RMGCFW — Chapter 119 - Want to Learn? I Can Teach You

"Coo-coo-coo!"

"Slash."

"Coo-coo!"

"Slash."

"..."

"Slash."

"..."

Time passed. The sky gradually brightened.

Banxia looked over the chunks of chicken meat scattered across the ground and patted the head of the now-silent beast beside him, satisfied.

"Thanks for putting up with my experiment."

"Coo-coo..." The shadow chicken responded in a small, timid voice, terrified the young man might slay it again.

"Go on. You're free." Banxia loosened his grip.

The beast seemed to understand it was allowed to leave. It immediately bolted toward the depths of the forest.

From being "revived" to spending an entire night getting baffledly killed, revived, and killed again, the creature had developed a bone-deep terror of humanity. From this day forward, merely hearing a human stir would surely bring back memories of tonight's ordeal.

"A pity. Probably because of the soul — even if it revives from a different chunk of flesh, only one complete living creature ultimately remains." Banxia let out a sigh.

After a full night of experimentation, he had gradually worked out how this skill operated.

Even if someone had already died, as long as a fragment or mangled remnant of the body still remained, he could use [Retrospect] to pull them back. This skill could truly be said to snatch people straight from the hands of the Grim Reaper. Utterly absurd.

All one could say was: worthy of a chromatic-tier skill the system spent ten thousand years forging. An inevitable masterpiece among chromatics.

The one imperfection: every revival damaged the soul.

Under Banxia's observation, each time the beast was dragged back up from the ground, it grew a little more vacant. Use it too many times in succession and the original soul would likely be worn away entirely.

And this was a shadow chicken, whose soul strength far surpassed that of ordinary monsters. Any other animal wouldn't have survived a full night of experiments.

He just didn't know what would happen if the soul had already dispersed and only the body was saved.

Did the soul govern everything, or did the body?

That was something worth pondering.

And what would happen if someone who died of old age was pulled back? The skill claimed to restore the body to its peak — but in this world, a person's lifespan was fixed from birth, governed by the Life Spirits.

Still, Banxia had [Rejuvenation], a skill absurdly overpowered beyond imagination.

Rejuvenation and Retrospect. These two skills could combo together.

Revival and lifespan extension, a complete one-stop service.

Provided, of course, the soul hadn't completely perished.

"I'm hungry..." Banxia shook his head and decided to handle his immediate needs first.

With Retrospect, his combat capability would barely dip even without food. Eating now was mainly for the physical pleasure of it. And a genuinely good meal let Banxia feel satisfied right down to his soul.

...

In the afternoon, Frieren dragged herself out of bed.

Eyes still heavy with sleep, she pushed open the door. Slanted sunlight spilled into the small wooden cabin, catching her fluffy white hair and turning it nearly transparent.

The door hinge let out a faint creak. She took one step forward, and before her foot even planted, she froze.

"...What happened."

Frieren stood in the doorway, her emerald eyes drifting slowly across the campsite.

Her expression was as impassive as ever. The fingers gripping the doorframe quietly tightened.

Chunks of meat, large and small, were strewn haphazardly across the ground. Dark red blood splattered across every surface in mottled streaks, several smeared across the wooden boards of her cabin door. A massive wing dangled from a distant bush, staining the leaves a deep brown. A heavy iron stench hung thick in the air.

She stayed silent for a long moment before shifting her gaze to the campfire.

The young man sat there, holding a cup of something, leisurely turning a piece of meat on the rack above the flames. The firelight played across his face. He looked perfectly calm, as if the sea of blood behind him had nothing to do with him at all.

"...What did you do last night?" Frieren's voice was as even as always, though a trace of hesitation crept in.

"Oh, ran some experiments." Banxia flipped a freshly roasted piece of meat without looking back. "Don't worry. That's all shadow chicken. Not humans."

"Shadow chickens?" Frieren tilted her head, gaze drifting back to the blood-soaked ground and the giant wing still snagged on the nearby bush.

"Apparently a new species that only showed up in the last few centuries." Banxia offered the explanation helpfully, in case the old-timer hadn't heard of them.

"I know..."

"Good." Banxia relaxed.

"I thought shadow chickens were solitary beasts. They don't usually attack humans in packs like this..." Frieren said, puzzled.

Besides, she hadn't heard any real commotion last night. That many shadow chickens attacking at once, it shouldn't have been this quiet.

"Could it be that I've been too relaxed these past few centuries... and my vigilance has slipped?"

The white-haired elf felt unsettled. She'd only spent a short while in the safe Central Continent. How had it come to this.

She frowned, genuinely reflecting.

Over a thousand years old, and she hadn't even noticed beasts approaching the camp.

If Flamme had known about this while still alive, Flamme would probably have mocked her for a very long time.

"By the way, I figured out the last reward last night." Banxia produced a fresh cup from his robes, used magic to conjure soda, and held it out to the white-haired elf.

"...Nothing too troublesome." Frieren made a mildly put-upon face, took the cup, and had a small sip.

The liquid hit her taste buds. Her eyes narrowed almost involuntarily. She looked down at the cup with quiet curiosity.

"What is this... I've never seen anything like it..."

"It's a drink called soda," Banxia said, and moved on to what he'd decided on last night. "I'm heading to the Royal Capital soon. The barrier there is supposed to be impressive. I'll need your help unraveling it when we get there."

"The Royal Capital... that's Flamme's barrier." Frieren didn't ask what the young man intended to do there. She simply stuck out her small pink tongue and licked at the fizzy soda again, expression satisfied.

"I might not necessarily be able to break that barrier, you know."

"Doesn't matter." Banxia tossed another stick into the campfire without a second thought.

Frieren held the cup and took another sip. The bubbles burst softly against her tongue. She squinted, seeming to evaluate this new beverage with genuine consideration.

After a while, she spoke at her usual unhurried pace. "This was made with mana, wasn't it?"

"...You could tell?"

"I sensed very faint traces of mana in it." She looked intrigued. "What kind of magic makes this?"

"Want to learn?" Banxia gave a light laugh. "I can teach you."

"Really?"

"Of course. Come on — call me Master first."

"..."

➤ Next: The Iorph Clan