—–

“What’s gotten into you all out of the sudden?”

“N-Nothing…”

Justicio had already walked out of the bathroom with his new clothes, which were similar to his previous one, a short made out of thin leather of various colors, and something resembling a short jacket, most of his chest was uncovered as always.

However, he looked rather weird, he was still a bit red, and seemed overly silent and kind of strange overall, Aquarina found him kind of funny though, so she pointed that out a lot.

“Are you sure you’re fine? You aren’t usually like this dude…”

“I’m fine!”

“Hahaha! Okay, okay…! Don’t get angry.”

After that, the group quickly moved to the kitchen, Silvia and Justicio didn’t say a word, after both were told of these things, trying to act all casual was hard.

However Justicio knew that they wouldn’t get anywhere if this happened, so he started talking first, just to try to relax and socialize.

“So what are we eating?” He wondered. “I know Agua’s mom is preparing something I think? But we could also cook something ourselves… R-Right?”

“Ah yeah! I wanted to taste the ants!” Aquarina nodded. “I’ll set up a bonfire! Do you guys want to eat giant ants?”

“Ah, no, thanks…” Agua muttered.

“I’ll skip it for now…” Silvia muttered.

“Ah… I guess I should taste them a bit,” Justicio muttered.

“Ew! Are you really doing it?!” Silvia asked, trying to act more casually too.

“I-I mean, my physique has insects’ parts in it right? And my spirit is a bug… I need to eat some more bugs to gain power,” Justicio explained. “Didn’t you know? Based on the type of Physique we have; we need to eat food around it. If someone has a lion physique, eating lions and other big cats’ help. If someone has an earth physique, earth elemental food, and even earth spirit crystals can work as meals as well.”

“Eeeh… I had no idea,” Silvia said. “But I’m fairly sure my Physique is similar to everyone else in the tribe, no?”

“I guess you haven’t further evolved it then,” Justicio explained with a gentle smile, trying to act charming and attentive. “Aquarina helped me forge my new Physique and I grew pretty strong. I believe our previous physiques are only until we get something stronger. The village train us up to a certain level, usually Tier 7, before leaving us on our own.”

“I’ve heard it is mostly just so you can protect yourselves in the wilderness and also cooperate and help the village hunting and working,” Aquarina explained. “At Tier 7 there’s barely any danger anywhere in the world though, you could go all around the globe without problems.”

“B-But what about Tier 8 or higher monsters?!” Silvia asked.

“What? You are Tier 7, you are at least quick enough to escape them,” Aquarina said. “Just because you face a Tier 8 monster it doesn’t mean certain death either. Just like a normal person and fight and defeat a huge bear, or even escape from it, it applies with us. Power above the other is never completely absolute. My dad always says that the difference between Tiers and Realms is not strict. You don’t suddenly become helpless just because you’re facing someone a Tier higher than you… although after two or three tiers, it just becomes impossible.”

“O-Oh… I had no idea about that, actually…” Silvia nodded. “Well, that’s rather interesting… So our village is really strong compared to the rest of the world, huh Justicio?”

“Y-Yeah…” Justicio nodded, still looking a bit embarrassed. “Or so I’ve heard from Aquarina, right?”

“Yep, the majority of people out there don’t even cultivate that much…” Aquarina said. “Although the majority could have magic circles or a small physique developed naturally, most humans just don’t really… do much for some reason. Overall, the majority of people in the world don’t go past Tier 2 in their Physiques and Tier 1 Magic Circles. If they don’t have jobs that require strength, people won’t invest time and effort into growing stronger… though there’s still a large group of the population that also grows stronger. There are schools that teach stuff, then there are hunters, adventurers, and so on. Oh well, and that’s mostly in the human society. Elves are different, they’re all taught from a young age to learn magic and contract spirits… They’re generally much stronger than humans as a result. But through cultivation, you can rapidly equalize things. It just takes a lot of effort and resources, not everyone can be bothered.”

“That’s a pity…” Said Justicio. “But I kind of understand it. If I wasn’t born in this village and just lived an average life, maybe I would’ve done something similar. I mean, yeah, if I didn’t have to worry about monsters outside, hunting, or anything like that. I would end up dedicating my life to another thing or job, right? Taking care of a farm… making clothes? Building houses, crafting. Cooking, or something like that.”

“Hmmm…” Silvia nodded. “It really makes you think… Ah! I think we went too off-topic though…”

“Yeah, anyway, I’m already cooking the ants,” Aquarina smiled.

“EH?!”

Silvia gasped, as she saw Aquarina having already started a huge bonfire, placing a large grill on top, and then putting the long legs of the ants over there.

As they cooked, the red colored exoskeleton became darker, and from the small cracks Aquarina had done through the hard exoskeleton, steam could be seen coming out, and transparent juices.

There was also a particular smell, like a combination of crab with fish… and also not really that fishy either, there was a smoky odor too, which was quite strong, mixed with some citric scent.

“Smells interesting…” Silvia said. “Is it done?”

“In a few more minutes!” Aquarina smiled.

“Ah, I see you’re done bathing. What is this smoky smell? It is rather appetizing…” Agua’s mother walked out of her house, noticing everyone and then Aquarina. “Oh my, are you cooking… Giant Fire Ants? I had never considered eating them before…”

“Yeah!” Aquarina nodded. “I’m giving them a try. I’ll tell you if they taste good, auntie~!”

“Oh well, dinner is ready, so come sit down soon,” she walked away.

—–

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