Chapter 131 - Brisket

When I opened my eyes, I found myself staring at a sleeping mouse—ah, I mean, a sleeping girl wearing a mouse onesie. She was breathing softly and looked extremely kissable.

So! I simply gave her a peck before quietly getting up.

Checking the time, it read: 13:24. I hadn’t slept in this late in quite a while.

I noticed that Louis had sent a message basically telling me that the other two contracts were fine; He really does work fast. He also briefly explained what I’d have to do after I signed. For some reason, I feel like he’s done this a lot, as I didn’t even need to ask for the TLDR.

Heading to the kitchen, I checked on the brisket. When I opened the oven, the smell hit me like a truck.

My mouth started to water immediately. As much as I wanted to take it out and start to eat it now, I held myself back and closed the oven.

Not yet.

But, it’s good to see that I didn’t burn down my house overnight; I can count the amount of times I cooked something overnight on one hand.

After checking the brisket, I moved onto making breakfast. Even if it was past afternoon, it’s never too late for breakfast!

…

“Wow…So, you just easily set into formation without even practicing beforehand?” I asked, staring into Luna’s eyes.

“Well, everyone there is a mid-tier awakener; It’d be surprising if we needed practice.” Luna replied, “At worst, the party leader can just say ‘Go there instead’ and the awakener will know what to do.”

“But you must’ve practiced at some point, no? I’m a mid-tier awakener and no information about formations has magically come into my head!” I said.

I am very much considered a mid-tier awakener at this point! For production classes, you’re considered a mid-tier awakener when you can reliably create mid-tier items! With my C- grade buff potions, that safely puts me at the bottom of mid-tier!

And technically! Depending on who you ask, I may or may not have been considered a mid-tier awakener from the very start! My dynokali potions sit at a nice B grade. And I can reliably create those! So, all that’s to say: I deserve an award!

“You’re a production class,” Luna responded, “The only information you need to know is to stay in the middle or towards the back and be protected.” She chuckled, “But, yeah, learning formations is basic training that’s usually done in the low-tier when you’re building your foundation.”

“Bleh!” I stuck out my tongue, “So, what happened to the mid-boss?” I asked.

“When we saw it, it hadn’t spotted us, so, I simply started channeling my gold grade skill: [Call of Thunder]. By the time it casted, the water mage had soaked the thing in water and I just zapped it.” She said.

“You just zapped it? What about after that?” I asked.

“Well, electricity and water synergize well, so, it went down after the thunder struck it.”

“Woah!” I exclaimed with sparkling eyes as I imagined it. After a moment, I sighed, “Gah!” I pouted, “I want to see it too! Why don’t gates have clear videos like the tower does!?”

“Don’t ask me,” Luna shrugged, “Couldn’t tell ya.” She said, “Well, if you want to see me use my [Call of Thunder] skill, just watch one of my floor replays. They’re with a party, but, I do use it.”

“No way!” I shook my head, “First of all, those videos contain spoilers for future floors! And second! You don’t like your last party, so, I don’t want to see them!”

“Pfft, alright, then, you’re crap outta luck. You’ll just have to wait in imagination.”

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“No way!” I said again and leaned against her, “Mouse! Mouse! Can you just use it on something outside? Pretty please!!!”

“Not happening. That’s very illegal and dangerous.” She said.

“Pwease!!” I said cutely.

“No…” She said, a little less firmly.

I felt like if I continued pushing it, then, eventually she would agree. But, I don’t really want my girlfriend going to awakener jail or whatever kind of prison they have, so, I stopped.

“Fine…” I pouted, “I’ll just have you show me another time.” I said with a huff.

“When I won’t get in trouble for it, I’ll show you.” Luna said.

“I can’t believe using your own skill is illegal. If it was illegal to do alchemy, I might’ve continued staying an illegal awakener.”

“Well, when you have a dangerous skill, it’s only natural to not be able to use it in public. Could you imagine someone like the Flame Queen unleashing their most powerful skills in the city? How many buildings would melt?”

“Blah! Logic! Yuck!” I furrowed my brows, “Then, what happened after the mid-boss died?” I asked.

“Actually, before that, do you know what kind of monster the mid-boss was?” Luna asked, “All we knew about it was the description I told you.”

“Um…To be honest, telling me that it was ‘a large vulture’ doesn’t exactly do much. There’s tons of vulture-like monsters,” I replied, pausing for a moment, “At least, that’s what I would say if I wasn’t the smartest, cutest, most genius alchemist in the world!” I smiled, “I’ll tell you for a reward.”

I tilted my head, given her a perfect place to kiss.

“Mwah…” She kissed me meekly.

“Hehe,” I giggled, “Large, dark-bodied vulture with a black beak that exudes a deathly aura? That’s probably a Dead-End Vulture.” I said, “It’s useful if you want to make curse potions or as a useful component in debuff potions. It’s also one of the few types of avians that live in the same habitat as those eagles and goats.”

“Of course you somehow know it.” Luna mumbled, “Dead-End Vulture? Then, do you know why it would sleep outside it’s lair?” She asked.

