LRAB Chapter 8 Making a Choice
Chapter 8 Making a Choice
Huddled up and attempting to thaw out, Aoni sat staring down at the final Health Potion tube. It was one of the toughest decisions he had faced in his life so far, and Aoni's hesitation to just go for it and hope for the best was completely understandable.
Not only had he been transported to a strange land, but with the altitude, terrain, and isolation from civilization, plus the 35-day window before he could head back home, using the Potion seemed like a really bad idea.
Anything could happen, and it was his literal only saving grace when it came to injuries.
However, the longer he sat before the fire, the more the pain Aoni was feeling increased, along with the itching sensation brought about by the pins-and-needles effect.
Even so, Aoni knew that this pain would only increase until he reached a mental breaking point, so after having weighed his options for several tens of minutes, he slithered his left arm out of the safety of the sleeping bag and emergency blanket, snatched up the Potion, tore off the cap with his teeth and squeezed the jelly-like substance into his mouth.
Like before, the effect of the Potion was practically instant, dulling the pain Aoni was feeling as the medication worked its way through his system.
Generally, potions last between 15-30 minutes, with more severe injuries taking up to an hour to resolve. This was especially true for Mundanes, which Aoni technically wasn't; still, a basic healing potion could heal basic bone fractures at most, which was technically pretty good.
Anyway, since Aoni was already on the mend thanks to the first Potion, the second combined with it and hyper-accelerated his 'healing factor' or basic regeneration, and before the Cave had even had the opportunity to heat up to a comfortable temperature, the pain was gone.
Unfortunately, that was when "buyer's remorse" kicked in, and Aoni felt a sense of loss at what he'd done. Even if it was a matter of survival and movability, he'd burned the only life-saving trump card in his arsenal, meaning from this point onward, Aoni would be forced into a life of excessive caution for several days until he had a few summons who would be able to move in this climate.
Letting out a sorrowful sigh and shaking his head to clear the dark thoughts, Aoni scooched like a caterpillar closer to the fire, then, for the first time since his arrival, looked around the Cave, observing his surroundings.
---
When he awoke an unknown number of hours later, the first thing Aoni noticed was that it was pitch black outside the Cave and hot enough inside it that he was drenched from head to toe in sweat.
"Putting the tinder kit into the fireplace was the best option for sure." He mused while shooting a glance at the crackling fire.
~Grooooowwwlll~
Hearing the rumblings coming from his abdomen, Aoni shrugged off the emergency blanket and slinked out of the sleeping bag before falling onto the hard rocky floor with a thud and holding his stomach.
"Hungry....food first, then it's time to set up my Flume and get this show on the road." Standing up, Aoni noticed that his body was free of all pain and stiffness. He took a second to acknowledge this fact and then walked over to where he had left the survival pack.
Scooping it up with surprisingly little effort, Aoni made his way across the Cave back toward the bed before dumping out all its contents and organizing them by order of importance.
Next, he tore open the box filled with rations and took stock of the packages. Although the box was no larger than a laptop computer, it housed 90 individual vacuum-sealed packages, each the size of a phone but incredibly thin, so after locating the package labeled D-01, Aoni sighed and plucked it out.
"I hate MRE's *Meal Ready to Eat* but calories are calories, and these are packed with a lot more than the normal Mundane ones I would eat during survival training." Without further ado, Aoni ripped the package open and dumped the small bags onto the bed.
The contents of the MRE included One heating pack, one water pouch equivalent to a single bottle of water, one full meal of beef stew, some crackers, and a fun-sized chocolate bar.
Using a small amount of water from the pouch, Aoni then activated the heating element, dumped the dehydrated stew into the heating bag, and "cooked" with a few shakes and some waiting; his meal was ready...to eat.