Chapter 46

Currently, I have rented a room like a conference room and am poking a stick into a borrowed bottle.

...I couldn't think of any other way to polish rice. I'm filling the bottle with rice and using a stick to remove the bran from the top. Brown rice is good, but let's start with the basics of white rice.

For threshing, I bothered the store people. I was taught that the process is like doing laundry with wind instead of water, as used for threshing wheat. It seems that the "threshing" skill is a trap that appears in the cooking skill.

The bran can be used to make bran pickles, and if I have bamboo shoots, I can remove their bitterness. For the sake of my gluttony, I'm using the stick to carefully and steadily polish the rice. If I apply too much force, the rice will break, and if I poke too quickly, it will heat up due to friction, so I have to do it slowly.

I sent White back after promising to feed him later. It's taking quite a bit of time.

When the brown rice turns white and the white rice becomes slightly transparent, it's done.

《You have obtained the cooking skill [Polishing Rice]》

From now on, it seems I can do it more easily. ...There must be someone who loves food mixed in with the development team. It's good that regular cooking actions don't cost skill points. I thought production skills didn't require skill points, but it seems that things like [Precision Increase] and [Quality Improvement] do. I don't use such things in regular cooking, but I do try to improve the quality. And I haven't had any skills that require skill points yet.

Do I have to do a thousand repetitions of the same dish to get them? It's fine for now since I'm not in trouble. If I want to master a profession, I need to do a lot of the same work. It's recommended to learn skills that require skill points after I've settled into the profession I want, as Kaisuke said.

While thinking about such things, I completed the onigiri! Since I don't have nori, I made a salt onigiri and put some well-seasoned meat inside. I wish I had soy sauce. I need to find some ingredients. I also made some cheese risotto to call Jii-san.

"Hey, this is good. It's a quick snack that fills you up. Regular bread is too light, and heavy stuff is too hard."

To my surprise, Jii-san liked the onigiri the most.

"If you change the filling, it won't get boring, like salmon or tarako."

"Hmm, I heard they have some long salmon. I'll give you one as a thank you for the rice. I'd like to buy your recipe and spread it, but unfortunately, we don't have enough rice."

According to him, the rice comes from Fusou, an island nation across the sea, beyond a narrow mountain path. Can't you just go by sea? He said the sea currents caused by sea dragons make it impossible to cross from anywhere else. What a troublesome sea dragon, like a dad joke.

However, they continue trading to produce a lot of gold, even though the path is narrow. The location is to the east of this continent.

Clearly, it's from East Japan!

Is Fusou Fuusou?

I thought it would exist, but it's coming out early!

Kikihime logged out with a message saying, "I'm back and will take a bath and eat." Before logging out, she hurriedly told Leo and Shin to move and eat when they return. I asked her to pass on the message.

I called Leo, but he seems to be in Sekan. Shin's login email arrived shortly after, and it seems he logged in in a hurry to move the carriage as per Kikihime's real email. I logged out for a while to adjust my login time, as Kikihime and the others should be arriving soon.

Now, I have the rice I bought from Jii-san and the salmon he gave me, and I'm at Sa's production facility. After that, I went back to the warehouse to receive the rice and found soybeans, red beans, and koya tofu next to it. I'm happy, but why is there koya tofu? I bought everything, of course.

I tried to buy some more vegetables, but I was told to take what I needed for personal use. Normally, individuals can't enter the warehouse, but the introduction letter helped. The vegetable storage was nicely cool, and the vegetables were fresh, so I asked about the storage method and received the recipe for [Cooling]. I taught them how to cook rice as a thank you.

Now, the Japanese ingredients are all in small quantities. It's difficult to secure both koji for miso and soy sauce and rice. I need to make koji first.

So, I have some unhulled rice spread thinly on a cloth in front of me.

I thought there wouldn't be such detailed settings as making koji from unhulled rice, but there it is. A round, greenish or blackish thing larger than a red bean. When I identified it, it was called "rice koji," so it's definitely the right one.

How detailed are the settings in this world?

Well, I got the rice koji!

I made three bottles of Japanese sake and one bottle of soy sauce.

