Having returned to town, we went to the Adventurer's guild. When I showed the receptionist my guild card, I was quickly ushered to the guildmaster's room.
"Good work. Sorry for pushing a metal lizard onto you."
'Not at all, I basically did nothing. Hati did all the killing, and it was only one spell to boot.
Ah, also it wasn't a metal lizard. I should tell the guildmaster about this.'
"Uhmm, we killed it, but it wasn't a metal lizard."
"Hm? Not a metal lizard?"
"Yes, it was a mithril lizard."
"What did you just say?"
"Huh? I just said it was a mithril lizard."
"M-M-Mithril lizard?!" The guildmaster stood up as he shouted.
'Huh? No wait, just calm down, guildmaster.'
"If what you're saying is correct, that means there's a mithril mine. This is going to become big. Anyway, first let me confirm that mithril lizard."
Considering its size, we had to head over to the storehouse again, so I went over along with the guildmaster.
"Yo, Johan, we're barging in."
"Ah, guildmaster... and you too, bro."
"Johan, close the door." Having been told that, old man Johan closed the door immediately, having gotten used to it.
"So, what did you bring in this time?"
'No wait, even if you put it like that, this time it was just a monster that you guys asked us to hunt.'
"Uhh, so I can take it out?"
The guildmaster nodded, so I took out the mithril lizard from my Item Box.
""......"" Both the guildmaster and Johan were speechless.
"U-Uhhmm..."
"It's... real..."
"Y-Yes. It certainly is a m-mithril lizard. That's all I can think of, looking at this hide."
'Huh? Are mithril lizards that rare?'
"I totally thought it was a metal lizard, but to think it was really a mithril lizard..."
"Wasn't it just a metal lizard when it was first sighted? Hasn't it been a pretty long time since the request first came in? People never really went there in the first place, and with rumors of a metal lizard not even adventurers would go there if they weren't highly ranked. And it's been left alone exactly because those high-ranked adventurers wouldn't go, either."
"So, in that time, it found mithril ore, and changed into a mithril lizard, huh?"
"Most likely."
Both the guildmaster and old man Johan heaved a sigh. And the two of them stared my way.
'Huh? W-What?'
"You just have to bring in something ridiculous every time, don't you?"
"Really. Everything you bring to me is just... something."
'Eh? Eh? Huh? Should I not have brought it in?'
"Just so you know, mithril lizards themselves are incredibly rare. Enough that the last time there was even a mention of a mithril lizard appearing was 400 years ago."
'F-Four hundred years...Really, old man Johan?'
"They transform into mithril lizards by eating mithril ore, but places where they can even find mithril ore are more than extremely rare.
'I-It looks like this has become really huge, but will things be alright?'
"This will be a huge thing for the owner of this territory, Earl Langridge, it'll mean that a huge sudden windfall has just dropped into his lap. No one could ever have imagined that mountain would have mithril in it. I'll have to go inform Earl Langridge about the mithril mine and all this other stuff... I'm sorry, but I'll need you to let the guild have this mithril lizard."
If it really was this rare, then it seemed they'd need the mithril lizard's hide to present to the king when the earl reported that there'd been a mithril mine found in his land.
As for my armor, the conclusion was that I wouldn't need one since I had Hati's barriers, so personally I didn't really need it and wouldn't be able to do anything with it anyway, so I didn't have any problem with selling it to them.
"In exchange, I'll talk to Earl Langridge about adding a little to your reward. Don't worry, in the face of all he stands to gain, he won't mind. Killing the mithril lizard, finding a mithril mine, and the sale of the lizard's carcass... adding them all up, you'll most likely get at least 5000 gold."
"Wow, you're gonna be rich, man. With the money from your previous sale you'd be able to live comfortably your entire life, but with this, too, you'll be able to play around as much as you want. I'm jealous as all hell."
Old man Johan was saying that, but as an ordinary citizen, having this much money suddenly rained on me was only causing me to shiver in fright. Even more so because I hadn't done anything to earn it.
"Well at any rate I'll have to leave to talk to Earl Langridge, and the reward's going to be huge... So, the earl won't be able to give it to you right away. It'll most likely take an entire week. I'll be calling on you when we're ready to pay for the mithril lizard."
