Chapter 58 - 58: Request For Help And Soup Base

Making hot pot is easy as they have lots of meat, Whether it's cow meat or turtle meat.

The main problem is cooking utensils because they need to have a big pot so that everyone can eat.

Though the problem is not big as Robert already has a solution for it. He walked near the dead turtle and patted its shell. It's sturdy!

He checked the shell carefully, seeing that there was not a single crack. He was relieved. Now they have a pot for Hot Pot. Now he only needs to prepare a soup base and they are ready for a banquet.

"Little Fang you remove the upper part of the tortoiseshell without damaging it, Slither you go out along with Snowball and bring back some more meat. Celli, you go out and try to bring some eggs, Even if you don't find it okay. Everything should be done in one hour." Robert gave out the tasks to everyone and went inside the kitchen to prepare the soup base.

Although every creature was bewildered they understood that the owner wanted some meat and eggs so some quick-witted beasts quickly said, "I know where to find some good eggs, it's near this place." 

One of the smaller beasts said to Celli. Hearing this Celli was startled but she is not opposed to this idea after all it's better to have a guide than roaming aimlessly to find something.

So she happily said with a smile, "Then I will be counting on you."

After both of them left to find eggs. After that, another guy said he knew a place where bests with soft meat gather so he left with Slither and Snowball.

Now there is only White Fang and Robert present on the cloud peak but no one dared to make trouble as they sensed a fearful aura from White Fang. On top of that, there is a fearsome owner inside.

White Fang skillfully removed the turtle body from the shell in just a few ones. It was an easy task for her.

Seeing that there was nothing for her to do she looked at the 'customers' in front of her and said with a smile, "Hmm you guys must be bored right? How about I tell you the origin of this place? You are interested,d, right? Now let's start from where I met Robert…."

From Robert, she began to tell the stories of kung-fu pandas to the crowd in front of her spreading the legend.

...

Inside the restaurant, Robert is not making soup base as he planned previously. At this moment he is looking at three strange creatures in front of him with a frown on his face.

One is a semi-transparent entity that talked with Slither previously. To Robert, he looked like Celli in her Virtual state.

The other two are wolves with two heads. This guy reminded Robert of a mythical creature, 'Cerberus- Three-headed Dog!' A multi-headed hound that guards the gates of the underworld. 

But this guy is off and he only has two heads so clearly, he is not a Cerberus but there is a possibility that he has some connection with Cerberus.

The third one is a dog with magma flowing in his veins. Yes, this is how Robert saw the third creature. 

This dog has flames all over his body and his body temperature is astonishingly high making others stand away from him. 

Even the wood floor below him was burnt by his body temperature. Though this dog looked more like a rabies dog, The look on his face was crazy. 

Three of them were Peak Qi condensation tea beasts. Special beasts are appropriate to describe them.

But Robert did not dare to underestimate them because of their low cultivation because each of them gave him a sense of danger.

Even the peak Foundation realm leopard did not give him this type of dangerous feeling. So he concluded that these people are not to be underestimated.

"So what do you need?" Robert looked at them and asked. Even though the opponent is strong he is not afraid because along with him there is White Fang outside. 

"Help us with breakthroughs!" The semi-transparent entity said a simple sentence. But this sentence was filled with determination and hope.

The other two nodded stating that they are here for the same purpose. Robert was startled hearing their request.

That's it? He thought they may be here for something more precious but in the end, they are looking for a breakthrough.

The Semi-transparent guy knew his thoughts so he said, "Breakthrough for us is not simple as you think we are special creatures and if we cannot find an opportunity then we are destined to remain at the peak of First grade."

Seeing Roberts' confused expression the guy continued, "Look at Gomen, He has a twin bloodline in his body which makes him unable to advance to the foundation realm. He has dual attributes and both of his bloodlines are of a high level. If he needs to upgrade to the second grade he will need a large amount of spiritual energy. In short, he needs ten times more spiritual energy compared to others so that he can enter the Foundation Realm!" 

"This is Lucas he has a bloodline of Lava Giant who are known for their fire elemental talents and strong body. But his bloodline awakened too early which caused him a lot of problems. His body is not strong enough to carry the bloodline of the Lava giant because of the overbearing bloodline he suffers the pain of being boiled every second causing him to become bloodthirsty and crazy. If he tries to break through again he will awaken his bloodline for the second time and at times his body will not be able to support him and will collapse."

"As for me, Axel, I am a special creature formed with the souls of the dead. I have no bloodline inside my body and I don't have a specific path of cultivation. I have to explore all of that myself." At the end of the sentence, Alex spoke bitterly. He doesn't have any inheritance that's why he has to explore the path of cultivation on his own on a trial and error basis. 

Listening to three of them Robert was silent; he didn't expect that there would be creatures like this in this forest. 

"Surely there are places with plenty of spiritual energy? That can help you in breakthroughs." This question is directed toward Gomen. Even though he can provide the food with enough spiritual energy he wanted to know why this guy came here.

"But the places or treasures with such concentration of spiritual energy are owned by powerful creatures who use those places or objects for their cultivation. That's why weaker people like us have no chance to get it and upgrade the cultivation." Gomen said bitterly as he heard Robert's question, "After that, I heard about this place from some birds so I came here with these two hoping to achieve a breakthrough." 

Birds? Ah, Amber and the other two! Didn't expect that they would be still on the task of advertisement. They are diligent. 

