18 - The New Town

Log in at 12:25.

It's about 4:00 in the morning here, and sometimes I like to sleep for eight hours.

I get dressed, check the wine I have been making and prepare the rest of the grapes. I want to make brandy, but I wonder if they have a distiller. ...... I'll check with them when I go to the tool store to prepare the camp.

Since no one seems to have arrived yet, I decide to take a bath. Since we are going to camp, let's get in while we still can.

When I got out of the bath, everyone was there except for Ochazuke, who had come later and seemed to have the same idea, and was taking a bath in the other room.

We waited for Ochazuke and had breakfast.

"What do you think about staying here?"

"Well, I don't think I'll be back for at least two days, so I guess I won't make a reservation.

People will be moving on soon.

"So, Shin, how was the temple?"

"I got the genie but not the mystery, I tried every turn yesterday!　I guess it's not good to do it a second time."

Finally, you're not going back to the beginning again.

"You didn't do the end of the quest, did you?　Good luck."

Today's menu is boiled eggs on croissant-like bread, salad of corn, beans and leafy greens, potatoes with skin cut into a comb and fried, pepper pastrami and sausage. Pumpkin soup.

I would like to make my own ham and sausage.

The stalls do not open until after 6 a.m., so I eat a leisurely breakfast and stop at the stores in the square for food and restorative medicines,

In my case, the meal is the procurement of ingredients. I am the one who was given barley and hops by Peter and Kikuhime.

"This is my first time in a tent.

It's so new to me that I can't even tell the difference between a tent in this world and a tent in the real world.

"I've got one!"

Leo was the only one here with camping experience.

"I got it!"

At first, on Leo's advice and my own pocketbook, I bought three easy-to-assemble two-person tents.

And a barbecue set.

"Hey."

"Even we can tell something is off!"

"Wa-ha-ha!　I mean, you can bring your own food, they don't sell sleeping bags, and that's just the way the world works, right?"

"Well, I heard that there are campgrounds and villages along the road, so it would be nice to have a place to sleep and food."

"If it's along the road."

Peter supplements the conditions.

"We could buy robes or cloaks instead of bedding."

Then each of you buy what you think you'll need and meet me here in an hour."

"Yes, sir."

As usual, we don't have a culture of shopping in groups. Peter and I have been online game friends for a long time and have never met, but the rest of us are like this when we go out together in the real world and enter a souvenir shop or an exhibition hall.

We buy dried herbs, crater stones, and water barrels to keep the bugs away. If you buy too much water, you can use it for cooking, and you can use the empty barrels, so you can refill them on the way.　So I bought ten barrels. Both the water container and the cooking water container I had purchased before dissipated into light particles when I finished using them, so I guess this is a water as the name suggests. The insect repellent is probably useless since there were no insects in the meadow, but just in case.

And the distiller!

Having achieved my goal early on, I popped into the distiller I had just bought to turn my wine into brandy on the spot.

"Sorry, please tell me what I need or should take with me for a camping trip."

I have extra time, so I'm at the first tent house.

I can see the rendezvous point.

"Ah, you're the customer who just bought the tent. Usually a small group of people buy a set of cloaking gear. I didn't recommend it because I've been seeing so many people in tents lately.

"Concealed camp?"

They are made of cloth and spread or hung inside the tent, but nowadays it is popular to use thicker ones. If you move with a group of traders or a large number of people, the effect of the camp will be more conspicuous than that of the camp, so it is not very useful, and with a large number of people, demons seldom come close to you. But with a small group, I think it's necessary.

He was concerned about the recent increase in the number of customers who did not buy the camps, but he did not bother to teach them because many of them did not talk to him. It is said that if there is no dew or rain, some people spend the night wrapped in a cloth with a camp sign on it, instead of putting up a tent.

He also told us that if we pitch three tents, we should pitch them a little apart from each other to make the camp more effective, and that we should keep the fire and cooking far away from the tents.

I thought that we would take turns to build a fire and stay in bed, but I was told that demons come to the fire when they know that there are people around. Unlike animals, some active demons actively attack people. Unlike animals, some of the active demons attack people aggressively. As long as there are six people in a group, the demons around here will avoid you, so you should be fine, but it is said that it is dangerous when there are only one or two people.

He advised us not to build a fire by the tent until we are confident of our strength.

"Well, if you pitch your tent in an encampment along the road, I think you'll be fine, since there's a light ward there too."

It is a mystery if there are any roads where we are going.

"So, let's buy a camp.

He calls out to everyone gathered in front of the store.

The camps were more expensive than the tents, but that could not be helped. I also bought a lamp for myself, an outdoor lamp that illuminates a wide area while being bright enough not to leak from the tent. It is meaningless because I have night vision, but I thought it would be tasteless, so I bought it.

All in all, I spent a lot of money.

Since I had never been there before, we decided to leave from the west and head for the north, and when we went out of the gate, we found lush green wheat fields spreading from west to north. Instead of the yellowish-green leaves of rice that we are used to seeing in Japan, dark green leaves were waving in the wind. They would be a beautiful golden color in the fall.

"Shall we go this way?"

After walking along the road to the west for a while, we came to a footpath between fields to the north. I don't know how far it goes, but if we want to go north without going through the liberated secant, we have to go along the roadless path or hope that there is a fork in the road.

"Let's go!"

A man who wants to go down a roadless path immediately turns north.

