Chapter 193: Giving and Receiving
Chapter 193: Giving and Receiving
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
That day they travelled less intensely than the previous day. The day before, they had to stop to hide whenever they suspected something might happen. They had to make sure everything was alright before they could continue their travelling. They all could sense magic surges around them. There were not as many magic beasts in Hengduan Valley as in Forest of Death, but there were still some magic beasts in the valley. They could not tell whether it was a person or magic beast just judging from magic surges, which cost them a decent amount of time as they tried to figure it out.
With Bruzuryano’s gift, Anfey could observe his surroundings for a couple of miles, even up to a range of a dozen miles. Samadhi was a basic skill for a qualified martial arts practitioner. Samadhi in simple words meant the practitioner could be in a fighting state in a very short time. If a martial arts practitioner could not calm down, concentrate, or had to ask to restart everything for some reason, he would get killed. A martial arts practitioner without good foundational skills might escape from being killed one day, but would be killed eventually.
Anfey caressed the leaf on his chest for a while. This was the first time Anfey had felt possessive about something. This leaf made Anfey’s life so convenient. Sometimes even having many mages there with Anfey, they still could not observe everything in the Eyes of Sky at any one time. However, he could do it by himself. All the enemies seemed to show up in front of Anfey. With this leaf, he would rather hide in the dark.
Of course, there was the question of why Bruzuryano wanted to give that leaf to Anfey for no apparent reason?
Anfey did not believe Bruzuryano had taken a liking to Anfey when they only met once. Back when Saul and Ernest wanted to help Anfey, he was a harmless and useless person. He had to have both qualities to feel that the person who helped him would have no intention of taking advantage of him.
People would become cautious or even hate a person if that person was harmful. If this continued, it could cause conflict and end in a bloody fight. Being useful was not a good thing either. People would try to get useful people on their side, socialize with them, help them, and then take advantage of them. Take the handsome Jinke for example. Others tossed the gold nuggets into the water only because he liked to hear that sound. A guy cut off his beloved wife’s hands only because he said her hands were pretty. When people did so much for him, they only wanted him to make a strike at Qin palace to kill the king. If Jinke were not useful, who would care who he was.
Anfey respected Saul and Ernest from the bottom of his heart because they wanted to help a harmless and useless young man. That help without any intentions had won Anfey’s trust. Anfey was cautious. It was not easy for Anfey to trust anyone.
The cause-effect relationships could also be seen as giving-receiving relationships. Bruzuryano gave Anfey the leaf: What did he want for return?
After avoiding groups of mercenaries of different sizes, Anfey decided to take a break next to a river around noon. The rivers in the mountains were usually very clear. This one was only about two yards wide. Anfey could clearly see the stones and swimming fish in the water. Anfey sat on the big stone at the edge, looking around. He asked with a smile, "Suzanna, how about eating better today?"
"What do you mean?" Suzanna asked.
"Should we grill some fish?" Anfey said.
"You…" Suzanna shook her head with a smile.
There were many kinds of magic beasts, but most of them were not edible due to the nature of magic beasts. They could not eat any magic beast with a magic crystal. It could interfere with the magic and combat power if people ate it even for a short time. Magic and combat power could disappear and turn people into magic crystals if they ate magic beasts for a long time. Regular people would get skinnier and skinnier and produce a blood crystal in their body. Blood tribes used to domesticize people and forced them to eat magic beasts to make them into blood crystals. Blood tribes disappeared a long time ago, back before the Sacred Battle.
Suzanna had not done well with food before. Anfey won Shally over with few sausages. Mercenaries in the forest usually carried some food supplies with them. For the people in Anfey’s previous world, Anfey only needed to carry fire starter and weapons, since there would be food everywhere.
It was okay to eat fish as long as the water was fine. Anfey suddenly stood up and picked up a branch. He walked up to the river. Fish saw the shadow of a person and started to dart away. Anfey thrust the branch into the water and stabbed a fish in its side.
Fish were tossed on shore one after another. Suzanna’s eyes were brightened. Being able to eat better today did not surprise her, but the wounds on the fish did. All the fish in the blink of an eye. Without mentioning the skills of using branches as swords, his accuracy had surprised her. Anfey did not have fast speed, sometimes he even looked slow, but he never missed a fish.
