Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 512: Chapter 311: The Training Journey of the Three Little Bears

The Large Fruit Banyan could only grow beneath the canopy of cedar trees. Its fruits grew on its roots and the base of its trunk. It was neither afraid of heat nor cold, and growing within the Cedar Forest, there was no worry about storms.

Hill used the seed pouch to hasten the growth of many such magical plant seeds, enhancing their fruits and roots. Its fruits could replenish blood, while its roots could help the Cedar Forest gather water veins and absorb nutrients from the earth.

The fruits of the Large Fruit Banyan were tangy and sweet, with plenty of moisture. They were just right for the Earth Bears to nibble on and quench their thirst after tiring from farming.

If there were no issues with this place, Hill considered accelerating the growth of more of them during the time the Earth Bears returned for rest, and handing them over to the Clan Leader.

Grace and the others had only prepared food for one year, and none of the big bears had returned for replenishment.

Hill could easily foresee that, a year later, he would probably be able to see all the Earth Bears.

He kept turning the thought in his mind: if possible, he would follow behind the Earth Bears after their rest, heading north to see how far they could go.

Bringing along the hut and mithril plates, it would be like adding some nutrients to the nearby cedar trees.

Hill still remembered that memory dream, how Aurelio was kicked down the mountain and fell by the side of the unending Cedar Forest.

After a year of training, Hill’s body had become much sturdier. He tried stabbing himself with a Legendary longsword a couple of times, and not even a white mark appeared.

Hill had not crafted anything serious in a long time. His hands itched, and since he had to keep an eye on the three bears over the next few days, he planned to make something for fun.

Grace and the others had a great demand for pearls, indicating they needed a sufficient amount of clean water.

Hill did not know how they planned to drink water, but based on his understanding of this world, it seemed they would create a large pool for everyone to take turns drinking from.

Even if in the valley, clean water placed outside would quickly be dissolved by the elements, making it exceptionally difficult to drink. Nils, being so lazy, would definitely not lie outside to drink water.

The elemental storms at the World’s End must have been even scarier than this place. So, every time the Clan Leader ensured the bears could drink water, he probably had put in a lot of effort.

Hill had calculated the number of Alchemy Huts. All of them were in the clan’s territory; they had not taken them along, which clearly meant the Earth Bears there relied entirely on their own bodies.

At most, they would use mithril plates to set up a temporary camp where everyone could rest for a bit.

Hill had listened to several bear mothers chatting. At the World’s End, aside from drinking and eating, which counted as rest, they didn’t even have time to sleep.

The reason they could come out to give birth was because, after Coron helped the earth back then, the cedar saplings were not enough.

Although Hill had been busy seeking his own suffering during this time, he also came up with many ways during rest breaks, hoping to think of ways for the bears to drink whenever they were thirsty, rather than waiting until everyone was extremely thirsty.

Hill finally thought of the instantly formed materials that Fran had used to build the underground area of Central City.

Even if made thinner than a hair, this material could allow water to pass through and withstand considerable water pressure.

He planned to make some 5-meter-high cabinet-style water curtain fountains. The water drawing area would be sealed at the top, wrapped in mithril, allowing the water to flow down along thin threads. The bottom would be a water tray wrapped in mithril shell.

Thus, each fountain would only need three Water Purifying Beads. This pure water elemental array was almost natural and had minimal impact on the external environment. Mithril could fully isolate this elemental reaction.

The spiritual power needed to activate this would not cause any major issues.

If everyone needed to drink, eat, and rest together, they could combine these cabinets wrapped in mithril. Each cabinet had a slight curve, so they could form an ultralarge circular resting room.

Hill estimated he didn’t have enough pearls on hand.

Not knowing if it would succeed, Hill didn’t plan to count on the Clan Leader’s pearls. He thought he should go and see the old Crystal Flower master.

He had a good memory and could definitely find the way. His body was no longer so weak now.

Before leaving, Ula had brought Hill several bags of mithril ore. Though each bag varied in size, they totaled several tons, enough to complete the preliminary work for these water curtain fountains.

It wasn’t hard to make these. The difficult part was refining the materials and mithril provided by Fran.

Drawing these fine threads was no easy task. They could only be drawn bit by bit using spiritual power. Any slight mistake would result in complete waste. Without the central waterhole, they would only be able to make woven threads.

Though Hill rarely failed, any failure would waste thousands of meters of fine thread.

This job was tedious to endure. Hill’s only pleasure was blocking the bears at night.

Oriana indeed planned to run away.

She stored a week’s worth of food and sneaked out under the cover of a moonless night, heading straight south.

