Chapter 188 - How Does It Taste?
At the mention of eating ant organs, the group lapsed in silence. Although palace guards were just servants of the royal family, they enjoy luxurious meals that weren't any less than the nobles and perhaps even exceed the nobles.
With the privilege of having meals personally prepared by the royal chef, they were accustomed to elegant and artistically arranged cuisines with strong aromatic fragrances that easily whet one's appetite.
They weren't opposed to trying new delicacies, but when it is visually unappetizing, the human mind subconsciously develops resistance and repulsion towards it. It would already be a good thing if the thought of eating the organs of insects didn't lower their appetites, let alone raise it.
Lilith strongly rejected the idea the moment it was raised. Fortunately, there were some brave souls among the palace guards, who were willing to test the validity of the taste after submitting to their curiosity.
"Ugh…"
At this moment, the talk was interrupted by Damir's sudden groan of pain. The few palace guards, who were prepared to volunteer as taste testers, lowered their hands.
Shaking his head, Leon said, "We'll worry about this later when it's time to eat. I'm sure no one is feeling hungry at this moment."
"Let me take a look."
Leon helped Damir remove his gauntlet to inspect the wound.
The state of the wound was very unpleasant to look at. A large layer of skin was melted, and the bones were exposed. The condition did not exacerbate, and the bleeding was stopped thanks to Leon's previous act.
However, Damir paled at the sight. One look at the wound and he knew that his hand had become useless. It might even require amputation to prevent other medical issues from developing as a result of necrosis.
Leon wore a grim look as he inspected the wound. The blood of these creatures was so tyrannically corrosive. Was it really safe to eat their organs?
Hope faded from Damir's eyes as he looks at the prince's expression. It seems his hand had no hope of recovery. Damir sighed and said, "Don't worry, your Highness. I don't blame you for this injury."
Snapping out of his thoughts, Leon responded with, "Hm? What are you talking about? Why would you blame me?"
Leon proceeded to pull out a knife and said, "Grit your teeth. It's going to hurt a bit."
"Oh…"
Suddenly, Damir was assaulted by strong waves of pain as he gritted his teeth out of reflex. He wanted to scream, 'A bit!?'
Leon cleaned the wound with the knife, scraping off all the useless flesh and caused the bleeding to resume. Afterward, Leon pulled out a bottle of Tier-2 Golden Ointment and began applying it to the fresh wound.
"So miraculous!"
The surrounding palace guards became slack-jawed at the sight of the flesh regenerating at a visible rate. Leon was quite satisfied with the recovery speed. It could be even quicker if he used Tier-3 Golden Ointment, but it wasn't necessary.
The herbal garden in his Worldspace might be growing well, but not enough to waste his precious tier 3 spirit herbs on a trivial wound. He didn't have that many to spare.
Soon, the wound fully closed, but Damir did not regain feeling in his fingers. However, Leon wasn't finished. He pulled out his silver needles and continued his treatment.
At the same time, he suddenly said, "Don't just sit there and watch. Go look at the building entrance Lilith mentioned."
"Our apologies, your Highness. It's just that your treatment method is too fascinating." Zorbek smiled wryly, before giving his men the order to search the bottom floor.
However, he, himself did not leave, but asked, "What is the purpose of checking out the blocked entrance, your Highness? If we are looking for alternative ways to escape, I don't believe going deeper into the underground is the correct choice."
Leon didn't answer his question immediately but continued with the treatment silently.
Some time passed, before the palace guard was able to regain senses in his fingers. He flexes his fingers with amazement glances at the prince with gratification. "Thank you, Your Highness."
"En, off you go," Leon said.
After Damir left to join the rest of the palace guards, Leon resumed his focus on Zorbek and nonchalantly said, "Haven't you realized that this building is designed like some sort of watchtower or control tower? If we remove the hard earth, we might be able to find other buildings and facilities in the vicinity if we search."
After listening, Zorbek seemed to have understood the prince's intention. The prince did not show any show concern about their present predicament of being trapped. Worrying wouldn't solve anything. It was better to use their time efficiently while they are trapped to do what they came to do.
