After swallowing it, the dark-gold node in his chest gave a faint pulse.
"Even the water has energy in it." Su Li took another two mouthfuls. "If the mages from the old world came here, they'd probably go mad."
The water problem was solved. Food still wasn't.
The plants by the stream were shorter than those deep in the forest, and bushes bore fruits of every color—red, purple, and a cyan-green kind that gave off a faint glow.
Su Li did not touch them.
Never eat anything you did not recognize. That was a rule he had learned in his first life. Every year at the docks, newly arrived laborers ended up in coffins because they had carelessly eaten wild fruit.
He walked a hundred paces both upstream and downstream, carefully studying the ground and the bushes.
Beneath the third low shrub, thumb-sized brown nuts were scattered across the ground. Fine tooth marks covered their shells. The marks were fresh, their edges still damp.
Something had eaten them. And it had survived, because a trail of small animal footprints stretched away nearby.
Su Li picked up more than a dozen.
The shells were hard, impossible to crush with his fingers. He placed a nut on a stone and smashed it open with another stone. The kernel was milky white and smelled like raw flour.
He chewed one raw.
Astringent. Slightly bitter. But edible.
He waited for about half a quarter-hour. His stomach showed no discomfort. He ate another three, and still nothing happened.
"Good enough to stay alive."
The nuts could fill his stomach, but they did not provide enough calories. He needed protein.
Su Li remembered the giant ant he had killed yesterday.
Following his memories, he found yesterday's location again. The giant ant's corpse was still there, though