CH 65

Episode 65 – Return to Grezesta 

After taking down the Angry Wolf, we safely returned to Grezesta. Because we were attacked by the Angry Wolf, the plant and herb gathering expedition on Mount Cornello couldn’t be said to be a success… but I did discover a variety of plants, so it also wasn’t a failure by any means.

Anyway, discovering the spices and Glutamate Herb was really significant for me. I could synthesize them with [Plant Master], and I was able to see more possibilities in plants as a result.

“A lot of things happened, but we somehow managed to make it back to Grezesta!” (Lyra)

“Yeah. It’s great we were able to make it back safely, but… I’m really sorry, Lewin. Even though we just signed that exclusive contract with you, we failed our first escort request together.” (Byrne)

“Also, as for the Angry Wolf parts, are you sure you only want one claw and one fang?” (Byrne)

“Yeah. You guys in [Iron Gear] were the one to subdue the monster after all. If the Adventurer’s Guild compensates me the commission request money and I manage to get my bag of herbs back, there’ll be no problem. If anything, I’ve been thinking that I shouldn’t be taking the best parts of the monster materials…” (Lewin)

“As long as Lewin says so… we’ll gratefully use that large remainder of monster materials you left to us to pay off our operation expenses… Thanks, that really helps us out a lot.” (Byrne)

Well, all things considered, I was pretty happy to have received some of the monster materials from the Angry Wolf. I was just in need of a knife for collecting plants and herbs, so I might as well have one fashioned out of this fang.

“Then we’re going to go report to the Guild, so let’s split up here. Tomorrow, when you go to the Guild to finish the procedures, you should be able to get your compensation and… maybe even your bag back.” (Byrne)

“Got it. Tomorrow, I’ll head to the Adventurer’s Guild and see how it goes. The four of you, thanks so much for earlier today. Next time I need to put in an escort request, I’ll ask for you guys again. Also… Lyra and Nina, would you be able to introduce me to that shop so I can sell the spices that I consulted you two about yesterday?” (Lewin)

Even though the sun was shining down high in the sky, I was dead tired, so I decided to go to the rundown inn to rest for today. I was thinking of taking my time and experimenting with various plants and herbs. I still had to try synthesizing Glutamate Herb, but I also wanted to investigate it in further detail. As I was thinking on my way back to the rundown inn, I suddenly realized how quiet it was and couldn’t help but feel a pang of loneliness.

After I returned to the rundown inn, I immediately got to work with synthesizing Glutamate Herb. Since Glutamate Herbs were all high in level, I was a little unsure whether or not I would be able to succeed in synthesizing it… but after I managed to synthesize one with no problems, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. This meant that the cost to synthesize one Glutamate Herb was under 14. Breaking the Glutamate Herb into three parts, I applied a different treatment to each.

The first piece was simmered just like the stock I made before, and the second piece I chopped up finely and simmered the small pieces in a bit of hot water. The last piece, I simply hung it up to dry to see what would happen.

These were the three methods I could come up with to prepare the Glutamate Herb for use in cooking, but I expected it to be delicious no matter which way I cooked it. What I wanted to know was which cooking method would be able to bring the most flavor out of the Glutamate Herb. This wasn’t just for the sake of selling it, it was also for the sake of my unique eating habits. I was secretly hoping that I would be able to bring out so much umami flavor that it could get rid of the crippling bitterness of the Dumbbell Weed.

I took out the Dumbbell Weed that I had set out to dry before the expedition and cut it up into a powder form to prepare it for drinking. Today, I was going to try throwing the Dumbbell Weed powder into the Glutamate Herb stock.

Just a few minutes later however, my hopes were dashed and I came to regret that there seemed to be no ingredient that could overpower the Dumbbell Weed’s bitterness.