Chapter 3: Ingredients From Another World Possess Preposterous Effects

I was currently walking along the road with Fel after putting Falliéres behind me.

Was it because Fel was with me? I didn’t see any monsters at all. Even the road out of Reijseger’s capital had goblins and grey wolves on it, though. Personally, there was nothing better than there being no monsters around, I guess.

While walking along with no real destination, I asked a question that had been on my mind: “Hey, Fel. You can use magic, right?”

“Yes, I can use magic.” He used Barrier magic when we went out for the herb gathering quest, but that was the kind of magic you couldn’t see, so it hadn’t really hit me. Conjuring water or fire or something visible seemed more like magic.

“I wonder if I can learn to use magic?” As I thought, now that I was in a world where magic existed, the feeling of wanting to try using it welled up inside. After all, it’s magic, you know? Magic. I’m probably a little too old to be like this, but I really am excited about it.

“You should be able to as long as you have MP.”

Hmm hmm... I did have some MP at least, so did that mean I could use magic? “How do you become able to use magic?”

“How, you say... you should be able to use it if you want to use it.”

“If I want to?”

“Like I said, if you want to use Wind magic then by thinking of wanting to use Wind magic you can use Wind magic. The same with fire, and so on.”

...This is no good. Fel is the type of genius to do things by feeling. Hrmmmm, but by “thinking of using it,” does he mean that the mental image is important? Image, image, image... Ball of fire, ball of fire, ball of fire, Fireball, it’s a Fireball.

I held out my right hand and chanted, “Fireball.”

Nothing......

E-Embarrassing...

“You, what are you doing?” Fel looked at me, exasperated.

Khh... please don’t look at me with those eyes.

“You will not be able to use magic if you do not circulate the magic power around your body, you know?” Eh? Really? You know, that’s the basic stuff I wanted to hear about in the first place.

“What do you mean, circulate magic power?” I wasn’t even sure what magic power was like in the first place.

“It is difficult to communicate with words. I am circulating magic power in my body right now, so try touching me and feel it.”

‘Feel it,’ he says. Is that really possible? Doubting him a little, I touched Fel’s back.

Woah... It’s only vaguely, but I think I get it. I could faintly feel something warm flowing around Fel’s insides. It was still blurry, but I felt like I was grasping something.

“Do you understand?”

“Yeah, somehow.”

“If that is so, then all that is left is training.” Of course it would be. Alright, let’s try it.

Magic power, magic power, magic power, something warm, magic power, magic power...

Hm? There was something there. Circulate it around my body, like blood flowing through my veins, circulate, circulate. I was doing that while walking, training the circulation of magic power throughout my body.

“Hey, I am hungry.” I started when Fel said that. It’s already that time?

“Then, let’s have lunch.” We moved to an open space by the road. Now then, what should I make?

Okay, let’s make pork chops. They’re simple. It’s not actually pork, but I’ll try using the orc that seems similar. Is it really okay though? I did have those thoughts.

I mean, these pigs are bipedal, you know? But the people of this world eat it regularly, and the butcher at the Adventurer’s guild eats it too and even said it was a high-class ingredient. Also, I have a lot of orc meat, so if I don’t at least challenge myself with it, it’ll just go to waste. If it’s no good I can just make Fel eat all of it, yeah.

~◇~◇~◇~

Start off by cutting onions into thin slices, and cut the orc meat thinly as well. After that, mix together ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, alcohol, and a little soy sauce to make the sauce.

Cook the orc meat in a frying pan until its color changes suddenly, and then add in the onions.

Continue heating the meat and onions together until the onions become transparent, then add the sauce mixture in and continue lightly heating until the flavors are mixed together... and the pork chop is finished.

~◇~◇~◇~

When I placed it in front of Fel, who was waiting with his nose twitching at the smell, he scarfed it down immediately. “Yes, this is delicious, too.”

Well, that’s good. That means at least Fel is perfectly fine eating orc meat. Now then, I should try some too. It looks just like a pork chop, so it seems like it should be delicious, but...

I prepared myself, and threw a bite into my mouth. *Mgmg* *mgmg*... Huh? It’s tasty. It’s totally fine. In fact, it’s absolutely delicious. It’s like high-class, branded pork. What the hell, orcs are amazing! Why wasn’t I told earlier?! I felt hesitation at how they looked, but this is really good!

It was completely fine, as long as I thought of it like a fancy branded pork. Yes, yes, it’s great...

It felt like blasphemy, but I took some of the pork chop meat, put it in between two slices of bread, and bit into it. Yeah, that works.

“Hey, another.” I made another for Fel while I ate my own pork chop sandwich.

We took a small break after Fel was satisfied with his meal before starting to walk again — of course, while I practiced circulating magic power around my body.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

After I spent a while training mana circulation, I finally felt like I’d reached a decent point - like I was just about able to actually use magic. I stuck out my right hand, palm facing up.

“Fireball.”

*Bomf!* A small fire the size of a candle’s flame lit up on my palm.

......

“Fhhssn.”

Fel, my friend, please stop snorting like you’re making fun of me. Sure, it isn’t much, but in my books at least it isn’t a total failure. I managed to conjure fire from nothing, after all.

Yeah, it’s not a failure. If I say it’s not, it’s not... But, I’ll have to train more if I want to pull out a real Fireball in the future.

“Fel, should we call it a day and make camp?”

“Sure.”

