The meeting with Shield Hero took place two days ago. After cooking him enough food to feed a family of 5 for a week, we said goodbye and went our separate ways. Hati is terribly impatient and keeps saying that he wants to go straight to the dungeon city Dolan. Since I don't have much of a choice, we packed up and left the capital of Melromarc.
◇◇◇◇◇
Hati was running along the road. I had told him to take it easier, but he must have been feeling in a rush since he didn't drop his speed at all. I was already used to riding on Hati after having done it so much, but I was only just barely okay. The adventurers and merchants we passed by every once in a while all wore surprised faces.
Once the sun finally started to set, Hati stopped.
"Let us stop here for today."
I got off of Hati's back, before swaying and sitting down on the ground. "You were going way too fast."
"Mhh, I was not. You held on just fine, did you not?"
"I would have been seriously injured if I hadn't. I was so desperate not to die that I managed to stay on, that's all. Go slower tomorrow."
"Fine. We are going to reach Karelina tomorrow at any rate, anyway."
"Huh? Really?"
"Yes. I can feel the presence of a gathering of a lot of humans up ahead. That is Karelina."
'Hmmm~ So he can tell that even though it looks like there's quite a distance left to Karelina.'
"Wait, we're already almost there? I thought it'd take a little longer..."
"Is it not better to get there sooner? More importantly, I am hungry."
'I somehow get the feeling that I was just tricked, but whatever.'
"Then I'll make dinner, so wait a little."
'Today's dinner is shabu-shabu. Let's hurry up and eat this thin-cut wyvern that I spent my effort cutting. I even already prepared the pot with water and seaweed yesterday before sleeping.'
'Right, first up I need to buy the vegetables and sauce from the Online Supermarket. For the vegetables, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, oh, and I also still have carrots, so green onions, and also Japanese hackberries and shimeji mushrooms would be good, I think. For the shabu-shabu sauce, this should be it.'
Of course, it was ponzu and sesame sauce.
'I need to cut up the vegetables first, don't I?'
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Cut the Chinese cabbage into large strands. Slice off the root of the mustard greens, then render the rest into 5-centimeter-long pieces. As for the carrots, cut those into long strips. The green onions should be cut thinly diagonally, and the hackberries and shimeji mushrooms should have their hard tips cut off and rendered into small easily digestible pieces. After that, put the pot that was prepared yesterday on heat and take out the seaweed just before the water starts boiling.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
'Right, now it's finally time to shabu-shabu the wyvern meat.' I threw the meat into the shabu-shabu pot, and occasionally some vegetables too.
Taking the finished meat and vegetables and putting them on a plate, I first covered them in ponzu.
"Hati, can you wake up Groot?"
"Groot is already awake."
[Food, food!]
'Ahh, because it's time for food.'
"Here." I placed a veritable mountain of shabu-shabu in front of the two on top of a plate.
"Mm? Is this wyvern meat? The sauce on top of it adds a little bit of acidity... I feel like I can eat this almost forever."
[Yeah yeah! It's just a little sour and refreshing so Groot can eat all the meat!]
'No, it'll be trouble if you guys eat any more.'
The ponzu was no good, it was too refreshing and promoted smooth eating. 'Hrm, next is the sesame sauce.'
'I guess I should eat too.' I took my plate of shabu-shabu with vegetables and first used ponzu.
'Ohh, how delicious. Wyvern meat definitely works with the ponzu. It's so refreshing to eat. It really does feel like I can just eat an infinite amount of this with vegetables.'
"More."
[More~!]
'H-How fast.'
Shabu-shabu, shabu-shabu.
"Here." Of course, I used the sesame sauce.
[Ah, it's a different flavor~. This one's good too.]
"Indeed, it is good."
'Then I'll be going with the sesame sauce from now on. Oh, I need to finish mine before they ask for more.
Take some wyvern meat with the hackberries and some sesame sauce... Yep, it's delicious. This thick and fragrant sesame sauce goes nicely with meat.
In the end, both the ponzu and the sesame sauce were good. But I can't decide which one's better. Shabu-shabu's really just better with both of them.'
"More!"
[More!]
'I already said you're eating too fast! Ahh fine, it's such work making meals for these two.'
In the end, I had to give them countless more servings until they were satisfied.
After the meal, I used Earth magic to make a box house. It was to be my sleeping spot for tonight. I spread both mine and Hati's futons inside.
"Hati, I'll be taking a bath, so you can go to sleep first."
"Got it. Then I will be sleeping now." Leaving those words behind, Hati entered the house.
'Now then, time for my bath.'
[Master, by bath do you mean that hot water?]
