It’s generally me, Mia, Chris, and Rurika who teach cooking. And Hikari and Sera help me and Rurika.
We’re cooking meat and soup, but it’s mostly just roasting and boiling, so it’s about how to use seasonings.
We decide to mix various seasonings we got in a grocery store, and test them to see how they taste.
I’ve been cooking with multiple seasonings ever since I met Rurika and the others, but that sort of thing is rare among adventurers. One of the reasons why is that to be frank, not many people can use Water Magic or Basic Daily Life Magic.
You need water to make soup, and even to do stuff like wash dishes. And since people also need drinking water when they’re outside of town doing a quest for days, they can’t afford to waste it.
In a way, it was just luck that led me to want Purification Magic and learn Basic Daily Life Magic.
Also, Walking means I level up without fighting monsters, so my MP goes up, and I can use magic more often without having to worry.
But with all that said, since people here are from a magic academy, a lot of people can use magic.
“H-hum, does one seasoning really change things that much?”
“Yes, it’s completely different. Compare these two pieces of meat.”
Says Hikari to the student that asked.
Most students of the academy live in dormitories, and their meals are cooked by staff members, so almost no one cooks for themselves.
Cooking in a house with proper facilities and cooking outside is different, but I still think there’s going to be a difference between those that do it and those that don’t cook at all.
And the students are surprised when they compare what Hikari is handing them.
“I-it’s good.”
“Y-yes. It doesn’t even feel like the same meat. Are they really the same wolf meat?”
“Yes. It’s because they weren’t roasted the same.”
Hikari then explains how to roast it, looking a little proud.
As long as she doesn’t use seasonings in any weird way, Hikari can cook. Even Mia and the others have high praise for how she roasts meat. Yes, I have nothing bad to say, as long as I keep an eye on her and don’t let her mix in anything dangerous.
“We use them in soup too, so even if you just cut vegetables and boil them, the taste is different.
Different mixtures of seasonings bring out all kinds of different flavors too. And I guess you can make soup by melting portable rations in water too.”
“Portable rations?”
Yes, I get it. It makes sense to be suspicious when I bring up those portable rations.
“Some of the ones sold in stores are good to make soup. Of course, they wouldn’t taste too good if you just used them as is, but you can adjust the flavor with seasonings.”
I say like I’m some sort of expert, but it’s all because of my Cooking skill.
When I give everyone vegetable soup and soup made with portable rations, most of the reactions are positive.
“But you need fuel to keep the fire going when cooking, right?”
You can buy it in general stores. There’s also wood, but the fuel you can buy is lighter and lasts a long time, even though it’s also a bit expensive.
“Inside a dungeon, yes, we typically use that, but if you’re on a floor where you can gather wood, you can use it too. You can pick it off the ground, and if you can’t, you can snap branches. And it’s even easier if you have a nata knife or a wood-cutting axe.”
I guess you could do it with a sword too, but I wouldn’t recommend it because you’d have to fix it later.
Once we’re all done eating, we review how to look for medicinal herbs while resting.
They don’t really need it because they learn it in their adventurer course, but what I’m telling them is how to tell which ones are high quality.
I give them two of medicinal herbs, magic energy herbs, and vitality herbs while explaining.
In a way, explaining this might be the most I’ve used my head since I came to this world.
“I understand how to tell their quality apart, but what differences does that create?”
“One is the quality of potions… Which influences their effect. I guess the best way to put it, is that even the best alchemist can’t make a high quality potion from poor quality herbs. And it affects the success rate of creating potions in the first place, but I don’t know how that works when making them by hand, because I’ve never done it.”
I use Alchemy to make potions, but it’s also possible to grind medicinal herbs. But I’ve never done that, so I don’t know how quality affects that process.
Only a few students in the academy can use alchemy, so they mostly do it by hand.
“Well, if you’re selling them to the adventurer guild, the quality affects the price too. And since you can only carry so much anyway, it’s best to carry the highest quality herbs you can find.”
Then Leila and her party take us to an area on a grassy field where we can pick medicinal herbs.
We camp here for two days, and head for the staircase to the sixth floor while passing by the medicinal herbs in the forest.
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Thanks for the treat.