Chapter 100 Gearing Up (1/2)
Eating and packing were the only things Zero remembered doing for the last few days. He didn't know that travelling required so many preparations and Hua Tuo explained that logistic planning was an important skill.
”Not everybody has an endless dimensional space to store things and the ability to warp a thousand miles to grab a forgotten item so planning in advance is very important.”
Zero nodded and went through their inventory list once again. Hua Tuo forbade his apprentice to store anything in his endless storage. Zero had to learn to 'carry his weight' when travelling. To make matters worse, they weren't travelling by teleporting or on Hua Tuo's cloud mount. They were walking.
”It takes exactly two weeks to get to that village on foot so you must be well prepared. Furthermore, we have to bring enough medicine for treatment. The villagers do not know a lot of magic so try to refrain from using magic other than healing.”
The young boy nodded. ”I think we have everything we need for tomorrow. Will we be waking up early to do the exercise?”
Hua Tuo shook his head. ”No exercise and no farming.”
”Won't the herbs die if we do not water them?”
At that, Hua Tuo grinned. ”If it wasn't on Endow Hill, they would wither away. However, we have very reliable gardeners so leave the plants to them, alright?”
Zero wondered who they were and why he never saw them. However, he had an inkling that they were the invisible guests Hua Tuo always told him to offer food to. Every two weeks, Hua Tuo would make many honeycakes and ask Zero to deliver them to a certain place in the forest. Zero had to leave it on a particular rock and come back the next day to collect the empty basket. He didn't see anyone taking the cakes even though he tried to spy on them. The cakes simply disappeared and Zero stopped trying to catch the invisible guests in action. Not even Mii could provide him with an answer as nobody appeared on their map.
With the identity of the invisible guests still shrouded in mystery, Zero didn't know if he could trust that person to care for the plants. However, he decided to place his trust in his teacher. After all, Hua Tuo treated them with more care than Zero and the old doctor would hunt anyone to the ends of the world if they tried to harm them.
”Don't worry so much,” Hua Tuo ruffled Zero's hair teasingly. ”We should sleep early, it's going to be a long journey.”
***
”How's the progress?”
Truen sighed. Merlin popped by in the dream dimension every few hours to check on his understanding and progress. The wood elf wished he didn't do it so often. The time difference was killing him and every few hours was really ten minutes on Earth time. The wood elf was slowly finding himself driven up a wall by Merlin's constant need for attention. He very much preferred the isolation he experienced in the first few weeks.
”I haven't made much progress,” Truen admitted through gritted teeth.
Merlin took no notice of Truen's tension and peered over his shoulder. He hummed and snatched the pencil before scribbling on Truen's paper.
”You did the formula wrong in here and here. If we tweaked it a little more, the mud you're creating would be more solid.”
The wood elf sighed. ”I did that earlier but the mud simply cracked when it moved.”
The wizard shook his head. ”Did you add in gravity reinforcement?”