Jenna's Hut.
Lith was back with Shi and everyone sat around a round table, discussing their future plans.
Shi's clothes were in tatters, and he was one step away from becoming the talk of the town.
He was sleeping and recovering on a chair beside Lith's. Nobody bothered him and actively ignored his unsightly state.
"So where to from here on, Your Highness?" Dennis sipped on tea and curiously asked.
"To the location of the last ingredient." Lith looked at a map and said. "We need to find the areas with high density of serpents, and not just any, but river serpents."
"Oh! I know of them!" Dennis put the teacup down and clapped his hand, his eyes twinkling. "In the mories of the church officials, there were locations of river serpents."
The group of church mbers roaming around Dennis's group were killed and their souls went through a thorough mory search.
Dennis was speaking from knowledge obtained through the search.
Lith nodded. "Then it's decided. We'll obtain that and finish this quest as quickly as possible."
Dennis, Miwa, Ralph, and Hyunsuk nodded their heads.
After doing so small talk with Jenna and her mother Yuma, Lith and his party left to get the final ingredient.
The last riddle was relatively simple and it did not take them long to find a group of river serpents.
The habitat of these creatures was peculiar. They made nests over a flowing river's strong currents and lay in them.
These nests were made from so earth that radiated warmth.
Lith and his party passed by many such nests and eventually found an earth vein in the middle of a jungle.
Guarding this earth vein was a giant white serpent with red eyes. It emitted a powerful aura and was sound asleep.
The riddle stated that they needed the tears of its laughter blended with sothing.
Lith didn't know what sothing it was, but given how there were a lot of rare herbs growing beside the earth vein, the only viable option was to blend the morning dew on these plants with the serpent's laughter.
The challenge Lith and the rest now faced was to make the serpent laugh. They had never done such a thing and it was really weird.
After racking their brains for a while, Dennis got an idea and quickly said it to everyone.
The idea made everyone's lips twitch, but nobody smacked Dennis in the head for it.
Everyone was out of idea so it wouldn't hurt to try what Dennis was suggesting.
Thus after getting a green signal, Dennis went to fetch a few river serpent's and ca back.
He mind-controlled these creatures easily and made them go in front of the giant river serpent.
The giant river serpent woke up as it noticed intruders. However, possessing superior intelligence, it did not kill these guys and watched.
The river serpents Dennis was controlling hissed and began coiling around whatever they could find.
So serpents slamd their heads onto the pillar they were coiled at, so hissed lodically, and so tried to stand as tall as possible.
The scene was far too stupid and made Lith as well as the rest cringed.
They closed their eyes and couldn't bear to watch the embarrassnt being put up in front.
Dennis ignored them. He made the river serpents perform an orchestra full of hisses and sssssss. He also made them dance and wriggle around like caterpillars.
The giant river serpent had never seen such a thing before and it stared at the group of stupid serpents.
After a while of watching, the giant snake hissed and began thrashing around.
At first Dennis thought it went mad because of the stupidity of the weaker serpents, but then he saw tears glisten around its red eyes.
The tears flowed out of the serpent's eyes and fell on the plant near the earth vein.
Dennis saw one drop get mixed with the dew present in a plant.
Thinking this was it, he went ahead and fetched the plant as swiftly as possible, moving right under the nose of this giant serpent.
Dennis's level was higher than the river serpent and that guardian didn't take notice of him.
Finishing his task, he showed it to the rest and had a look at their surprised faces.
"You thought my idea was stupid? Who's laughing now? Hahaha!" Dennis laughed out loud and praised himself happily.
Lith and the rest had seen what Dennis did. It was a surprise to find out that a serpent could laugh too. It was a strange sight for all.
Nonetheless, everyone heaved a relieved sigh.
Without any problems, the last ingredient was obtained and they could finally make the stew and leave.
It was still a bit unbelievable how smoothly everything went.
Things were definitely suspicious and everyone put their guards up and ticulously moved towards performing the final few steps.
There wasn't anything that specified about the venue or ti to make the stew, so Lith chose a random flatland and began preparing to make the stew.
Ralph seed dejected throughout their journey and Lith could tell why was such the case.
The guy wasn't the best at expressing himself, but Lith could understand that his sadness stemd from his uselessness.
Ralph wasn't useless, just really unlucky in this quest. He was captured at the start and also rescued at the last mont when the ingredients were almost gathered.
He couldn't help anyone and only helped cause more problems.
The sadness did not stem from out of nowhere and everyone could understand.
Thus, to cheer him up, Lith gave the stew making duty to Ralph.
From preparing the ingredients to cooking it fully, Ralph was the one who would do everything, the rest would simply sit down and watch him.
Ralph accepted the duties and began preparing to make the stew.
"Hey, if you ss up, , Miwa, and His Highness will take turns to whoop your ass." Dennis heckled and laughed.
Ralph didn't even try to actively ignore Dennis's comnt. It just happened naturally.
After so many years, Ralph's hearing was fine tuned to ignore everything Dennis blabbered. His brain only processed so useful information that may occasionally co out of his mouth, otherwise he was simply ignored everyti.
Dennis did not know about it and thought he was doing a good job motivating Ralph. He thus sipped on tea and continued to heckle.
Lith, Miwa, Hyunsuk, and the now conscious Shi patiently waited for Ralph to finish. They were very curious to see if the stew of the legends would actually be made or not.
Ralph put on his apron, chef's hat, lit up the fire below a big cauldron, and used the Ignisite for flas.
Once the setup was ready, he took a deep breath and sharply gazed at the cauldron.
"I'll start the cooking process now."
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