Hunger

Teyo woke up from a darkness that whelmed him after his fall. Unknown to how long it had been he tried to call out to Spex. Only as soon as he tried to he was met with a screen the plainly stated console functions are suspended while in a dungeon. However what did pop up with that statement was a countdown. 6:48 Teyo immediately understood it must have been a few hours. In "console time".

After the brief notion of wonder he felt his body's pain wave over him. He thought of his class menu and brought it up showing that he was sitting at one health. The unbearable pulsing he felt all over was a sure sign that he was on the last lick of survival he could muster. With the party members nowhere in sight. He began to feel hopeless. He rolled in the sand and pushed himself up with his back to the wall he fell from. His sight was fading in and out, the throb of his pain coming and going with the faint rhythmic thump of his heart. A lone tear began well in his ear. Teyo cursed at himself...

" just my luck...shitty stupid chef class.. assholes... they just left me... they didn't even bother...fuck em... nothing I did even.." Teyo in his squalor then thought back to what he had accomplished. He had defeated bats, defended his archer, throughout the cave made basic food to replenish everyone's energy, helped strategy form and found their treasure.

" I feel so used.. heck even with my sight I helped lead the way in some places.. I even thought Discern Ingredients was.."

just then as he said it he had reactivated. Teyo's eyes caught a faint glimpse of a red hue in the sand next to him. he focused and low and behold the spider that had crawled on him like there half smashed into the sand, presumably from when he fell. Just then Teyo's eyes lit up and he remembered the moss and mushrooms he had picked. He grabbed the spider and with the spider in hand accompanying the slimy moss and mushrooms he tossed them into his mouth.

The spongy and moist moss actually held a decent crunch like texture with an earthy pine like light taste. The mushrooms almost became liquid as soon as it touched his mouth into a gooey like slime with a pistachio like bold flavor. Surprised Teyo really held out hope that his mouth would soon fall victim to poor taste the continued chew met a smooth finish with a hairy textured piece of meat of the spider had finally rotated around his palette to come forefront. The blood from the spider oozed and quickly absorbed into his tongue. With it a beefy like finish a superb little aftertaste left his mouth.. surprisingly in want of more.

"Huh... who'd have thought.. like a nice little spider salad."

Just then in almost response to his declaration.

Recipe created. "Cave Spider Salad"

Cave Dew Moss

Pond film Mushroom

Cave spider

Effect - +1 health - Dark vision for 10 minutes.

Cave Spider Salad consumed

Grade - Dishwasher

Effect - +1 health.

"Whoa." Teyo sat up a little straighter the throbbing subsided just a little and his health ticked up just a little more. Thoughts raced through his head back and forth. " Wait a recipe... how, I'm a Chef wait so I can make recipes was that a skill?" Teyo checked his class menu only to see that it wasn't there nothing about it said anything about recipes or grades of them etc. " So there much more to this than it seems. Well I think.. I think I have a way out of this." Teyo stood up. The pain and sharp shooting sensations shot throughout him in most areashos hand and feet tingling with numbness making it difficult to stand he leaned against the wall for support. He began to look around with his D.I activated. Again he saw the mushrooms and moss littered around the small pond. He then inspected the wall looking for more spiders. In the end of his search he only found just a few more that were within reach. A good smack of his pan and he held the two in his hands. Limping and slow he made his way tk the waters edge and filled the pan with moss and mushrooms. He took everything and diced and cut them with his knife in a grueling few minutes. He hands shaking the whole while and aches everywhere. He barely willed himself through it all. In the end he held a pan full of mostly moss and mushrooms with diced spider bits that served as hardly even an ingredient due to its lack of volume. Teyo sitting at the waters edge looked off into the distance seeing the hardly even faint hue of red remembered the bat meat was near. He neither had the strength nor the care left in him. Even more so without fire there were sure to be a level of discomfort in it's consumption.

Uneager but willing Teyo bit into the still unfamiliar look of the Cave Spider Salad he just made. By normal standards this looked like absolute slop to him but he couldn't deny it's strangely good flavor. Before he knew it.. he finished the whole pan.

Large Cave Spider Salad consumed

Grade- Dishwasher

+2 health

10 minutes of Dark vision.

