Chapter 58: 58
Draco woke up in the morning feeling refreshed . He lay naked amidst the mass that were barebacked, sleeping Elven girls . All of them had differences in height, looks and skin tone, but they all shared four traits . They were beautiful, had knife ears, possessed very modest chests and extremely thick, perky bums .
Draco swore that apart from Eva's face and presence, there was no better sight for him in this world . He felt a tearing pain in his soul when he realized that these girls would cease to exist when the unique quest was over .
Draco's expression twisted as he thought of that . He had to find a way to allow these ladies to exist afterward!
But he knew that was wishful thinking . How many players had partaken in unique quests over the duration of 15 years in their past lives? The number was uncountable and more than likely, every powerhouse had acquired the ability to partake in more than one .
Even though unique quests swallowed an unholy amount of digital resources that the AI could allocate at a given time, one could not compare the resources the current AI could grant compared to the future one .
Yet, none of these powerhouses had come out with a way to take special NPCs or items and objects that couldn't be stored in one's inventory away .
Draco decided to suppress these thoughts as he put on some underwear and equipped a slim cotton shirt . He exited the sprawled mass of Elf girls and treaded his way across them easily .
His steps were light and profound, showing that he was currently utilizing a movement technique .
Draco did not dare to say that he could compare with Eva on the topic of silent and graceful movement, but he definitely was much better than anyone in this timeline .
He made his way into the kitchen and saw that it was nice and clean . Smiling, Draco took out some condiments he had bought when he purchased the Cooking Tradeskill book .
He looked into the cabinets of the room to see that they were filled with a few spices of different kinds . In a metal cabinet that was kept ice cold with frost enchantment, he found a slab of meat .
Wood Elves were not tree-huggers . They were hunters who lived off the land and blended in with the ecosystem . Nature had created them to subsist on meat as well as vegetables, so they ate both .
They were more like humans in this regard .
Draco pulled out some tomatoes, onions and garlic . He also cut off a large slab of the frozen meat and placed it in some hot water to thaw . Draco frowned as he looked around .
He realized that there was no rice . Then again, the kind of location that rice needed to grow in was not available here in the savannah . Still, a meal without some form of carbohydrate felt weird to Draco .
Draco was new to the Cooking Tradeskill, so it wasn't like when he was practicing Alchemy or Blacksmithing where he knew exactly how to do what, but rather he was treading new ground .
This was a surreal feeling to him, as he'd spent a good amount of time knowing exactly what to do and when, as well as what would happen . Compared to always knowing the outcome of certain events, he found that exploring new things felt much better .
Draco reasoned that the process for Cooking should be similar to Alchemy . It should have the three stages of preparation, action and completion .
Preparation probably included what he was doing currently by laying out the ingredients and planning out his recipe . However, that should only be the early stage of the Cooking process .
Now, he would need to slice and dice the veggies, beat the meat and salt it before boiling it to soften it further . That should count as the middle stages of the preparation stage, which was what Draco started with .
He fetched a chopping board and placed the tomatoes on it first . These vegetables were fresh and juicy, not a single blemish on their skins . Draco cut them length-wise and then breath-wise .
Now, Draco's absurd talent was displayed . We were mostly shown his acquisitions from his past life without seeing exactly he acquired them . Here we got to see exactly what quantified his 'talent' when he began creating a Cooking technique as he went on .
He channeled his Control to the max, utilizing both the Void of Perfection and the Body of Godliness to monitor his actions . Coupled with his extreme precision due to his combat proficiency, Draco discovered cooking was much easier than he thought it would be .
But that was of course . The first barrier of entry for cooking was precision and dexterity . Then came knowledge and application . The greatest barrier of entry was timing however .
His Control allowed him to master timing, while his skill allowed him to master dexterity . All he lacked was knowledge on Cooking as well as how to apply it properly .
Draco cut up the tomatoes and onions expertly, his fingers moving so fast that he looked like a robot . His eyes were clear and his face was locked in a focused expression .
Draco put aside the cut vegetables and began to crush the garlic . According the recipe he was using, he was supposed to mash it instead of chopping it up . When it was turned into a nice paste, Draco cleared out the chopping board and brought the meat over .
His Control told him that the meat had thawed well enough thanks to the hot water, but it was still a bit stiff in certain places . Draco curled his hands into fists and raised it above the meat .
After making sure his force was optimally distributed, he brought his hand down on the meat, causing it to tremble but the counter and chopping board beneath it did not shake .
The force of the blow had been evenly distributed into the area Draco attacked! None of it transferred beyond the slab, making it a jaw dropping feat he just achieved .
Damn, I ain't no physics genius, but that should be impossible… right?
Draco continued pounding his meat, making sure to make it soft and squishy . It needed to be tender for his consumers, who were fast asleep, to devour with ecstatic expressions!
When the meat was well beaten, he took a knife and began to slice it apart with deft hands . He separated the pieces into generous sizes, enough for a person to grab and chew .
He made sure to cut out the stringy tendons and place them in a bowl . He then took out some salt and sprinkled it liberally on the cuts of meat .
After doing so, he placed the meat into a pot of boiling water to soften further . He returned to the veggies which had been put aside .
There were no blenders in the world of Boundless, so he had to improvise . He heated a pot of oil and placed the onions and garlic into it . These ingredients began to sizzle when thrown in, releasing smells that got the stomach rumbling unwillingly .
He took a wooden spoon and lightly shifted the ingredients about so that they could cook well . Heat had to be evenly distributed after all .
Now that Draco was in the action phase, he found that his actions became much smoother and more fluent as he got used to the act of Cooking .
He had been unable to learn how to cook in the real world because he was far too ignorant back then . He had lived off ramen and all sorts of fast food that were cheap but extremely questionable .
Now, he realized his past self really had been quite a bumbling idiot . If it weren't for the misunderstanding with Eva, he'd have remained an ignorant happy-go-lucky fool .
When Draco was satisfied with the progress of both the boiling meat and the heating onion/garlic combo, he took a bowl and poured water into it .
Then his eyes gleamed with sharpness and he wielded a knife . He tossed the diced tomatoes into the air, making a single swing as he did .
"Sword Skill 56: Myraid Slash!"
Although it was a sword skill, he could still force it with a knife . Even though to the normal eye, Draco had slashed once, in truth he had struck out hundreds of times in that interim .
Normally, Draco could only manage to do a few tens of them, but since he was out of combat his movement speed was 5,000% .
The tomatoes directly became tiny globules as they fell into the bowl of water . Draco took a spoon and began mixing the ingredient, blending it in with the water .
When it had become suitably thick, like a puree, Draco poured it straight into the pot containing the oil and two veggies . He took out his ladle and began to stir the puree well .
Draco brought out a few spices at this time and added a few to the puree, like chili pepper, a trace amount of curry and some bouillon cubes . The aroma of the budding stew became much more tantalizing with that addition .
Draco poured out the hot water in the meat's pot, allowing the now softened meat to be aired a little . With a smile, he took out a pan and poured some oil into it .
He allowed it to heat for bit, as he applied some sauces and coatings to the meat . When that was done, he carefully placed the meat into the pan, grimacing when the sizzle shot some hot oil droplets on his hands .
He placed all the pieces of meat within the wide pan and watched over it carefully . He checked on the stew and saw that it was simmering pretty well, so he lowered the heat on it .
Draco made sure to turn the meat over frequently, allowing the oil to fry both sides equally . When the meat was sufficiently cooked, he drained it of the oil in a strainer, leaving the glistening meat in it .
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login