86 The First Steps

Traveling together through the forest, Foo noticed a problem. On his way away from the academy, he had instinctively been stealthy. However, now he had a chattering rucksack on his back, announcing their presence to everything in their surroundings.

"You see, trees are really tasty! There is something addictive to chewing a tall tree into pieces! And the way they fall is really awesome too! Unfortunately, I have not been able to fell a tree in a really long time. But one time I managed to..."

Form a unimpeded walk in the park, they were now constantly assaulted by beasts that wanted to take a bite, or maybe wanted to shut up the talkative rucksack for good.

"... and it fell right on him! Squashed him to bits! That surely taught him who the boss of the forest was! Ah, good old days. Another thing that I did when I was young and energetic was..."

It was not a huge problem, as Foo could easily take care of them. But it was as annoying as pesky mosquitoes that you had to chase away.

Not calculating his strength correctly, he happened to accidentally kill a snake that was jumping them, instead of just knocking them out as he used to.

Thinking that it was a waste to just leave it, he proceeded to cook it. He might not get hungry, by he was quite curious what it tasted like.

As he prepared it, he found another orb inside its head. It had a glaring light green color with some black dots darting around. Thinking that the rucksack might as well be helpful when it talked, Foo asked about the orb.

"What it the orbs that are inside the animal heads?"

According to novels and stuff, it should be something like beast cores, the condensed energy of the beasts, or something. And following that route, they might be considered valuable. One might even make lots of money with it.

"Hmm? That? I dunno. But they are really tasty! They also help us to evolve by eating them. But they look so pretty that I can't bear to part with them. I got a couple of them here... NO! Do not even think about it! Mine!"

"You may keep those. There are lots of beasts that seems to insist that I should take theirs instead. You gain power by eating them? They are probably valuable? Humans value them too?"

"You will not change your mind if I tell you, will you? Oh, well, humans are like crazy for them. It almost seems like they desire them more than us! They often raid the forest to get their hands on them. They must really find it tasty!"

Seeing that it was the usual setting, Foo only found it odd that humans also ate them. Usually they were inedible for humans, and they used them for crafting and stuff. But it seemed like it was a bit different in this world.

And that only showed that it was always good to ask about things, even if you might be quite confident that you understood. Had he not, he would surely think that humans could not eat them.

"Alright then, I guess that I have to give it a taste!"

Popping it into his mouth, he found it especially tasty. And it had a peculiar sour taste that almost made his mouth a bit numb.

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Congratulations!

You have devoured the core of a `Eternal Silence Serpent`!

Your bodily constitution prevents any effect from the core.

########

``Hm? `Eternal Silence Serpent`? Well, it was quite silent when it stuck. Even made me a bit jumpy, resulting in using lethal force when countering it. But why does it not have any effect? Should it not help me evolve? At least improve my stats? Maybe it was too weak? Anyway, it tasted great!``

"Hey! Let me see it first!" the rucksack interrupted his thoughts.

"As if! You would just insist on touching it, and then I would never get to see it ever again!"

"What!? Was it that pretty?! Quickly! Give it to me!"

"Ah, I ate it already. It was delicious!"

"Darn it! Give some to me too!"

Ignoring the rucksack, Foo then continued to search the forest for more snakes. Unfortunately, they seemed to be quite rare. Although he searched for some days, he cold only find another two. But on the way, he extracted some cores from other aggressors, and then giving them to the overjoyed rucksack.

He had tasted another type of core, but it was disgusting. It was so awful that he was reluctant to try another one. As such, he passed all of them to the rucksack. He only kept the two green ones, as he was quite sure that they tasted alright.

Of course, he remembered to keep them out of sight from the rucksack, as it was really greedy. If it were to see how pretty they looked, it would never stop nagging him to give it them.

After some days, he finally gave up on the search. And as he was quite thorough, he was sure that he did not simply miss them.

Eating another one of the two orbs he still had, he then lamented that there was only one left. When asking the rucksack if there was any other tasty ones, it had only said that all was tasty. It clearly could not be trusted on the matter, as Foo still had the disgusting taste (that the rucksack also insisted was tasty) left in his memory.

After finding a nice clearing, Foo then proceeded to enjoy the nature a bit. It was a beautiful day after all. All the hectic search for the snakes made him want to just sit down and rest for a bit. Enjoying the marvel of the nature was an efficient way to cheer up after all.

He even managed to shut up the rucksack. It seemed like it was as if mesmerized by one of the orbs that he found. He had to agree that it was quite fascinating. It was a dark orb with a vortex inside it, seemingly devouring specks of light from the surrounding, and swallowing them in its depth.

By giving it to the rucksack, it was just sitting there, gazing into it. Quietly.

Unfortunately, Foo did not remember what kind of beast that it came from. If he had known, he would have searched for some more. It seemed to be quite useful after all. But as with the snakes, it did not appear again.

And when he did not even know what kind of beast that he should look for, he gave up on the search.

As such, he had time to rest in the lush grass of the forest clearing. With only the melodic chirping of the birds to keep him company.