Chapter 209: Chicken-Meatball Flavored
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
With sandstorms and stone pillars everywhere, this was the home of the earth elementals. However, based on the fundamental countering between the elements, wherever there was an excess of the earth element, there would naturally be less of the water element. Not only were sources of water priceless, but this place also lacked any traces of ice or water magic.
Using water or ice element magic in this Earth Elemental Plane with imbalanced elements was no different from forcibly trying to cause artificial rain to fall in a desert. Not only would the difficulty be greatly magnified, but its might would also significantly decrease, and this power drop had nothing to do with personal strength. The stronger the mage, the more one would need to borrow power from nature, and the strongest forbidden curses were nothing more than the products of synchronizations between people and nature. This all meant that ice and water mages were weakened more than anyone else here.
This was also why most of the mages in Karo City were earth mages. In such an environment, their cultivation would be far easier, and their actual power levels would be greatly increased.
As for the strange concept of training in harsh environments and placing large burdens on yourself while training, this was more suitable for muscular warriors. Magic was an academic technique which required precision and logic, where a kingdom could be lost for want of a nail. Getting used to an environment where the mage’s element was rare would not only not be beneficial, it would actually cause the mage’s elemental power to weaken due to a long period of cultivation in an area lacking the mage’s element.
If everyone could simply transform into powerful Legends simply by living in areas of low magical power rather than moving to areas of high magical power—well, that would be more suitable for some tale’s heroic main character. If it was possible in real life, then wouldn’t everyone turn into superheroes and all acolytes turn into archmages with the coming of the Elemental Tide?
Yet, sometimes, the world was simply illogical. In this Earth Elemental Plane where ice, snow, rain, and water were almost nonexistent, there was currently a patch of abnormally frozen corpses.
It was a group of vicious and sly Burrowing Mantle Spiders. They typically lived underground for long periods of time and excelled in hunting prey with ambushes and traps. When walking by, innocent people and even magical beasts would be bitten on the legs and dragged underground, where the spider’s sixteen sharp stone fangs would rip them apart.
However, these dangerous existences were all lying dead on the ground, with only minuscule wounds to be seen on their bodies. What killed them was the fatal icy chill that had entered their wounds.
And, right now, I was rather annoyed; not because of the enemy creatures before me, but rather…
“Urgh! How disgusting.”
I had made a temporary barbeque rack and had just taken a hunk of mantle spider leg.
After heating it up and skinning it, there was actually some snow-white meat underneath all the thick layers of earthen spider shell. However, cooking it produced only a disgusting aroma of lime powder.
“Ptui! Ptui! Ptui! I failed again.”
Even though I said so, I still furrowed my eyebrows and continued chewing.
[You have now tasted your 64th abnormal delicacy. You still lack 36 more to go for your ‘Food God—Nothing is Off-Limits’ achievement. You also lack 9,936 more to go for the ‘He Who Stands at the Top of the Food Chain’ achievement. However, since this creature has sixteen feet, it doesn’t count for your ‘We Eat Everything with Four Legs Except Tables and Chairs’ achievement. And since this creature’s taste doesn’t quite reach even half of the legendary ‘Taste the Sky’ achievement, it will not count for that one, either. Please keep trying harder.]
“Sigh, this achievement seems so difficult to achieve; I have to find something with four legs that tastes even more disgusting… Ptui! Am I stupid? I don’t want to get that damned achievement.”
Yep, I never had any type of abnormal collection habits; I understood that my system’s achievements had always made suffer since long ago. Either the achievements would indeed be useful and the process of obtaining it be ridiculous, or I would receive one without even realizing it but there would be painful side effects. At any rate, the system wouldn’t be happy unless I was suffering.
I’ve already checked all these achievements and requirements for obtaining them. I was rather interested in the one called ‘He Who Stands at the Top of the Food Chain.’
