Chapter 22

Summary of the previous chapter ------------------------------------------------------

After handing over the information fee to Diora at the Adventurer's Guild, we sold a bag of Dindles.

I asked Diora about how to make dried Dindles, but she didn't know much.

"Well, you two. Before we start our individual training, we need to process the meat and Dindles!"

In front of Halka were two backpacks filled with Dindles, a leather bag with the remaining Task Boar, and various tools like barrels and pots that we had bought along the way.

"Okay, questions!"

"Here, Toya!"

Halka pointed at Toya, who raised his hand enthusiastically.

"Is there something I can do?"

"Don't worry. Anyone can do it. Of course, Naohito can too. We'll start with the meat preparation."

Halka lined up three cutting boards and placed the meat on them.

"First, cut this meat into bite-sized pieces—about 1 cm thick and the size of half a palm."

Halka, who was about to give instructions like a recipe, glanced at Toya and specified more clearly.

Yeah, Halka, giving vague instructions to beginners is dangerous.

It's the same as telling someone who can't cook to use "a little" or "an appropriate amount."

Especially with Toya, he might think that a super thick steak is "easy to eat."

"Remove the bones cleanly. And the fatty parts too."

"Huh? You're throwing away the fat? I think this meat is delicious with the fat..."

The fat dripped when it was cooked, and it smelled good, which made it taste even better.

Honestly, "throwing that away is unthinkable!"

"I understand your feelings, but when drying, those parts can oxidize and go bad."

I see. That makes sense.

I don't fully understand, but I'll follow Halka's advice, who is skilled in cooking and has the relevant skills.

"Hey, can I try a little?"

"If you take responsibility for disposing of it, sure... but just a little, okay?"

"Got it. I understand."

Alright, if it's good, I'll ask for a share.

If it's bad, I'll make Toya work hard. After all, he suggested it.

—That's pretty low of me.

When it comes to a whole boar, there's a lot of meat.

While we were slicing the meat and carefully removing the bones and fat, Halka mixed salt, herbs collected on the way, a small amount of spices bought from the store, and finely chopped Dindle peels in a pot.

Once that was done, Halka joined us in slicing the meat and quickly piled up more meat than we did.

The meat that wouldn't fit on the cutting board was put into the barrel with the salt mixture Halka had prepared.

"Hey, how do you think we should make the Dindles?"

"I thought of two ways: boil them and then dry them, or coat them with a preservative herb juice and then dry them. If we dry the whole fruit, it will probably rot, right?"

"Boiling might not prevent rotting... but the preservative sounds plausible."

Ah, that's true.

Even if they are sterilized by boiling, they can get contaminated over time. It's like a retort pouch; it needs to be completely sealed.

"What about you, Toya?"

"Um... is it going to get really cold soon?"

"Huh? No, the temperature will drop with the season, but it won't go below freezing here, even at night. Not even in the coldest part of the year."

Oh, that's a relief.

I don't particularly dislike winter, but in this world, there are no air conditioners or well-insulated houses.

There might not be high-insulation clothing like down jackets, and if there are, they would be expensive.

A mild climate is a big help economically.

"Then that won't work. I thought if it got cold enough to freeze, we could use that. You know, like the potatoes in the Andes?"

"Oh, right."

I think I learned about that in class.

In the Andes, they place harvested potatoes outside, freeze them at night, and stomp on them during the day to remove the water, repeating this process to dry and preserve them for a long time.

While I doubt we could stomp on Dindles without crushing them, this method might allow us to dry them without them rotting.

"Basically, you don't need hot water, right?"

"That... maybe they were just making a meal or tea?"

After thinking for a moment, Toya said something so blunt.

The clue we got from Diora is now useless.

"—Well, that's a possibility. It's not a narrative trick, but Diora didn't say the hot water was a necessary tool."

That's true!

I feel like an idiot for overthinking the use of hot water.

"So, what do you think, Halka?"

"Me? I think we might use them like dried persimmons."

The basic method for making dried persimmons is to peel the astringent persimmons, tie them together with string, and hang them to dry. Sometimes they are briefly dipped in hot water.

Halka thinks they might be doing something similar with Dindles.

"Is that for sterilization? Can you sterilize just the surface?"

I think sterilizing would prevent mold better than just touching them with your hands, but would that be enough?

"Since dried persimmons can be made, I don't think it's impossible with Dindles."

"Is that because of the winter temperature and ventilation, and the fact that the skin is removed? Here, the temperature is higher, and the Dindles have their skin on. The only advantage might be the low humidity."

Temperature and humidity are major factors in food spoilage.

Humidity is especially important; fish can be dried because of this.

