Chapter 10: Resting Up (Part 1)
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Translator: SFBaka
After having lunch, we busied ourselves with getting the interior of the base in order. It was more or less ready after making a makeshift fireplace and clearing some stones away in order to create a sleeping area.
We also collected some firewood. There was a lot of driftwood scattered around the riverbank, so it was a relatively easy task.
Next would be securing food.
I’ll have Cleria take a rest. Should I take off her armor? I gestured my intentions and she agreed. I pointed towards the sleeping area and she obediently laid down in response. It was great that she was being so cooperative.
I took up my weapons and the bag used for food collection. I went out of the base and pushed the log back in.
(Well then, what do I need to gather?)
[Meat, liver, Poto tubers and vegetables.]
So the liver is categorized differently from meat huh?
Finding some veggies was up to luck. I just kneaded some plants as usual.
I can always catch some fish later, so I decided to go into the woods for now. Because the trees and grasses weren’t so dense, I navigated it quite easily.
I started kneading the unfamiliar plant life. Looks like it’s mostly a bust.
I managed to find a few Potos sometimes, so I gathered them up. Oh, there’s some familiar salad-use leafy vegetables over there. These were quite rare, so I took quite a few.
[Suitable as food.]
Oh, it’s been a while! I found another type of vegetable growing next to the salad vegetables.
[It contains a lot of calcium. Please collect as much as possible.]
Gotcha. It was a little bitter when eaten fresh. But it would taste better if you fry it.
Alright. Now for some meat and fish.
I resumed walking around the forest while kneading away.
[2 o’clock direction. Something is on top of the tree.]
Something really was there. When I zoomed in, I found a huge bird perched on top of a tree 50 meters out. It kinda resembles a black colored chicken. It was large enough to look out of place on top of a tree branch.
Thinking I had to get this thing, I proceeded to pick up some stones suitable for throwing from the riverbank nearby.
I slowly approached it until about 30 meters and threw a stone at it with full force. Alright!
I managed to hit it dead on. It fell down immediately. I caught it right away and cut off its neck to drain the blood out of it. I got a [Suitable as food.] response when I touched its blood, so I managed to successfully procure some meat with this.
But this guy sure is big. About 1 meter long maybe. I took it way and brought it back to the riverbank with me. I need to catch some fish on the river afterward to clear today’s quota.
I even managed to find a new edible plant while I was on the way back to the base.
[Suitable as food.]
It looked like your typical weed. I tried the leaves and found that they tasted bland. When I pulled it out, I found a bulb-like root.
This is!? I tried pinching it and smelled a familiar aroma. This thing smelled just like garlic! I just found a rare treasure.
They were bunched up in a cluster of five stalks, so I collected them all at once.
This was a really nice find. It was great because we only had a few seasonings with us.
I was able to return back after an hour.
I didn’t want Cleria to feel worried, so I returned to the base as soon as I could. She appeared a bit lonely at first but greeted me back happily when she saw me. Nah, she might have cheered up after getting a look at the giant chicken I managed to bring back with me for dinner.
Guess I’ll prepare the bird first before the fish. I proceeded with trying out removing its feathers. There wasn’t any particular area with fine feathers, so I was able to quickly dress it.
When I opened up its stomach, I found a large-sized and strangely white-colored liver. Wait, isn’t this the fabled ‘white liver’?
(Can this be eaten raw?)
[Possible.]
Great. This is nice. It’s my first time to try eating raw liver. Well, even if there are parasites on it, I have nanoms inside me so it’s fine.
I actually wanted to grill the thigh meat along with the bones. But they were just too large, so I, unfortunately, had to de-bone them.
Let’s have the right half of the bird for dinner. I cut the chicken wings and drummettes into portions small enough to consume easily.
It’s a waste, but I had to pass on the breast meat and tenderloin. There were other parts that couldn’t be eaten as well. I cut them into a suitable size to serve as fish bait.
I cut the liver into thin strips and set it aside on the saucepan for the time being.
I’ll work on the fish next. I set up a sieve made of stones on the river water just like yesterday and divided it into two sections. The one near the riverbank would be used to drain the liver pieces of blood. The one opposite would be used to bait some fish. I placed the breast, tenderloin and innard pieces on it.
