The most difficult part was separating the wash from the yeast product that would settle at the bottom. Once it was added to a vessel that either Crisplet or Milo would be able to make, it was heated just enough that the alcohol would move over.
Apparently, the part most people had difficulty with was keeping a consistent temperature. I knew this wouldn’t be a problem with Crisplet’s help.
Once it was distilled, there would be three parts: the head, the heart, and the tail. Milo insisted we needed the heart — the middle part; the rest could be discarded. And finally, once that was done, we’d have alcoholic sugar-reed juice.
For regular, non-alcoholic juice, it was just a matter of crushing the reeds, extracting the sugars, mixing them with water, heating it a little to really infuse the flavours, then letting it cool before filtering off all but the leftover liquid.
I was happy to try both!
I also really wanted to make some food. Micca’s cooking was nice, but there was something really nice about monster meat, and she wasn’t using any at the moment — mainly sticking to chicken, buvul, and boar.
I spent the rest of the night using my abilities to try to adjust to the pain. It still hurt. A lot. But it was getting better — I wasn’t needing an hour’s break between attempts anymore.
What I did manage was to finally look up the buffs for the eel I cooked. What I saw shocked me.
[Rare] Spice Infused Mana Eel
- Fire Immunity.
- Poison Immunity
- +8 Intelligence.
- +4 Wisdom.
- +2 Dexterity
- +4 Endurance
- +2 Perception
- Increased Elemental Magic Potency
- Major Regeneration
- Ambush Efficiency
- Increased Passive Mana Gain.
- Superior Mana Restoration.
- Advanced Mana Collection.
- Mana Sight.
- Memory of Magic.
This might have been the largest list of buffs to date, and overall I couldn’t immediately see what caused me the issues — that was until I looked closely and saw things I didn’t really know: increased mana gain and mana collection. Also, it was the first time seeing the “Superior” tag.
I supposed the combination of it all was a compounding effect that ended up causing far more restoration and mana than my body could handle. What was really concerning was that it would have lasted for nearly three hours.
I went to sleep that night dreaming of the juice I would make, as well as what I was going to cook as soon as I was able to — and I’m fairly sure I will manage it tomorrow, likely with a judgemental stare or two from the others.
***
Early the next morning I rose. My legs were still stiff, but I could at least stand up and move around without too much effort. Waving good morning to Crisplet, I also poked my head outside to see who was on watch.
I was surprised to see George sitting next to Milo, with Jen closer down by the river that passed through.
“They roped you into watch?” I said with a smirk.
George just gave me a grin back before Milo spoke. “It’s good practice for them to get used to it, and understand expectations as a guard — especially travelling ones if Micca decides to hit the road one day. And they have done a great job, although I suspect George may be inside the wagon today at some stage getting sleep.”
George’s grin fell as Milo chuckled. “You can’t hide those yawns very well.”
I looked excitedly at Milo. “Does that mean I’ll be able to ride Sable today?”
“No,” he said flatly.
Letting out a deep sigh, I listened as Milo continued, “You’re still in no position to be riding yet — but even more importantly, if those soldiers are looking for you, then we want to keep you out of sight for as long as possible. We know we can’t hide you anymore, but we don’t need attention too soon.”
I just nodded. It made sense. I missed riding though.
Heading back inside, I noticed no one else was up yet, and I wanted to see how I would go doing breakfast, so I went with something simple: a basic porridge with milk and rolled grain. I winced every time I pulled an item out, but Crisplet got to work heating it.
I was pulling out fruit, but I quickly realised the pain was building up pretty rapidly. This was still a great result, so I was happy despite the pain.
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On top of the porridge, I pulled out some of the fruit pastries I’d picked up. Which gave me a great idea: I had a lot of berries, and I’d been reading a recipe for a berry pie which looked rather simple.
My mind was made up immediately — I would try to make that tonight.
When Micca woke up, she gave me a glare as she approached.
“Are you sure you’re okay? I don’t mind cooking. We don’t want you hurting yourself.”
I nodded. “I need to use my abilities. It hurts, but I should be okay. If it gets too bad, I’ll stop — I promise.”
This seemed to placate Micca, who just took a seat next to me as I placed the pastries on a platter. Pulling out some regular honey, adding some to the porridge, also scooping out extra to put on the side.
I was reaching my limit in terms of how much pain I could handle, so the last thing I did was pull out all the rolls I had left, which was around ten.
I got a similar lecture from Jen as I did from Micca. She wasn’t very happy about my cooking so soon. The stern tone was lost, though, as she was taking massive bites from the fruit pastry at the same time — and talking with her mouth full — so I really struggled to take it seriously.
I almost climbed into the wagon myself. I couldn’t help but notice the wind assistance I received from Milo, but I was really making progress.
On the road that day, I was scouring through my cookbook, trying to come up with a dish to cook tonight that would be simple — so as not to use a lot of mana — but also be really tasty.
At lunchtime, when we stopped, we didn’t have any cooked lunch, instead sticking to jerky and rolls we already had. But what I managed to do was pull out several ingredients I would need later and have them stored in my own storage ring along with Jen’s and Liane’s.
