"Crabs huh, reminds me of the seafood cuisine I eat back on Valovo Citadel," Verina commented. "Also, nice lantern you got there."
"It is my favorite lantern now."
"I'm assuming that you're relying on me to suppress the smell for the giant crabs because you aren't planning to work on it as of now."
"Yup."
The scavenging hunt went on for 5 hours before I settled on the extracted materials to work on something.
Of course, before actually working on the material itself, I also needed to establish some important facilities for the materials to be even workable.
Verina's ohrtending ability was definitely the saving grace to trivialize most of the annoying stuff when it comes to establishing these facilities.
"That gauntlet you got from the Wild Hunt's stray gives you so much strength, it seems," Verina commented as she helped me with the building. "It might actually be on par with a high-quality Theotech, at this point."
The strength from the Wraithgrip really does change everything, huh.
"It can't be removed unless I sever my right hand, however. It also saps my vitality everytime I draw strength from it. So it definitely has its price."
"Looks like you're not surprised by that cost."
"Well, not like it immediately kills me or anything. I just need to eat well and live well in my available lifespan."
The 'Info' section of my detail screen did have information for the estimation of my entire lifespan if I were to live without consequently dying to any unnatural causes.
If only that the numbers weren't a bunch of question marks.
"This makes me want to have Qliphoth prosthetic legs."
"I doubt that we will stumble into that kind of Qliphoth Object."
From a complete workshop with a forge where I could finally process everything that I brought back to my storage, to a man-made loom where I could weave the essence produced by the death Sorrow Weaver—I also flattened the uneven ground in our proximity for ease of traveling with Verina, since she was in a wheelchair.
I also found out that the Burrowing Terror's corrosive slime could be used as some sort of solvent to clean the Sorrow Weaver's webs of their stickiness, so I just dumped all of our remaining slime canister into a big tub made out of the monster's innards.
And then clean all of the silk by just dumping it on the pool of slime.
The silk was strong enough to not get damaged by the metal-eating substance.
"Phew."
After working for 8 hours non stop since the Ordeal of the Midnight, I decided to rest on my polished wooden bed, inside the very same design of wooden cabin that I built on the first day.
It might not be the best platform to rest in this world, but any kind of surface felt comfortable after moving around for hours.
And for some reason, Verina was there lying next to me.
"These cauterized wounds… does it hurt you?"
"Well, like all wounds do."
"If I touch it like this, will you feel anything?"
"The lack of reaction of my face doesn't mean that the pain doesn't exist, Verina."
"I thought that you would be much more expressive."
"Said the person with an eternal poker-face."
Sometimes, I forget to give an empathetic impression within my actions and calculation.
Like right now, I didn't really think much about how devastating it must have felt to lose both of your legs while you're still alive and kicking.
Without anyone to support you, you won't be able to do many things. Even someone taking care of you, it would definitely still be demoralizing to realize that you were severely limited on what you're capable of doing as a living being.
Not to mention, her friend came back from the Ordeal as a cryopreserved head.
I didn't take into account the emotion factor, for someone to shoot a preserving spell on their own friend right after a one-day stranger beheaded them.
Then again, I had already established myself as a consistent leader figure for them.
It still didn't make Verina's burden any less significant, however.
"You can just continue your sleep, if this situation comforts you, you know?" I said while I started to close my eyes.
"I thought that you would be more defensive around me."
I wanted to say 'why would I be defensive around someone who can't even escape?' as a joke but I assume that would be too heartless.
"How about you reveal your reason for coming to this desolate land without any civilization around, if you want me to have an ease of mind in my sleep?"
I might as well probe her into answering this curiosity of mine.
"Huh, is the wind telling you something again?"
"Who knows~"
Verina lay her body flat as she gazed at the ceiling.
"It is true that there is an ultimate reason why Lupina and I wasted a lot of bloodies to survive the Ordeals in our journey, just so that we can avoid needing a bigger party of bastioneers."
"I assume so." I chuckled. "Is meeting me one of those reasons?"
"At first we were not sure, but at this point, it might be." She then laid on her side as she stared at me again. "Want me to tell you the proper version or the quick version."
"Tell me the proper one. We have a lot of time in the world, after all."
I felt like if Verina had the capability to change her expression, she would be snickering right now.
"It started with an informative encounter with a group of drunkards in a tavern inside Torie Citadel."