"Yes, I do. Do you want to come in too, Groot?"
[Yeah!]
I created another set of stone walls to surround us and released the bathtub from my Item Box.
"Groot, can you fill this with water?"
[Sure.]
I had Groot fill the tub with water, and as usual used a fireball to heat it up. 'The temperature's nice...'
Learning from my past mistakes, I took out some bathing goods I had bought before.
'Blammo! A bath mat'. As long as I had this, I wouldn't be entering the bath with muddy feet anymore.
"Ah, Groot, you can go in first."
[Okay.]
*Ploosh*
[It's warm!]
'Man Groot's sure warmed up to that bath.'
Taking off my clothes, I washed my hair and body.
'Washing my body like this with all the bubbles sure feels nice and refreshing.'
Rinsing off the suds, I entered the bath. 'Ah, I forgot to put in the bath salts.' When I added in some of the yuzu scented kind, a pleasant citrusy aroma of yuzu started to gently rise from the water.
"What a nice scent."
[It feels so nice.]
"Yeah."
After thoroughly enjoying the bath together with Groot, I had thought to immediately go to sleep, but I ended up remembering about... that.
If I didn't do it, they'd kick up a fuss.
Oh well, I guess I just have to do it.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Just as Hati had said, we reached Karelina the next day. This is the second time we've been to this town. Before that, we did A and S rank quests here at the request of the Guild Master. Or rather, it was Hati who did them. This time we didn't stop too long, we went straight on. We left Karelina behind and started moving for the dungeon city of Dolan. Just like always, I was on Hati's back, with Groot in my shoulder bag.
After a while of progress, the sun started to set, so we decided to make camp.
The food was to be the simple cutlet sandwiches.
I made three different sandwiches using the pork cutlets, cheese-stuffed chicken cutlets, and Hamburg steak cutlets I had made and stored beforehand.
Spreading butter on some bread, I added some cabbage I had cut into small strips and put some mayonnaise on top.
Then, I put the cutlet on along with lots of sauce before sandwiching it with another buttered piece of bread.
After cutting the sandwich in half, the dish was done.
This time, I tried putting a little mustard into just the pork cutlet sandwich to make mustard mayo.
"It's done!" I presented the plate with three types of sandwiches on it to Hati and Groot.
"Hmm, how delicious. Especially this one that somewhat stings."
It seemed that Hati took well to the mustard mayo I used in the pork cutlet sandwich.
'I'd never used mustard mayo before, after all. It looks like spicier things work for Hati, too, huh?'
[Groot likes this white gooey stuff!]
'Ah, the cheese-stuffed chicken cutlet, right? Groot loves cheese, after all.'
"More!" [More!]
I gave Hati a larger serving of the pork cutlet sandwiches with the mustard mayo, and Groot a larger serving of the cheese-stuffed chicken cutlet sandwiches.
I also started eating myself. I was eating pork cutlet sandwiches made with a little extra mustard in the mustard-mayonnaise mix.
*Chomp*
'Yeah, this works.'
The mustard mayo tasted great.
Retrieving a plastic bottle of chilled tea from my Item Box, I took a gulp. Once my palate was refreshed, I took another bite out of the sandwich.
[Master give Groot something to drink too.]
"Me too. That fizzy stuff is good."
"Yeah, yeah." I used my Online Supermarket to buy cola for the two.
There was still time before the sun set when we finished our meal.
"We still have some time, so I'm gonna start doing some work, you two can go take a nap or something."
[Got it... Groot's gonna take a nap.] Saying so, Groot climbed inside its favorite spot: inside my bag.
"What, are you planning something?"
"Kind of. I'm pre-making more food. There's something I want to try."
"Hm? Is it good?"
"Of course."
"I am looking forward to it."
"Yep, well that's what I'm doing, so you can go relax over there or something."
"Indeed. I understand."
'Now then, what I want to make is none other than gyoza.'
'I have some ground meat, after all. Of course I'd have to do this. I love gyoza and eat it a lot, after all. Enough to always keep a stock of it in my fridge back home.'
So at any rate, I was thinking of preparing gyoza. I was preparing these to be eaten later, so I was going to make quite a lot. And if there were to be too little meat in the filling, Hati would complain, so I made it with extra meat for him. After that, all I had to pay attention to was to flavor it enough so that it could be eaten with or without sauce.
'Oh, need to get the rest of the ingredients from the Online Supermarket. I remember I still have cabbage, garlic chives, and grated garlic and grated ginger in tubes. I also still have soy sauce and cooking sake. I don't have any chicken stock, so I need that, and also sesame oil and the all-important gyoza wrappings, right?'
