It took me a total of two days to get back to the surface, the cool breeze brushing against my skin.
The gray sky and blood-red soil of the landscape were an ominous yet welcome sight.
Man, was it great to be back up here.
While the Labyrinth provided me with the ideal training ground, one couldn't help but get sick of the ever-present darkness.
After marinating in the stench of death for 9 months, I couldn't help but miss the light of the sun, even if that sun was artificial and devoid of its usual warmth.
It had all been worth it, though.
I was quite happy with my achievements thus far.
Reaching the initial stages of harmonization and ascending to the sword seeker level were massive boons.
If I were to use both of my stars as batteries, I might be able to deliver a blow around the same level as a peak-level sword seeker or someone at the initial stages of a swordmaster, but I doubt I'd ever be in a situation where I'd be forced to do that. (Are you sure?🗿 )
Now that I'm out of the Labyrinth, I wasn't exactly too sure where I wanted to go first, or what I even wanted to do.
So, I activated the Star of Memory and started to browse through the archive of books I had read while I was at the Academy, searching for something, anything, fun to do.
And that's when I happened upon it, a glorious book that I had pushed to the very back of my catalogue.
I had been so focused on learning about the dream realm and the history of the world that I had neglected something near and dear to my heart.
I stared at the title of the book, my eyes practically shining with anticipation.
5,117 Ways to Cook Nightmare Creatures!
What a glorious book indeed.
I hadn't eaten anything at all in the Labyrinth, the ugly ass spiders had no meat on their bones, and the rotting skeleton wraiths didn't have anything left on them worth cooking.
Surviving off of starlight was something I had become accustomed to, centuries of photosynthesizing making it into somewhat of a habit.
But those chefs at the academy made me remember the joys of food, and I wasn't about to relinquish that joy after having gone without it for dozens of years.
I'd still be looking for any morsel of lost history I could, buuuuuuuut at the same time, I'd learn how to perfectly cook any nightmare creature I came across.
Just thinking of food had me salivating, and at this point, I don't think I could hold myself back any longer.
I had my goals, and now it was time to set off!
With a grin on my face, I started my culinary journey in this forgotten land.
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Week 1
I found some wolf looking abominations!
They looked a little similar to the creature I had seen in the Hollow mountains, just smaller and skinnier.
I ended up killing three of them, the thought of eating meat overrided my rational temporarily.
Honestly, they didn't taste half bad grilled, but I think that they'd taste a lot better if I had some seasoning!
The texture was similar to lamb, and it was a bit gamey, but it's something that I'd definitely eat again.
I'm gonna mark this place down as a hunting spot for sure.
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Week 2
I went back and killed a few more of those wolves to grab some more meat for the journey, and I'm glad I did.
All I found this week were some fuck ass bug looking abominations, and there was no way I was about to eat those.
Most of the week was spent figuring out different ways to cook the wolf meat, just to see to test if it'd taste any better prepared differently.
I found that mincing it, wrapping it around a stick, and cooking it over a fire like a kebab worked wonders.
100% the best method available to me at the moment, but I'll try stewing and braising if I find water and something to make pots and pans out of.
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Week 3
I had gathered enough supplies to journey for about a month without worry, so I set off in search of other nightmare creatures.
On my path I ended up finding a massive ocean, the place practically teaming with abominations.
I was excited about this discovery for a multitude of reasons, but especially one:
If there's an ocean, you know what that means right?
Seafood
So much seafood!
I found some demonic looking crab dudes, the spell called them carapace scavengers, and I had to say, their meat tasted amazing compared to the rest of the nightmare creatures I had found.
Not only that, the ocean meant that I finally had a water source!
There were a shit ton of nightmare creatures everywhere, and they all looked pretty good if I'm being honest.
I'm probably gonna stay here for a while.
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Week 4
It's been a month since I came out of the labyrinth, and I've situated myself on a little hill near the black ocean.
The Carapace scavengers came around here quite often, so I had been eating pretty damn good.
I found poaching the meat of the scavengers and then broiling it over a fire worked best.
Leaving some ocean water out in the sun, I was able to create a kind of sea salt, elevating my cooking to the next level.
Occasionally, when the tides rose and the hill I was living on became more of an island, a few dead nightmare creatures would wash up on shore.
There was this giant looking fish abomination that washed up on shore recently.
I had to fight off a horde of the scavengers and what looked like an evolution of theirs in order to get my hands on the meat, but it had been worth it.
I had secured a pretty large supply of its meat, and when cooked, the fish abominations meat tasted almost similar to Tuna.
Man, I was really living it up in the dream realm!
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Month 2
Unlike the first four weeks of my exploration, the past month had been rather uneventful.
I spent my days just gathering food and materials from the marine abominations.
I had fashioned myself a shelter made of bones tied together by ropes I had created with the sinew of a few fish looking creatures that had been left by the tide.
Honestly, the monotony was oddly peaceful, far more peace than I had known in all three of my lives.
Eventually, though, I began to venture beyond the hill, going just a little bit farther every day.
It was during these expeditions that I happened upon quite a large statue, a large headless statue.
I spent the last two weeks of the month traveling between the statue and my little sanctuary on the hill, studying the statue while amassing more supplies.
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Month 3
Man, time flies fast, huh?
It's been about a year since I entered the dream realm.
The past three months especially have felt like nothing more than a vacation.
I'd settled in pretty nicely on the hill/island thing, my shelter looking more like a house now.
I had changed out the bones for stone bricks I had cut out of the headless statue.
On the topic of the statue, there was literally nothing I could figure out about it.
The material it was made of, how long ago it was made, etc, quite literally nothing.
I had just given up on it a week ago, instead focusing on improving my current abode and gathering salt and other supplies.
Over the past two months, I had amassed quite the fortune in salts and preserved meats.
At this point, I had enough food to feed a village comfortably for a few months.
Was it overkill?
Probably.
Was I gonna stop?
Fuck no.
I was seriously considering just living on the hill, completely leaving behind the waking world and just permanently settling down on this forgotten land.
On the last day of the month, however, something unexpected happened.
I had descended from the hill to check for any abominations that had washed up on the shore, but instead, what I found was a fellow human being.
I thought I was alone here all this time, in a land forgotten by all, but before me was evidence that my preconceived notion was quite wrong.
The pale boy before me looked quite haggard, dark circles etched beneath his eyes. He had black hair and eyes that shone like obsidian, not to mention he was sopping wet.
We made eye contact, Amethyst purple meeting Onyx black.
Unfortunately, at that same moment, my flaw registered the presence of another person, and came back at full force, the gnawing anxiety and stress immediately burying themselves in the pit of my stomach.
[One Who Stood at the Peak] fought back against the crippling social anxiety, allowing me to at least maintain a poker face.
The boy looked like he was about to say something, but before he could, I cut him off.
Attempting a greeting, I opened my mouth, my tongue and vocal cords having become accustomed to silence.
"@!(*#^(!@&#"
Instead of a greeting, what ended up coming out didn't sound unlike the profane shrieking of the nightmare creatures I had spent the past year slaughtering.
FUCK
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(A/N: This ended up being the longest chapter I've wrote so far! a whole 1500 words ykyk.
I genuinely couldn't think of a way to write the last three months before the events of the main story, and I ended up with this.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and please drop a review if you haven't already!
Thanks for the support!)