29 – 6 – Call Me Ishmael – 4

For the broth used in curry, using chicken stock was originally the most standard option, and it also suited Gi-jun’s taste.

However, having just landed in Leta, there was no chicken stock to be found even if he died trying, so he had no choice but to make the broth with the wild boar he had just caught.

He had heard that there was also tonkotsu (pork bone) curry in Japan, so he wondered if it would be delicious.

The biggest problem, even more than the ingredients for the broth, was that he did not have a pot to boil it in.

Yet, he could not very well run around looking for a village or city that might be out there somewhere just to obtain a single pot.

After pondering for a moment, Gi-jun decided to try the method he had heard about while extracting information from the fairy earlier.

“I wish I had a pot.”

He turned on his Letaphone 15 and clicked on the icon labeled ‘Leta Points’ on the screen.

It was a feature that synchronized the user’s information in real-time to show the points they had acquired, allowed point transactions with others, and even made it easy to calculate and pay taxes, as well as use the ‘Point Shop’—a feature called the exclusive privilege of summoners. In essence, it was the core function of the Letaphone.

“It’s a relief, because if we didn’t have this, we’d have to find a Point Shop branch in specific cities.”

—Hmph, that woman really prepared only the things the Contractor would need, to a vexing degree.

Hearing Lucy’s words, which made it hard to tell if she was praising or grumbling, he clicked on the Point Shop.

The Point Shop was selling Letaphones from model 7 to model 13.

Models below those had been discontinued, and models above were said to be so difficult to make that they were only available by custom order.

For reference, the numbering of Gi-jun’s Letaphone was 15.

“As expected, this really was an incredibly good one.”

Furthermore, the Letaphone held by the dead fairy was also a good item, quite close to the latest model.

Nodding that he would not get cursed at even if he gifted this to someone else, he browsed through various tabs and found his objective, a pot (10 RP).

Gi-jun, who was diligently picking and putting a frying pan (5 RP), a multi-purpose kitchen knife (4 RP), a ladle (2 RP), and cooking chopsticks (1 RP) into his shopping cart, stopped his finger when he discovered a pressure cooker (35 RP).

A pressure cooker…?!

They were selling a convenience of human civilization, a symbol of advanced science and technology that he could not have dared to even dream of in the tutorial!

“Ssssssp.”

—Calm down, Contractor. You have plenty of points!

Gi-jun’s current points, revealed after synchronizing with his Letaphone, stood at 3,895 points, which was the sum of the 2,895 points he had earned from killing the fairy and the 1,000 dignity maintenance points he received monthly as the representative of Earth’s civilization.

Gi-jun hesitated for a moment, not knowing where he might need points in the future, but recalling the fact that a pressure cooker would extract the broth faster and make the curry taste much better, he ended up purchasing it in the end.

For reference, the Point Shop did not sell any food or spices at all, but there were exactly two things it did sell: rye bread and water for 1 RP.

If he absolutely could not obtain flour, he could buy that rye bread and grind it, but since he still could not make a roux without butter anyway, he finished his shopping with a sigh.

However, it was at the very moment he completed the payment.

“Knock, knock! Were you looking for the fastest Fairy Delivery in the world? You purchased from the Point Shop, right?”

“Ah.”

Gi-jun blinked his eyes as he looked at the fairy who had appeared in midair with a pop.

No wonder there was a minimum payment of 100 RP and even a 10% fee attached.

That was why he had to buy a tent (50 RP) that he had not even planned to purchase…

He had never imagined that he would encounter a fairy again in this manner, especially when he was still feeling uneasy after killing one just moments ago.

She, too, looked quite surprised upon seeing Gi-jun.

“A human? Humans are usually just stingy beggars who refuse to use the Point Shop app even if they die, so this is unusual!”

“Just hand over the things I bought.”

However, his sentimental thoughts instantly evaporated due to the fairy’s way of speaking, which showed she had thrown her manners out the window, just like the rest of her kind.

Gi-jun immediately received the items the fairy had brought and tried to send her back, but…

Before he could, the fairy let out an “Ah—” in realization and spoke.

“Could you be the human my big sister talked about? The one who is incredibly good at cooking.”

“Huh?”

“It is you. You even have an extremely strong spirit with you.”

Could she be an acquaintance of Tinkerbell?

Facing Gi-jun, who widened his eyes in surprise, the fairy hurriedly waved her hands, having misunderstood something.

“Ah, don’t worry. We NPCs cannot leak customers’ information to others. Even if we somehow manage to bypass the rules and leak it, it’s an immediate death penalty if we get caught.”

“Ha.”

“Oh, are you mocking me right now? Despite how I look, I take pride in my position as an NPC!”

“I literally just killed a fairy who showed up at the human summoning site and tried to scam me.”

“…Excuse me?”

The fairy, who had been getting angry at Gi-jun’s attitude, wore a startled expression upon hearing his words.

