87 Strangers

Lost in time, Foo suddenly noticed a disturbance in the forest. Normally, he made sure to fully block any conversations from nature. Luckily, he had managed to become proficient on that during the travel to the academy.

But he had tuned in to the feelings of the forest, to enjoy the happiness they emitted due to the shining sun and nutritious ground. It made the experience of nature more profound.

The disturbance that he had noticed came from deeper inside the forest. It seemed that the trees were bothered by some intruders.

When Foo was traversing the forest, he usually was really careful. One reason was to not leave any traces, emit sounds or disturb the animals. But lately he had started to move as to not disturb the trees too.

In the beginning, they have been alarmed when he made his way through, although barely noticeable, they were still complaining about his intrusion. But he had adjusted his approach, and the forest was now unresponsive to his movements.

Well, to be more accurate, the forest actually seemed to be happy in his presence. A huge difference from before.

If the alarm of the trees came when Foo was stealthy, nothing needed to be said how they would react when the other party was not being stealthy at all.

Although the trees did not feel pain when they were cut down, nor had the sentience to actually care, they were still bothered when there was a foreign entity messing up their harmony. It was just a stray feeling, but it propagated in the forest, and ended up alerting Foo.

Foo came to the conclusion that it was probably some humans that were cutting a path through the forest. Which was a good opportunity for him, as he needed some more information for his adventure.

In fact, it might be good to procure some companions too. Not some bothersome trouble-creating plan-ruining ones, but proper, reliable ones. For both things, he probably had to get to a village, and he could have the intruders guide him.

He might also be able to train being low-key on them. It was not that he doubted his skills, but the difficulty in this world was just too high! Trouble arose the instant he let his guard down.

As the wind was blowing towards the direction of the disturbance, Foo decided to set up a campfire and roast some meat. During his search in the forest, he had taken care of many beasts, and as such he had plenty of carcasses.

As the meat might spoil, he had to get sell it as quickly as possible. Preservation of the meat might be possible... but way too bothersome. It also tastes best freshly roasted, so if he was going to eat, he could just hunt some fresh ones.

But then again, he was not really getting hungry anymore. It was only when he encountered something that looked tasty that he ate it.

After setting up the fire and starting the roasting, Foo only had to wait. The locally procured spices that he used, coupled with his amazing cooking skills, sent an irresistible aroma carried by the wind.

The animals had for some inexplicable reason started to avoid him during the later part of his search in the forest, and were at the moment staying as far away from the clearing as possible.

Even though the aroma was irresistible, the beasts in the vicinity held their life higher, and as such managed to stay away. Although the ground in the forest was almost covered in drool.

Having set the bait, and only waiting for the prey to spring his... er... waiting for the humans to arrive, he roasted meat enough for a feast.

The other party was still far away from his position, slowly making their way in his direction, but when the aroma from his cooking reached them, they seemed to speed up.

After a while, Foo could hear them, and even later he could spot them through the vegetation. It was a group of three men and two women.

They were all dressed up as adventurers, with clothes of decent quality, although disheveled and a bit torn from their journey.

But then again, Foo's standard for decent clothing might have been lowered quite a bit after seeing the tattered rags that the students from the third section had worn.

But it was for sure that the clothes that they wore were not that bad. They were quite durable, only having minor cuts and tearings after their forceful excursion in the forest.

Slowly closing in on the clearing, in what took Foo a couple of minutes to realize was some sort of sneaking, they seemed surprised at the sight before them.

Seemingly judging it to be safe, one of the men did some signs towards the others and stepped forward into the clearing, joined by another man.

Too embarrassed by the clumsy `sneaking` of the other party, Foo pretended to not notice them. It was like when you did not have the heart to tell a child that their drawings were ugly as crap; although it would be better to just tell them so that they could improve, it was easier to just keep silent.

At a proper distance, the leading man then cleared his throat and said, "Greetings traveler! We could not help but to notice the smell of your cooking. It is dangerous to cook in this forest just like that, how about we join you in case some beasts attacks?"

The man was clearly trying to freeload of his food, but Foo had prepared enough food for all of them, so it was not a problem at all. In fact, he was glad that they did come to eat it, as he would be embarrassed about what to do with all the food if they did not. After all, he made it all for them.

He was definitely not gluttony enough to eat it all by himself… He was absolutely capable of holding himself back… maybe…

"Ah, you startled me!" Foo exclaimed. He then noticed that his lack of reaction might make it seem fake, so he made sure to have his body jump a bit in shock.

Although a bit late, the reaction was perfect. Just as Foo was going to observe how they reacted to his masterful acting, he noticed that they were just staring at the roasting meat while drooling.

Pouting a bit since they did not seem to care about his exquisite acting, even though he put so much effort in it, he wrote it off as them being mesmerized by his cooking skills instead.

He could not help being so awesome in cooking that it distracts them from seeing his awesome acting skills.

"Please, do join me. I would gladly share my food with a fellow traveler in need."

Saying so, he took some meat that was just done from the fire, and handed it to the men. They recieved it in a daze, and then took a bite.

It was the most delicious thing that they had ever eaten. They quickly gobbled it up, and turned to Foo with big eyes, like a puppy begging for more.

"Alright, alright." Foo sighed and gave them some more meat.

As they happily devoured all meat that they managed to get their hands on, their companions that were still in the forest had only one thought.

``The heck! Have you forgotten about us?! Do not eat all of that delicious meat by yourselves! Save some for us!``