Chapter 164 - Buffoon

Dawn Finally broke, now it seemed like the task became a lot easier considering the provided light. After all, it isn't the best idea to work in the dark, with an axe. But what did this dawnbreak result too? Chan being pushed to his limits. Not the best idea, not his best move.

He has worked through the blistering February cold, at the coldest time of the day(Or in this case, Night.). How would that be a bad thing you might ask? He has been doing this for two weeks. What's a few more nights? What would a little hustle out of the ordinary cause?

This night he pushed himself to the limits of which before he never found possible, limits he didn't know off. His body was on continuous heat because of the work he has been putting on the Ghost Tree, but the environment around him was blistering cold, a deadly combination.

A lot of Snow even, piled up on his head and on his shoulders too. The interesting thing about this is, It isn't actually snowing. There is snow on him because once you hit a tree with an axe be it light or heavy, the vibration caused by it will force Snow piled up on higher branches to fall down rather easily. Since Chan was of course very close to the tree, part of that snow landed on him. It just made his overall health worse. He was steps away from collapsing.

King Xakro ill.u.s.tratio lll claimed that this trip would barely last two weeks, if he has the capabilities of an average skill less person. Three weeks if Chan is double the Buffoon we all thought. And how did Chan fare? It's been a bit over two weeks and he only arrived to the Ghost Tree, not to mention getting back home alive without having to amputate any toes.

When talking about whose responsible for Chan getting into this situation, Chan himself shall be partially blamed. But King Xakro carries most of the responsibility. The sources know when he would admit his faults though. Or maybe he would? The Source of Egoism is gone after all. There isn't a bit of egoism in his body, coming from an Inner Demon at least.

Let's start with the King. He trusted 20 scouts to tell him the exact location of a practically invincible and fairly invisible, heavily experimented on, Tree. The normal eye can't tell it apart from an average tree, so how would those scouts find the Tree without the granted paranormal vision? They never even mentioned anything about such a vision, all 20 of them likely didn't even know that such granted ability existed.

It isn't hard to put two and two together to figure out that the King was lied too! Tricked. 20 people claimed a handsome reward for their "Successful" task. Of course that wouldn't harm Crutal Kingdom's economy, but still. It is mostly an ego game when you think about it, for the King at least. Low rank Scouts were able to manipulate him. They managed to make a spawn coming from a bloodline of mentally unstable Masterminds, look like a Buffoon.

As an aftermath to this fake map provided by those Scouts, the distance between the Tree and Crutal Kingdom was heavily miscalculated before this task began. Let's not even mention the expected time for him to return. When King Xakro mentioned such topic, the task felt like Childsplay. But from the beginning and until now, this task felt like a mental asylum, nothing easy about it. And of course we can never forget the proper amount of equipment required for this trip. All miscalculated on each and every aspect.

Moving through this forest can be time consuming in general, especially if he has to go through a patch of Birch Trees. God I hate travelling through Birch Trees! If he found himself surrounded with them, it would be double as time consuming, painful too. Birch Trees have randomly spreading branches with sharp points everywhere. These trees grow very close to each other as well, making traveling through them a lot more difficult than you can imagine.

I hope you don't have to travel through them because It can be a cloth destroyer too. Not a place for Models, if those are invented yet? They(The Birch Trees.) can prove a great emergency shelter if one has a bit of experience, the nerves and cloth to spare, risking a possible infection from cuts is there too of course. Never underestimate minor cuts if you find yourself in a survival situation.

With an improper map, Chan would also lose his sense of direction big time. The fact that he managed to reach the Dense Forest Kin's territory isn't skill, it was just luck. He managed to keep a straight line enough to not get himself lost or meet the other edge of the Continent. At least some aspects worked to his advantage.

Since the distance was miscalculated too, his equipment was very worn out. The tent he had already faced some complications due to the raging night wind a few days ago. It would last for a few more days after he completes this... let's call it secondary task, but not long enough to reach home.

His sleeping bag proved very helpful when battling the tent malfunction, but he lost the sleeping bag along with every other bit of equipment. As mentioned before, all he has now is an Iron Dagger.

The lack of Food can be considered the main problem, because of the fact that Chan was ordered to only carry 100 Gold Coins. It wouldn't be nearly enough to ensure food for from the looks of it, a 5 week long trip. Such gold could only ensure food for a couple of weeks if he was savvy enough.

With King Xakro carrying so many faults with this task's large downsides, Chan's only faults are sleeping a couple of hours more than he is supposed too a few times, and putting a bit of time hunting animals. But that of course was out of desperation... the second part at least. Sleep, can not be controlled. A majority of people would sacrifice necessities for sleep.

Everything about this trip was miscalculated and misinformed but even after considering the odds of which went against him, Chan got his hands on the Ghost Branch anyway, setting a large pinpoint on his task and proving useful for once. To aid his primary task, he even freely communicated with Ghosts. Maybe there is a lot more to this man? Maybe we underestimated his value?

His sacrifices just for the sake of completing this task is worthy of song. If only he didn't focus his energy for the wrong people, for people with impure intends. He would make a large difference in Ignis. Yes he. I can't believe I'm even saying this. It got me as confused as you as a reader.

But of course, pushing yourself to the far limits can often have strong consequences. He is hungry, thirsty, and out of equipment. On top of that he is deadly tired because he chopped down 13 Branches so far. It seems little, but to cut down 13, he had to lift and bash this Heavy Axe nearly a hundred times. He felt a strong chill up his spine to make this situation worse. His toes were blistering in pain, because of the Cold of course. That's not difficult to figure out, they have become quite numb.

