Beginner's Adventure With Elder Elf Part 3

2

Night time, inside a tent.

“Yaaaahuuuu! Thank goodness we met you, Elf kid!” Aspa exclaimed happily as he lay down using his robe as a pillow.

After the battle with the slime monster in the afternoon, they—Aspa, Randa, and Elvy decided to camp somewhere far away from the other monsters. And just in case, they provide special 'fragrance' devices that emit smoke and unpleasant odors for the monsters.

“We are very grateful for your help, Miss. Thank goodness you also brought a tent,” Randa said politely to Elvy.

“It’s no problem. I just happened to be passing by. However, I am also confused by your stupidity in adventuring without proper preparation. There's not much food, few potions, weapons are like toys, and worst of all... your knowledge is lacking.”

Elvy, who is an experienced adventurer, clearly feels confused about Aspa and Randa. Lack of knowledge and experience was a very fatal mistake for him..

“You guys… You guys should stop being adventurers.”

Aspa and Randa were stunned to hear it. Not because they were surprised, but because they felt there was nothing wrong with Elf's words.

“There are many beginners who died at the beginning of their adventure. All of them died horribly because they only had the provision of ‘spirit’ in their adventure. You look like that, that's why I told you to stop.”

The atmosphere in the tent became silent. None of Aspa and Randa tried to refute Elvy's words.

“If you understand, then...”

“I’m sorry, but we can’t go back, Miss.”

“...”

“Neither me nor Brother Aspa. We have a big goal that makes us unable to retreat anymore.”

“All the young adventurers who died also had great goals! But... I told you that passion alone is not enough to survive as a hero.”

“Brother Aspa is a person from another world.”

“...”

“And I... want to be a hero. Both me and Bro Aspa, we can't back down anymore. We will keep moving forward no matter what happens in the future!”

“That’s right. You said you came from another world. I haven’t asked you further about that. So how-”

Before Elvy could finish her question, she realized that the person she was asking had been fast asleep all this time.

“H-He’s always like that, huh?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s how it is……. But, I trust him.”

Seeing Randa's gaze on Aspa, Elvy could tell how much she trusted him.

"Basic. No matter what race, men are really simple, huh."

3

Waking up from her sleep, Randa immediately found an unexpected sight of the people sleeping in the same tent as him.

He saw two people who seemed unfamiliar yesterday—Aspa and Elvy sleeping while hugging each other like a beloved father and daughter.

“W-What happened while I was sleeping?” Still unable to process what she saw, Randa went out of the tent to get some fresh morning air.

“Huuuuuahhhhhhh.”

In front of the tent, Randa stretched her stiff body after falling asleep in a cramped space. He could still feel the pain from yesterday's battle with the slime monster.

It was at that moment that a thought crossed his mind.

I... have to become stronger.

After the process of convincing myself, as the first person to wake up from sleep, Randa mengambil beberapa peralatan untuk penyiapan persediaan perjalanan berikutnya.

He took two empty water bottles covered in cloth, as well as a small pot belonging to the Elf girl. And after observing the surroundings, he walked to a place where the closer he got, the more he could hear the sound of flowing water.

Not far from there—a little further into the forest, Randa could find a small lake in the forest. And when examined further, the lake water comes from a stream that flows out of a cave.

“...”

Despite the beauty of the lake in front of him, Randa could feel an unpleasant atmosphere from inside the cave he saw.

“So that's... the so-called dungeon?”

Randa's estimate was not completely wrong, but it was also not right. Because what was in front of him was basically just an ordinary cave. But if you look a little deeper you can see that if there is a hidden hole in there, it will definitely lead straight to the dungeon.

There are many cases where someone can hear strange sounds like mysterious roars and screams from inside the cave. And in Randa village, it is a very common story there. In reality, all they heard was the roar of a dungeon monster echoing out from a small gap in the cave.

Even so, Randa still felt wary, because from her perspective, the cave would lead directly into the dungeon and there were monsters inside.

Scary! I have to get out of here quickly!

After filling the drinking bottle and pan with lake water, Randa immediately left the place.

“Hooo~ You woke up fast, huh.”

In front of the tent, Aspa was already enjoying the morning air and scenery. For a person from another world with ‘different’ circumstances and conditions like himself, seeing the outside world that felt ‘authentic’ had given Aspa a feeling of pleasure.

“There’s nothing like this in my city,” Aspa muttered with a relieved smile on his face.

“What was your world like before?” While asking that, Randa piled up some wood that he had found in the forest before.

“Hmmmm, what was it like? It feels really hard to remember.”

“How come?”