I made quite a bit off of the monsters that Fel hunted, so I was gonna treat him today. I’d make it a great feast of otherworld meat. “Hey, Fel. Thanks to you, I’ve managed to make quite a bit of money, so I’ll use my skill to get some food from my world for you to eat. What do you want?”

“Food from another world, huh? Of course I want meat.” ‘Of course’ he’d say that. Looking at my skill window, I tried to figure out what would be good. Fel was standing next to me with eyes full of expectation... So for now, something that he can eat right away, I guess. If that’s the case, I guess it’s side dishes. Which one, though...

Oh, they have soy-flavored fried chicken. The meatballs and mince cutlet are good, too. Next is some Hamburg steak, and also some thick-cut pork cutlet, and they also have fried tofu, so I’ll get that too... I added all of it to the cart.

“Hey. I-Is it ready yet?”

Fel, would you stop drooling while looking at the screen? I decided to check out just the side dishes first so that Fel would stop drooling in impatience. I bought several of each, so it ended up coming out to 4 silver and 7 copper. For now, I just threw in 5 gold and paid it out of that balance. As soon as I finished checking out, a cardboard box appeared. When I opened the box and took out the side dishes, they were all still hot.

“Woah, they’re still hot. This is good.” I took the hot side dishes out of their packaging, and served them to Fel on a plate. “Right, here you go.”

Even before I said that, Fel had already jumped on the plate and started wolfing it down. But he’d still want more at this rate. I was sure the side dishes I bought wouldn’t be enough, so I took a little longer to look through the site to think about what meat I should buy for a main dish.

Maybe coarsely ground sausage and some roast pork would be good. I’d just have to lightly season the sausage with salt and pepper before cooking it, and in Fel’s case, he can probably eat the roast pork as is. After that, the main dish would have to be beef.

I was thinking the main dish would be domestic Wagyu steak. I’d eaten a lot of different meats in this world, and they’d all been fairly good. That was why, when I tried to think of something better, it really could only be domestic Wagyu. It was pretty expensive, but I’d already decided to splurge today.

I found that they had some domestic black Wagyu steak (thigh cuts), so I went with that. 1 steak (250g) is 1 silver and 5 copper by itself — as expensive as I expected. Judging from Fel’s habits, he’ll eat about 10.

As for my share... Oh, this and this is good. Coarse sausage, roast pork, steak meat, and my share of food all came out to 2 gold. While I was shopping on my Online Supermarket, Fel finished eating his side dishes.

“What, are you going to feed me that next?” Fel, you eat too fast.

“Just wait a little, some of it is better if I cook it first, so eat this for now.” I threw around five lumps of roast pork that I took out of their packages on a plate and gave it to Fel. While he was eating that, I took the sausages, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and cooked them so that they were just lightly burnt enough to have crispy parts.

“Here, eat this too.” Fel happily started chewing on the sausages that I put in front of him.

“Each and every thing is delicious.” Well, that’s good to hear. But there’s still the final main dish... I seasoned the first two domestic Wagyu steaks with salt and pepper before cooking them.

“The main dish is domestic Wagyu steak. First, with salt and pepper.”

“Hmm... *Mgmg*...... Mmm, how incredibly soft and delicious this meat is! This is great! It is delicious!”

“Hehehn, it is, isn’t it? This is the meat of an animal called a cow, which has been raised carefully by my country so that it is as delicious as can be.”

“What?! You say your country in the other world raises this animal called a cow just for meals?”

“Huh? This world doesn’t have animal husbandry, or raise livestock?”

“It does not. This world overflows with monsters. It is enough to hunt them for meat.”

I see. Certainly monster meat is pretty good, and if those monsters exist in great numbers, then there might be no need to go through all the trouble to keep livestock.

I kept grilling steaks while Fel talked, this time with the steak sauces I’d used before. I used garlic flavor, grated radish flavor, onion flavor, and butter flavor, one after another, as I put out steaks like I was raising a combo meter.

“Even so, to raise them yourself so they are more tasty, your country is really particular about its food.”

“Yeah, no doubt. My country makes no compromises, and cares about its food more than any other would, I think.” After all, we had everything from B-class gourmet to high-class French restaurants, and in Tokyo, you’d be able to eat cuisine from almost any country without having to leave the city.

“I see. That is why the food you make is so good.” Well, that’s mostly thanks to the Online Supermarket and all the different spices and seasonings that food production companies make... It seemed Fel was happy and full after eating and enjoying his fill of the domestic Wagyu steaks.

“Yes, it was a treat. Even so, I have thought this before, but when I eat your cooking, I can feel energy overflowing from inside me. Especially today. I feel like right now, I can easily defeat that ancient dragon that I tied with long ago.”

Eh? No way, is my cooking showing some sort of preposterous effect? Wait, shiーーーt... Today’s cooking was all made with stuff I bought from my skill! Usually, I used meat from here, so the effects of otherworld ingredients had been kept to a minimum. That’s why, even if there were side effects, when it came to someone already as powerful as Fel, it didn’t turn out to be much. But today, I fed Fel food made only from stuff I got off of my Online Supermarket.

F-Fel, by energy, could you mean...

I appraised Fel:

【Name】 Fel

【Age】 1014

【Race】 Fenrir

【Level】 906

【HP】 9843 (+5118)

【MP】 9481 (+4550)

【Attack】 9036 (+4518)

【Defense】 9765 (+4394)

【Agility】 9684 (+4551)

【Skills】 Wind magic, Fire magic, Water magic, Earth magic, Ice magic, Lightning magic, Holy magic, Barrier magic, Rending Claws, Body Reinforcement, Physical attack resistance, Magic attack resistance, MP Efficiency, Appraisal

【Blessings】 Blessing of the Goddess of the Wind, Ninrir

......Huh? Am I seeing things? I blinked several times and appraised Fel again.