The guild master gave me back the mithril lizard, but I wondered if they could just keep it.
I'd just be leaving it in my Item Box, but I really didn't even feel like doing that much after hearing how much money was going to be involved.
"Ahh, also, try to keep this a secret. Johan, you too."
Both of us nodded hard.
"Ah, now that I think about it, what about the bloody horn-bull request?"
'The other request.'
"Of course it would be nice if you could finish it soon, but we're not in that much of a hurry.
Especially since you've just killed a mithril lizard. It'll be fine even if you take a little while to rest before getting to it."
"Hmph, there is no way I would be tired after killing a single lizard. We will be going to hunt the cow herd tomorrow."
'Hati's just as energetic as always.'
"Well the person who's going to do all the work is saying that, so we'll be going tomorrow."
"I-Is that okay? You've just killed a mithril lizard."
I completely understood the guildmaster's concern. But the mithril lizard was also killed with just a single spell.
"Ahh, I think it'll be fine. Truthfully, Hati killed the mithril lizard with a single lightning spell."
Both the guildmaster and old man Johan were knocked speechless when I said that.
"One… lightning... spell......"
"He really is a legendary beast..."
'Umm, sorry. Hati's just too strong.'
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We went to exterminate the bloody horn-bulls at the huge western grasslands.
The grasslands were to the west of the city, and thus were named the western grasslands. 'What an easy name. Well, leaving that aside, there's a herd of bloody horn-bulls that have settled down in these western plains. From what the guildmaster told me, they're about the size of a rhino, violently tempered, and group up in herds, so they're really hard to deal with. Well, Hati's the one that's going to be fighting them, though. So for now I just have to make sure to not get in his way, huh?'
"Hati, can you tell if the bloody horn-bulls are in the area?"
"Yes, I can. They are a little ways from here. Over that way. We are going to approach and finish them."
When I followed Hati's eyesight, I saw several black dots here and there.
"It won't be good if they notice us, right? Groot and I will wait here."
"Yes. That would be faster. I will contact you through telepathy when I am finished."
"Got it."
Hati proceeded, staying low so as to hide in the tall grass. As for me, I laid down flat on my belly amongst the grass, hiding myself as best I could. Groot crawled out of the bag that I had put down next to my head.
{Where did Uncle Hati go?}
"He went to beat up the big cows."
{Unfair! Groot wants to beat the big cows too!}
"Huh? But it's scary, there's so many of them. Wait here with me, Groot."
{Don't wanna don't wanna don't wanna! Groot's gonna go beat the cows!} Groot left with quick movements after leaving those words behind.
"Ah, hey, wait!" 'Woah, he's already all the way over there? Groot's so fast.'
"Aww, dammit!" Chasing Groot, I crawled along on the ground through the grass.
After some pretty desperate effort, I finally caught up in time to see Groot jumping all over the place around Hati.
"Hahh, hahh, finally..."
While I was taking a breather, Hati approached me with slow steps.
"What are you doing?"
'Huh? What do you mean what? I was trying not to get seen by the bloody horn-bulls...'
"All the bloody horn-bulls are dead."
'Wha? Eh? It's already over? Wow, that was way too quick.' I stood with a grunt of effort.
'I crawled all the way here, my back...' I bent backward to try and stretch out my muscles. After heaving a sigh, I looked around to find my surroundings bathed in blood.
'What... the hell?'
There were giant black cows tipped over in the lake of blood. Huge numbers of them.
'The fuck is up with this hellscape?' There was a gentle breeze blowing past, but this place was scoring a flat zero on the refreshing meter.
{Ah, master—! Groot beat the big cows!} Groot, having noticed me, jumped over with big leaps.
{Master, master, you know what? Both Groot and Uncle Hati beat those big cows at first, Uncle Hati swung his arm and there was wind, right? And a bunch of the big cows felt over. But there were cows that didn't fall over, so Groot came and shot them like pew pew! Isn't that awesommme?} Groot excitedly sprang around both me and Hati.
Hati most likely used Wind magic first, and the ones that weren't dead were killed by Groot's Acid Bullet.
"Indeed. Groot moved pretty well there."
'H-Huhh~, I see.'
