Chapter 231: Primitive Roar from the Firmament

Luka's cooking skills were very average.

Regarding this point, when Xia Nan tasted the pot of "stewed meat with smoked meat" that the other party had made for the first time on the afternoon before setting off from Hegu Town, he had already determined it in his heart.

This sturdy, honest-looking man seemed to have no experience in handling ingredients.

Some potatoes were either not peeled clean, or were pitted and bumpy, with their volume only half the size of a normal one.

As for seasoning, it was even more abstract, and he didn't know how he managed to pile all the saltiness at the bottom of the soup.

The top was as bland as clear water, and the bottom was so salty it choked the throat.

It felt like if you found any ordinary child who had started taking care of the house early on the side of the road and let them tinker in the kitchen, the food they made would be much more delicious than what he made.

In this way, their escort team seemed not as comprehensive as he had imagined.

Of course, considering that Xia Nan wasn't very proficient in cooking either, and had no intention of taking over the role of chef in the team, there wasn't much he could say.

Although his predecessor was from an ordinary villager background, he usually worked in the fields with his father and brother on weekdays. Although his mother and sister would also come to the fields to help during the busy farming season, they would often go back early to arrange food, and dinner was often already prepared when they got home, so he didn't have much experience in handling ingredients.

As for himself... let's just say, if he touched the kitchen counter in his rental apartment, the whole palm would be gray.

He had watched no shortage of gourmet videos, but at most, he would fry an egg for himself when cooking instant noodles. Every day he went home early and left late, lay on the sofa, and fell into a coma in a few seconds, completely without the time and energy to improve his cooking skills.

Facing this predicament in the team right now, he really didn't have any suitable way to deal with it.

Fortunately, they were all adventurers, and after being far away from "complex" kitchen utensils in the wilderness, the situation suddenly became much better.

You only need to roast the food on the campfire until it's cooked, sprinkle some seasoning, and no matter what, it won't be too hard to swallow.

"Crunch."

The muscles on both sides of his cheeks and his arms exerted force at the same time, forcibly biting off a piece of the dried meat in his hand.

Chewing hard, feeling the tough, salty, and astringent taste on the tip of his tongue, Xia Nan had no expression on his face, but his hand dipped the dried meat into the small honey jar he carried with him a few more times.

His eyes were slightly dazed, as if he wanted to savor the wonderful time he spent in the White Tit Tavern with the unique sweetness of honey.

At the same time, he made up his mind in his heart that if he really had the chance to obtain magic items with space-type spells that could store items at will, he must pack countless foods carefully cooked by others before going out.

Otherwise, even if he became transcendental or even legendary in the future, going out to adventure would still be the same as before, boiling beans and gnawing on dried meat, and there would be no sense of reality for the strength he had improved.

Swallowing the dried meat mixed with hot water boiled over the campfire, Xia Nan leaned his body back against the tree trunk, his slightly narrowed eyes staring at the firelight in front of him, his decapitation longsword and wooden sword 【Green Pine】 placed by his side, ready to pick them up and meet the enemy at any time.

Right now, the escort team had already left Hegu Town and was in the wilderness, rarely visited, near the edge of the Mist Forest.

Because they had to consider the possibility that Niumu had already discovered Haian's disappearance and launched a pursuit.

Wood's route selection mostly stayed away from the main roads between towns, advancing deep in the wilderness, and sometimes even needing to pass through the Mist Forest when necessary.

Only occasionally needing supplies on the way would they stay briefly in a few relatively safe villages and towns.

Fortunately, Hegu Town itself was a remote small town near the edge of Pan Yun Province, and it wasn't too far from the adjacent Yuansha Province, and their destination, Sticky Tree Domain, was also located at the junction of the two provinces.

So the overall distance wasn't too far.

With their team of almost professional-level adventurers, one month was completely enough.

As for why they didn't use transportation like carriages... it was mentioned before, on one hand, they might need to cross terrain like hills and rivers on the way, which wasn't convenient; on the other hand, it was also because there was a possibility of entering the Mist Forest, and the threat of dense trees and monsters made neither horses nor vehicles very convenient.

Looking forward, the entire camp was in full view under the reflection of the campfire.

The front-line warrior, who was also the guard of the Wickliffe family, Luka, had just finished setting up alert traps and came back, holding a wild rabbit struggling and kicking its legs in his hand, obviously caught on the way.

This honest-looking man, unlike his clumsy performance in the kitchen, appeared very professional and cautious when adventuring.

Even though he was in the wilderness, the possibility of encountering monster attacks was far less than inside the forest, and there were simple magic alerts temporarily set up by the mage Weirouer around the camp.

He still set up traps further away according to his habits as a double insurance.

Just seeing Luka's hands full of calluses twist the wild rabbit's neck lightly, and the rabbit stopped struggling with a twitch.

Xia Nan watched with his own eyes as the other party tore open the wild rabbit's belly with both hands, pulled out the internal organs and threw them into the fire.

Pretending to tear off some fur, he found a wooden stick, skewered the whole rabbit, and placed it on the flame.

Sensing his gaze, he smiled honestly and raised the wooden stick skewered with the wild rabbit corpse, seemingly asking Xia Nan if he wanted to take a bite too.

His nostrils flared, smelling the burnt and foul odor drifting over from the opposite side.

Xia Nan smiled and declined.

But the dried meat in his hand couldn't help but poke into the honey jar a few more times.

On the other side, the half-elf Haian was whispering with Wood, holding a map in his hand, his fingertips poking and pointing on it.

They should be discussing the subsequent itinerary planning.

The dragonborn Sawa had her eyes closed, her tall body sitting quietly by the fire.

She sat very close to the campfire, and the surging flames could almost reach her toes, and the sparks splashing from the firewood often fell on her body.

But seeing her relaxed features and the fine scales trembling slightly on her body surface, it was obvious she was enjoying it very much.

The bloodline of the brass dragon made her instinctively pursue warmth even if she wasn't a cold-blooded animal.

Sweeping his gaze over the thin sword by the other party's leg, Xia Nan was a bit curious.

In his impression, thanks to the dragon's naturally strong body and bloodline magic power, dragonborn are often strong warriors or powerful and mysterious warlocks.

But the Sawa before him used a thin sword, which was common among rangers and bards, as a weapon, and according to information revealed by other teammates, the other party shouldn't be any kind of spellcaster.

Making Xia Nan interested in the other party's combat style.

Thinking of that vigorous and explosive body, how should it fight to make the thin sword in her hand explode with more powerful force than those heavy two-handed weapons.

"It wouldn't be a style biased toward agility, right?" Xia Nan speculated in his heart. "That would seem to be a bit of a waste of the dragonborn's racial talent."

Moving his gaze away, he looked toward the last member of the team, Weirouer, who was sitting in the center of the camp.

At this moment, this slender ponytail girl was sitting quietly on a velvet blanket.

Her eyelids were also closed, but the expression on her face appeared incomparably focused.

Xia Nan guessed that the other party should be conducting some kind of mental training similar to "meditation."

But strangely, as if she could feel his gaze out of thin air.

The moment Xia Nan's gaze fell on her, the slender body of the ponytail girl wrapped in the off-white robe suddenly became stiff.

Under the tightly closed eyelids, one could see the blurred outline of the eyeballs moving, as if she would break out of the focused state in the next second.

Not wanting to disturb the other party, he withdrew his gaze.

But his heart became more and more confused.

It had been like this since their first meeting; Weirouer inexplicably gave him a feeling of being incomparably cautious, even vaguely fearful, when getting along with him. ===== CHAPTER 232 =====