Chapter 59: Stags, Sap, and Meditation

As he stepped through the thick, overgrown parts of these dense woods, the Imp managed to pick up a few different useful plants, flowers and herbs that he read about in the book and could somehow immediately recognize the moment that he saw them now.

Eiro placed all of them into his bag, although that meant that it was already pretty full... He was pretty sure he was supposed to get some meat, however, so the young Demon wasn't sure if this really was fine.

It was just that he didn't know how exactly he was supposed to find, and then kill, different animals that could be eaten. Sure, he did see a bunch of small critters running around, but they were far too agile and fast for the Imp. He still had his stat points that he didn't assign yet, but Eiro wasn't entirely sure which stat they were supposed to go into right now, because he simply didn't know which he needed the most. And it wasn't like he could revert that choice either.

He already lost his hand, he didn't want to make another big mistake like that, meaning that he had to properly think about what he was doing.

Just as Eiro was thinking that, he suddenly heard a sound. It was just a branch cracking, but it was enough to show him that there was something around here. Slowly, the Imp turned around and tried to find the source of that sound, before finding it in the form of a Stag with antlers on only one side of its head.

And it was staring right at Eiro with its beady black eyes. But while the Imp mentally didn't think that this animal was any trouble and might be a nice enough meal, no matter how much he tried to make them move, his feet were stuck in place out of instincts.

The Imp simply knew that he shouldn't even try to attack this one, or else it wouldn't end well for him. Luckily, the Stag just turned away with disinterest and stepped away with a slight limp, the reason for which the Eiro wasn't aware of right this moment.

Once the Stag was outside of Eiro's visible range, the Demon was able to finally relax his body again as blood rushed to his head and he started to breathe heavily. He hadn't been aware that this was such a serious situation in his mind until just now. Either way, that was a pressure that the Imp didn't expect to feel at that moment.

Just when his attention returned to his surrounding instead of his own body, Eiro managed to find another sound that he much rather wanted to pay attention to than that Stag just now. The sounds of a few rabbits jumping around near him.

And so, Eiro swiftly started rushing into that direction, as quietly as he could, before he finally found a couple of small rabbits huddled up around a tree's exposed root together. To the Imp's surprise, no matter what he did, he was able to grab one of the rabbits without any issue, and... The others just stayed there, still chewing on the root. Eiro was pretty confused about that, but for now just quickly pushed his dagger through this rabbit's neck to kill it, and did the same with the other rabbits. This was surprisingly easy, really. Just because of that root they were eating.

When Eiro took a closer look, he saw a red-brown, think liquid dripping out from that root, and out of curiousity, the Imp put his finger to it and chose to taste the contents. And it was... Just delicious! It really was!

Without hesiation, the Imp continued to cover his fingers in the sap and then licked it off of them, before choosing to just cut a whole chunk off of the root and chew on it on his way back to the hut. He had a bunch of meat in the form of these rabbits now as well as a lot of plantstuff to eat, on top of this really delicious root!

It just tasted so great, he couldn't resist trying to eat it!

Just like that, the Imp swiftly made his way through the forest back toward the hut at the top of the hill that he could already see, with a great mood! He didn't know why he was so happy right now, but he couldn't help himself but be really excited!

Although, that all stopped when Eiro stepped into the door of the hut and was pulled over to a chair by Jura while Nelli practically dove into his throat. He wasn't aware of what exactly was going on, but soon, the bright colors that had been moving around all over the place and the dulled sounds returned to normal, and the Imp managed to hear what everyone was saying again.

"You Imbecile!" Jura exclaimed, while Nelli was placing the sap that she pulled back out of the Imp's body just now into a jar, while Eiro was just looking around confused.

"What happened?" He asked, his head feeling just so slightly hazy right now, before Jura sighed deep in response.

"You just ate Poisonous Sap. You can be happy you're not a person, otherwise this would have killed you right away." The old man explained, and Eiro looked back confused. "Hm? I would have... died? But these rabbits ate it without issue..." He pointed out, letting Jura just nod his head.

"It's only poisonous to people, somehow. Animals and Monsters get ecstatic when eating it, but even they will suffer under a lot of pain when the effect is gone. Luckily, we can still eat these, the poisonous mana can't be carried over like that." Jura said, pointing at the rabbits that Eiro was holding by the ears and then stepped over toward the jar with sap.