Dried persimmons don't spoil because they dry before they can rot, but can a fruit of that size dry out with the skin on?

"Maybe it's a matter of expertise. If it were easy, it wouldn't be a secret."

"Destroying the expertise is Halka's magic, then?"

"That's a harsh way to put it. I worked hard to learn it, you know?"

"I know that."

After all, I still can't use my own magic!

It's not something to be proud of.

"Anyway, have we ever seen dried Dindles? They might use mold, like katsuobushi."

"—Impressive, Toya, you're getting to the root of it."

"I don't know of any dried fruits that use mold, but it's not impossible."

"If that's the case, it won't be a simple side project. Let's give up... Okay! That's it!"

While talking, we kept working, and the meat processing progressed.

Halka, who joined us later, cut the most meat and finished first. Soon, we finished too.

All that was left was to put the meat in the barrel and mix in the salt to complete the salted meat.

We put the removed fat and bones in a leather bag to throw away in the forest later.

"Both of you, show me your hands and knives."

Halka used 'Purification' to clean our greasy hands, knives, and cutting boards.

It's such a convenient spell.

Cleaning this grease without dish soap is something I don't even want to think about.

"What's next?"

"Let the salt soak into the meat... at least a couple of days, preferably a week. Then rinse it lightly and dry it."

"That's a long time. Do we need to buy more barrels?"

"...Toya, how much dried meat do you plan to make?"

"Huh? Just as much as we hunted?"

Toya said this matter-of-factly, and Halka and I exchanged a sigh.

"Toya, you can't eat that much, right?"

"Huh? If we make a ton, it's less than a kilogram a day for three people for a year... a bit much?"

"A bit much? Even if it's just meat, eating that much salted meat will cause salt poisoning!"

Even if we remove the salt, it still seems dangerous.

Does the 'Tough' skill have any effect on lifestyle diseases?

"Are we going to do this every day? I'd rather not."

Removing bones and slicing isn't too bad, but removing the fat is quite troublesome.

Remembering the amount of work, Toya groaned regretfully.

"If it tastes good with the fat... or if Halka's magic can remove it nicely."

"Toya, how much do you plan to rely on my magic... I can probably do it."

"Really!?"

Halka is impressive.

"Hmm, considering the melting point of lard, we could extract it... but the problem is the magic power."

Unfortunately, there's no MP display in our status, but we can feel something being consumed when we use magic.

I feel like I can use more magic now compared to the beginning, but it's hard to tell if my magic power has increased, if I've become more efficient, or if I'm just pushing myself to the limit.

If we had numerical values, our magic experiments would progress faster.

"Magic recovery potions are expensive and not cost-effective, and only Halka can make them."

In a game, it wouldn't be a problem, but in reality, it feels like we made a mistake in our skill choices.

It's good in combat, but in daily life, Toya and I aren't very useful.

Without skills, our abilities are those of ordinary people in our original world, and we can only do menial tasks.

"I need to dry them too... if Toya can roughly remove the fat, it might reduce the magic power consumption."

"What! I'll do it! My 'Butchery' skill will shine!"

"Toya, how much do you love meat..."

You don't even have the 'Butchery' skill yet.

"Still, it will save on food expenses. If Toya is willing to work hard, I'll help... Naohito, how much can you use 'Time Acceleration'?"

"Currently, about 3 times, and the duration... even if I push it, it won't last 10 hours."

"So... if we use it on this barrel and leave it for a couple of days, it would be equivalent to two full days? It would be bad to use it again in the morning."

"True. If we take a day off, it might be fine, but we need to be able to use magic in the forest for combat."

Even though we haven't used it much in combat recently, it's still necessary as insurance.

We haven't even encountered any goblins yet.

"If we consider a three-day soak, we might need one more barrel. Barrels are pretty expensive, though."

I've never bought a barrel in our original world, so I can't compare, but a barrel about two sizes smaller than a drum can is about 3,000 rials.

It's slightly more expensive than the pot we bought together.

"Hey, do we need a new barrel? Maybe we can ask the innkeeper if he can give us one. He must have barrels for food supplies, right?"

"Oh, right! Toya, you're smart! That's true, we're using it for salted meat, so a used barrel should be fine! We don't need to worry about odors."

Later, when we talked to the innkeeper during a quiet time and offered to share some of the dried meat, he agreed to give us barrels for free.

The barrels, which had previously contained alcohol, were slightly smaller than the ones we bought, but thanks to the several barrels he gave us, we no longer had to worry about barrels.

By the way, when we checked later, used barrels were available for sale, and good-quality ones (with little damage and no unpleasant odors) were about half the price of new ones. We gave the innkeeper some Dindles as a token of gratitude for giving us the barrels for free.