could handle, and to make things worse, there is a beast hunting camp nearby. They might not try to kill Famine, but if they deem him to be too valuable they could attempt to steal it from me, risking our lives unnecessarily.

Just walking side by side with Luke and Risa fighting all the time was stressful enough for me, I didn’t need to add any more worries to this mission.

“How are we going to find any magic beast? do you have a plan or something?”

Luke asked in an uncommon good mood. His voice lacked the usual sarcastic tone I was already used to, it must be the joy of having a full belly after being forced to eat nothing but scraps for a long time.

.....

“To be honest, I don’t think we’re going to be the ones finding them, on the contrary. All we need to do is keep walking and chatting like we’re doing right now and we will eventually be found by something that see us as food.”

“What if it doesn’t work? do you have another plan?”

“Of course not, what do you take me for? I’m just an F ranker adventurer!”

Risa giggled at my remark as if I had said something funny when in fact I just pointed out the truth. Of course I’m a lot stronger than what I used to be, but after losing my cursed sword I don’t think my stats alone can be a match for anyone in this group and the only reason I was able to beat someone like Lorenzo was thanks to him being really tired, hungry and the fact that he didn’t know I was able to cast magic.

The wasteland caused by the constant battles north of the forest soon becomes grassy fields that seem to be a part from paradise. The landscape is truly beautiful, but it lacks the variety of my beloved southern woods.

This is just grass and the occasional herb. Without even taking the time to identify them, I pick them up by force of habit, although none of them seem familiar to me.

“Hang on! There’s something moving slowly over there.”

Bob placed his heavy hand on my chest, stopping me in my place and also hurting me a little to he warn us of the danger ahead. There’s a strange creature in front of us, it looks like a beetle with a sword-like horn on top of its head. If it wasn’t for that particular part of its body it would look almost like a rock in the distance.

As we got closer to them Bob pleaded to be the one initiating the fight. He made a point by stating that he was the only one who could attack from afar and it would allow us to asses the level of threat and be able to run away if the beetle was either too fast or too strong.

We actually had little choice in the matter, especially after taking into account that the beast was too far from us to use consider on it so we have no idea what’s its name or power level. It could be a measly F rank beast or an overpowered A rank magical beast, we had no way of knowing.

After agreeing on a basic strategy in case the beast turned out to be too much for us to handle, Bob waved his wand in the air in the most comical display I ever seen him make as he shouted the magic words.

“Ice bolt!”

“Hey that’s not how it works...”

I manage to mutter before the air condensed on the tip of the wand forming something similar to a pointed stick made entirely of ice and it flew directly towards the beetle stabbing it right on the hard shell.

The beetle attempted to take flight, but only one of his wings was available as the other one was jammed thanks to Bob’s ice bolt. it looked as if the beetle was completely defenseless, but we weren’t as naive as to think that just because it was hurt the beast was done. It was actually when beasts were hurt that they fought harder.

Bob looked to me as if asking for permission, but I actually had no idea of what was he going to do. How was it possible for him to cast ice magic? I’ve tried to do so for a long time just to be able to preserve my food, but I’ve had no success. I can only cast fire and earth magic, and now he simply goes and casts ice magic like it’s nothing.

“Zap!”

The beetle was shocked in its place and fell limp to the ground.

>Samson beetle (paralyzed) (?)

Thanks to mana sense I knew there was still some mana flow inside it, but I let Bob perform the last hit since it was he who did all the job. And that’s when things became really weird.

As soon as the beast died a part of its mana flowed towards Bob’s wand. I took my staff and poked at the carcass.

The same thing happened, it wasn’t nearly enough to fill it, but it was a nice discovery nonetheless, not just because it would help recharge our magical weapons but also because it was a way of draining the mana from corpses to make the meat edible.

I shared my discovery with the rest of the group but none of them seemed to be excited about it. Not even Bob, who was the one who benefited the most out of it.

“I just don’t see the appeal on eating insects. I would do it if I was starving, but only as a last resort”

Risa said apologetically after looking at the dead beast.

“Don’t be dumb guys! I don’t mean we should eat this thing, but we could hunt something different and repeat the process!”

“Oh! that would be so nice, I really hope we find some magical sheep or goats.”

Luke said tapping on his belly.

I must say, going on adventure with this guys takes me back to the time we were all inexperienced and would make all sorts of mistakes, but instead of nostalgia I think I’m getting gastritis.