61: Pancakes

As we turned off the path that would have cut through the mountain range, the trip immediately got slower. The ground was loose and rocky, and Sable was not used to this type of surface. Even though we weren’t on the mountains themselves, the slope was steep.

It wasn’t until we were a couple of hours into our journey that it dawned on me.

“We’re not going to get back to where that crystal was in the cave, will we?” I asked.

“It will be very unlikely. It may still stand, but chances are the cave has at least partially collapsed with the tremors we felt,” Milo said.

“That’s disappointing,” I muttered.

“These things happen. Honestly, you’d be surprised at what gets unearthed by this event. I can’t even imagine the materials that would have developed over the millennia that dragon was in the mountain—and it’s all come crashing down,” he explained.

And that made sense to me. I supposed some of the rocks that fell would be worth a fortune if they contained rare metals.

We didn’t end up stopping for lunch. Not that everyone wasn’t hungry, but there was simply nowhere we could safely stop with the horses. The ground was dusty and rocky, and Milo wasn’t comfortable spending the mana to make a foundation and structure just so we could eat. Everyone agreed it would be better to push as far as we could until we hit the valley before the forest we’d be entering.

The day was boring, honestly. The scenery didn’t change at all from the grey, rocky slope until late afternoon, when the dust became more substantial and the rocks thinned out. Then, up ahead as the slope descended, the dust and dirt gave way to grass and brush in the distance.

“Finally!” I said triumphantly, seeing the shift.

Liane laughed. “Just hope we never need to go to the far north, near the volcanic area. Up there, it’s all just black rock and dirt that feels like glass cutting your skin.”

When Liane mentioned the volcanic area, Crisplet let off a burst of sparks, turning to her.

“Yeah, there are fire elementals there too, although they were all much larger and much more violent,” Liane mused.

Seemingly taking this as a challenge, Crisplet almost… puffed up? Sparks shot off in random directions, which only made Liane and Jen chuckle.

“Exactly like that!” Liane said through giggles.

The trip down the slope towards the greener area seemed to pass much faster. I wondered if the horses, having seen the grass, decided to speed up as well. Before we knew it, we had arrived. As soon as we did, we stopped for the evening. It was late afternoon, and everyone was dusty and tired.

But as they all got to work setting up our camp for the night, I immediately set about dinner—as soon as Milo made me a bench.

Deciding to stick to the plan that had been delayed, I pulled out all fifteen of the Lake Veyran Bugs and sliced them in half. Getting some water from Milo to wash out the muck in the head, I was going to cook them in the pan with some butter and Garlic Grass, very similar to what we’d had at the restaurant.

The other thing I wanted to try was making some form of jerky from one of the Buvul rumps I’d purchased. I had a rough idea of what needed to be done from seeing it first-hand several times now, but my plan was to slice the rump into fairly thin, long strips, season it with salt, pepper, and fire salts, then hang it over a thin rod of stone.

Using Crisplet’s help and some of the Treant wood I had left, I was going to smoke it and dry the meat slowly over the night. Hopefully, by morning, we’d have jerky. If my notes were correct about the buffs, it wouldn’t be the most useful one—well, maybe except for Milo if we got earth magic potency again—but it would be a great test!

It didn’t take long before Liane grew curious about what I was doing. After explaining my plan to her, she nodded.

“Yeah, having jerky or something quick and easy to eat just before a battle will be very handy to have. If we can work out what gives a regeneration buff consistently, that would be ideal. But I’ll catch plenty of spiders soon for the stealth-increase ones!” she said excitedly.

Once we had set up a campfire, we ended up using the metal brazier we had originally got for Crisplet as our base, and placed the Treant wood inside. I also informed Crisplet what the plan was going to be. So, after Milo made the rack to hold the meat, I carefully placed all the meat hanging above the fire.

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There was a steady, slow stream of smoke washing over it—that was perfect!

Next, I pulled out the pan and got to work on our dinner for the night. I melted the butter in the pan, then added some sliced root vegetables, along with some chopped garlic grass. Already the smell was amazing. Once that had cooked for a short while, I added the Veyran Bugs, placing them cut side down to get a nice brown sear on them.

Once they had that, I was scooping the butter and garlic mix on top to give the shells an even coating as they started to turn orange. That, in combination with Crisplet’s help, meant it didn’t take long before they looked and smelt amazing. Pulling the pan off the heat, I used Infuse on the whole dish. Crisplet went back to work on the jerky as the steady, slow stream of smoke continued to flow past the meat.

All eyes were on me as I started plating up the bugs along with a healthy spoonful of root vegetable slices—which was really just carrots and tubers cooked in the garlic butter.

After plating it all up and handing it out, I took my first bite, pulling the soft white flesh from the shell. It was absolutely divine!

It seemed the others agreed, judging by the sounds they were making.

“It’s so tasty! So much better than the restaurant’s one,” Liane mumbled through a full mouth.

It didn’t take long for everyone to finish the meal, and I found out what the buffs were. Getting my notebook from Milo, I started to write down the effects: