Chapter 906: First Cooking Challenge (2)

?Absolutely not!

The four thought of these two words when they heard Miguel's statement.

The four weren't stupid to not understand the obvious flags Miguel had raised.

However, there was still something on their minds.

Lith looked at Miguel and said, "So assuming they're stronger than us, how can we cook? Wouldn't we be busy defending?"

Miguel and Juan both shook their heads.

"You wouldn't be, Your Highness." Juan said. "These beasts won't attack as long as they're fed."

"Alright. Let's get to cooking then." Lith said.

Dennis nodded. "But where are the ingredients?"

Juan and Miguel flashed a sly smile at this.

"Well... You have to fetch it yourself and cook. Good luck with that."

"Yo what!?"

Juan and Miguel didn't say anything further and simply extended their index finger out, shooting a ray of information straight into the four's minds.

The four felt a sharp pain in their heads and closed their eyes, feeling information pour in.

Juan and Miguel extended their wings out and left the place, leaving the four to their own.

A minute later.

"Holy shit! This is overkill!" Dennis exclaimed.

"What's wrong with those guys? This is just asking us to die!" Miwa complained.

Lith and Ralph had a calm expression unlike the two.

Ralph looked at Lith and said, "So it's teamwork, isn't it?"

Lith nodded. "We need to take turns for hunting, gathering, cutting, and cooking."

"You guys, are you not thinking it's overkill?" Miwa asked with a shout.

"Are you afraid of dying?" Ralph asked a simple question in a flat tone.

Miwa fell silent hearing that, thinking deeply about Ralph's question.

Smack!

"Owf!"

"Not the time to think about stupid things." Dennis hurried. "Let's get going and discuss on the way."

Dennis extended his wings out and holding Miwa's back collar, flew down the rock pillar they were on.

Lith and Ralph followed suit and went down as well.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Miwa shouted. "Do you not have any manners!? Carrying a lady like that!"

"Nobody considers you a lady, short gorilla. Shut it." Dennis replied while storming down.

"LET ME DOWN, YOU BASTARD!" Miwa was fully offended now and yelled.

"Ok." Dennis said and let go, as asked.

"WHA—IYAAAAAA—"

Poof!

"Stop shouting." Lith said in a gentle voice, holding Miwa in a princess carry. "You are doing the cooking part, prepare well for it. Me, Ralph will go hunt and gather things while Dennis will prepare the ingredients for you."

"Huh?" Miwa was taken aback.

"You boys heard it?"

"Yes, Your Highness!"

"Understood."

"..." Miwa was speechless. How can all these guys agree with things so easily?

"I wanna gather—"

"No." Lith said with a straight face, gliding down. "You're doing the cooking part, there's no room for negotiations. We'll talk about why such a role later. Understood?"

Miwa went silent after hearing that.

"Understood?"

"Okay." Miwa didn't argue further on this and accepted her role.

"Good." Lith said and placed her down on the ground.

Forming a shape rock spear with magic, Lith inscribed on the ground a big X and placed the spear on it, sealing it with a Dark spell.

"Everyone, gather around." Lith exclaimed.

The three did and formed a circle, bending down and placing their hands on each others' shoulders.

Lith looked at Ralph and said, "You're going East. Gather whatever's necessary for recipe number one and two."

"Dennis, you're going to gather seeds to make oil. We are practically given nothing and need it. Aim for the darker flowers, you may end up finding some or the other seeds good enough for oils."

"Miwa, kill a few fatty beasts shown in section 7 and use their fat to add flavour to the cooking. In case Dennis cannot find oil, you shall use those fats to cook. Take this space ring, it'll act as a fridge, you can store those killed beasts in this."

Lith took out a spare space ring from his own space ring and gave it to Miwa.

"As for me, I'll try hunting beasts for recipes one to five and also try to gather some spices."

"Understood."

"Understood."

"Understood."

"Alright. On count of three... Two..."

"HIYAAAAA LETSSS GOOOOOO!"

