Chapter 1: Chapter 1 The Traveler
The October sun was shining on the lush green grass, and the intoxicating smell of wine was wafting around. In a vineyard outside of Athens, very scantily clad handsome men and beautiful women were drunk and slumped over, centaurs were running around, a couple of Cyclops were singing loudly around the table, and everyone was laughing and playing around. The table was filled with all sorts of delicious food and jars and jars of wine.
I had about as much to drink and sat down to rest under an olive tree, hot and flushed, my thoughts drifting toward the infinite universe. Every once in a while someone ran up to me and pulled me into a dance. I couldn't see who it was, whether it was a man or a woman, or even whether it was a centaur or a cyclops. I just danced with them, and when I got tired of dancing I sat down under the olive tree again.
Another person came up to me, and as soon as I grabbed it, I got my hand stuck by the beard.
"Wait, wait." The person laughed out loud, "I'm old, I can't stand the enthusiasm of you young people. "
I stopped in a daze, and upon closer inspection, realized that it was the owner of the vineyard, Nicanor, an Athenian nobleman who owned many properties in and around Athens - including this vineyard.
"You sure make good wine, so worthy of an apostle of Dionysus." Nicanor complimented.
I felt a little guilty and laughed dryly. Dionysus was the Greek god of wine, the inventor of wine - and his apostle certainly excelled at making wine, as well as hosting banquets and cultivating grapes, and so on.
I'm not an apostle of the god of wine, I'm just a traveller. I was at a regular party that day, planning to get drunk. When it was late at night, I staggered home carrying half a case of beer. After walking halfway through the park, I couldn't hold on and found a tree to sleep by - and woke up here.
When I first saw the Athenians, I was shocked and cried out, "Jesus Christ!" However, the other side looked puzzled and asked, "What did you say?" They were speaking Latin, but fortunately, I had taken Latin and knew some of it, so I could just barely understand them. Afterwards, I realized that because I was carrying half a case of strange wine, I was taken as the apostle of the god of wine. For I was found with nothing but a half-case of beer, a cardboard box the Greeks had never seen before, and obviously a treasure. The translucent beer bottles were even more precious, as well as the caps made of strange metals - so many treasures to store the liquor kept inside. If not the God of Wine's apostle, who could one be?
Dionysus travelled all over the world - he roamed around with entourages, in a panther-drawn cart, from Greece to Asia Minor, to India and Ethiopia, teaching people to grow grapes, and to make wine from grapes.
I was treated as an apostle of the God of Wine from a faraway land - with a brand new variety of wine, travelling all the way to Greece in search of the God of Wine. Unfortunately, the God of Wine always came out of nowhere, so everyone had to let me stay for a while and see if I could wait until the God of Wine appeared.
And so I stayed perplexingly - better to be an apostle of the God of Wine than a stranger of unknown origin. After all, the Wine God's apostles were still considered to have status, if a stranger of unknown origin, perhaps sold into slavery. To be a slave was to labour until death, and there were more unlucky outcomes - to be captured by a savage tribe in the mountains, or to fall into the hands of an ogre, and that was to be immediately killed and taken for food. After all, this world wasn't the ancient Greece of history, but a mythological version of fantasy Greece - where there were not only monsters and fey but also gods.
That was how I became an Apostle of the God of Wine - but even as an Apostle of the God of Wine, I couldn't take a free ride. It just so happened that the grapes inside the vineyard were ripe Nicanor asked me to help make wine, trying to find out how the wine-making technology was in a faraway land. I couldn't refuse, so I had to tough it out.
I've never made wine, but I've seen my family do it. Grapes are the most convenient fruit to make wine. Other fruits have to add yeast to make wine, but grapes don't have this trouble, the skins of grapes have their own yeast.
I never made wine, but I watched my family do that. Grapes are the most convenient fruit for making wine - other fruits have to have yeast added to make wine, and grapes come with their own yeast on top of the skin.
Pick out ripe, plump, disease-free grapes, don't wash them, crush them until the skin separates from the flesh, and then put the skins, seeds, and flesh of the grapes together in a container. At this point, the yeast on top of the skins will break down the sugar inside the grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Generally speaking, grape juice begins to ferment in one day, and as soon as carbon dioxide bubbles are seen on the surface of the liquid, it indicates that the yeast has begun to multiply. After two or three days, there is a large amount of carbon dioxide released and the grape skins will float up to form a "cap".
At this point, the "cap" is pressed back into the juice to prevent the skins from getting mouldy and to leach the pigments from the skins into the juice to give the wine a better colour. Then it continues until the yeast has converted all the sugar, the carbon dioxide is no longer bubbling, the juice becomes clear, the fermentation is over, the residue is separated from the juice, and finally the wine is obtained.
This was a common practice in the Greek region, but I obviously wouldn't be able to satisfy Nicanor if that was all I could make.
The good thing was that I discovered a crucial difference between making wine in the latter days and this time: when making wine, sugar was added to the wine. Ordinary grapes used for wine-making generally contain 13 to 15 grams of sugar per 100 grams, and each gram of sugar increases the alcohol content by about 0.6% after fermentation. Therefore, relying solely on the sugar in the grapes themselves can only produce wine with an alcohol content of 8% to 9%. While the grapes of ancient Greece were not yet as sweet as they would later be, they contained less sugar and produced wines of lower degrees. If the alcohol level is to be increased, additional sugar is needed. 1 litre of grape juice with 17 grams of sugar can increase the alcohol level by 1%. The problem was that sugar was not available at that time. It would be hundreds of years before the process of making white sugar would be available.
The only sweetener in Greece at this time, besides fruit, was honey. It was so expensive that I had to sell a beer bottle to buy a barrel of honey. This was added to the grape juice to create a honey wine with a unique flavour and a higher alcohol content. Nicanord was overjoyed at this, and made me his guest of honour, inviting me to a banquet, thus proclaiming that his vineyard had been blessed by the God of wine.
"There is another feast the day after tomorrow, I will have a servant invite you over." Nicanor said.
I said wobbly, "Okay."
Nicanor went on to say, "Messengers are coming from Sparta next month who may come to ask you for the secret recipe for the wine, and you must not sell it to them."
"Don't worry, I'll never tell." Of course, I won't say anything, this was my exclusive technology. Besides, there's no patent protection law in this day and age.
Nicanor nodded and continued, "The Governor's daughter is getting married next year, I offered your wine to the Governor, who may invite you to the wedding, so be prepared."
"What time next year?" I asked.
"I don't know, it's not finalized yet."
Nicanor said a few more words, but I didn't hear them - I was already drunk. I didn't know when Nicanor walked away and I had a plump woman in my arms. We danced for a while before I realized the woman was a centaur, no wonder she was so strong.
Thirsty from dancing, I returned to the shade, took a long sip of wine, and the whole world swayed. In a blur, a handsome young man with a crown of flowers woven from grapevines on his head and ivy in his hand sat down next to me.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone