Chapter 15 - 15: Fear & Tastiest Meat Ever

Roy reappeared inside Gaia with a torrent of emotions. His heart was beating so fast, it seemed like it was palpitating.

His breathing was rough and heavy like he had lived for years without breathing and finally had a chance to breathe again.

His whole body was shaking, and trembling in fear, his skin had become a whitish pale color, as he felt like he had once again seen the Death Reaper in front of him.

And if that wasn't the same as seeing the Death Reaper he didn't know what it could be!

Right now, he could only remember the scary killing intent, that seemed so natural like it had a physical shape.

The fear that it pierced through his body, heart, and mind the moment he felt that horrendous pressure upon him from behind.

His life and death were separated by the tiniest of time measurements, if he had to guess it, it would most probably be for the thousandth of a second.

That was the distance in time between his life and death, if he had been that tiny moment late with his decision he would have been deader than dead.

What made everything even scarier than it already was, was the fact that he hadn't been able to sense his opponent's presence up to the moment it had made its move.

This time he had been able to survive due to pure luck. He had always thought that he was one of the unluckiest people alive, but that belief was being shattered with each passing day.

It took him more than 2 or 3 minutes to finally start relaxing, as his heart was still beating like a racehorse.

He had to drink some water, to finally totally relax himself, and stop shaking.

The difference between the first time his body had died, and what he had thought he had died, to this one, was that he hadn't truly felt it when it happened before, but this time he did.

He had truly felt that it would be his last living moment, there was no way to return back from that, that would have been truly the end for him.

All he could do now was thank the Heavens for helping him escape his end. But things would most certainly be difficult now.

Whatever that thing out there was, there was no way it was going to leave that spot easily. It would certainly wait for him to get back.

So, this totally blocked any idea he could have of returning outside in the meantime. He had to find out another way to secure his food and water from now on.

The only choice left was to take down the tree branches blocking him from the rest of Gaia and try his luck out there, but even that was going to be risky.

Yet he had no other choice! Either that, or he would have to totally control his Magic Power, and the elements around him in a more than proficient way to use his strength.

Which was clearly nothing more than a dream at the moment, as he had a long way to achieve that.

First things first though, he immediately took the little cubs' earth trap cages and placed them at the base of the obelisk stone.

The pressure in this place was terrible, and if he left them even more without attention in there, they would most certainly be squished to death.

He couldn't allow that to happen, as right now they were his only hope of surviving in this place, so he had to take good care of them.

As soon as he did that, he released the earth traps to reveal the cubs once again, unfortunately not all of them had managed to stay alive.

The two sharp-toothed wolf cubs seemed to be still both hanging out, but he had lost 2 from the iron rabbits.

Damn! That was a big loss for him, but there was nothing he could do. The only thing he could try was to hope that these guys would be able to hang on.

While even where they were the gravity was the same, at least this place had a miraculous concentration of energy that increased the regeneration ability.

It was something really special and amazing. Roy would love to know the reasons behind this happening, but he wasn't eligible to.

He had tried so many times to have a go at the stone that this obelisk was made of, to try his Earth element strength, but he wasn't even able to move a small dust particle from it.

After numerous failed attempts he had decided to give up, and try when he got stronger. That was why he accepted to not be eligible to know, he was just too weak.

Furthermore, considering the effects and the importance this place had, Roy didn't dare even in his wildest dreams to think of damaging it.

That could be seen even at that moment, as the iron rabbits, and the sharp-toothed wolf cubs' conditions started to stabilize, and he knew that soon they would start to get better.

With a calm mind, he left the cubs, as he started to take care of the iron rabbits' carcasses he had caught on his traps, he cleaned their fur, intestines, extras, and finally the meat.

He had totally cleared the meat out of their body structure but there was one big problem at the moment, their skeleton was totally made of iron.

It was unbelievable, their meat was soft, squishy, and so easy to take care of, while each and every one of their bones was iron.

Even their joints looked impossible to break, if the spikes he had placed as traps hadn't penetrated their hearts through their rib cage, most probably he would have never been able to hunt them down.

It looked unbelievable but it was true. There was nothing he could do about it. only their cage weighed more than 4 kilograms, meaning that the meat in their body was only 2-3 kilograms.

Those small things were almost the same, but their bones hadn't strengthened as much, they were still like bones of tin considered with those of their parents.

The only one he could make use of right now was the bones of the two little things, and even for them, he used a giant rock boulder to squish them down and make it look like a weird knife.

As soon as he did that, he quickly put some meat on the steak to cook, and then went to cut some branches.

It wasn't easy, as the branches were really strong, and on top of that his iron tool wasn't sharp enough, even though he tried to use the teeth, and the nails as best as he could.

Looking at the work he had done, and what lied in front of him, he understood that whatever he had done until now didn't amount even to 1% of the total work needed to be done.

This was going to truly be difficult as he also had to think of something else, how to separate the sharp-toothed wolf cubs from the iron rabbits.

Iron rabbits were probably the tastiest food these little guys could think of, and they would certainly try to take a bite or more.

Taking them out of the stone obelisk's base was impossible as the gravity was too great and they weren't used to it, so there was only one choice left, he had to make a small cage.

It certainly wasn't easy, but in 2 or 3 hours he had finally made a small cage for the two cubs, and immediately put them there.

Dealing with all that, had made him extremely hungry, he felt like he would be able to eat a whole cow at the moment, but he couldn't.

No matter how hungry he was he had to make sure to eat in small portions, enough to keep his body moving, otherwise, his already small reserves would finish, and he would have to die of hunger.

Something that was clearly out of question for him. His only hope was those damn iron rabbits, they had to multiply as soon as possible otherwise he didn't know how he would survive.

'Growl~!'

Unable to bear his hunger anymore, he immediately took the meat from the stake and started eating. He wanted to engulf it in one go but was controlling himself and took a small bit at a time.

But after the small first bite, he couldn't bear it anymore, as he immediately started eating mouthful after mouthful.

The S-class ingredient lived up to its worth. It was one of the tastiest things he had ever tried. Damn, if only he had a bit of salt, and some other spices, the taste would certainly multiply by at least 100.

Unfortunately, that was nothing more than a pipe dream, as even the river's water he had collected was fresh and normal.

Still, even without spices, this meat was certainly the best he had ever tasted. His taste buds seemed to be drowning in pleasure and his saliva as he ate like a hungry wolf.

He was so concentrated on the taste, that he even bit his fingers when the meat was over, sending a terrifying pain signal to his brain.

He had eaten so hastily, that he hadn't understood when it had finished. But now he was left with nothing.

He could only look at the empty hands in front of him, as the taste of the meat still wandered his brain, and his mouth was watering like crazy.

In that stupor, he turned his head towards the left meat, as a thought of cooking more passed through his head.

He got up like someone possessed by the ghosts, and walked towards it…