Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 214 - 68: The Treasure Hunt Begins_1

Chapter 214: Chapter 68: The Treasure Hunt Begins_1

(263...084...458... Book Club, feel free to join the group. PS thanks to those passing by, please collect and recommend. Your support is my biggest motivation. Additionally, could you please give me some feedback? Thanks! PS2: The title has changed. Please refer to the related works for details.)

"Ahh, that was such a good sleep," Lina crawled out of the tent around noon, stretching languidly and rubbing her eyes, "I haven’t slept in till noon during an adventure in a long time. What’s that smell? It’s so fragrant that it woke me up. Ha-ha, Pannis, you’re cooking lunch? Fantastic. Eh, Vivian, you’re actually up? Did you eat something disagreeable? You were the one on night watch last night, how could you possibly get up this early?"

"No chitchat." Catherine was helping around the large pot on the campfire. Hearing the sound, she turned her head and said, "You’re finally up. Come and help me stir. I need to prepare things for our exploration in the afternoon. You stay with Vivian and Elrad in camp and rest this afternoon. Vivian, you hardly slept last night because of your watch. No more writing in that shabby notebook of yours after you eat. Go to sleep quickly. And you, Pannis, you’re useless. You woke up the earliest this morning. You saw her not going to bed and you didn’t even say anything, let her run around like that. Can you imagine what would happen if..."

"Ahhhhh!" Lina dashed to Catherine’s side and took the spoon from her, pushing her away: "Big sis, big sis, go prepare your tools quickly. Ensure you don’t get distracted and chatter away, otherwise, we might forget something."

"You guys..." Catherine rubbed her forehead and returned to where the equipment was, still mumbling as she walked: "You all, you make it so hard for me."

"Hee hee." Lina exchanged a glance with Vivian, both girls covered their mouths to stifle a giggle and whispered, "What’s up with big sis, up so early and already so bad-tempered. Is that this the ’morning mood’? How long has she been up?"

"Over an hour," Vivian stealthily glanced at Catherine who had her back towards them: "The moment she woke up, she saw that Pannis had taken over my lookout and I hadn’t gone back to sleep, still sitting here writing things, so she complained. Incidentally, she also blamed Pannis. She has been nagging for more than an hour. Now that you’re up, she may stop. Ha-ha, nagging and grumbling, it’s like she’s a granny. Hello, Grandma Catherine, ha-ha."

"Hey, I can hear you," Catherine’s annoyed voice echoed from a distance: "Don’t you know to speak softer when talking behind people’s back? You two dummies."

"Oh no, Granny’s mad," Vivian closed her notebook. Only then Lina noticed that the notebook in Vivian’s hands was not the one she usually recorded in: "Okay, Pannis, I’ve calculated it and confirmed that your guess was correct. The angles do indeed strictly adhere to the ratio."

"What were you calculating?" Lina looked around, noticing someone missing: "Where’s Elrad?"

"I was calculating the angle between the moon and the ground, the homework Pannis assigned," said Vivian, throwing up her hands, "As for Elrad, he has gone back to his tent. He is a very unsocial person, no need to bother about him. Just call him when it’s mealtime."

"What on earth is an angle?" Lina sneered, vigorously stirring the pot: "Pannis, what’s this in the pot? It’s so fragrant."

"Stewed venison with Fox-tail fruit." Pannis scooped up a spoonful of soup, checked its color, then returned it to the pot: "We also have steamed Cloud Swallow and mixed salads."

"Why such complicate food today?" Lina asked, surprised: "These are all troublesome stuff to make."

"We’re completely free anyway," Pannis yawned: "We’re going to spend seven whole days in this open area. It’s better to find something to do. Otherwise, it’s really boring."

"Alright, alright, wait, what did you say?" Lina suddenly reacted, asking loudly: "Stewing fox-tail fruit? Can you eat that?"

The fox-tail fruit, named so because of its resemblance to a fox’s tail, is a common type of fruit in the forest. The fruit has a hard texture and an intense bitter and astringent flavor, which makes it impossible to use as regular food.

"Actually, fox-tail fruit is highly nutritious and tastes wonderful when properly processed," Pannis said, smiling mysteriously: "In fact, to process it, you just need to boil it with gold-iron alloy products for ten minutes, then boil it again with a large amount of fox-tail fruit tree bark for another ten minutes. Immerse it in vinegar for a further ten minutes after washing it clean. Such treatment can remove the bitterness and harshness of the fruit and also make its texture soft and delicious. It’s a delicacy that’s hard to come by. Even if you lack deer or antelope meat, you can still stew it with other types of meat, or simply stew the fox-tail fruit alone. It’s still edible and will satiate you, though it’s slightly bitter."

"Which race does this secret recipe belong to?" Lina looked at Pannis suspicion creeping into her eyes. She was no longer surprised by Pannis’ vast knowledge of survival in the wild, she asked crookedly: "It sounds like something the Elves do, only they would think to play around with fruit in the forest."

