Chapter 335: The Fruit in the Forest

Therefore, he carefully circled around to the back of the snake, preparing himself to dodge at any moment if something went wrong. Only after seeing that Joo Joowon had also moved far away did he finally feel at ease.

Hwi leaped into the air, and his body suddenly grew larger. He aimed directly at the snake’s head and slapped it with one paw. Not only did he smash the snake’s head directly into a mass of flesh, but the tree trunk was also cracked by the force of the blow.

The system notification entered Joo Joowon’s ears. The little snake had no ability to resist at all and left this world without putting up any fight.

The surroundings were completely quiet and peaceful, leaving Joo Joowon somewhat speechless.

For ordinary creatures, perhaps, possibly, probably... level really could determine everything. Perhaps a situation like Hwi and Byeol was actually the exception?

Hwi did not notice Joo Joowon’s awkward silence.

He understood that Dad had merely been teaching him something, just like when kittens learned how to hunt while they were young. Mother cats would always find safer prey for their kittens to practice their hunting skills on.

This would allow them to build confidence and develop an understanding of what weak prey was like. That way, when they encountered larger rats in the future, they would not be frightened.

After all, some rats in the south could grow as large as cats. Forget about humans being frightened when they saw them, even cats would be scared when they saw such rats.

Hwi understood. Dad was teaching him the hunting experience of the two-legged creatures.

He would definitely study hard, and then he would go back and show off to Byeol!

Byeol definitely had never been taught this!

Although he could not beat Byeol for the time being and could only accept Byeol’s position, that did not mean he was afraid to provoke Byeol.

One day, Dad would belong only to him!

Ignoring the little snake that had already died, Hwi agilely climbed onto the tree branch. He stretched out his claws and pawed at the bright red fruits, unconsciously sticking out his tongue to lick the corner of his mouth.

His weight was truly astonishing for such a small tree. The branch was pressed down into an alarming arc, swaying precariously as if it could snap at any moment.

Seeing this, Joo Joowon simply walked over and picked Hwi up, preventing him from continuing to torment the fragile little tree.

"Meow?" Hwi kicked his legs while looking at the fruits gradually moving farther away from him. He could not understand at all why Joo Joowon was pulling him away.

"How do you know these fruits aren’t poisonous?"

Although his previous guess had just been proven wrong, and the little snake really was as helpless as Hwi had judged it to be, Joo Joowon did not think there was anything wrong with being careful. He continued teaching Hwi.

The detection panel obtained from the Heavenly Workshop Tree currently did not have the function to identify items, especially for native species like this. Seong Seungmin’s loaded database simply did not contain any information that could be used as a reference. Therefore, at this moment, Joo Joowon could not be certain whether there was anything wrong with these fruits.

"Meow, meow!"

I smelled it already. There’s nothing wrong with it!

Hwi was practically dying of craving. Otherwise, he would not have suddenly rushed toward it in the middle of walking along normally.

However, Joo Joowon did not trust his judgment.

Animals really did have the ability to distinguish plants. They knew which plants in the wilderness could help them recover more quickly. However, Hwi was definitely not included among those animals.

He had once not been infected with the zombie virus at all, only to end up infecting himself by eating a zombie bird. This clearly showed that his ability to distinguish what could be eaten from what could not was nowhere near as accurate as that of other cats. How could Joo Joowon possibly trust him after that?

However, not letting Hwi eat them for the time being did not mean that Joo Joowon intended to give up on these fruits.

He marked the location of the small tree on the map to make sure he would not lose track of its position. Then, he picked two fruits and left.

If he judged the current situation according to the experience he had gained from reading novels in the past, the more precious a heavenly treasure was, the stronger the guardian beast around it would be.

From this perspective, the strength of the little snake meant that even if there was something wrong with the fruits, the problem should not be too serious for them.

However, this kind of experience was not very useful when applied to reality.

Therefore, Joo Joowon directly used his divination ability to deduce what would happen if he ate the fruit. The result he obtained was "Neutral," meaning that he would gain nothing from eating it, but there would not be any danger either.

He then calculated the result for Hwi as well. After feeling slightly more relieved, he finally felt at ease.

There was no need to find some small animal to test the fruit’s toxicity anymore. He trusted the result of his own divination more.

Being cautious was fine, but being overly cautious would just mean creating trouble for no reason.

"In the future, whenever you encounter something outside that you don’t recognize but want to eat, you must bring it back and let me look at it before you eat it, understand?" Joo Joowon reminded him as he handed the fruit to Hwi.

"Nom... meow~"

Hwi responded to him while eating, squeezing out a little time between bites to answer Joo Joowon. Seeing this, Joo Joowon could not help sighing. He finally understood just how nerve-wracking it could be to raise a cat that was not easy to take care of.