After sending off the hot-tempered young master, Shane returned to the entrance of the temple cave and retrieved his large pile of scrap tal.
Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed sothing odd—the passages leading left and right seed different now.
"I rember the entrance on the right was partially collapsed from the shock, and the left one was a dead end but intact. Why are they reversed now?"
Did the two paths grow legs and swap places?
Shane muttered in confusion but didn't dwell on it. Maybe he had just rembered wrong. Besides, Frieren had already adjusted the directions of the passages, so it should be fine.
After leaving the temple, the two continued patrolling the remaining outer area.
As they walked, they corrected the map.
By the roadside, Shane discovered a kind of shy grass. At the slightest touch, its leaves would instantly fold shut.
Frieren found it quite interesting and marked it on the map.
Shane objected, arguing that maps for adventurers should only mark important information like resource points and danger warnings.
Frieren, however, believed that adding so interesting details might make the journey less boring.
The two held their own opinions.
In the end, the one drawing the map had the final say.
"Wait, is that a monster?!"
Shane, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped.
In the bushes not far ahead, several bird-like creatures as large as cows were strolling leisurely.
They had bulky bodies covered in yellow and black feathers, resembling ostriches. Strangely, they had no wings, and their legs were thick and powerful, giving them an awkward appearance.
"They should be terror birds."
Frieren added another note to the map and explained, "They're a type of large bird commonly found in southern mountain forests. They run very fast, but their cries are terrifying, which is why they're called terror birds."
"Don't worry, they're very gentle and never attack humans on their own."
Shane let out a sigh of relief. As long as they weren't monsters, it was fine.
He glanced at the sun setting in the distance, estimated the ti, and suggested, "It's getting dark. There's a water source nearby—let's camp by the forest edge tonight and head back tomorrow."
The two chose a spot and set up camp.
Frieren handled clearing the campsite, gathering firewood, and starting a fire, while Shane went to the river to catch fish for dinner.
Spring river fish were at their fattest, full of roe.
Shane walked along the riverbank, observing the fish as he went. After walking quite a distance, he finally found the two largest ones.
He drew his sword and grinned.
[Electrocution] was practically a divine tool for fishing.
Crackle.
Sizzle.
The two fish instantly flipped belly-up and floated stiffly to the surface.
Shane scooped them up, scaled and gutted them on the spot, cleaned them thoroughly, then pulled a stalk of grass from the roadside, threaded it through the gills, and carried them back while humming a tune.
Easy.
Seeing him return so quickly with two large fish, Frieren showed a look of admiration.
Shane imitated what he'd seen in movies, skewering the fish on a stick and planting it beside the fire.
Night fell.
Accompanied by the crackling of the flas, the aroma of grilled fish slowly spread.
With gentlemanly grace, Shane picked the golden-brown fish that looked the most perfectly cooked and handed it to Frieren.
Frieren accepted it, sniffed the aroma, and took a big bite.
Then her expression froze, and she imdiately spat it out.
Shane frowned. "Even if it doesn't suit your taste, don't waste it."
As he spoke, he picked up his own fish and took a bite.
His face instantly twisted.
"Ugh—what kind of fish is this?!"
Frieren calmly started eating bread. "I don't think the problem is the fish."
Shane was baffled.
That shouldn't be right. Didn't novels always go like this?
The aroma of grilled fish captivates a beautiful girl's taste buds, and the handso adventurer is rewarded with a wonderful night.
Where did it go wrong?
…
For safety at night, Shane cast [Goddess's Barrier], protecting the entire campsite.
By now, Frieren was already asleep on a blanket beside the fire.
Shane sat on the other side of the fire and took out a small pouch of beans. He opened it, counted out twenty beans, and placed them neatly in front of him.
This was preparation for attribute fusion.
Since extracted attributes couldn't remain in a free-floating state for long, he used the beans as temporary storage diums.
Then, he sorted the pile of scrap tal: those carrying [Gray Attributes] went into one pile, those with [White Attributes] into another, and higher-grade ones into a separate group.
Once everything was ready, he began working on the attributes.
First, he extracted all the useless gray attributes—twelve in total—and fused them directly.
Not bad. All succeeded, yielding four white ones.
He glanced at them. All useless. He stored one in a bean for later and fused the other three again.
What a pity—this ti, the fusion failed, and they all shattered.
Next, he moved on to extracting the white attributes…
And so it continued.
Different colored light particles flickered before him as he occasionally picked up a bean for temporary storage.
Based on his experience, it was best to store only one attribute per bean. That made it easier to select and recombine them later, saving the effort of repeated extraction.
Ti passed bit by bit.
Shane's ntal energy was steadily drained.
In the end, after exhausting most of the twenty beans and before completely draining his ntal strength, he finally obtained two decent blue attributes.
[Occluncy (Blue/Rare)]: Closes one's mind to prevent others from peering in or influencing it; resistance to ntal magic is greatly increased.
[Spatial Expansion (Blue/Rare)]: Expands the internal capacity of an object without changing its appearance and reduces the weight of stored items. Maximum expansion limit: 50 tis (must be a sealed container).
Shane didn't hesitate and imdiately applied the first attribute to himself.
Then he took out his backpack and applied the second attribute to it.
In an instant, a flash of light passed over the ordinary leather backpack. Shane reached inside—
He couldn't feel the bottom at all.
He even tried sticking his head inside.
With the firelight, he could see that the internal space had expanded enormously. It probably wouldn't be a problem to store an entire carriage inside.
"This will make traveling with luggage much easier."
Aside from the newly fused high-grade attributes, Shane also deliberately kept one gray attribute.
It was extrely rare and might be useful in the future.
He rubbed a bean between his fingers.
Faint gray text appeared on it—
[Osteoporosis (Gray/Inferior)]: Greatly reduces bone strength, increases brittleness, and makes fractures extrely likely.
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