I tried using the newly learned [Cooling]. I used to put the beer in the fridge here or leave it at room temperature, but I don't think I can do that with Japanese sake. Probably not. There's a game adjustment, so I can't say for sure. One bottle is for when Kikihime and Petelo are together, one is for Ruba, who is making my sword, and one is for cooking. I want another bottle to make mirin, but if I make more alcohol, I won't have enough rice for cooking.

For the rice, I salted and grilled the salmon and made some salmon onigiri. I made a few to eat outside. I put the leftover salmon in the item box as fillets. I'll cook the rest normally. I also made a few dishes without the production name for the adventurers who are with me. Where's the curry?

Human desires seem to have no limits.

The next shipment from Fusou is expected in about a month, and I asked Jii-san to notify me when it arrives.

Now that I've finished my production, I'm heading out to Sa's town. It was convenient that Sa's town was the meeting place. I bought barrels from a barrel shop for the sake and soy sauce. It feels like I keep running to the barrel shop every time I come here.

Last time, it was quite hectic, so I decided to walk around the town until everyone arrives.

Then I remembered the furniture.

I checked my titles and the details of the house. Let's start with the easy one.

The effect of the title [One Who Soars Through the World] is "more likely to have good weather."

So, I've become a sunny man, I guess.

My affiliations are as follows:

- Adventurer Guild: Discounts at inns, increased buyback prices for materials at the guild, etc.

- Commercial Guild: Discounts and increased prices for buying and selling, etc.

- Occupational Guilds: Small increases in skill efficiency for each occupation, etc.

- Production Guilds: Small increases in production efficiency for each type, etc.

- Temple: Free lodging at the temple, etc.

- Lord: Ability to stay at the barracks as a guest, etc.

The first two don't have specific quotas, but the last four have regular quests and delivery quotas. The last two might allow me to become a priest or a knight affiliated with the country.

A clan is like a group of like-minded friends, but you have to decide on an affiliation. You apply to the chosen affiliation to start the clan. You can also affiliate with other places individually, but it's not necessary. Being in a clan allows you to communicate with all members, which is convenient. It's a different function from [Telepathy], which is not a skill.

A house can be owned by a clan or an individual, either by renting or buying an existing house or by renting or buying land and building from scratch. The price varies depending on the location and the size of the building.

I want to see various countries before deciding where to build. But if I take too long, good locations might be taken by others.

It's a dilemma!

Sa's town gives a middle impression between a city and a village. It's pastoral for a city and large for a village.

Instead of stone walls, wooden fences surround the town in multiple layers. A river from Nalun flows to the north of the town, and it seems they use the river to transport large logs cut from the forest. The logs are already stripped of branches and leaves and are transported through the town by horses, making the dirt roads hard and compact.

The closer to the river, the more large logs are handled, and there are many large buildings like warehouses. During the day, the sound of cutting wood can be heard from inside. As you move away from the river, the sound changes to the rhythmic tapping of chisels and other tools for detailed carving.

Well, now it's the time of the yellow moon, and there's no one around.

Looking up, a white moon also shines next to the yellow moon. The yellow moon only appears at night, and the white moon's appearance time varies by season, probably due to its different orbit.

There's not much to see at night, so I end up practicing sword forms by the river.

After practicing the forms a few times, Leo logged in. It seems he was originally there. I apologize for doubting him.

Leo said he would go fishing and invited me to come along, saying there are also gathering spots. Leo, have you finally taken all three gathering skills?

I need to get [Mineral and Metal Identification] soon.

When I arrived at the meeting gate, Leo was posing with six muscular men in various colored boomerang pants, illuminated by the torches. Each time they changed their pose, they glowed. Leo, what's with the glow?

The ham is impressive, yeah.

...Can I go home?

It seems the physical conversation has ended, and the six muscular men ran off silently.

Pink hearts of various sizes flew around. Is this a movement title, or something?

I felt a chill from the shivers and froze, but Leo called out to me.

"Hey! You're here!"

Stop it, don't talk to me, I still want to be seen as a stranger!