Oh... All of Fel’s stats had been buffed by about 50%. That the stats had been buffed this much must have something to do with how much he ate, or the ingredients, or possibly how it was cooked. I had no idea how things got like this, but there was no doubt it was because of the food I bought with my skill.

But, it’s got to be all right. I mean, when I looked at this before, there was a time limit. No matter how much Fel ate, at the very latest it should all go back to normal after tomorrow morning. Probably...

“Hey, it is a waste to sit still with all this energy. I will go hunting.”

“Hey w-w-wait a bit. What if m-monsters attack me?” I’d appreciate it if you didn’t leave me alone when the sun has already set and it’s dark out.

“Gh, I shall erect a barrier around you. A barrier erected by me in mine current state should deflect even a dragon’s breath.” ‘Deflect a dragon’s breath?’ You...

“Now then I shall take my leave.” Saying that, Fel ran into the dark forest as if he was jumping into it.

“*Sigh* ...I guess I’ll just eat my own dinner. Wait, why is it already pitch black?!” While Fel was around, his silver fur always faintly glowed (was that an effect of his magic power?), so even if it was dark, I never really minded.

“My Online Supermarket was basically made for situations like this.” I opened up the site and bought a flashlight with batteries, which I placed on top of a cardboard box. “This is fine. Let’s eat.”

It’s been meat over and over again recently, so I suddenly wanted to eat this when I saw it: a makunouchi bento.

Also, some canned coffee — I used to drink this every day in Japan.

“Haahhh, it’s gone a little cold, but man, this is good. This canned coffee, too.” After thoroughly savoring my meal, I decided to go straight to bed because I had nothing else to do. I was going to just curl up in my mantle and sleep, but I had a sudden idea. If I remember correctly, they should have it...

I opened up my Online Supermarket. “Uhhhh... oh, there it is. A pillow, futon, and blanket.” Now that I have quite some room in my budget thanks to Fel, it should be fine to buy a futon set. If I have this, camping out should become a good sight more comfortable from now on. Okay, let’s buy it. Aannnnddd... button.

“Right then. There’s no need to worry because of Fel’s Barrier magic, so I’ll be able to sleep soundly tonight.” I fell asleep inside a bed comfortable enough one wouldn’t think they were camping.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

*Yaaawwwnnn* Dang, I slept well. Yeah, sleep is really different when you have a real bed.

“Woah!! What the heck is this?” There were three mountains of monster corpses piled up next to me.

......Fel, my guy, I don’t care how much energy you had, this is too much.

The culprit, Fel, was currently sleeping soundly on the other side of the mountains of corpses. A thought came into my head as I gazed upon the three densely packed mountains of monsters: What do I even do with all this?

...Well, for now there’s nothing else but to cram it all into my Item Box, I guess. I’ve been using it for a while, and it does seem like time doesn’t pass at all inside there. I mean, the vegetables I bought a week ago with my skill basically haven’t aged at all: the leafy vegetables haven’t wilted, and the other ones still looked completely moist and fresh.

The amount being what it was, I’d have to dole it out little by little among the Adventurer’s guilds we would visit over our travels. I could always just learn to butcher it myself, but I’m no good with gore and stuff, so I don’t really have any confidence I’d be able to learn it. I’ll think more on that later.

Anyway, I wonder how many monsters are in here. I appraised the mountains:

A giant dodo and giant deer... Fel hunted these before. Both were bigger than the ones he caught before. And then there were three rockbirds. Rockbirds were basically chicken, so having several of them is always nice.

There was also a black serpent, which the Adventurer’s guild bought for a high price before, as well as an equally expensive murder grizzly. Both of these were bigger this time as well; it’s kind of scary thinking of how expensive they’ll be.

Next is a red serpent. It was a snake that was basically a black serpent, just brownish red. Mm? The red serpent’s head is bigger than the black serpent’s, so the red serpent might be bigger overall, too.

After that are... 5 orc generals and an orc king.

.........Huh? An orc king would be... the king of a group of orcs, right? For an orc king to be here, what happened to the other orcs?

Fel, guy, just what did you do? Right when I was thinking that, Fel woke up.

“Hm? What?” Fel asked when he noticed me staring at him as he roused.

“What happened here?” I asked, pointing at the piles of monsters.

“Is it not obvious? Those are what I hunted.” Fel replied with a touch of sarcasm.

“No no no, I get that. But no matter how you think about it, this is too much.”

“Mmrgh, I was just so full of energy... Also, I did not get tired at all, so I had much fun hunting.” Haahhhh, izzat so?

“There’s an orc king here, but what happened to the other orcs?”

“I ended up running into an orc settlement. They noticed me and attacked. Of course I made it rain their blood, but I only brought back the orc king and the orc generals. Because stronger monsters are more tasty.” ‘......Rain their blood...’ Really, what are you thinking?

“By the way, how many orcs were there?”

“There might have been about 150 orcs, I think.” A h-hundred and fifty, you say...

I thought I knew just how overwhelming Fel’s strength was, but combining that with food bought from my world brought about such an overpowered result... Not to mention, orcs weren’t even the only thing he fought last night. There were many other monster corpses here. Turning my eyes to the mountains of corpses again, I continued appraising.

