Ch 88 – Reaching a Town (Extra Chapter)

(The Next Day)

"Rise and shine!" Lute's voice entered Honda's groggy mind as his eyes shot wide open. Letting out a tired yawn from his mouth, Honda slowly stood up with a grunt and saw Lute currently outside the cave draped in golden light coming from the "sun", he was seemingly being grabbed ahold by a pair of admiring arms, or draped in protective covering by the sun itself. A beauty so incomparable, that Honda even felt Lute was more beautiful compared to Imerda Pinata.

"Hey, why are you looking at him like that?" Bella's whispering voice suddenly appeared beside him which made him choke on his own saliva as he heard her chuckle.

"Do you like him or something?" Bella asked as Honda's face turned a tinge of red. It was to be expected a previous loser like Honda would have feelings for a thousand-year-old monster like Freidrich Braun, this is just nothing but child's play to him. He can even make the most arrogant of humans fall in love with him as an ugly bastard from those Japanese pornographic media.

"Me and my sister also liked Lute, in fact, many adventurers who went to buy at his stall were rumored to have a hint of romantic feelings for him. Which is understandable really, considering he is such a kind individual, he even gave me a free healing potion one day when he found out I was running low on money," Bella said with a grin.

"Even other guys?" Honda asked, intrigued at this new dilemma he was facing. Honda can be considered a gender-neutral man, which means he is willing to try and explore new… Experiences, to say the least.

"Yeah, many admirers are sending him flowers every single day. He was even complaining to me back then that whenever he sets up his stall, he has to throw away the pile of flowers that formed in his area," Bella chuckled.

'Huh, I guess this world is a bit more open-minded considering there is no discrimination between genders. There's also polygamy, and not only do guys have a harem, but even women also have harems. There are powerful kings, and there are also powerful queens. Now that I think about it, many lesbians are in this world! And tomboys!' Honda's eyes widened upon the realization that tomboys are a common thing in this world due to its harsh living conditions. Many female adventurers are tomboys, which means his fantasies of having a tomboy gf can perhaps be real!

'HOLY FUCK!' Honda thought as his mind instantly went elsewhere, causing Bella to be left alone and she looked at Honda's stunned face, intrigued and curious at what he was currently thinking.

(A Few Minutes Later)

As the four stood outside the cave entrance and looked at the forest which looked a lot different in the morning, they took deep breaths as a new adventure awaits them.

"if the adventurers came from that direction, we can perhaps meet other humans like us if we continue that direction," Lute said as the other three nodded. They have no way to know where the others are, or if there are any other adventurers other than them so they decided to just go there. Who knows, they might get lucky, which has a high chance of success considering Honda's and Lute's combined luck.

Soon, the four walked through the dense forest while Honda went to ask some questions to clear confusion from last night.

"By the way, what was that armor Kira-san summoned from last night? I haven't seen anything similar to that before," Honda asked, but what he got was only disappointment.

"Well, that I do not know. Though it does enhance his physical attributes, and from what I determined, it allows him to be as strong as a B Rank fighter," Lute answered, but it made Honda further intrigued.

"Since when did he have that armor? And isn't that armor a bit too strong if it can instantly elevate him to a B Rank fighter by just activating it?" Honda asked.

"Well, he only unlocked it last night while we were fighting the two adventurers. And I guess it is a bit absurd with its power boost, not even Kira knows what it is," Lute said while the four quietly trod the forest. There seem to be no monsters near them indicated by their developed danger sense from their time spent out in the wild or inside dungeons near death's door all the time.

After a while, as they reached a clear patch of the forest, Honda could feel his stomach rumbling as the four seems to be a bit hungry already considering they haven't had breakfast yet.

"Yosh, it seems like everyone else is hungry! It's time to eat!" Lute said hastily, it seems like he was waiting for breakfast to come as he quickly took out makeshift cooking utensils and laid them out on the floor while Kira gathered firewood from the forest nearby them.

"By the way, Lute-san, how do you know so much about the nearby plants around us? Or how it seems like you have so much experience living in the wild?" Honda asked as he noticed this since yesterday. It's like Lute was born in the wild, from knowing which mushrooms were poisonous, to gathering an assortment of useful herbs along the way, he was like an encyclopedia of knowledge.

"Well, I just read a lot of books from before," Lute nonchalantly explained while roasting some mushrooms and cooking the meat of the horned rabbit, he also plops down some herbs on the horned rabbit mean hanging above the fire which made a smell waft through the air and enters their nostrils.

As they felt their stomach rumbling harder, they watch Lute's hand swiftly appear from one place to another as fire burst forth from the campfire like a volcano. And by the time it ended, Lute took out four sticks and gave one to each of them, it was filled with mushrooms and rabbit meat dripping with juice from the meat and herbs.

