Return of the Fallen Volume 2 Chapter 48
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch48
Everyone had similar thoughts.
(Hunt, hunt what?)
Kazuki could see that they were confused and told them how he couldn’t leave the people in the cave to starve to death. Really this was just an excuse to get them to leave so he could reduce the prying eyes.
At first they were fine with it but then Kazuki told them the amount and their jaws fell open. Shin protested but Asuna shut that down swiftly by attacking his manliness.
“What is it, too hard for you? Don’t tell me you can’t beat one woman and a girl.”
Shin’s eyes grew fiery.
“Hmph, we’ll see. The person who gathers the most and the person who gathers the least, I’ll show you who’s the superior hunter.”
The three disappeared into the forest. Asuna and Shin could be heard arguing in the distance.
Tsura was a bit worried for Mei but Kazuki reassured her.
“No need to be concerned, besides the cave over there and the village, the void is a good distance away, I’ve checked the map.”
Kazuki then got Danny, and Tsura to go and gather other supplies such as vegetables and herbs. Tsura was to be made the new cook since she was clearly the best at it. This left only Sam, Nunully, Kimi, and Kazuki. Sam was still being healed by Nunully so the two were focused on that. While Kimi was completely focused on Sam. Kazuki would have sent Kimi away but then his main source of light would have followed.
Kazuki wondered how difficult it would be to make a magic tool similar to a flashlight. Although he wasn’t from Earth, he did enjoy simple comforts like always having access to light just from having a smartphone. Magic was powerful in many regards but it couldn’t beat the mass-produced industrial world when it came to how accessible conveniences were.
24/7 stores with 1000’s of different varieties of foods. Video games, the Internet. Not to mention how safe the Earth was. There was still crime and murders but Kazuki because of his martial arts and ki was practically untouchable on Earth and after he learned of the ancient hand signs, there was little anyone could do against him.
Kazuki shook the thoughts away and got down to business. Now that most of the prying eyes were gone and Nunully, Kimi, and Sam were distracted, Kazuki got to work.
The first thing he did was pull a few of the metal-like feathers from one of the Mangshi corpses. These feathers were as hard as metal yet incredibly flexible at the same time. It gave the Mangshi a great defense and also allowed them to fly with little to no work.
Kazuki wrapped a few feathers around his hand and reached into one of the Mangshi’s mouths. Exerting some strength…
*Crack*
Kazuki pulled out a dagger-like tooth. Now that all of the swords were broken or gone, the only one left with any blades at all was Asuna. Kazuki would have borrowed one of her daggers but that might have raised too many unnecessary questions from the others.
Looking at the tooth up close it had many jagged grooves in it, similar to a saw, yet pointed at the end like a spear. It was perfect for piercing flesh as well as ripping, tearing, and of course sawing. After removing the tooth, Kazuki laid a hand on top of the Mangshi’s corpse and inserted some tendrils of ki into its body. Examining every inch, he searched for a certain something. It didn’t take long before his ki found said object located on the left side of the Mangshi’s stomach.
(Here goes nothing.)
With a hard stab, Kazuki cut into the Mangshi’s stomach removing a large chunk of flesh. With a hole opened up big enough, he then proceeded to shove his hand inside and worked his arm in until he felt a hard round object. With a tug of his hand, Kazuki ripped the object out and held it up.
(Finally, with this I’m one step closer to reforging my Mage core.)
In his hand, Kazuki held a Magical Beast core, aka a tier 1 Limit Beast core. Each of these Mangshi was a tier 1 Magical beast and therefore had Beast cores within their bodies. Kazuki had received Magical Beast cores back in Treia but after he was captured by the information officer, his cores were confiscated and he never managed to recover them.
Wiping the blood off of it, it appeared almost entirely clear. Inside though Kazuki knew there was a storm within. Kazuki whispered a few words to the core itself.
“Do not blame me, it was your Chief who insisted we fight. Your doom is his doing.”
