251: Lesson

I noticed throughout the entire interaction Lily had spent her time standing between us. It was very evident she still did not like Gilain and actively did not trust him, and I wouldn’t ignore that, so I dropped back to where Jen and Liane were riding along behind the caravan to let her relax slightly.

As I reached them, I couldn’t help but ask about the food I had got from him, especially the bread. It couldn’t be edible; surely he was just messing with me. I know it was glowing very slightly, but most things did if I focused on them.

“Have you seen Thelran bread before?” I asked, pulling it out.

Milo nodded, and I noticed a shudder from Jen, both clearly familiar.

“It’s a super common ration food, Trev. It basically lasts forever. It’s barely edible and goes by many different names. Often the system chooses the name based on the flour type that’s used,” Milo explained.

“You also need a hammer to break it up!” Liane laughed.

“He was eating it like it’s a cracker?” I said, confused.

Jen and Milo both let out a chuckle. “Trev, he’s a warrior over level four hundred. He could probably bite a rock and give the same appearance. His strength would be incredibly high right now, compared to yourself, who wouldn’t even be twenty,” Milo explained.

“I’m fairly certain that thing is close enough to rock that Milo could use it with his magic,” Jen said with a grin.

Milo shook his head, completely serious. “No. I tried, though.”

I looked at Milo, shocked, because he was not kidding. “So how do you eat it then?” I asked.

“You soak it in liquid, or break it into tiny pieces. It’s really not that useful, especially with your storage,” Milo explained.

The afternoon passed, and we were still moving as the sun set and the night turned dark. The surrounding forest looked to be thinning, and the whole caravan appeared to be glowing orange as Crisplet lit up the front of the caravan like a giant flaming torch. It gave the surrounding trees an almost eeriness.

“We’re going to stop here tonight!” I heard Hari call.

I noticed we were entering into what appeared to be a small clearing, one that had clearly been used as a camp in the past, as there were several fire pits encircled with stones.

Milo got straight to work making the same two-house and stable design he’d been using. I also noticed Gilain was helping the drivers with the wagons, physically pulling them to the side once the horses were detached. Crisplet had already rejoined me and Lily, and was currently in conversation with Lily as the occasional spark flew off.

“Crisplet, are you okay to join us on watch again tonight?” Jen asked from the side.

There was a slight hesitation, and after turning back to Lily, he let off a large burst of sparks. Lily, on the other hand just went back to staring at Gilain, which I’m sure was going to make things very awkward through the night.

“Lily, you’re far stronger than he is. I know that. He’s not going to get through the protections you got for me before he falls, so you don’t need to stare at him constantly. Plus, with all these shadows, it’s not like you can’t always see what he’s up to anyway, right?” I smiled.

There was an audible huff, but after one last look, she did what I said and stopped staring at him. Well, for a minute or two before checking again anyway, but this was better than nothing.

My attention turned to the most important thing: dinner. I wanted to ask Lily to get something to cook, but that would be pointless. I also knew that with a stranger in camp, and one we certainly didn’t trust, tonight was not the night for experimentation.

I’d also like to learn how to make those soup cubes Gilain had, because that certainly seemed useful.

As the building was being built, I decided to get started. Not really thinking too much, I pulled out my cook wagon and started to unfold the chopping boards, placing down the new one that Liane got me on top so I could use my good knife.

I was almost finished setting up when Anthony wandered by. “You’ve had a wagon in there the entire time? And you could hold two others as well? Just how large is your storage?”

This comment caught the attention of Gilain, who must have just noticed the wagon as well, since he had a wide-eyed look on his face.

“This is the only one. It’s my cook wagon. Makes life easier when I’m on the road,” I explained. Currently, there was only a water barrel in the middle; all the other drinks were still in my storage, so it was nearly just an empty wagon on the inside.

Anthony wandered away, shaking his head. “Incredible,” I heard him mutter.

I also felt Gilain’s gaze linger on me as I went back to the wagon and pulled out all my large skewers I had got.

I wanted to do something similar to what I had seen in the market, which simply was skewered roast meat and vegetables, but the smell was delicious.

I first pulled out some infused, higher-quality bacon, cutting off three large strips and giving them straight to Lily, who was sitting at my side.

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Storing that away, I pulled out cold boar bacon. This one had not been infused, and I cut off some strips. I would add a chunk of meat, bacon, then a piece of onion, carrot, or peppers, mixing it up as I went. The meat I went with was Baelvryn, since I had so much of it, and the bacon was going to add the fat to it to give it moisture.

Finally, once I had a dozen large skewers made up, I pulled out the fire salt. Again, I had no intention of infusing this meal, well, maybe just one that I was eating, to see the buffs, but fire salt usually gave things a nice kick before finishing it off with salt and pepper.

Picking them up, I saw Gilain asking if we needed to collect firewood. When Milo looked towards me, I shook my head. It was time I burnt some of the regular wood handles anyway, so storing the uncooked skewers away, I quickly washed the chopping board and stored the wagon away.

Heading towards the now-completed building, I ventured off into the left, noticing Gilain was sitting with us inside the building and not the merchants, while there was a clear divide in the room as he sat on one side and everyone else on the other.

In the middle was Crisplet, inside one of the already established fire pits that Milo had built the house around, still managing to use the old ash and coal to start the fire.

Sitting next to it, I pulled out handles. I noticed I had no real control over which ones, since it all went into storage as a random mix and did not automatically sort, so I was pulling out five at a time and setting aside any handle that looked ordinary and was not covered in an oil or wax of some kind.

In the end, after going through twenty, I had ten that looked ordinary, and I put them all in the fire at once.

“Crisplet, could you make me a grill?” I asked.

Crisplet let off a big burst of sparks before coal formed up from the ash.

Placing the skewers on top, I noticed Gilain shifting closer, but stopping a couple of arm’s lengths away as Lily curled around that side of me.

“I want to ask how she became so protective of you. They usually don’t interact with humans at all, but I know she’d probably just attack me again, so I promised to teach you how to make the soup cubes,” Gilain said.

I nodded, very curious to learn this one. “Yes, please.”

“First, and this is the most crucial part, you need to have bones. When you boil the bones, they release collagen, as does cartilage. This will make it into a jelly-type texture, which you can then dry, so what I usually suggest is chopping up an entire leg and stuffing as much of it in a pot as you can,” Gilain instructed.

Looking through my supplies, I had a lot of options, but I wasn’t sure if everything would work.

“Does it need fat on it or anything like that?” I asked.

Gilain shook his head. “No, not really. We remove fat from the liquid later anyway, as that goes rancid.”

In the end, I settled on something I’d not really used yet and didn’t know what I would. There were also a lot of legs. Pulling out the leg of a Chironid that I had butchered up.

Gilain raised an eyebrow when I did. “Not what I expected,” he laughed.

Looking down at the gangling leg, still with some attached plating where I had to skin around it due to it being fused to the bone itself, I wondered if it was a bad choice, but Gilain quickly pulled himself together.

“Right, we need to slice it up into pieces, and you’ll need a sharp knife so it exposes the centre of the bone,” he said.

I followed his instructions, again pulling out my chopping board, infusing mana into the rune, before grabbing my knife, adjusting the blade size so I could cut cleanly through the entire leg. I then sliced.

“Wow, you might be the most equipped chef this side of the world. That knife has to be legendary. What’s it made of?” he asked curiously.

I hesitated, but I didn’t feel the need to answer, because that question apparently pushed over a line as Lily let out a loud growl.

From the side, Liane, who had been watching the whole event, chimed in. “It’s best you don’t ask about abilities and gear. Even with the oath, that’s private.”

Gilain raised his hands. “Just idle curiosity, that’s all. Not every day do I get to see this, you know.”

While the conversation was going on between them, I continued to cut the leg until it was sliced the whole way through, each disc of meat around three to four fingers wide, and following what was said, I put it in my largest pot, where it came up nearly to the top.

“This is too much meat, isn’t it?” I asked.

Gilain shook his head. “Not at all. Cover it with water, move it around, and make sure there are no gaps. Then we’re going to boil that meat until it’s unusable,” he explained.

“Unusable?” I questioned, making sure I had heard him correctly.

“Correct. It’s the liquid we want. You’re going to boil that meat until there is no meat left on that bone, and it looks like old rags,” Gilain instructed.

“We don’t add onion or anything else?” I questioned.

Gilain shook his head. “You can if you want to add some whole onions and some herbs or spices, but for the first one, just do meat.”

Shrugging, I did as he said, filled the pot with water and left it next to the fire.

“How long?” I asked.

“Four, maybe five hours?” he shrugged, shifting back.

I guess I would find out, but if I boiled for that long, I figured I’d just end up with burnt meat and no water?

Looking to my side, I saw Crisplet had been rotating the skewers that were over the fire while I was busy, and he gave me a burst of sparks as soon as he noticed, pushing across trust and reassurance.

“Thanks, Crisplet,” I muttered, pulling them off.

Deciding to be nice, I looked over at Gilain, who was just watching. “Uh, do you need food?” I asked.

He waved it off, pulling out another piece of jerky that looked even whiter than the last one, making me shudder, so I passed him a skewer. It wasn’t infused, and it was only the one. Then I handed out the rest to the group, giving all the extras to Lily. For those, I did infuse them.

And as expected, it was only a couple of stats due to the super basic ingredients.

Gilain started with a small bite, and by the time I looked up again, he had finished his skewer entirely, which was impressive because they were not small.

As soon as his eyes landed on Lily’s though, the growl that was let out vibrated the very floor before all the food in front of her vanished.

“Don’t worry, he won’t steal your food. You’d beat him up for it, and none of us would stop you,” I said loud enough he could hear.

“It was nice, though. Far better than the salt jerky,” he said with a grin.

Luis and Hari both finished around the same time, standing up.

“We’re going to go train, if you’d like to join us,” Luis said to Gilain as they walked by.

Gilain shrugged, getting to his feet and following them out.

As soon as he left, I felt a nudge from Lily, which I immediately knew meant more food.

And who was I to say no?

So I gave her a bowl of drake soup as well.