But when Gi-jun pulled out the reset Letaphone 12 to show her and explained, her face turned red and blue in turn, and she ground her teeth hard.

“These… these damn pieces of trash. Those bitches are making the already narrow standing of us fairies even narrower!”

“Uh, calm down, will you?”

“I’m sorry, Customer. I’m truly sorry. That is absolutely—something that should never happen in Leta! How dare a weak race look down on another weak race and commit such an act? What kind of degenerate would do such a thing…!”

Gi-jun felt a bit disgruntled at how the fairy casually treated humans as a weak race, but recalling the first round of the tutorial, it was not something he could really refute.

Moreover, he could not bring himself to get angry at someone who was bowing her head and apologizing to him so sincerely.

“I am terribly sorry, but could you please lend me that Letaphone for a moment? I will formally report this to the higher-ups to ensure the responsible party is severely punished. Not only will the Letaphone you obtained be returned to you, but a certain compensation will also be paid. For the peace of Leta and the honor of us fairies, please cooperate with us…!”

The thought that this might also be a scam crossed his mind for a brief moment.

Was she just trying to deceive Gi-jun and extort the Letaphone using her slick tongue and poker face?

But at that moment, Gi-jun recalled the Übermensch and fought against his own narrow-mindedness and suspicion.

A superman was not swayed by the attitudes of others.

He only acted according to his own standards.

Yes, judging the whole based on a small sample size was clearly wrong.

Mr. Nietzsche would have clapped his hands in approval upon seeing Gi-jun.

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

“Thank you! …Really, you are a decent human.”

Smiling slightly as she met Gi-jun’s gaze, the fairy nodded once more and prepared to teleport immediately.

Just then, Gi-jun spoke to the back of her head.

“When you’re done, come over and have some curry. I’ll save some for you.”

“Pardon? Ah, alright!”

The fairy, though looking bewildered, readily nodded and vanished.

Lucy pouted, perhaps thinking that Gi-jun had treated her too kindly, but Gi-jun had his own calculations.

“She said it’s Fairy Delivery. If we get on good terms, I might be able to ask her for personal favors, like buying some brown sugar.”

—Ah! Contractor, you have a plan for everything! As expected, you’re a genius!

“Of course. Look forward to the curry too, Lucy.”

—I already know how skilled you are, Contractor! Oh, I found the waterside, Contractor!

After finding the waterside, Gi-jun lit a campfire nearby. Then, using his well-honed ‘Slaughter’ skill, he skillfully drained the wild boar’s blood, butchered it into various cuts, and selected the leg bones, which were ideal for making broth, to thoroughly drain their remaining blood.

He then placed them in the pressure cooker along with clean stream water that could be drunk immediately, and began to boil it.

“If we didn’t have the pressure cooker, we would have definitely stayed up all night.”

—The Contractor’s food after staying up all night is also a delicacy, though. So, Contractor, when are we going into the ruins we found earlier?

“Indeed.”

Gi-jun replied as he searched for a wide, clean stone by the stream.

“Since we don’t know what the situation will be once we go inside, let’s eat first and rest a bit before entering. Ah, can you singe this for me?”

—Okay!

After searing the stone once with Lucy’s light and wiping it down, he used it as a cutting board to prep the other ingredients.

Normally, if one wanted to cook a dish that highlighted the fluffy texture of potatoes, it was necessary to soak them to remove the starch before cooking.

However, wanting to make the curry even a little thick since he lacked roux, Gi-jun finished prepping by cutting the potatoes into somewhat large chunks. He then prepared the remaining ingredients, mixed the spices he had gathered from the forest, and began making curry powder in earnest.

“Well, even though it’s just ruins near the summoning point.”

—The area might not have much to do with the difficulty. There could be entry restrictions, you know.

“That’s true too.”

Finding the best combination quickly based on his Unique-grade cooking skill, Gi-jun smiled as he mixed a large amount of curry powder, left out what he would use today, and put the rest into bags purchased from the Point Shop (20 bags for 1 RP) to store in his inventory.

No matter how much he boiled it in the pressure cooker, it would still take a long time for the broth to brew from the pork bones.

While waiting for today’s main dish, he prepped the wild boar pork belly to satisfy his hunger.

After brushing away the dirt from the rock salt he had collected from the forest rocks, which had almost no impurities, he ground it finely. Then, he gently sprinkled the finely ground salt onto the pork belly cut into appropriate sizes.

He placed the seasoned pork belly on a well-cleaned pan and grilled it, adding herbs he had plucked from nearby to remove any gamey odor and add aroma.

—Are you not grilling on your shield anymore?

“Because the only shield I have is the King of the Well. And… Biche isn’t here either.”

Gi-jun smiled bitterly, but his busy hands flipping the meat did not stop.

Lucy made a sulky face, feeling a bit resentful toward her Contractor who kept thinking of Biche no matter what he did, but there was no way Gi-jun would notice.

Before long, when she tasted the fully grilled pork belly, it was so delicious that Lucy’s sulkiness vanished completely as well.

—Contractor, you’re really… the best…! This isn’t High Orc Legion Commander meat, right?

“Maybe it’s because the wild boar is Uncommon-grade. If it’s like this, the curry will be absolutely insane, won’t it…?”

Gi-jun also found the pork belly to be far more delicious than expected as he ate it, and he chuckled to himself, wondering how enjoyably Biche would have eaten the meat if she were here.

Coincidentally, he had the same thought as Lucy.

He thought it was a severe case, considering that he ultimately ended up thinking of Biche no matter what he did.

Yet, what could he do, when he had been stuck with her for ten years without missing a single day?

Viche had already melted into every aspect of his daily life.

They were so tightly bound together that even though Biche herself was not present, separating her presence from him would be a daunting task.

—I’m here too, Contractor. You know that, right?

Lucy, who read his thoughts, chimed in.

Gi-jun nodded with a faint smile.

“Of course. Lucy, you’ll stay with me, right?”

—Of course—! We are always, forever together. Absolutely…!

—Aaargh!

At that very moment, just when Lucy was rejoicing that her turn had finally come in the rare touching atmosphere, a scream that completely ruined the mood echoed.

Although it could be a trap, Gi-jun felt a strong premonition of a quest.

It was probably an NPC!

“Lucy!”

—Ah—really! I found it, this way!

The two stuffed the rest of the pork belly they were eating into their mouths and got up to run.

Meanwhile, Gi-jun did not forget to attach the Shock Absorber to the inside of the cloth clothing provided to summoners as a default, and held the King of the Well in one hand.

Before long, he discovered flames—multiple flames—trying to engulf a boy.

Flames engulfing him?

—How dare a low-class creature act up!

The beams of light that Lucy fired like arrows shot down and destroyed the flames.

Having secured the boy in the meantime, Gi-jun confirmed that he was safe, and enveloped his shield in light.

“Is it a monster?”

—It’s just a ‘Ghost’ created by condensed flame mana. After a long time, they sometimes develop a faint ego… Perhaps there is a being possessing strong flames in this forest.

“Ardens Forest… Ah.”

Ardens.

It was a Latin present participle meaning burning, glowing, or possessing the power to burn.

He had thought it was just a random name, but to think it was foreshadowing.

Feeling a fresh wave of admiration, Gi-jun looked back at the boy and frowned upon seeing him trembling in fear.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“N-No! I was this year’s sacrifice. If you save me, the spirit will be enraged…!”

“Ah.”

So it was that pattern.

Gi-jun realized that he had stumbled upon a notoriously difficult quest even in the tutorial—the ‘Please Soothe the Rampaging Spirit’ quest.

It was just that finding spirits was extremely difficult, but rampaging spirits generally had a consistent pattern of triggering quests.

Soon, someone coming to check on the sacrifice would discover them.

A fight would break out between Gi-jun and them.

After resolving the situation with great effort, he would be treated as a somewhat rude intruder while listening to their circumstances.

Then he would receive a quest asking him to either become a sacrifice for the rampaging spirit or to quiet the rampaging spirit himself—making him wonder if these NPC bastards had gone mad from suffering too much at the hands of the spirit.

In that case, the best-case scenario would be for the hero who received the quest to Commission a party and raid the spirit.

And if he decided it was impossible and fled immediately, only to find the village reduced to ashes when he returned the next day…

Realizing through experience that taking rash actions based only on the immediate situation would bring about such disaster…

Yet, failing to come to his senses and rummaging through the village to see if there was anything to salvage, only to encounter the spirit that had not yet left and burn to death—that was the worst-case scenario.

—What is the Contractor going to do?

“Hic! Are you perhaps a spirit…?!”

“Indeed we are.”

The answer Gi-jun came up with was, of course, neither the best-case nor the worst-case scenario.

“For now, let’s take this kid, draw the fire spirit’s aggro, and run to the ruins.”

It was simply kidnapping the quest NPC.

* * *

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): How is Leta? Do you think you can adapt?]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): It will be different from the tutorial in every way. Even simple-looking quests always have dirty hidden stories.]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): Promise me you won’t let your guard down. I raised you so well, so I absolutely won’t forgive you if you fall into an obvious trap and die.]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): Why aren’t you reading this? Are you busy, starting from the very first day?]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): Ah, now that I think about it, you should also look for a second spirit soon. You aren’t planning to live with only Lucy for the rest of your life, right? With your level of spiritual power, I think you can handle at least four of them, you know?]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): Still, avoid rampaging spirits. None of them have normal personalities.]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Rift): Ah, it’s time for work. Keep my words in mind! Reply when you see this!]