It wasn’t much longer before Crisplet gave me the sign that the ribs were ready.
I excitedly pulled them out using a couple of stone spikes. They had successfully gained a sticky coating from the mixture of herbs and honey. The smell was amazing both sweet, smokey, with a hint of spices, and they looked perfect, I was still mindful this was similar to what I’d used on the eel that caused me so many problems, but it was far weaker and only included the single mana-regenerating property.
Thinking about the buffs, I could see with my skill that this one should be safe.
- Fire Immunity.
- Earth Magic Potency.
- +1 Endurance.
- +3 Wisdom.
- +3 Perception.
- Moderate Mana Regeneration.
- Minor Stamina Regeneration.
- Minor Regeneration.
- Minor Poison Resistance.
Just to be safe, I got Milo’s attention and told him all the buffs, but even he agreed it shouldn’t pose a problem since there was no mana gathering and amplification like the eel. Instead, this would have just increased the mana regeneration itself.
He took a bite before anyone else though, claiming safety concerns, which I couldn’t tell if he did it to torment Liane or if he was actually being cautious. Either way, I swear I saw her eye twitch as she watched.
I cut the ribs up and started handing them out to everyone, Liane first, along with some rolls I had cooked earlier that day.
I still had a full rack of ribs left over for Lily in case she showed up, but to keep it hot I stored them in my pantry. I wanted to get a bit of backlog on prepared food items just so I would have stuff ready to go if I was unable to cook again.
After eating the ribs and getting water from Milo to wash my hands, as they were incredibly sticky, I pulled out my cookbook. I wanted a creative way to use that boar, and there were many different boar recipes.
One that caught my eye required me to soak the meat. It could be any of the cuts of boar, but it suggested the tougher parts in particular as they would become incredibly tender. The mixture required before cooking was orange juice—I still had ten of those sitting in my storage—and I would also use the zest of the orange along with a small amount of lemon juice. One lemon would be enough.
Added to that were some fire salt, some garlic grass, pepper and some fresh chilli, along with some oil. It suggested marinating it for six hours; once that was done, you slowly roasted the meat for four hours.
It could be eaten as is, or cut into thick slices and added to a toasted roll along with a sauce that would provide some spice as well as a salty acidity.
It then listed out a bunch of different sauce options, as well as pages to find the recipes for them. Having had a quick look at a couple of them, I saw they had ingredients I had never used before, so I didn’t think I’d be able to make the sauces they suggested.
It would still be worth it to create the boar shoulders, though.
Lily never showed up that night, so I spent the evening chatting with George, Darren and Micca, who were all excited about the future and speculating on what the capital would look like.
***
The next day I started the marinade for the boar, getting another stone container from Milo, who was currently sitting inside the wagon reading.
Once that was done, I pulled out my runescribe book from Char and started to practise the cold rune. It wasn’t until I had drawn the rune roughly twenty times that I remembered the mould I got from the blacksmith for the candy.
I pulled it out and showed Milo.
“This is really creative,” he said, turning the mould in his hands and inspecting the work.
“Yes, this will work very well. The circles are well-crafted. You’ll need to add the magic words to each, but that will be simple work. You just need to make sure that when you fill the mould, there are no air bubbles breaking the circle.” Milo handed back the mould, which I stored away.
“Any ideas what to use the cold rune on?” I asked. I knew I would use it on the barrels with the juice if it worked, but I didn’t want to practise on the barrel and have it explode the rune, ruining the barrel as a result.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Milo thought for a moment, rubbing his chin. “Truthfully, I’d stick with the melons you have. You could even try adding the rune in addition to the barrier ones you already have, but make sure you have had some successes before you do that. I don’t know if the notebook has covered it, but when you have multiple runes on the same surface, if one fails, all will fail.”
I nodded and started practising.
On my second exploded melon, Milo left the wagon and made his way to the front with Darren.
He glared at my perfectly clean jacket, while his own robes were now splattered in melon.
If I could get pants made out of this material, I would be set. Having it pristine no matter what hit it or spilled on it was absolutely amazing.
I spent the rest of the afternoon practising, finally getting two successes.
The results were strange on the melon. When I activated the rune, it glowed light blue, then almost immediately it felt like it had been in the ice room back at the temple.
I would still need to practise more with runes, but I couldn’t help browsing ahead a little to find a different rune that would be interesting. I found a fairly simple one that would produce light while the mana lasted, but that didn’t seem too useful.
