Chapter 26

At the foot of a certain mountain, stood a 3 meters tall fluffy squirrel. On its back sat a man sitting in Lotus position with eyes closed.

When the squirrel stopped, the man opened his eyes. There was a deep and more profound look in his eyes.

It was Fares. He was not cultivating this time but was instead reminiscing in the battle before.

Fare has got extremely close to death this time. Extremely so, that he became more conscious of his situation.

This was not a game. It was not even a mystery game he could solve, and then he would eventually find a way to go back.

This was a world of survival of the fittest, and he was not 'fit' enough to fight among those monsters out there. If he kept acting this childish and think of his situation as a mere mystery, he would be dead.

He had still had too many reasons to fight, he had family, friends, and his long-life dream of getting a Nobel Prize. It was not just some game, where he could make his way out of by outsmarting the enemy.

Fares took a deep breath and came down from above Smooka. Then, he started unloading the meat pack from the squirrel's back.

"Are you sure you do not want to visit the village, my friend?" Fares said patting the squirrel's back.

Shaking his head fiercely, Smooka looked as if he was intentionally avoiding the mountain for some reason.

Fares didn't understand what was up with the squirrel, but he still decided to give it a goodbye hug.

"If I ever come back to hunt, I'll be sure to come and stay at the tree hole you made." Fares said, assuring the slightly sad squirrel.

Smooka's face lit up, and he opened his mouth taking out a head-sized walnut giving it to Fares, as a sign of friendship.

"Thank you." Fares took it willingly as he thanked Smooka.

Thereafter, Smooka watched as Fares ascended the mountain slowly due to the extra weight on his back.

When Fares cultivated the orb before, it strengthens his leg force along with the increase of energy filling the node. Now he was able to bear even more weight than normal. However, it was still too heavy to move properly.

After a long time, Fares finally reached the cave. The moment he entered, he saw a commotion going on in the village.

The villagers were bustling around left and right, each was doing their own thing.

'That's weird, the last time I came by it felt like there weren't anyone around at all.' Fares thought.

It was weird, but asking around won't help. He did learn the language enough to ask such simple questions, but even if he asked he may not fully understand it. So, he was better off asking Azkar directly.

After a long time of walking, Fares was finally standing in front of Zena's house.

Knock~ Knock~

He knocked using a preapproved secret knock. Right then, there was a lot of rustling going on inside.

Thud~

After a loud thud, the door creaked open, revealing a tiny figure standing on the other side of the door.

It was Mona. With blood dripping down her red nose, she gave a wide smile when she saw Fares.

"You're finally here, where have you been? We thought you had died, and that there was no one else capable of saving Zena!" She rambled for another good minute before noticing the bags on his back.

"What is that?" She asked.

Fares rubbed her tiny head, and went inside, closing the door behind him. Then, he finally dropped the baggage on his back, then rubbed his sore shoulders and stretched his back for a moment.

The knot on the bags loosened, and its content fell out. When Mona saw the content of the bags, she jumped up and down, happily clapping her hands together.

"Did you bring this for the festival?" She asked.

Fares understood her words except for the word festival, so he asked "Festival?"

Right at this moment, Azkar came up towards them and said, "A 'Festival' is a kind of get-together, to celebrate a big hunt."

"Really? Who went on a hunt? And what did they catch?" Fares asked, his interest piqued.

"Don's daughter took a few hunters from the village and hunted a Begarra. " Azkar said proudly as if she was his daughter.

"Ok, now I am curious, what is a Begarra? How good is it exactly that you traded Zena's life for a little of it?."

"It was the king of beasts in this area. It would ruin much of our hunting before we got time to take the bodies back.

Initially, there were two of such a beast in this place, the first one had been hunted by Daragma, his sons, and his grandsons. Among all 20 of them, only three survived. Daragma, Doga, and Doga's uncle Demerio." Azkar said reminiscing in the past.

Fares' first thought, when he heard that, was the T. rex he had to hide from. But he didn't know if there was an even bigger threat out in that scary forest.

"Forget about that and tell me, what have you got there." Azkar changed the topic and pointed at the meat on the floor.

"I hunted some Raptors and got its meat back for my plan."

"You did what?" Azkar asked with eyes wide enough it almost popped out.

"I hunted Raptors. I figured that since I killed one before I even cultivated anything, I would hunt others for their skin and meat." Fares said innocently.

"No No No No, I specifically asked you not to hunt there even if they are weak individually. That is because they hunt in packs." Azkar said irritated.

"Well, I set up a plan to hunt them by separating them one by one." Fares said not entirely lying, however, he intentionally hid the truth about Smooka just in case.

He was not an idiot, Smooka is a smart beast and if it was afraid of this mountain, then there was something going on here that they're hiding.

"Even so, the pack's alpha could easily kill you in a one-on-one."

"It was strong, but I used these to cultivate on single hunts and fought it eventually." Fares said, taking out one of the small orbs, showing it to Azkar.

"What ?! You can't just use that to cultivate, your body will explode, unless…" Azkar trailed off.

"Unless you are a made of pure energy, or have the guts of a beast that can digest it." Fares continued Azkar's sentence for him.

"So you can use them to cultivate, huh? Good to know. But wait, how did you know beasts could use them too?" Azkar said suspiciously.

"Well, assumed so when I didn't notice it on the body they were feeding on." Fares lied bluntly as he rubbed the back of his head.

The action alone would tell anyone he was lying, but it was the Jurassic period after all. Even then, Fares didn't account for Azkar's heightened senses.

Azkar knew he was lying, but decided against confronting him for the time being. Fares would eventually tell him whenever he thought was the best time.

"Sigh, well, no point worrying about it now. It is a done deed. You did good kid." Azkar said, patting his shoulders.

"But why did you bring its skin back? It is big trouble having to deal with that."

"Don't worry, I have a use for it." Fares said with a knowing smile on his face.

He went towards the biggest one, and removed all the meat over it, placing it on the other two skins equally.

Fares then placed the skin over the flat rock that acts as a cooking stone, with the flesh side of the hide pointing upwards.

He then grabbed the sword and started scraping the excess meat and fat from the fleshy surface. Only stopping when he could see the opening of the pores on the opposite surface through the skin.

Fares then grabbed the Raptor's brain he collected beforehand and placed it in water. He removed the large flat rock with the pelt over it and put the mixture over dry wood before lighting up the fire.

Ten minutes later, he mashed the brain-water mixture until it became oily. Then he used the unsharp edge of his sword to roughen the surface of the skin.

Only then did he begin to pour the mixture evenly over the skin. He then left it and proceeded to do the same for the other two pelts.

Though this time, he used the rest of the brain-water mixture and made use of just one other brain to make another one.

"Eeewwww, big brother is so disgusting," Mona said, not able to hold herself anymore when she saw Fares mash up another brain.

Fares smiled and left each pelt to dry up till nighttime.