Four ogres... can you eat ogres? “Hey, Fel... there’s ogres here, but are they edible?”

“Ogres have a lot of muscle and taste terrible. However, it seems an ogre’s hide is prized among humans as a material for armor. You need money, do you not? That is why I brought it back even though it is not edible, just in case.” Ahh, is that so? I’m completely fine on that front at the moment thanks to Fel, though. Well, I’ll keep it for now.

And, next is a blue ogre. Unlike a regular ogre, blue ogres have blue skin, of course. Is this what they call a subspecies? I bet he didn’t bring it back for any other reason than the fact that ogres are worth money, though.

After that, it’s, uhhhh, a metal lizard. Just as its name implies, it’s a stupidly big lizard with a silvery hide that’s as hard as iron. How did Fel even take down a lizard with skin this tough? I kind of want to ask, but looking at how beat up its skin is, even though it’s so hard... it seems better not to. I can imagine that this lizard suffered a horrible, tragic death.

Namu Amida Butsu...

Okay, what’s next? Uhmmm, chimera... Eh? Chimera...isn’t that the thing with a lion’s head, a goat’s head, and a snake’s head? That thing that shows up as a final boss in games? Nonono, no way. Wait, oh... It has all three heads.

“Indeed, that is a chimera. They are pretty tasty, you know? Usually they are a bit of trouble, but last night I managed to take it down with one hit.” Killing it with one hit isn’t something you should be bragging about!

This is definitely no good. I’m not sure, but I bet this thing is far above even A-rank. The day I bring this into an Adventurer’s guild... Woah, I got chills for a moment.

Yeah, this thing is no good. Let’s have it sleep forever in the depths of my Item Box. Yeah, that’s it.

While I was thinking that with clouded eyes, Fel said, “I am hungry.”

Even though you ate that much last night?!

There’s no helping it, I’ll make some food. Before that, I stuffed all the monster corpses into my Item Box, and my bed, too.

Okay then, what do I make? Of course, the main dish would be monster meat. I’d learned the hard way last night what happened when you overdid it on ingredients from my world, after all.

I knew from past meals that accompanying vegetables or seasonings didn’t have that much of an effect, and that something on the level of spaghetti with meat sauce was still fine. I had to take all that into account when thinking up a menu. Everything in balance, right?

Thinking like that, I figured that I had cockatrice, which was basically chicken... So, let’s have that. I’ll make a chicken sauté.

~◇~◇~◇~

Start off by removing the cockatrice’s excess fat, and season it with salt and pepper to build a base of flavor. Pour in a small amount of salad oil (because the skin still has a lot of fat), and start cooking from the side with skin. If you push down on it with a pot lid while it cooks, the skin will become crispy and delicious.

Flip it and cook the other side when the skin becomes cooked into a light brown color. Once the cockatrice is cooked, remove it and use the pan to make a sauce. There’s umami in the meat’s fat, so using the frying pan without wiping it down first makes for a more delicious sauce. That’s what I always do.

Combine butter, some lemon juice (I always use a bottle of 100% lemon juice), and a little soy sauce in the frying pan to make lemon butter sauce. It might just be the nature of a Japanese person, but I always want to put soy sauce in. It’s fine with just lemon and butter, but in my case I feel like adding soy sauce makes it one level tastier.

Just pour the lemon butter sauce onto the crispy cockatrice, and it’s finished.

~◇~◇~◇~

“Fel, it’s finished.” Was he really that hungry? When I placed it in front of Fel, he immediately bit into it hard.

I put some sautéed chicken between slices of bread and ate it as a sandwich, and had some more of the canned coffee I bought last night to go with it. This sautéed chicken sandwich is great! The canned coffee, too...

I know, let’s buy some more canned coffee from the Online Supermarket next time and stock up. That, and some instant coffee. There’ll be times I want hot coffee, after all. If I do that, then I’ll need some sugar and milk too. I’m running low on spices and seasonings too, and I want to stock up on some more vegetables also. I guess I’ll buy it all from the Online Supermarket tonight.

“Seconds.” Yeah, yeah. I started making a shopping list while I cooked seconds for Fel.

After several more helpings and a small break, we stood up.

“It’s about time to get going.” I started walking again with Fel — of course, while practicing magic as well.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

I’ve worked hard. For three days, I’ve done nothing but practice moving mana around my body. That’s why it should be possible.

It’s possible, I can do it. Let’s go!

“Fireball.”

A ball of fire slightly larger than a softball appeared above the palm of my hand. However, it couldn’t be called a real Fireball like this — I had to be able to throw it and make it explode, first.

I threw it ahead of me. The Fireball flew at the speed of a city bike, before losing speed, and falling around 20 meters ahead.

*Bomf* A small explosion (can that be called an explosion?) happened.

I hated to say it myself, but that was pretty pathetic. It didn’t even get to the ‘a’ of attack. Next to me, Fel reacted as he usually did, snorting as if he was mocking me.

Goddamn.

“I did say the only way was to train, but if you can only do this much after trying so hard maybe you should try to learn in combat. Rather than spending long hours training, you might learn more by going through a single real battle.”

“That might be so... but doesn’t that mean fighting monsters? I can’t use a sword, and my magic is only at this level. What happens if I get hurt?”

“Is that all? There is no need for worry. I shall erect a barrier. It will protect you from their attacks, but will not prevent you from attacking. I am at your side, so there is no need for fear.”

