The Orientation Adventure of Salted Fish Otila

Morning, November 14, 719A.D. in Astima

"Oh pure Goddess of Light, become the eternal glow, shelter your devoted followers, and save them from the plague of pain and disaster! Holy protection!"

When the prayer dissipates, a young boy dressed in priest's robes, holding the Clergy's Book in his left hand and a wooden scepter in his right, stood at the gate of Nelshtan City.

"Dead cool! Is this the power of divine protection?" The young priest called out excitedly, his pale face flushed with excitement. Adjacent to him stood a young figure named Celeste, an Elf, his companion.

Celeste tugged his robes, her little face rose in concern. "Alright, alright, even though I, Otila, don't compare to fighters like Little Yuan and Fanxing, dealing with the small animals in the forest outside the city should be no problem!" Otila the mild-salted fish, shrugged, unbothered.

"Hey Celeste, shouldn't you encourage me for my first adventure? Like a hug or something~?" As Otila spoke, he opened his arms towards Celeste, who dodged and left him grasping at air, apparently having expected this.

Dodging his initiative, a disgruntled Celeste used her psychic powers to spell out "Goblin" with dead leaves from the ground.

Seeing the word "Goblin", Otila, upset by his unsuccessful initiative, put his playful intentions aside. "Goblins, they're indeed dangerous, but with my ability, it's not a big deal to deal with them. Unless we encounter the elites among them— goblin thieves...".

After some deliberation, Otila took a Dragon Salivation fruit from his bag and handed it to Celeste. "Relax, even if I happen to encounter a goblin thief, I still have the strength to fight back! Besides, most of the time, goblin thieves only steal from us when we're resting, they rarely confront us directly."

As Otila was speaking, he put his salty hand to fondle the head of Celeste, who was busy eating the Dragon Salivation fruit, unable to dodge. The soft hair of the Elves made the gentleman close his eyes in satisfaction, while Celeste blushed as she gnawed at the fruit, her ears flickering.

After Celeste had finished eating the Dragon Salivation fruit and escaped from the salty hand, Otila withdrew his hand with satisfaction, dodged Celeste's headbutt, and ran towards the city. He looked back and said, "Hey, now I have the blessing of Silsi, I will definitely come back safely. There are fresh wild fruits in the forest that the shop doesn't sell~ Wait for my good news in the inn!"

After seeing Otila enter the forest outside the city, Celeste returned to the inn's guest room. Looking at the kettle on the table, the usually expressionless Celeste couldn't help but raise her eyebrows.

Idiot!

Morning, November 14, 719A.D.

In a forest outside the city

The continuous rain of a week came to an end under the clear sky. Evaporating water vapor gave the forest a sense of mystery, like a fairyland.

"Little darlings, where are you hiding? Come out and play with me~ Don't worry~ Nothing bad will happen. If you get hurt, Uncle priest can heal you~"

Just stepping into the forest, Otila was filled with excitement, as free as a runaway husky, seeking his prey in the forest. But sadly, his luck was down, and he saw no sign of animals.

"Help! Someone save me!"

Wandering aimlessly in the forest, Otila heard a faint cry for help. Looking closely, due to the distance, he saw a maid-clad girl being dragged into the deep forest by a group of goblins...

Hmm, It's too far away, by the time I reach there everything would be over...

While thinking, Otila stepped into a tree hole full of rotten leaves and fell, drinking a mouthful of muddy water.

"Bleh~Bleh~Bleh~" Otila got up as quickly as he could, tried to spit out the dirty water but to his dismay, in the panic, the dirty water had gone straight into his stomach...

In the attempt of purging, he looked at the rotten leaves on his hand, and stayed his hand...

"Yes! Water jug!"

Looking at his pack, except for a water jug, he had everything else. Otila wore a confused face... Did I forget to pack my water jug?, Should I go back for it? Would Silsi make fun of me? She definitely will, right? Forget it, It's such a waste of time to go back...

Without a kettle and a mouthful of the taste of decayed leaves and possibly some other substances, the quick-witted Ottilia (yes, most of the time I'm incredibly clever!) chose to chew tree leaves to mask the awful taste. (Intelligence +2)

As Ottilia was happily chewing leaves up in the tree, a rustling sound came from the shrubbery below. A Pori walked out, looked around warily, found no danger, and started picking up little berries from the shrubs to eat.

Watching the adorable Pori eating berries, Ottilia stopped chewing the leaves and started entertaining the idea of capturing the Pori...

Before Ottilia could figure out how to capture Pori, a forest wolf came over from the other side, almost reaching Pori. The little guy seemed to be unaware of the looming danger...

Astima, November 14, 719 in the afternoon

The sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell onto Ottilia who was slumped on the ground. "Erect a gravestone for the filth of disease and pain, offer the sweet springs to the loving healing goddess, and I, your servant, beg for mercy, grant me your blessing!"

A soft halo enveloped Ottilia's wounded area. The wound began to heal quickly. After the treatment, Ottilia climbed up from the ground and walked towards the recently killed forest wolf. "I originally wanted to quietly approach Pori, catch it and give it to Sisi as a pet, but this guy ruined it, scared Pori away."