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
First, mince the cabbage and after rubbing in some salt, press it down.
It's personal preference whether to use regular cabbage or Chinese cabbage, but I always use regular cabbage when I make it back home, so I'm using regular cabbage again now. After that, mince the garlic chives finely as well.
Add grated ginger, grated garlic, soy sauce, cooking sake, chicken stock, sesame oil, and salt and pepper into a bowl with ground orc general meat in it and mix together. Once that's done, add in the salt-rubbed cabbage and garlic chives and mix thoroughly once again until it becomes sticky.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Once the gyoza filling was finished, I started wrapping. I pinched and pinched, making a huge amount of gyoza. I left a little to mix with vegetables to make some extra-vegetable versions for myself.
"All that's left is to cook these, but eating some now would make it feel even fresher and taste better, I think."
*Ggrrwwwlll~*
'Was that a stomach?' When I fearfully looked behind me, I saw Hati sat there, leaking drool everywhere.
*Sigh~*
'Well the sun's sank quite a bit, so it might be fine to just eat dinner here too, I guess?'
"Wanna eat here?"
"Yes, let's."
This time, I was thinking of cooking these as "winged gyoza."
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I use two frying pans for each of Hati's and Groot's portions.
Oil the pans, then line up the gyoza. Once they start to change color, add some flour dissolved in water and cover with a lid.
Once the moisture disappears and I hear crackling sounds, spread some sesame oil around in a circle. Then, once the wings have turned a good color, the dish is done.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Turning the frying pan over to plate the dish, once I lifted the pan the plate was filled with lined up winged gyoza.
"It's finished." 'It looks like Groot's up too.'
"Indeed."
[Food, food!]
I properly looked after its flavor, so it was fine to eat even without sauce on it.
Hati threw about five of them into his mouth all at once. "Ohhh, the meat's juices are bursting out. This is amazing."
[It's true! There's vegetables too, but the meat's juices just burst out and it's so good... and this crispy stuff on the outside is nice, too.]
'Thank goodness, they both liked the gyoza.'
I was right to rub salt in the cabbage since the orc general meat was really fatty; otherwise, it might have been too watery.
"More."
[Groot wants more, too!]
I cooked more and more helpings for Hati and Groot. 'I'll eat after I finish cooking for these two.'
Once Hati and Groot were done, I started cooking my own extra-vegetable versions.
'And of course, to go with the gyoza, there's only this!' I retrieved cooked white rice and some premium beer from my Item Box.
Since the flavor was thinned by the extra vegetables, I ate the gyoza with sauce. The sauce was made out of a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, and Chinese red chili oil.
*Gowmp*
'Gyoza's so goood!!'
The crispiness of the winged gyoza was just like those sold in stores, I cooked it well. 'I'm so glad I made them winged.'
'And it pairs so well with white rice.' Once I finished my bowl of rice, I used the rest of the gyoza as snacks to go with my beer.
'Just like I thought it would, this gyoza works great with beer~.' As I experienced this fact with every inch of my soul, I threw another gyoza into my mouth. It was then that I heard some flapping next to my ear.
When I turned to face toward the sound, wondering what it was...
'Wha?'
There was a small dragon, hovering in the air.
'Uhh... wh-what the heck... is this? It looks like... a dragon... right? It's small, though. Does that mean... it's a child?'
This dragon was only about 50cm from the tip of its head to the end of its tail.
'It doesn't look like it's going to attack me, but... what should I do with this...?'
When I my eyes settled on the tiny dragon, fluttering its wings, I saw its attention focused on the gyoza on my chopsticks. When I tried moving the chopsticks, the tiny dragon's head moved with it.
'Does... it want to eat this?'
"Hohh, a young Proto-Dragon. How rare." said Hati. It seemed like Hati knew of this thing.
"Hm? This thing's called a Proto-Dragon?"
"Yeah. It's a type of dragon. It's been about 900 years since I've seen one."
"Kyuui, kyuui!!
It looked like it wanted my gyoza, so I tried giving it one. "Here."
When I presented the gyoza on my chopsticks to the Proto-Dragon, it chomped the whole thing down.
"Kyuui, kyuui, kyui!!" It seemed as if it was asking for more.
'Oh well.' "Here, you can have it."
I gave the rest of the gyoza on my plate to the Proto-Dragon. The Proto-Dragon settled down onto the ground and started gobbling up all the gyoza.
"Hey Hati, if it's been 900 years since you've last seen one, does that mean it's rare?"
"Indeed. There are only a few of them alive today."