“But still... I really don’t like the idea of getting hurt...”

“Aagh, you coward! Hurry and get on my back!” Fel snapped after seeing my hesitant attitude, and forced me onto his back.

“Hey, w-wait a bit! Where are you taking me?” I asked in a panic.

Fel only replied with, “Of course, where the monsters are.“

“Wha- Monsters? I’ll be killed!”

“It will be fine. I will choose some weak monsters in accordance with your level. I am also here with you, do not worry.” Don’t tell me that, of course I’m gonna worry!

I’ll probably be thought of as a huge wimp, but there’s no way I can fight monsters all of a sudden!

“Hm? I see goblins. Just perfect. I will erase my presence so we will not be noticed, so you be quiet as well.” So saying, Fel started running.

‘Just perfect,’ my ass!

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

.........What the hell is this? There are so many goblins!

The place Fel brought me to was a settlement of goblins.

“Those are goblins. Try using your magic.” Nonono, no matter how you think about it, this is impossible! What the hell are you even expecting of me?

“Hurry and shoot.”

“What are you saying? There’s too many of them, it’s impossible!”

“Mm, I have put up a barrier already. Look, we are safe.”

“You say that, but there’s no way we’re safe!”

“You coward. If you won’t attack, I will.”

After saying that, Fel let out a howl. Hey, who was it who said to be quiet?! Look, all the goblins are staring this way. Ghhh, they’ve noticed us. Kyaaa!! A huge number of goblins wielding clubs, swords, and axes are coming this waーーーy!

“Hmph, now you have no choice but to fight. Use your magic and shoot them — shoot them until your body remembers the feeling. I will go and hunt the higher ranked goblins.”

“Wai- Don’t leave me alone!!!” What the hell do you even mean, ‘shoot until your body remembers’?! Goddammit! I’ll have you pay for this, Fel. Oh, shit, the goblins are here!!

“FIREBALL! FIREBALL! FIREBALL!!” I threw my pathetic Fireballs at the goblins. Even if they were pathetic, fire was still fire, and they did some damage to the goblins.

I continued throwing Fireballs. My surroundings were swarmed with goblins, but no matter if they swung their clubs, slashed with their swords, or tried to split my head with their axes, Fel’s barrier stopped all of them. Even so, I felt nothing but fear seeing the goblin horde bearing down on me. So as to sweep them all away, I gave up thinking and just throw as many Fireballs as I could.

“FIREBALL! FIREBALL! FIREBALL!” Just as Fel told me to do, I did nothing but throw Fireballs as fast as I could.

“FIREBALL! FIREBALL! FIREBALL!” Damn! This isn’t over!

“FIREBALL! FIREBALL! FIREBALL!” Doing this, I noticed that the more I shot, the more speed and power my Fireballs gained. It was like I figured out the feeling of it. I must have gotten used to it while throwing so many of them...

I threw even more Fireballs at the crowd.

“FIREBALL! FIREBALL! FIREBALL!” I threw more and more, as many as I could. How much time had passed while I was trying my best to throw so many Fireballs?

“Hahh, haahhhhh......FIREBALL!!!” A ball of fire around the size of a volleyball flew at a pretty considerable speed, hit the goblins, and exploded. It was exactly my ideal Fireball, as well as my last one.

“N-No more, I’m finished...” Is this what happens when I run out of magic power? I can’t move my body. There’s still goblins around, but I can’t move anymore...

“Hmph, so you can do it if you try.”

“Fel...” Ohh, he came back.

I’m finished already. I-I’ll leave the rest to you.

I lost consciousness as soon as I saw Fel.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Mnn... U-Uwaahh!! Goblins!” I lurched up and looked around frantically; in the darkness, I saw Fel next to me.

It’s already this late... I’ve been out for quite a while, I guess...

“How was it? Fighting proved beneficial, no?”

‘Beneficial,’ my ass. After he put me in such an awful situation... I felt like I’d been lightly traumatized by the sight of small, dirty, green-skinned goblins coming at me all at once. I’d be seeing nightmares of that for a while.

“The last Fireball you cast was pretty well done.” Fel nodded in approval as he said that. “It is thanks to me that you have become able to use magic.”

“What do you mean, ‘thanks to you?!’ I’m still a beginner, we should have started off with one or two of them. And you forced a whole settlement onto me...” It’s true, that last Fireball was quite good. However, I don’t think it was right to shove me into a goblin settlement all of a sudden!

“It is your fault for taking so long to learn magic of that level.”

Grnnrnrnnmm... This is why geniuses suck.

“There’s no way I can do things like you, Fel. You should know what my status is like if you can use Appraisal.” He should know that the difference between our stats is like heaven and earth.

“Hm? Your level has risen.”

Huh? Really?

I appraised myself in a hurry.

【Name】 Mukohda (Tsuyoshi Mukouda)

【Age】 27

【Job】 Victim from Another World

【Level】 3

【HP】 110

【MP】 110

【Attack】 83

【Defense】 82

【Agility】 78

【Skills】 Appraisal, Item Box, Fire magic, Familiars (Contracted Magic Beasts): Fenrir

【Unique Skill】 Online Supermarket

Whoo! I went up two levels! All my stats, like my HP and MP, had raised slightly. Ah, I also gained the Fire magic skill.

I was thinking that I was finally a mage... But why does my job entry still say ‘Victim from Another World’?! When will this ever change? When I gain more levels? No, of course it’ll change if I gain more skills, I think. There’s no way it stays like that forever, is there? No no no, it can’t be.

