It would be easier to hunt with guns. If he lived in Cameria, he would already have bought all kinds of firearms. He could go to Cameria now, but from what he had read, it was hard for a tourist to get a gun license there. There were back alley routes too, but it would be a miracle if he came out of one without a knife in his stomach. Then there was the passport and the flight. With only twenty-five days left before the outbreak, it would be a waste of time.
Still, guns would make life on the hills so much easier.
There was also the air gun. Jude searched online, but all he found was old news about people shooting others with air guns, and because of all those incidents, the government now watched their trade closely. Firearms and bullets could only be found in police stations, military barracks and perhaps shooting ranges. In other words, it was almost impossible to get one in Yorbia.
Jude then remembered something. Had there not been an incident involving firearms just before the outbreak?
It was an event from the background story of the beta. In the last days of the mad weather, a tsunami struck the coast of Yorbia and swept a fishing boat from the Russian side of Azian ashore at the port of Marsilia.
It had seemed absurd at the time, but it was not complete nonsense either. Disasters were already striking the world one after another, and it was true that fishing boats from Azian often came and went through the ports of Yorbia.
Because of that ship, Yorbia had been blamed by the whole world as the place where the outbreak began. Of course, that was not true. The virus had spread through the air everywhere at once. Marsilia had simply been unlucky, because the sailors on that stranded boat had already been infected when they came ashore.
Jude remembered the moment clearly. A gunshot had been heard from the boat at that time, while the tsunami that swept the whole port had made it difficult for the police to react.
Judging from that, it was clear that the sailors had a gun, and it was probably the captain who carried it. Jude had heard from older people that sailors from Azian often brought pistols with them when they did business in the ports of Yorbia.
The port of Marsilia was quite far from his house, but if he could secure a gun, it was worth the trip. He could use it on the hills while the world on this side fell apart.
However, all of this was what had happened back then. If it did not happen in exactly the same way in reality, he could kiss the gun goodbye.
Thinking that far, he turned his attention back to the entrance of the cave. There was still something to do before he could move into his new house. It was cleaning.
When he had finally cleared the entrance, the cave truly put him at ease, because it would be the foundation of his survival on these hills. Now he only had to work hard to protect it from any monster that came knocking.
With a flashlight in his hand, Jude looked around the cave. The entrance was so narrow that he had to bend down to get in, and as soon as he entered, he was greeted by a straight passage with no turns at all. The air was not that damp for a cave, so it seemed it would be cozy, and there were no worms or rats anywhere. The gnolls must have eaten them all.
At the end of the cave was the gnolls' nest. All sorts of rubbish and bloodstains could be found there, and a horrendous smell swept over him. Covering his nose, he took out a measuring tape and measured the distance from the nest to the entrance. It came to about fifteen meters, which was spacious enough.
Ignoring his aching body, he cleared away the remains the gnolls had left behind.
The floor was too bumpy for his liking, so it would be much better if he leveled it with mortar. He also thought it would be good to bring sandwich panels to separate the room he would live in from the warehouse.
As he wandered through the cave with those plans in mind, his eyes caught a glimpse of a shining stone embedded in one corner of the floor. It had been a while since he had seen one.
It was a Pixie Crystal. In those days, it had been the main source of light in the deep darkness of the apocalyptic nights, since carelessly starting a fire was the same as suicide when it drew every monster nearby. With a piece of dark fabric covering the camp, its light could not be seen from outside.
He returned home for a moment to pick up a pickaxe. His body urged him to lie down as soon as he saw his bed, but his mind prevailed in the end, barely.
Back in the cave, he hit the ground around the crystal with the pickaxe. Fortunately, the ground was soft, and he was able to dig out a Pixie Crystal, a white crystal the size of a palm, without much difficulty. If he dug up more and put them in every corner of the cave, he would not trip on the uneven floor.
After digging diligently, he found several more Pixie Crystals, and even a red stone. It was a Boiling Stone, a kind of flint that produced sparks when two of them were rubbed together, and it could be used without any problem even when it was wet.
He put the crystals and the Boiling Stone in his backpack for now and looked at the entrance of the cave. It would be evening soon. It was his cave, but it still needed work before he could live there without worrying about his life.
When he left, he carefully covered the entrance with bushes before returning home with Random Teleportation. As soon as he saw his bed, it seemed to beckon him to throw himself onto it, but once again he resisted. There was still the renovation of the cave to plan.
After leveling the floor with mortar, he would need to install sandwich panels to divide the space inside, and then he would make a bed and stock up on supplies. Soon, he would have to spend the night on the hills.