“Ahhhh... Emmmmm... That, you know. I live my life like a walking corpse without a thought. Wake up in the morning, go to work, then come home late at night. It all repeated over and over until I didn't have to think about doing it anymore. Ah, yes... that's what I remember… the sky in my city is covered with tall buildings. You also won't be able to see the green plants there. The air also often makes your nose itchy. Congestion. And it also often floods. The hustle and bustle of city people also sometimes bothers me, though. The sound of the boss shouting, and...”

When he was lost in his own memories, a delicious smell suddenly came and seemed to have lifted Aspa back to land.

“O-Oi! What are you cooking?”

“I cooked soup for our breakfast, Bang. There are potatoes and corn from our field, and some carrots that I asked from Miss Elvy. And also I added slime for flavor.”

“I see… slime.”

Aspa had not thought for a moment because of his naivety about the world. But when he realized what he had said earlier, his thin, muscular body began to sweat.

“Excuse me, what did you use?”

“Potatoes, corn-”

“Flavorings!”

“Slime?”

“W-Why?”

“Well… if you ask me why. Because it tastes sweet and is perfect for making soup. Its thick and smooth taste can make your mouth melt, you know!”

“Not only will my mouth melt, but my whole body will melt too, you know!”

“It’s not that bad, though.”

“Listen, okay! We don’t know if the effects of eating slime can have a bad effect on us or not!”

“No, really. I've often eaten this when I'm short of spices at home. Especially during the winter. Because sometimes the sales of the fields tend to decrease so we just use ingredients that are available in nature to make it.”

Aspa could see an innocent smile on Randa's face as she stirred the soup that was almost ready. He tried hard to hold back his comments on Randa's soup. But when he saw the little bubbles that exploded from the soup—as if to indicate that something was wrong. Aspa couldn't bear to look at it anymore.

“Um... I want to go to the toilet-”

“It’s done!”

“Eeeeeeeeeee!”

Before taking a single step to escape, Randa with a bright face pulled Aspa's body back and immediately served him the soup in a small bowl.

"Eat it, Brother."

With an inexpressible feeling of rejection, Aspa slowly took the bowl from Randa's hands. The bowl contains soup with the ingredients that Randa mentioned earlier. But there is one big difference with regular soup, which is…

“The water is... clear.”

“Yup! That's the advantage of the slime body as a food ingredient. In addition to beautifying food, the slime body can also absorb filth in food. Sometimes it is also useful as a filter...”

“Wait a minute. Does that mean the slime’s body can absorb the spices in the food?”

“Exactly. That’s why people use slime when they don’t have seasoning for food. Because then the seasoning is a waste, right?”

“Makes sense. But, I still don’t want to eat this.”

“Oh come on, bro. This slime has many benefits too!”

“Tsk, ahhhhh...”

Feeling bad seeing the pleading face of the man who was younger than her. Aspa, as an adult, also felt wronged with his own attitude.

Nervously, he stared at the bowl of soup as he slowly brought it to his mouth.

“Wahhhh what is that!?”

Before Aspa could eat the soup, the Elf girl—Elvy came out of the tent with drool dripping from her mouth.

“Wow, what a coincidence, kid! Eat my soup!”

Before Aspa give his soup to Elvy...

“You eat too!” Randa snapped loudly.

“Y-Yes, Mom.”

With no other choice, Aspa slowly ate the soup with his eyes closed. He tried not to imagine the strange feeling after eating the disgusting monster he had just defeated.

“Deeliiiiiicoooouusss dude!”

The drama of being afraid about eating the food just ended like that.

Aspa, who had been prolonging the story with her picky eating habits, could now eat in peace. Meanwhile, Randa could breathe a sigh of relief like a mother seeing her child.

“Well, Miss Elvy eats too, okay?”

“Of course. Give me three bowls!”

“Yes, yes. Eat a lot so you can grow up fast,” Aspa said.

“What are you doing? Treating me like a child all the time. Even though I’m tens of thousands of years old, you know! Right, Randa?”

Randa nodded while sipping his soup.

It seems that Aspa has really forgotten the most basic thing in the fantasy world. It is understandable since he has been 20 years old, he has started to be busy with the adult world. More precisely... 'forced to be busy'.

“H-How old are you… exactly?”

“Hmmmm... 10,590 years... I think?”

As usual, with his typical excited movements, Aspa bowed down to Elvy who was surprised by the actions of the human from another world.

“Gosh, Grandmaaaaa!”

“Grandma!?”

Just so you know, the age difference between Pure Elf and Half Elf and also Human is very different in that world. A simple and brief description is like this…

10 years of Human life = 1000 years of Half Elf life

10,000 Pure Elf lifespan = 10 Human lifespan.

So 1000 years of lifespan for a Half Elf is...?

“Well, basically, no one knows how long their life will be. Someone can live a short or long life, it's up to fate," Aspa explained to avoid the question.