Luckily for Butaro, the canteen's content really ended up being just water – it had an earthy aftertaste, but in the boy's current state, it tasted better than anything he ever tried in his entire life.
"Gu-huagh...!"
After emptying the canteen in one go, he picked a single brownish smoke-smelling stick and bit off a piece of it.
"!!!"
IT WAS DRIED MEAT!
Butaro's eyes widened and he immediately grabbed all the sticks and chomped onto them hungrily devouring them in a few bites.
Butaro couldn't tell what kind of meat it was, but there was no doubt in his mind that it was dried meat, carefully smoked in order to preserve it by whoever prepared it.
"...!"
The single canteen and a handful of dried meat sticks were nowhere near enough to satiate Butaro's appetite, and the boy launched at the leather bag to check whether he didn't miss even a crumb more.
"...huh...?"
The bag itself was unfortunately empty, but when Butaro raised it, he noticed that it had a thin white string attached to it – it was a long thread that lead back into the jungle, through the bushes, disappearing deep into the vegetation.
"That's how you find your way around!"
Butaro gasped triumphantly shaking the bag and watching the white stirring stir the leaves and small branches as it moved.
Not bothering with the corpse anymore, Butaro grabbed it together with the cut-off crocodile's tail that he was still carrying with him, more because of habit than anything else, and began moving his wrist coiling the white string around it to keep its tension.
It was a rather inconvenient setup – having the demonic sword in one hand while the bag and the tail in the other, but at that point, Butaro really wasn't thinking about the optimal solution for the case.
All of his being was focused on the new target – getting to whatever place the string would lead him because there was quite a big chance that there would e food and water there.
Without any more delays, the massive boy hurried into the jungle following the string and trampling everything in his way.
Despite unintentionally killing the purple elf with a tree and getting his hands on the bag with the white string attached in the morning, Butaro didn't find the endpoint until evening.
But when the sun was beginning to set, he walked past a curtain of odd red vines handing down the branches of massive trees up high and found himself at the edge of some sort of settlement.
The jungle didn't end, the same type of vegetation that Butaro was used to was still present, but after passing the red vines, all sorts of sounds reached the boy's ears – the chirping of birds, the trickling of water, the buzzing of insects... All of a sudden, the jungle seemed alive!
"Wha...? How...?"
Suddenly exposed to the noises he almost forgot existed, Butaro mumbled, backing off and glancing at the red vines.
They almost looked like some sort of fence... or a warning line...
"...maybe... it's only the surroundings of the temple that are the labyrinth...?"
Butaro thought out loud while raising the leather bag and tracing the sting – he finally was able to see the point of its origin – the white string was tied around a large stake hammered into the ground on the back of one of the primitive wooden huts – the one closest to the red vines.
Butaro dropped the crocodile's tail and the bag and followed his ears to where he heard the sound of flowing water.
To the left of the hut with the stake, he wound a barrel attached to some sort of contraption that was embedded into a solid rock with a blueish hue.
"...!"
*SPLASH*
Butaro's eyes widened and he threw himself at the barrel – diving into it head first and greedily drinking out of it in massive gulps.
"M-MONSTER! A MONSTER CAME OUT OF THE FOREST!"
"...!"
Suddenly, someone shouted, causing Butaro to flinch and get up, turning around to face the shouting person.
"Huh...?"
That's why he was so taken aback after seeing that the words he clearly understood were spoken by a purple-skinned ugly elf just like the ones he saw in his dreams.
On the other hand, the night elf in front of Butaro reacted as he did because he spotted an unknown massive beast that got its way to their source of water – and he trembled in fear as the monstrosity stood up, standing over two feet taller than he was, glaring at him with its glowing pink eyes while holding some nightmarish bladed weapon in one of its muscular hands.
"S-stay away!"
The night elf shouted, pointing a primitive-looking spear with a stone tip at Butaro's stomach.
"Huh... I didn't think that we will be able to understand each other... Listen. I need food."
The boy raised his brows in surprise and let out a relieved sigh before lowering his demonic sword and speaking to the night elf in a casual manner.
"HURRY! THE MONSTER SPEAKS IN THE FIRST KINGDOM TONGUE!"
But instead of calming down, being able to understand Butaro's words seemed to only scare the purple elf even more.
"Listen..."
Butaro tried to calm down and reason with the purple humanoid, but before he was able to, five more night elves showed up from behind the huts, all with spears already at the ready, and rushed toward him.
"THE MONSTER! THE PIG MONSTER!"
"THE ONE THAT THE GODDESS MESSANGER WARNED US ABOUT!"
"IF WE KILL IT, THE GODDESS WILL FORGIVE THE NIGHT ELVES!"
"..."
Hearing the shouts of the newly arrived elves, Butaro closed his mouth and clenched his fist.
*WHAM* *SLAM* *SPLAT*
The next moment, he punched the first night elf he encountered, sending him flying and crashing into one of the huts – the encounter with Butaro's fist killed the elf instantly, and the force of the impact against the hut turned its corpse into a nauseating mush.
"...you are working for that bitch of a goddess, huh... Bad choice. Really bad..."
Butaro growled, straightening his back and opening his fist.
"Guess I will have to find the food after dealing with you the same way that bitch wanted to deal with me."
While the night elves turned silent from shock and fear, Butaro growled, bearing his teeth in a furious grin.