Chapter 57: Gourmet Of The Underworld.
James came out of the woods into the clearing and saw everyone in the camp calling his name.
"I'm here, stop shouting before you draw some unwanted attention."
"Where were you! You can't just run away without telling anyone." Clearly, Joshua wasn't happy with James disappearing the way he did.
"I know, I'm sorry, it won't happen again. I thought I saw something, but it was a false alarm."
"Well as long as you know what you did was wrong."
"Sorry to worry everyone, it won't happen again."
"Did you guys get firewood while I was gone though?"
"We were looking for you, when would we have had the time?!"
"Fair enough, as an apology I'll go find the firewood."
James ran off into the woods again, this time while he would collect firewood he also wanted to hunt some animals for the Exp, and so he would have meat to use when he made dinner.
James had decided his best weapon for this would be the power of water, by creating a needle of water if he shot it fast enough it would stab through the animal and instantly kill them. James made sure to aim for the brain stem on the animals that he could identify and those he couldn't he would just make an educated guess.
After about an hour of hunting, James had filled the bag he prepared; he was also planning to dry some meat to keep as jerky as well. Thankfully while he was out he managed to find some herbs as well so he would be able to have an even larger flavour profile when he made dinner, he could also dry them for future use.
His knowledge of plants and animals was really coming in handy now; the forest had become his domain. From being able to track animals to identifying plants just by passing them with his gaze, James was in his element.
'System how much Exp have I got now?'
[Exp: 166]
'Holy shit! Where did all that come from?'
[Host killed 63 animals, System rewarded 1-3 Exp per kill randomly. Host Earned 123 Exp from kills.]
'Damn, I got pretty lucky from that I guess, at least I wasn't on the low end.'
Although James could have technically gotten anywhere up to 189 Exp, he was still happy with what he had acquired.
'What was the Exp cost to level up both myself and the System?'
[Total cost of upgrade: 180 Exp
90 Exp for Host
90 Exp For System]
'Okay, upgrade the system for me please.'
[Initiating Upgrade]
[System Rank: D+]
[System power has increased, faster processing speeds. Macros can now include one extra stage and can be more complex. Still unable to complete hosts request for exact force match on defence macro but the system is able to get closer to the required figure by calculating in real time. Language Index Unlocked. Library Unlocked.]
'What do the last two do?'
[Language index shows you the hosts known languages, languages not known to this world have been set into a subfolder. The library compiles every book read by the host into a virtual interface to access them whenever needed. Once the system is upgraded host can unlock the printing press module that can recreate books that have been read.]
'Nice stuff, nothing that really helps me all that much but I'm sure I can find a use in the future.'
"Okay, time to cook dinner, does anyone here know how to prep animals for cooking?"
"I have a bit of experience from going hunting with my father." Daniel seemed sure of himself so volunteered to help prepare the bodies of the animals James had caught.
"Make sure not to damage the pelts too much; I'll either sell them or send them to my leatherworkers to make me something."
"Uh, no promises. It's been a few years since we did this and I mostly watched."
"Oh well, you do the smaller animals then, I don't want you to ruin any of the bigger ones."
After that James and Daniel got to it and began preparing the animals, they would pluck the feathers and cut off the hides of them all. James seemed to know the perfect procedure to get off most of the animals skins without harming them at all which greatly shocked the others who had come to watch dinner being cooked. He shouldn't have had a chance to learn how to prepare animals growing up on the streets
About half an hour later a pile of hides and plumage were set aside next to a collection of bones.
"Let's cook!"
James began by searing the outside of what he was pretty sure was chicken and then began roasting it over the fire slowly. He also took a chunk of venison and began preparing it, after adding in a sprig of the thyme he had found and prepped the nutmeg seeds he had collected he set it to roast with the Maitake mushrooms he had seen growing nearby.
Leaving that going, James decided he would try out making a relish of sorts, so he took some cooking oil he was able to produce as a small test, a red onion he had bought, juniper berries he had foraged along with some thyme and beetroot. He also had a balsamic vinegar substitute he had made from red wine and honey.
Once all the food was finished cooking James served up the roast venison on the plates everyone had brought with them. After giving them some relish as well, everyone dug in.
One thing James had to admit was that he had gained a taste for unusual foods, after being stuck eating nothing but take away food he couldn't stand lousy food anymore, so he had been cooking his meals recently and found himself enjoying it thoroughly.
He especially liked collecting his own ingredients and had gained more of an appreciation for the art of cooking. Taking random base ingredients and putting them together to make something you couldn't even imagine, it was almost just as magic as his magus powers.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
keyboardcoronary
keyboardcoronary Kind of went on a tangent with the cooking part there, my bad!
Writing this chapter did kind of make me hungry as well.
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