Chapter 014: First Mission
Re-Translated by Gumihou
Please read this at kitchennovel dot com
There were lots of weapon stores near the Adventurer’s Guild. I just picked one promising looking store and entered.
In the end, I bought a short sword recommended by the owner for 8 silver coins. He promised that it’s something that’s ‘easy for beginners’ to use.
Alright, shall we go and pick herbs now?
I showed my Adventurer’s Guild Card to the city guard when passing the East Gates. Everything went smoothly since I was on a mission. [1] About 20 minutes’ walk past the gates, we came across a vast grassland.
[6] Well, this looks like a suitable place for foraging herbs.
“Alright, I’m going to pick herbs now. While I’m here, you can go hunting.”
“I get it. However, it would be very troublesome for me if something happens to my master. So, I’ll put a barrier around you.”
Oh, yes. Now that I think about it. I remember seeing Barrier Magic as one of the skills that Fer could use.
[6] I was still thinking about this when Fer said, “Yosh, it’s done. You’ll be fine if monsters up to a certain level try to attack you.”
Thank you, thank you, I really want to bow down in thanks.
“I’m leaving now, be sure to have my lunch ready when I come back,” [3] with that final remark Fer leapt gracefully away and disappeared towards the forest.
I do respect this legendary creature. Especially after seeing the result of his Appraisal, but did he have to be such a glutton?
Never mind, don’t think about it anymore. Let’s just pick herbs.
Now, how should I start?
Anyway, let’s try using [Appraisal].
Oho? Looks like [Appraisal] is very useful for identifying plants too.
Hmm, weeds, weeds, weeds.
I was practically swimming through the grass looking for something that’s not ‘weeds’. [5] Finally, I found one shimmering rectangle that says ‘Keanu Flower’. [6] So, I swam over to that side to pick a thistle-like flower. [5]
As per the mission instruction, I cut the flower off just above its roots. [6] So, I basically got myself a flower on a nice long stem.
The whole process was very repetitive. Swimming through swaths of ‘weeds’ and targeting places with ‘Keanu Flower’ and the occasional ‘Mage Flower’. By the way, Mage Flower looks kind of like a daisy. [5]
I explored the grassland for the better part of the morning and managed to collect 18 Keanu Flowers and 7 Mage Flowers.
It was almost lunchtime now, so Fer should be returning soon.
Better get started on that lunch.
Since I’ve run out of local meat, I could only get my hands on supermarket meat and bulk up the food through other means. Here’s to hoping that [Net Super] will come through for me again.
Oho, they have 1kg of beef and pork mixed mince for sale. Let’s get that one. Since I have minced meat, let’s go ahead and get one packet of 700g pasta as well as 10 cans of Meat Sauce. I still have the onions and consommé cubes from before so that’s fine.
Everything from [Net Super] cost me 4 silver and 5 bronze coins. Which is fine because I’d made some money off my salt and pepper at the Guild.
I need to make something quickly now before Fer appears and go ‘Hurry up! Hurry up!’ at me again.
The pasta I bought were the cheap, quick to cook kind that is [6] popular with poor students. As a poor student once, I could attest to its taste and speed of cooking. However, since I don’t want cold pasta sitting around or Fer to make complaints about me being slow, I kept a pot of water at near boiling point on the side so that I could cook it quickly.
While the water is boiling on that side, let’s make the Meat Sauce.
First, sauté the sliced onions until translucent. Add, the mincemeat and stir until the meat is brown and crumbly. Once the meat is cooked, just dump in 10 cans of Meat Sauce. [6] Ah, the beauty of canned sauce…
After making sure there’s enough water in the sauce, I crumbled a stock cube over it and left it to simmer for about 10 minutes. The sauce is pretty much done by then. All I have to do next is adjust the taste with some salt and pepper.
When I deemed the sauce perfect, Fer happened to arrive with a prey caught in his mouth.
Thump.
He dropped a bird-like prey in front of me. “Hmm,” Fer inhaled the air, “something smells delicious.”
“This is… a Rock Bird, right?”
“That Teriyaki thing is delicious, so I hunted down another bird. There are other things, but I couldn’t bring them all with me. I left them under a barrier at the edge of the forest.”
Well, no matter how legendary he is, he only has one mouth after all.
[6] Speaking of mouths, “I’ll go with you and collect them with my [Item Box].” I can’t just hang around here and eat while knowing that a bunch of valuable monsters were lying at the edge of the forest. Barrier or no barrier.
