PoV Maxim
Lately, we've been experimenting a lot with our powers. I still haven't found the answer to all my questions, but thankfully, some of the most important ones got an answer.
First of all, it seems that our power works in a vastly different manner compared to the power of the beasts or the hairless monkeys. So far, those forms of power are still a mystery to us.
Our power seems connected to our vitality, the strength of one's soul, and, as such, it can grow stronger as the body gets stronger. There are, however, exceptions, such as specific illnesses that can slow down the growth process or the unknown method my brother uses to grow his own power at an unusually fast rate.
We couldn't figure out how to change the crests engraved on our bodies, but we noticed that they could somehow evolve in the right circumstances. My brother even managed to copy the evolved form of such crests.
During a really intense and stressful situation, instead of shooting out arms from the discs, he managed to create the limbs of a dragon, and then, as if that wasn't enough, he managed to attach those limbs to his body temporarily, allowing him to survive a deadly encounter with that chimera.
The reason why everything seemed so new to us was mainly caused by the fact that the use of our crests was illegal in our homeland. One would need special permission to use it, and even then, it was strictly supervised. The only ones who could use their crest freely were the ones who worked for the government.
Now that we're on a break and we can finally rest, I've started to notice just how much hostility has grown towards my older brother since we got here.
'It's true that he forced us to rush the first 25 stages in the first three months, but thanks to that, we don't have to hunt anymore for our food. We can even buy salt and black pepper on a regular basis.'
The incident didn't cause us much trouble, mainly because we could easily shield our bodies with our powers. The sudden wave of energy felt suffocating at first, but after a couple of days, we got acquainted with that sort of feeling.
"Still... I don't think eating only instant noodles for an entire day straight is healthy. " I said this to my brother, who was about to go to the storage.
"I never really learned how to cook. If you want, I can try to do something."
I sighed.
'Giovanni and Marcello are resting right now. They need to focus on recovery for now. It's not like they know how to cook, but at least they would've been more helpful than me or my brother.'
"Wait a second, maybe on the tablet we could find some easy and quick recipes to make."
'To be honest, I don't really care about what's healthy and what's not. At the moment, I just want some variety in our diet. I've grown tired of eating the same thing for the last month.'
"Is there something simple with not many ingredients? I don't want to search again through every catalog just to find some mayonnaise. "
"I don't know. Let me search for a bit."
'I still remember the cheese section. One would need stairs to reach the top shelf, and it was so freaking huge as well. There were just too many different types of cheese, too many creatures to count with different-tasting cheeses, and for each creature, at least another dozen different types of cheese existed.'
We weren't offered free food in the tablet shop; that would've been too comfortable. We still had basically unlimited ingredients, but we had to pick them ourselves from this seemingly never-ending storage. On the teleporter menu, there were five main categories: fruits, vegetables, meat, drinks, and others. From then on, it was a long scroll-down window with many folders. Then, once we selected the preferred item, a portal would appear, and we would be transported to the storage. The storage offered every variable of that item, so if you chose something like wine, finding the right bottle would still be a challenge as there were simply too many different kinds of bottles of wine.
I then looked up some easy recipes to make at home for lunch. The result was a bit disappointing, as what the tablet showed me were many different sandwiches. So I searched for something a bit less simple, not as healthy, but without using too many ingredients.
The answer was much simpler than I thought: pasta. I know it's almost the same thing as noodles, but they're not instant noodles, so that's some progress. For the sauce, I chose pesto. It's easy to make, and it doesn't require many ingredients.
'We can't possibly screw up something as easy as this... can we?'
The ingredients were simple and few: some green leaves, some nuts, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and some cheese.
'Oh no, what kind of cheese is this?'
Panic sets in.
While my brother is brainlessly waving his hand in front of my eyes to see if I'm still paying attention to him, flashbacks of that storage begin to flood my mind.
As I search for the other ingredients, I finally get the names for the leaves and nuts, so I write them down. Then I started searching to see if I could simply avoid using cheese. Instead, I got the names of other kinds of cheese I could use as substitutes.
'Well, it's not like I'm going to be the one that goes fetching the ingredients; it'll be fine. My brother is more than capable...
"Does he even have the patience to check each product and search for the correct ingredient?" I blurted it out while I was deep in my thoughts.
'He never really had much patience and couldn't endure many things. He even went to prison because of that.'
"Hey, I heard you!"
'We should've checked that at least one of us knew how to cook. Teaming up with a cook should've been our priority.'
"Is this really the list? only four ingredients?"
Then I sat down and started reminiscing about the past.
As an actor, I always had someone take care of my diet. They often made sure that I ate a lot of food whenever I needed to maintain a certain weight and exercised at certain intervals to keep my body in shape.
I did cook once in a while, but it was just some scrambled eggs and a soft-boiled egg that turned out to be a hard-boiled egg.
The others, however, never wanted to openly talk about their past.
We didn't bond near the fire camp like in those movies or series. For the most part, it was pure silence, with some quick glances and the daily report to check on our progress. We did have some small talk here and there, but that was always on rare occasions when I was alone with one of the other two.
'And here I was hoping for something a bit more fantasy-like. We're heroes, goddammit! Typically, in these types of adventures, we would explore unknown civilizations and ruins, obtain a powerful artifact, and fight evil using the power of fantasy powers and friendship.'
Despite this, we were trapped in a goddamn jungle, with insects crawling in every corner, venomous animals slithering, jumping, and hiding on every tree, giant predators, and other giant creatures.
