Ethan and Scarlett were once again back in their Mountain Cave. This was their first home in this world, and they had once again returned there. Yet, this time, they were not idly reading books and studying.
The cave was empty now since they had taken everything back into Ethan's Dimensional Pocket when they left in search of the Underground City. They had yet to refill every comfort of Earth back.
After all, they were deeply contemplating the recipe of the… Pill of Comprehension. The recipe was quite simple, mostly filled with mundane materials—ginseng, cardamom, and many other Indian spices and Ethan already had most of those.
The lacking products in his hand, like Solid Honey and Green Salt, had also been collected now. The one and only weird material in the list, Black Lotus Pods, had also been acquired. Everything was ready.
He just had to check the process of cooking now. Scarlett clung to his side, using her weird Dictionary which could translate her thoughts into the words of this world's language and vice versa.
Every thought had a word. She just had to memorize it. With a thought, the dictionary would flip to a certain word, and she would note it down in a normal notebook. She was using that to understand the recipe from his side, reading with him.
Scarlett had made a small scene when she knew Ethan was in a bathroom full of naked women a while ago, but even she was not so irrational. She could understand he had been quite lucky there.
But of course, she didn't let him touch her weirdly after that. Humph! If he felt lust watching naked women who were not herself, go fuck them. Not her, and never come back to her after that. She wasn't his cheap satisfaction!
She was his and he was hers. Theirs alone.
Ethan sighed, and Scarlett looked at him curiously.
"Let's cook."
"Is the process easy?"
"It's kindergarten level. Just putting in this material at this amount of time," he said, "We can do it pretty easily."
Soon enough, a small stove, a small metal bowl filled with water, and a bunch of materials were taken out of Ethan's Dimensional Pocket and they began to arrange it cleanly.
Scarlett breathed out fire from her mouth using her Fireball Ability, and the stove came to life. Immediately after, they began to heat the water and began cooking. The process was indeed simple, so simple that even an idiot could have cooked.
About five minutes later, they had added all the needed materials and their eyes were bright with anticipation. The smell was extremely arousing for the senses. Like a hard-boiled chicken broth but sweeter than anything. Then, the water began to boil and it was time to put in the Black Lotus Pods.
Ethan dropped one in, ready to teleport with Scarlett if something exploded. Who knows?
Instead, as the Black Lotus Seed fell into the bowl, it began to suck in all of the broth-like boiling liquid into itself, and that continued for about 10 minutes before a pearl-sized round Black Lotus Pod appeared there, and all the water vanished.
They just looked at it without doing anything for a while. Just contemplating everything.
They had arrived here only some days ago, but this world had already had a profound impact on them. Their bodies were weak here; even falling leaves had as much strength as their full-force punch. They were like insects in a human body.
Not to mention, Ethan could barely Teleport around 3 times before he would have to fear whether the next one would make him exhausted. This was all irritating. The world was so much bigger than them—it always was but they had never felt so… ant-like.
They had been suppressing the feeling but they wanted to feel like humans again.
Ethan said, "Should we try feeding one to some animal just in case? What if—"
"Wasn't that Gu Yuntian a good person? Can't we trust him?"
Ethan fell silent and sighed before taking the pill in his hand. He was a cynic, true. But if he didn't trust Gu Yuntian, he wouldn't be able to move forward in anything. But… just in case, he might as well try feeding it to an animal. Just in case.
He had enough materials to make many, after all.
They left the cave.
….
An hour later, Ethan and Scarlett were once again back in the cave, and both of them had a Pill of Comprehension in their hands. They had cooked again.
"I'll eat first," Scarlett said.
They had already seen that the bird that ate it became much, much more energetic after it ate the pill. They couldn't even catch it before it flew away again and their only method of fighting it was Heritage Abilities, so they didn't try to do that after failing first.
It had flown away. What would come of it, they didn't know.
Ethan didn't stop to talk. Taking out a bunch of first aid things from his Dimensional Pocket, he looked at her and put the pill in his hand into his mouth. She smiled, didn't act irrationally, and ate her own for the sake of romantic vibes. If something happened to him, she would have to save him.
She would have ate it too but when it came to her matters, he had a sort of protective pride. In the end, who took it first didn't matter.
Ethan took a deep breath.
The pill was a hot ball of fire that went down his throat, he could feel it building up inside him like a powerful volcano about to burst.