Chương 62: Slice of Life (4)

Rowan soared through the air, moving faster than he could have even if he were sprinting with everything he had and crashing through the forest. While there had been no trees in his path, there were still plenty of smaller plants and bushes for him to hit. As he flew, he was constantly battered by branches and leaves until, a second later, he crashed to the forest floor. Pain shot through his body as his shirt rubbed against his still-injured side.

Yet, even as he skidded along the leaves and twigs covering the ground beneath him, Rowan couldn't help but wear a victorious smile. This was a huge breakthrough, and while he certainly hadn't yet made enough progress to know for sure, he thought that he truly might not need dexterity. Getting to his feet, he stretched. Then, eyes wide with worry, he looked down at his clothes. He'd forgotten he was wearing them, and with that last stunt he'd pulled, he feared the worst.

But, despite being a bit dirtied, they seemed alright. His pants probably wouldn't have survived if they were the ones taking the brunt of the slide, but that hadn't been their job. No, the responsibility had fallen to his shirt, since he had been sliding on his chest, and to his surprise, it had held up remarkably well. There was a bit of dirt smeared across the leather, but with a few brushes and rubs, the worst of it came off. Then, his head still rushing with ideas, he made his way back towards the camp.

From the looks of the sky, the sun was just barely beginning to rise, sending streaks of gold and orange across the still starry sky. He shook his head. For such a deadly place, it was surprisingly beautiful. Or, perhaps, that was on purpose, designed to make people let their guard down and let whatever terrors lurked in the area go and finish them off. A minute later, he arrived back in the clearing he'd slept in.

He took a moment to stare up at the sky, which was even more beautiful without the forest canopy covering much of it. Then, as he looked down at the blanket and makeshift pillow, he grimaced. They were strewn about the forest floor, reminding him of the state that he'd often leave his bed in back on Earth. Shaking his head, he grabbed the blanket and began to fold it up. It felt strange to be doing something so mundane after ages of constant fighting, but Rowan didn't mind.

Once the blanket was nicely folded, he stretched for a moment before leaning back down and grabbing his pillow. Then, remembering how he'd left his bag of rations against a tree, he grabbed it as well before walking back towards the camp. A moment later, he arrived, looking about. Only two people were up. Henry, no longer kneeling by the grave, was cooking, and Lucas, who looked to be on his shift as lookout.

Henry smiled and waved at him, but from his spot at the edge of the camp, Lucas just shot him a strange look before turning away. Not really sure how to respond, Rowan waved back at Henry before setting his blanket and pillow down beneath the tarp and walking over to join him by the fire. As he neared, he breathed in the smell of cooking oats. Where the bald man had gotten them in the Tutorial, he didn't know. But he didn't really care, either. All that mattered was that there was food.

Settling down on a log beside Henry's, he yawned and looked up at the still starry sky.

"Morning." Henry nodded.

"You're up early, huh? Most of the group usually sleeps for an hour or two longer than this." If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Rowan just sighed.

"I've been up for a while. I'm not quite sure how it works, but I think the higher your stats get, the less sleep you need."

"Makes sense," Henry responded.

"You know, I have been finding myself needing less and less sleep lately." He stirred the porridge in the pot for a few moments.

"How did you like the sky last night?" Just the memory of the sheer beauty of the night sky made Rowan smile as he stared into the woods.

"I don't know how to describe it. But thank you. It was beautiful." The man laughed.

"I knew you would like it. In times like these, when there's a brief lull in the constant fight for survival, it's easy to forget where we are, you know?

"Actually, you wouldn't happen to have any more of those dried fruits that the System gives with its rations, would you? Our group ended up trading most of ours away for things we needed more back at Outpost."

"Sure." Rowan shrugged, happy to share.

"What do you need them for?"

"I just thought they would be a nice complement to today's breakfast. The oats aren't exactly bad on their own, but a little bit of sweetness could go a long way." Rowan nodded and grabbed the bag of rations at his waist. He actually hadn't touched it since he'd gotten it after killing the broodmother, so it was still full. Then, he passed it to Henry.

"Here, use what you need." The man nodded his thanks, and they fell into a comfortable silence. As he watched the man stir the porridge, he looked back at the tarp strung between the trees. Underneath it, the rest of the party was still asleep, curled up beneath blankets. The twins and Eren had similar setups to his, sleeping on the floor with makeshift pillows and blankets. Cynthia, however, had something special: a bedroll. It was almost like a real bed, with a thin pad at the bottom, a real pillow, and blankets.

Smiling as the little girl slept, Rowan looked back at the man on guard duty, whose back was still turned to him. What was his problem? Why did Lucas always act like he hated him? Did he hate him? Rowan shook his head. It wasn't worth getting into. As he'd realized just the day before, the mana had problems, and he didn't want to make those problems his.

Earlier, he'd decided that he didn't really care where Henry had gotten his oats from, but now, with nothing else to fill the silence, he was interested, if only because knowing where to find them might let him find a food source if he was ever in need of one. Still, he wasn't quite sure how the culture of asking questions in the Tutorial worked, but since he somewhat knew Henry and the question didn't seem like anything he shouldn't ask, he spoke.

"Where did you get the oats?" Rowan asked.

"If you don't mind me asking, of course." Henry smiled.

"I don't mind. I know we said that you should be careful asking people you don't know about their powers or anything that they want to be a secret, but I'd say we know each other well enough, no? Also, where I got my grain isn't that big of a deal." Rowan nodded.

"Well, you can never be too careful, can you?"

"I suppose that's a good philosophy to live by," Henry said.

"As for where I got the oats, I bought them at a settlement we passed through, but I also know that they're harvested from a field on the other side of the forest. I'm sure there's some kind of edible oats in the fields next to us, but I'm not going to be grabbing and cooking random ones; lots of things here are poisonous, you know? Frowning, Rowan asked, "If so many things are poisonous, then how did people find out what was safe to eat?"

"Probably someone who was starving. Desperate people do desperate things, y'know?" Henry shrugged.

"At the beginning of the Tutorial, when no one knew how to get food from the land, lots of us weren't able to defeat enough enemies to get any rations from the System. At some point, they got desperate enough to try to eat or cook random things.

"At least, that's how people found out about the herbs I used in the soup last night. Some desperate man grabbed some random plants, and they didn't kill him. They taste pretty good, too, no?" Thinking back to the meal of the night before, Rowan shook his head. He'd never really thought about how so many plants in the Tutorial might be dangerous.

But now that he did, he realized that he would have to be cautious of more than just creatures like the vine stranglers in the caves; even if they weren't monsters, some of the plants could probably still kill him if he were to ingest them. Making a mental note to, if the opportunity arose, see if he could harvest any oats from the field Henry was talking about, he asked, "How long until breakfast will be ready?" The bald man tilted his head for a moment before responding.

"Just a few minutes.. Can you watch the pot? I'll go wake everyone up. Rowan nodded, and the man walked off. As he waited, he thought about the breakthrough he'd made in running without dexterity. It was still a very crude method that had ended up with him face-planting and sliding across the forest floor, but during that leap, Rowan had moved faster than ever before, even when he'd been running for his life. The fact that he might be able to mostly ignore dexterity posed another question for him.

Was dexterity the only stat that could be ignored, or could others be sidelined as well? But, just as he was about to begin theorizing once more, Rowan was interrupted by an excited Cynthia jumping on him, wrapping her arms around him from behind.