Eye Of The Eclipse - 71 You Can Just Eat I

After having started reading the guide which the twins had been left with, Rob and Chance didn’t end up leaving the room to give the twins some space after all. Hell, they hadn’t even left their seats to stretch their legs in the last three hours.

When all was said and done, the book was simply a comprehensive survival guide. Rather than going into too much detail in any aspect, it covered everything, and more, to a shallow level while giving anyone reading it a direction to research further at their own discretion.

The first chapters covered flora and fauna; Commonly seen animals along with their traits, edible plants and fruits, plants which carry medical attributes and finally plants which carried harmful or poisonous attributes.

The next sections began to introduce helpful equipment, how they are used and a few methods of optimizing that which should be carried on your person. It was a pleasant surprise for all four of them when them when they saw both the medicinal and the waterproofing spray canisters in this part of the guide.

Next was the breathing technique, this part was something which Chance had already gone over previously so he simply summarized the contents and introduced the newer aspects to the others before moving on.

Second to last, was the basics of the basics. Things such as looking for water sources, how to set up a fire, orienteering and some basic animal traps came under this, seemingly as a way to wrap up the contents of the book and show how the various elements worked together in actual practice.

The very last page had a simple title and the contents were just as simple. It read-

Rules:

No verbal communication of any kind for the duration of the trial.

You cannot be found to have harmed another contestant.

No restrictions on personal belongings, however you will carry everything yourself.

You may quit at any time, however while taking part in the trail, you will follow all instructions.

Finishing the book, Chance let out yet another sigh before looking over at the twins. “I stand by what I said before. This seems too suspicious to be safe, but it does seem like there are benefits, this already seems like information worth as much as we have on us.” He said while tapping the cover of the guide.

“Im still going.” Rykar persisted adamantly before Loki mirrored his sentiment.

Rob wanted to interject but Chance laughed it off before following up, “I didn’t say you shouldn’t go, ice already been convinced. I was just saying, in case something happens just remember ‘I told you so’.

“Just wait till we get back so we can spar again. Let’s hear you say it then.”

“Yeah sure, that’s if a bear doesn’t eat you guys first.” Rob finally had a chance to throw a comment into the mix. “How about we check out the city now? You guys said you need somewhere to run, and we still need to get a lot of the things on the list.”

With everyone in agreement, Rykar stored his book within his fragment while Chance held onto the second one as they left the inn. While passing the front counter, Rob took the opportunity to check how long Marcel had payed for their stay and was pleased to find they had another three days on the tab, giving them plenty of time to decide if they wanted to relocate or prolong their stay.

The streets were just as the twins had left them. Busy. The location of the inn wasn’t exactly in the central area, but it wasn’t very far from it. It wasn’t even five minutes walk from the entrance before they came to an area which could only be described as a marketplace.

The ‘stalls’ weren’t set up on the street, as they had seen before in the underground of the planet they were last on. Instead, it was as though the majority of the front and side walls of the buildings along the street had been punched out. Leaving a makeshift cave on the lowest level which allowed easy access and clear views of all the wares within.

Despite the weird format of the street, there was a smooth feeling towards the transactions, the customers and salespeople had a sense of order and patience towards each other that allowed the street to be loud, but not boisterous. Crowded, but not chaotic. No doubt the frequent patrols of armored guards helped, in no small amounts, to achieve this.

Going from building to building, it wasn’t long before many of the items on the list began to present themselves.

Travelers bags which were more comfortable than those usually slung across the back, much more suitable for being worn for extended periods of time.

Travelers tinder: two blocks of what looked like a grey metal. These blocks would be cold to touch under normal circumstances, however when placed in close proximity to each other, they would generate an attractive force like weak magnets. Once they were actually in contact with each other, they would release weak flames in all directions. These were perfect as simply gathering sticks and twigs before throwing these into the middle of a pile would soon result in a fire. They could also be reused indefinitely.

There was also a knife which functioned in a similar way. The blade was around twenty centimetres and in the same dark grey colour. The knife would usually look similar to that of a standard blade, but with the flick of the handle, a second blade would extend from the base, connecting with the first to form a double-sided blade. The contact would also result in faint flames covering both sides of the blade.

Bandages and ointments were also collected, enough to last a year or so. Despite the overkill on some of these things, the majority of them could simply be stored in Rykar’s fragment once they returned to the Inn, so there wasn’t actually any issue in their carrying capacity. A portion would also be left to Chance and Rob while the twins were absent.

Many useful items and gadgets made their way into the bags carried by the group of four, who walked around the market with glittering eyes while practically throwing gold coins at anything that caught their attention.

With their ‘faces’ they weren’t worried about someone finding trouble with a stranger with a decent amount of money. Once many of the passersby and stall holders saw the book that Chance would occasionally look through, they were only treated more sincerely and often found that many of the goods were discounted for them.

Just like this, they walked past every store while looking inside curiously before finally stopping in front of one in wonder. Seeing the book in their hands, the woman within quickly came to greet them, “Hello there, My name is Christie! You four must be preparing for the The Guild’s trial, am I right? The spirit fruit around the city are usually sold at a flat rate but I can offer you a 5% discount if you take away more than 100 in one go.”

“Were fairly new, what is the flat rate?” Chance asked while raising his eyebrows towards the glittering fruits which were placed in rows on silky pieces of cloth all around the store. The walls were practically filled with them, just sweeping his eye across the place revealed over a thousand.

“Ah I understand, in that case, take my card and if you have any other questions regarding resources within the city, feel free to ask away.” From her breast pocket, she pulled out a small card which had glittering patterns similar to the interior of the fruits on display. “The flat rate is 1000g per fruit, its very rare to find a lower price without having established a relationship with a broker beforehand.”

“I see, so what exactly do these fruits do?” Hearing the return question from Chance, Christie’s eyebrow raised slightly as she looked between the masks they were wearing and the book in his hand. “Our family has a focus on medicines, truth be told, I’ve never seen a raw spirit fruit.”

With an apologetic and almost apologetic look on her face, Christie quickly apologized to the group in front of her before introducing the fruit properly. “These are raw and unprocessed so it makes sense you may not be familiar with these appearances. Its true that making medicines and extracts from Spirit increase their effectiveness many times over, but they do take much more time and effort to prepare.

The most basic way to handle these is actually the most straightforward! You simply eat them. The shell is slightly hard, so some people prefer to pierce them and simply extract the liquid within. However, the shell is actually highly nutritious, therefore the best way to consume the fruit is to either swallow them whole or chew through them as standard. They serve as an amazing way to supply the body with energy and, due to being unrefined, they can keep you feeling full for even longer due to the slow release!”

Under their masks, the four in front of her opened their eyes widely as they realized that the fruit were pretty much no different than any other fruit or berry! Well, if you didn’t take into account that these grape sized fruits weighed around ten kilograms. Much less swallowing them whole, it would be great if it didn’t rip a hole through their anus on the way down!

“I see.” Chance pocketed the card before continuing, “When we run out of medicine, we will make sure to come back.” He then turned around and left before Christie could continue with her sales pitch.