Carbon Dioxide - Coal Mine Gas
We spent the past three days fruitfully going around the medical town.
Contrary to my expectations, healthy food wasn't the town had to offer, the fruits you could pick in the nearby magic beast forest were truly fantastical.
One day, I came across a blue cherry-like fruit while gathering herbs in the forest. I thought it was a type of perilla only to find it had a surprising soda taste. It was frizzly.
There were also melons that turned out to have the taste of literal carbonated melon drink, and oranges that tasted pretty much like *anta and a grape-like fruit, which were also carbonated.
We also picked up crystals that look like crystallized fruit juice of those fruits. So many interesting things.
Otherworld food gotta be like this after all.
I regret to inform that I failed to find cola-flavored energy drink however. No biggies though.
I'm almost done making handmade cola, and not like I'm trying to replicate the exact taste anyway.
Eh, when did I start making that? You see, the seed I found in the industrial town's dungeon was the ingredient for cola.
To be more exact, it has a yeast required to make carbonated drink. I found out from a bite that it has almost no inherent flavor.
That alone isn't enough to recreate cola. It's but one ingredient needed to convert sugar into carbonic acid.
I mixed in vanisoi seed, cardamon, cinnamon and some aromatic fruit. Then lots of sugar.
Then I boiled them all together and mixed in crushed carbonated fruits before putting the resultant liquid inside an ale barrel to be left alone for at least half a month.
Dunno if half a month is enough to ripen it up into carbonated drink.
I asked Menu to help with the flavor adjustment. Wonder how well can I replicate the taste. What do I do if it turned out tasting like D* Pep. I don't dislike that brand though.
Comparing the flavors of squeezed carbonated fruits was pretty fun.
You can't really find them on the market since the fruits only grow in the vicinity of Forest of Toxin.
According to Menu, these fruits grow on trees that have successfully neutralized Jormungandr's toxin and taken in carbon dioxide gas.
Due to the immense stress these trees were subjected under, they have far higher sugar content than ordinary fruits.
By the way the toxin is not strong enough to affect human body. At most, you'll feel slightly worse for the wear if you eat around 10kg in a day. You'd throw up from eating too much before you get there though.
I was fearing the toxin might get accumulated inside your body but Menu dispelled my worries, saying it's so weak the body immediately destroys it.
These fruits are impossible to cultivate because they need the Forest of Toxin's neutralized poison to grow. Meaning the only way to get your hands on one is to traverse through the high leveled magic beast-infested forest... Of course nobody sells them on the market.
"My mouth felt like it was gonna pop open at first, but then, the more I chew the tastier it gets!"
"Frizzly. The bubbling, the sugar and the fruit's flavor spread out inside my mouth. It's really good."
『Pipi... Burp.』
The girls stuffed themselves full of fruits before I realized. Hiyoko especially, you sure scarfed those down.
Carbonated drinks were common in Japan but not carbonated fruits.
It tasted kinda nostalgic, I couldn't help myself... Can't really fault Hiyoko here. Burp.
By the way, the medical town had no specialties.
Like, you could find the usual ingredients from other towns but there was nothing specific from this town.
At best, they got soy milk for sale? It uses dried beancurd as a base though.
...I guess you mainly look for medical expertise and medicine here, I really shouldn't have expected much about food.
All kinds of medicines are sold here. From normal potions, to mana potions, mana pills and abnormal status remedy.
They even have pretty rare stamina restoring potions for sale. Priced at 50,000 per piece though. Way too expensive.
And most importantly, we got our hands on elixirs.
Life Force Control can only heal wounds. Uh, I admit it's weird how it can even restore lost limbs.
But it can't deal with illness and poison, so these elixirs would be our ace in the hole for weird diseases like the husband suffered or magic beasts that attack with powerful venom.
...I hope we never have to use them though. I mean elixirs aren't meant to be used, you hoard them as a collection, that's just how it goes in RPGs. Eh, that's not right?
I was sure the completed product would be like black ink considering it used that black hole fruit as an ingredient, yet what Ninameria-san gave me was pretty rainbow colored liquid inside the bottles.
