Holding the rock up, Glacia pointed at her Lord's mouth, causing Aoni's eyes to widen, before putting it near hers and making a motion similar to eating.
"So you fed me the core?"
"Gao,"
"And I ate it without any problems?"
"Gaoo oo, Gao," half understanding the words, Glacia stared at the rock and then the fruit as if something suddenly came to her realization.
And then…she shoved the remains of the fruit into her mouth and ate it, causing Aoni to be stunned and stare at her with wide eyes.
'She ate it without hesitation, so either her instincts were telling her she should eat it as it would be beneficial, or maybe as a creature she innately knows not to waste anything…' With a thought, he opened up the Summon's Display, and upon noticing there were no changes to her status, Aoni felt a little confused.
'It must be the core and the innards of the fruit that have the most benefit; what she ate probably didn't have much Energia left in it, or something to that extent, thus it didn't do much to her…'
For a few minutes, he sat there awkwardly watching Glacia until Aoni was certain nothing was going to happen before finally releasing a sigh, standing up, and walking over to the bookshelf to grab the empty water bottles.
Two liters of water may not seem like much, but given that he was basically surviving off MRE Rations and the fluids they came with, Aoni knew that he needed a source of water.
The thought that he could use the water bottles as a holder for bathing water did register; however, there was an issue with doing so. The bottles were made of thin plastic; thus, if Aoni wished to heat them using his only method, over an open flame, the bottles would melt; that's why he needed something sturdier, something which would be unlikely to be destroyed.
Sure, if the wooden bowls he was planning on making were left too close to the fire, they would probably light up once all the moisture in the wood was evaporated, but Aoni planned on keeping it high enough above the fire so that wouldn't happen.
"Glacia, come here." Kneeling, Aoni waited for his summon to make her way to his side before showing her one of the bottles.
"I have a task for you; you need to be extra careful when holding this so that you don't stab it with those, okay?" pointing at her claws, Aoni saw a bit of recognition in her eyes, but not enough to be comfortable handing over the bottle to her in fear that she would poke it full of holes.
So, with no other option, he gently took her paws and taught her a proper way to hold the bottle, which took some time; however, it was necessary.
Once certain she understood, Aoni put on his makeshift coat and walked toward the mouth of the Cave with Glacia in tow.
"We need to be quick when doing this, so once I fill up my bottle, I'll swap it off with you, and you can head back inside." Looking down at his summon, Aoni noticed an odd level of focus from her body posture as she stood there stiffly, holding the empty bottle almost as big as her out in front of her body.
Honestly, it was quite a funny sight, but he didn't allow that to distract him as Aoni pulled up the jacket's hood to cover his head and crossed the threshold into the bitter cold.
Yet, much to Aoni's surprise, it wasn't NEARLY as bad as he thought it was going to be. Sure, it was very CLEARLY in the ballpark of -40 or lower, but between his newly acquired Cold Resistance and the jacket, he felt it was manageable.
Mind you, that would only be for a short period, but 10 to 15 minutes should be no problem.
With that in mind, he stepped out into the open for the first time since arriving and observed what little of his surroundings were visible, which frankly wasn't a whole lot.
Heavy snow brought visibility to practically zero, meaning Aoni had to be careful where he stepped. With no idea of how large the area surrounding the Cave was, he didn't want to accidentally find himself tumbling down the mountain to a certain death.
As such, treading lightly, Aoni stepped out into the snow and was soon battered on all sides, causing him to tug the jacket's hood down lower before crouching and submerging his hands in the half-foot-deep snow.
'First, I gotta clean my hands off…BRRR shits cold,' Complaining mentally while scrubbing his hands in the frozen precipitation; Aoni attempted to free them of blood and grime.
That was when he realized that between his cold resistance and his G+ defense, withstanding the cold without getting frostbite instantly was totally doable.
Mind you, that didn't mean it wasn't cold. No, no, his hands still turned bright pink, but it wasn't something that Aoni couldn't withstand.
Fully focused on his present task, he didn't notice the repeated notifications flashing by indicating that every second he was in the snow, Aoni seemed to be earning Progress Points; he simply didn't have the extra brain power to observe such a thing because once his hands were cleaned of grime, the lad immediately set about packing clean snow into the water bottle. A process that took less than a minute to complete.
Satisfied that he couldn't fit any more snow into the bottle, Aoni then turned and looked for Glacia, who was standing awkwardly to his right and watching his actions with curiosity befitting a small child, and extended his full bottle toward her.
Luckily, she had been paying attention to the little lesson earlier and carefully released her bottle, placing it on the ground before gently picking up the full one and heading back into the Cave with an adorable waddle while Aoni went ahead and filled up the second.
Upon finishing the task, he stood up, took one last look around his surroundings, shook his head, and headed back into the safety of the Cave.