— Hikari —
[Physique : 876]
[Mana : 1030]
[Defense: 875]
[Mind: 950]
[Height: 5.1 meters]
[Weight: 3600 kg]
[Heart of wyvern: 200]
[Telekinesis: 490]
[RazenHeir flame: 255]
Hikari wakes up.
The silver of sunlight through the crack lands dead in the middle.
Mid-day.
She had slept past well past morning.
Hungry. Her last two ration packs.
She had really guzzled after that battle, eating two of the remaining four ration packs.
The wall that had bloomed with petals when she first reached the floor now had only scraps of new buds left.
She emerged into the inner chamber, brushing aside the vegetation that blocked it.
Only the cannonball fruits at the top of the chamber were left.
Tiny buds were already starting to grow.
They absorbed the tower's mana, which now flowed more freely after Hikari cleared the blockage above it.
But with only a day's food left, she definitely couldn't sit around waiting for them to grow again.
Time for a morning workout.
She returned to the chamber with her sword.
Warm up.
Squats to warm up her legs.
At the same time, she swung her arms as her knees bent to warm them up.
Basic drills. Vertical swings. Horizontal swings.
The sword's weight bothered her less and less.
She looks up at the clusters of cannonball fruit.
An idea comes to mind.
She takes her stance again, but holds her sword like a rapier.
Holding a heavy sword like a rapier only felt slightly uncomfortable.
She was only now noticing how much her muscles had grown since she picked up the sword.
One hand behind her back, a thrust with one arm.
She hadn't wielded a rapier in a long time.
The thin shaft broke too easily from her strength.
Thrust. Thrust.
The footwork returns to her after a few reps.
She stops. It was enough.
She can't actually use the move in combat with such a blunt tip.
It was good enough for what she was about to do.
Mana courses through her.
A quick warm-up.
She bends her knees and jumps.
Crack. Her head hits the foliage at the ceiling, throwing her off balance.
Thud. She lands.
Fortunately, the soft layer kept her head from hitting the ceiling.
She brushes loose leaves and vines from her hair.
Again.
She channels her mana and bends her knees.
A gentler jump this time.
She drives her sword into the vegetation and hangs on.
Her weight drags down the vines.
Several cannonball fruit drop onto the ground and roll around the chamber.
Hikari runs after them, biting into them as soon as she picks them up.
Munch. Munch. That's all the food she'll have for breakfast.
Thirsty. She emerges back into her room.
Her water pot is hidden behind the last trial room.
Movements behind the wall.
Hikari takes a stance, gripping her sword.
Her throwing dagger flies to her hand.
Mana sense. She could make out a strange, long creature.
It was alone.
With quick footwork, Hikari steps through the door and stabs her sword into the creature.
A giant caterpillar.
It squirmed around in slow motion.
Hikari drives her sword deeper, pinning the creature to the ground.
She was taken aback, too.
Her only impression of caterpillars is that they are smaller than leaves.
She remembers picking them off of thin twigs.
They taste disgusting. Her companions used to say that they were poisonous.
But she never got another tummy ache after the first three she ate.
Crack. The giant caterpillar breaks into two under the weight of her sword.
Each half crawls away in a different direction.
Hikari hesitates to go after it.
She glances at her water pot.
The creature had been feeding on it.
She had no idea if the creature was poisonous.
Her water supply had been ruined.
She felt rather upset as she watched it slither away.
Her stomach rumbled.
Stab. Her throwing dagger pierced the creature's carapace.
…
Her pot bubbles.
She might as well use the water to cook it.
The tower's mana flowed up from the tile below.
Hikari channels it, heating the giant pot.
She wonders what material it was made of.
Perhaps her lady could tell her something once she brings it back.
Her lady.
She must be worried by now.
How long has she been in the tower?
She eats three ration packs a day.
She started with ten. Or was it fifteen?
Surely, she hasn't been gone for more than a week.
Perhaps she can still get back before they organize a search expedition.
She lifts the lid.
Steam rises from the boiling water.
The pot traps heat extremely well.
She fishes a piece of meat out of the pot by dragging it along the edge with her throwing dagger.
Her stomach growls.
She bites into it without hesitation.
The meat was tough but nutritious.
No hints of poison or any funny off-flavor.
Cooking in boiling water neutralizes most weak poisons.
The middle still tasted a bit raw.
She tossed it back into the pot to cook more.
Her stomach growled again.
Skinning the creature took longer than she would like.
She had to chop it into segments.
A ridiculously hard sinew wrapped around the creature at roughly even intervals, holding its outer skin and carapace together.
The skin itself was extremely hard to get through, especially with her blunt dagger.
She had to heat it with wyvern flame, leaving it charred in places.
The guts are usually not good to eat, so she had to dig them out with her fingers, one piece at a time, and feed them to her salamander skin, which happily took them.
Finally, when she managed to prepare the meat, it took a ridiculous amount of time to cook through.
To pass the time, she plucked out the crispy carapace from the caterpillar's skin.
She crushed them with her hand and sprinkled the dust onto her salamander skin.
Her wyvern-skin armor was badly damaged from the previous fight.
The caterpillar's skin seemed like a good replacement.
She has no idea how to etch weaving runes.
It's a strange kind of magic that only certain workshops in Moradale could do.
She picks up a long strap of skin.
Its edges were charred from the searing heat she used to cut it.
She clutched it tightly and suddenly pulled it in both directions.
It held without tearing.
The skin was at least tough enough to hold her weight.
She needs a way to strap it onto her body, though.
The caterpillar's long sinews.
She holds up a piece, wraps it twice around each hand, and pulls.
It held against a force that would have instantly snapped a steel chain.
Her stomach growled.
She lifts the lid and fishes out a piece.
She tears the meat in half after some effort.
"Ivory berries."
Still half raw. She should have cut the pieces more finely.
Too late to fish them out one by one to cut them.
She channels more mana into the pot to heat it.
She has no idea how much longer this needs to cook, but she has little choice but to wait.
In the meantime, she goes back to crafting some makeshift gear for herself.
She lays out the strips of caterpillar skin and begins scraping the flesh and blood from them with her dagger.