With the chance of going through the Ordeal of Hunger was out of the way, I, Micca, and Shujang, started eating grass and leaves.
"We might not get caught by the Ordeal of Hungers, but the rumbling of our stomach from all of those mech buildings sure does the ordeal for us," Shujang said, stuffing all of the greeneries she could find in her sight.
"I'm surprised you're okay with eating this." Micca cleaned her teeth with her claw, staring down at the nature glutton that she perceived as 'mommy' a couple of hours ago. "Is this because you're a Nature Shaman?"
"Shujang probably eats nothing but grass and leaves for a whole week at some point in her life."
Shujang's brows were raised. "Occam, are you a psychic?"
"Nyeh, I just shot randomly, didn't expect for it to hit a target."
Although, someone who saw this event unfolding might be wandering, 'Occam! You have Creation Magic! Why not manifest a whole feast of top tier Micheline stars buffet!?'
I tried, and these were the responses.
"Uhm, the parm chicken is delicious, but it kinda feels like it isn't at the same time?" said a certain kitsune.
"The Al Pastor pork belly feels like it only satiates your body and tongue, but not the soul and the mind. I prefer eating grass than this pseudo-cardboard disguising as a real proper meal," said a certain rabbit.
Not even my mastery at gastronomy could save these foul objects I manifested into this world…
We came to the conclusion that the whole dining experience didn't only derive from the taste and volume of the meal, but also the nourishment for the soul and sentient mind.
It was the same case with how the materials I created using magic weren't able to be integrated into my whole bodily system.
In this case, a food needs to be permeated by the spirit essences.
It needs to possess history and chronicles before being eaten by another living being.
Hmm, maybe attaining a means to manipulate spiritual essence should be one of my goals in the future.
Oh, I also just found out that by grabbing and shoving the outside substances into my insides, I can consume them.
It was definitely a weird experience, since my whole body is an omnidirectional camera and it felt as if I'm using my very eye to scoop things and feed it inside my retina.
Though, Shujang did educate me that a Knowing Hardness wasn't supposed to be eating things other than the minerals of their kind.
This is because of the fact that a Knowing Hardness emulsifies any matter into part of their body.
Just like how an alloy was made.
Or it was because they were just picky and decided their whole personality on the very mineral they consumed.
In the end, it still wasn't really a good idea to introduce grass and leaves into my stomach if I wanted to keep the level of hardness and purity of my metal jello body––
Then again, I saw no minerals in the vicinity—except for some pebbles that I chowed down in the beginning of this feast.
So why not join the feast on mother nature's remains? It built camaraderie.
Until Micca announced something with her usual deadpan.
"... There is no more green in this patch of time dilation location."
The situation went back to gloomy.
It was then collectively decided that we should start to migrate somewhere else. Even with the four times slower time dilation to prepare for the next possible arrival of an ordeal, it wouldn't mean much if we were made to starve from the overextension of time available for us.
We traveled towards the east. Or atleast, our east, as it was near impossible to make sense of the cardinal direction with a large scale pre-effect of the reality crack. With all the eleven mechs activated from their docile slumber, I commanded their basic AI to follow us in formation, with one of them carrying a device that shared their information processing power.
I'm thankful that I took many online courses for machine learning back on earth.
"I feel like having our own battalion," Shujang commented.
"We might make it as a wandering mercenary after we survive from this hellhole," I replied.
Micca's ears suddenly straightened up. "This will be my first time being in a group then."
"Nyahaha, I guess the hope of staying alive began to infect us one way or another."
Shujang laughed. "I'll make sure the two of you survive this calamity." With a gentle yet melancholic smile, Shujang slightly tilted her head to the size. "It would be rude of me if it ends up otherwise."
"We will make sure that you're staying alive too then."
"Me too!" Micca raised her arm. "Shujang needs to marry father so that the family is complete!"
"I'm in love with someone, so I can't marry Shujang, Micca."
Micca's eyes widened in surprise, along with Shujang who lighthearted giggled
"Wait, who's this special someone then??"
"Who else?" I performed a quick Blooming. "But me!"
And used the energy to mold a quarter of my body into a self-pointing thumb gesture.
Micca wasn't entertained in the slightest.
On our way to the further hypothetical east, we found a corpse of a native boar-like species of this forest.
The boar was cleanly cut in half.
"It seems like the signs of crack in this vicinity are more volatile." Shujang sighed.
"The cut looks fresh though," Micca said as her drool dropped from the edge of her mouth.
"Well, we can roast some meat before continuing our proselytization."
Shujang snickered. "What do we even proselytize?"
"Meats! Converted into food for our belly!" Micca shouted with great vigor and gluttony. "I'll search for edibles, mushrooms, and herbs!"
I urged one of our mechs to procure the important resources from the danger zone. Just as the mech touched the nature provision, a sharp, invisible, spinning instrument manifested and cut the majestic alloy part of the mech's hand to cleanly detach from the upper arm.
It was useful that my Creation Magic includes the manipulation of matter to some extent, so reattaching the arm was not an impossible feat.
I need to work on the long Blooming time needed to perform the spells of this magic though.
After the provision was secured, the rest of the condiments and ingredients were acquired.
It's time to cook!