"And now you come! Where were you when I needed you?" I whispered with anger. I was so angry that I wanted to yell but I held myself back. I was afraid that I would end up inviting some dangerous monster. After all, Oryctolas were now visible which meant that I was already out of Kurkhaza's range.
- "Delta is sorry for causing trouble for the host. The host's soul plasma is now completely recovered but will deplete again if we continued talking. Therefore, to maintain host's soul plasma at an optimal level, Delta will put forth a 2 minute rule.
- "From henceforth, host can only converse with Delta for 2 minutes per day. This will keep host's soul plasma at sub optimal level. Due to this, host's growth will be consistent and Delta will also be able to act properly during emergencies."
"So in simpler words, using the website, which is you, costs me so much internet data that I'll have to set a data limit!" I said with shock. "How come you use so much data?"
- "Delta was created by the goddess herself. Nobody in this multiverse could use Delta except the host. This is only possible due to the infinite potential that the soul of the host holds."
After hearing his answer, I realized that I was wasting valuable time. Although 2 minutes were too less of a time, I had no other option but to grit my teeth and bear through it. I would just have to stall my questions for the next day.
Without wasting any more time, I quickly asked, "Why do I feel so much pain whenever I appoint the stat points and could I nullify it?"
- "As of now, even Delta does not know why that happens. Delta just stores the energy released by absorbing the fate of the individual inside the status window. When the energy reaches a threshold, it is then converted into stat points.
- "When the host assigns the stat points to the stats, the energy obtained is redirected to the specified tissues. How the pain and the sensation work is all due to the energy changing its form. That's all the knowledge Delta had. As the time limit is now used, host should keep the questions for tomorrow."
Click!
"Wait- shit!" I kicked the ground with anger as Delta left without giving any satisfactory answers.
'Sometimes I just feel like that slayer or whatever it was should have just killed Psais on the spot! That idiotic bastard had to kidnap her and now I have got to save her just because my f*cking soul has infinite potential!
'Sigh…You need to calm down Deniel. She is your only ticket back to the normal life, back to the siblings that need you and back to the past that you need!'
I calmed myself from the anger after some self-talk. There was no proper system in place. If she actually wanted me to save her, she should have atleast given me a better head start!
After agonizing over my fate, I turned my head to look at the Oryctola in my right hand. My mouth started to water.
'Well, let's first taste some meat and then decide what to do.'
Good food had always calmed my anger. However, my smile suddenly faded as I thought, 'Wait! I never actually skinned any animal! Although I had cooked meat before, it was always the ones provided by the Sisters!'
Since there is always a first time for everything, this was also my first time skinning and gutting an animal or beast in this case.
Just as I was thinking about how to handle this situation, the wound on the beast started to glow. Shiny particles started to collect over the wound as I watched it all happen.
The particles then coalesced to form a transparent oil droplet which had multiple orange particles inside of it. The droplet was about the same size as that of Carlo's.
'Oh yeah! I forgot about the FP I receive whenever I kill something. But why is it always so delayed?'
My thoughts stopped as the FP moved closer to my hand holding the beast and fused with it. My vision instantly became blurry and within a second I was back to normal. It was just like how it happened with the Lakéqus' FP.
Ding!
[You have received 30 FP!]
Although the yellow window displayed the FP gain, this time there was no notification for extra rewards. I checked my status window but nothing had changed.
'So this guy gave me nothing huh? Well it's going to become food anyways, let's just hope it tastes good atleast.'
Putting my monologue aside, I stored the lunch in my inventory and went on to collect some branches. I wanted them to be thin enough to easily light on fire and still thick enough to burn until my food was cooked.
***
After collecting the woods, twigs, dry leaves and some dry grass, I set up a small campfire but I didn't light it yet. There still was a tedious process for me to do.
I then moved into a corner of the camp, away from the fire. There was a big rock in that corner over which I placed the Oryctola.
With the help of the utility knife, I beheaded the beast. Then I skinned it with pure strength, it was easier than I thought. Cutting open its belly, I emptied out all of its organs. The blood was all dried so there was no bleeding. Except the flesh, everything else went into the inventory.
With the help of the water in Space 2, I cleaned the rock and the meat. Then I took out the half sliced colorless starlight fruit and two hemi-spherical, palm sized stones from Space 1. I had collected a bunch of them as I moved inside the forest.
With the help of the stones, I grinded the fruit and let the juices fall on the meat. Since there was no lemon, this was how I planned to marinate the meat. I also used all of the grey colored sauce that tasted like vomit to stand in for salt.
A yellow starlight fruit was cut into two parts and placed inside the cavity of its stomach. Then I left it to marinate and moved towards the campfire.
I placed the small twigs and the dry grasses and leaves on the ground and used the Pyres Pebbles rings to light the fire.
Click!
Fuu!
With just a snap of my fingers, the dry leaves caught fire and started to burn rapidly.
'This is so cool! I'm going to buy one as soon as I go back to Earth! I hope they make something like this.'
As the leaves were burning rapidly, I put in some thinner branches. There was no oil so I had to be careful. Luckily, the branches too started to burn easily and they were burning slowly.
Then I placed some of the thicker logs into the fire. I kept the rest aside to use later. Earlier, I had stumped two of the longer branches on the alternate sides of the fire. I also had to wet them so that they don't end up catching the fire.
After 30 minutes of setting the meat to marinate, the fire was set. I went back to the meat and passed another long and wet log through it and the fruit. It was then placed over the fire with the help of the stumps.
***
I realized later that the stumps were placed higher so it actually took an hour to cook the meat. Nevertheless, I sat down to eat the Oryctola meat which everyone except the slaves was allowed to eat, back in Bulios.
As soon as I took the first bite, the sourness and the sweetness of the fruits exploded in my mouth. The disgusting taste of the sauce was nowhere to be found. The meat was as tender as chicken and yet it was tastier.
This was the tastiest meat I had ever eaten. Not because it was that tasty but because all the effort I had put in hunting and cooking it.
Tears were flowing through my eyes. I was finally able to taste something which was good! There was no anger, no sorrow but only joy on my face.
The fruit tasted even better after it got cooked! The pulp had become even sweeter and softer. Although there was a chance that the fruit might become poisonous after cooking it but honestly, I didn't care. I could have also checked Carlo's memory but I decided to do it later. That's how addictive the food tasted.
Within minutes, the whole beast was gone. With a satisfied expression, I just climbed a nearby tree and lied back on a thick branch without caring about anything else.
'Just for this once…' I thought as my eyes closed and I drifted into a nap.
Rustle!
Just as I had started to dream, a sudden sound woke me up. Although I was still groggy from my nap, I quickly took out the curved dagger and held it in my right hand while the other hand was on the tree to provide me support.
Rustle!
I turned my head towards right to look at the source of the sound and what I saw surprised me. There was a monster sitting on the branch! It was even looking at me!