Universe Infinite Canteen

Yun Que felt something was amiss when she saw the Hellhound throwing all her clothes aside, so she spoke up, "A'Quan, aren't you going to keep a piece or two?"

"Why should I keep any? Don't you find it uncomfortable to have wet clothes sticking to your body?" The Hellhound sat down cross-legged in front of the campfire.

"That's true." Yun Que glanced at her own coat, considering taking it off herself, then she called out to the Bliss Bird on the other side, "Bliss, A'Quan has a point; let's take ours off too and dry them quicker by the fire."

"Are you an idiot?" The red-haired girl didn't look up, rotating the stick to turn her socks over, "Even if you roast yourselves dry, you'll still have to put the wet clothes back on."

"Ah, is that so? What should we do then?" Yun Que was visibly troubled, "But if we hang all the clothes over the fire, there won't be any place for us to warm ourselves."

"Then we should just wear them and dry off together." Bliss Bird suggested.

"Makes sense!" Yun Que had an epiphany, stopped undressing, and willingly turned herself into a human clothes hanger. Meanwhile, the Hellhound, cozily warmed by the bonfire, was too lazy to move.

Not until Ma Lu picked up her clothes, "You should put them back on."

"I don't want to!" The Hellhound rolled over, sprawling out on the grass.

"You never get embarrassed, do you?"

Ma Lu ignored her refusal and still threw her pilot's jacket over to her.

However, it was kicked away by the Hellhound, who then let out a string of triumphant laughter, as if she had just won a game.

"Hahaha! When I'm outside, I'm the one calling the shots."

"It's Sir Knight who calls the shots." Yun Que quietly corrected her.

"Hmph, I admit he knows his way around commanding a battle, but I won't listen to him for anything beyond that."

Seeing Ma Lu appear somewhat helpless, Bliss Bird, the only one who seemed like a normal person among the three, spoke up.

"You've misunderstood; Sir Knight probably said so just because he didn't want to take advantage of you, although he couldn't help taking several glances just now out of biological instinct. He looked when I was taking off my socks too, but... obviously in the end, his reason prevailed over his impulses."

"Uh... Thanks for the first part of that explanation, Bliss Bird, the rest didn't need to be pointed out specifically." Ma Lu's voice came through the armor.

"Take advantage of me, how would he do that?" Hellhound was curious, waving her red short blade around with a grin, "No one can take advantage of me!"

"Being seen like this is being taken advantage of."

"Ah, why is that?"

"There's no why, it's just a rule established by human society."

"How can there be such a ridiculous rule?" The Hellhound scoffed, "In nature, those beautiful animals naturally attract more attention, and they never hesitate to show off their beauty. If you ask me, the more you're looked at, the happier you should feel! Doesn't that prove my excellence?"

Feeling triumphant again by the end of her explanation, she stuck out her chest. Explore stories at empire

Bliss Bird seemed unsurprised by the Hellhound's answer; she turned to look at Ma Lu beside her.

"I tried my best, as you can see, Hellhound's understanding of gender is different from that of ordinary people."

After a pause, she added, "No, it should be said that the understanding of gender among most witches is different from that of ordinary people because there are no men in the school. We won't see any men until after we graduate."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Hmm?"

"The Church wants us to focus solely on honing our martial arts without distractions, growing into the finest weapons in the hands of knights," Bliss Bird said indifferently. "Therefore, they don't teach us anything about the opposite sex."

"Then why do you know so much."

"Because I can read. Although the books that are openly available in school have been filtered by the Church, after all, we live in Holy Temple City. The Church isn't omnipotent. If you think hard enough, you can still get hold of some stuff from the outside."

"Okay."

After listening to Bliss Bird, Ma Lu gave up on insisting that the Hellhound immediately get dressed and decided to go with her.

Everyone rested for about half an hour, and apart from the purple-haired girl, everyone's clothes were dry. Ma Lu glanced at the time on the Traveler's Bracelet.

In about another hour, they will have to set off back to Holy Temple City.

Considering that everyone on the team was in good condition and their active skills were still available, Ma Lu planned to make a big move before leaving.

He set his sights on a 4-star ingredient on the map.

The 4-star ingredient was named—Thousand-Faced Konjac.

Ma Lu was initially startled by its star level and almost ran away because even though he had leveled up twice and equipped Yun Que with new gear, he obviously wasn't a match for a regular 4-star ingredient.

Besides, the Thousand-Faced Konjac's HP was over 1000 points—it looked tough to deal with.

However, Ma Lu later checked the Attributes of the Thousand-Faced Konjac and unexpectedly discovered that it had dual weaknesses to fire and earth, which suddenly rekindled his interest.

Moreover, the main method of attack for the Thousand-Faced Konjac was poisoning, and Ma Lu's team happened to have Bliss Bird, who was proficient in healing. Plus, he still had an Assault Banner unused.

Ma Lu roughly calculated and felt there was a good chance of success, so he decided to give it a try.

If things got too tough, they could still run away. According to Ma Lu's recent observations, the Thousand-Faced Konjac didn't move fast. In fact, over this period, it had only moved four spaces from its original position.

Hearing that there was a fight to be had, Hellhound finally got dressed, and the four of them headed towards the brightest red dot on the Chessboard Map.

Since Ma Lu had already cleared the nearby area earlier, there were no other threats around, allowing the team to focus on the Thousand-Faced Konjac.

But upon reaching the target location, even though the red dot on the cell hadn't disappeared, Ma Lu found no trace of the enemy.

To his embarrassment, although Konjac was a common item on dinner tables, Ma Lu had never seen its actual form.

Every time Ma Lu had seen Konjac, it was either processed into konjac flour or cut into pieces—in short, always in a processed shape. As a child, he even thought for a while that Konjac was some type of artificial food.

Although he later learned that Konjac did exist in nature, he had never seen it with his own eyes and guessed that it probably looked like a taro or potato.

However, he didn't see any similar plants nearby now, and the entire cell was occupied by a large banyan tree.

Could it be up in the tree?

Ma Lu looked up at the canopy, and just then, a small sapling on the ground beside him shook its leaves a bit, followed by the ground starting to shake.

Then a pink, knobby growth emerged from the ground.