"I own this business. As long as you brought enough Herbs for payment I can make something that contains enough spiritual energy for your breakthrough." Robert said to Gomen and then looking at Alex and Lucas he said helplessly, "As for two of you sorry but I can't help you because I don't have something that can heal or strengthen the body and I don't have a cultivation method for you!"

Robert said with a sigh he felt pity for these guys and their talent. With just the Qi condensation realm they are so strong that if they enter second grade then they would be invincible in the same realm. 

But alas he can't help them. He has a healing potion but how can he give it to strangers he just met?

That is foolish behaviour! They have attracted enough attention that he did not want to attract stronger creatures now.

"You misunderstood, We did not ask you to heal us or give us cultivation techniques. What both of us want is the same as Gomen, Abundant Spiritual Energy. As long as we have enough spiritual energy we can solve our problems." Alex heard him and said, They originally came here to get spiritual energy for themselves but seeing that these people are so strong they decided to exchange the spiritual energy for something equal.

Hearing this Robert was startled but then he smiled, "Okay if that's what you want then I can help you." 

He has no problem with this request. He can make something that contains a huge amount of spiritual energy. Although it will be difficult, it's not impossible.

These three people have good potential. If he makes good relations with them now then it will be useful in future. After all, it's better to have one more friend than an enemy.

...

After sending three of them outside Robert rushed towards the kitchen to prepare a soup base. 

Making the soup base for the Hot Pot can say to be easy as well as hard. If you have enough ingredients then you can make it easier.

But if you don't have enough ingredients, then the process is difficult and the result might not be satisfactory for you. 

He remembers that to make a Hot Pot soup base he needs many ingredients like bay leaves, garlic, cinnamon sticks, star anise, and cloves…

Out of all these ingredients, he only has some bay leaves and garlic. As for others, he did not find them. 

Looks like I need to explore the forest more to get these things. Robert thought to himself as he looked at garlic and bay leaves in front of him. Except for these two he has a bunch of ordinary red chilies. 

He racked his brain trying to think of a method to make Hot pot with this ingredient, but no matter how much he thought there were not enough ingredients.

Having a hot pot was a bad idea, He mentioned this out of whim.

Forget it, Let's make the soup base with these ingredients. Anyway, others will not know the difference. 

He lit up the stone stove and placed enough wood in it. Then he placed a pan on the fire. He added the oil made from pork fat and after the oil was heated he added finely chopped garlic in it.

On this note, how did he get this Steel Knife?

He exchanges this universal store, From time to time, there will be useful things available at the universal store, though most of the time it sells useless stuff.

He purchased this kitchen knife for 100 Energy points, but it's very useful as it helps a lot in the kitchen.

If not for this knife he could only use primitive knives made from stones. 

Back to the cooking.

He removed the pan from the fire and placed the content of the pan in a soup cup.

Now it's time to make a broth, which is an essential ingredient to make a soup base.

He took out a pot made from clay and placed it on the fire. He then took out some big pork bones.

And placed them in the pot along with chopped carrot, ginger and wild onion.

Then he filled the pot with water. It needs vinegar and other stuff too, but too bad he is short on ingredients. 

There are five steps to make a pork broth: Soak, Skim, Simmer, Strain, Store. These five steps took one week to make perfect high quality broth and he did not have so much time. 

So he is going to use an extreme method that no one has tried till now. He is going to melt the bones directly and make a base.

These are the bones of Core Formation Boar and it is unusual though. Even he would need some time to break it.

So how is he going to melt these bones? And make a broth!

Answer for this question is his talent or a part of talent. The last time when the Hell's furnace was repaired, he got one extra skill- Hell Flames!

Hell Flames are a part of his Hell Furnace, Everything that he eats, gets burned by these flames and gets converted into experience points or Evolution points.

Hell Flames: High temperature otherworldly mysterious flames that can burn anything and everything. (Use it with caution)

This is the description of the Hell flames Robett raised his hand and a black and red flame appeared in his hand. Flickering mysteriously changing color now and then.

After the hell flames came out the surrounding temperature increased. Robert felt heat fishing toward his face but his hands were not injured or burnt by this flame. This flame does not harm him in any way.

He looked at the pot and threw the hell flames inside it.

Sizzle!

The sound of sizzling came from inside the pot. The water started evaporating and the water level dropped at the speed that can be seen by name.

But amazingly the pot made from normal clay remained intact. This happened because Robert can control the flames and direct the heat toward a specific target. That's the reason why the pot is intact.

But still cracks started to appear on the surface just because of residue heat. He hurriedly coated the pot with his spiritual energy.

Inside the pot he is using the Flames to melt the bones as for other ingredients? They are already burnt.

He added water again and again. And after 10 minutes the bone was smelted and turned into white water filled with a mouth watering aroma even though he did not use any spices. Along with it the broth is emitting rich spiritual energy.

This is to be expected as the main material is the bones of Core Formation Realm Creature.

The broth is ready now, but Robert is filled with sweat as he spent half of his spiritual energy reserve to make this.

Now the broth is ready, it's time to make ready, it's time to make Soup base.

He took out the pan and placed it one the normal fire and then poured all the stock in it. Then he poured the oil that had garlic in it.

Then he added bay leaves as well as finely chopped chillies in it. After heating the solution for five minutes.

Tada~ Soul Base for Hot Pot is ready~~