Tensei Shite Inaka de Slowlife wo Okuritai - Chapter 579

Earth Magic Discussion

"I'm going to make bread, so can you make it for me, Darry? I'll be stuffing it inside the bread, so I'd like it to have a low moisture content."

"...Leave it to me."

　Baghdad nodded and took a pot from the kitchen shelf and gathered the spices needed to make dali. While he did so, I prepared the ingredients needed to make bread, such as strong flour and soft flour.

　Take out a bowl, add the strong flour, weak flour, sugar, natural yeast and salt and mix with a spatula.

　Once the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, add water to the eggs and mix in a cutting motion until the moisture is evenly distributed.

　Once the dough is ready, it is placed on a counter and kneaded.

　After kneading for about five minutes, add the unsalted butter and knead some more.

　It's difficult to knead at first because of the butter, but as it blends in it becomes easier to knead.

　Once I confirmed that a firm gluten membrane had formed, I stretched the surface and rolled it into a ball.

　Coat the surface of a bowl with a thin layer of oil, place the rolled seeds on it, and cover with several layers of cloth to minimize exposure to air.

"I'll adjust the room temperature to let the bread rise."

　After calling out to Baghdad, I cast ice magic to lower the temperature in the kitchen.

　In Lazur's climate, the room temperature is too high, which causes the first fermentation to progress too quickly.

　If the temperature is kept at around 25 degrees, the primary fermentation will proceed smoothly and it will be ready faster than if it was made in Koriat Village.

"...It's cool. Is this the benefit of ice magic?"

　Baghdad murmured quietly, an ecstatic look on his face.

"Isn't that okay?"

"Oh, I'm honestly jealous."

　Baghdad took a deep breath, as if taking in cool air.

　The cold isn't taken so seriously here.

"I'm waiting for the fermentation to start, is there anything I can help you with?"

"All you have to do is simmer the ingredients, so there's no need to do that."

　He has finished preparing the ingredients for the dari with his bare hands, and the delicious aroma of dari is wafting from the pot.

　There's no point in helping with the synthesis of spices or the stewing process, so it seems there's nothing I can do.

　I was tired from standing so I used earth magic to create a chair and sat down.

　As I continued to stare blankly at the kitchen, Baghdad began speaking to me as he continued working.

"...I'm glad I got to meet you, Al. I want to talk about earth magic."

"Oh, okay."

　Baghdad suggests an interesting topic, so I turn to him.

　The apron on his muscular back is very charming.

"I've been using earth magic for years, but I've never seen rocks turn black like that."

"Ah, that's the color it turns into when you increase the magical compression."

"So, what happens when you infuse earth magic with magical power to its limit?"

"I don't know if there's an extreme limit, but it might turn black if you compress magic beyond a certain level."

　I've hardly ever used earth magic that compresses magical power to that extent, so I don't really know the details.

"I'm curious so I'll give it a try"

　As a test, I activate earth magic and recreate the sand armor that Baghdad used, using just the arms.

　As I poured magical power into it and repeatedly compressed it, increasing its hardness, the color gradually changed from sand to brown, dark brown, reddish brown, and finally dark black.

"As I thought, it seems to change depending on the level of magical compression."

"So, if I reach that stage, my earth magic level will also increase?!"

　Baghdad, who had been stewing over Dali, suddenly came charging towards us.

"Wait, I'm in the middle of stewing Darry!"

"S-sorry! I got carried away!"

　If you use a magic stove, it's easy to control the fire so it's not a problem, but if you don't, it will burn if you're not careful.

　When he points this out, Baghdad hurries back to the pot.

　Although Baghdad is usually calm, he seems to get excited when it comes to earth magic.

　Gregor, Gideon, Schugel... All the older men around me are like this.

"If you can compress your magical power, I think the quality of your magic will improve dramatically."

"Hmm, magic compression, huh..."

"What image does Baghdad compress into magic?"

"...That's right. In the case of sand armor, the idea is that magical power is focused towards the center of the body."

"It's easy to understand compression."

"How's Al doing?"

"In my case, the first step is the same, but I repeat it over and over again to harden it. Just like how Baghdad formed multiple domes of sand barriers."

"You're compressing something to a high density and then making it even smaller and stacking it on top of each other? That would be extremely difficult to manipulate magical energy."

"Well, the difficulty increases with each layer, but it's fun to challenge yourself to see how far you can go."

"It's fun... I see. I need to work harder too."

　The more you compress magical power, the more intense the consumption of magical power becomes, so it's useful for using it up to increase the amount of magical power.

　Perhaps because of this background, I'm confident that I'm better than most people at compressing magical power.

"Can I ask Baghdad a question too?"

"Ask me anything."

"Are you using physical strengthening to wear this sand armor?"

"No, I don't use it."

"How can you wrap your bare body in such heavy sand?"

"Yes, that's right. I'm training my body for that purpose."

　Well, just having this small amount of sand wrapped around my right arm makes it quite heavy.

　Is it sane to wear this all over your body without any clothing?

　From my perspective, I think that's even more amazing than compressing magical power.

"However, when fighting, I use physical enhancements as a backup."

　This means that when fighting seriously, he moves around covered in that sand.

　I truly felt that it was a good thing that the condition for learning Dally's recipe was a simple magic shot contest.