His curiosity was piqued, and he considered searching for tender bamboo shoots.
After all, bamboo shoots could be made into delicious dishes.
Winter and spring shoots were the best, but it wouldn't hurt to see if he could find some at this time of year.
Judging by how dense the bamboo was, there had to be plenty of shoots around.
But before he could start looking, Im Beomhyeon called out from a short distance away. "Hey, brat! Why are you just standing there like an idiot? Get over here and help me!"
Bok Taejin hurried over.
The bamboo Im Beomhyeon was holding onto wasn't the usual green kind.
It had a yellowish-bronze sheen to it, blending in with the surrounding greenery.
"This is the type of bamboo we need," Im Beomhyeon explained as he crouched down.
He pulled a knife from his boot, one side sharp and the other serrated, and began sawing at the base of the bronze-colored bamboo.
Bok Taejin had expected such a thin stalk to be easy to cut down.
However, even after five minutes of sawing, it hadn't budged.
"How long is this going to take?" he asked.
Im Beomhyeon couldn't even be bothered to glare at him and answered lazily, "No idea. Just gotta keep sawing. You should go look around for more bamboo like this. This is the only one I've found so far that's this thick."
"If you find an especially thick one, call me over. If you see thinner ones, just remember their locations. Since we came all this way, we need to find at least ten of these. If you find them or run into trouble, just yell—I'll hear you as long as you don't leave the valley."
Bok Taejin acknowledged the instructions and set off to search for bamboo.
But no matter where he looked, all he could find were ordinary green bamboo stalks.
There wasn't a single bronze-colored one in sight.
Now he understood why Im Beomhyeon had been in such a hurry.
The time it took to reach the valley wasn't too long compared to the length of a day.
But finding these special bamboo stalks was a real challenge!
As for how long it would take to cut them down—that was an even bigger unknown.
After much effort, he finally found a bronze-colored bamboo stalk, but it was far too thin to meet Im Beomhyeon's standards.
Bok Taejin made a mental note of its location and decided to test its durability by bending one of its smaller branches.
He was already mentally prepared for the toughness of bamboo, but this bronze-colored variety seemed excessively rigid.
To compare, he tried breaking a branch from a nearby green bamboo.
Those were also difficult to snap, but at least they cracked without too much effort.
This bronze-colored bamboo, however, was on an entirely different level.
After searching a while longer, Bok Taejin finally found a bronze-colored bamboo that met the required standards.
He called out loudly, and after just two or three shouts, he heard a strong, full-voiced response from the distance: "Got it! Stay right there!"