Next, I moved a bit further away in order to set up an ambush. I moved about 15 meters away and hunkered down. Cleria also decided to squeeze beside me for some reason. Well, it’s fine, I guess.
After a few minutes, I heard some splashing sounds. Yeah! They’re here. I carefully inched near the makeshift sieve and saw something splashing around energetically inside it. After confirming its figure, I threw my knife at it. Direct hit! With this, I’ve finally managed to clear today’s quota.
The fish we caught was as big as yesterdays. I immediately removed its scales and chopped it into three portions. It also appeared nice and fatty.
Oh right. I have to collect the liver I immersed in the river water earlier.
I washed all the other ingredients and brought all of them back to the base in order to start cooking. It’s already evening by the time we got back. Cleria has also started a fire just like yesterday. She was really a sensible young lady.
Today’s menu was white liver sashimi and stir-fried chicken wings and drummettes with Potos, veggies, and garlic. The main courses are salt grilled salmon and chicken thigh meat seasoned with herbs.
Let’s make them immediately. First, I peeled off the skin from the mock-garlic cloves I managed to get earlier and chopped them as finely as possible. I actually wanted to grate them, but there was no tool for that available, so I settled with mincing them.
I placed the white liver pieces on the plate and put some minced garlic on top of them. When I gestured for Cleria to eat up, she remained spaced out, so I had to show her how to eat it properly.
I used a fork to wrapped the liver slice around the minced garlic and dipped them on the salt I placed on the side of the plate earlier. This stuff’s delish! There’s practically no gamey smell present. The umami flavor unique to white liver spreads around my mouth. It paired beautifully with the intense aroma and slightly spicy taste of raw garlic.
Cleria was a bit taken aback after seeing me, but she eventually copied my earlier actions and tried eating a slice. The moment the slice entered her mouth, her eyes widened in surprise. Afterward, she ate up with incredible momentum once again. Hey, I can’t lose to her. Both of us finished them all in a flash.
Next is the garlic stir-fried chicken wings and drummettes with Poto and wild veggies. Chicken wings and drummettes aren’t usually used for stir-fried dishes, but I guess it’s fine.
First, I heated up the chicken skin I placed aside earlier on the frying pan. They started oozing with oil right away. I took out the fried skins from the pan when they became nice and crispy. Cleria seemed to want to try eating them as is, so I put a few pinches of salt on the plate once again and placed some fried skins on it afterward.
Next, I fried the garlic I cut into chips a little away from the fire in order to slowly let their aroma seep into the oil.
When the color of the chips turned dark brown, I removed them from the pan right away and set them aside. I fried the Poto tubers next. After sufficiently heating them up, I put in the meat next.
I cooked the wild vegetables last because I wanted to preserve their crisp texture. I put the garlic chips back in; finally completing the dish.
Yup, it’s delicious. The flavor of the garlic-infused chicken oil has seeped well inside the Potos, making it really tasty. The unique texture of the chicken meat was also good. The vegetables were really suited for stir-frying as well. It was a really great dish.
When I grilled the salmon with salt, a notice from Nanom requested to have Cleria eat as much of the skin as possible. Aww, man. The skin’s my favorite part. Well, it’s for Cleria’s sake, so I had no choice but to do as requested. Man, it’s delicious as usual.
Last would be the grilled chicken thigh meat. It was cut into bite-sized pieces in advance and rubbed with salt, pepper and plenty of herbs. I grilled them until the skin attained a crispy texture. Afterward, I grilled the other parts until they were sufficiently cooked and placed the pieces on top of a plate.
I then wrapped it with the wide leaves of the salad vegetables and ate them by hand. Cleria was again surprised by my actions but imitated me once more.
It was, of course, delicious as heck. The chicken skin was nice and crispy, the meat overflowed with umami flavor and rich juices with each bite and the fresh vegetables wrapping them up created an exquisite harmony. Excellent.
Cleria looks quite satisfied as well. I reserved the other half of the bird meat and the remaining fish meat for tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch.
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