Chapter 11: First day outside
I was currently walking along the road with Hati after putting Falliéres behind me.
Was it because Hati was with me? I didn't see any monsters at all. Even the road out of Melromarc's capital had goblins and grey wolves on it, though. Personally, there was nothing better than there being no monsters around, I guess.
While walking along with no real destination, I asked a question that had been on my mind: "Hey, Hati. You can use magic, right?"
"Yes, I can use magic." He used Barrier magic when we went out for the herb gathering quest, but that was the kind of magic you couldn't see, so it hadn't really hit me. Conjuring water or fire or something visible seemed more like magic.
"I wonder if I can learn to use magic?" As I thought, now that I was in a world where magic existed, the feeling of wanting to try using it welled up inside. 'After all, it's magic, you know? Magic. I'm probably a little too old to be like this, but I really am excited about it.'
"You should be able to as long as you have MP."
Hmm hmm... I did have some MP at least, so did that mean I could use magic? "How do you become able to use magic?"
"How, you say... you should be able to use it if you want to use it."
"If I want to?"
"Like I said, if you want to use Wind magic then by thinking of wanting to use Wind magic you can use Wind magic. The same with fire, and so on."
'This is no good. Hati is the type of genius to do things by feeling. Hrmmmm, but by "thinking of using it," does he mean that the mental image is important? Image, image, image... Ball of fire, ball of fire, ball of fire, Fireball, it's a Fireball.'
I held out my right hand and chanted, "Fireball."
Nothing...
'E-Embarrassing...'
"You, what are you doing?" Hati looked at me, exasperated.
'Khh... please don't look at me with those eyes.'
"You will not be able to use magic if you do not circulate the magic power around your body, you know?" 'Eh? Really? You know, that's the basic stuff I wanted to hear about in the first place.'
"What do you mean, circulate magic power?" I wasn't even sure what magic power was like in the first place.
"It is difficult to communicate with words. I am circulating magic power in my body right now, so try touching me and feel it."
'Feel it,' he says. 'Is that really possible?' Doubting him a little, I touched Hati's back.
'Woah... It's only vaguely, but I think I get it.' I could faintly feel something warm flowing around Hati's insides. It was still blurry, but I felt like I was grasping something.
"Do you understand?"
"Yeah, somehow."
"If that is so, then all that is left is training." 'Of course it would be. Alright, let's try it.'
'Magic power, magic power, magic power, something warm, magic power, magic power...'
'Hm? There was something there. Circulate it around my body, like blood flowing through my veins, circulate, circulate.' I was doing that while walking, training the circulation of magic power throughout my body.
"Hey, I am hungry." I started when Hati said that. 'It's already that time?
"Then, let's have lunch." We moved to an open space by the road. Now then, what should I make?
'Okay, let's make pork chops. They're simple. It's not actually pork, but I'll try using the orc that seems similar. Is it really okay though?' I did have those thoughts.
'I mean, these pigs are bipedal, you know? But the people of this world eat it regularly, and the butcher at the Adventurer's guild eats it too and even said it was a high-class ingredient. Also, I have a lot of orc meat, so if I don't at least challenge myself with it, it'll just go to waste. If it's no good I can just make Hati eat all of it, yeah.'
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Start off by cutting onions into thin slices, and cut the orc meat thinly as well. After that, mix together ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, alcohol, and a little soy sauce to make the sauce.
Cook the orc meat in a frying pan until its color changes suddenly, and then add in the onions.
Continue heating the meat and onions together until the onions become transparent, then add the sauce mixture in and continue lightly heating until the flavors are mixed together... and the pork chop is finished.
//All the ingredients and special items automatically come from the supermarket. I won't often describe how he picked them, put them in his shopping trolley and bought them. He got money for spices etc.
In this case, Orc looks like Quilboar. It's a pig crossed with a hedgehog and a human, not the awesome 2.5m tall green creatures that have invaded Azeroth. Orcs like this are a classic of the isekai genre.
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When I placed it in front of Hati, who was waiting with his nose twitching at the smell, he scarfed it down immediately. "Yes, this is delicious, too."
'Well, that's good. That means at least Hati is perfectly fine eating orc meat. Now then, I should try some too. It looks just like a pork chop, so it seems like it should be delicious, but...'
I prepared myself, and threw a bite into my mouth. '*Mgmg* *mgmg*'... 'Huh? It's tasty. It's totally fine. In fact, it's absolutely delicious. It's like high-class, branded pork. What the hell, orcs are amazing! Why wasn't I told earlier?! I felt hesitation at how they looked, but this is really good!'
