75: Sanguine

As we pulled up to what would be our campsite for the evening, I made sure to check my notifications for the day.

Notification:

You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.

…

You have reached level 5 in Infused Flavour.

You have 1 available Evolution Quest.

You have earned 25 experience for making an enjoyable meal.

…

You have earned 50 bonus experience for healing someone with your meal.

…

You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.

…

You have earned 136 experience for a rune used in combat.

…

Congratulations! Your Infused Flavour skill has 1 available Evolution Quest:

Achieve 20 unique buffs: 0/20

Wow! Another evolution—and so quickly.

Although for this one, I couldn’t help but feel a little concerned. Could I accidentally evolve it into something that stopped providing buffs?

And if I did… what would happen to Precise Palate?

I’d need to be very careful when choosing that one.

I also noticed I’d gained experience from the combat earlier. Liane must’ve been busy in the forest dealing with smaller creatures because I had nearly 32 separate “buff used in combat” notifications.

Curiously, the rune only seemed to grant experience when it was actually used—not just applied. Everyone had one on them, but I’d only received two notifications total. That was useful to know.

There were a couple of things I really wanted to get done tonight. First, while we still had some daylight, I was hoping Jen might help me skin the Baelvryn Liane had brought back.

Once the horses were housed and brushed down, I caught up with Jen. She quickly agreed, and after Milo summoned a large stone slab, we got to work.

Crisplet didn’t seem interested in any of it and was off exploring the area around the camp.

“I forgot how large this thing was,” Jen said, eyeing the beast—but she got straight to work. She began by removing the guts, then started breaking it down and skinning it. For this one, she wanted to keep as much of the hide intact as possible since it was quite valuable.

I tried to help, but honestly, I didn’t contribute much.

It took just under an hour for her to finish. I stored each piece as she went, and in the end, I was left with two things I wanted to test: a chunk of forequarter meat, and several of the organs.

I was curious to see if I could use Reduction on individual parts rather than the entire creature, like I’d attempted in the past.

And if that was possible… then maybe I could reduce only the parts we didn’t eat—less waste.

Reaching out to the large chunk of meat, I used Reduction, and was left with a blood-red orb. The liquid inside looked like it was rotating violently.

“Well, that one worked!” I said excitedly.

Would you like to store [Uncommon] Baelvryn Essence for 5 mana? Yes/No

I then tried the same with the organs—though I really should have separated them first. Instead, the whole pile—everything except the intestines and stomach—was consumed in one go. Still, I stored that essence as well.

Lastly, I cut five decently sized steaks before we finished cleaning up and went inside, calling Crisplet to come in from outside.

Heading to the campfire, I was trying to decide what wood to try tonight. I was really tempted to use Thornroot. Given its association with blood, and the Baelvryn’s own connection to it, maybe there were synergies I could explore?

“Milo, we’re having Baelvryn tonight,” I said, “and its essence looks like a volatile blood orb. Do you think it’s worth trying Thornroot with it? They both seem blood-related.”

Milo looked thoughtful. “Well… hmm. Normally, I’d be very cautious about anything blood-related like that. But so far, we’ve not had any negative buffs.”

“Try it!” Liane said, jumping in with far too much enthusiasm. “I’ll go first. If it’s fine, you can infuse the rest. If it’s bad, we’ll have health potions ready and just not infuse any more.”

She grinned. “It might give me a bleed effect while stabbing!”

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Milo just shrugged. “Look—that’s something you’ll need Hari’s approval on, not mine.”

“Approval on what? What are you up to?” Hari asked, suddenly appearing.

Jen didn’t even wait for an explanation. She just looked at Liane and asked flatly, “What have you done now?”

“Hey! I’ve not done anything. Our wonderful support here wanted to run an experiment, and I just happened to be free to help—that’s all!” she said cheerily.

I explained the idea again, this time to both Hari and Jen. Surprisingly, Hari agreed.

“We’ve no reason to believe the effect will be negative,” he said. “And it’s better to find out now in a controlled environment.”

That settled it. I gave Crisplet a small amount of the Thornroot to burn while cooking the steaks. Once Milo created a stone grill over the fire, I got to work.

Deciding to lean into the blood theme, I rubbed the outside of the steaks with salt, pepper, and Blood Tear powder before placing them on the grill.

They were thick cuts, so while they cooked, I started mixing a dough in a bowl—flour, water, salt, a dash of sugar reed juice, yeast, and butter. Once it started to come together, I handed the bowl to Milo to knead for a bit.

When the dough was ready, I set it aside to proof. It would only make a few rolls, but that was fine. The only help Milo had given was a bit of kneading.

After about twenty minutes, Crisplet signalled that the steaks were done. I pulled them from the fire, plated them, and set one aside to infuse.

Liane eagerly grabbed it, took a plate, and sat down to take a bite. Jen and Hari sat nearby, both holding health potions—just in case.

A small squeal followed.