A Little Foraging

I press the button in front of my chest again, and my helmet minimizes into the collar of the Exosuit. I take in a deep breath of the evening air. I thought it was going to be nice, but I forgot that the field is covered in ashes and corpses, yet still, it's better than what I breathed back on Earth.

I walk through the devastation into the unharmed parts of the forest. Trees on the edge of the battlefield have snapped and fallen over. Such sights would have been terrible to see before, but now, the destruction is minuscule compared to the scale of the forest as a whole.

While running my hand down a dying tree, I feel something wet as I touch the severed part of the wood.

I lift my hand and examine the substance between my fingers. It's clear and sticky. I put it up in front of my nose and sniff. There is an earthy smell from it, and somewhere mixed in there is a hint of a sweet aroma.

The pine sap I am used to doesn't smell like this.

"Can I see what it's made out of?" I ask Cisca.

"Yeah," she says, "There is a tool in the multi-tools that analyzes substance makeups."

"Okay."

Just what I expect from Doctor Cisca, but times like when she saw Lohikaarmi naked really take away my respect for her genius.

I take out the multi-tools.

"Is it the one with a small spoon?" I ask.

"Yep, that's it," she says.

I flip out the tool that has a caved shape at the end. With it, I scoop up a little drop of sap from the tree. I am guessing the process goes the same as the healing laser, so I press the button for it, as well.

Text pops up in my vision. There is a list of chemical compounds that I don't understand with minute percentages beside them, but I am only looking for one, and I see it.

"SUGAR - 5.2%"

"Damn," I say and give the sap a little taste. The sweetness is indeed distinctive.

"What about it?" Cisca asks.

"The sugar content is higher than maple."

"So?"

"That means I can make syrup out of it."

"What? Do you know how to do that?"

"Yeah. I just boil it and evaporate the water. All that's left is syrup."

Cisca chuckles and says, "Wow, who knew the multi-billionaire Kris Kaplan is a down-to-earth handyman."

"I just had a lot of free time when I was a kid. Also, I am a trillionaire, not a billionaire."

"Right, I take back what I said about you being down-to-earth."

I go over to the nearest dead soldier and take his helmet. I dust off the inside and place it upside-down under a pine tree that's in a better shape.

"You got a knife in the multi-tool?"

"Of course."

Why did I even ask? I press the substance scanner back in and flip out the blade. With a strong push, it slides into the bark of the tree. It is a sharp knife. I can cut the wood like it's butter. With no effort, I carve out a hole and sap begins flowing out into the helmet.

Even though it's more sugary than maple, it's much less viscous. The sap flows out at a pretty fast speed, filling the helmet up like it's a slow drip coffee machine.

While that is collecting sap, I head off into the forest to search for the berries Lohikaarmi was talking about.

Daylight is rapidly disappearing, so I don't have much time, but it doesn't take that long before I come across a shrub with bright red cherry-sized berries hanging from it.

I pluck off a piece. It has the texture of a strawberry but the shape of a grape. I have definitely never seen these before. I take out the substance scanner again and scoop out a little piece of the berry.

"Cisca, are any of these chemicals poisonous?" I ask.

"Let me see…" Cisca says and glances at the table, "Nope, you are all good."

"Alright," I say and chuck one in my mouth. Sour. It is very sour, to the point where I shiver from the taste of it on my tongue.

"Ooh." I lick my lips. "That's sour."

"Can't imagine wild berries tasting good," Cisca says.

"Yeah."

Even though the berry can't be enjoyed on its own, I can probably simmer it in the syrup and make a nice stew. I am sure the little girl will enjoy it. As for Lohikaarmi, I am not as confident as I have no idea what the diet of a dragon is.

I can't really hold a lot of them with just my hands, so I walk back to the field to see what the soldiers have that I can use.

This poor guy. I am standing over the one from whom I took the helmet. I don't see a pool of blood beside him, so he probably took a blunt hit from Lohikaarmi and was sent flying over here. Well, at least he still has all of his body parts on him. The same can not be said about everyone here.

I search him for anything that can be of use, but there is nothing except for a little cloth pouch hanging from his waist. I untie the knot and lift it up. It's pretty hefty with something jingling from the inside.

I open up the pouch, and in there are coins, unevenly forged coins made of some different metals. There are copper ones, iron ones, silver ones, and even a gold one.

"Ooh," Cisca says, "Coins as currency. Matches the era."

"Yeah," I say and walk over to the next dead body. He also has a similar pouch with him, and there are slightly more coins with him than the last guy. I put the coins in one pouch so I have an empty one.

Since I still have some time left, I go around the field collecting these coins from the soldiers.

"Even in this world, you are hungry for money, eh?" Cisca says.

"Yeah, who knows when they will come into use later? Having money is always better than not."

"Sure."

I head back to the berry bush in the forest. One by one, the empty cloth pouch fills up with berries, and the bush barely looks touched. I have a few more pouches, so I continue until they are all full.

There are a couple of pounds of the red berries in my hands, and I feel like that's enough, so I begin going back to the cave. On the way, I pick up the helmet of sap, which is almost overflowing at this point, and step into the scorched battlefield.