...Which makes them weirdly ominous instead! Liquid this colorful terrifies me in a way that's unlike pitch black one.
There were also lots of establishments offering Seitai exercise and massages. I tried to use their service to loosen up my workout-hardened muscles.
...And all of them gave me the same response; 'Your body is too hard lol. We can't deal with it, try your luck elsewhere.' I want to know defeat. Sincerely.
That about wraps up everything to do in the medical town. Think it's a good time to move on.
We'd probably have taken it easier if not for the upcoming martial art tournament. Can't get too lax now.
We got on board a wagon heading to a coal mine town in the route to the royal capital.
Well, no need to get sentimental, I can always use Fast Travel anyway.
Despite the name, mining coal is actually not the town's main operation.
It's mana ores. Not only the colorless mana ores used for fuel, they have a variety of elemental ones as well.
You can also mine mithril, adamantite and even very rarely orichaclum in a nearby mine.
"In the end, I could only think a condiment that goes well with meat as a gift for Director..."
"That's probably the best possible present for her. I believe she will be happy with anything Reina gives her."
"It's coal mine town next. The anti-demon army has been buying up good quality materials and ores in many towns. I hope we can still find something good there."
"We can always hunt magic beasts for their mats. Can't do that with ores.
"But does our party even need ore for equipment?"
"Not right now, but I'd like to have some on hand in case we need it someday. Won't take up space with Item Screen."
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
...My explosive great hammer still has no scratch.
But there's no guarantee that stays true if I ever come face to face with a beast sturdier than that giant crab.
I'm gonna need to collect even sturdier materials. I gotta start thinking of gathering them early.
Also, I need elemental mana ores for the stuff I'm asking Julian make.
They'll be used as disposables too. What a wasteful way of usage...
Lastly, I'd like to test if Mana Drill can mine usable ores as well.
Three days passed on board the shaking wagon.
Two weeks until the tourney. Will we make it in time?
<<It takes only one day to travel from the coal mine town to the royal capital via the direct route. There should be more than ample time as long as Kajikawa Hikaru's party doesn't stay too long at the coal mine town.>>
Considering we need to register and all, I'd like to get there a week before the opening day.
Which means, we can only stay at the coal mine town for a week at most.
No wait, since I have Fast Travel, I guess we should head to the royal capital and finish registering first?
<<The registration process is only open a few days before the opening day, as such going to the capital early bears no point.>>
Hm, guess we'll tour around coal mine town first then.
But still, I'm amazed you even knew about the tourney's registration schedule.
<<...It was written on a newspaper Kajikawa Hikaru skimmed.>>
...Overlooked that one. Menu-san's seriously capable. Or more like I'm incompetent for missing that detail. Dum dum.
Alma and Reina are eager to enter, but I'm gonna take a rain check. It's a pain. There's no telling if I can even register anyway considering my Job situation.
Now then, we're here at Coal Mine Town [Danjigreid].
It's a semicircle-shaped town built around a mine. You can walk straight to the mine from the town.
The wagon arrived before noon.
Usually we'd go straight looking for an inn, but eating out for once sounds like a nice change of pace.
Gonna take 5000 en per person though. The food in this world is as expensive as ever.
"Aah, we're here at last. My body is creaking all over."
"More like cracking, sounds on and all, are you sure you're okay...?"
"How are you feeling? Do you want another massage?"
"Thanks for the offer. But we're off the wagon already, maybe next time."
Getting massaged in public is a bit. Like a punishment game.
Can't let my body stiff up too much. I should use my mana to auto massage it.
Wonder if there's a good restaurant around here.
...Just like in medical town, I guess I'm an oddball for going straight for food while ignoring the main attraction of the town.
Oh, I'm smelling an appetizing aroma from that bulky rock building diner. Alright, we're eating there--
Right as we were about to set foot there, a booming sound of explosion came up from the mine's direction.
...Did coal gas ignite and cause an explosion? Can't believe an accident cropped up the moment we got here.
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