Suzanna knew Anfey had unusual and crude sword skills, but in this world, people were evaluated in a more comprehensive way. They did not just look at sword skills, but also paid attention to their combat powers. Suzanna had taken it for granted, so she did not pay too much attention to Anfey’s sword skills. Right now she felt something she could not describe in words. If she tried to catch fish, she did not think she could do as well as Anfey.
"Are we grilling them? I will find some branches." Riska smiled.
"No, I got them." Anfey walked back. "Anyone got salt?"
Riska and Suzanna looked at each other, confused. They carried just regular breads with them; no salt.
"Never mind. Let’s boil them." Anfey took out a crystal box from his Dimensional ring. "Riska, can you find something to set up a stone and put this box on it."
People could continue to be shaped no matter how experienced they were. Grilling fish was so meaningless and ridiculous for old Anfey. He would be fine as long as he had food. Without knowing how, maybe it was because of the unicorn, Saul, Ernest, or Suzanna, Anfey’s personality had gradually changed. He changed from being dark to more positive, from pretentious to sincere. Anfey rarely pretended to be someone else, at least not in front of the people he trusted.
"Ok." Riska took the box. "Can I put it on stones?"
"Sure," Anfey said, smiling. He took out a knife and cut the fish open on its belly. He licked a little bit of blood and tasted it. Raw fish had a strong fishy smell, but he had to taste the blood to make sure it was safe to eat. If described in medical terms, he was trying to feel the microvascular and peripheral nerve to see if they were contaminated. If animals were contaminated, the toxin could be categorized into three types: neurotoxin, blood toxin or cardiotoxin. Although modern medicine had categorized it in a simple way, Anfey’s purpose was not to save a poisoned person. He only needed to make a judgement whether the fish had toxins in it. This kind of categorization was good enough.
Anfey quickly cleaned the fish released a few fireballs to boil the water. He was doing two things at the same time. Suzanna and Riska did not know whether they should laugh or cry, since what Anfey did was against the magic rules and violated the holy and serious nature of magic.
Anfey cut a few sausages and tossed them into the crystal box. He tossed the fish into the box as well. He had no idea how the flavor would turn out, since he was not a chef. Not long after the steam rose up, a strong fragrance came out of the box. Suzanna and Riska had not had any real people food for the past few days. They were excited about the food and walked over to Anfey.
"Someone came. There are seven mercenaries. They will be here soon," Anfey suddenly said in a low voice. He still stirred the soup with a branch and heated the crystal box with his fireballs. Anfey saw the mercenaries in the distance with the leaf on his chest. He did not do just do two things at a time. He was doing three.
"Should we leave now?" Riska was shocked.
"No, they came from over there." Anfey shook his head. If they were from Shansa Empire, they should come from behind or from the sides. Anfey did not feel it was going to be any trouble.
Soon a group of seven mercenaries came to the other side of the river. Mercenaries met all the time. To protect themselves and prevent any misunderstanding, they usually tried not to communicate with each other. They usually continued what they were doing without bothering each other.
Anfey and the mercenaries on the other side of the river chose to have the same kind of attitude. Anfey and his team continued their cooking as the other group of mercenaries sat and talked in low voices on the other side of the river. They did not seem to see each other. Since it was not ordinary to cook with magic, Anfey drew the attention of the other group. Those seven mercenaries checked out Anfey.
"Su…" Anfey was trying to call Suzanna.
"My name is Niya." Suzanna suddenly interrupted Anfey.
Anfey’s hand froze in the air. When he looked over to check Suzanna, Suzanna had turned her body to the side. Suzanna looked at the forest, her head tilted back. Without close observation, Anfey could sense the anger and hatred in Suzanna’s eyes.
"Do you know them?" Anfey asked calmly.
"We’ll talk about it later. Anfey, let’s go. We’d better not get into trouble here," Suzanna answered quietly.
Suzanna answered Anfey in simple sentences, but Anfey got enough information. She was definitely feeling hatred, otherwise Suzanna would not have asked to leave. She was afraid she could not control herself. When Suzanna said she did not want to get into trouble, it meant that this group of mercenaries was not easy to handle. Some of them would be really good.
"Hi!" a mercenary on the other side of the river yelled. "What are you cooking? It smells great."
"We have been here for a couple of months. We had enough breads we brought with us. We are making some fish soup today," Anfey answered with a smile.