V3C63 (1/2)

(063) Camping out Cuisine

Translator: Tseirp

While passing by countless Peddlers along the way, we traveled southward.

My heart tinged for leaving all of the horse handling to Haru.

Carol invited me to clean up the mana grass that she picked up just now so, as a test, I tried 「Clean」 and because it reached the condition whereby the soil was completely removed, I once again had nothing to do.

Carol was shocked.

Originally, the magic 「Clean」 is not supposed to be so omnipotent and 「Clean」 shouldn’t be able to remove the soil from the grass.

Since to the grass, soil isn’t something that is dirt but something it requires.

Even if she tells me that, I can’t control what I’m capable of doing.

After that, soaking it in water for half a day and drying it by basking it in the moonlight during the night would likely make the mana grass a good quality material.

To me, drying it after soaking it in water felt like double the work but since it’s supposed to be done that way, I poured the water produced using the Water magic 「Petit Water」 into a barrel from within my item bag and placed the mana grasses within it.

I’ve also become better at adjusting the amount of water produced using 「Petit Water」.

When I was secretly practicing, I was flustered when the water ball I sent out seemed like it smashed the tree it hit.

Using magic with full power is extremely easy but using it when holding back requires precision.

Since I had nothing to do, I prepared the rock solid bread that I failed to eat yesterday night that became even harder despite already being hard in the first place and began performing a certain task.

Because the sun was setting, we gathered firewood and today we would be camping out around the area here.

Since it seemed like it would take 2 days to reach Dakyat, we’re camping out around the area here for today.

Even for Dakyat that felt like it was quite close by when viewed from the mountain summit, it’s actually quite far once we actually travel.

In particular, the path down meandered quite a bit as we descended so there’s no helping it.

Carol remained in the carriage as Haru and I gathered tree branches that seem capable of acting as firewood.

Fortunately, since there was a forest once we descended the mountain, we weren’t inconvenienced with the lack of firewood.

Along the way, we found tree nuts that look edible and I gathered them together with Carol in the morning so that might be good enough for breakfast.

Her Harvester level has increased so she’s acquired the 「Plant Appraisal」 skill and is apparently able to at least determine if tree nuts are edible or not.

After we finished gathering a certain number of tree branches, I assembled about 30 percent of them and,

“「Petit Fire」”

Similar to 「Petit Water」, I held back and used the Fire magic.

I constructed the campfire without disintegrating the tree branches and turning them into charcoal.

With this, we should be fine even when the night comes.

Feeling at ease caused me to feel hungry.

“Alright, shall we cook then?”

I suggested to the 2 of them.

“”Eh?””

Haru and Carol raised surprised voices.

It can’t be helped that the 2 of them are surprised. Even though we’re camping out, I have an item bag and it has various dishes inside.

There wasn’t a need to deliberately use the campfire to cook.

“See, we can eat freshly made dishes with the item bag any time but we won’t have a chance to eat campfire cooking if we don’t have an opportunity like now right? Don’t worry, I’ve already purchased the ingredients and prepared the cookware as well.”

Saying that, I lined up the frying pan and ingredients from my item bag on top of a flat rock. It was all purchased in Belasra Town.

Incidentally, I also used 「Clean」 on the stone for sterilization and disinfection — though I’m not sure if that was achieved but it became clean.

“For the time being, shall we have roasted fish and simple barbecue? I’ve also bought iron skewers either way. Haru, sorry but could you help fillet the fish. Carol, please cut the leek into bite-sized chunks. I’ll make the meat easy to eat.”

Haru prepared the freshwater fish, Carol, the leeks and I, the remaining wolf meat.

Thanks to my dismantling knowledge, I know the method to make meat softer to a certain extent.

I inserted fine cuts into the muscle fibers to make it more tender.

I felt that this dismantling skill could also be used sufficiently by cooks that work with meat dishes as a skill.

Naturally, I didn’t put in cuts for Haru’s portion. It’s not because I’m being mean but because she prefers meat that is chewier. The chewiness would be lost if I cut the muscle fibers.

“Haru, the fillet … or not.”

The fish was splendidly split into 3 pieces.

However, they were cut into chunks.

It was split into the head, torso and tail portions.

At the very least, it wasn’t a fillet.

Rather than fillet, it was a disappointing split.

“Oh well, since it’s at this stage I’ll work it out.Carol … no, my mouth isn’t that small you know.”

She was slicing it. However, it was ones with 5 mm width. Furthermore, she has only finished slicing 3 slices. Just how leisurely has she been cutting it?

Or rather, the way she was gripping the knife was quite dangerous.

Perhaps she couldn’t even hear my voice, she stared at her hand and about when she raised the kitchen knife high, I grabbed her wrist.

If I let her continue using such cutting methods, she might really cut off her finger one day.