38 Complete planning

Lev was taking a stroll in the foggy and humid forest, his eyes wandering around. His oversized jacket protected him from the coldness that the forest brought. But compared back in Fories, the coldness there was almost three times worse than the forest. His sweater would suffice enough to comfort him from the draftiness, but he still wore the oversized jacket because of the multiple pockets it brought... and for the suaveness.

If I want to completely outrun the Jäger, then, first, I need it to lose track of me... But its sharp eyes can see through this fog and its acute sense of smell could track me down... Lev carefully considered every possibility the Jäger might do.

Ignorance is bliss, but not for Lev. For him, ignorance means death in this world. If he does not know about something, then he might as well be a sitting duck waiting to be hunted, that's why he badly needed to learn how to avoid monsters.

Lev picked up a small plant and sniffed it.

"Not strong enough."

He continued wandering in the forest but not deep enough where monsters roam and hunt for weaker preys.

He sniffed all the herbs and plants that he walked by, but none of them met his expectations. After a few more walks, he decided to retrace his footsteps back to the cave.

While he was walking, he noticed a group of plant-like vine that was almost double his height. Every day, the forest surprised Lev with new types of flowers, trees, plants, and herbs, and today was no different. The plant-like vine was almost like a cone shape, and its thick leaves covered the inside of the plant.

It piqued Lev's interest to check what the plant was hiding beneath its leaves. But for safety measures, he took a stick and poked the plant.

After a few rustles of leaves, he concluded that there was nothing wrong in it.

"Better safe than sorry," Lev mumbled.

He reached out his hand to the leaves and moved it away to see what was hidden under it. There, he saw what looked like a cluster of small berries compacted together. Each cluster had 3 different colors: green, red, and purplish-black. From the looks of the 'berries', green meant that it was still raw, red meant it wasn't yet completely ripen, and the purplish-black meant that it was already ripe. Lev deducted it while touching and weakly pinching it to feel the hardness and texture it had.

After reasoning out with himself, he took a piece of ripened 'berry' and placed it in front of his nose. With a sniff, sharp, pungent aroma invaded his nostrils and he felt his nose itching.

The Ash-grey eyes that looked dead brightened up and optimism filled it. This was actually what he was looking for! The smell felt familiar but he couldn't point it out where he smelled it. But nonetheless, he took 5 clusters of it and made his way back.

He needed to make a powder out of it, luckily, he observed the time when Ezio was making a powder out of a plant. First, he left the plant beside the fire until it completely dried out. Next, he gathered the dry plants and ground them using a stone with a rounded end until the plants were partially crushed. After some few more repeats, the plants were completely powderized.

It was an easy task. After climbing back up the cave, Lev sat beside the fire while reaching out on his pocket and took out the clusters of 'berries' then placed them near the fireplace.

It slightly gave off a pungent aroma, making Ezio take a quick glance on it.

"Piperine. What are you going to use it for?"

"Nothing," Lev suspiciously answered as he tried to cover them with his hands.

Ezio just looked at it, his face was so still that one may wonder if expressions and emotions could mask the blank face.

After a few seconds of silence, he gave up looking on the piperines.

Clever boy... He smirked.

Couple days past, the so-called piperine completely dried out, with the surface looking dehydrated and old.

This was what Lev was expecting to result in. He took out a small vertical stone, about a three inches long, with a rounded end, and started crushing the piperines.

On the outside, it looked fragile and easily crushed, but when Lev struck it, it was dead hard.

Bang!

Another blow was struck against the piperines, but to his dismay, it was still the same.

"How could such a small thing be so hard and tough? It's like a rock solid," Lev stretched his arms and back as he prepared to use full force against the piperines.

It took him a whole day to partially crush it and his arms were already aching from the strenuous workload.

The day quickly ended and the next day quickly came. He also used the whole day focusing on powdering the piperines, in which he succeeded doing so.

There were less than 2 weeks left on his time, and he needed to thoroughly think about his plan.

After doing the trick, how long will the Jäger recover? I'm assuming about five seconds, then how can I escape from his sight in five seconds? Questions flashed through Lev's mind as he walked towards the entrance of the cave to view the dark, foggy forest.

Based on what he saw on the river, the small fish did a double u-turn then it gave off a black ink that made the bigger fish lose track of its prey when it turned around. By then, the small fish made another turn and swam in the opposite direction while the hunter was on a daze.

This was what he planned to do, and he only got one chance of doing so because if he tried to practice it against the Jäger, there would totally be a no next time for Lev. The Jäger quickly adapt to the situation if they already experienced it for the first time.

Should I hide behind a brush? How about sprinting off? Nah, that would most likely be a bad idea... I need to hide somewhere where it least expected me to be... Lev carefully scouted the view of the forest.

The cold, chilly wind blew straight down to the forest and leaves rustled and departed off the trees where they flew on the foggy sky then gracefully landed on the ground.

Trees... The trees! Lev's eye widened with excitement as the final piece of his plan connected.

After figuring out everything, Lev decided to reward himself with a night of good night sleep.

And as the cool wind blew across the forest, carrying some small leaves with it, the end of the horizon was inked with black that was slowly rising to the sky.