There was also one that would produce heat, but from the notes, the heat emanated out from the rune, allowing the object to still be held. This seemed like it wouldn’t be much use to actually heat an item, but maybe a variation of it?
I was also on the lookout for another defensive spell. The barrier was useful, but surely there were other options.
I spent the rest of the ride that afternoon alternating between practising on more melons and checking the book. I had my notebook out and was jotting down some potential ones that would be fun to try.
Heat—I figured it was worth a shot despite not thinking it would work. Next was Harden; it appeared to make an object much more durable at the cost of flexibility, but I wondered if it would provide something different for food.
There were two that seemed incredibly complex. The Vita rune provided an area of minor regeneration and was apparently used only in medical pavilions due to the high mana cost for activation compared to output.
Finally, was a kinetic rune. It looked to give items essentially a harder hit, but I wondered if that would provide an offensive rune or perhaps allow someone to hit harder when applied to food.
I didn’t look any further; these would take me a long while to practise.
I looked out the back of the wagon, watching the sun get lower on the horizon before we finally stopped for the evening.
***
Once the wagon came to a halt, the first thing I did was join Crisplet at the fireplace that was just being set up. I provided a decent portion of Treant wood chips, as there were a lot of things I wanted to cook tonight.
“Crisplet, I’m going to need at least two ovens for what we’re cooking tonight,” I said happily, getting a burst of embers in return, before heading back outside.
I unfolded the cutting boards from the side of the wagon, pulling out the large amount of dough I had left. I thought I had at least thirty or forty rolls’ worth left, so I split it into three semi-even amounts.
My plan was to add different herbs to each. I wanted a roll focused on stamina, a roll focused on regeneration and a roll focused on mana. I was feeling very cautious about the mana one.
For stamina, it was simple. I had only two stamina-related items, which were the ground quick root as well as the ground Blood Owl beak. I contemplated adding dried lemon tea grass to see if I could infuse it with sprint, but even if we were not hiding right now, I shouldn’t go around advertising the extent of my abilities.
For the regeneration again, this was fairly simple: virfolium and blood tears.
Lastly, for mana, I didn’t go overboard, only adding ground bark of the mana willow and legarant. In total, I ended up with thirty-six rolls.
Heading back inside, I first took out the boar pieces I was marinating. They were two large cuts from the shoulder, and they smelt amazing. The citrus was super powerful, but there was also a hint of spice in the air. I added more fire salt and pepper, then placed them inside the first oven Crisplet had prepared.
“These we want to cook super slowly, over a few hours,” I instructed before pulling out all the rolls and placing them neatly in rows.
I noticed Crisplet had extended the oven slightly after seeing the number of rolls I had.
Once they were done, I sat back and watched as Crisplet went to work, first mostly sealing the oven with the two boar shoulders while a stream of smoke appeared to be heading into the small hole left behind.
With the rolls in the oven, the front was left open; there was an orange glow emanating from it. More importantly, there was already a powerful smell of baked bread filling the room.
I took this chance to speak to Milo about my possible rune options, taking a seat next to him and pulling out my notebook, getting a raised eyebrow.
“I successfully made the cold rune and was looking at some possibilities for future ones I could try,” I said, holding out my notebook to him.
Milo studied it for a long while.
“These are decent options to try. I have some concerns about your trying the Vita one here. It would be an incredibly useful rune, no doubt, but it is also an advanced rune. Something you need to understand with the basic runes you’re doing: they have minimal mana when creating them, so when you have a critical failure, the explosion is rather minor, just destroying the melon but not enough to injure. Advanced runes like these though, if you fail them, the damage is significant, and it should only be an experienced hand that tries it.”
That was a little disappointing to hear, but it made sense. Milo went on, however.
“The heat one I don’t know if it will work, but it will certainly be an interesting experiment. Harden and Kinetic though will be very interesting and rather simple runes, with Harden being a basic rune. Good choices, and well done for taking notes like this.” Milo beamed, handing my notebook back.
I wouldn’t try the Vita one, but I was happy to have some options moving forward, and after a bit more practice I would try the cold rune on the barrel.
“I don’t suppose you could make a stone platform for me again? I need to do some more crushing while I wait for the food to cook,” I asked, and Milo effortlessly created a stone platform along the far wall with an indent on the floor to hold the barrel steady.
“Thanks,” I said, getting up before getting to work once again.
At least after tonight, I was pretty sure it would be mashed enough to start the next stage of the process.