“Um…I’m not an monsterpedia.” I said, scratching the back of my head, “I don’t know that, but, I do know that if you purify it while it’s alive, its beak becomes white and you’re able to use that in a lot of weird potions…”

“Ah, so, you can only do this much?” She feigned disappointment. I could tell because she was trying to hide her smile!

“Bleh!” I stuck on my tongue.

“Haha,” Luna chuckled, “So, we went inside it’s lair and found that it had children sleeping inside. Eight of them, they were huddled together.” She said, “What would you have done with them?” She asked.

“Um…” I paused and thought about it, “From a purely alchemical standpoint, the materials you can get from a young dead-end vulture can be used in antidotes and purification potions. This is because they haven’t absorbed the…Well, you’re probably not interested in the specifics.” I mumbled, “But, personally, I don’t think I’d deal with them unless necessary. There are materials that can substitute in for whatever potions they can be used in. That said, if they’re already dead, there’s no reason not to use them as alchemy materials, else they’d be wasted.”

“Hm, so basically, you’re fine either way?” Luna asked.

“I mean, I don’t know how gates work, but, in real life, the only place they’d be is in high altitude mountainous areas. There’s no reason to specifically go out and hunt them. If they need to be killed to clear the gate, then, that’s that. If not, I’d leave them be.”

“I see,” Luna smiled and nodded, “For this gate specifically, we only needed to kill the boss monster for it to close. So, we ended up leaving them alone. After that, we continued clearing through the gate, making our way to the boss monster.”

Luna proceeded to describe to me in detail about her fight with the boss monster. I listened like it was an audiobook, the way she described the stoneskinned eagle made me chuckle: ‘It was like facing a smug and cocky final boss from a game’, because that’s exactly how those monsters are. I remember reading that their pride is their downfall most of the time, and it sounded like that’s exactly what happened.

“Anyways, that’s about it.” Luna said, “I’ll get a list of everything collected in the gate by the association within a few days. I’ll show it to you and you can tell me if you want anything from it.”

“Okie~” I said, “By the way, how much are you expecting to get from this?” I asked.

Luna smiled, “If I tell you, it’d ruin the surprise.”

“Ah! You’re going to do this to me?!” I exclaimed.

“Haha,” Luna chuckled, “Yep! By the way, what’re you cooking? It smells delicious?” She asked, looking towards the oven.

“Hmph!” I crossed my arms, “If I tell you, it’d ruin the surprise!” I repeated her words with a smug smile.

“Fine, fine, keep your secrets.” Luna said, “What’d you do while I was gone?” She asked.

“Eh, the usual potion brewing.” I shrugged, “Nothing major.”

“I see,” Luna nodded, getting up, “Then, I’m gonna go play some games. Want to join me?”

“Agh, you know I have to brew potions.” I replied.

“I know,” Luna replied and hugged me, “Thank you. I’ve already had Ashley mark me as available for parties but it’ll probably be at least a week until I find a new one.”

“Mm.” I hugged her back, “Whatever, just go have fun. Are you playing that battle royale game?” I asked.

“Yeah,” She nodded, “There’s a new season coming soon, so I’m trying to push as high rank as I can.”

Hehe…I know about that new season very well~

“You can do it!” I cheered, “I’ll just be out here, brewing potions, if you need me.”

Luna nodded and headed to the bedroom.

After she did, I took the brisket out of the oven and wrapped it in tinfoil to let it rest until it was time for dinner. With that out of the way, I focused on brewing potions.

…

A few hours later, it was finally time. I finished bottling the last bouncy potion, stashed the batch in the closet and headed to the kitchen.

As I unwrapped the tinfoil, a beautiful black bark was revealed. The tinfoil and butcher’s paper was soaked in juices, and I just knew that this would taste amazing. It might have been a little too tender as I felt like I could just pull it apart with my bare hands.

I gulped and grabbed my knife.

Just as I started to cut into the meat, I saw Luna peek her head out from the bedroom. She sniffed the air and slowly tip-toed her way towards me.

Pfft! I internally chuckled. The sneaky mouse smelt food and immediately found her way to it!

I continued to slice into the brisket, cutting right down the middle.

After I sliced it into strips, I casually picked up a slice and squeezed; The juice flowed out like a waterfall. With just a slight tug of the meat, it fell apart in my hands.

“Gulp…” I heard an audible sound from behind me.

I could tell that Luna was staring at the food.

Acting as if I didn’t notice her, I tossed the slice into my mouth and…The flavor exploded.

It was so incredibly delicious that I didn’t even realize I had taken another slice to eat.

“Hey, hey.” Luna whispered, tapping me on the shoulder, “Can I, can I?” She asked.

When I turned to look at her, she was eying the food like a hawk. I don’t know if she knew it, but she was licking her lips and I could almost see the drool coming from her mouth. She was practically bouncing up and down in anticipation.

I smiled.

“Go ahead, it’s your reward for coming back uninjured.”

As soon as those words left my mouth, she had started to feast.

“Hehe,” I giggled, “Anyone watching you would think I had starved the mouse for days.”

She was too focused on eating to even retort. I doubt she even heard what I said.

I also grabbed another slice and tossed it into my mouth.

“Mm! Delicious~”