Altyria woke up the next morning and felt refreshed. She had thought she would still be sore after yesterday’s tough trip back. However, contrary to her thoughts, she was in a better shape than before!
She stretched her legs before heading out of the cave. Altyria was lost in her thoughts as she planned what to do for the day when her foot stepped on something cold and soft. She looked at her foot.
Hmm? Fish? This is the fish I caught yesterday at the lake!
Altyria felt baffled and wary. She did not sense any creature come near her cave at all when she slept. Yet, these two fish suddenly appeared near the entrance of her cave.
She sniffed the fish, but did not smell the scent of the culprit who placed these fish here.
Should I eat it? What if it’s a trap? Hmmm…I’ll just take a small bite.
Although she knew it was a stupid move, she could not resist taking a bite from the fish. Her instincts told her that the fish was clean. She slowly chewed on the fish. She could tell that it was caught and killed not too long ago as the meat was still tender.
Delicious! There is some sort of spice added to this fish. What could it be? Altyria tilted her head to one side while staring at the fish.
Altyria shrugged as she could not think of what it could be and continued eating the delicious fish. Just as she was about to eat the second fish, she noticed that it was not raw meat.
Can this be eaten? Did it get burnt? Altyria hesitated on whether to take a bite or not.
She sniffed and poked it with her paw.
It smells more appetizing than raw fish…
Altyria decided to give it a try. She took a bite and chewed. Her eyes widened in surprise.
W-What is this?! This taste sooo much better than raw fish! The spice added to this fish enhances the taste as well!
Altyria started devouring the fish and finished it in less than a minute. She stared at the fish bones in disappointment.
She spread out her soul power to see if the mysterious ‘creature’ was nearby so she could ask for its cooking method, but she did not sense anything.
Her ears and tail drooped in disappointment.
Oh well, guess it’s time to go grooming again.
Altyria chose to take the shorter route to the waterfall, because she wanted to clean herself as soon as possible. This time she was a bit faster since she was going downhill so she did not need to climb as much.
After she left, the mysterious figure that Altyria had hoped to find appeared from the shadows. As it gazed in the direction that Altyria left, it flicked its tail in happiness since Altyria liked the fish that it had roasted for her. Although it very much wanted to reveal itself to her, it knew that it was not time yet. It had to wait a bit longer before it could appear before her. If it appeared now, Altyria might be wary and it did not want to scare her off.
It had already waited thousands of years for her to appear. It did not mind waiting a bit longer.
It once again retreated into the shadows to chase after Altyria and watch her.
Altyria finally arrived at the waterfall after taking 3 hours to go through the semi-rough terrain. Her paw pads on her forelegs were bleeding because she accidentally landed on sharp branches when she jumped off a tree. This resulted in her taking the same amount of time to go uphill, which was much more difficult than going downhill. She had no choice but to endure the pain and continue down the path to the waterfall.
She slowly cleaned her injured paw pads and winced as it stung with the contact of the water. Altyria was mulling over the fact that she was not careful enough and got injured as a result.
After cleaning her injury, she proceeded to bathe and clean her fur.
Not too far away, the figure frowned when it saw Altyria’s injury. It hated that it could not personally clean the wound for her. If it did, Altyria would definitely be on guard towards it and that was not what it wanted. Therefore, it could only restrain itself and not go to her. Suddenly, its eyes lit up and it disappeared back into the darkness.
As usual, Altyria did not notice the mysterious figure watching her as she bathed herself. She was still full with the two fish she had eaten and did not have any interest in catching fish at the moment.
She slowly limped towards the tall boulder that she had slept on yesterday. Altyria planned to take a nap again and sunbathe before heading back to her cave. She could not stay here too long since she injured her paws and it may take her longer to return home. Walking around in the forest at night was a dangerous thing to do. Although it was unlikely that Altyria would meet a spiritual beast, she did not want to be walking around in the dark with injured paw pads.
Her habits from her previous life were deeply ingrained into her soul. One of which was not to wander around in the forest at night. Altyria did not plan on changing her habits in this world because these habits that she had developed had always helped save her life or prevent herself from being in a very dangerous situation.
After Altyria slept in the sun for 3 hours, she slowly headed back to her cave taking the short route. She picked up some fruits and berries that she had found along the way and a small rodent that was skittering nearby.
Altyria did not need to eat and could merely rely on absorbing aura to provide the nutrients for her body; however, she had grown to like the variety of tastes of the foods. In her past life, she did not eat at all because she automatically absorbed world essence in her sleep, which was more nourishing than aura since it was naturally purified aura. Thus, she never bothered trying to eat food that she had seen others eat and refused when asked if she wanted to try some.
World essence was the greatest quality of aura. Therefore, solely absorbing it would be the best for cultivation as it helped increase cultivation and enhanced the body. Food, on the other hand, either had no world essence or aura in it or had impurities. It only provided the body with nutrients to grow and did not help increase cultivation. Once eaten, the impurities would be absorbed into the body.
Altyria was aware of this, but she still wanted to eat food. She had regretted not trying out new food in her previous life. Now she had a second chance, so why not?
She could clear out the impurities with the aura that she absorbed every night from her spiritual array, so she did not have to worry about the impurities accumulating and affecting her cultivation.
Altyria finally arrived home when the sun had just set. She took a bit longer since she was also carrying the food that she had gathered on the way back.
Altyria slowly reorganize her food storage before lying down on her soft bed to sleep.
Comments (0)
See all