"A correct answer," Pannis gave a thumbs-up: "Those idle folks."

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As professional adventurers, they would always carry various tools for any unexpected situations during their outdoor adventures. With these tools, moving up and down in over a hundred meters deep cave was not an issue at all.

After lunch, they left behind two young girls and a guide at the camp. Pannis and Catherine walked to the edge of the first cave with backpacks on. At the edge, Pannis dug a few pits to test the soil’s strength and, satisfied, took out some iron picks, nailing them into the ground at predetermined points. Catherine followed closely, weaving a man-made weight-bearing knot textbook-style with a long rope among the iron picks. This type of knot, used for thousands of years for outdoor survival, could evenly distribute the descending force of the rope onto each iron pick, providing a solid and reliable anchoring system that rarely saw any issues.

"So, the treasure hunt officially begins now?" With an affirmative answer from Catherine, Pannis tested the structural integrity of the ropes. He didn’t even use his descender harness and instead slid straight down the rope. He pushed off a few times, falling to the bottom of the pit steadily within a matter of seconds. Catherine helplessly shook her head before putting on her safety harness and then lowered herself down to the cave floor. Once there, she noticed Pannis sitting in the middle of the pit, looking up at the sky blankly, as if lost deep in thought.

"Definitely not here," Pannis concluded, shaking his head at Catherine. "The angle isn’t right."

"Do you have a proposal?" Catherine inquired.

"A proposal?" Pannis was taken aback, finding Catherine’s question strange. "What proposal do we need? Naturally, we should move on and check the next pit."

"Who asked you about those insignificant things?" Catherine rolled her eyes. "I mean Vivian’s health."

"Did you just describe treasure hunting as unimportant?" Pannis blinked, visibly surprised. "That’s unexpected."

"It’s not usually." Catherine responded seriously, "but compared to Vivian’s health, it is."

"Ah, you and Lina heard everything last night." Pannis did not rush to answer, sitting at the bottom of the pit.

"Of course, how could we not?" Catherine sighed, "Especially when she volunteered to keep watch, which indicated her vitality is overstretched to a certain level and the headaches are starting again. Lina and I are both concerned, so neither of us were able to sleep at that time."

"Her issue is serious." Discussing the matter in hand, Pannis refrained from joking. "I didn’t expect it to have reached such a critical point."

"That’s why Lina and I are helpless, just watching her getting closer to death day by day." Catherine’s eyes started to turn red, her voice had a slight nasal tinge, her hand tightly gripping a piece of rock, "This sense of powerlessness is the most terrible torment. You know, she often spaces out, and many people think she is mentally abnormal. She explains that it’s because she is thinking about problems, but it’s not that simple—her brain always has to be divided into three parts: thinking, responding to the outside world, and controlling her body. We can just lift a finger with a thought, but she needs to do a lot of calculation and magic control to make such a simple action. It takes loads of her attention. When people think about her magical control ability and her ability to cast spells on the move, they are envious, but Lina and I only want to cry recalling it. You can’t possibly imagine how many times she has fallen, bumped into walls, and trees within the first two years. Her body doesn’t have the protection and buffer of muscles and fat, so, fractures can only be considered..."

"Never mind, don’t talk about this anymore." Catherine suddenly lost interest, wiping away her tears emotionally, she asked hopefully, "I heard you say yesterday you would try hard to find a cure for her, do... do you have any ideas?"

Pannis did not answer immediately. He looked up at the circular sky above, and the pit was silent. The silence persisted, with each passing moment, Catherine’s heart sank a little more. Just when despair was about to take over, Pannis finally sighed deeply, "Actually, there might be a way to cure her, but I dare not guarantee it, I can only say there might be."

"Really?" Catherine practically jumped up, shouting, "There really might be a cure?"

Pannis fell silent one more time. He deliberated for quite a while, struggling internally, ultimately nodding in agreement, "Yes, there might be. Elves, Sea Race, Guardians, from these three races, there might be a potential cure. The Sea Race and Drakes might have a cure due to their profound heritage. Elves might do so because they themselves belong to the Life Deity System, they excel in healing. I promise I’ll try my utmost to look for a cure, but please don’t question me about the specifics."

"I understand." Catherine seemed to have sensed Pannis’s dilemma and figured that further questioning might hit a nerve about his unwillingly recounted past. "Sorry, I was a little flustered, I shouldn’t have pressed you further. But hearing your reassurances, I feel more at ease."

"Don’t have high hopes." Pannis shook his head, "This peculiar disease has never been heard of before, so the likelihood of finding a cure is honestly very low."

"I know, I know." Catherine’s mood significantly improved and a smile returned to her face, "But compared to the previous utter despair, compared to having to watch her die slowly day by day, even the slim hope of recovery is something to cheer for, right? No matter what the result will be, thank you, Pannis."

"Is there a need to thank?" Pannis’s thoughts returned to that first encounter a few months back. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly, speaking to himself in a deep voice, "Sowing the seed myself, reaping the fruit and hope by myself. Perhaps, this is what life is."