"I understand. I'll go check on the palace guards, your Highness." Zorbek said.
Leon nodded and shooed him off with his hands.
Finally, he made some time for himself to read. Reopening the book, he found, he skimmed through the contents for useful information.
"Can you read the ancient language?" Lilith asked with surprise.
Leon smiled and didn't comment.
"Hmph!" Lilith pouted.
…
"What's the situation?" Zorbek inquired.
"We found a few more crystals, some scattered papers and a journal of sorts. Apart from that, it's just the engraved runes on the walls as far as you can see, Captain." A palace guard reported.
With the ants no longer being a concern, the bottom floor was lit brightly. Zorbek glanced at the runic walls with zero comprehension.
"We are taking everything, including the runes on the wall. Take out your notebooks and start recording the runes."
"Yes, Captain."
"What about the entrance? Why is no one working on the entrance?" Zorbek suddenly asked, seeing the palace guards idling around the blocked entrance.
"Erm, the entrance is blocked by a highly concentrated piece of earth, Captain. We tried removing it without earth manipulation abilities, but it wouldn't break apart and felt like we were trying to lift the whole earth."
"If you can't move it, you can weaken it first. If you absorb all the earth elements in it, it would naturally be easier to break apart and move with your earth manipulation. Are you all brawns and no brains? You didn't think of such a simple solution?" Zorbek admonished with a frown.
"Eh? Right… Why didn't we think of that?" The palace guard, Benny scratched his head awkwardly.
"Maybe it's because—" Marcus, another palace guard tried to come up with an excuse, but he was interrupted by someone's stomach rumbling. Everyone glanced towards the culprit, before Marcus joked, "Because we were too hungry to think?"
Everyone laughed, except Zorbek.
"Didn't we all just ate before headed out? How can you be hungry already?" Zorbek questioned with creased brows.
"This… I'm not sure… It might have something to do with the recovery medicine, his Highness used." Damir scratched his head with embarrassment.
"Well, since you are hungry, you can be the first to taste-test the ant," Zorbek said firmly.
The rations they brought could last months without spoiling, but it was different from the dozens of carcasses if left unchecked. As such, Zorbek thought it was a good chance to have some test
"This… yes, Captain."
Damir succumbed to his fate as he understood the Captain's thought process. Leon caught the news and made his way down.
Sometime later, a plate of ant delicacy was placed in front of Damir, cooked by the one and only fire-user in the group, Leon. It was meticulously prepared after removing several unsafe organs and only keeping the edible parts. Even an idiot would know that the poison gland could not be eaten.
Everyone gathered around and waited on Damir with concentrated gazes.
"Well… here goes nothing…"
Damir gulped and took the first bite. His eyes closed as he sensed the gates of a new world of taste opening to him. The taste was a mixture of mild sourness and extreme spiciness, but it was juicy, and the texture was tender. He had confirmed that the information was not false. It was delicious.
In Don's exact words, he said, "Ant organs had an otherworldly taste and will leave an unforgettable experience."
Not long after the first bite, came the second, the third and so on. Damir ate with great gusto.
"How is it?"
"It's like eating spicy hotpot. Except, each bite is explosive in flavor. Hm, simply put; It is too delicious." Damir answered as he smacked his lips with great relish.
After hearing this, the previous palace guards who intended to volunteer were moved. They began joining one after the other. A new plate was served for each person and after they ate, they displayed similar expressions.
Seeing this, the group was convinced. When it was just one person with such an exaggerated expression, they would doubt and assume that the person was just faking in order to bait the rest of them into eating. But when it is repeated four times, it had to be true.
The courage of the group grew, and they began joining one after the other. Even if they weren't hungry, they still joined out of curiosity. As they say, curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back to life.
While the group indulged themselves, only one person remained unmoved. Lilith sat in one corner snacking on a meat jerky as she eyed the bunch of fools with disgust.. Instincts told her that she would regret eating ant organs, and she would rather just her instincts than trust humans.