Life and fate were uncertain, Leaving the Luoer clan, Mangrel's journey was riddled with difficulties one after another.
Just the savings from his mid-class clan did not last him long. Shortly, Mangrel landed himself in the predicament of becoming an outcast.
No clan accepted him, and neither did Mangrel have any will to join a sect. Once joined, it would be very difficult to leave or in some cases, it was impossible.
Mangrel had to live as a hunter, merchant, or even a thief.
Yes, that's right, as a thief. For the first time, Mangrel was forced to go on a dark path. At that time, he was still not willing to take others' lives or do dirty work.
Such experience was a pushing force that sent Mangrel one step further into the path of demonic cultivators.
Demonic cultivators are people who are extremely callous. A destroyer and murderer, ruthless to everything in life.
However, just being vicious was not enough to live in this world.
Mangrel was faced with situations that required something other than strength many times. It was fortitude, without an unshakable will and courage to face any adversity, it was hard for a person to last long.
Being unyielding even in a hopeless situation and facing it relentlessly, only by having such a mindset could a person ever attain extraordinary feats.
Not to say, Mangrel was still not in a situation where there was no hope at all. Just this much did not affect him at all.
The construction site was filled with the sounds of human activities.
Mangrel started thinking of a way to get some food rapidly. The situation did not appear pessimistic in the least, but he knew that — No situation was absolutely hopeless or insolvable.
'It is just humans who despair and give up on their own accord. Not having the courage to move forward.' Mangrel started moving out of the site for now.
No one stopped him on the way, it was as if Mangrel did not exist to them.
Mangrel couldn't help but praise the person controlling all the beggars and these cultivators. Though the method used wasn't perfect, it was still very efficient.
This person didn't force the beggars to work for him, instead, he dangled a bait named food and hope before them.
By doing this, the beggars and Vagrants worked in a somewhat enthusiastic way and kept hope in their hearts.
Hope that as long as they work, they will be able to live somehow. All living beings had survival instincts and humans were even more so. They cherished their lives more than any living being, thus many people became self-centered as time went by.
Giving the last comer a hard task, also motivated the beggars and other workers to come faster.
'The people waking up the beggars were most likely being violent and coarse on their own free will. It is to make all the beggars follow their orders without resistance.' Mangrel deduced their behavior after a little contemplation.
Mangrel never underestimated humans' intelligence, everyone had their perception of things. This was what made the future uncertain, as human actions could not be predicted perfectly!
Firstly, Mangrel put aside eating the dead beggars' bodies.
Eating humans brought many dangers. Though Mangrel was aware of the body part that was edible and nonedible, he was still hesitant.
It was because beggars had poor immune systems, so surely they were infected with dozens of diseases.
And there were many hidden dangers too, like how eating the human brain could cause diseases like kuru, also known as shivering death.
Mangrel wasn't willing to take risks like that if not necessary.
Mangrel kept asking the friends of the past host for food for later too. There was a minimum to be gained from this, the past Mangrel did not seem to be the type to have a close relationship with many.
Hence, Mangrel's options were limited, and the food obtained would also be very lacking.
'That kid named Devis might just hand over his food. If no other feasible options present themselves, I will have to choose him. The only setback would be, the displeasure of Devis's parents.'
As for asking everyone in the same age level for food? Most if not all would reject or just come up with an excuse.
By acting pitiful he might be able to get some food, but doing so would cause a rift to form between them, no matter how close their relationship was, when life was put on the line humans tend to become offended easily and become egocentric.
These beggars are only able to complete one task a day, therefore that one meal was the result of their hard work done the whole day.
Some couldn't even spare a little food, like Veneir, who had to feed her little brother back in the house. She lived in a house unlike Mangrel, she had to work here to make a living so their condition was very clear.
Mangrel has confidence that he could kill a normal adult if he used the element of surprise or other devious means, but killing would cause an investigation to be carried out.
The chances of his deed finding out were almost assured.
And lastly, the best place that Mangrel could find something edible was — the river. It was the same river he crossed over while heading toward the construction site.
The moment Mangrel got to know of the river's existence, he had put it as his water source.
