Why can't humans do it too?

With great effort, Xin Ke was pushed in first, and Su Er followed closely behind, lying down next to her. Below the slightly protruding crevice was a groove extending diagonally. In addition to being crowded, lying down in this environment could trigger claustrophobia. You could even touch the top of the crevice with your nose if you raised your head slightly.

'Like a coffin.'

A thought flashed through Suer's mind: if this could be considered a natural coffin, then wouldn't Xin Ke, lying next to him, look a bit like... something else?

Suer almost laughed, but quickly composed himself.

"Does it remind you of the jokes from your world?" came Xin Ke's voice from the side.

“Ah, I guess so,” Suer answered softly with his eyes closed. “They say that lying directly on an open rock like that can easily cause rheumatism.”

"what is that?"

“One of the diseases that torments humanity is something the forest elves would never understand… Could you give me that robe?” Sull turned his head and asked.

The space was still a bit too cramped, and one of Suer's shoulders was not covered, with some black ash drifting in and settling on it.

Along the way, he changed direction from time to time according to his mood, fearing that the goblins who wanted to avenge their companions would catch up. Suer didn't think that this time there would be any kind-hearted people like him who would suddenly jump out to help them.

Chapter Ninety-Two: Suer's Little Classroom

Silence reigned, with only the occasional whistling of the wind reaching their ears. Even the rocks beneath them seemed to be warmed, but when Suer instinctively reached out to touch them, they remained icy cold.

"...Hasn't it stopped yet?" Xin Ke seemed a little impatient while waiting, and she cracked her neck.

Lying there doing nothing and leaving everything to fate was making this forest elf extremely restless.

“Let’s be a little more patient,” Suer sighed helplessly and replied in a low voice, “This is just a normal black ash descent, not a storm of death. It won’t be over so quickly.”

"Wait a little longer, just a little longer," Suer reassured her once again. "The amount of dust has decreased significantly, and we should be able to move forward again soon."

Normally, such a small amount of black ash should not have caused any problems, but without the protection of the robes, the two of them could not continue to move forward despite the damage caused by the black ash falling on them, even though the destination set by Suer was just ahead.

Over the past few hours, Sul had heard the forest elves next to her complain countless times about wanting to use magic to blow away the dark clouds in the sky, but thankfully it was all just venting.

Using the last available magic on something like this is just too ridiculous.

"Did Mr. Monkey always do this whenever he went out to collect supplies?"

"No, it's still very different."

"Oh? How is it different? Is it the way they hide?"

"We won't talk that much."

"..."

The finger that had been drawing circles on the stone wall above Suer's head, which he had been using to observe out of the corner of his eye, suddenly stopped.

Although he knew that the forest elves next to him were probably holding another grudge against him, Sull could finally wait for the black and gray rain to pass without worrying that their conversation would attract any strange things.

Just as he was about to freeze to death, Suer suddenly realized that the black ash that had accumulated on his exposed shoulders had not increased for a long time—the rain of death falling outside had stopped.

Stiffly crawling out of the crevice, Suer struggled to do squats on the ground, then quickly turned to push-ups, trying to get his blood flowing quickly.

"Shall we continue in that direction?" Xin Ke asked, glancing at Su Er, who was stretching his body, as she sat on the ground and looked at the huge rift in the distance.

"Ah, we can't go straight there. We need to find some food and water first," Sul replied, panting heavily as he moved his cold body. "Although it's already in sight, it's impossible to get there in one go. There's still a long way to go... You races who usually travel by flying probably don't understand this, do you?"

In the end, Suer suddenly stopped, looked up at Xin Ke, and smiled. This is what they mean by "looking at a mountain but running to death."

Without the cover of the robe, he saw Xin Ke's rather revealing clothes once again. Even though they had been lying side by side on the ground for so long, while Su Er's whole body was frozen stiff, it was only slightly cool to this forest elf.

It's impossible not to feel envious.

“Let’s go to that depression over there first. We’re pretty lucky; the terrain here hasn’t been altered by the stray bullets from your battle. If I remember correctly, there are edible things to find down there.” Feeling that he had almost regained his mobility, Suer walked up to Xinke, turned around, and squatted down.

