Becoming Their Guiding Spirit

# Chapter 44: Why are we eating this? I’m a professional explorer. Although the car was wrecked, being able to escape the uninhabited wilderness safely was a great fortune.

The cute penguin lady was on the verge of tears. She could only take all the equipment and luggage out of the battered car, then put her hands together in prayer to mourn her ’old friend’ who had accompanied her on countless explorations to the south and north.

After a brief moment of mourning, Magallan was already thinking about what excuse she could use to get Rhine Lab to reimburse her.

However.

The most puzzling thing for Magallan wasn’t the wrecked car, but what was going on with Jessica?

Setting aside the sudden change in her demeanor, as if she had become a different person, the perplexing Originium Arts she displayed were enough to pique Magallan’s curiosity.

However.

Curiosity was one thing.

Magallan wouldn’t ask about it, nor would she bring it up.

She was different from ordinary people.

As an explorer, she had been to many, many places in Terra and had witnessed too many strange and unusual things. She knew that this world was not as simple as the textbooks in Columbia taught ordinary people. Everyone had their own secrets, including herself. She also had secrets that others, even the company, did not know.

Magallan had a lot of equipment.

Now that she had lost the transportation of the car, she could only carry it by hand.

There were two drones alone, plus all sorts of other measuring equipment.

”How should we proceed now? Miss M?”

Franka looked around. Because it was late at night, it was pitch black, and with the cover of tall trees, let alone a light source, if not for the excellent eyesight of everyone present, they probably wouldn’t even be able to see each other. They could only barely use their phones’ flashlights for illumination.

Here.

There was no signal.

Modern mobile phones were reduced to bricks, even less useful than bricks. At most, the flashlight function was somewhat useful.

”Uh... let me see the map.”

Magallan unfolded the paper map. Under the illumination of the headlamp on her forehead, she could barely make out the contents.

”Where exactly is the Blackflow Sea of Trees... uh... actually, I don’t know either. I learned about this place from an ancient text. It is said that deep in a forest to the west of Bolívar, there is a naturally formed giant cave. And when you reach the end of the cave, there is a whole new world. In this new world, lies the legendary Blackflow Sea of Trees.”

”But now there’s a problem...”

”We don’t know our current location.”

Due to the unexpected encounter with the Originium Slugs, the originally planned route was completely disrupted. There was no such thing as satellites in this world, so naturally, real-time navigation did not exist. Moreover, the latter part of the journey was driven by Lucas Reeve. Probably even Lucas Reeve himself didn’t know how he had driven, smashing through rock walls one moment and flying high into the sky the next, completely wrecking the expensive car in the process.

”Then what do we do? Our great explorer, Miss Columbus.”

Franka felt a bit helpless.

She was good at fighting, but she was useless in this kind of situation.

”My name is...forget it, you can call me whatever you want.”

Magallan was speechless, and even too lazy to argue.

She patted Jessica’s slightly chubby and cute face again and giggled.

”Our little Jessica is the best. Only she got my name right.”

”Of course!”

Jessica replied happily.

”How could I forget Miss Wallace’s name?”

”....”

Magallan’s face fell.

Looking utterly dejected, she sat down on the ground. After a sigh, she slowly said.

”Let’s camp here for tonight.”

”It’s too dark, we can’t find any landmarks to use as coordinates. Besides, it’s already past eight o’clock at night. Although it’s May, Bolívar is in the northwest, and in this kind of wilderness, the temperature difference between day and night is huge. It can reach thirty degrees during the day, and at night, the temperature will drop sharply. In the worst case, it might drop to minus 40 degrees. Normally, it will also drop to minus 20 degrees.”

”According to the original plan, we would be sleeping comfortably in the warm car tonight, but... now...”

Magallan looked at her car, which had been completely reduced to scrap metal not far away, and her heart ached.

”We can only camp here.”

”Mmm~~”

Jessica was a bit hesitant.

Although she was now an operator at Blacksteel Worldwide, as one of the world’s top heiresses, she had been on missions before, but most of them could be completed within a day. This was her first time camping outside, and in the middle of nowhere... Setting aside other things, going to the bathroom was a problem. She couldn’t possibly just squat in the...

Looking at the knee-high weeds swaying in the darkness.

Jessica felt a bit uncomfortable.

”Phew~ Anyway...”

Franka didn’t care where she slept. As an old mercenary, she had once spent two nights in a mud pit waiting for a target. Although she looked glamorous on a daily basis, in reality, she could fall asleep anywhere, even in a cemetery or a crematorium.

”Let’s eat first!”

Franka opened her backpack and took out all sorts of military self-heating rations.

”Which one do you want! I heard we’re going to be out for a month, so I brought many different flavors of food.”

”????”

”Wh... why did you bring this stuff?”

Magallan’s mouth twitched uncontrollably.

Franka shook her head and said meaningfully.

”You don’t understand. As a mercenary, you can’t be careless about food.”

”No... I mean...”

”Why don’t we have a barbecue?”

At this, Magallan took out a barbecue grill and a large bag of meat skewers from the wrecked car.

”I’ve always kept this barbecue grill in the car, I didn’t expect it to come in handy.”

Jessica and Liskarm stood there dumbfounded.

For a moment, they wondered what they were here for. A vacation? These two, a professional mercenary and a professional explorer, were clearly amateurs.

--Ten minutes later--

The smell of barbecue filled the wilderness.

”Smells so good.”

”Senior, is there any more? I’ll have another skewer.”

Jessica, who had been hungry all afternoon, tried her best to eat delicately, but she still quickly finished off quite a few skewers.

”By the way, what if we attract wild animals like this?”

Jessica was a little worried.

Magallan patted her chest, making a ’bang bang’ sound. The special combat suit from Rhine Lab was too hard.

”It’s okay, I’ve checked. Although I don’t know our exact location for now, I can guess the general area. There are no wild animals or Originium monsters here, so you can rest assured.”

”Really...”

Ever since Magallan had boasted about her driving skills and then immediately hit an Originium Slug’s head, leading to a chase by a swarm of them, Jessica didn’t quite believe her anymore.

However.

It seemed like fate was deliberately slapping Magallan in the face again.

As soon as she finished speaking.

A rustling sound came from the nearby bushes.

Hearing the sound, everyone immediately became alert and prepared for battle, while Franka and Jessica both turned to look at Magallan.

And the cute penguin lady covered her head, seemingly doubting her years of rich exploration experience.

Gulp~

Under everyone’s watchful eyes.

A cute little head, like a puppy’s, poked out from the bushes, drawn by the scent of meat. Her clothes were tattered, but her body was covered with all sorts of weapons.

Jessica: ”A person?”

Franka: ”A Perro?”

Liskarm: ”A local resident?”

Lucas Reeve: ”A dog girl?”