It was really sad seeing these bloody horn-bulls after they'd been on the receiving end of the ultimate tag-team of Hati and Groot. They probably weren't even able to respond before being sent to the great beyond.
'Yeah, you guys will just have to work for our food.
Now then, let's get to work stuffing these bloody horn-bulls into my Item Box. Wow, looking from up close, these really are just huge cows.'
'1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, there's still more... The guildmaster wants us to let him buy half of these, but it might be okay to let him buy more than that.'
A single one was already the size of a rhino, after all. No matter how much Hati and Groot ate, it would probably take several days to finish off just one. Turning half the herd into meat would result in quite the amount. Not only that, but eating only beef would induce fatigue, so if I were to mix in different meats, having half a herd would last for a long while.
But that would be if Hati and Groot didn't get bored of beef. 'I'll just have to put in some extra effort so that doesn't happen, though. Let's make a huge variety of beef dishes so the two don't get bored. Right, they're all in. There's fifty-eight bloody horn-bulls in total. Half of these, huh? Twenty-nine huge cow's worth of meat... That's a lotta beef. W-Well, it won't go bad if I just put it in my Item Box, though.'
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
"Well we've done our job, so let's have lunch for now."
"Yes, good idea. I am starting to get hungry."
{Food—!}
I had thought to have a meal, but... 'The bloody horn-bulls are cleaned up, but the lake of blood is still there, huh? This place reeks of iron and blood.'
"Ahhh, this place really kills my appetite."
"The smell of blood is really harsh, huh? If the smell is this strong other monsters would probably come running."
"Huh? That'd be terrible. Let's hurry and run."
"Wait a second. Groot, can you clean up the blood here?"
{Hmm? Clean up this red stuff?}
"Yes."
{Groot can do it — wait a bit.} Following Hati's instruction, Groot started shaking violently. It was Groot's Cloning skill. Once Groot became larger, it immediately split into many smaller Tree seedlings.
{Everyone suck up all that red stuff!} Following Groot's orders, the smaller Tree seedlings headed for the lake of blood.
And then they sucked up the blood of the bloody horn-bulls. The lake of blood was gone in but a small moment, and all that was left on the trampled grass were red-stained Tree seedlings.
"Groot, good job."
{Ufufu, Groot got complimented by Uncle Hati...}
"It is thanks to that Cloning skill, I knew you could do it."
'It just seems like... Groot can do just about anything...' "Groot, is it okay to leave those small Tree seedlings alone?"
{Yeah. They'll probably disappear when it gets dark.}
'So they'll disappear at night, huh? Well it does seem like the clones have a lifespan.'
{Master — Groot is hungry.}
'Ahh, yeah I got it. I should make lunch, then.'
"Here, it's sandwiches — pork and chicken cutlets."
I presented Hati and Groot with a pile of cutlet and chicken sandwiches on a plate. I prepared them yesterday using the pre-fried pork and chicken cutlets I had made (Groot seemed like it would be bad with spicy foods, so I accommodated for that.)...
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Butter the bread, and put on extra mayo and a layer of minced cabbage. Lay the pork cutlet on top of the cabbage before adding the tonkatsu sauce and finishing off with another slice of buttered bread. Then, cut the sandwich in half to finish the dish.
Do the same for the chicken cutlet sandwiches.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
"More." {More!}
"Coming up." I presented a second plate piled high with pork and chicken cutlet sandwiches.
'Hehehehhh, I pre-made these so I can bring them out immediately.'
I didn't have the time to pre-make food before when we were busy traveling, but since I'm staying in town for a while, it might be a good idea to start doing that. 'I've got a lot of meat in storage, so yeah, let's do that whenever I have free time.'
I bit into a cutlet sandwich. It's so goood~.
'This place is also pretty nice. If it weren't for the bloody horn-bull stuff, this would basically be a fun picnic. Nope, stop it. If I remember that I'll lose all of my appetite.'
Clearing my thoughts, I bit into the sandwich again.
'Ahhh, cutlet sandwiches are great. The cabbage, mayo, and sauce combine together in perfect harmony. Khhh~ so tasty!'
Actually, the sandwiches I had made for myself were a little spicy, so there was a little stinging accent to the taste.