Looking at the two arms swinging backward, Xin Ke's expression was inexplicably strange. This was her second time experiencing the new version, which made her involuntarily quiet down a lot.

There is a cave with an underground river running through it. The source of the river is unknown, but some eyeless fish do live in this river. They are not big, the longest of which is only the length of a finger. The smaller ones are so small that you wouldn't even think of chewing them. They are all dark black and surprisingly easy to catch. When Suer passed through this place on his expedition, he marked this temporary supply point, but it is not suitable for long-term residence.

"Give."

"……This is?"

Looking at the half-dried piece of wood that Suer had moved in front of her, Xin Ke looked up in confusion and asked. Although she had already taken a twig that the man had sharpened at the front from her, she really didn't understand what these things were for.

“You need to do it like this… then like this… and then like this…” Squatting down next to Xinke, Suer patiently guided her to place the tip of the wooden branch into a groove in the dry block of wood. It was a small pit that he had first carved out with a dagger, and some easily flammable sawdust had already been placed inside.

"And then?" Although she had posed according to Suer's instructions, Xin Ke's doubts remained unanswered.

"Then just rub back and forth quickly. If you see smoke coming out, just blow hard into it." Suer gave Xinke a thumbs up for her comprehension and stood up with satisfaction.

“No, I mean… what’s the point of doing all this?” Xin Ke rubbed her temples as if she had a headache.

"Huh? Of course, it's for starting a fire!" Bi Xinke was even more surprised—okay, he was pretending. Su Er was trying hard to suppress his laughter and explained seriously, "This deep part of the cave is a relatively safe place. It has been proven many times that you can start a fire here to prepare some food simply, so don't worry."

“The strength of forest elves must far surpass that of humans, right? That’s amazing,” Sue said with a bright, sunny smile. “If a human tried to start a fire this way, they probably wouldn’t be able to light it even after rubbing it for over an hour, but forest elves would probably be able to do it much faster… You want to eat something hot too, don’t you?”

"?"

Seeing Xin Ke's smile growing increasingly stiff, Su Er suppressed the urge to burst into laughter—if he dared to laugh now, Xin Ke would definitely kill him right now. He had to keep his expression extremely serious and continued, "Anyway, I'll leave this place to you for now. These little fish probably aren't enough for us to eat. I need to find some other things."

Picking up his dagger again, he noticed that the rather long journey had left the ordinary dagger with many uneven nicks along its edges, but it could still perform its most basic function.

He wasn't lying to Xinke; he really needed to find more food to replenish their energy. He hoped that when he returned, he would see a campfire burning in the cave, enough to warm their bodies.

As for the process in between... let's leave that to the Forest Elf alone.

Chapter Ninety-Three Discomfort

Do you know the difference between humans and monkeys?

Sparks flew from the crackling campfire, landing on Suer's hands without making him change his posture. They weren't hot or painful. Without waiting for Xinke's reply, he continued speaking in a deep and seductive tone.

“That means knowing how to use tools…and of all the tools, the most important is fire,” Suer said in a low voice, gently turning the food on the campfire. “At first, we just used the flames burning on trees struck by lightning, but eventually we learned to create our own fire using tools…”

At this point, Suer's gaze involuntarily drifted to Xinke's palms—before looking away as they clenched into fists.

"Whether we like it or not, survival always urges humanity forward. We pack our bags, set off, trek, settle down, and wherever we stop, a fire will be lit..."

"Are all monkeys as talkative as you?" Xin Ke interrupted Su Er with a forced smile, cleverly using a quote someone had once said.

"Isn't it strange? It's always quiet when you're alone, but it gets noisy when there's another person, and then it becomes quiet again when there are a few more people," Su'er said, ignoring Xin Ke's words, and handed the grilled fish to Xin Ke. "Here, taste the original flavor of the ingredients."

Actually, it just lacked seasoning; there wasn't even salt.

“No, I want to eat something else,” Xin Ke unexpectedly refused, her gaze falling on a string of small, cube-like pieces of meat that Su Er had stuck on the side of the campfire.

"...Are you sure?" Su'er's expression suddenly turned strange. "I personally suggest you eat fish...for both you and me."

"Heh, so there really is some secret hidden here?" With a sneer, Xin Ke suddenly leaned over and took a skewer of meat from next to Su Er.

"..."