“Right, here.” While I was thinking this and that about my status, Fel slowly got up. He rolled over a big green something about two and a half meters in size with his front legs.

“Woah!” It was a huge goblin. I tried appraising it: it was a goblin king. A goblin king... Fel...

He did say back then that he would go and hunt higher ranked goblins. So that settlement had a king.

So that was why he took me to that settlement.

“That goblin king has a magic stone. Magic stones are worth money to humans, no? Goblin kings are inedible and serve no purpose otherwise, but this one seems to have a magic stone, so I took the trouble of bringing it back.” Ah, I see. So that means that goblin kings are at least B-rank, right?

“Are goblin kings B or A rank?”

“Rank? I do not know about ranks, but when you get as strong as I am you can tell if something has a magic stone or not.”

Hmmm, is that so? If that’s the case, I can earn a lot of money by having Fel hunt things with magic stones. I won’t do that, though. Doing that would definitely lead to a world of trouble.

“You were also unconscious. Even I am not able to carry both you and a goblin king and still continue moving. That is why I waited here for you to wake up.”

Hmmnn, and? Why has Fel been conspicuously glancing sideways at me over and over again?

“That thing has a magic stone.”

Yeah, so what?

“Magic stones are worth money, are they not?”

They certainly were. Back at the Adventurer’s guild, the prices for the B-ranked giant dodo and giant deer flew upwards just because they had magic stones, even if they were small.

“So, should you not reward me with another feast with meat from your world?”

Haahhhh?! This guy’s become a captive of the flavor of that domestic black Wagyu steak, hasn’t he?

“Listen here, there were a whole bunch of monsters back then...”

“Yes, and this time I also hunted a lot of monsters. Most of them even had magic stones.” He’s talking about when he hunted way too many monsters because he ate my world’s food and was bursting with energy, right? Of course that doesn’t count. It was a direct result of my meal, after all.

“You know, we still have almost all the meat we got from the Adventurer’s guild, so it’ll be a long while before I go and turn those in, right?”

“Hm? Is that so? If that is the case I will give up on a feast from your world. However, I am still hungry.”

Geez, he just had to go and learn something weird. At least he isn’t grumbling about it. But I’m still not back to normal. I ran out of MP once, so I’m still feeling sluggish. It’s too much work to cook for Fel. Not to mention, I still haven’t gotten him back for throwing me into a whole swarm of goblins. This calls for a punishment of a meal without meat.

I opened the Online Supermarket window.

Uhhh, it’s sweet things for when you’re tired, right? I guess red bean buns and jam buns (strawberry flavor) are fine. I like them quite a bit, as well. It’s fine to give Fel the same thing; actually, he eats a lot, so I’ll buy some cream buns too. For now, five each of the three kinds for Fel. And of course, canned coffee to go with the sweet buns.

Oh, you can buy an entire box of canned coffee. Let’s do it. If I’m gonna buy the canned coffee, I might as well also get the instant coffee I was thinking about getting too, at least for now. I was also going to restock on spices and seasonings, as well as vegetables, but I want to pick them out more carefully, so I’ll do it next time.

Then this is fine. I’ll check out. There isn’t much money left in my account, so I add another 5 gold and pay with that.

I removed the packaging from all of the breads, placed them on a plate, and handed it over to Fel.

“What is this?”

“Red bean buns, jam buns, and cream buns — they’re sweet breads.”

“Hm, is there no meat?”

“Fel, are you really going to make me cook right after I just woke up from going unconscious?”

“Grrnnrrnn. I understand, this will be fine.” Fel started biting into the red bean bun after confirming its smell.

“Mhmmm, this is pretty good in its own way.” Eh? He’s okay with sweet bread?

He ate a jam bun next, reacting with, “Ohhh, this is good too.” It seems he liked it. The cream bun went over well too, seeing as he said, “I see, it tastes like thick milk. This is good, too.”

Ehhh, you like sweet things too, Fel? This didn’t turn out to be a punishment at all.

“More.” He’s actually happy about it and asking for more... Wait, you know you’ve already eaten fifteen of them. Any more and you’re definitely overeating! You need to be careful not to get diabetes or cavities (I have no idea if Fenrirs can get diabetes, though) — you won’t be able to eat meat anymore, you know?

“You’ll get sick if you eat too many sweets, you know.”

“Hmph, as if I would ever get sick. More importantly, seconds.”

There was no choice. I caved and bought him two more of each kind of bread, and asked him, “What do you mean, you won’t get sick?”

“I have the blessing of the Goddess of the Wind, Ninrir. In my case, not only am I able to better control Wind magic, but also no status ailments will work on me, including poisons and sicknesses. By the way, invalidation of status ailments comes with blessings from any god. That is just the kind of thing blessings are.”

You can nullify status ailments with just a blessing from a god? Huh? What’s with that shocking truth? A god’s blessing... how unfair. Just being able to nullify all status ailments is already basically cheating. Fel’s already strong, even without his blessing. I need a blessing way more than he does!

Gods, any one of you is fine, so please bless meーーー!

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Hey, Fel, we’ve been traveling like this without any real destination in mind, but is there anywhere you want to go?” For me, I really just wanted to get out of that suspicious kingdom of Reijseger, so I was happy to just travel while keeping a certain amount of distance from there.

“Then how about we go west? There is a deep forest there with many delicious monsters.”