[Epic Achievement: ‘He Who Stands at the Top of the Food Chain.’ After consuming 10,000 living or nonliving foods that no normal person would eat, you shall receive the honorable title of ‘Bear Grylls, Devourer of the Void.’ Equipping this will cause you to seem more threatening to all living creatures, and it will give you the ability ‘Bear Grylls Glare.’ Any targets under this effect will feel as if they have met their mortal enemy or natural counter and will be unable to move for a short while. A friendly reminder from your System: this skill has a special effect on Beifeng. Another friendly reminder from your system: that’s right, I have long since stopped treating Beifeng as human.]
Well, I understood what the System meant when it said Beifeng was unhuman. As for this additional skill, it was a practical one. After all, combat between high-level warriors could be decided in just an instant. Being able to paralyze the enemy with just a stare and immobilize him was just like the petrifying gaze of a medusa; it would be an incomparably useful skill.
Yet, from another standpoint, the better the ability, the more ridiculous the requirements to achieve it.
Just how long was it supposed to take me to eat 10,000 food objects? Not to mention that they had to be food that no normal person would think of eating. It was basically a marathon straight to hell, and I normally wouldn’t even consider it. I ate 64 abnormal creatures in the short space of a month for only one reason—hunger.
All the rations I had originally taken to the Earth Elemental Plane had already perished during my continuous battles. These strange earth elemental creatures were always sizable and had large area-of-effect attacks, such as a huge jaw appearing out of nowhere and engulfing you, which would attack my entire body. My skin was tough and it wasn’t a problem, but it wasn’t the same for my clothing. If it weren’t for the fact that I could replenish additional clothing at Karo, perhaps I would be able to complete another achievement for my System regarding the number of times I ran around naked…
Even so, if it weren’t for Erebella’s ice armor protecting my body, I would probably end up naked most of the time. However, even if I saved face, there was nothing I could do about my hunger. After all, it would be too inefficient to go back to Karo every few kilometers, so I could only imitate Bear Grylls and eat whatever I found, grinding my achievement along the way.
Well, the ‘Hungry Enough to Eat Literally Anything’ achievement was actually surprisingly useful. After equipping it, it doubled my stomach’s capacity as well as increased my resistance against poisonous and disgusting foods, which was the only reason I could even tolerate eating all these disgusting things.
“Wahh! This tastes like both wax and limestone; it’s so horrible… Something so disgusting isn’t even at half the level of ‘Taste the Sky?’ Just how horrible is British cooking supposed to be!?”
[I can tell you quite clearly that it’s still quite far off. If you’re willing to spend 100 Fate Points, I can exchange it for an original flavored ‘Taste the Sky’ for you to try. It’s definitely delicious!]
“Never! I refuse to believe you. I still remember the last time.”
Suffering once was already enough. If I was dumb enough to make the same mistake twice, then I would truly be a fool.
The last time I thought about exchanging for food through my system, the result was that even though those fried noodles seemed oh so delicious on the surface, the moment I ate it I ended up fainting. When I woke up, I discovered that all sections of my achievement progress had increased by one, which probably meant that my soul had gone on vacation to the River Styx for an entire day.
“I’m going to have to depend on myself. That thing over there seems to resemble a lizard, so it’s probably edible! Big lizard, wait for me!”
Three days later, a Legend-ranked sand dragon’s heart was put up for sale in Karo’s market. These underground SemiDragons had astonishing power, as not only were they extremely quick at burrowing into the ground, but they were also skilled at summoning sandstorms and were incredibly difficult to deal with. In just an instant, that sand dragon’s heart sold for an incredibly high price, but I had only one review for it.
“So crispy! Tastes like chicken! I’m going to go find another dozen!”
…
For me to choose to cultivate in the Earth Elemental Plane, it would doubtlessly be the most foolish decision possible if I had been a pure ice mage. However, for me, who had the System, increasing my power level was never going to be a problem. The critical part was to develop a personal path that was the most suitable for me.
Purposefully absorbing a large amount of earth element into my body would be nothing but slow suicide for any other ice or water element mage. However, it was just a grand gamble for me; a critically important gamble that would influence my future development.
“Create, Ice Mountain Sword!”
“Recreate, Wall of Eternal Ice!”