Unable to find fault with the forest elf's sudden outburst, Sue simply sat further away from her, to prevent any potential misplacement of anger—or rather, any impending misplacement.

She regretted it as soon as she put it in her mouth. Before, she could only smell a slightly pungent smell, but in her mouth, the smell was amplified infinitely, as if she had swallowed a stink bug. The strange oily smell was even somewhat like... Xin Ke's chewing movements became slower and slower, and her face turned ashen in the blink of an eye. She wanted to hold it in, but she really couldn't help it—vomit!

He turned his head and vomited on the other side.

"What the hell is this?!" Enraged, Xin Ke turned her head and glared at Su Er, her murderous gaze flashing red.

"So I told you to eat fish," Su'er complained weakly, glancing regretfully at the pieces of meat Xin Ke had spat out... No, even he wouldn't eat someone else's spit-out food, so don't get the wrong idea.

Turning his gaze away, Su'er saw that Xin Ke still showed no sign of relaxing, persisting until he heard an answer. After a moment's thought, Su'er said frankly, "It's just rat meat. To prevent you from having any bad associations, I even cut the meat this way. I didn't expect you to insist..."

vomit!

Before Suer could finish speaking, Xinke started gagging again, but fortunately, her stomach was empty and she couldn't vomit anything.

Seeing Xinke still patting her chest and occasionally gagging softly, Suer didn't say anything more, just shrugged helplessly—he didn't mean to mock Xinke's reaction.

In fact, he was no better off than the forest elves when he first ate this food, but he swallowed all the meat because of his hunger. Now he can eat these uniquely flavored pieces of meat as if it were normal.

Even during this war that lasted for countless years, these rodents survived without any signs of extinction.

Stopping thinking about his previous disheveled state, Suer picked up the thoroughly cooked meat skewers and, to be considerate of Xinke's feelings, turned his back and sat further away.

I don’t know if it was because of the rat meat, but the meal was very quiet, except for the occasional sound of someone gagging.

“…Please rinse your mouth,” Xin Ke said, even using the word “please” respectfully, pointing to the dark river on the other side, as if she would rather be shot dead by the goblins here if Su Er refused this request.

"Okay, okay, actually rinsing my mouth isn't very helpful, there's no toothpaste or salt or anything... Ouch!" Su'er's mutterings were interrupted by the small stone that Xin Ke threw hard at his head.

Grinning and rubbing his head, Su Er still rinsed his mouth with the water from the dark river.

"Speaking of which, did you use magic?" After putting Xinke back on his back, and with some warm food filling his stomach again, Suer felt his legs were stronger. He casually asked, "I deliberately changed directions several times but still ran into you... Are you sure you would run into me? You weren't even surprised when you saw me."

"Why be surprised?" Xin Ke countered. "Heh, compared to when we first met, Mr. Monkey seems like a completely different person now. Has he found his true self again?"

“…I guess so?” As he walked forward, Suer sighed. “After all, only you and Okan know that I’m from another world. If we can talk happily, who would want to be bitter and resentful all the time?”

Suer chuckled self-deprecatingly: "From this perspective, I was actually the most abnormal person over the past few years... Who can really say for sure about such things?"

He has simply been freed from certain constraints at this moment.

"is it?"

"Yes."

Although there was no sun, the weather was still fortunately clear. Infected by the atmosphere of this land, Suer and Xinke also fell silent. In this monotonous and tedious walking, they finally arrived at the huge fissure that tore this land apart.

From the crevice beneath our feet to the farthest point of our vision, this fissure, clearly not formed by natural continental plate movement, seems to extend infinitely. Its name is—the Strait.

This is how Riku taught Sur.

No matter how many times he looked down from above, Sull was always terrified by the spectacular sight that seemed to stretch to the horizon.

"This shouldn't be a naturally formed landform, right?" Suer asked Xinke behind him, feigning ignorance. "Does the Nierbalian family have any records of this?"

Chapter Ninety-Four: Awareness

“That was before I was even born…the text that is only preserved in the history of our tribe,” Xin Ke said, seemingly equally shocked by this power. She lay on Su Er’s back and looked down. “About 15,000 years ago, the God of War Artesius and the final dragon Hatirem fought here. The strongest god and the strongest dragon spirit.”