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"This is quite a nice ingredient, however..." He muttered and swiftly sniffed the thick liquid, before twisting his face in disgust. "Smells like Imp-stomach..."

"Sorry..." The Imp said quietly, before standing back up from the chair to bring the rabbits over toward the 'Kitchen' area where Rudy was standing, waiting patiently to get started on cooking again. Jura sat down in a chair in the corner, however, and started inspecting the sap some more, while the other children were just taking care of and playing with Leon and the Priestess.

"C-Can you help me here?" Rudy asked Eiro nervously, and the demon slowly nodded his head in response. "Okay." He said, just waiting for the boy's instructions, before Rudy pointed at one of the rabbits.

"Can you skin that?" Rudy inquired nervously, considering the state of Eiro's hand, but the Imp just nodded his head and grabbed the rabbit by the throat and turned around to look at Jura. "Where can we put the blood?" Eiro asked the old man, remembering that it was sometimes important to just get rid of a lot of the blood first if you didn't want to take a mess, and the old man stood up with a sigh and walked over to the corner of the room grumbling, grabbing a small wooden bucket.

"Here." Jura said and placed it down in front of the Imp, who slowly nodded his head. "Thank you." He said in a clear voice, and then made use of his 'Butchering' skill, cutting through the throat of the first rabbit before pulling the wound open a bit more as he held it above the bucket, letting the blood just drip out into it.

Taking the time while the rabbit was being bled, Rudy started chopping up a few different herbs and vegetables as the cook-book instructed him to, using a small stool to reach the counter while Eiro was kneeling on the ground for now.

When not all that much more blood was dripping out of the rabbit, Eiro stood back up and placed it down on the counter, also making use of a chair to reach the counter. He wasn't that tall either, after all.

And so, the Imp started to properly butcher this rabbit, running his knife underneath the skin of the rabbit, removing it a patch at a time, something that he could probably do a lot better if he practiced this some more, but for now, this was all that he could do.

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After that, Eiro just cut the rabbit's meat off like Rudy told him to and placed the bones to the side. Rudy said he wanted to use them for 'Broth' as well, so the Imp figured it was fine. It seemed like what the young boy was trying to make would make use of nearly every part of the Rabbit, even the innards, so the only thing that the Imp now needed to dispose of was the skin and blood, and swiftly left the hut to do just that, just disposing everything where Jura told him to, and then he returned back inside, before the old man spoke to him again.

"Now then... Do you think you managed to connect with the seed already?" Jura asked, but Eiro just slowly shook his head. He still didn't understand what 'connect' meant, so maybe he already did and just didn't notice, even though that seemed slightly unlikely.

"Then go back out there and try to do that. From now on, you're only allowed inside here at night while you're sleeping and otherwise when you're eating. The rest of the time, you will spend inside of the forest to try and find a way to connect with that seed." In a rather commanding tone, that's what Jura said, and once more, he said something else that the Imp wasn't really all that happy with.

"And never make use of your cards, not even once, understood?" The old man asked, making the Imp just stare at him with an annoyed frown.

Just like that, the Imp stepped back out of the house as he was told, back into the hot sun above. What exactly was he supposed to do? Should he just go into the forest like this and sit down somewhere? He did read in that one book about magic that 'Meditation' is supposed to help you 'refine' your mana and 'find yourself', or even 'connect with your surroundings'. Especailly the third of those things was something that the Imp wanted to achieve.

While walking through the forest to find a suitable, quiet place, Eiro tried to remember what that book said about meditation exactly, and how he was supposed to do it.

"Peace of mind... stillness... undisturbed..." The young Demon muttered quietly as he looked around, as these words especially stuck out to him. And then, Eiro found a place that seemed to allow him to enter such a state.

It was in the middle of the river, a small bank with some grass and flowers, as well as the stump of a tree. The rest of that tree seemed to have conveniently fallen down to the side to create something like a bridge that the Imp could cross pretty easily, before sitting down on the stump.

This seemed like a place that not necessarily many people might come by, and the few animals that were around simply lived their own lives. The flowing water around the Imp somehow calmed him down, so this seemed like a good place to start.

And so, with the bright sun shining down at him on this hot day, the Imp slowly closed his eyes.

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