“West? What country is there in the west?”

“Hn, I do not know of such things.”

Don’t know? You... “What country it is and how it is is important, you know? What if they’re doing something dangerous like fighting wars?”

“Mm, I do not care to know the names of countries. And even if humans are fighting, it has nothing to do with me. Not to mention humans are always fighting somewhere.”

To think he doesn’t know even the names of countries... it was a mistake to ask Fel. Well, when you get as strong as Fel I bet he’ll go unharmed even if he just bursts in in the middle of a full-on battle, so I guess there’d be no need to care about the names of countries or how they’re doing. But that won’t fly with me.

By ‘people are always fighting somewhere,’ I guess he means that, even in this world, conflicts between countries are unending. They were saying that there was gonna be a war between Reijseger and Marveil, too. As I thought, as long as I’m traveling, I’ll need to take a look around all the countries and figure out their political state.

If that’s the case, I’d need a map. Up until now, whenever we came upon a village, we went around instead of in because of Fel. But I want a map, so let’s try entering the next one.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“There is a village up ahead.” It seemed Fel could sense presences, and could at least tell if there were people or monsters in a given area, so he told me like this whenever he noticed something. “Shall we make a detour again?”

“No, this time we’ll go in. I want a map.”

When we were in sight of the village’s entrance, the guard yelled, “Stop!” and pointed his spear at us.

“I am Mukohda, an adventurer. This is my familiar.”

When I shouted that in a loud voice, the guard replied, “Do you have proof?”

So I called back, “If you want to look at my guild card...”

I’d have liked to show him my Merchant’s guild card, but since Fel was here, I had to show him my Adventurer’s guild card so I could prove that Fel was my familiar (other than name and rank, the card also noted whether or not the owner had a familiar).

At my reply, one of the two guards hesitatingly approached me.

“This is my guild card.”

“Hmm, it does say you have a familiar. Th-That, is that a great wolf?” It looked like the guard assumed Fel was a great wolf on his own. It was still better than telling him Fel was actually a Fenrir, so I just said yes.

“Oi— ”

“Shh!”

“...” Fel looked like he was about to say something, but I shut him up. I couldn’t imagine what would happen with this guard, if he was already this jumpy around a great wolf, should he discover that Fel is really a Fenrir. Not to mention, there were a bunch of villagers looking this way from afar.

《I am no great wolf.》 Suddenly, Fel’s voice echoed into my head.

“Woah!”

“Hm? What?”

“N-No no, it’s nothing. Yeah...”

“I see. At any rate, you must be a great adventurer, seeing as how you’ve got an A-rank great wolf as a familiar.” I laughed vaguely in response to the guard’s words.

《I said that I am not a great wolf.》 Fel’s voice rang in my head again, and I turned around to stare at him.

《Hm? This? This is telepathy. A contracted master and his familiar can communicate telepathically.》 Eh? This is the first time I was hearing of it, though.

《Yes, this is the first time I have formed a contract as well, so I had completely forgotten.》

My dear Fel, please don’t forget something as important as that. But if he said that a master and his familiar could communicate telepathically, does that mean I can talk to Fel like that, too?

《Testing, testing, testing. Fel, can you hear me?》

《Yes, I can.》

《I said you were a great wolf because it’s better that way. Think about it. If he’s that scared just thinking you’re a great wolf, what do you think would happen if he learns you’re a legendary Fenrir?》

《Hmmm, but...》

《There’s no buts about it. Isn’t it better than causing unnecessary trouble? From now on, when we enter human villages or towns, you’re going to have to pretend to be a great wolf, Fel.》

《Guh, why?》

《Because entire countries and their nobles will make moves on us if they know you’re a Fenrir. If that happens, won’t that be annoying?》

《It would be, but would it not be fine for me to just destroy them all if they come at us?》

‘Destroy them all,’ he says... I’ve had this thought before, but Fel really is a meathead.

《You say it would be fine for you to destroy them, but if you keep doing that, then eventually, there’ll be no place for us in the world. Also, if you keep doing that, all the human countries would unite and cry for your death, you know? And that would be annoying too, wouldn’t it?》

《Guhh... Certainly, that is a possibility.》

《Right? That’s why you should just pretend you’re a great wolf here for the sake of convenience.》

《If you say so, I guess I must.》

《Oh, also, we should start mainly using telepathy to talk in towns and villages, or when there’s people around.

The fact that you’re a Fenrir will get found out if you start talking, after all.》

《Mm, yes I understand.》

After having that telepathic conversation, we were allowed into the village without problems, but... Their stares hurt...

Finally, even the village chief came out. “Welcome to Leeden. It seems that you’re an adventurer, but why have you come to a village like this with nothing to offer for you?”

“Actually, I wanted to get a map, so I tried stopping by, but...”

“There is no such expensive item as a map in this small village. If any place would have one, it would be the town of Rautel, which is four day’s travel from here. They have bookstores, and even a public library.”

In this world, not only was paper precious, but books all had to be handwritten, so apparently, they were quite expensive. Maps were also made of paper, so you’d think they’d sell them in bookstores, but of course they’d be expensive, too. Only a suitably large town would have something as expensive as that. Rautel was only one step down in size from the country’s capital, so it should hold most things one could want within its walls.

I managed to get what I wanted to know out of the village chief, so I left the village immediately. It seemed like the villagers wouldn’t be able to calm down with a large beast like Fel around, and even the village chief looked like he wanted us out as soon as possible. That village really isn’t kind to strangers...

