116: Runes

I spent the next thirty minutes or so crushing the reed in the barrel. In the end, my arms nearly gave out, and my stamina was getting low, so I decided to stop.

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 pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

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.