I quickly packed away the pot of hot water, pans, portable stoves and, of course, the Rock Bird before patting my hands on my trousers, “Alright, let’s go.”
“It will take too long for you to walk there. Get on my back,”
Oh, er, if you insist. Excuse me.
I got onto Fer’s back and gripped the flowing white fur.
“Alright, let’s go,”
“W-wait a minute, you’re going too fast! I said waaaaaaiiiiiiittttt!!!!”
………………
…………
……
“Oi, we are here,”
“Haa, haa, I thought I was going to die,”
“Humph, you’re too noisy.”
That’s because I’m frightened to death, you know?! Gritting my teeth, I said, “When you’re carrying me, do not run like that! I could fall!”
“If you fall, it’s your own fault for being weak.”
This bastard, “Well, understand this! If anything happens to my poor weak self, you’ll never get to eat food from another world again!”
“Gunununu,”
I think that’s enough threatening, “Let’s just collect those monsters and go back.”
The pile of monsters was very obvious, I stomped nervously over and opened up [Appraisal]. Let’s see, 5 Orcs, a Red Boar, a Giant Dodo, a Black Serpent…
I understand that people often say that snake meat is similar to chicken meat, but Orcs?
[4] “Can Orcs be eaten?”
[4] “Mu, they’re good. Humans often hunt Orcs for food too,”
Truly? I mean, I’m kind of reluctant to eat a biped animal. Especially sentient bipeds…
As expected, the food in this world is kind of scary…
I have [Net Super], but I don’t want to keep spending money on meat. Not to mention the crazy buffs that could manifest from eating other world meat.
[6] Anyway, let’s not think about it too deeply. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. The locals eat Orcs, so, it should be fine, right? Right.
I threw all the monsters into my [Item Box] before climbing onto Fer’s back. Our return to the grassland was much smoother. Thank goodness Fer could be reasoned with.
“Alright, let’s have our lunch now.”
“Hurry up, I’m hungry!”
[6] Ah, there’s that ‘hurry up!’
“Hold on, I just need to cook this pasta.”
5 minutes later (thank goodness for quick-cook pasta), lunch was served.
I got my largest bowl out, piled on the pasta and dumped lots of Meat Sauce onto it. [6] Then, I glanced at Fer’s paws and helpfully mixed up the pasta and sauce for him.
“Here you go,”
“Mu, what is this?”
“Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, give it a try. It’s a delicious staple from my world.”
Fer started chomping away. “Umu, there isn’t a lot of meat, but I guess it’s delicious.”
From the way he’s chowing down. I’m guessing it’s very delicious. [6] Since I could already see the bottom of his plate, I boiled another packet of pasta.
While Fer enjoyed his second serving of pasta, I quickly served myself and slurped my Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. Hoho, delicious!
One person’s portion is good enough for me, but the majority of the 4 packs of 700g pasta ended up in Fer’s stomach.
“Umu, that was a nice light lunch,”
“Light?! I- pfft!”
Fer licked his lips, but his entire face and the front of his chest were all covered in red sauce. It’s kind of horrifying and funny at the same time. I tried not to laugh as I took out a bucket of water for him to stick his face in. [6] It’s my washing up dishes water, but I’m willing to sacrifice it for the dignity of my familiar.
After lunch, Fer continued to hunt while I picked more herbs and flowers.
At the end of the day, I managed to collect 40 x Keanu Flowers and 20 x Mage Flowers. I wanted to collect five complete sets of the herb mission for convenience sake. I tied them into five separate bundles with grass.
I’ve already said this before, but having [Appraisal] is really convenient.
Fer came back with more prey. I had to ride on his back again, but he was careful not to make it too harrowing. Under the Barrier at the edge of the forest were: A Red Boar (the second one today), Cockatrice x 3, one Giant Deer, and one Murder Grizzly.
I stared at the name ‘Murder Grizzly’ for a while. It looked ominous.
… I never saw it.
That’s right, what ‘Murder Grizzly’?
I did my best to blot out that memory even as Fer loped back towards the gate. The guards stared at me, but since they did not make me get down from Fer’s back, I decided to just go into the city like this.
“Fer, we need to get these monsters dismantled, so let’s go to the Adventurer’s Guild,”
“Understood.”
[Gumihou: Lol, see no evil, hear no evil]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Reworded or adjusted style of writing