"Well, I was going to take the beast road from the beginning."

It's idyllic. I see a mole.

You want to hit it?

Whack-a-mole.

"Why don't we avoid fighting as much as possible and just find a town first?　If you cross the real world day, you're going to have to log in on the field without all of us being there."

I'm going to interrupt the excitement. I can only see a future where Leo and Shin get carried away and the sun goes down.

"That's right, let's avoid the inevitable."

That's what happened.

"Wheat looks like cat grass."

"It's originally oats, like raven barley or wheat, or cat grass."

"Seriously?

Did you think it was a grass called cat grass? ......

As we walked on, exchanging idle conversation about each other's skills, we came to a forest. I thought that the path between the fields would end and we would have to go on a roadless path, but the forest at the end of the path between the fields had been passed by people many times, and although it was not a well-maintained path, it was a well-trodden path for daily life.

In this world, firewood, mushrooms, and other things available in the forest must be important resources for daily life. The path continued to the upper reaches of the river where Leo had fished for trout.

"I want to fish!

I had to make a quick detour.

Yeah!

"This river seems to be heading north, so we should walk along the river and fish as much as we can on our lunch break.

Then it turns a little to the west and flows south, probably upstream of the river where Leo caught his Yolmouth.

"I'm starting to see active monsters here and there, so be careful."

"I'm interested in meat."

They may not always drop meat, but the monsters here are of the deer type, so we can expect them. You'll see goblins, but don't let them get to you.

We'll fight before noon and cook up some venison.

Deer is kind of like a stew, isn't it?

"Barbequed meat is also good, although I hear it smells bad if the blood has not been drained properly."

"Drained blood, huh?"

"It's nice and easy here, because you can get it in your luggage as meat."

"Come to think of it, people say human meat is bad because they don't drain the blood out of it."

Suddenly it's a black topic.

"Let's take a break and have a snack."

"Oh."

He is walking along with Peter and Leo, using his sense of presence to avoid enemies at all times, so he is moving at a fairly fast speed, but he is not fighting a battle, but he is still moving at an E! consumption is high.

"Fishing!"

Leo is resting on his fishing line, looking at the line, without eating.

He is eating a hot sandwich with homemade bacon and eggs and smoked cheese, and there is also spaghetti with tomatoes and gratin in the pouch, but it is outdoors and the atmosphere is important. But I'm craving a Coke!　I wonder if there is a recipe for cola.

I hear that Coke in the real world has not even applied for a patent to prevent the recipe from being exposed, but I wonder if other colas can be found in the real world: .......

"That looks good, give me one."

"Me too!"

"Flight."

"Likewise."

It's a 7 rated sandwich. I'm still making them as well as leveling up, so I'm selling off anything below a 5 without question. It's almost a cheat to get a rating of 5, even if the recipe is 8, because I'm almost always good at cooking.

"Hmm, I tried to cook too, but my specialties were and . Why didn't I drink beer first?"

"Beer scum!　I was , I should have at least bought it after the party. Most of them had already eaten most of the food, and then the rules of their specialty came into play, so I think most of them were either , , or , or ."

"<> is more difficult to find, and you are lucky that it is not <>. After I learned about the law, I found out that if I eat it for the first time, there is a 2 in 3 chance that it will be <> or <> instead of what I ate. It seems to be the case with people who bought the game and logged in a while later. The title of the message board was "Don't Look" and "Spoiler Danger" in a hurry.

The game packages have already been sold out and are awaiting shipment, or rather, new players will be allowed to play only after the facilities have been upgraded due to capacity constraints. In the old days, the servers would have crashed!　However, due to the legal safety margin of VR, the number of participants cannot be increased until the equipment is upgraded, and the second group of players will not be able to enter the game until much later.

"Now that we're down to and and , why didn't I order beer then?"

"No. 2 B!　It's good to know that grain and alcohol are compensated for, right?　Well, before going into battle without knowing it, E! If you buy it for recovery, you're going to have to focus on your pocketbook and cost."

"Everyone is doing so many things, I haven't cooked yet.

"Shin was in a party with us when he ate it, just like us!"

I'm sorry that my specialty is not up to standard.

I felt guilty and quietly handed him three sandwiches and bagel sandwiches at a time.

"Please make a status correction effect for the 10 rating of the dish."

"I've never gotten a 10."

Although I can make a high rating, it is mainly due to my specialties, so I never reach the highest rating. My dexterity and cooking level are not high.

"Homura~"

When Leo called me, I turned around and saw him shoving sakana into my luggage.

"I can't hold it, you have to cook it for me!"

I don't think I could hold it even if I cooked it.

Leo returned to fishing again without hearing our reply.

"We'll leave when Homura finishes cooking the current portion.

And I responded with oatmeal.

I wondered if I could get at least one 10 if I made all of them.

It seems that the decision to make the ochazuke has been made, so I quietly begin to make it.

"Grilled trout on skewers and carp and carp stewed in sweetened soy sauce".

"Sober."

"Would you have preferred carp concentrate or carp arai?　No soy sauce or miso, though."

I ate both once in the real world and did not like them. I have only two choices for freshwater fish: nattoro-ni or shio-bake for smaller fish, and I can't eat freshwater fish either in soup or as sashimi. I mean, miso and soy sauce!

"Leo, go catch some sweetfish or mountain trout!"

I'm glad we share the same opinion.