Chapter 79: Hidden Danger
The tubers were nearly ready, but everything else was harvested. While grinding the dried leaves against the stone, Tera realised she needed containers to hold the herbs. They had used the silk leaves to serve as makeshift bowls and plates, but Tera would need something sturdier.
She decided she would have to teach the clan how to make pots and bowls out of clay and mud, along with using dried twigs and leaves to weave baskets.
It saddened Tera, though, that there wasn’t straw. It would have made things very convenient.
With the system’s help, Tera had spent a whole day analysing the properties of each herb. Some were purely culinary, good for seasoning meat and making broths less bland. Others had medicinal properties, and the system helped her organise this, which she taught to the rest of the clan.
She also started experimenting with the slow-smoking method the system had recommended for the excess meat. It required patience and low heat maintained over several days, along with constant monitoring to prevent the meat from either burning or rotting.
It was tedious, repetitive work that none of the beast folk found exciting.
But when the first batch of smoked meat came out, tender and preserved and still edible days later without spoiling, even the most sceptical males had stared at it with something close to reverence.
"How?" one of them whispered, poking the meat as if expecting it to disintegrate.
"Now we can keep this!" Tera just smiled.
It had been peaceful lately, and Tera was starting to feel like things were falling into place.
The shelters were going up steadily. The farm was producing and would give them tubers they could actually store, cook and eat. The animal pen was growing. The smoking rack was preserving their excess meat from days ago. Her body was getting stronger from the daily exercises, and her belly, while barely showing, carried two lives she was quietly starting to look forward to meeting.
One evening, after the clan had settled and the fires were burning low, Tera sat at the edge of the settlement and looked out over the horizon and scanty forests in the distance below.
She thought about how far they had come. The patches of dry, scanty land they had crossed to get here. The flooded holes they had crawled out of. The crumbling hillside shelter that had barely held through the second storm.
Now they had found this place. This land was healthy, the soil was fertile, and there was a large body of drinking water.
The forest also provided materials and food.
But something still nagged at her.
’System.’
[Yes, Host?]
’When we first arrived here, you said the danger rating was medium. What exactly is the danger?’
The screen flickered.
[The danger rating was based on several factors]
[Wildlife, terrain, climate, and... other considerations]
’Other considerations? Like what? Talk already. What aren’t you telling me?’
[...]
[There are corrupted monsters in this region]
Tera went still.
’OMG. What is wrong with you?!’
[૮₍˶Ó﹏Ò ˶₎ა]
’AND YOU DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING!’
Tera’s heart was beating faster now. She activated the scan feature, watching as the blue light swept outward across the settlement and into the forest. The scan reached its limit without detecting anything unusual.
[There is nothing in the vicinity. This system’s scans would have detected them if they were nearby]
’But they fucking exist!’
Tera wanted to scream.
[Host’s immediate surroundings are safe]
’This does not mean it would be safe forever!’
Tera was already wondering why she even came here. She looked at the shelters, realising how the flimsy leaves would barely be able to offer any protection.
’Shit!’
[Host, they are rare in this region, but not absent. The nearest detected signatures are distant—]
’How distant is distant?!’
[Far enough that they pose no immediate threat to the clan]
[But close enough that hunting parties who range too far could encounter them]
’Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?!’
[This system assessed the risk as manageable given the clan’s current range of activity]
[(◞‸◟)]
[This system did not wish to add to Host’s stress during an already difficult period]
Tera stared at the forest’s edge. She didn’t even have a proper idea of what those things looked like, but the trees that had looked soothing now appeared threatening.
Those monsters were in there.
[Host, there are not many corrupted monsters anymore]
[This system cannot reveal confidential information]
[But this system knows for sure that there are less than 200 corrupted beasts in total all over this world]
[And Host is surrounded by capable beast males, some who have even killed corrupted monsters before]
[The clan is safe]
[(っ╥﹏╥ς)]
[Please don’t scold system]
Tera’s body was shaking. She still had the urge to yell at the system and berate it for keeping something so important from her, but she controlled herself.
The tension did not leave her shoulders even as she steadied her breath.
Another concern crept into her mind. Even if those things never came here, Xavi’s hunting parties sometimes went longer distances to find animals, especially now that she had told them to capture some alive.
Now she worried for her mates.
Not wasting time, or even bothering to cook up an excuse, Tera went to find Xavi and Ermin, pulling them aside and voicing her concerns, bringing up an excuse about how she had dreamt of the corrupted monsters living somewhere deep in the forests.
To her surprise, Xavi had been aware of the possibility of this, and he didn’t seem exactly fazed by it, claiming encountering such monsters was not a new thing.
But as he looked at the deep worry in Tera’s face, he couldn’t help but feel her concern too.
Tera made him promise that they would not go too far into the woods just to look for food. They already had a substantial amount here, and it would be better if all the hunters stayed together rather than spread out.
It had taken multiple words of assurance from the two mates before they could quell Tera’s fear to a degree, and it saddened them to see Tera like this.
Xavi and Ermin pulled Tera to lie down and rest, and she promptly fell asleep shortly after.
Meanwhile, several miles away, a group of beasts were dealing with a completely different issue.