My wish was in vain as Leo ran over with a smile, so I quickly left the gate and headed to Leo's fishing spot. Fortunately, unlike the muscular men, Leo was wearing clothes.

On the way, it was mostly peaceful except for Leo's running speed, which didn't consider my mage's legs. Thanks to the Master Ring, I didn't lose sight of him.

"Can you keep up, aaaaaahhhh!!!"

I hurriedly put on my Wind Boots and kicked Leo, laughing, "Hahaha!" as he stumbled.

"You, are you maxed out in agility!?"

My base AGI is 45, and my INT is 71, which is a decent value. If I were a Thief derivative, DEX and AGI would have been similar. I thought one skill wouldn't stand out like a Mage's INT or a Healer's SPI. Despite being a Mage, my AGI is boosted by [Val's Favor] and further increased by 1.5 times by the Sword King's Master Ring, but I still can't catch up, so he must have put points into speed.

"No, I've also put some points into dexterity. I'm fishing, you know! The speed is from the title effect!"

"Either way, I can't catch up, aaaaaahhhh!!!"

I kicked him again. Leo's face hit the ground, scraping it. It's nice to have instant recovery!

His title is [One Who Only Moves Forward]...

The effect is increased movement speed.

Leo's movement title is [One Who Conquers the Beast Path].

The title sounds cool, but when he runs, grass and twigs fly with dust. Is there a rustling sound effect? Am I imagining it?

After avoiding a fight, we arrived at Leo's fishing spot.

The clear spring allows me to see several fish, making me expect a good catch.

There were also some loquats I wanted, so I was in a good mood. I'm so simple.

I started gathering Arka grass a little away from where Leo was fishing. When I identified it, it said it's a material for neutralizing acid. Is there an enemy around here that spits acid? And it's alkaline. It seems I can make it with Arka grass and water, so I tried making a few and completed it with a 100% effect.

I quickly finished the gathering point and moved on to the loquats.

The loquats were large and ripe, even though they would be small without pruning. Despite no apparent care, they were large and orange. I didn't take all of them for the sake of others, but I still got a lot.

Hey, aren't loquats the best material for making wooden swords?

I imagine there's a better one for plant monsters, but since the settings are so detailed, I might as well take a branch.

"Hey, hey"

"What?"

Without looking at Leo, I chose a branch with a straight core and put it in my item pouch.

"Look at this~!!"

Finally, I turned to see Leo in red boomerang pants, grinning.

"I caught some pants!!"

He struck a pose emphasizing the boomerang.

"Show me that, aaaaaahhhh!!!"

"Rating 10, aaaaaahhhh!!!"

I kicked Leo into the spring.

"Really"

Why does he want to show me this? Is he a kid?

While glaring at the spring, Leo didn't come up for a while.

I wondered if he was trying to pull me in to hide, but since he can spear fish by diving, I wasn't worried about him drowning. Well, that's in real life.

As I watched the spring, bubbles appeared, and a water column rose.

'Is the golden Leo you dropped this one? Or this silver Leo?'

Huh?

□ □ □ □ □

・Increase・

Skills

Cooking

【Cooling】

【Threshing】【Polishing Rice】

□ □ □ □ □

Homura Lv.32

Rank C

Occupation Magic Swordsman Pharmacist (Assassin)

HP 1057

MP 1335

STR 44

VIT 24

INT 71

MID 20

DEX 26

AGI 45

LUK 25

NPCP 【Galahad】【－】

Titles

■General

【Communicator】【Circulating Power】【Mystery Solver】

【Economic Leader】【Lone Adventurer】【Nine Lives】

【Sage】【Elegant One】【One Who Soars Through the World】

■Blessings of the Gods

【Tasha's Blessing】【Val's Favor】

【Verna's Blessing】

■Titles from the Gods

【Tasha's Disciple】【Time of the Gods】

■Slayer Series

【Lizard Slayer】【Bug Slayer】

【Beast Slayer】【Gel Slayer】

【Bird Slayer】

【Dragon Slayer】

■Master Ring

【Sword King】【Wise King】

Skills (3SP)

■Magic and Spells

【Wood Magic Lv.7】 【Fire Magic Lv