63: Forest Trek

Milo didn’t wait for the others to try the stew, but grabbed a bowl straight away instead. I was curious as well. I had tasted Buvul and mushroom stew many times when Geo made it, so I wondered if the flavour would be drastically different.

With my first bite, I took a little hesitantly. It was very similar—rich, hearty—but there was almost a spice to it now, even though I hadn’t added any spices. As I continued eating, the spice grew. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was very present, enough that I found myself reaching for a drink of water before long.

“This is really good,” Hari said, having nearly finished his own bowl already.

“It really is. There’s a building spice that’s really adding to the flavour!” Milo added.

Both of them finished their bowls quickly before checking the buffs it provided.

“Liane’s going to like that one…” Milo chuckled.

“It has +2 Dexterity, +1 Strength, and something called Ambush Efficiency…” He trailed off.

I was confused about something there. “No fire immunity?” I asked.

“It was already active from the jerky, so I already had it, unfortunately,” he said.

“Ambush Efficiency seems to be an interesting ability,” Hari said, nodding approvingly. “It’s a passive that increases damage when attacking from stealth.”

Well, that came from the viper for sure—and it explained the change in flavour somewhat. I took my notebook from Milo and wrote down what I had learnt. That made Bark Vipers very useful for Liane despite being common quality. If I could combine two essences—say spider and viper—it would be increased stealth and increased ambush damage?

My mind was racing with potential combinations. I did need to be mindful of the mana cost though. At 100 mana per reduction, plus everything else, I’d be running low very quickly.

It didn’t take long for Jen and Liane to return, and sure enough, they both brought back vastly different things. Liane had six Leaf-Bladed Spiders, two more Bark Vipers, and another bird—light brown and looking dangerous.

Would you like to store [Uncommon] Wind Hawk (Whole) x1 for 5 mana? Yes/No

I wonder if that will boost wind magic? Or maybe even speed?

Storing them all, I turned to what Jen had brought back. Hers was considerably larger: a Rock Boar and two Sky Wolves. This would be super helpful!

I really wanted to show off my new ability to them, so I took out one of the spiders—since they were common—and used the skill.

The essence formed as a dark, almost black, sickly green orb. Like the last one, it gave off a strange, unsettling feeling.

I wanted to place the essence into the stew, but I was already low on mana, and if I used up another fifty, I’d be very close to empty. Instead, I just explained what I had done before, and they both tried a bowl of stew.

I noticed Hari helped himself to a second bowl when they did.

It took all of about two bites before Liane’s eyes opened wide, and she mouthed the name of the ability.

“That ability is sooo good! I want to use it now!” she said.

Hari shut it down, though, and insisted that tonight she’d need to actually be on watch. She begrudgingly agreed.

I went to sleep early that night. Walking all day in armour had really taken it out of me, and I felt exhausted, although my body wasn’t aching like I expected it to.

The next morning I made a basic porridge for breakfast using milk and honey, along with some fruits.

After infusing it, I considered using the essence, but I felt like I shouldn’t waste it.

One thing I noticed, though, was my quest was still at 0/10. How did this not count? I hadn’t made porridge yet while I had the quest…

“Milo, you might be able to help. I have an evolution quest that says I need to cook ten unique dishes, but when I made this porridge, even though I was able to infuse it, it doesn’t count. Any ideas?” I asked as Milo was helping himself to breakfast.

He thought about it for a long while. “I can only think that the term unique is just that—unique to all. So it would be a combination or food item that hasn’t been made before,” he said, shrugging at the same time.

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“Wait, how does the system know if it’s been made before or not?” I asked, shocked.

“There’s a lot we don’t know about the system, but it would be safe to assume that yes, it knows…” he said, sitting down to eat his meal.

This was a lot to think about. If I needed to come up with ten unique meals that had never been made before, then everything basic was out. I had to assume any stew, pie, or roast meat with herbs had already been done.

So what did that leave? I had to assume things like the spiders counted, but I had already done the spiders with blood tears, and the spiders with virfolium, so they were no longer unique.

“Wait, do you think if I use an essence in it, that would make it unique?” I asked, thinking I had it worked out.

“There’s a good chance, yes. Essences exist, but I’ve never heard of them being used in cooking before,” Jen added, now helping herself to the porridge and listening in to the conversation.

That morning, after getting dressed in my armour and packing up camp, I had to break the news to Crisplet that he couldn’t wander off and explore because it would be dangerous, so after a single spark shot at me, he got into his brazier for the trip.

I was surprised to learn we wouldn’t be riding our horses while travelling through the forest. Instead, we’d just be walking with them.

I didn’t understand why—at least not until about an hour into the trip, when I realised that if I’d been on horseback, I would have been ducking and weaving to avoid branches almost constantly.

The other main thing I noticed once we entered the forest was that I had absolutely no idea where we were or what direction we were heading. I was so thankful to Hari. If I had somehow ended up in the forest alone… I wasn’t sure I’d ever find my way out.

We didn’t run into anything overly dangerous. Liane scouted ahead for us, Hari led the two horses, and besides a couple of spiders who tried their luck, we didn’t encounter much else.