After skinning the forest wolf, Ottilia ate some of the dry food she brought with her, felt a bit thirsty. "Damn, forgot to bring the kettle, need to find some water to drink." Thinking of the kettle, the aggrieved Ottilia stood up and started to wander around the forest again...

Astima, November 14, 719 in the evening

"Water... where is the water?" After several battles, Ottilia, leaning against a big tree, let out a weak moan.

"With quite a few injuries and my magic power not recovered yet, it's time to go back. It would be troublesome if I run into goblin thieves again." Ottilia started to consider retreating.

After a short break, Ottilia used the tree trunk to support herself to stand up. As she was about to start her journey back, a piece of information came from the tree, pointing out that there's a stream not far to the southeast.

Looking at the hand on the tree trunk, Ottilia murmured in surprise, "Is it really true?"

Soon, Ottilia arrived by the stream and took great gulps of water, "Ah~ I'm alive again~"

Suddenly the light dimmed, a gust of wind came from behind. Ottilia tensed, rolled away quickly and when she turned to look - it was a blind bear!

After 0.1 seconds of thought, Ottilia figured it's unnecessary to fight it. She got up and ran! Fortunately, the big black bear did not pursue.

After running for a kilometer, Ottilia slowed down, "Sigh~ My back is scratched again, it's getting late, should go home now. This trip was not bad actually, just a pity that I didn't pick any berries, and I didn't catch Pori."

On the way back to the city, humming a tune, Ottilia swayed along. Just as she was about to leave the forest, she heard a big shout, "Take my heavy blow!"

"That voice... Little Yuan? What is he so excited about? I'm curious, let's go check it out!" Ottilia's eyes brightened, she ran towards the source of the sound with excitement.

As she got closer to the battle, the sound of metal colliding got louder. Ottilia wondered, "Could it be a goblin warrior?"

When Ottilia arrived, the sound stopped. All she saw was a short figure, holding a dagger, ready to stab the person lying on the ground!

"Stop!" Ottilia yelled, rushing towards the figure. Seeing someone coming, the small figure quickly retreated and jumped into the shrubbery.

Ottilia ran to the person lying on the ground - just as expected, it was Little Yuan. "Yuan! Wake up! How are you? Seriously injured and passed out? Damn, just used the healing spell, can only give simple first aid, then carry him back."

When Ottilia carried Yuan out of the forest on the outskirts of the city, from the shrubs at the edge of the forest, a pair of eyes glowing with blood-thirsty red light were staring firmly at them.

Astima, November 14, 719 at night

"Sisi, I'm back, did you miss..." Ottilia opened the door of the hotel room, before she finished her sentence, she was knocked flying by a headbutt from Celeste.

"Oh~ Sisi, what’s the matter? Who upset you?" Stood a totally oblivious Ottilia.Rubbing his chest that felt dazed from Silvia’s bump, Otira looked at the pouting Celeste who was pointing at his back with her hair. He realized, "Are you talking about all the bloodstains? It's not mine, it's from Little Yuan. He was severely injured by a goblin thief. I happened to pass by, but didn't have enough magic power to use healing magic, so I quickly bandaged his wounds and carried him back. He's been taken to the church, he won't die."

Finishing his explanation, Otira took out a Dragon Saliva Fruit from his bag and handed it to Celeste. "Here, I just bought it from the fruit store. It's fresh. I'm going to take a bath and change my clothes."

Celeste stared blankly at the fruit in her hand, reminiscing the time when they had just arrived in Nelsitan and could only sleep on the streets. Otira's daily earnings could only afford black bread, sometimes not even that. They ate leaves and drank well water, boiled vegetable soup, and occasionally found a gem that allowed them a feast. It wasn't until Otira became a priest's apprentice by the recommendation of an employer that their living conditions improved.

The creak of the door opening interrupted Celeste’s reminiscence. Otira looked at Celeste, who still held the Dragon Saliva Fruit intact in her hand. He asked, "What's wrong? Are you not hungry today?"

Celeste nodded and put the fruit into her little cloth bag, staring at Otira with an inquisitive gaze.

Having lived together for some time, Otira immediately understood, "Oh, you've eaten! The charcoal grilled fish was delicious~"

Looking at Otira who was still reminiscing about the taste of the grilled fish, Celeste decided not to expose him. There was not even a trace of the scent of roasted fish on him… But at least it must have filled his stomach.

"Sissy, let me tell you, when I was fighting the forest wolf today, a leaf flew out of nowhere directly into its eye, and then my magic stick instantly killed it when it hit its throat. Cool, isn't it?" Otira said while yawning and walking towards the bed. "I'm a bit tired. Let's go to sleep. We should rest early for the adventure tomorrow." Celeste decided not to ask this fool why it was a leaf...

"Goodnight, Sissy." Otira had crawled into bed, and Celeste quickly crawled into her own, using her psychokinesis to extinguish the candle, and the room plunged into darkness.

I will surely take you to our own little wooden hut!