If I pulled everything out over the day, I wouldn’t get the build-up of pain I got at breakfast.
In the evening, I noticed Hari had led us a significant distance from the road before we finally halted. Milo today was clearly showing off as he built an almost replica longhouse like the one we saw in Rockhampton — just all made of stone.
I wanted to use the wagon; in particular, I wanted to use the cooking tools attached to it, so I pulled down the side, which unfolded the cutting boards.
Crisplet took great interest in everything as I got to work.
I hung several utensils on hooks, pulling out a bowl before grabbing all the ingredients from Jen and Liane for tonight’s meal.
The first thing I prepared was going to be the berry pie. Getting a large portion of mixed berries, including dilwater. I added it to the pot with a large amount of sugar and a dash of water, with a wince of pain, using purify on it.
I would reduce this down before adding a little bit of root starch to thicken the mixture — this would give it an almost cake-like texture.
The pastry was super easy. It just required some kneading, but it was just a mixture of salt, sugar, flour, and butter. I cut the butter into small cubes. The book mentioned I should use cold butter, but I had no way to properly cool it, so I hoped it would be enough.
Once the dry ingredients were mixed, I added the butter, folding the dough over and pushing it in — kneading it like I would bread dough — but the book was very precise: don’t over-knead it or the butter will work in too much and you’ll lose the flaky texture.
Once I was happy with it, I started pushing it flat when Milo appeared. “Usually people use a rolling pin to roll that out, you know — not by hand.”
A moment later he had produced a perfectly smooth stone rolling pin for me to use. He also created a pie dish at my request. The weight of the pin itself did half the work, and I had a perfectly even, smooth pie pastry.
After adding it to the pie dish, I crimped the edges as it said in the book. I know it mentioned I should cook the crust first with something called baking beans, but I didn’t have that. Milo suggested I use little rocks, but I had full faith in Crisplet that, if I gave the pie crust to him, he’d have it perfect in no time.
I took the pot with the berry-and-sugar mixture into the longhouse. I noticed Crisplet had already started on it, as steam was coming off the berries and it smelt incredibly sweet.
I took it to the hearth that this place had — Crisplet diving quickly inside, placing down the cauldron and the pie crust.
“Crisplet, I need the pie crust cooked to a golden brown, but it doesn’t need to be done all the way through, as I will cook it again when I add the berry mixture to it.”
Getting a burst of embers and then left Crisplet to it as I went back outside to prepare the first half of dinner for the night.
I wanted something with both stamina and regeneration, but I also wanted something that was full of flavour. Deciding to go with a chilli dish. I pulled out a large chunk of buvul rump. Using the vegetables I’d had the others store, I chopped up the onion roughly along with the garlic grass, as well as several large tomatoes.
I chopped the buvul to be super fine — first cutting it into strips, then into tiny cubes, adding a small amount of fat to it. I considered grinding it using a stone bowl, just to get it even smaller, but I didn’t want to push myself too much.
Taking everything, I made my way inside, sitting by the hearth with all my ingredients ready to go.
Starting with the vegetables in the bottom of the pot, adding a small amount of oil. It quickly heated and browned. Next, I added the spices I was going to use, the first being fire salts, along with ground-up quickroot, virfolium, and blood tears. I then added some extra chilli to get a nice kick.
Next, I added the buvul, stirring it through and mixing it well with the spices and vegetables.
After that, I added the tomatoes along with a small amount of water. Finally, I pulled out about two cups’ worth of the spider broth. I was a little hesitant — it was one of the ingredients in the eel — and I really paused, using my skill to inspect all the known buffs this would cause. From what I could tell, there was no extra mana gain from this.
Once that was added, it looked like a spicy stew, but this chilli buvul was going to be amazing — and with the nights getting as cold as they are, it would really hit the spot.
Soon after completing that, Crisplet alerted me that the pie ingredients were ready. I added the root starch to some water, then mixed it into the berry mixture, which rapidly thickened. I know the book said to allow the pie crust to cool, but Crisplet’s control over heat was so incredible it wasn’t even warm to the touch anymore, having just come out.
Pouring the berry mixture into the pie crust—this is where I would need to deviate from the book a little. They had a fancy lattice of pastry over the top with large shards of sugar on top.
I didn’t have this. I had off-cuts from the pie crust, which I haphazardly laid over the top of the pie before passing it back towards Crisplet.
It wouldn’t take long, but I did need to leave it for a while after cooking so it could set properly. That would also give the chilli buvul plenty of time to simmer, as it needed at least a couple of hours. The goal was to have it incredibly tender; I would also cook some rice to go with it.
It only took about ten minutes before Crisplet alerted me that the pie was ready, and Liane was there in a second, looking over my shoulder.
“What’s that!?” she said.
“It’s a berry pie, and you can’t have any yet — it needs to cool down first,” I said, giving her a stern look, as I infused the pie.
Liane looked very put out by not getting the pie now, so I tried to distract her. “Any chance you could help me start the sugar-reed juice?”
patreon! I know I say its 20+ chapters, but that's over half the book ahead :D