"Even if they're dragons, at this size they're small and cute, aren't they?"
"What are you spouting? You cannot underestimate these just because they are small. Proto-Dragons are quite strong."
Eh? Really? It's so small, it doesn't look strong at all, though.
"Proto-Dragons are fast, above all else. And they have a lot of magic power, so of course they would have command of all four basic elements, and on top of that, they can even use Ice, Lightning, and Healing magic. On top of that, these things' special move is to coat their bodies in magic Fire or Lightning magic are popular and use their speed to perform high-velocity tackles. Even I was made to worry over its attacks for a moment... Of course, I won in the end."
'Coat themselves with magic to perform high-speed tackles? What are they, cannonballs? What a... harsh fighting style.'
'Wait, actually... doesn't that mean Hati fought a Proto-Dragon before?'
"Kyui, kyui."
*Plop*
"Woah! W-W-Wait what?!"
Something stuck right onto my face. Raising my hand, I found that apparently the Proto-Dragon had latched on.
"H-Hey! Wai leggo..." I peeled the Proto-Dragon off my face like a sticker.
[Hey hey, this thing's crazy good. I'm super hungry over here. Give me more!]
"More? Ugh, do I really have to start cooking again... Wait, huh? Who said that?"
"You... That Proto-Dragon's become your familiar."
"Wha?"
[If I could eat something as good as this, of course, even being your familiar is a no brainer.]
"Indeed. This one's food is especially delicious. Even something as long-lived as me does not see a bad side to becoming his familiar for some tens of years."
[Right? At the very least, you'll get to eat good food while you're his familiar, after all. You get it, don't you, Fenrir.]
'Hey, hey. Stop continuing the conversation by yourselves. Or more importantly: another one that's after my food?! Are all the strong things in this world gluttons or something?'
"Actually, now that I hear it, your voice is different to how I imagined it."
[Different? How did you think it would have sounded?]
"How? I guess, a child's voice, like Groot?"
"You know, that Proto-Dragon is not a child. It is young, but he can still grow."
[That's right! It's just that my species grows up very slowly. I'm not a child, but I'm far from being an adult. An adult can grow to be hundreds of metres long.]
"I-I see."
[Hey, more importantly, I've become your familiar now. Give me a name.]
"You can't just dump that on me so suddenly... Hrm... well, you're a dragon, so Dora-chan's fine."
[Whaaaat? Give me a better, cooler, more fitting name!]
"Eh? But doesn't Dora-chan suit you just fine?"
[Don't fuck with me! I'm no Dora-chan!]
"OK, OK, OK... how about Razsegath? It's dragon name derived from a name of the world I come from."
[That's much better. I like it!]
Leaving the satisfied Razsegath, I tried to appraise him.
[Name] Razsegath
[Age] 116
[Race] Proto-Dragon
[Level] 126
[HP] 895
[MP] 3879
[Attack] 3652
[Defense] 865
[Agility] 4269
[Skills] Fire magic, Water magic, Wind magic, Earth magic, Ice magic, Lightning magic, Healing magic, Bombardment
'So I guess it's decided.'
Looking over his stats, they're all better than Groot's. So he's really a dragon, even though he's smaller. Just like Hati said, his magic and his agility are both high. And he even has lots of magic skills.
"So Razsegath's 116 years old, huh? You don't look it, though."
'Well, whatever. For now, I should check my own status, too. Razsegath should be in my Familiars section, now.'
[Name] Hajime
[Age] 24
[Job] Spoon Hero/Victim from Another World
[Level]41
[HP] 700
[MP] 699
[Attack] 701
[Defense] 693
[Agility] 680
[Skills] Appraisal, Item Box, Fire magic, Earth magic, Familiars (Contracted Magic Beasts): Fenrir, Tree seedling, Proto-Dragon
[Unique Skill] Online Supermarket
Well, I'm still the weakest one here, though. Still though, the others are all just too strong, so there's nothing to be done about it.
Proto-Dragon is right there in the familiars section, too. Hati and Groot and Razsegath: what a fearsome lineup.
[Hey, master, I already told you I'm hungry.]
"Ahh, right right."
'Oh yeah, Razsegath did say that he wanted to eat more gyoza.'
There was no other choice, so I cooked some more gyoza for Razsegath. Still, I was saved by the fact that Razsegath wasn't as big an eater as either Hati or Groot. He was done after just one more helping.
"Razsegath, you'll fly, right?"
[What do you think I am? If you want something that flies fast, go no further than the Proto-Dragon! I can even keep flying for a whole day.]
Great. So we sleep here tonight and continue our journey tomorrow.