“Little Fennia… I’m a bit hungry.”

Amisha suddenly said, leaning in Fennia’s arms.

“Hungry?” Fennia looked around.

“Ah… that reminds me.” Vinny said with a troubled face. “I’m kind of hungry too. I’ve got no idea whether this hellhole even has food humans can eat.”

“There’s a sound of water nearby.” Amisha said, closing her eyes.

“Water? Which direction?” Vinny asked.

After a brief silence, Amisha pointed.

Vinny and Fennia exchanged a look and headed that way together.

Fennia carried Amisha behind him, while Vinny walked in front to clear the way.

Even though there were three of them now, one was a patient, and the other had almost burned through her mana. Only Vinny still had some left.

A Soulcaster’s mana recovered very slowly. Even alchemy potions that restored energy could only speed up recovery a little for a short time—it wasn’t something you drank and instantly refilled your mana so you could keep going.

That was exactly why mana capacity mattered so much.

Guided by Amisha, the three of them found the stream. Dark fish-shadows could be seen in the water.

“I wonder if the fish in here are edible.” Vinny rubbed his head.

But they didn’t have the luxury of worrying. Catch them first—everyone here was starving.

“And we don’t have tools like a fishing rod or a spear.” Fennia said awkwardly. “Without them, fish are slippery. They’re hard to grab.”

Normally, Vinny could’ve used Frostfang as a multipurpose fish spear, but he couldn’t use it right now.

No problem. All he could say was—being strong meant surprise solutions everywhere. No rod, no spear… you could still catch fish with raw stats.

Vinny reached out. A strand of [Congealed-Ice Shackles] shot forward and struck the surface, freezing a small patch like a fish trap. The fish inside got frozen too and couldn’t escape.

Little by little, Vinny dragged the ice trap up onto the bank.

“Fennia, do you have any mana left?” Vinny asked.

He obviously meant: use fire magic to thaw it.

“Not much,” Fennia answered.

“Alright. I’ll do it, then. But I can’t control the heat, okay?” Vinny pulled out [Sixfold Inferno] and stepped back. “You two stand back too.”

After he saw Fennia carry Amisha farther away, Vinny fired into the ice trap.

Boom boom boom! The trap thawed instantly. Several fish got blasted into the air, fell onto the ground, and flopped around.

“These black fish should be edible, right?” Vinny examined them. They were a species he’d never seen, but they weren’t that different from normal fish. Nothing too bizarre.

Yeah, thinking about the scaled fish-monsters that had attacked them earlier did make it feel a bit disgusting… but when you were starving, who cared? If it was edible, it was edible.

Vinny told Fennia to look after Amisha, then went to gather firewood. Not long after, he came back carrying a bundle of dry branches he’d picked up in the jungle. He’d barely set them down when he heard movement behind him.

“Back up,” Vinny called to Fennia.

Fennia knew she had to protect Amisha—the patient with no combat ability—so she carried her back to a safe distance.

Under Vinny’s gaze, several tall bud-head monsters stepped out from the brush and charged at him without hesitation.

“It’s them…” Amisha murmured. Then she said to Fennia, “Little Fennia, don’t mind me—go help him!”

“Don’t worry.” Fennia said. “He’s strong. ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) Way stronger than me. Don’t think he’s some glass bottle that’ll shatter if you touch him.”

Only then did Amisha turn her head and look at Vinny.

“Wow, you’re thoughtful.” Vinny bared his teeth, pulling on a grin that oozed villain energy. “You know we’re short on fuel, so you’re delivering firewood to us personally?”

Of course, the bud-head monsters couldn’t understand a word he said. Relying on their large bodies, they charged straight in.

Vinny flicked out [Congealed-Ice Shackles] with his right hand and yanked himself sideways. The bud-head monsters lunged at empty air. As they tried to turn—

Vinny, now armored in [Armor Fortress], slammed back into one of them head-on.

His enchanted ice armor crashed into the monster in a burst of frost shards. The impact caved its chest inward, snapped both arms, and sent it flying in a high arc before it slammed to the ground.

