Aside from its unique geographical location within Rime Forest and the customs and culture that differed from other regions, Ice Tree Village was, in some ways, no different from the vast majority of remote villages on this continent.
It lacked the abundant resources of a major city and was equally poor and destitute.
Precisely because of that, worried that the little they possessed would be taken away by overbearing and vicious outsiders, the villagers, shrouded in fear and awe, had brought out nearly everything they had to entertain these five passing adventurers.
The banquet was held at the village chief's house. This wooden cabin, which usually served as both a home and a place for discussions, had now become a guesthouse prepared specifically for the adventurers.
A wooden table pieced together from several thick planks, its surface uneven in places, stood in the center of the room. It was covered with a slightly old but spotlessly clean coarse tablecloth, upon which sat steaming Clay Pot bowls.
Stew, cured meat, wild vegetable soup—every dish was piled high and generously portioned.
The food itself, however, was severely limited by the village's circumstances and rather ordinary.
The only two dishes that looked decent—the roast chicken and rabbit stew—had been caught by Xia Nan that afternoon during his spare time in the woods outside.
With the exceptional physical qualities of a professional, even without much hunting experience, catching simple small prey was effortless.
In just one or two hours, he had returned with two baskets full of game.
Half of it consisted of wild birds the villagers called "gurgle chickens" in their local dialect. They had short legs, thick feathers, and plenty of meat, earning their name from their distinctive "gurgle-gurgle" call.
The other half was a small beast unique to the Rime Hills,