This situation he was brought in, is hard to reverse. His motivation for helping the Dense Forest Kin, didn't fade even after all of these circ.u.mstances were blown against his skin. Honorable, but also playing dumb brave. He can finish the second promised task after he fixes the issues, that from the looks of it can equal his death.

Thankfully, after coming into realization that this task requires a bit more time. He gave a thought to the circ.u.mstances. There is no way he can escape this place alive if he keeps going on like this, and even if he quits this second task and runs his fate wouldn't shift too far from the predicted first. 

He felt like the most important thing to do right now is to gain some warmth. When he took a look around, he found out that warmth shouldn't be extremely difficult for now at least. Sure it's morning now, but midday is to come after a few hours. Those hours are the warmest parts of the day and can make a large difference if he survives that far.

As if the nine sources wanted to thank his warm hearted heroism towards a tribe of the undead, when he first took a better glance of his surroundings aided by the morning sun shining through the Oak tree branches, he found a rather unique natural formation.

It appears natural, or it could be formed thousands of years ago by Humans or another species. Of course we can't be sure that such structure would survive so long considering that animals run wild here. The structure wasn't strong enough to survive for such a long period of time. But wouldn't it be a historical treasure if it did? Perhaps.

The structure included a large boulder, it stood around 7 feet tall but of course the rock could be dug an unknown amount of feet into the ground too. It isn't certain. However the size isn't what was a miracle about this boulder. The miracle is the small opening at the very bottom of the boulder. Specifically standing right in the middle of the boulder, but at the bottom attached to the ground.

It looks like something or someone dugg it with a harder rock, or with a raw Iron ore maybe. It doesn't look like something a Stonemason of this time would form. It was far out of shape. 

Odd looking no doubt, But it was big enough for Chan to slip in with some effort. Out of desperation he bent down and took a peek inside, it seemed quite dark so it wasn't easy to determine how deep it is. That is, it wasn't easy until his right leg slipped on some snow outside as he was taking a glance.

He fell headfirst in that hole, to his luck he was swift enough to use his hands to soften the landing. And it was roomy enough for him not to be stuck upside down. He tumbled a couple of times until he met a hardish surface of dirt, or at least it felt like it is dirt. It's pitch dark in there. The only bit of light he got, was from the window like hole he climbed down from. That isn't a problem, at least he didn't receive any head damage.

Being inside there, made him notice that this place can be a lot warmer compared to what he felt outside of the boulder. Of course he wasn't able to notice this warmth with information provided from the sensitivity of his skin. He just saw it logical. This place seems very isolated, and he didn't yet feel snow anywhere else but near the window like entrance.

The rest of the cave is pretty much dry. He even felt it with his fingers here and there. From the feel of it, this place seems large enough for him to sleep in. From the entrance to the other side of this little hole, it appears to be nearly 3 meters long. To make it even better, this hole is 2 meters wide as well, or at least it feels that way. He can't be sure without proper illumination.

This place can be heated up quickly, the longer he stays here, the more the cave will adjust to his preferred body heat. It would make survival a breeze. Hypothermia and Frostbite would be two things he shouldn't worry about as long as he stays in here. That is, if he finds out a way to cover the entrance.

Desperation being his source of energy now, he thought of a quick plan. But it would require going out in the snow again. What does he have to lose? Nothing. And of course he certainly doesn't have any time to waste.

He struggled to get out of the hole given the small entrance, but with some pushed effort he made it out. After that, he approached a roundish rock. The rock appeared to be barely a foot tall, but when he put in some work to rip it off the ground, it turned out to be nearly two feet tall. So of course it's very heavy. Possibly breaking 100 kilograms. But when rolled? It can be a lot lighter of course.  

He pushed the rock all the way near the hole, went down there again feet first this time and with everything he could do down there, he slowly pulled down the rock, risking losing his fingers even. It took him a good ten minutes to cover the hole with that rock, from the inside, it required a lot of strength and nerves, luckily he had no energy to curse. He would attract a squad of predators if he did. What's important is that he managed to cover the hole. 

Although he won't notice the difference instantly, covering that hole made a lifesaving difference. As for water, he ate some snow before he went down there. The cleanest he could find since he heard a rumour that snow is impure. Now this can be a huge risk, if he gets infected that is. He can get dehydrated even faster without barely noticing it. What else would he do to soothe his thirst? He didn't yet get a Fire going, he doesn't have a bowl to melt some snow over a fire either. He can't afford to be patient at this point. He pushed through long enough.

The only thing he has to deal with now, is hunger. He hasn't eaten in a while and he feels burned out from energy. The Wild Boar hunt yesterday was sure a fail hunger wise. But at least he can deal with hunger a lot better than he can deal with cold or thirst. 

He decided to tend to the strong pain he felt on his toes, removed his shoes and felt his socks being soaking wet. Walking with such socks in this weather is deadly. He put the socks and shoes away, started rubbing his feet and toes very fast and blew on them as much as he could in order to warm them up. Even he was aware of the possible amputation risk.

He came into realization that he might be too late. If he won't be able to move his toes even after the rest of his body feels warm, he has to cut them off. But what else can he do except to try everything in his power to save his toes first before grabbing that dagger and cutting them off. What if this pain is tamable, reversible? No sane soul would be willing to cut off his or her toes for fun. It's only done for sane extreme reasons such as frostbite. And even then it can't be done without absolute certainty. 

The only sane reasonable thing to do right now is wait and see how this plays out. Thirst is tamed, heat will soon not be a big problem. Patience should be by his side.