The next day, since I’d already taken care of all of the preparations, all I had to do was put everything in my backpack and I was ready to go.
“Hmm?” I heard a voice as I was leaving the hotel room. It was Hester. “Heading out this early, Chris?”
“Sorry, did I wake you?”
“Don’t worry about it. Be careful out there, okay?”
“I will. I’ll be away for a while taking care of some things, so I might not see you for a bit. Let Ralph know too for me, would you? I’ve left some money here to pay for my share of the room while I’m gone.”
“Okay. I’ll let him know.”
“Thanks.”
After giving Hester that heads-up, I left the Shangri La Hotel.
The sun hadn’t come up yet, so it felt like a ghost town as I walked down the typically bustling streets and toward the city gate. They didn’t conduct inspections on your way out, so I exited uninterrupted and started off in the direction of Patia Forest.
Only two months had passed since I’d arrived in Realzahd, but as I walked down the highway, I couldn’t help but reflect on how far I’d come since I showed up at the gates that first day, ragged and desperate. It even made me feel a bit nostalgic, actually.
Then the woods came into sight.
There it is: Patia Forest, my hideout for a month, I thought.
From this distance, where only the tree line was visible, it seemed like nothing more than a peaceful slice of nature. But the sight of it made my pulse quicken. Despite the two months that had passed since my stay there, I felt so anxious that I worried my heart might leap out of my throat.
When I’d left the woods, I’d felt only gratitude for the valuable experience it had given me, but right now, just thinking back on my life there filled me with terror. It was like my brain was releasing some weird chemical that numbed me to all of my senses.
Honestly, though, it was a pretty reasonable reaction. After all, the first time I’d entered, I’d had nothing to eat or drink, nor even a place to sleep. The whole time I was in the woods, I’d been in a pretty precarious position.
As I stepped back into Patia Forest for the first time in two months, I tried to quell my fear by reminding myself that I’d brought everything I needed this time.
A moderate breeze was blowing. The scents of the natural world reached my nostrils, calming me. But I knew it wouldn’t last.
Soon I reached what some might call Patia Forest’s real entrance: a clear spring a short way into the forest. I was painfully aware that this would be the last proper water source I would encounter as I continued deeper into the woods, so I drank some water and refilled my waterskin, just to be safe.
I wasn’t planning on staying for long this time, but you never knew what might happen in the woods. That’s what made them so terrifying.
After taking a brief rest at the spring, I made my way farther into the depths of the woods. The foliage grew thicker and thicker, and the trees gradually began to block out more and more light. I had to count on my fuzzy memories and sense of direction as I continued, trusting that they would lead me to the rock hollow between the boulders where I’d set up camp before.
No matter how long I walked, without any paths, everything around me looked the same. I could only hope that I’d make it there before dark.
“I remember that giant tree there. I’m pretty sure I just have to take a right here and... There it is!”
It had been about three hours since I’d left the spring. I’d been able to find my old shelter between the boulders all too easily.
“Back after only two months... And here I thought I’d never come back here again.”
I was absolutely sure that there were no other people around, so I talked aloud to myself.
I slipped into the crevice in between the boulders, feeling a rush of nostalgia, and set my backpack down.
The gross bugs I’d cleared when I’d first set up camp here hadn’t returned, and even the moss hadn’t grown back all that much. All the place needed was a little touching up to get it back in livable shape.
Since I was planning to stay for a few days, I figured I’d spend some time fixing up my shelter and preparing for the night.
I started by spreading some leaves on the ground. I’d brought a sleeping bag this time, so I put that on top of the leaves. Next, I took out the food provisions and the water I’d scooped up at the spring, and finally, I set out a woven basket I’d brought along with me. My base was now complete.
I knew I could’ve made it even better if I’d put a little more thought and care into it, but for this expedition, I decided this would do just fine. I didn’t come here to go camping, after all. I was here to forage.
I’d arrived at the shelter sooner than I’d expected, so I decided to go out and forage for a bit until the sun set. My plan was to collect as many plants as I could while there was still even a little bit of light.
Using the intel I’d gathered in these last two months from secondhand shops, pharmacies, and the Healers’ Guild, I wanted to focus my foraging efforts on undiscovered poisonous plants.
Once I’d gotten everything I needed in order, I hastily left my shelter and headed out into the woods.
Before hunting that orc, I’d picked and eaten so many of the plants near my campsite that I was almost surprised to see how many were still growing. Armed with new botanical knowledge, I realized now that the forest was full of culinary and medicinal herbs that I hadn’t recognized before. They were pretty much untouched—probably owing to the fact that most monsters and wild animals didn’t eat them.
I found myself drawn to them, but that wasn’t the point of this expedition, so I ignored them and picked all of the poisonous-looking plants I could find instead, stuffing them into my bag.
It would have been a lot easier if I could just focus on the plants I’d eaten during my previous stay, but I’d been so focused on avoiding starvation at the time that I hadn’t really had the wherewithal to commit any of them to memory.
I recalled eating some mushrooms too back then, but thanks to the happy surprise of the orc meat, my memory of them had mostly vanished too.
No matter how much I racked my brain, my memories were fuzzy. Eventually, I had to give up on trying to remember anything and just take whatever I could get my hands on. And before long, my evening of foraging came to an end.
I returned to my shelter and immediately took the plants out of my backpack so I could record my findings on some paper I’d brought with me.
If I’d had the money, then ideally I would get an ability assessment done after eating each variety of plant and record the results. Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t afford that. Instead, my plan was to eat and record all of the plants I’d found on this expedition. If my stats didn’t increase after eating them, then I’d know to avoid all those plants for next time.
If my stats did increase, then I’d divide the same group of plants in half, eat one half, and get another ability assessment done after that. I figured that would be a frugal but effective way to gradually zero in on which plants actually did something.