Kazuki then flashed some ancient hand signs and placed a simple seal on the core. With a simple thought, his ring glowed dimly and the beast core vanished within. After that, Kazuki proceeded to inspect the other Mangshi corpses one by one and find the location of their cores before cutting them open and removing them. Some were too badly damaged and Kazuki could only use his ancient hand signs and seal them completely. He stored them all inside his ring. In total, he collected 5 undamaged Beast cores, which to him was a huge win.
Out of curiosity he also inspected Abah’s body but to his surprise, there was no Beast core within her.
(Could it be because she died in human form. Can a Beast core disappear like that or maybe it’s similar to humans. We have Mage cores within us yet they have no physicality whatsoever. When the Mangshi are in their bird form, their cores physically exist but when they transform back into humans they’re gone. Could this be why Abah stayed in human form because in order to use her magic on the tablet she needed her element from her Mage core, the dark element? Were she to be in bird form she would have access only to her wind element.)
Kazuki was deep in thought but he couldn’t come to any real conclusion, especially with so little information. All he could do was push it to the back of his mind and maybe someday revisit it when he had time.
After a few days of hunting, the amount of food the three had gathered was enormous. There were several thousand pounds and the only way to get it to keep was to have Nunully freeze most of it. Even Kazuki didn’t expect this much. He was going to stop them halfway through but a fire had been lit underneath Asuna and Shin and the two competed seriously. In the end though, it was Shin who came out the winner.
His movement was faster then Asuna so he could cover more ground in less time. Add the fact that he also used his special move, the Viper Whip and he could kill things from a great distance. With magic pumping through his legs, he could send out a blade of wind that would cut down prey at a terrifying rate.
Shin smiled self confidently and bragged but Asuna smiled as well. She had hunted diligently and was upset that she had lost but at the end of the day, the food was mostly for the other villagers. She was glad that her competition with Shin could keep them fed for a while longer.
Kimi and Mei both examined the Jiaqin Codex but neither were able to understand it or gain any insight into it. Abah apparently was the only one who understood it and with her gone the tool became unusable and so Kazuki could only destroy it regretfully.
*Bam*
Kazuki broke the black stone tablet over his knee and the darkness all around dispersed into nothingness. The relief didn’t last long though as the sun had fallen hours ago, so darkness was simply replaced with another darkness. Still, the night stars shining down upon them brought a feeling of comfort they had been missing for a while now.
Everyone sat around an open fire and relaxed. Kimi and Asuna were chatting it up with Mei, while Nunully listened quietly, every once in a while adding a small bit to the conversation. Shin tried to flirt several times with Tsura but was turned down every single time. Shin eventually laughed it off and joked around with Danny while Sam just nodded along with them.
Tsura was humming some song while cooking a big pot of stew. No one had heard of the song but it was a pleasant tune and really went along with the atmosphere. A while later an exquisite aroma wafted into the nose and caused a few people to drool. Tsura had gone out with Danny and they had found wild potatoes, carrots, wild onion, and several other more ingredients. This time Tsura had slowly cooked the meat of a boar and it had become so tender that meat was falling off from the bone every time she stirred the pot a little.
Seeing this sight, audible gulps were heard coming from Tsura’s surroundings causing a chill to run down her spine.
She wanted to hurry and finish before they all ran out of patience and ate her but she had no way of increasing the speed in which the food cooked otherwise she could ruin it and that was something she would absolutely not do. Besides her daughter, her cooking was her pride and joy and there was no way she would tamper with it to appease someone’s impatience. They would all just have to wait.
30 minutes later.
Tsura ladled a small amount into a bowl and gingerly took a sip. With a nod of her head, a proud smile spread across her face.
“Hmm, it’s done.”
Tsura turned around.
“OK, everyone, it’s time to e…”
She couldn’t even finish her sentence. The eyes that stared at the pot behind her were those of starving wolves. Tsura slowly backed away before chaos ensued.
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