The four shouted at the sky and ran in four separate directions.

All were clever enough to place markings at their paths and ran at full speed, scanning everything in their vicinity and ensuring they found the ingredients.

The task was by no means easy.

As per information given by Juan and Miguel, the beasts won't attack for at least the first thirty minutes. However, there was no saying what would happen in the valleys below.

The four could be attacked by local beasts or even poisoned by the plants. There was no telling, they had to be really careful.

Lith knew of all the possible dangers and working together would surely be safer, but he knew the capabilities of his friends and believed in them.

They wouldn't fuck up, he had faith, and let them go in separate directions.

Miwa was fairly new to the group, but Lith could feel her capability and this was not something he felt towards just anybody.

In any case, the three had gone about their ways and Lith could only hope they returned to the said place in given time.

The beasts wouldn't attack for the next thirty minutes, but as a safe measure, ten minutes was decided.

Miwa could not fly and also didn't know magic. Flying and going up the pillar was not something feasible for her and she didn't realize this fact when Lith gave her instructions.

It's for this reason Lith told her they'll talk about it later on.

There was also the fact that Lith did not know about her intelligence. Finding proper paths, hunting beasts, or gathering spices and plants would be a difficult task, given how minimal information there was available to them.

Their lives were on the line and Lith didn't want to risk anything.

Lith, Ralph, and Dennis may very well resurrect if they were killed since there were many precautions taken beforehand, but nobody was sure about Miwa.

Did she have a phylactery for resurrection? Was her soul strong enough to not dissipate after death?

There were many questions.

Hence, her life was a bigger priority than Lith's own, and no risk could be taken in this matter.

Having many thoughts in mind, Lith glided through the jungle with Wind magic and harvested whatever he could find for recipes one to five.

Juan and Miguel had given a few recipes along with instructions on many plants and beasts found within a thousand kilometre radius.

It was a really long list and only someone with super comprehensive abilities could actually understand and apply that info to real life.

Dennis was a hundred percent not cut for this job and Miwa's case was not sure.

Ralph was proficient in it, so asking him to gather ingredients was the right choice.

Lith took out a sharp knife with great precision to it. He had a shit load of weapons in his ring because one may never know what one would need under any given circumstance.

Being filthy rich, his space ring had many sections within it, ranging from the weapon section all to the way to the lewd section.

While gliding through the jungle, Lith could see a few colorful flowers possessing a few different fruits with seeds that secrete scented oils. He ignored them and looked for the darker flowers along with traces of beasts nearby

The ten beasts surrounding the rock pillar above liked a pungent and gamey taste in their food.

Spicy, bitter and sour would work too, but definitely not sweet.

Colourful flowers generally had sweeter tastes because they required insects to come to them and pollinate them.

Darker flowers did not need insects. They would be consumed by higher level beasts who would eventually excrete the seeds out and spread them throughout the forests.

Hence, in general, dark plants had bad taste as compared to colorful plants and it was safe to make an assumption.

With his skillfull combat techniques, Lith found a few plants and immediately cut them down and stored them within his ring.

He didn't need plants, he needed beasts, which, after carefully looking at his surroundings, were found in two minutes.

"HOOOMPH! HOOOMPH!" A group of bison-like dark beasts with big curly horns could be seen drinking water and snorting at each other.

A shiny glint surfaced over Lith's eyes and he said softly, "Sorry my dudes, it's just a natural part of the food chain."

Eating meat was not a problem, but hunting and then cooking them had some emotional troubles.

Before hunting, a person would first look at what the creature was doing. The creature could be doing something cute or even something harsh and that would stir up some emotions within anybody.

Killing cute creatures would feel a bit wrong while killing aggressive ones would have no effect. Such was the nature of sentient beings.

In any case, Lith took out a sharp dagger from his ring and readying himself, said with absolute calmness, "Twenty beasts, all Tier 9 and above. Alright, should be done in under thirty seconds."

"Here goes nothing..."