Hungry

With this, Edrick could cross off two materials from the list. He had gathered great amounts of both Tarkin White Iron and Golu Amethyst.

Considering that the progress of nature concealed the mines marked on his map, those without assistance like him would probably struggle to find any at all outside of some natural formations visible on the sides of mountains.

So his haul was not only impressive in its own right, but it would be monumental compared to the majority of other disciples. Though only a small portion of it would be revealed to the public in the end.

In any case, he also gathered a fair amount of Full-Moon Blooms during his little trips back and forth, and he would surely find a lot more by just walking around looking for other stuff. So that was another resource that would be easily crossed off the list.

He had also caught an Earth-Carrying Boar, but he was planning on catching several full specimens before considering that completed. The same was true for the other beasts. None of the required creatures were particularly rare or hard to find.

Anoteros already had experience with hunting and tracking. So once he decided to focus on finding those creatures, he should be able to secure a handful of each. Who knows... He might even run into some others that he would be able to keep to himself…

But for now, he decided to head for the last resource, whose location was known and which could also not move: Fire-Feather Minerals, which, for some reason, was always made plural despite it being a single object and not a collection of multiple fire-based minerals like he had originally imagined.

The guy who had named it definitely deserved to get punched in the jaw for that one.

But anyway, Edrick naturally decided to bring along the last of Yin’s and Hui’s friends for this little venture.

The journey would take multiple days, as the destination was far, and the extraction of Fire-Feather Minerals was a bit more complicated than for the previous two.

Unlike Lihua, Pluma, or even Yin, Mumin had a slender, lithe build. Her muscles were less prominent, and there was a big emphasis on pure flexibility and agility rather than brute force. Of course, her limbs weren’t sticks or anything, but it was plenty obvious that her style of fighting was different compared to the others.

Mumin stood at a height of one meter and sixty-three centimeters. Whilst noticeably shorter than Lihua and Pluma, it was important to note that this was still three whole centimeters taller than the average woman.

Though they all looked incredibly short to Anoteros.

Mumin, in particular, had a style that made her look more low-key, accentuating the difference compared to her friends even further. She wore her robes more loosely than average, giving the impression that they were too big for her, and her auburn-coloured hair was tied into twintails that draped down over her shoulders.

It was a hairstyle you typically wouldn't expect on a grown woman.

The loose robes were part of her fighting style. But the twintails? They were just a fashion statement. She just liked to do her hair like that.

As for the eyes, Mumin had grey eyes just like Pluma. Perhaps not quite the same shade, but similar enough.

“Edrick, can I… Can I like… Climb up on your shoulder or something? I always wondered what it was like to be tall”

That was the first thing she said after they left the hollow hill. Not even five minutes had passed since then, so clearly, she wasn’t quite as tight-lipped as Pluma.

Edrick had grown familiar with those three girls in the past, but it had nearly always been in the presence of Yin, Hui, or both... And judging someone by how they behaved in public or surrounded by a group was often an inaccurate metric.

People could only truly be discerned by observing how they behaved when they believed no one was watching. Albeit an animal that thrived through cooperation, humans also had a strong will for solitarism. They had gathered together because it was more convenient to survive, but the collective restrained their true nature…

Or so Edrick believed. To him, the reason he had so many ‘fans’ in his former world was precisely because he was unshackled. They yearned to be like him, to be him, to be free from the bindings that kept them from being what they were meant to be.

Being unbound and having interacted deeply with the psyche of countless people in a multitude of different situations, he had become adept at decrypting people, even without much information. However, deep secrets often remained as such even under his scrutinising eye. Still, he had known quite a few things about those three girls even before taking them on journeys where they would be all alone with him.

Lihua was much like her cultivation technique--Straightforward and earnest. How she acted in public and private wasn’t much different, for she didn’t have much to hide at all.

Pluma was a bit more introverted, more used to concealing her emotions so as not to stand out. That was why she had managed to hide the fact that she was actually a lustful beast that had been yearning for some action with Edrick from the very beginning.

As for Mumin… She was playful, but also rather sly. Amongst the three girls, he considered her to be the most threatening in a fight. After all, someone who adapted the way they dressed to fit their fighting style was someone to be wary of. She deliberately made herself look smaller and younger than she was to have a chance to get the initiative in a fight.

“Holy hell, that’s what you see all the time?! I didn’t even know the world could look like this- This might give me motion sickness though…” Mumin found the speed at which Edrick was walking to be quite strange. Were these just casual steps for him? This was absolute madness.

“It really is quite- Oh wait, we’ve got some company already” Mumin jumped off Edrick’s shoulder and pointed toward the right. Walking toward their direction was a massive Flame-Maw Bear, far larger than it was supposed to be. It was staggering and panting heavily, its back was covered in blood-red moss, and Blood-Drunk Grass.

Such things were not supposed to be found on any animal or beast, and yet, they were growing in excess here.

Upon catching sight of the two humans, the Flame-Maw Bear froze. It seemed to hesitate upon seeing the unfamiliar creatures. But utterly famished, it only hesitated for a second before charging ahead, willing to do anything to get its paws on a meal…