Chapter 103: Alone

Abe, Sierra, Henry, and the other members of Eren’s group began to gather as much of the herbs and plants back to their base Territory.

There was so much that they had to carry that they had to go through multiple different trips, basically eating through their entire schedule for the day.

For most of the greenery, they planned to sell. Things like potatoes and vegetables and some fruits grew like weeds here in the Subterranean Burrows. They weren’t that valuable. However, with the amount that they got from this Territory, it was enough for them to earn about a thousand sunspores in total.

As for the rest, Eren planned to keep them. After all, they were very crucial for his plans in creating more Physique Accelerant Pastes.

He had the Skyward Herbs ready. Thousand of them were harvested. He didn’t need to buy them anymore, which was good because it was currently one of the most expensive things to buy here in the Subterranean Burrows.

The other ingredients were easy to procure as well. As long as they had enough sunspores, they could buy it from the market in the PItted Cavern.

Now, it was just a matter of creating it.

And for that, he enlisted the help of his team members.

"All you have to do is crush these Skyward Herbs like this," he said to them.

He demonstrated the very simple task of crushing these yellow-star shaped leaves into liquid mush.

He also taught them how to process the other ingredients. Those were much more delicate, but they eventually got the hang of it.

"Is this good enough?" Sky asked as she showed Eren a stone bowl filled with muddied yellow soup. It was the Skyward Herb extract. However, it was way too muddy. She must have messed up.

"You need to mash them harder and make sure that the liquid don’t touch the crushed leaves for no more than ten times..."

Of course, since they weren’t used to processing ingredients like Eren, it took them a while before they got the hang of the correct way to process these ingredients.

But since they were eager to prove themselves capable and show that they were useful to the group, they didn’t stop and continued to do as he said.

They didn’t know what crushing Skyward Herbs meant, but they knew that it would help him in the end. And that’s all that mattered. He had shown them that he could lead them into victory here in the Second Test.

The next day, Eren and Celeste both ventured out back into the Pitted Cavern. The others stayed back as they processed the ingredients.

"So..." Celeste asked him.

"So?" he replied.

"What about those things?"

"What things?"

"Don’t play. Those Skyward Herbs and mosses that you have the others crush. What are they for?"

Eren looked her straight in the eyes. "It’s a way for me to get about 11.6% stronger."

Celeste chuckled. But then, she saw that serious expression on his face and realized that he wasn’t joking. "Wait. You’re not kidding."

"Why would I?"

"Well, first of all, there’s no way that someone could get stronger just by doing that. If you are creating some kind of Awakening concoction, then the best that it could do is maybe relax your body for better training and muscle recovery.

Everybody knows that Awakening pills are just best for supplemental training. It can’t replace actual training."

That was because she didn’t know that secret about the Primary Meridians. No one here in this world knew about that.

"That’s why I think it’s best if we train them instead of making them do those things," Celeste said.

And at this point, Eren disagreed completely. There was no point in training them, he thought to himself. After all, this Second Test would very likely not last for more than a few months. The training that could be produced for normal people wasn’t that good.

Also, at the end of the day, they were still competitors. This Second Test only made them groupmates. But after this Test, it may very well be possible that they would be pitted against each other once again.

Eren didn’t want to empower them just so that they would fight against him in the end.

"You do you, I do me," he said to Celeste.

After hearing his response, Celeste puffed up her cheeks and turned away from him. But still, she kept close to him.

Eventually, they ended up back in the Market of the Pitted Cavern. Things were hectic here, just as before.

More stalls and more customers in total. As the days passed, examinees got more and more active. And with more Territories captured meant more resources to be sold. And to capture more resources, they needed more sunspores.

As they walked through the very crowded pathway through the market stalls, Eren began hearing conversations.

"Hey did you hear? There were two more lootboxes given earlier today!"

"What really?! I must have missed it. Who were they?"

"One was a leader sponsored by the Elveneid Riders. He was just a run-of-the-mill leader that got lucky because they found a Territory containing some unique fruit.

But what was interesting was the second lootbox. It was sent by the Lindberg family!"

Eren’s eyebrows raised as soon as he heard this. He immediately slowed his pace so that he could listen to their conversation better.

"Why is that interesting?"

"Well, the one who was sponsored was this weird, bald guy with red markings on his face. You know, that monk-looking guy.

Well, from what people know, that guy was actually sponsored first by the Hearth family! But now, the Linderbergs have sponsored them as well! That’s two Prominent Families!

And you know the history between those two families. They’re definitely fighting over who gets to recruit this monk."

"Wow... that is interesting. Makes me want to be in his group."

"That’s actually the thing. He doesn’t have any other group mates! It’s just him alone!"