Chapter 60: Ration your food wisely, please! part 1

It was a quiet morning in Ironwoods and everyone was either at their homes or at the refuge. The first door to open was the Silver goddess tavern's and no other than the silver goddess herself came out running on top of the deep snow swift as an arrow, her steps were so light that she didn't even sink an inch in the snow. Her long and silvery hair waved in the cold wind showing a carcaj full of arrows behind her back.

After two weeks of lockdown the freeze finally receded and everyone at the tavern was eager to put their newly acquired skills to the test, especially Dylan. But this time the only one allowed to go outside was Anne, since they were low on food.

Thanks to all the hard work Anne managed to unlock the light steps skill that increased her move speed and allowed her to tread without leaving footprints, Dylan unlocked strength boost, Claire finally learned the cooking skill and Sera learned analyze. Rina, Eiri and Kairi just increased their physical condition but it made a huge difference, tasks that used to be impossible for them, like lifting flour sacks, now were just a bit tiresome.

Despite all the effort Helena put into her workout, she didn't learn a new skill nor her stats increased, but she didn't mind because the only reason she had to learn a new skill was because she wanted to heal Sera's arm and Ryu already took care of it with his new skill.

Ryu spent as much time as he could into the workshop researching different extracts and crafting potions with different effects, after his transmutation skill capped at 100% he got a system message indicating that he unlocked a skill called alchemy.

At first he didn't know how to use it, it didn't level passively by simply distilling herbs, instead it leveled whenever he mixed different extracts.

The only problem with all this was something they weren't prepared to face, all the energy they spent training and crafting made them hungry. That amounted to Ryu's fascination with the distiller they started running out of herbs and vegetables, if it wasn't for the wolf meat they had they would have ran out of everything. By the time the freeze ended they were already on a meat only diet, making them desperate for vegetables.

Thankfully, Rina made sure to set aside enough vegetables to cope with at least the first day after the lockdown, because she knew that people would come out of their houses starving and if they didn't provide food people would be so upset they might even tear the tavern apart. But Ryu was desperate, he ran out of materials for his potions on the first week and the only way he could cope with being idle was to spend some quality time with Rina.

At first Rina didn't mind it, they were both discovering a whole new world filled with pleasure and intimacy, but it came to a point that she almost begged him to put his slaves to good use. Nevertheless, it didn't matter how much she tried to convince him, he would always refuse, leaving her no choice but to give in to his desires and that was the main reason why she couldn't learn a new skill.

Ryu kept her really busy in bed, so much so, that she would be left exhausted before even the day began and she couldn't train nor work out properly. On the upside, at least her endurance increased by leaps and bounds and, despite the bags under her eyes, there was a smile drawn on her face everyday.

But not everyone at the tavern was as happy as the new couple, especially Anne. She asked Eiri and Kairi to switch rooms with her, because she couldn't stand hearing whenever Rina and Ryu were going at it. They tried to be as silent as they could, but it was useless. Every time she heard them it was as if a burning iron was shoved through her heart and she couldn't shake the regret she felt, knowing that she could've been with Ryu if she had been more understanding and less selfish.

When Rina pointed out that neither Anne nor Helena actually cared about Ryu, Anne didn't want to believe it and thought that maybe she was saying that just so she could keep him for herself. It wasn't until she saw them acting as a couple that she understood how true her words were. Rina would always wash Ryu's clothes herself, she warmed water when he went to wash himself and sometimes even joined him, at the end of every day she served him a beer while filling him with sweet words and compliments. She also supported him on his experiments and they talked long about them, even though it was clear that she didn't understand the first thing about them.

In summary, Rina showered him with love and attention everyday. That's why as soon as she noticed that the food supplies were running low she proposed to go on a hunting trip as soon as the freeze was over. Somehow she managed to hide her sadness from everyone, but once she was outside the tavern she couldn't refrain her tears anymore.

Helena's situation was worlds apart from Anne's. She did have feelings for Ryu, but what troubled her the most was the craving she felt inside her for physical contact. Instead of sadness, she felt even more turned on whenever she heard the couple have intimacy and she relieved herself the only way she could, which was of course by herself. That was enough, at least for the time being, but she was already plotting in a way to get into Ryu's bed.

Helena got closer to Rina and, somehow, she convinced her that she was experienced in the ways of love and would give hints on how to please a man. Although almost everything she knew didn't come from experience but from all the novels she read back on her world.

From all the summoned heroes, she was the one that talked the least about her past life. Ayumi would always talk about her career as a college professor, Hiraku about his real state job, Luke wouldn't shut up about his life even if his life depended on it, Anne would sometimes talk about her travels and even Bob, who didn't speak much, at least answered when asked about his past life.

But Helena, despite being very talkative and social, would always find a way to answer without providing much information about anything. They only knew what she liked and that she used to do a lot of arts and crafts, and that she had a boyfriend.

The reason behind this was that she suffered from an incurable disease called multiple sclerosis that left her completely paralyzed. She was diagnosed when she was still a child but she managed to live a completely normal life until she turned sixteen.

At first she only experienced mild pain and some stiffness, but later on her symptoms worsened to the point she wasn't even able to walk. At that moment her boyfriend left her and she fell into a prolonged depression.

She had always been a nice and kind girl and because of this she had a lot of friends, but once she wasn't able to go outside by herself they quickly drifted apart.

She tried everything to keep herself busy and she made friends over the internet, but she kept her condition hidden from everyone afraid that as soon as they found out they would stop talking to her. Her symptoms got worse and worse every passing year, but her biggest fear wasn't dying but being left alone.

She dreamed of a way to become healthy again, to be able to run and walk, to be able to love just like everybody else and she found comfort in reading all kinds of novels. All the possibilities and the different worlds embodied in novels were the thin thread that kept her from going crazy.

Through reading she experienced a thousand different lives with all kinds of situations that made her life worth living. She would laugh and cry along with the characters, living her life through them.

But her illness was a Damocles sword hanging on top of her head that would get closer by the day, ever so slowly but relentlessly.

She needed to keep all this a secret because she feared that she would suffer from the same disease again. She knew her body was rebuilt when she was summoned, but she couldn't be sure if she was sick or not.

But that wasn't the only secret she needed to keep from everyone, there was an even darker one, a secret so terrible that only thinking about it made her shudder. Back on her world, her illness eventually took her sight leaving her completely helpless.

That's why she took her own life.