Well, it’s fine since I’ve figured out our next destination. The town of Rautel is four days travel straight down this road from Leeden, or so I’ve been told.

“Alright then, let’s go to Rautel, I guess. But it’ll take four days, huh? I’d really like a map as soon as possible, though.”

“Hm? If you want to get there faster, would you like to ride me?”

“I’d be grateful for that, but please don’t go at a ridiculous speed like before.”

“At that speed, it would not take even a day to reach our destination, you know? Or would you rather get there even faster?”

“No way, I was already almost thrown off at that speed. I’ll die if you go any faster. I’ll be happy to shorten the four days down to two, so would you go at that pace? Make sure you never reach those speeds, you hear?”

“I feel like that is a little slow, but I shall do as you say.” Like that, we made our way down the road to Rautel.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Heーy Fel! The sun has set, so let’s make camp around here.” I called out to Fel while I was being thrown around on his back, and he came to a stop.

“All right, food. I am hungry.”

Yeah yeah. You did let me ride you for the whole day today. I’ll make sure to make your favorite meat. If that’s the case, it should be something that really gives you that sense that you’re eating meat. So, something like this might be just perfect.

I took some giant deer meat out of my Item Box. Just like it sounded, a giant deer was basically a huge deer monster. Actually, I’d eaten deer once before. One of my work senior’s relatives was part of a hunting club and got some fresh deer meat, so we ended up eating it at my senior’s place.

According to that relative in the hunting club, the most delicious way to eat deer was as a steak, so we ended up making steaks. Deer meat has the impression of being tough and having a peculiar taste, but when I ate it, I found out that wasn’t true at all. While you definitely knew you were chewing meat, it wasn’t tough, and it didn’t have a bad taste at all. In fact, it was quite delicious.

Just like that deer, this giant deer meat was lean with little fat, so it should be fine to treat it similarly. I was thinking of imitating my senior and making giant deer steaks.

~◇~◇~◇~

First, take a pre-cut chunk of the giant deer meat and score some notches in it before pounding on it with the back of the knife. Apparently, deer meat has a lot of muscle fibers, so pounding it before cutting it makes it softer and juicier.

Then, season the meat with salt and pepper before letting it sit like that for a while to soak in the flavor.

Once it’s sat for long enough, melt some butter on a pan and sear the meat.

It’s finished once both sides are browned.

~◇~◇~◇~

“Fel, it’s finished.” I handed Fel a finished giant deer steak and tried some myself, too.

*Mgmg* ...Ohhhhh, delicious. Its taste wasn’t gamey, and the meat gave just enough resistance to the chew to be comfortable. Not to mention, every bite caused more juice to leak out. Its taste wasn’t that heavy, so I felt like I could eat several of those.

“More.” Fel seemed to like it too, since he immediately asked for more.

I started cooking more giant deer steaks. Next, I’ll season it with... Ta-dahー! The usual steak sauces! You gotta use these when you have steaks. Fel seems like he likes it, too. First up is the garlic flavor Fel said he liked the most.

“Hahngh Hahngh...Mm, mmm, this is great.” After that, I brought out the grated radish, onion, and butter flavors. I also had another helping of steak with onion-flavored sauce. The taste wasn’t heavy, so I think I can manage another...

“Even giant deer is great when eaten like this.” That’s probably because you usually eat it raw. Japan’s food industry is the real MVP, really. Even so, giant deer meat was even more delicious than I expected.

*Burp* ......It was so delicious, I ended up overeating.

Even if it was a lot smaller than Fel’s portions, as one would expect, two steaks was too much.

Now then, once I finish cleaning up all the cookware, I need to prepare my sleeping space. I started off by laying out some cardboard. It was the flattened form of the boxes I got by buying things with my skill.

I realized, you see, that laying out a futon directly on the dirt is bad. At first, I put it directly on the ground without thinking, and the futon got damp with moisture... it was terrible. I’d love to have a bedframe or duckboards, but it seems that’s too much to ask for, even from my Online Supermarket.

When I was trying to figure out what to put under the futon, I suddenly remembered that I had cardboard. I kept getting more cardboard every time I used my skill, but up until now, it was just trash. I just left it in a corner of my Item Box along with all the wrappers and packages from food I bought. But, if I laid out the cardboard like this, then my futon wouldn’t get damp or dirty.

What a great way to recycle cardboard. This is called being ecological.

“Hey, make my bed, too.” Sure sure.

Seeing me lay down in my futon, Fel went, “That looks nice. Get me one, too.” He kept pestering me about it, so I bought one for him too. It was kind of awkward to be the only one in a futon, not to mention Fel was the one earning most of this money anyway. That’s why it was fine, although Fel was so big I ended up having to get him three futons.

I laid out some cardboard and spread out Fel’s three futons on them. “Here, I’ve finished making your bed, Fel.”

“Good.” Fel rolled sideways onto the futons. He seemed really sleepy now that he was full.

“Kuaahhhh~” Oh look, the legendary magic beast is yawning.

“Just remember to put up a barrier before you sleep.”

“I know... It is done. I am going to sleep.” Fel dozed off right after saying that.

“Wow, already? That was quick. Right then, I guess I’ll sleep too.” I can sleep soundly thanks to Fel’s barrier. I’ll have a great sleep in my personal futon.

Tomorrow, we’d finally be in Rautel. Fel said that we’d be there before the afternoon, but I just hoped that they’d let us in without any trouble.