We left Karelina behind and headed for the capital city of Melromarc, as I need to unlock an upgrade to continue leveling up.
On the way here we passed through villages. This time we won't take the same path, but will go straight through the forest to reach the capital as quickly as possible. The journey, which took almost two months, can be completed in 7 days, according to Hati.
Thanks to the Guildmaster's information, the next wave of invasions should start around the time we arrive at our destination. We will see what the situation is. I would like to help the other heroes, at least indirectly. At the very least, I'd cook them some food and give them some buffs. It all depends on their behaviour.
If they're still treating the real world as a game, then it's to be expected that they won't know about the King's conspiracy with the First Princess against Shield Hero. If things get too complicated, there's always Hati.
As always, I rode on Hati's back, with Groot in my shoulder bag. After making some progress, the sun began to set and we decided to set up camp.
I wanted to confirm something, so I decided on something I could quickly prepare for dinner. I decided on loco moco bowls, using the remaining mixed bloody horned bull and orc general meat hamburger patties. The patties were already cooked, so all I had to do was put them on some rice.
To start, I used my skill to get some lettuce, cucumber, eggs and mini tomatoes.
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Rip the lettuce into appropriately-sized chunks, cut the cucumbers diagonally into thin slices, and halve the mini tomatoes. Then, make sunny side up eggs.
Hati and Groot will need three patties for their portions, so I crack three eggs each for them,
Pile steamed rice in the dishes, then add a well-balanced amount of vegetables on top. And on top of that, place the Hamburg patties with lots of sauce. Then, a sunny side up egg to top the mountain finishes the dish.
Adding some mayonnaise to taste further enhances the deliciousness. (I decided to not use any for this first serving.)
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"Food..."
The two of them gathered around.
"For this dish, mix it up like this before eating it." It felt a little wasteful to break it like this, but that was the way to eat loco moco bowls. I lightly mixed each of their portions.
[Is it alright to eat now?]
"Go ahead."
They started eating.
[So gooood! There's vegetables too so I can feel refreshed even while eating.]
'Looks like it's popular with Groot '
"Indeed. It is delicious, but I would prefer there to be no vegetables at all."
'You know, Hati, vegetables are necessary to make it a loco moco bowl.'
"Without vegetables, this bowl is only half as good, you know? This is good because you eat it with vegetables."
'Geez, Hati really does hate vegetables, doesn't he? Even though he can eat them just fine. It looks like he's especially bad with raw vegetables. What a bother.'
I quickly ate my own loco moco bowl.
'Hm, it's simple, but good. Yeah, I was right, this is good precisely because you eat it with vegetables.'
Both Hati and Groot wanted more. Hati asked for one without vegetables, but I told him it was better to eat vegetables and gave him one with a smaller portion of the stuff instead.
After finishing the meal and fitting in a small break afterwards, I made another box house with my Earth magic.
"You guys can go to sleep first. I have something I want to do."
"Ok, understood. However, what are you doing this late?"
"Ah you said that venom tarantulas are edible, right? But I have no idea what they taste like at all. So, I was going to try boiling one in saltwater the way Rodolfo recommended and try it out. If I don't know how it tastes, I'll have no idea how to cook it, after all."
"I see. I am not very fond of bugs, but I am also curious as to its taste when boiled. I will join you."
'You just want to eat, don't you Hati?'
[What? Is there still something tasty? Groot will eat too.]
And it looks like Groot will be joining us too. In the end, all of us were going to try it.
There were sixty-four venom tarantula legs in total. For now, I decided to boil a single tarantula's worth, or eight legs. I took out the venom tarantula legs I'd be using from my Item Box. They were a shade of purple very close to black, and when I looked closely, they had some small thin hairs growing out of them.
'Ughh, I shouldn't have looked. If the color was different, it would look a lot like crab legs, though.
When I tried washing and boiling it in saltwater, the shell turned red and really did look like crab.'
"It looks like crab when boiled..."
'I won't be able to eat it if I think of it as a spider. This is crab. Crab... crab...'
Hesitantly, I opened the shell, and tried a little bit.
'Huh? It's not bad... Actually, it's pretty good.'
Just like it looked, the legs also tasted like crab. But if someone were to tell me it was crab, I'd be kind of confused. It tasted like crab, except... cheaper?
'Hmm — I feel like I've tasted this before... What was it...... Ah, I know what it is! This is crab-flavored kamaboko!' Even the texture was the same.
It's pretty good.
"Hey, stop eating by yourself and give us some."
"Ahh, right. Sorry, sorry." I shelled some legs and served them to the two familiars.
"Hm, it tastes a little better than when I ate it before, I think. It must be because it has been boiled."
'So Hati have eaten this... raw before? Yeah, it'd be impossible for me. He says that boiling it makes it way better, so it's probably true.'
[Yeah, it's good. But Groot likes the red meat better, yeah.] Red meat, huh? So, Groot prefers animal meat, I see.
"If you are going to put it like that, I also prefer the meat we normally eat, of course."
Well, that was obvious, though. If someone asked me if I liked crab flavored kamaboko or actual meat, of course I'd say meat. Meat by a huge margin.
But still, there's still fifty-six venom tarantula legs left... I'll have to think up a menu using this stuff or else it'll go to waste.
Hrmmm, crab flavored kamaboko, huh? I'll try thinking on it more later.
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"The presence of humans is getting stronger. Most likely we will reach the border of Melromarc by tomorrow evening."
This was four days after leaving the town of Karelina. Hati said that while we were taking a break after lunch.
"I see. Tomorrow, huh? That was pretty fast."
"Indeed. Because I went a little faster."