It was completely fine, as long as I thought of it like a fancy branded pork. 'Yes, yes, it's great...'
It felt like blasphemy, but I took some of the pork chop meat, put it in between two slices of bread, and bit into it. 'Yeah, that works.'
"Hey, another." I made another for Hati while I ate my own pork chop sandwich.
We took a small break after Hati was satisfied with his meal before starting to walk again — of course, while I practiced circulating magic power around my body.
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After I spent a while training mana circulation, I finally felt like I'd reached a decent point - like I was just about able to actually use magic. I stuck out my right hand, palm facing up.
"Fireball."
*Bomf!* A small fire the size of a candle's flame lit up on my palm.
...
"Fhhssn."
'Hati, my friend, please stop snorting like you're making fun of me. Sure, it isn't much, but in my books at least it isn't a total failure. I managed to conjure fire from nothing, after all.'
'Yeah, it's not a failure. If I say it's not, it's not... But, I'll have to train more if I want to pull out a real Fireball in the future.'
"Hati, should we call it a day and make camp?"
"Sure."
I made quite a bit off of the monsters that Hati hunted, so I was gonna treat him today. I'd make it a great feast of otherworld meat. "Hey, Hati. Thanks to you, I've managed to make quite a bit of money, so I'll use my skill to get some food from my world for you to eat. What do you want?"
"Food from another world, huh? Of course I want meat." 'Of course' he'd say that. Looking at my skill window, I tried to figure out what would be good. Hati was standing next to me with eyes full of expectation... 'So for now, something that he can eat right away, I guess. If that's the case, I guess it's side dishes. Which one, though...'
'Oh, they have soy-flavored fried chicken. The meatballs and mince cutlet are good, too. Next is some Hamburg steak, and also some thick-cut pork cutlet, and they also have fried tofu, so I'll get that too...' I added all of it to the cart.
"Hey. I-Is it ready yet?"
'Hati, would you stop drooling while looking at the screen?' I decided to check out just the side dishes first so that Hati would stop drooling in impatience. I bought several of each, so it ended up coming out to 4 silver and 7 copper. For now, I just threw in 5 gold and paid it out of that balance. As soon as I finished checking out, a cardboard box appeared. When I opened the box and took out the side dishes, they were all still hot.
"Woah, they're still hot. This is good." I took the hot side dishes out of their packaging, and served them to Hati on a plate. "Right, here you go."
Even before I said that, Hati had already jumped on the plate and started wolfing it down. But he'd still want more at this rate. I was sure the side dishes I bought wouldn't be enough, so I took a little longer to look through the site to think about what meat I should buy for a main dish.
'Maybe coarsely ground sausage and some roast pork would be good. I'd just have to lightly season the sausage with salt and pepper before cooking it, and in Hati's case, he can probably eat the roast pork as is. After that, the main dish would have to be beef.'
I was thinking the main dish would be domestic Wagyu steak. I'd eaten a lot of different meats in this world, and they'd all been fairly good. That was why, when I tried to think of something better, it really could only be domestic A5 Wagyu. It was pretty expensive, but I'd already decided to splurge today.
I found that they had some A5 Super Premium Wagyu Ribeye Steak, so I went with that. 1 steak (200g) is 20 silver coins — as expensive as I expected. 'Judging from Hati's habits, he'll eat about 10.'
'As for my share... Oh, this and this is good. Coarse sausage, roast pork, steak meat, and my share of food all came out to 5 gold.' While I was shopping on my Online Supermarket, Hati finished eating his side dishes.
"What, are you going to feed me that next?" 'Hati, you eat too fast.'
"Just wait a little, some of it is better if I cook it first, so eat this for now." I threw around five lumps of roast pork that I took out of their packages on a plate and gave it to Hati. While he was eating that, I took the sausages, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and cooked them so that they were just lightly burnt enough to have crispy parts.
"Here, eat this too." Hati happily started chewing on the sausages that I put in front of him.
"Each and every thing is delicious." 'Well, that's good to hear. But there's still the final main dish...' I seasoned the first two domestic Wagyu steaks with salt and pepper before cooking them.
"The main dish is domestic Wagyu steak. First, with salt and pepper."
"Hmm... *Mgmg*... Mmm, how incredibly soft and delicious this meat is! This is great! It is delicious!"
"Hehehn, it is, isn't it? This is the meat of an animal called a cow, which has been raised carefully by my country so that it is as delicious as can be."
"What?! You say your country in the other world raises this animal called a cow just for meals?"