A shitty experience that was inches away from driving us all mad.
Yet I was glad I happened to be sent here.
I was able to reconnect with my brother. I never knew he still considered me part of his family, yet he was able to hug me and treat me as if nothing had happened. Ten years had passed since the last time I visited him in prison.
Even in those first five years, I rarely visited him, and I always used him as an outlet to vent all my frustrations and badmouth all of my co-workers as well as many other people. I was a terrible brother who never truly listened to his advice and never once cared to hear his problems.
I even felt ashamed of him when someone would bring up his name in an interview. Sometimes I wanted to deny his existence completely or run away as soon as the topic was brought up.
Sometimes I even cursed at him for making my life harder by being in prison when his only crime was trying to protect me.
PoV Forren
When I came back to reality, in front of me was a glass of milk with some chocolate biscuits. Next to them was a toilet paper roll with a note on top.
"I've gone fetching the ingredients. Here is a little snack to cheer you up.
I don't know where the tissues are, so you can wipe your tears with these for now."
"Thank you." I could barely speak, as my voice was already trembling.
The tomatoes didn't become mushy in the way I expected, even after waiting some time, so I just put all the contents of the pan in a mixer and mixed the whole thing to obtain the sauce I was trying to create.
'I probably chose the wrong tomatoes; no big deal.'
"Can I get a taste? It smells amazing already." asked Diego for the tenth time.
"Not yet," I replied, pouring the mixture back into the pan.
Then I added the cooked rice and started mixing rapidly. As I tasted the rice a bit, I regretted not putting in the minced meat.
'Still, this was far better than any other dish I have cooked so far.'
But that's because, back in my world, I didn't really cook, as it was a really expensive hobby, and I didn't really have much time for myself. Here, instead, I could just prepare unsalted meat and eat the roasted crustaceans I fished in the lake.
'Since we were the last ones to complete the ninth stage, that means that we will have to rush the tenth before an incident like that happens again.'
Nine stages in three months. We could've completed the trial in four or five years, half the time given to us by God.
'Why is everyone rushing so much." I said this while putting the dessert together.
"It's probably because they don't want to suffer as much as we did, forced to hunt at least three times a week and with barely any points to spend on ourselves." answered Folarin.
She had taken a wooden spoon from me and was sneakily getting a taste of the rice while I was busy sprinkling some chocolate powder on top of the tiramisù.
After that, I put it in the refrigerator while I started serving everyone.
The smell that came off the pan was fantastic, and, as such, they were ravenously devouring their meal. It was satisfying to see all their delighted faces eating something I had cooked for them.
"That's so good. Thankfully, you didn't put in the vegetables and decided to save the dish." Satsui said this with his mouth full of rice.
"No vegetables are there, I just used a mixer to blend them with the sauce."
He remains silent for a while, staring at his spoon, thinking of the next thing to say. Then he returned, wagging his tail and eating his dish as if it were his last meal.
Diego was barely chewing; only Folarin was the one eating slowly with grace while also sitting completely straight and not hunched over towards the food. As for the dessert, only Valis, me, and Diego ate it.
Satsui didn't like the taste or the consistency. Folarin said she was full, and Tsuitame gave his portion to Valis as soon as he saw that she loved it.
Later that evening, Folarin asked if she could be in charge of the kitchen for dinner once more.
I agreed, but with one condition: that she would either stop with the completely vegan diet for our dinner or at least spare the two wolves, as their bodies were probably in dire need of meat.
She seemed dismayed to hear this news, but she still accepted the deal, thankfully.
I trained my magic with Satsui.
"No it's not like that!" Satsui said this while blocking my punch with his bare hand.
'Again?'
"I don't understand then."
"You keep forcing the flow of the aura in an unnatural way."
"I did as you told me."
"No, it's not. You're bending the flow of the aura. That is usually acceptable for external techniques, but not for internal ones. You're just redirecting the flow during the blow."
"Yeah, to empower the punch, I need to increase the flow in the arm."
"Yeah, but you're doing it the wrong way." He said this while going back to his stance.
"Let me show you." He said this before throwing a left-straight punch.
I tried to grab it the same way he did, but just moments before the clash, it suddenly got much faster. The end result was a punch with enough strength to probably one-shot even a bear.
Following the punch, there was a shockwave caused by the sudden release of an aura that sent me flying. The gust of wind then somehow managed to produce many cuts throughout my body, only to turn into a whip, grabbing my right leg and throwing me back down to the ground.
"This is what I'm trying to teach you. This explosive force can easily transition to ranged combat." he said, while punching the air using the same technique as before.
"I can't do ranged combat. I haven't mastered the solidification of flames." I said while getting back up.
He seemed surprised by the fact that, in a matter of seconds, I had already recovered and could easily stand back up.
"The solidification of flames is a rather advanced technique. You should start with the basics, I would say, so what element have you trained so far?"
"Fire and water. I tried adding the third, but at that point I could barely move since I had to constantly balance the three forces in my body."
"Yeah, I can relate to that. Still two elements; that's amazing for a newbie." he said while patting my back.
"What about you or your brother?"
"My brother has only mastered two; I can use about three when I'm at my peak." He said this while creating some shards of ice floating around him.
"Don't try to change the subject now. Remember to keep compressing the aura and releasing it as you're in the middle of the motion to give it that explosive power up. Treat it like you would treat a spring."
"It's easier said than done."
"Oh, and before you waste the next few hours, remember to also block the way to the other limbs to maximize efficiency."