Apparently, she wanted to reach the outer wilds and hunt on her own.

Oriana probably thought Hill would only watch the north, but the young she-bear did not want to find her heartless mother.

She was only thinking about the delicious food beyond the wilds.

Hill silently stood among the ranges.

For someone who had mastered the Law of the Earth, the mithril mountain range was enough to keep Oriana lost until dawn.

This time, he didn’t plan to pull Oriana out immediately. After all, only disciplining her every time would be too unfair.

It wasn’t just Oriana who had stored food.

Hill smiled slightly, watching the sneaky Bucky also sneak towards the mithril range.

He was a bit smarter, planning to circle around south from the east.

Hill didn’t know what made the meat so unappetizing that Bucky was willing to leave some, but he had no other options but to let Bucky unknowingly run around the mountain range.

That was fine; it was a ring mountain, enough for Bucky to run.

Nils emerged two hours later, rushing straight in Oriana’s direction.

Hill had always thought that, seeing the scene from the window, Nils would not come out at this hour since there was still food.

But the need for exercise plus the unpleasant food had made the lazy little bear choose to run away from home.

Inheritance of memories had its pros and cons.

Like now, these little bears clearly knew that as long as they reached the outer wilds, as High-level Magical Beasts, they had nothing to fear.

Generally speaking, higher-leveled magical beasts wouldn’t easily harm Earth Bears; nobody wanted to provoke their parents.

Unfortunately, ”generally” did not mean absolutely.

Even if they avenged by killing the magical beast or elves and humans that hurt them, what was the point?

Hill crossed his arms, watching the three little bears forging ahead in the ring mountain.

Hill frowned as someone entered the mithril range. He quickly circled around and saw a frowning big bear.

”Hill?” The Earth Bear spoke gently, ”I’m Oriana’s father, Ellaihu. The Clan Leader asked me to come back to handle them.”

Hill walked up to Ellaihu. ”I can watch them. Don’t worry.”

Ellaihu had a peculiar expression on his bear face. ”No need to watch, let them go, especially Oriana.”

Hill was surprised. ”Let them leave? The outside isn’t safe! The Elemental Storms also harm them greatly.”

”I’ll follow. Can you find a way to gather them?” Ellaihu sighed, his voice weary. ”Every Earth Bear goes through this day. Unless they find a way to court death once, they won’t give up.

According to the rules, the most troublesome cub’s father has to accompany them on a trip.

My family’s the only one with a she-bear! How unlucky can I get?

If they travel together, it saves me a lot of trouble.”

Hill suppressed his urge to laugh, lowered his head, and slowly said, ”I’ll make Nils meet Bucky first. If the two travel together, Oriana will only stop if she’s truly exhausted.

Then, I’ll have the other two chase her down. This way, Oriana might accept them. Otherwise, she always finds them lazy and stupid.”

”Heh.” Ellaihu couldn’t help but chuckle coldly, ”Laziness is fine, but stupidity is unique to her.”

After a few hours, Hill finally got the three cubs to reunite. As expected, Oriana couldn’t resist the sweet words of Nils and Bucky and accepted their companionship, proudly leading the way.

After walking a long distance, Hill and Ellaihu stood side by side outside the mithril range and sighed together.

Whether it was Oriana or the other two, they all forgot how terrifying the Elemental Storms outside were, heading south so brazenly.

Hill took out a finished water curtain fountain cabinet and handed it to Ellaihu. ”Take this. It’s enough for you and the cubs to drink from.”

Having been told how to use it, Ellaihu liked it, saying, ”This is very useful! Now I don’t have to ask Grace every time I want a drink. Just to give me a sip of water, she’d make me plant a few trees.”

Hill had no interest in their trivial marital banter and said coldly, ”I plan to go to the sea to get some more pearls. I planted some Large Fruit Banyan in the Cedar Forest. The fruit should be edible in about a month. If you haven’t finished this trial journey by then, remember to try the fruit and see if you’re used to it.”

Ellaihu nodded happily. He knew that if this fruit was edible and didn’t hinder the growth of cedars, he could eat fruit anytime in the future.

Earth Bears weren’t carnivores. They currently only ate meat because in the wild, hunting was the most efficient way, and high-level magical beast meat had the highest energy, allowing them to last a few days after eating.

The three cubs left the sight of the man and the bear without looking back. Ellaihu shook his head. ”They aren’t as smart as Aurelio, who at least stayed by the mountain to see if he could find a way out!”

Hill watched Ellaihu following the direction the cubs had taken, turning back to the valley.

He also needed to pack and go find the Crystal Flower.