'I actually had the feeling that we were going a bit faster than usual... So I was right. Damn it, how badly does he want me to unlock the levelling system so we can go back into the dungeon like we originally wanted to. Just the fact that we had to go to Melromarc and back was too much for Hati. Luckily, I don't have to worry about him leaving me. He's got so used to my food that I don't know what he'd do without me. All I have to do is be late with lunch or give him less meat and he'll complain immediately. The problem is that I don't know what to expect in Melromarc. When I asked Hati about the waves, he told me it happens a lot and it's always taken care of by the heroes and the white chicken. He doesn't care because all the monsters are weak and can't be eaten. '
' Yeah, yeah. You went as far as to go a little faster so we'd get here earlier, after all.
But still, the dungeon, huh... Who would purposefully go to a place full of monsters...?'
It seemed like all my familiars were looking forward to the dungeon, so I'd go because there's no other choice... For now, I'll just have to be careful to not get injured.
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"I will stop here for today." The sun was already setting, so Hati said that as he stopped running.
"How is it? Are we going to get to border by tomorrow just like you said?"
"Indeed. I said that we would be there by tomorrow afternoon, but at this pace we will be there a little before noon."
'So we're a little faster, huh? Well, we're still reaching capital city of Melromarc tomorrow at any rate.'
Im hungry I want food. This constant moving empties the stomach."
'Hati, huh? Although he eats almost too much already.'
[Groot is hungry too...]
Hahh, those two are really strong. But they have such a bad eating habits... I have to feed them a lot...
Well then, let's cook.
About those venom tarantula legs, everyone rated them lowly since although they weren't bad, they were nowhere near as delicious as meat.
'I really want to use up unpopular ingredients as fast as possible.'
And so, today was going to be something with venom tarantula legs. I had already boiled the rest of the legs while we had free time.
And so, after racking my head about it, the menu I came up with was a safe salad and fried rice with ankake sauce and tenshinhan.
Hati might complain about the salad, but vegetables are good for the body, and he should eat some vegetables every once in a while anyway.
'First I have to buy the ingredients... I'll need lettuce and cucumbers for the salad, and also canned corn... Oh, and sesame dressing...
For the ankake fried rice, I'll need green onions and eggs, and I also need the oyster soy sauce-flavored seasoning I used before that was in a tube, but I still have some of that, so I'm fine on that front.'
I needed eggs for the tenshinhan as well, so I bought more than usual.
'Oh, I also need to get the red bean garnish for both the fried rice and tenshinhan. These types of foods are better with more fillings, so I'll get some shiitake and enoki mushrooms, boiled bamboo shoots, and also some canned green peas for color.
I already have all the seasonings I need for the red beans, so I'm fine there, I think. Right, that should be all.'
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First, use scissors to cut open the boiled venom tarantula legs and extract the meat. Boiling the legs makes them softer, so the scissors cut cleanly through the shell.
Once the meat is all out and in small pieces, start with the salad. Rip the lettuce into appropriately-sized pieces, and slice the cucumbers into thin discs. Dump the ripped lettuce, cucumbers, corn, and lots of loose venom tarantula meat into a bowl and mix together with sesame dressing to finish the salad. Once the salad is saHatiy on serving plates, I store it all in my Item Box for the moment.
Next would be the ankake sauce to put on the fried rice and tenshinhan. Cut the bamboo shoots into small strips, strip the base off of the shiitake mushrooms and cut into thin slices, and remove the base off the enoki mushrooms before unraveling them.
Oil a frying pan, and add the mushrooms before lightly seasoning with salt and pepper, cooking until the mushrooms wilt before adding in the bamboo shoots and giving it another quick sear.
Add water, chicken bouillon cubes, sake, vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce into a pot and bring the mixture to a boil before adding potato starch to thicken it. Throw the wilted mushrooms and bamboo shoots into that, and mix in a large amount of loose venom tarantula meat to finish out the ankake sauce.
Next is the fried rice. Scramble an egg and mince the green onions. Add the scrambled egg to an oiled frying pan, followed closely by the rice, and mix. Once the egg and the rice are nicely melded together, add the green onions and loose venom tarantula meat, season it with the tube of oyster soy sauce-flavored paste, and cook together until finished. Serve the fried rice as a mound on the dish and cover with lots of ankake sauce to finish it up.
For the tenshinhan, scramble an egg and throw in some more venom tarantula meat and salt before half-cooking it in a frying pan. Put the result on top of rice and cover with ankake sauce before scattering green peas around the dish to finish it.
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Along with the salad I made earlier, it's all done.
"I'm finished—"
I placed the dishes in front of the two of them.
"Hm? Is there no meat today? Also, I do not need these vegetables..."
H-Hey, stop making that unsatisfied face.
"I'm using the venom tarantula today."
"I would have preferred meat..."
'Can you not whisper to yourself all sad like that? All of this stuff is good, you know?'
"I'll make meat again tomorrow, don't worry. I just wanted to use up the venom tarantula since it would be a waste otherwise."
"Hm, I see. Fine, then." After saying that, Hati started gloomily eating his food.
Yeah, Hati really is a carnivore. Well, it's just for today.
[It's good master—. But still, Groot likes meat more—.]
'E-Even Groot...'
'Ghhh... To think they'd be this addicted to meat... I mean, I knew that all of them were meat eaters already. They're even carnivores down to their looks, after all.'
'Hahhh, meat, huh?'
Even while they complained that meat was better, both Hati and Groot asked for more, so it was probably fine.
'Still though, with all these meat eaters around, I can't afford to not have meat any more, can I?'
I still had lots of meat at the moment, but I'll need to keep a close eye on my stock from now on.
'It's going to be a lot of work with two carnivores in the party.