Chapter 36 - 36. Chow Fun For Lunch, Anyone?

After the gathering group of men had purchased the wonder MR P pills, only the livestock herders were left and after gathering the number of pills needed, Pointus went out and closed his store for the day. Joan was standing outside the store was peering from her distance what the commotion was all about.

After seeing Pointus leave, she motioned to me to come over. "What's all the morning commotion about? Why are all those men so eager to suddenly buy at this store? Did that weird loner make some pills or something? He can't be making potions, can he? I had never seen a group of men clamouring over his store even before he arrived today and where is he going? Is he done for business today or what?"

"It is a trade secret, Ma'am. You could ask Pointus personally if you want the direct answers. I'm just a nobody, an apprentice and I just hop around and see where I could fit in." I replied as a matter of fact as I do not want to affect his business and in turn, Joan would undercut his on making her own concoction instead.

"Alright then, where are you off getting all dressed up in this gear?" she asked as she raised her eyebrows and noticed something peculiar with the battle gear that I wore. "Oh, I'm off to grind goblins early this morning ma'am. I need to raise funds so I would soon be able to embark on my project real soon." I explained as she tried to stop off my clothes with just her gaze, I immediately excused myself and made my way out of the Northern forest.

Once I'm out of the Northern District, I exhaled a sigh of relief. Firstly, I made Pointus famous overnight and secondly, men from the northern and southern district would soon realise about the miraculous MR P and Pointus soon would have a steady stream of customers daily. Hah Hah Hah... As for me, its time to grind, grind, and grind some more.

I clicked the goblins camp on my map and readied my crossbow as I warped over there. I easily made a few headshots and managed to kite them over from their hideout. After each turn of 8 goblins and collecting their spoils, I clicked the same location on the map and the goblins were automatically respawned again.

I repeated this for about 60 repetitions before I took a break and looked at my progress. I had gained Experience Points of +5760%, Credits +4800 and lastly, 480 goblins planked shields. In just one morning I had gained 58 levels and had attained Level 161/100,000. On top of that, I also earned 580 points to allocate and it totalled up to 593 altogether. It looked a lot but in actual fact, I only had gained 0.161% of progress...!!!

"WHAAAA..." I finally realised after I made the calculations and if I were to meet with other pay2win characters I'm sure to 'die cock stand' for sure...

I dragged myself back to NoOne's after I had warp near his place as I was terribly encumbered with 480 of those shields. I should put all the 500 points into my STR so that I would be able to carry more weight than usual.

"Be wary of the dangers that lurk in the forest" NoOne said the same thing when I greeted him and I knew he kept tons of credits for us adventurers to exchange. The sale of the shields added another 28,800 credits and made my total wealth to 86,600 credits. I automatically felt unburdened by the heavy shields and immediately push all the unused points into my STR.

Level: 161/100,000

Progress: 16%

*ATTRIBUTES*

Strength: 693 (+3)

STR: Damage +693 Armour +693

Load: 346.5kg

"Hah Hah Hah... I should be able to get back easily now and return here once more to finish off those goblins and get the wealth I needed. In this way, in 3 days I hoped to garner enough credits to start off the idea that had been nagging in my head.

I checked the map and pressed Central Ingmery and I automatically warped right outside the gate within the northern district and as I walked through it took me just a few minutes to reach the Great Hall.

"Aaaahhhh... It is great to be home." I greeted everyone and Prius was there with a tabloid in front of his face as he checked the latest horse lineup racing events that would be taking place in Happy Valley in Hong Kong this weekend Hah Hah Hah...

"Hello, my young and latest member of the Keating family, glad to see you back home safely. How was the grinding so far? I'm sure it would take a week before you would gain the amount that you need eh?" Prius marvelled at my gear and remarked enthusiastically when he 'saw' my attributes and wealth after he did a scan on me without my knowledge.

"Hello Prius, I'm early today, aren't I? I'm going to help make lunch and dinner today with a slight variation. It's good for an anytime meal of the day." I said as I walked to my room and changed into my regular clothes and took a towel to jump into a shower.

"My... You really love to take a shower don't you, my friend? I understand that you're feeling hot and yucky after grinding those goblins." he remarked and I simply said that I do not have the mood to cook if my body is not clean at all. I waved at him as I head for my shower and after a while, I came out and entered my room to change into my peasant's garb.

A cabbage head had already been sliced and ready to be fried with the rice as Patricia set the steamer aside as I had earlier instructed to cool it off. I told Patricia to remove the spines of the smoked mackerel and set it aside. A few cloves of garlic were mashed against the countertop with a cleaver and was later mashed once more after removing the skin and the hard thingy.

The wok is ready and I mixed some fat and butter in it and dropped the garlic and fried until fragrant. Later the smoked fish was dumped inside and stirred consistently and I mixed the vegetables and broke 3 eggs inside it. After I had stirred up everything, I scooped rice using a plate and threw them inside the wok and spread a bit of crushed black pepper inside.

I fired the bellows and the flames flared up as I handled two ladles in stirring the fried rice uniformly. When Patricia noticed me handling two ladles at one time, she looked with awe and only cooks and chefs would do this kind of manner during cooking.

I laughed at her when she looked at me and when I scooped a bit of rice into my palm of my hand to test, she also wanted to do that, not on her palm but on mine. I scooped a bit of rice and offered her to test and she said not enough salt, but when I showed her the Portuguese Rissoles, she remembered that the meat inside had salt already.

"Some meals may contain salt while dome doesn't. It makes an even taste throughout. Some people I knew would make their food as spicy as they could and in the end I could never taste their flavours except the spiciness only." I explained and she nodded and asked me to put some more rice on my palm as she ate from it.

Is this called affection since the way she ate from my palm remind me of my cat lapping milk from the palm of my hand too? Hah Hah Hah...

I had the other stove on and Patricia was frying 6 more Rissoles and all was half fried to prevent spoilage and stored inside a food cabinet. Once the rice is steaming hot and the Rissoles were ready, I picked a metal cover and banged it with a wooden spoon.

*Clang Clang Clang* Chow Fun is ready for lunch... I served generously on a large bowl and Patricia had the plates and Rissoles ready. Heh... It was fun having a companion to cook in the kitchen as she carried the dishes up front to the Great Hall where Prius was waiting hungrily to be served.