After dealing with that one, Vinny moved on to the other two.

Both hands went up. From each hand, three strands of [Congealed-Ice Shackles] whipped out—locking and freezing the two monsters’ necks and arms. While sealing their movements, Vinny used the shackles to pull himself toward them.

Facing two monsters that couldn’t move, Vinny simply stepped onto their shoulders and vaulted over them with ease.

“Vinny—watch behind you.”

At that moment, Vinny heard Amisha’s voice.

“These monsters can recover their injuries just by standing on the ground,” Amisha continued, “and they have strong resistance to light and water elements.”

Vinny snapped around.

Sure enough, the bud-head monster whose arms and chest he’d shattered had already regenerated its arms—like a plant rooting and sprouting.

So he couldn’t let them keep their feet on the ground.

He could use a big move—[Frost and Snow Engulfing Flame]—to wipe them out at once. But then the “firewood” they’d delivered would be gone.

And more importantly, after fighting nonstop, he couldn’t afford to keep wasting mana like that.

Vinny released [Congealed-Ice Shackles] again, wrapping the flower monster’s legs from behind. These bud-head monsters resisted light and water, but ice seemed to be their major weakness. Once their legs froze, Vinny effortlessly tore them off.

Behind him, the other two monsters were also deeply frozen by the earlier [Congealed-Ice Shackles]. But their feet were still touching the ground, meaning they could keep drawing nourishment from the earth and regenerate endlessly.

“This is all you’ve got, and you still dared to sneak attack?” Vinny said with an amused tone.

Compared to the alley and coastline scenes earlier, the monsters in this ruin-forest were so weak it was like they belonged to a completely different world.

Still, weak didn’t mean “no gimmicks.” Now Vinny understood why Amisha had struggled so badly against these things.

Amisha likely specialized in light and water. These monsters had high resistance to both, plus self-regeneration. If you didn’t use a high-damage advanced spell to one-shot them, you basically couldn’t kill them.

You could imagine how maddening it was for a Soulcaster skilled only in light and water—dumping mana into them, failing to kill them, then watching them heal right back up.

But with Vinny’s ice magic, he wasn’t going to give them that chance.

Four strands of [Congealed-Ice Shackles] snapped out, and he tore off the other two monsters’ legs as well—like ripping tendons out of flowers.

Once the bud-head monsters lost mobility and could no longer regenerate, Vinny stomped forward.

A cracking groundwave erupted, along with countless chunks of earth, executing all three bud-head monsters around him.

[Annihilating Heavy Stomp]

With their legs torn off by ice, they couldn’t stabilize themselves and couldn’t heal. After they shattered into pieces, all they could do was slowly die on the ground—like flowers whose roots had been cut.

“See?” Fennia said to Amisha. “He’s strong. You don’t need to worry about him.”

“All done.” Vinny piled the bud-head monster corpses together. “Let’s use these guys as the base. They look pretty flammable. Fennia, I’m not good with fire magic—lend me a spark. Just a tiny bit.”

Hearing that, Fennia gently set Amisha down to the side. She closed her eyes, extended her index finger, and murmured. A wisp of flame appeared at her fingertip.

She guided the flame onto the wood, lit it, then tossed the burning branches into the heap of bud-head monster corpses. Flames flared up instantly.

“Fish roast time.” Vinny found sticks, skewered the black-finned fish one by one, and set them beside the fire to cook.

Of course, with no seasoning at all, the taste was going to be… hard to describe.

But at a time like this, who cared? When you were hungry, even plain rice soaked in water tasted good. And you were worried about flavor?

The three of them sat by the fire.

“We still have to solve the water problem,” Vinny said, staring at the stream.

“Vinny…” Amisha raised a small hand. “I learned a support spell called [Water Purification]. You can fill water in a container and give it to me. I’ll purify it.”

“You even learned that?” Vinny said, surprised. “I heard those life-type spells can be learned by anyone once you reach the realm, but they’re extremely hard. People study for ages and still can’t memorize the incantations.”

A person’s energy was limited. Most people wouldn’t spare the effort to learn annoying life spells that didn’t boost combat power.

“And I told you, don’t call me that. We’re classmates. If someone hears you, it’ll look bad,” Vinny frowned.

“No one will hear.” Amisha tilted her head, her soft, tender voice carrying a hint of confusion. “And there aren’t outsiders right now. Little Fennia isn’t an outsider.”

“Even if no one hears, don’t say it.” Vinny sighed helplessly. The Church’s overall attitude toward him was negative, but a few people were different.

Like Amisha and Luna. Amisha met him once and called him kind. Luna had treated him warmly too—she’d even said he was handsome later.

“Okay. I understand.” Amisha nodded.

Vinny filled Amisha’s canteen with water and handed it to her for purification.

Amisha closed her eyes and recited the incantation.

Just hearing that dense, drawn-out chant—so repetitive, with so many overlapping syllables—made Vinny feel his scalp prickle.

It really was absurdly cumbersome. The fact she could memorize all of it was insane.

A clear blue light bloomed. A few soft “ding-dong” sounds of water rang out. Then Amisha handed the canteen back to Vinny.

But after doing that, Amisha had basically no mana left at all.

“Vinny, you’re thirsty. Drink first.”

“Thanks.” Vinny obviously couldn’t put his mouth on it—Amisha had drunk from it. He had to tip it and drink from the stream.

Purification magic couldn’t remove every harmful impurity in water. But it removed most of them.

It turned water from “completely undrinkable” into “drinkable”—at least it wouldn’t make you get sick and dehydrate.

After drinking, Vinny felt more awake. He handed the canteen to Fennia.

Fennia didn’t have those concerns. They were both girls, and she and Amisha were childhood friends anyway—she drank straight from it.

“By the way, Amisha… when you were unconscious, you kept calling for the Saintess?” Fennia asked, setting the canteen down. “Did you… dream of a past Saintess?”

“Yes.” Amisha didn’t hide it. She hugged her staff obediently by the fire and nodded.

“You really met a past Saintess?? Which one? Did she say anything to you?”

Fennia clearly knew that old rumor too, and she asked in shock.

“I don’t know.” Amisha shook her head. “I only saw a blurry back. She had long sakura-white hair and wore a white lotus-silk Saintess dress. That’s why I thought she was a Saintess… not the goddess.”

“Then—did she say anything to you?” Fennia pressed.

Amisha lowered her head slightly, then shook it.

Fennia was startled by that reaction.

If it were someone who didn’t know Amisha well—like Vinny—he’d think Amisha simply hadn’t heard what the Saintess said. But to someone who knew her—like Fennia—this felt like there were words Amisha couldn’t tell her.

…She was probably overthinking it. She and Amisha were the closest childhood friends. They’d grown up together. Aside from parents and family, they trusted each other most. They’d always shared everything. How could Amisha be hiding something?

The smell of roasted fish pulled Fennia’s thoughts back. After fighting for so long, she was exhausted. She grabbed a fish and started eating.

When you were hungry, everything tasted good. That line wasn’t wrong.

“Crunch, crunch!”

For example, Vinny over there with his mouth full of oil—he was so hungry he even chewed the bones into powder and swallowed them too.

Fennia looked at Vinny and sighed.

Every Saintess in history had been an elegant lady with refined smiles and graceful movements. She didn’t want to think this way, but… Vinny was so far from that image.

Right now, Fennia genuinely felt like she was grabbing at straws in a panic.

Amisha was also watching Vinny eat. She took small bites of her fish, silent.

When Vinny was about eighty percent full, he tossed his stick aside, wiped sweat in satisfaction, and let out a breath—only to realize the two girls beside him were both staring at him.

It got awkward fast.

Uh… had he been eating with too little dignity? And there were two girls watching, too.

But even if he tried to “be careful,” the best he could do was go from wolfing it down to… slightly restrained feasting.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep