<div> Chapter 205: Emotional Storm
 Elin wished that Kim would have waited for her to wake up before getting out of bed herself. She had been wanting to wake up with Kim holding her for a while now, but Kim seemed to get up as soon as she woke up lately. Which made it difficult for her to wake up in Kim's arms.
 Not that she felt she could complain. Doing this was risky enough with Kim's army around, since they couldn't say what reaction her army would have at seeing them together like that. Although Elin really didn't understand what the problem would be. After all, both of them were adults, at least as far as Kim's culture seemed to consider them, so they should be able to decide things like that for themselves.
 As Elin came out of the blanket that she and Kim had slept under, the morning chill in the air helped wake her up. Which in turn helped cllear her head from the fog that waking up had left her mind in.
 She didn't waste any time getting dressed, though she did wonder if the dragon that had passed by their camp the day before might be a sign of what's going to appear as the travel.
 Even though she couldn't help but feel a little scared at how the ground trembled when they heard that roar, she could only feel excitement at the idea of seeing what kind of creature could make a sound so loud that she could feel the ground itself trembling because of it.
 When she was about to leave the tent, the morning announcement started.
 "Good morning contestants! It's another beautiful morning, regardless of what weather you're experiencing, I'm sure," the announcer said, almost too cheerfully for Elin's comfort. "First thing we have to mention is the fact that Elmo Garciea, Elin Davies, Kim O'Hare, and Jonas McCain had all worked together and finally finished cleaning out a colony of Devourers yesterday and so has completed a secret challenge. Now, while they had some help to begin with to learn what it was they were facing, our committee has determined that the help doesn't rise to the level that they became ineligible for the challenge completion. At first it seemed like they wouldn't be awarded the challenge from the committee, but they finally made their ruling after we'd made our announcement last night, so this is the earliest we could have made it.
 "In other news, Patricia McIntyre and Patrick Sullivan have had their first encounter with the fire dragon, though they didn't seem to make any headway and had to dive into a river to get away. We'll see if they fare any better if they encounter it again, but after they went into the river, they found the crystal freshwater shark and managed to defeat it without getting eaten, and so completed a secret challenge. We're just happy that they didn't die during the night from that. The highlights would have been less than ideal from that fight.
 "Aside from those two times, however, we didn't have any other challenges to award, nor did anything happen that we feel needs to be mentioned. So, we'll wish you a productive day!"
 As she listened to the announcement, Elin couldn't help but find herself getting annoyed at how cheerful the announcer was at all that was stated. She felt like whoever was running this competition merely thought of them as toys rather than people.
 She could only calm herself down from that by imagining what her father would do to them if he could get his hands on them. She was confident that he'd ask her for what her thoughts on what should happen to them, given what they'd done to her, so she knew that he'd be considerate of how she'd been treated by them.
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 </div> So, as she left the tent, she felt much lighter than she had when she'd first gotten up. More than even she'd felt for a while, even before they encountered the devourers.
 She heard a number of people talking all around her, and she had a feeling that once everyone was finished eating, that they'd be either striking the camp or already ready to go.
 Which meant that she should try to get something to eat herself. Although, she wished that they had some food that was closer to what she remembered from her world.
 What they had here was good enough, but it definitely didn't taste like what she had been used to. Even the vegetables that looked at least similar to the ones she remembered didn't have the same flavor. Including ones she ate that she knew she wouldn't like, just to see if she could get that sense of home from it.
 Mostly what they had around here to eat was stew. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There were a number of varieties, but that's all anyone ever seemed to make here.
 Not that she didn't like them, but she wished that there were at least a little more variety in the dishes. Rather than merely variations of the exact same thing.
 A few that she recalled from her home had been a kind of wheat porridge, a bean soup using five different beans, and stuffed buns.
 With the porridge she had thought about trying to make some, but she wasn't sure if they had what she'd need to make it. She hoped that she could pass it off as a wheat 'stew' even though she hadn't seen any signs of wheat grains. Although, she did recall some bread at the inn that they'd been staying at when they first left the dungeon, but she hadn't even thought about whether they'd used wheat to make it or if they'd worked with some other grain.
Follow current novels on freewebnσvel.cѳm. With the bean soup, she'd only seen three different kinds of beans so far, which she didn't think would allow her to get the soup to be as flavorful, even if she knew what spices were added to it. Although, she was sure that she could also pass that off as a 'stew' if she ever found two more kinds of beans.
 Then lastly, with the stuffed buns, since she wasn't sure about what the bread had been made of, she wasn't sure if they'd be able to get the ingredients to even make the buns, let alone stuff them before trying to cook them. At least aside from having a proper place to cook them, since they certainly didn't have an oven that they were carting around with them.
 Which meant she was stuck with the lousy stew that she had a feeling she was starting to hate. Not so much the flavor, but the constant reminder that she wasn't anywhere close to where she really wanted to be.
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 </div> Aside from with Kim, that is. If she didn't have Kim, she had a feeling that she'd have let the competition take her life before now.
 With how many constant reminders she had that she wasn't anywhere she knew and loved, she feared that she'd have completely lost herself if she didn't have Kim to help shelter from her own emotional storm that was currently threatening to overwhelm her.
 It wasn't the fear that she'd felt from the dragon that was setting off this storm, ore even the fatigue she'd felt with struggling through the parasite infection among so many of Kim's army, but rather the constant smell of the stews that were being cooked for each meal.
 She'd tried her best to figure out how to deal with it, but she had a feeling that she was starting to lose the battle with herself. That she might just lose herself if this kept up, even with Kim's support and comfort.
 "Lady Elin! Come join us!" a voice startled Elin out of her thoughts as she started to walk between the tents.
 She saw Guy with a few of the other 'officers' in Kim's army around a campfire, with a pot of stew boiling.
 She couldn't think of a reason to refuse, but she certainly wasn't in the mood for more stew, no matter how hungry she was. Not that she could think of a way to refuse it without being rude.
 "You'll never guess what someone found a way to make all the way out here," Guy told her as she sat down by them.
 "This!" one of the officers exclaimed, holding out what looked like a hunk of bread to Elin.
 "What/" Elin asked, feeling like her mind was starting to play tricks on her and make her see what wasn't actually there.
 "I know!" the officer replied as if he expected that reply from Elin. "The one who made it said that he'd been taught how to make it by his father, but only because we were stuck here for so long was he able to figure out how to make it. He said something about needing a proper something or other and was able to improvise something like that using heated stones from the fire and burying them."
 Elin wasn't sure she completely followed what the officer had said, but she suddenly felt a seed of hope starting to sprout. If what she saw was indeed what was in the officer's hand, then she might be able to figure out something that at least could feel like her home, rather than this same old stew that she was afraid might start invading her dreams as well.</div>
 
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Chapter 205: Emotional Storm

Chapter 205: Emotional Storm Elin wished that Kim would have waited for her to wake up before getting out of bed herself. She had been wanting to wake up with Kim holding her for a while now, but Kim seemed to get up as soon as she woke up lately. Which made it difficult for her to wake up in Kim's arms. Not that she felt she could complain. Doing this was risky enough with Kim's army around, since they couldn't say what reaction her army would have at seeing them together like that. Although...

The Systems Challenge

Chapter 205: Emotional Storm

The Systems Challenge - Chapter 205: Emotional Storm