"Huh? This world doesn't have animal husbandry, or raise livestock?"
"It does not. This world overflows with monsters. It is enough to hunt them for meat."
'I see. Certainly monster meat is pretty good, and if those monsters exist in great numbers, then there might be no need to go through all the trouble to keep livestock.'
I kept grilling steaks while Hati talked, this time with the steak sauces I'd used before. I used garlic flavor, grated radish flavor, onion flavor, and butter flavor, one after another, as I put out steaks like I was raising a combo meter.
"Even so, to raise them yourself so they are more tasty, your country is really particular about its food."
"Yeah, no doubt. My country makes no compromises, and cares about its food more than any other would, I think." After all, we had everything from B-class gourmet to high-class French restaurants, and in Tokyo, you'd be able to eat cuisine from almost any country without having to leave the city.
"I see. That is why the food you make is so good." 'Well, that's mostly thanks to the Online Supermarket and all the different spices and seasonings that food production companies make...' It seemed Hati was happy and full after eating and enjoying his fill of the domestic Wagyu steaks.
"Yes, it was a treat. Even so, I have thought this before, but when I eat your cooking, I can feel energy overflowing from inside me. Especially today. I feel like right now, I can easily defeat that ancient dragon that I tied with long ago."
'Eh? No way, is my cooking showing some sort of preposterous effect? Wait, shiーーーt...' 'Today's cooking was all made with stuff I bought from my skill and with use that new weapon!' Usually, I used meat from here, so the effects of otherworld ingredients had been kept to a minimum. That's why, even if there were side effects, when it came to someone already as powerful as Hati, it didn't turn out to be much. But today, I fed Hati food made only from stuff I got off of my Online Supermarket.
'H-Hati, by energy, could you mean...'
I appraised Hati:
[Name] Hati
[Age] 1014
[Race] Fenrir
[Level] 906
[HP] 9843 (+5118)
[MP] 9481 (+4550)
[Attack] 9036 (+4518)
[Defense] 9765 (+4394)
[Agility] 9684 (+4551)
[Skills] Wind magic, Fire magic, Water magic, Earth magic, Ice magic, Lightning magic, Holy magic, Barrier magic, Rending Claws, Body Reinforcement, Physical attack resistance, Magic attack resistance, MP Efficiency, Appraisal
'Huh? Am I seeing things?' I blinked several times and appraised Hati again.
Oh... All of Hati's stats had been buffed by about 50%. That the stats had been buffed this much must have something to do with how much he ate, new spoon I used, the ingredients, or possibly how it was cooked. I had no idea how things got like this, but there was no doubt it was because of the food and spoon.
'But, it's got to be all right. I mean, when I looked at this before, there was a time limit. No matter how much Hati ate, at the very latest it should all go back to normal after tomorrow morning. Probably...'
"Hey, it is a waste to sit still with all this energy. I will go hunting."
"Hey w-w-wait a bit. What if m-monsters attack me?" 'I'd appreciate it if you didn't leave me alone when the sun has already set and it's dark out.'
"Gh, I shall erect a barrier around you. A barrier erected by me in mine current state should deflect even a dragon's breath." 'Deflect a dragon's breath?' You...
"Now then I shall take my leave." Saying that, Hati ran into the dark forest as if he was jumping into it.
"*Sigh* ...I guess I'll just eat my own dinner. Wait, why is it already pitch black?!" While Hati was around, his silver fur always faintly glowed (was that an effect of his magic power?), so even if it was dark, I never really minded.
"My Online Supermarket was basically made for situations like this." I opened up the site and bought a flashlight with batteries, which I placed on top of a cardboard box. "This is fine. Let's eat."
It's been meat over and over again recently, so I suddenly wanted to eat this when I saw it: a makunouchi bento.
'Also, some canned coffee — I used to drink this every day in Japan.'
"Haahhh, it's gone a little cold, but man, this is good. This canned coffee, too." After thoroughly savoring my meal, I decided to go straight to bed because I had nothing else to do. I was going to just curl up in my mantle and sleep, but I had a sudden idea. If I remember correctly, they should have it...
I opened up my Online Supermarket. "Uhhhh... oh, there it is. A pillow, futon, and blanket." 'Now that I have quite some room in my budget thanks to Hati, it should be fine to buy a futon set. If I have this, camping out should become a good sight more comfortable from now on. Okay, let's buy it. Aannnnddd... button.'
"Right then. There's no need to worry because of Hati's Barrier magic, so I'll be able to sleep soundly tonight." I felt asleep inside a bed comfortable enough one wouldn't think they were camping.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone