"Hehe~" When he heard her giggle like that, he couldn’t be angry anymore.

After the time he spent there, his mental state worsened over time. He thought he was used to being alone, but after joining the tribe, there were not many days where he didn’t talk to someone. So this change was a hard blow to his mentality.

But it also showed him that he was still not prepared for what was to come. His body was still growing, but how long will it continue to do so? Kaoran theorized at one point his appearance would stop aging completely or extremely slow down as if frozen in time.

In truth, he didn’t know how much time passed inside and so it was possible that his body had already stopped aging…

At that time, his heart would be drowned in loneliness. Now, he was mentally just an 18-year-old young man who still hasn't experienced much.

Unfortunately, damage was done from his younger ages so it was hard for him to adapt despite him meditating most of the time inside of that iceberg.

The better focus he had during meditation, the faster the time flowed for him.

But in the end, Zephyr emerged once again.

She still appeared seldom but when she did she helped him to order his own thoughts and control his emotions. She was a great support in his situation and who knows if he could persevere without her ranting.

“So? Do you have any plans now that you have made the first step towards your freedom?” She asked again.

At this, Illyan sighed and answered.

“Yeah. I plan to return to the kingdom I was born in. There, I will settle down in some town for a few years and get used to everything. And I will learn to read their letters so I can read the books. Then I want to travel further south but since I don’t know much about that place, I am still not sure.”

Varanas Kingdom.

Place where his village was founded. He didn’t know much about it despite living there for almost a decade. As commoners or even serfs, the villagers didn’t have almost any knowledge about the outside world beyond a few neighboring villages.

The only source of information he got was from Meddie who was from a different nation. Unfortunately, she also didn’t tell him much as most of his efforts came into learning herbalism.

And now, he didn’t even remember the language properly. Just thinking about the initial struggles made his expression sour.

“You won’t be able to live normally as you are now, though. You are too vulnerable. Wouldn’t it be better for you to live here for a few years to recuperate?”

Zephyr asked as she was floating around him. She didn’t have any form. Instead, it was like a silvery breeze was swirling around him whispering him the deepest thought within his mind.

“I already have a solution for that.” Illyan answered curtly.

“Oh? Tell me.”

Illyan closed his eyes and reviewed the content of the technique that he wanted to use. After a while, he explained.

“I want to use [Blood Feeding Technique] once I gain some weight.”

Zephyr, who heard that, shook her head.

“It is not a very effective technique, isn’t it? For what reason do you want to use it?”

Illyan actually didn’t plan to use the technique for its original purpose of nourishing the blood. That would be only a small bonus in this case. And that was only thanks to his regeneration ability. While he didn’t want to completely depend on his gift, he also thought that it would be a waste to not exploit it to its fullest potential.

To nourish blood, you had to sacrifice your flesh. Right now, he was too skinny so practicing it could be dangerous but once he regained a few kilograms he could use it. If his deduction was right then the Cold Energy trapped inside his body would also be step by step diluted and become part of his blood’s nourishment. Not only that but this kind of change in the body was documented by Kaoran as [Burning The Flesh].

Using the Firestorm herb as a medium you would heat up your body and in the end completely burn the flesh to nourish the blood. It didn’t mean that his body would be literally on fire, but it should be extremely hot during the practice.

This reminded Illyan of one story Kaoran told him.

Kaoran explained that some people in the south were so rich yet so lazy that they could eat whatever they liked until the fat started to overflow from them. To Illyan, who lived in poverty and famine this sounded like a total fairytale. Or maybe as dystopia since one group of people was dying from hunger while the other had health problems from eating too much.

Of course, there were some exceptions. And that’s where the similarity came from. People realized that fat was just stored energy for a long time already. However, most of the time only some forbidden techniques could utilize this energy in an efficient way. And most people wouldn’t use those because of their self-preservation or society pressure. In the end, some less efficient techniques that came to be managed to convert the fat tissue into universal energy.

The question was, where did the loss of efficiency come to be? And the answer was that most of the energy spread across the body in the form of heat! While one used the heat to sacrifice the flesh the other sacrificed the fat only to turn into energy and it was mostly heat energy on top of that.

This made Illyan wonder if there was some deeper connection to heat, flesh, and fat causing this kind of reaction inside of the body.

Unfortunately, he only heard some stories and didn't know that much about the topic to ponder about it.

Instead, he explained his reason to use [Blood Feeding Technique] to Zephyr but she seemed doubtful as if showing him that his subconsciousness was hesitant.

“And it will work?”

“Theoretically.”

Illyan could only say so as he really didn’t know. If it wouldn’t work then he would need to make another plan. But it shouldn’t take him long before trying out as he was in Blood Crow Forest where the Firestorm herb grew and try it out soon.

