After dissecting some of the more tender parts of Gyuarna meat, I gather some wood and small stones to create a safe fire, that won't come with the risk of a forest fire. With the limited resources that I have on hand, making a proper grill or frying pan is impossible. The only way to give myself some space to prepare the food is the iron ingots that I poached from the smithy before.
When the wood starts turning into charcoal, I cover the top of the firepit with the ingots, to make some flat but heated area. After waiting for the ingots to heat up to a minimal degree, I place the bits of meat on it, while sprinkling it with the rest of my seasonings given to me by my father.
"Are you maybe able to prepare a blood tonics?"
With her legs pulled towards her chest, Eve rested her chin on her knees as she watched me setting up the makeshift grill. With her eyes following every movement of my hands, she appeared to be in a slight daze.
Well, no one could blame her for being overwhelmed by the events that transpired since we met. Almost dying to a horde of baby zombies, miraculously surviving the onslaught of powerful demonic beasts while unconscious, getting an awesome new weapon, killing our way through the area that used to instil fear and deterrence in her previously…
With all the emotions that were gathering for this entire time finally found their way towards her consciousness, it was easy to notice how broken she was. Everything that I showed her belied the rules that she took for granted. Even the way I act and think about stuff is way too unorthodox for someone from this world!
"I don't know what are you talking about. I can try to brew something out of the beast blood, but I'm worried it wouldn't be drinkable."
With the way I answer, I actually want her to elaborate on this point for a bit. As one of the very few questions that she asked me, it's bound to hold some importance!
"Both the meat and blood of the demonic beasts at the same or higher power level as you can be used as great nourishment. While cooking the meat down has this effect as well, only by preparing a proper blood tonic, one is able to fully make use of the inner energy of the beast."
Oh, that actually sounds tempting! If my intuition isn't wrong, the beast's blood can be used as an ingredient in potion making! The question is, what are the other ingredients? What is the recipe? Is my cooking skill related to brewing the potions?
"Blop."
"Host needs to acquire the Pharmacy ability to be able to brew potions and blood tonics!"
"UwU"
I can't even be bothered by the Bonger shrewdness at this point. I can't do it? So be it! I will nevertheless find a way to gain this ability and make the fool out of this stupid system!
"I'm sorry, but I don't have such an ability. Are you capable of brewing them though? I would love to learn something new from you!"
Sugarcoat every request, and the chances of it being realised will be greatly improved! If I can trade some empty words for an opportunity to grow, why should I refrain from doing so?
"Well, it's not like I can't. It's just that my level of an understanding related profession is far too low to get rid of the bad taste of the blood and some of its impurities. If you really want me to show it, then you need to prepare for losing such a valuable ingriedient"
Still sitting down in her closed position, Eve emotionlessly stated the facts. While some would instantly try to jump on the occasion to learn, I think I heard something far more interesting!
"Say, if I were to extract the energy from the blood, would you be able to sense it leaving the liquid?"
If she had some problems with eradicating the bad elements of the blood, my first thought was to simply distil the proper energy part out of the blood! As long as she would be able to pinpoint the moment when the energy would decompose and leave the blood, I would be able to set up a distillation station and amass the purified blood either for trade or my own use!
"Yeah, there is nothing hard in that. But I don't think there is any point in doing this. The boiling point of some of the toxins is too high to properly get rid of them and leave only the valuable parts. Most of them would be vaporised in the process, and the remaining part would be far outclassed by the rest of the toxins to make the drink usable!"
Oh! It seems that the distillation process is still unknown to them! With the quality of the brews depending on the quality of its ingredients, its no wonder locals never tried enriching a normal material! Considering what Eve said before, there were already people capable of purifying the blood with some herbs and specific methods, but if she wasn't able to properly do it herself, this only meant that it wasn't as easy as simply boiling it and collecting the fumes!
"I think I have a great idea for when we go back to the sect. To test it out, would you be please so kind to collect about two gourds of the beast blood for me? If my assumptions are right, we might get some interesting results from it!"
Trying to not get overly excited, I flip the meat to its other side. The pleasant sound of the frying fat indicates that the ingots already heated up, forcing me to pay a bit more of my attention to preparing our meal.
"Sure, if you could find a way to extract the pure energy from the blood, you would be able to apply for the elder position in the sect right away! So don't get your hopes up, if that was so easy, other people would definitely try it before!"
While I understand why is she trying to put my expectations down, there is a great mistake in her line of thoughts.
If someone is used to certain actions in specific situations, it will only get harder for them to break out of their mind cage and look at the bigger picture. With the abundance of water purifying herbs in this world, there was no need to develop the idea of boiling the water. As such, the only way to make the drinks heavier depends on the special weeds used in the process of brewing them! Without even the basic conception of boiling out the water, how one is supposed to think off distillation in the first place?
Noticing Eve standing up and facing the direction of the destroyed lair, I take a look at the meat and shout.
"Try to hurry if you can, the meat will be ready soon!"
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Discord link if you have an idea You want me to implement into the story:
https://discord.gg/5PrTcac