Chapter 216: Snacks

Entering the butchery room where they were being held, I couldn’t help but feel nervous. I was finally going to finish the bacon. I was just kneeling down in front of one of the drake bellies, wondering just how much time I needed to give it, when Milo spoke behind me.“Might be best to do the titan boar first, Trev. Lily could always get another one of those, probably not the drake, though.”

With a deep breath, I knelt down before the stone container, feeling the sweat in my palms as I tried to summon the nerve to start.

“One month, right?” I asked.

“I think that’s a good place to start. We can always check it and reseal it if required,” Milo said.

Sylverith and Crisplet just stood back and watched, Crisplet the entire time pushing across support and happiness.

I started to carve, all my focus on keeping my hand steady, pushing across the month journey as I moved the knife effortlessly through the stone.

There was no noise around me as I tuned everything out.

Minutes passed until I was finally done, the rune nearly perfectly carved into the stone lid. There was a slight spot where I felt I might have cut too deep, and I was praying to the goddess that it wouldn’t be enough of a flaw to cause it to fail.

But there was only one way to find out, and I didn’t want to stall any longer.

“Here goes nothing.” I reached out, pushing my mana into the rune.

The wait felt like an eternity as the rune glowed blue and seemed to linger for far too long. Then it faded. No cracks, no explosions.

I turned back to look at Sylverith and Milo, not allowing a smile to overtake my face until I knew it had worked, but that bubble of excitement in my chest was growing.

“Ready to see it?” Milo asked.

Just nodding, not speaking, fearing my excitement would burst, Milo stepped forward as the lid of the stone container started to disintegrate away.

It looked much smaller than previously. There was still salt on top, but I reached down, pressing my hand on it, feeling it was much firmer than before too, dry to the touch. The smell was subtle, but there was an earthy hint to it, and importantly, there was no smell of rot.

“Could we rinse it off?” I asked Milo.

I also noticed when I turned around that Lily was now sitting there watching too. Of course she was.

Milo nodded, stepping forward as he shifted the stone container, with larger holes appearing in the bottom, as he conjured water that gently rinsed off the salt. The meat was slightly brown, but the fat had gone pure white.

Once all the salt was rinsed off, I didn’t even need to ask. Crisplet came over to dry it, leaving me with a giant slab of titan boar bacon.

“I would suggest you cut this up into much smaller pieces before you store it; that way you’re not pulling out a piece of belly that is the size of a small wagon every time,” Milo said.

This was something I should have done before I cured it, truthfully, but pulling out my sharp knife, I followed the instructions, cutting the belly down into eight squares. I saw the meat had a deep red colour, and it was firm throughout.

“Something you can do is smoke some of it now. It will give it a nice smoky taste as well as make it last longer,” Milo offered.

Thinking about it, this would be good just to trigger second simmer, but the look Lily was giving Milo right now heavily implied she was not willing to wait.

Seeing Milo shiver but not turn around, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

“I won’t smoke it all, Lily. I’ll cook some now,” I said, as her eyes came back to me.

Would you like to store [Uncommon] Titan Boar Bacon x8 for 5 mana? Yes/No

Selecting yes, I moved on to the drake’s belly next. This was split into two separate containers. Having succeeded on the first didn’t make this any less nerve-wracking, but I got to work, carving the rune into the stone, also going with a month.

Pushing the mana in, I waited, holding my breath as the glowing rune seemed to linger for an eternity before it eventually faded.

“Yes!” I cried out as the lid faded away.

Following the same process, Milo helped me rinse it off while Crisplet dried it for me. The colour difference was very apparent. Where the boar looked almost brown, the drake was a deep red. It had a much earthier smell to it as well, but following what I did before, I cut this belly into four squares, noticing that the deep red meat colour went all the way through, and this looked to have a lot more fat.

Finally, I moved on to the last one, a lot more confident now, and started to carve, pushing my mana into the stone, as a loud crack rang out.

“Shit!” I yelled, falling back.

The container holding the last piece cracked in half as liquid from the belly leaked onto the floor, giving it a very salty meat smell.

Panic took over, but Milo stepped in, quickly resealing it with new stone, also filling in the rune I had carved, as Crisplet burnt away the liquid on the floor.

“Stay focused, Trev. You got lucky that one only cracked. If it explodes, you’ll be picking stone shards out of it,” Milo instructed.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on NovelFire.

I had become careless after my success. This time, I took it extra slow and stayed as consistent as possible as I moved, eventually finishing this rune much slower than the last two, rattled by my failure.

Reaching out, I pushed my mana into it, closing my eyes and praying to the goddess I didn’t mess it up.

When I opened my eyes, nothing had changed. No cracks, no explosions.

Milo didn’t wait for me to ask, removing the top layer of stone, exposing a now much firmer and far drier piece of drake. This was a slightly smaller piece than the last, and the red was slightly deeper in colour.

Once it was cleaned off, I took my knife, deciding to just cut this one in half. I couldn’t help but feel the drake, and in particular this piece, looked to be mostly fat, but the smell coming off it was incredibly rich.

“Do you think anyone has made drake bacon before?” I asked.

Milo let out a laugh. “It’s certainly possible, but it’s not something I’ve ever seen.”