Following the path that he came from, Mangrel arrived at the river that had many blue-green algae floating on its surface. The greenish hue was darker, unlike the algae Mangrel had ever seen in the past.
The number of algae surprised Mangrel, the first time he came here, there was no time to look around so he was not able to take a proper look then.
Disappointment rose within Mangrel, there were only blue-green algae here. This was poisonous to humans in more than one way.
'This is very abnormal, Algae are formed by many nutrients and Bacteria, but I can't see that much waste in this river water.' Mangrel's eyes narrowed with a bright glow. He did not dare to touch the river water carelessly.
The fact that no one came to drink water even after he waited for ten minutes was extremely suspicious too.
He moved near to the wooden bridge for now.
The sound of the river water hitting the pedestal moved in the air unceasingly, while Mangrel motionlessly waited for something.
Only after seeing someone walking toward the area from afar, Mangrel slowly got down to the river while crouching down, walking on the softened mud. A little imbalance could cause his leg to slip in this slippery mud and algae at the bottom.
Mangrel did not lose balance even once, he was good at controlling the center of his weight.
SLIP~
But still, Mangrel almost lost balance and fell into the water, if not for the rock that he held at the last moment.
'I need to get used to this body...Thankfully it's light and so it's easy to balance.' Mangrel continued moving, he arrived before the river water that appeared dirty with a tinge of orange hue, due to iron and manganese that were used in the construction site.
The moment Mangrel dipped his hand into the water, An adult's voice rang out behind him.
"Stop! What are you doing kid? Don't you know that it is not good to drink water from the river in the purple month?!" A worker, who had a similar status as Mangrel shouted with a furious look.
A bright light passed by Mangrel's eyes hearing this. his body became motionless, as if surprised.
Just when the worker was going to admonish Mangrel for his carelessness, the pitiful voice of Mangrel reached him.
"But...I think I will die if I don't drink water right this instant..." Mangrel's voice was filled with anguish, his eyes appeared to be filled with despair as if death did not matter to him.
This made the worker's anger subside a little, instead, he could empathize with Mangrel. There was a moment he felt the same as him too.
"Sigh...Kid, here drink some water from this." The worker tossed a leather water bottle from his back to Mangrel.
Catching the bottle with a dazed look, He opened the lid of the bottle, then took a few gulps of water quickly. He was like a thirty wanderer in the desert, who found water after dozens of days.
While drinking the water, Mangrel's tears started flowing out. He was shedding tears!
Seeing this, the worker smiled bitterly: "Climb up first. Staying near those algae isn't good for you."
Mangrel nodded his head with still-red eyes. Tossing the leather bottle back to the worker, he began climbing up carefully.
After climbing up, Mangrel began flicking off the mud stuck on his hands and legs.
"Try completing today's task, you will get some bread and a glass of water. Live strong." Saying this, the worker patted Mangrel's shoulder and moved on.
Mangrel's eyes turned cold as the worker exited his sight.
He could have been indifferent after the leather bottle entered his hands, but he did not do that. He did not fully empty the bottle either.
The reason behind it was very plain because doing so would leave a bad impression on that worker.
If in the future, Mangrel were to carry out activities similar to now, that worker might dissuade others from helping him.
But now, this worker would either be silent or even make others empathize with Mangrel.
After finding that no one was near the area, Mangrel glanced at the river water again. With no hesitation, he went back down and faced towards the flower below the bridge. The flower had green petals with a blueish hue around it.
This flower was a product of this world, named the algaeist flower, having a poison concentration ten times that of normal blue-green algae. It posed a threat to human life with its medium death rate in ingestion.
Mangrel saw this Algaeist flower by chance, and with no further ado, he collected it from the stagnant river. Leading the algaeist flower towards him from the middle of the river, was easy using the rocks.
Mangrel was ready to give up on it if someone found him, he could have just acted ignorant of what it was. Fortunately, no such situation occurred.
Hiding the algaeist flower within his clothes, Mangrel returned to the alleyway and hid it in the deeper parts of the alley, below a corpse.
'Algaeist flower requires Algae to grow, I will need to place some algae near it so that it doesn't wither away.' Mangrel checked his surroundings and began moving out of the alleyway.
Having collected some important information, Mangrel slowly walked towards the streets, bustling with public activity.