While his became restored he felt the ebbing throb recede. Also his vision altered completely now giving view to the cave around him as if a huge contrast had inverted. After blinking his eyes in the strange blinding changes they eventually settled at a level of sight that seemed normal but instead of it being dark here the light had simply "turned on". Teyo sighed and felt a bit of relief. he looked around and saw that they really had reached a dead end. Ironically the dead end could have been the small pond here he couldn't help but think about the slimes but they had luckily taken care of them. The brief thought of where they came from passed through his thoughts but they just shrugging it off as if he shouldn't care Teyo looked into the water. He could see small sphere like balls in the bottom of the lake as well as one large sphere. He thought back and immediately noticed how it must have been something left behind by the slimes. They had a blue hue to the except the large one was purple. He decided to submerge himself an grab them.

After a few trips back and forth underneath Teyo held 8 small white ping pong size balls and another that was very large and approximately the size of a small coconut. While in D.I the blue color was nice and solid and the purple had a very deep luster. Inspecting them closely he could see through them very faintly and with a good shake he could feel a liquid inside. Teyo was conflicted. Wondering if he should eat them he decided against it. Partly because he gave one a lick and it was probably one of the most bitter things he had ever tasted. He simply put them into his box but couldn't find room for the large one. He just put it in his shirt as a way to not have to hold it outright but it was surely to be noticed if he met up with the party members again..

Teyo began to walk the path around the small pond and gathered more moss and mushrooms but after awhile he began to feel better and then realized his passive Full Stomach must have activated because his health had gone up to 12. Near full health he felt much better and decided it was time to get a move on. Looking at the wall Teyo grew puzzled. How could he scale a sheer almost 15 foot wall without any items to assist.

He could only think of one thing.. Rope. Rope was the only way and even still he needed to have it gapple onto something with a hook of some sorts. The only problem was he didn't have any. And his Dark vision was soon to end. With three minutes remaining Teyo began to frantically search for spiders. Quickly he ended finding some between the stalactites as well as some web which he also gathered because of their blue hue.

After consuming another large portion of salad he extended his timer by ten minutes. Full the the brim he could feel the slosh in his stomach. Then the idea came to fruition. " What's gonna be a better rope. Bat wings or Bat guts? Guess we'll find out." Teyo held his pan in one hand and his knife in the other. And ran into the darkness determined to make his way to the checkpoint.

The further back he traveled the more he realized that they had missed. By taking the straightest route with the torches and not treading over any stone spired areas the group simply went with the flow. Teyo half believed it was almost luck that led them to were they ended up in the first place but then dismissed the thought, it is level one after all. Heading back through though he had found different paths some littered in faint blue tinged dirt in his D.I but upon closer inspection the ground was covered in bat dung. Not wanting to spoil his nor ingest poop he didn't bother to grab any, however he smashed and took every spider he could find. After jogging for awhile and after another round of salad Teyo eventually found his way all the way back at the entrance. Through different routes it seemed as if there were faster ways through but most noticeably the path they had take was likely the simple but longest route. Twenty minutes versus a couple hours, being able to see certainly helped a lot. Also very noticeably he hadn't encountered and bats or other beasts.

Part of Teyo tossed around the idea that perhaps the path of least resistance wasn't the path that was the simple choice. Maybe the game was designed in that fashion that ease held it's on truths and what was viewed as difficulty may hide falsehoods. Simply put Teyo concluded that fear was the detrimental view and that both had their respective boons. Alone on one path fighting the consistent threats of bats versus alone on a more specific path with less conflicts if any, one could see who may live easily, while the other hardship may barely live but prosper. Preparedness. Teyo vowed to keep that in mind. Something like being prepared instantly shook him to him core.

" Be prepared to resolve your fears in the unknown, overcome, adapt... spider salad" Teyo tapped his box like it held a treasure beyond the enlightenment he found.

Back at the entrance and able to see he looked around and pondered before him lay three paths. One he had taken to get back here. Another they took to get further, but in the darkness and to the left behind a thin wall of stalagmites he could see a path that went in a different direction. Knowing that heading back the path they originally went on he could likely find the carcasses of a handful of bats. However Teyo chose the new route. Stepping over and shimmying through a few tight squeezes he ended up in a narrow path that led to a completely new area of the cave. Very soon down the path he met a wall with an entrance and a narrow passage that seemed naturally built into the stone that went down and winded where he could no longer see.

Teyo gripping his weapon's said as he stepped forward. "Let's do this"