Taking a bite, Honda's eyes widen in surprise at how delicious it was, he can even say it was on par with the normal food Shijou Yukiko makes. Though she was pretty stingy when it comes to her magical food, if he was able to eat one of her body-enhancing foods, then he might have D Rank strength without being enhanced by magic already.

"Whoa! How is it so good?!" Both Honda and Bella shouts in shock, the taste was just so surreal for their tastebuds.

"It tastes like this due to a combination of herbs I put on it, like this one, it gives it a savory taste," Lute explained as he lists out the effects done by the herbs on the food which gave it its taste.

'No, just herbs alone won't give it this taste! It was due to Lute-san's skill!' Honda then remembered Lute's swift hands handling the onslaught of food, herbs, and flames like a masterful chef with ten thousand arms! This taste came from Lute's divine mastery over food!

As tears fell from their eyelids, Honda closes his eyes as he felt like he was flying through the sky with the clouds made of mushrooms and rabbit meat.

'It's so… Anime!' Honda thought as he went to enjoy the ridiculously tasty food Lute casually made inside the forest with his makeshift tools that were incomparable to the professional kitchen Shijou Yukiko uses. It just shows that skill can overcome any ingredient and equipment when it comes to making food!

'It's infused with Lute-san's love and passion for food, yes, that's it! It's the mysterious ingredient that transcends the bounds of reality to give this stick, this rabbit, this shrooms, their divine taste!' With each bite, the food somehow became better and better as the imaginary world Honda was flying in became clearer and clearer, it was like he has entered a whole new world altogether.

"SHO GOOD!" Honda and Bella shout as a fountain of tears dripped from their eyes.

By the time they finished eating, the duo became a teary mess as Lute looks at them with a goofy smile.

"You guys liked it?" Lute said while packing things up and extinguishing the flames. He also wrote something down on the ground that says people were here and the direction they went. It was done for a "Just in case" situation where other adventurers might stumble into this place.

"Mmm!" Honda and Bella nod their heads, the taste made Bella's tired mental state recover quickly as the death of Silvy was put to the back of her mind for now.

"Good, well then let's get back on track, shall we?" Lute said as the four stood up, though Honda was curious about how Kira managed to eat his food with the mask on.

'Sigh, it was a prime time to finally see his face. But I was busy crying at just how good the rabbit and shrooms were!' Honda thought while they walked through the forest once more. With their bellies filled with nutrition and their bodies revitalized with the exceptionally tasty food, they tread through the forest with vigor unlike anything they have shown before.

With speeds fueled by their reinvigorated bodies, the forest became a breeze for them to walk through. And as minutes passed, they managed to cover a considerable amount of land, that was until they saw something surprising.

"A campfire?" Honda muttered as they walked forward near the extinguished campfire in front of them and knew that there were other adventurers that were previously here.

"We might be near them! Do you guys think we should just sprint forward and hope for the best?" Lute suggested while Kira silently walked around the campfire with his eerie black eyes darting around. The mystery man Kira remained silent since yesterday but Honda and Bella were already adjusted to his low presence.

"Hmm, why not? This might be our last chance to find other humans inside this dungeon," Honda said as the three others nodded. So with them coming to a general consensus, they all sprinted forward for the risk of losing this chance weighed on their minds.

1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, they ran forward at quick speeds as they noticed more and more signs of human activities around them. Like chopped trees, sword marks on trees, gathered mushrooms, and ground that has human footprints.

"We're almost there!" Bella shouts as they felt exhilaration coursing through them. Humans are naturally social animals, so having more humans gives a safer feeling and eases their mental state. Living in the wild takes a passive toll on a person's mind that they don't generally notice, having more humans around a human just gives them a feeling of peacefulness and safety with the "power in numbers" mentality ingrained in many humans.

Soon, they notice the dense forest has more chopped trees, more chopped mushroom stems, and even the smell of piss wafted into their noses which was the biggest indicator that humans were there. And as they burst through a bush, they saw something which made their eyes widen.

'A road!' The four thought after seeing the dirt path in front of them. Without hesitation, the four turned heads and rushed through the road, soon, they saw more footprints appearing while the appearance of a town was seen in the distance.

It was like a thirsty man finding an oasis in the desert, it was similar to finding salvation for the four.

"A town!" The four shouted as they ran with all their might, the appearance of a town filled with humans made them feel relaxed and at ease.

By the time they arrived inside the town, their bodies were dripping with sweat and they were panting like dogs, but they let out a sigh of relief as their safety was almost guaranteed in this hub of human civilization. All of them here are experienced adventurers, even without mana, they are all experts at survival!

And so, the four's adventure in the dangerous forest has come to an end after finding themselves in a strange town where their fellow adventurers are located.

AN: This is 2048 words, you're welcome.

Writing am I right, send me your power stones now!

(July 14, 2022 -232nd day of writing)

Ahem, damn, was I quite the generous and grateful lad back then? Yep, it's your April 9, 2023 author here and wowzers was I still a guy who despises leech till now. Anywho, fuck you, goodbye.