'Eating under the wide blue sky is just the best.
Chicken cutlets are also delicious. Ahh, I want some beer.'
{Master — I want to drink the fizzy thing.}
"Me too."
"Ahh, cola, huh? If you want something carbonated... wait a second." I used my Online Supermarket to buy me some canned coffee and them some cider. I wanted some beer to go along with the sandwiches, but I stopped myself since it was still midday.
I poured out the cider onto plates for the two of them.
"Here you go."
{Huh? This one is different.}
"This is called 'cider.' It's different from before, but it's also fizzy and good."
{Groot will try!} Groot gulped some down.
{Yeah, just like master said, this is good!}
'I see, that's great.'
"Yes. This also bursts on my tongue. It's good. *Berrp*..."
"Pfft..." 'Hahaha, Hati just made a huge burp.' "Ahaha, that's because of the carbonation. It's good, but it causes burps."
We continued to enjoy our meal while feeling the breeze blow past the grasslands under the big blue sky.
"Now then, let's go back." After a long break to digest the meal, I talked to Hati. Groot was taking a nap in my bag.
"Yes, we should. However, I still feel like I haven't exercised enough. Both the mithril lizard yesterday and the bloody horn-bulls today were not even good enough for a warm up."
'Hati, I think you're the only one that can say that about mithril lizards and bloody horn-bulls.'
"Is there not some more challenging opponent?"
"And what would that challenging opponent even be?"
"Let me think...A dragon would be worth something. If not a dragon, then at least a horde of wyverns would do."
'P-Please stop. Don't raise these weird flags on your own. Actually, there can't be a dragon around, can there? Don't go around joking about wyvern hordes either.' "S-Stop spouting weird things about d-dragons or wyverns."
"It is not weird. Dragons and wyverns appear in human towns every once in a while."
"Stop it. You might jinx it, you're scaring me."
"Hmph. Even if they came, I would just send them packing."
'No I mean, it's not about whether or not you'll send them packing, dragons themselves are no joke.'
"You may not be aware, but both wyvern and dragon meat are both delicious. Especially dragons."
'I don't give a shit about that. And of course I've never eaten something like that.'
"It might be nice to hunt a dragon after we go to the sea. Yes. That is what we should do."
'Nowaynowaynoway! Don't "that is what we should do" me! Can you not just decide our destination on your own?'
"Here, get on. We are leaving."
*Sigh~* 'Hati really doesn't pay any attention to other people. It's fine to go to the sea, but I'm definitely never going anywhere near a dragon!!'
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Reaching the adventurer's guild, I immediately headed over to old man Johan.
The guildmaster was off talking to that noble he said he was going to visit, so he wasn't in today.
I was told by the guildmaster to report to old man Johan since he knew about the current circumstances already.
"Excuse me."
"Oh, it's you! I've heard all about it from the guildmaster. Over here."
We headed over to the now-familiar storehouse.
"Is it the bloody horn-bulls today?"
"Yes. It was a pretty large herd..." After leading off with that, I started dumping out the bulls.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30...
"W-W-W-Wait a minute!" Old man Johan stopped me in a hurry. "Could there... possibly be more?"
"Yes, there is. There's fifty-eight of them in total."
"F-Fifty-eight?! What a large herd. They'd normally get to about forty at the largest..."
'Huh, really?! I did think that there were a lot of them, but I didn't think it strange at all.'
"Well, it is you."
'Huh? What does he mean by that? My fault? Wait, but Hati's the one killing them.'
"But still, fifty-eight? This is huge."
'Sorry.' "I'll be selling half of these to the guild, so it'll be a lot of work but I'm leaving it to you."
"I know, I know. The guildmaster told me to prioritize you as well."
'Oh right, I had an idea so I need to ask him to give me one of the hides as well.' "Hey can you hand over one of the bloody horn-bull hides as well?"
"Sure, why not. So you want half the meat and one hide, and then you'll sell the rest to us?"
"Yeah."
"There's a lot of them, so let's see...they should be ready in three days."
"OK. I'll come by again, then."
I tried to leave after saying that, but Hati, who had been laying down ignoring everything until now slowly got up and said, "Wait."
"Hm? What's up, Hati?"