After saying that, both of them went quiet as they watched the night forest that was full of noises as numerous creatures that lived only in the night finally came out. As he listened to the wildlife, his eyes slowly closed up as the lulling sounds brought him to sleep…

……

The next day, Illyan focused on searching for Firestorm Herb. As the name suggested, this herb’s most distinguishing trait was its ability to raise its temperature. It was one of the most rare herbs that could be found on this peninsula but it was tightly hidden and protected by Blood Crow Alliance.

The reason for its high temperature that was even influencing the close surroundings was to survive the harsh winters in the north. That was why Illyan believed that if he found another forest similar to this one somewhere where it was very cold he would eventually find some Firestorm herbs. But since he was already here, he would use the opportunity to collect some.

But what fascinated him the most about those herbs was their ability to have a symbiotic relationship with other herbs and plants.

Many herbs would die when the cold became unbearable. That’s why the plants survived during the winter only thanks to their roots deep in the ground. But what if there was a place that was warm and humid during the winter? Of course, the plants would grow there happily!

And this place was the place where Firestorm herb was growing, making it a small sanctuary for herbs in this cold weather. Illyan could only imagine how many of them would be there to collect.

But because of this, the ‘sanctuary’ could be seen from long distances. How could it help Firestorm herb if it was exposed by all of those herbs and got collected too?

The answer was that it wouldn’t. Out of all herbs, Firestorm was one of the most inconspicuous plants out there. In the midst of all the herbs, it wouldn’t be found unless a professional came.

This was all that Illyan knew about the Firestorm herb but…

Stab

Gheee-?

He didn’t expect that this place would also be a sanctuary for the wild animals!

But it made sense. Wild animals also needed warmth and plants to survive while the Firestorm herb also benefited. The more life that gathered here, the more clashes there would be. Even carnivorous animals needed warmth. And if the sanctuary was full of food then why wouldn’t they use the opportunity too?

Thanks to that, the sanctuary was balanced between life and death. Life in the form of herbs was used to camouflage the Firestorm herb while the dead bodies were used as nutrition for it.

Truly, the most magnificent herb Illyan ever saw.

After killing the big fox that was going to eat some of the herbs, he started to forage them all. It may look quite barbaric to take everything without letting even roots be, but since Illyan didn’t plan to return here in the near future, he wanted to gather most herbs so he could then grow them by himself.

After he took all visible herbs, he focused all his attention to look for the Firestorm herb. After a while, his mouth’s edge culled up a while as he looked at the greeny-brown moss that blended into the ground.

“Who would think that such an amazing herb would look so plain?”

However, he still didn’t pick it up. Instead, he looked at the human skull on a stick that he ignored the entire time.

Illyan was aware that sooner or later they would notice him and the prolonged fight would begin. However, he wasn’t worried. He didn’t have anything to lose anyway so he could get loose during the fights and could use guerrilla warfare strategy to mow them gradually.

He took out the bone spear out of the fox and skinned it to make a bag for the herbs. Then, he made fire close to the sanctuary and started to roast the fox while he cleaned the herbs he collected from all dirt and pests that could be living on them.

It was quite hard to do with one arm but he adapted quickly.

After several hours, he ate as much as he could from the fox and cleaned everything up. He then put his focus on the Firestorm herb as he feared that he could damage it if he was careless. Fortunately, after several minutes of examining he finally collected it and then left the place.

A few days later after Illyan left this place, several silhouettes closed in on the place Firestorm grew. However, when they got close enough to notice that all of the herbs were missing, their faces darkened.

“Go check the Holy Herb!” One of them barked out in an unknown language as the other two men ran to the sanctuary.

As they knew where the herb was in the first place, just one look was enough to realize it was missing.

“The Holy Herb was stolen!”

“What?! Do you want to say that someone sinned to take the Holy Herb for himself?!”

The man who seemed to be the leader out of three yelled in anger.

When they noticed some tracks made by someone they raged.

“It should be either someone out of our Lord’s Alliance or an outsider.” Leader judged. Normal animals wouldn’t normally even glance at Firestorm. Not to mention how perfectly it was collected.

“We need to find the intruder or esteemed Shamans and Chiefs will be pissed.”

“Yes. Fortunately, we still have a chance to find him.” One of them found drops of blood on the ground that belonged to the fox that Illyan hunted down.

“Since we check on Holy Herbs every few days it means that it had to happen recently. So look for another tracks! We will catch that heretic that was audacious enough to go against our Lord!”

“For our Lord!”

“For our Lord!”

Illyan, who was already far away, didn't care whether they found his tracks or not. He didn’t even waste his time hiding his tracks as he knew that this place was infested by those maniacs.

If they wanted to come, then he was happy to accept them.

After all, his revenge against them was far from complete…