Chapter 10: Numbing Élion

This time, he received no new skills, which slightly saddened Foin, but he was not discouraged. He followed his plan. Although he had already eaten, he decided to cook some potatoes and peppers so that tomorrow morning he could eat some, and he also wanted to see how edible the flower would be.

Just because the flower had quite a nice smell, he wanted to try using it as some sort of spice. It was quite a foolish decision as it could have been poisonous, but he was determined.

With the help of one of his stones, he started sharpening a few more sticks. This process was faster than before. The sawdust which he produced fell to the ground, but he carefully collected it once he was finished. 

Just as he did the last time, he started with some now dryer grass as the base, then put on the sawdust and smaller sticks. He had six sticks ready on which he put two potatoes sandwiched between two higher-quality peppers. And then, on two, he even put an Élion flower. He carefully placed the sticks in a circle around and then ignited the bonfire.

Just like before, a prominent sweet smell lingered around the area within moments, once again slightly enhancing the taste of the potatoes and the peppers. In a matter of a few seconds, the ant quickly returned. It was slightly dirty, and it stopped a few meters away from Foin. As he looked back at it, he pointed at the pile made of the lower-quality pepper.

"That pile is yours."

For the first time ever, the ant stared into Foin's eyes. From an outer perspective, it would have seemed like some sort of fierce staring contest, but what really happened was different. As Foin looked back into its eyes, only one word came to his mind.

"Puppy eyes? But...Fine... You can have some of it as well later... Since you did work quite hard."

Foin mumbled under his breath and then sighed loudly. That ant which had bitten him previously seemed more like a pet in his eyes. It Not only behaved like one but seemingly understood human language quite well; as soon as he heard Foin's response, it quickly nodded and lay down. 

While the food was being cooked, Foin decided to do something productive work. He proceeded to break the peppers into the lower-quality pile and then removed their seeds. He did not plant them yet, only collected them. Since he had no container in which he could have stored it, he simply used one of the paper halves as a container and brought it with him, just to keep it safe.

The ant was so hungry for the cooking goods that it didn't even look at Foin as he was collecting the seeds; however, as some of the potatoes' skin started turning slightly darker, it stood up. Fortunately, Foin returned just about in time and removed them before they could have been overly burned. Looking at the two in which he had placed the flowers, Foin decided to give the first one to the ant, just in case.

He carefully placed the two half peppers and the potato with the flower down next to him and then pointed at them. The insect instantly sped over to it, smelled it, and consumed it with a single bite. It slightly shook its head but then instantly looked up at Foin, expecting the next serving.

Foin was at first surprised as he didn't expect the ant to eat it that quickly, and he thought it would leave the flower there. Seeing how it was still looking at the rest of the potatoes, he sighed and gave in. He gave it all but the one mixed with pepper and Élion flower.

While the ant was eating the potatoes, he sniffed his portion. At first, he was about to bite right into it, but he stopped and flicked the flower off, and only then did he taste it. Suddenly, the ant stopped eating and quickly picked up the flower, as if that one was more important than the food it was given.

At first, Foin didn't notice anything; the taste was about the same as before. It was not bad, as it was still fantastic, but he expected something more. He stood up and slightly stretched his back and arms. At that moment, he felt a strange, weak numbness. It was nothing like the one he felt after being bitten by the ant. 

This numbness was so great that it completely killed every sort of pain and soreness in his body, almost as if they had never even existed before. As a result, Foin started testing how movements felt. At first, he slowly applied more and more pressure to his injured leg, and to his surprise, he felt nothing. He was able to stand on his injured leg on one leg.

"Wow... It feels great! I could get used to this..."

He looked back at the ant, who was now eating the peppers he had broken up. Although Foin had harvested a great number of peppers, which would last his days, the ant ate almost half of them easily and then left.

"How much can it eat?! It eats much more than I do... I thought that amount of pepper would last us at least a week, but... I have to get back to planning."

Foin noted with a loud sigh, and then he started planting the seeds. Learning from his previous experiments, he planted more seeds to ensure that the quality would be better than F.

He had quite a large number of seeds, so he spent almost the whole day planting. By the time he was done with planting, he had almost used up all the land he had cleared out. The only area left unplanted was where he slept and where he had his storage area. 

For a few more hours, he started clearing out a larger area. This time, it was much faster as he was able to move around easier. The grass he had removed was now put into a brand new pile to separate the somewhat dry from the freshly collected one.

As he was clearing out a larger area, he decided that he would give it a shot to poetry. Maybe from Mud, he could create containers for the seeds at least. That night, he fell asleep thinking about how to get started on the pottery.