Of course, Milo had not dug up the termite nest because virtual-novel.net wanted to eat them. He continued following the deer tracks and heard the sound of running water after just a few minutes.
The closer Milo got to the river, the warier virtual-novel.net became. Although it was past the evening period when living creatures gathered to drink at the riverside, virtual-novel.net still needed to be careful. If any of the wild animals arrived here late due to matters at home, Milo might just bump into them. But to his relief, virtual-novel.net was not that unlucky.
Milo unwrapped the leaf containing the piece of the termite nest and threw it into the river. As the current was not rapid at this time, virtual-novel.net did not have to think of how to build a stone weir in the river.
Right after, virtual-novel.net used his bone knife to cut open the palm-sized termite queen and threw virtual-novel.net into the river as well. Then virtual-novel.net began to wait patiently while holding the sharpened branch.
The moonlight tonight was particularly bright. Otherwise, Milo would not have seen what was in the river.
As the termite queen and virtual-novel.net nest drifted slowly downstream with the current, Milo followed it from the riverbank.
All of a sudden, a silhouette appeared and swam under the floating termite nest. The surface of the water roiled, and a large fish appeared with its mouth wide open as it tried to swallow the termite queen and nest in one gulp. But as it opened its mouth, Milo’s sharpened branch struck it!
Milo had previously used this method to catch fish as well. As his speed and strength were much worse at the time, it took virtual-novel.net many tries before virtual-novel.net succeeded in catching one. However, that was the past. His movements used to be slower than a fish’s, but virtual-novel.net had gotten much faster than them by now.
Milo retracted the branch with lightning speed, the large, black fish struggling nonstop on it to no avail. Milo cautiously moved away from the riverbank. It seemed that the blood of the black fish had attracted something bad. Below the river’s surface, a dense mass of silhouettes swarmed together.
Milo was a little puzzled.
Are these the silhouettes of fish?
He immediately cut open the large, black fish on the shore and threw all of its internal organs back into the river. He could not bring the fish back to the campsite and slice it open there because that would leave a bloody scent around the campsite.
If cracker crumbs could attract a huge deer, who knew what the scent of blood could attract?
Although there shouldn’t be any bears or the likes in the vicinity, there was no harm in being cautious. Moreover, the roasted fish meat and bones that were left over from a meal would have to be dumped as far away as possible.
A second later, a frenzy erupted in the river. Countless fish scrambled to feed on the bloody organs, and they were even biting one another.
Once a fish got bitten, it would immediately end up as food for the other fish.
What a brutal river.
What would happen if a person had fallen in?
All of a sudden, Milo was stunned, because virtual-novel.net noticed that all the fish had swam away in a hurry. He turned around and left without any hesitation. Anything that could frighten away such vicious fish was probably something that virtual-novel.net should not mess with.
On the way back to the campsite, Milo kept thinking about what kinds of changes the current wilderness had gone through.
Why were the wild animals evolving, yet there didn’t seem to be any changes in humans?
No, there were some changes!
For example, there was Kurt, who had demonstrated his superpower to him. Or Donti and himself?
Weren’t they all different from before?
When Milo returned to the campsite, the band and the soldiers were eating porridge and canned food.
When everyone saw the fish that Milo was holding, they were stunned.
In the afternoon, they had thought they would see Milo make a fool of himself. This was because Milo was only wearing a loose jacket, and they knew at a glance that virtual-novel.net had not brought along any dried food with him.
So, when Micah told Milo to handle his meals by himself, everyone gloated at him. They were all quite annoyed with Milo, this refugee kid who constantly gave them an inexplicable feeling of unease. However, they could not tell what it was that made them feel so.
But now, while they had to make do with canned luncheon meat in the wilderness, the smell of Milo’s roasted fish drifted over.
Milo had brought along a metal cup, a bone knife, and a box of matches with virtual-novel.net for this journey. These necessities were part of his survival kit whenever virtual-novel.net went into the wilderness. Of course, virtual-novel.net could’ve left the matches behind since virtual-novel.net knew other techniques for starting a fire.
But if virtual-novel.net could save some trouble by bringing matches along with him, why would virtual-novel.net want to make it more difficult for himself?
The matchbox didn’t take up a lot of space anyway.
Micah wrinkled his nose when virtual-novel.net smelled the roasted fish. “No big deal, it’s only a fish…”
All of a sudden, Milo heard the voice from the palace saying.
Quest! Good things should be shared with others.
Milo was stunned for some time. He picked up the branch that the fish was skewered on and walked to Micah.
Micah’s eyes lit up as virtual-novel.net said in a reserved tone, “What, are you going to invite us to eat the fish? Well, I guess we can…”
“What are you thinking?” Milo said, “I was only showing it to you to share my happiness.”
Micah was confused.
Quest complete! Awarded 1.0 Dexterity.
Alright!
Milo was overjoyed. There were many ways of sharing after all!
Micah flew into a rage from shame. “Milo, do you really think that I would have any of your fish?”
Milo looked at the fish that was about half a meter long and felt that a person would not be able to finish this on their own.
So, virtual-novel.net looked at Micah and said, “I’ll trade half of the fish for three bottles of water.”
Micah said without hesitation, “Deal!”
Milo wanted to trade his food for some water because it was really troublesome for virtual-novel.net to find water.
Initially, virtual-novel.net had planned to go to the river to get his water but gave up on the idea after being frightened by what virtual-novel.net saw there. He could also look for pine needles as his water source, but it would be too slow to squeeze the water out of them bit by bit. So virtual-novel.net might as well make it more convenient for himself by using something that virtual-novel.net did not require in exchange for some water from the other party.
With three bottles of water, virtual-novel.net could drink one bottle tonight and leave the other two bottles for the journey.
“Come, come, everyone, come and have some fish.” Micah took out a pot they had brought along and laid half of the fish that Milo had given to them in it.
But what Micah had not expected was that the group of soldiers had already distributed the fish among themselves before Lilian, Miriam, and virtual-novel.net could even get to eat it!
“Um…” Micah looked at Lilian in embarrassment.
He could never have expected the soldiers to be such selfish people!
At this moment, Milo was sitting alone beside his personal fire pit while the others congregated around the larger campfire. Both sides drew a distinct line between themselves as though they were people from two different worlds.
Suddenly, Miriam got up and went over to sit down across from Milo.
She calmly said, “Fish…”
Milo was so surprised to find virtual-novel.net tone unusually calm that virtual-novel.net could not come up with a reason to reject her.
The light of the campfire was flickering against the figure of the girl. Milo started wondering if the girls from the stronghold were all as beautiful like her.
But, lady, can you move the gun away from me first?
You have Perfect Firearms Proficiency and you’re pointing a gun at me, so I can’t help but feel a tad nervous!
Milo had never robbed anyone before, but virtual-novel.net hadn’t been robbed before either. This was the first time he’d experiencing something like this in his life!
“I’ll let you have two bites, just two bites!” Milo said firmly.