"Mm, what happened to that meat?"
"There's a lot of them so I'll get them in three days."
"Then I cannot eat that meat today?" Hati deflated a little after learning that.
I hadn't thought of it since we still had a lot of meat, but Hati must have been looking forward to the bloody horn-bull meat.
'Oh well, might as well ask.'
"Sorry, but can you give me one right now?"
"Haha, sure." Old man Johan went and butchered one for me. "What about this one's hide? Will you be taking it?"
'That's right, might as well take this one while we're at it.' Receiving a single bull's worth of meat and hide, we left the Adventurer's guild.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Hati and Groot started complaining that they were hungry as soon as we reached the inn. 'I thought they'd start up. It's pretty much time.'
"Hati, you'll be wanting the bloody horn-bull, right?"
"Indeed."
'If that's the case, then it's gotta be steak. It's my first beef in a while, too. Not to mention that the bloody horn-bull meat is a beautiful red that seems perfect for a delicious steak. Steaks it is, then.'
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Start off with oiling a frying pan and heating it on high heat. The point is to make the pan reaaalll hot. Personally, I think medium rare is the best way to cook a steak, so I'm going to be making them medium rare.
Season the meat just before cooking. Failing to do that will allow the umami to leave the meat, so this needs caution.
Cook the steak for one minute on high heat at first, before lowering the heat a little and cooking for another minute. Do the same for the other side.
Once it's cooked, cover in plastic wrap or aluminum foil for five minutes and let it rest on a plate.
Since hearing about this and trying it out, I find that it results in little waste of heat and makes the meat more tender and delicious. I always make sure to do this when cooking thicker cuts of red meat.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
That's when it happened. Everything seemed to freeze and time stood still.
Somewhere very far far away.
"What the hell is that? Oh God, STOP! "
"I said STOP"
"Give it to me."
[an unknown force takes control of your body]
[it is impossible to resist]
[don't talk back to the Chef]
[good luck]
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
This is the ultimate steak. You want the rolls royce of beef.. Now season it beautifully. I like to open up the top of the peppermill to increase the size of the pepper in the steak, so it gives that bit of heat. Mop up all that seasoning and sort of push in.
The four most important parts to make sure take them out of the fridge 20 minutes before you actually start cooking them. Pan just started smoking. Touch of oil in. All that around . And then just lay the steaks away. And let the pan do the work. That's the kind of noise you want to hear in the pan every time, that nice sear. Pair of tongs. Turn it over very carefully. Literally 30 seconds of the pan you can see the color. Beautiful, that layer of fat on the back of the sirloin you want to render that down as well. Grab the steak. Stir one end, turn it back down and stir the other end. Tilt the pan , let all that hot fat olive oil run down the back and it starts to sear the steak even better. Put little bit of a garlic in. Doesn't need to be peeled. Just lightly crushed and then that gives a really nice flavor to the steak . Turn the steak every minute so you have got that nice even color and if you are turning you steaks every minute it starts to cook evenly a little bit of thyme. It's really nice to get that nice fragrant. Put in butter. Tilt the pan and just baste the steaks. Take them out and let them rest. And this is what can be called steak.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
[regaining control of the body]
Hati jumped on the steak as if to say he'd been waiting forever.
"Yes. This is delicious."
{Yeah, this meat is great!}
'It looks like Groot liked it too. Now then, my turn.
Oohhh, the meat juice just wells up in your mouth with every bite!
This is great! The meat juice that comes out with every bite really makes you feel like you're eating meat. Yeah, beef really is simply delicious~.'
"More." {More!}
'Of course those two would say that. This meat is fantastic.'
I grilled more steaks. Of course, this time I used Hati's favorite steak sauces.
Today, we managed to enjoy the bloody horn-bull meat to our heart's content.
{Whew~ that meat was super delicious! Groot is so full...}
"I am also satisfied. However, something is wrong... As it is now, as long as it is not an emergency, I no longer want to eat raw meat. Everything you cook is much better."
{Groot also loves master's cooking—!}
'Aww, nothing will happen even if you praise me like that, though. But still, it's thanks to Hati and Groot that I'm able to be so safe in this world, isn't it? At the very least I'll make you guys good food to eat.'