Would you like to store [Rare] Drakon x8 for 5 mana? Yes/No

I did a double take at the name that appeared before laughing.

“What is it?” Milo asked.

“The system calls it Drakon.”

Even Sylverith let out a snort of laughter at that.

“Should I try the rum now?” I asked.

“No. You’ve been practising on stone. Carving into wood will not be the same, so you’ll need to practice that first, or you’ll ruin the barrels,” Milo said.

Nodding, I was still happy with everything I had achieved today. I managed to complete all three of my large bacon, with only one minor hiccup.

“Let’s try this before we smoke some, shall we?” I asked happily, getting a burst of sparks immediately from Crisplet.

Entering the kitchen, I pulled out a piece of Drakon and a piece of Titan, and on the new chopping board I cut it into several slices, ensuring I had extra for Lily and Liane, who would undoubtedly somehow sense bacon was cooking.

By this stage, Lily was sitting directly next to me, staring at the bacon on the counter.

Crisplet had started the fire immediately, currently heating a large pan to cook it in.

The first one I tried was the Titan, placing the slices into the pan, hearing the sizzle as the fat rendered. The smell was incredible. It was undeniably bacon, but it smelled somehow richer.

Turning it over, it had an almost sticky golden-brown caramelisation on it, with the meat itself being more brown than it was pink, like the smaller ones.

Once it was cooked, I set it aside, giving Lily a hard look, hoping she’d have at least a little patience, as I cooked the Drakon.

Adding it to the pan, it was strange. The meat itself became a brighter shade of red as it cooked. The earthy aroma from it was pungent, but it didn’t smell bad. Quite the opposite. It made my mouth water, but I also knew that eating drake at all required caution.

As it cooked, it got a deep brown caramelisation, so much so that I was worried it was burning. Soon I had a dozen pieces of each type of bacon. Just to be safe, I used purify on the Drakon, then infused them both before checking the buffs.

[Uncommon] Cooked Titan Boar Bacon

+5 Endurance+1 StrengthThick SkinFire Immunity

[Rare] Cooked Drakon

+5 Strength+4 Endurance+2 CharismaFire Immunity

I divided it up, giving Lily the largest pieces and the most, one each for myself, Milo, and Sylverith, with a couple of each set aside for Liane, who, surprisingly, was still not here.

Lily ate hers slower than expected. Sylverith likewise didn’t hold back, going straight into the drake bacon.

I was still slightly hesitant, though.

Going with the titan bacon first, I took my first bite. It was incredibly crispy as the salty boar flavour hit my tongue. This was unmistakably bacon, but far richer and sweeter.

“This is great!” Milo said, holding up a half-eaten Titan bacon.

Lily had already finished all her bacon and was currently eyeing off Liane’s bacon. I reached down and quickly stored one piece of each, just in case. Lily must have taken this as permission, as the other two pieces of each vanished.

Next, I hesitantly took a tiny bite of the Drakon, feeling relatively confident in purify, but mostly confident in having Milo, Sylverith, and Lily nearby.

It was crispier than the Titan, almost shattering when I took a bite, and the flavour was odd. It had a saltiness to it and an incredible umami hit, then a powerful earthiness behind it. I took a bigger bite, and I could honestly say this was by far the best bacon I have ever had in my life.

“The Drakon wins,” I simply said, getting nods from everyone.

“I think I’ll smoke half of what I have of each; that way we’ll have some options.”

Milo nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably for the best. Maybe only do a couple of pieces of the Drakon, since you likely won’t get that again, and we can always smoke it later if need be,” Milo offered.

“Crisplet, could you help me with this one?” I asked hopefully.

I got a burst of sparks only a moment later.

As I entered the smoking room, I pulled out some special wood. Since both of these really focused on strength and endurance, I used Ironwood, remembering it gave +3 endurance and stone skin. It would pair perfectly with these, and maybe even give a bonus when paired together.

Once I had placed the wood offcuts, Crisplet immediately got to work. I was just about to leave the room when the door burst open.

“You cooked drake bacon without me?!” Liane practically yelled.

“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t know where you were. I expected you to show up,” I chuckled.

“And Lily took it all? Milo told me already,” Liane said, falling to the floor.

“No? I saved you some,” I said as I pulled out the two pieces of each type from my storage.

Liane’s eyes lit up as I had never seen before.

“Trevor! You’re the best, you know that! I’m going to kill Milo, though. He said it was too dangerous, so Lily took it all,” she cried as she took the bacon from my hands.

It was only then that she must have noticed the bacon behind me that I was about to smoke.

“You have so much!” She said as she took a bite of the Drakon first, without a single care.

“These should be really good for Hari once they are smoked,” I said, looking back.

“We really need to find a dexterity equivalent,” Liane laughed.

There was a moment of silence, and it looked like Liane really wanted to ask something, which was very strange because this was Liane. Nothing could stop her from speaking her mind.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, uh, well, actually I wanted to ask you something…” There was a long pause before she shook her head.

“You know what, never mind. I’ll ask you later. Can you cook more bacon?” She smiled, but it felt forced.

Maybe the others will know what’s going on?

“Sure can. Crisplet, are you okay in here?” I asked, getting the burst of sparks immediately.