Chapter 32 - Dinner Menu: Wolf and Bear?

Ryuji never appreciated the raw meat that he was eating before. He only knew textures of beef, pork, chicken, and venison. He could compare the rabivore meat to a chicken meat but twice as gamier than the venison. He wondered about meat he was accustomed back on earth, where are those in this world? It seems some herbs complimented the rabivore meat to mask the gamey taste off it. Good thing he found some salt herb earlier. The was a common fixture in the surrounding area of the Spring of Origin which was very fortunate at this point. But he needed to stock up some soon. Probably some pepper and other herbs that he can use if he found one. Butter would also be good. But before that he should find his brother and civilization first.

Ryuji was done with the cuts of meat for the second rabivore meat. It was already dusk, he asked Pyun-Pyun to store the bones. He fetched more sticks and made some sort of torches around the area to illuminate the area that they are cooking on. This second rabivore had innards like intestines, liver, heart which he also impaled them with the sticks that he used before and started to barbeque it. One of his travels back on earth when he was sent was to try street food during his regional business trips. He liked the grilled barbeque and some countries where he had travelled for business sometimes had interesting things to grill which he attempted to apply to the innards. Soon the area wafted with the smell of meat that is being grilled one after the other.

The younger wolf was awakened by this savory smell that lingered into the air, but he was still weak. The older brother wolf was stood by and it seemed to be resisting as hard as it can with the flavor of cooked meat in the air. Though his instincts of seeing and smelling food being cooked is great, this proves a bad idea right now. Earlier their hunting pack was able to sense blood on the site because of their keen sense of smell. What are these guys thinking! This savory smell can attract other predators in the area.

Just as the young wolf was about to speak to warn the pair of cooking maniacs a loud roar came from the opposite direction. Everyone looked in that direction and saw this big reddish-brown lump of fur slowly approaching towards the cooking goblin. "Look out!" the young wolf howled. There was no time for the wolves to assess the situation due to the sudden appearance of the reddish bear. They stood their ground and due to the injuries of the younger wolf, the older wolf could only stand ground to protect his injured kin.

The goblin and slime looked in the direction of the bear and seemed to be unfazed to the approaching predator. The bear was slowly sizing up trying to grasp the opportunity and intimidate the greenish competitor and it would round accomplice at the size. It was acting on instinct and if an opening appears, it will snatch the food under their noses. The goblin heard the warning from the younger wolf brother looked to the wolf brothers and seemed to be calm as if telling them that they can handle themselves. Ryuji quickly casted on the approaching creature.

'A tank like creature? These animals are really a hassle! I just wanna eat peacefully! First there were wolves and now a bear.' Ryuji silently cried internally. While he had not realized his blunder since he is not a hunter at all and only knew urban life for the past 35 years, he should know that these types of scavengers and predators will hover where the food is. Unfortunately, he has zero idea about this. 'Oh wait. We can add this to food. I have not gotten any skills because of the rabivore, we should eat the wolves and this bear!' He became excited with the idea.

"Pyun-Pyun, should we add 'that' to our menu?" Ryuji smiled and simply pointed to the advancing bear. The wolf brothers who saw that smile, it was like an evil grin and felt a cold chill trickling to their spine when they saw the goblin's smile. They could not help but pray silently. They knew that this pair cannot be offended earlier, the slime was already a formidable creature on its own when it was facing the hunting pack. They did not understand what the goblin had just said, but from the looks of it, the goblin and the slime pair may have something sinister hatching up to trap this poor creature. The wolf brothers were already offering their prayers to the unfortunate bear.

Pyun-Pyun jiggled vigorously as if it was excited with the new menu. Slimes essentially do not eat but they dissolve nutrients available to them. They are practically like scavengers and do not come across creatures that often because they are easily killed. However, in Pyun-Pyun's case, it was tamed as a familiar. Since the goblin started eating meat the other day, it had a knack of eating meat like any other creature which was uncommon for a slime to most creatures residing in the Valley of Ono. It was something unheard of but probably no one lived the tale since most of the slimes are located in the Spring of Origin.

For Ryuji, since he remembered the skill of learning through consumption, he will finish his food with one of the wolves and this bear tonight. He had not gotten his fill because of these creatures. They keep meddling with his meal. He and Pyun-Pyun are eating their only meal for the day and this troublesome creature should pay.

Instead of waiting for the bear to pounce, Ryuji quickly thought of casting several at the direction of where the bear is approaching. He imagined an AOE type of attack using earth like the one he saw being used by a character from a video game where some earth be directed in a specific direction (1). The bear saw this and was cautious but by instinct it still moved toward the meat direction. After all, food is still better. Ryuji saw the sluggish approach and casted several at a time concentrated on the area which looked like an area of effect skill that he imagined. The bear felt the magic attack and instinctively dodge but it was too late. The spikes appeared faster than the bear anticipated and caught the bear in the bind. Two spikes a pieced the bear's right hind leg. The bear gave anguished howl as it did not expect its strength would not work with the goblin.

. Ryuji is now level 40> The echo chimed. Ryuji was surprised with the announcement, but he quickly realized that Pyun-Pyun had an announcement also earlier. It was 5 levels higher than him. He frowned about this announcement. However, his sulking was short-lived as the bear howled in pain. He realized he was still battling the bear who was now partly immobilized with spikes protruding the front paws and the in the area made it hard to move. The spikes made from earth magic are tough as a rock and even the sheer size of the bear will not be able to knock it easily.

"Pyun-Pyun! Use !!" Ryuji shouted. He felt that this was some kind of video game in his childhood. (2) The slime obeyed and quickly rushed to the giant bear who was still howling in pain. Pyun-Pyun made his tentacle into some lance and aimed for the bear's head. The bear fell down instantly. How the slime attack appeared so similar to a famous game.

Satisfied with the new kill, Ryuji dispersed the earth magic and walked over to Pyun-Pyun to give it a pat on the head. "Good work!" He praised his loyal minion. The slime jiggled in joy. The goblin started skinning the pelt of the bear. He will use that later for clothes or armor. He had practiced with the rabivore meat earlier though it was messy. He had a rough idea of how to skin the big animal. He ordered Pyun-Pyun to keep replenishing the meat that is being cooked. He worked on skinning the bear. He should really say goodbye to his dirty loin cloth. This will be the final night that he will wear that ugly and disgusting loincloth.

*****

"Oh. I never thought that the can be a kitchen knife." Messaged the whole group. Sefie was greatly surprised with the live feed. The gods have the capability of doing a live feed similar to earth using objects like wells and it was so boring. The Zariya management chat had multiple "…" appearing at the same time. They were typing away their commentaries.