It hit hard like someone had dumped vinegar straight into some green juice, but to someone who hadn’t had anything sour in four years, it tasted great.
“I’ll tweak the recipe a bit tomorrow,” I muttered to myself. “I think I can cut down on the smell and bitterness.”
The only problem was that I’d already used up half the vinegar mushroom, and I only had enough gabul root left for one more meal. Securing a steady supply of ingredients had proven to be a serious issue.
If only I could find a patch where they grow thick and clustered together. That had been my hope as I went out foraging, but even the next day, I couldn’t find anything even half decent.
There’d been no shortage of wild plants, but having them as soup wasn’t nutritionally balanced, and they got tiring pretty quickly. Worse, the scum in those herbs could be toxic for a child’s digestive system. I had to be meticulous in removing it, but stripping away too much robbed the plants of their flavor too.
Despite all that, I’d kept experimenting—bundling the herbs to give them some texture, chopping them finely to soften the aroma... Maybe it had made a difference, even if just a little. Through it all, I’d begun to notice how the flavor would shift ever so slightly depending on the ingredients and magic I’d used. I’d already known that ingredients rich in mana tasted better, but even a hint of magic added a depth to the flavor. By channeling more magic into my water and fire, I’d managed to improve the taste even more. That was a huge breakthrough! There was a catch, though: Better flavor didn’t equal more nutrition.
“I’m going to have to venture farther out...”
I’d been playing it safe, only going out within twenty meters of the sewer entrance, but if I wanted better ingredients, I had to push my boundaries.
Keeping low, I slipped into a thick forest, rustling through branches and leaves. The first thing I stumbled upon was a tree that sprouted edible shoots resembling angelica, but the season had passed, and the leaves were already thick and green.
I kept foraging, focusing on trees, but to no avail. There was fruit-like stuff here and there, but it was all unripe or overripe. Still, I didn’t want to resort to wild plants and have another meal of soup and blanched greens. I want something different. Something meaty or sweet!
“Nothing here.”
“Nope.”
“This is no good either.”
I’d been searching for about an hour but had found no nuts or fruit. All I’d come across were two kinds of wild plants and a pair of mushrooms. At one point, I’d all but lost hope and had given in to gathering wild plants, although it wasn’t like I’d just pulled out random weeds.
One of the plants had turned out to be a new species—it resembled a wild onion, and its small roots were supposed to taste like turnips. I’d named it turnip-onion. This stuff was good. The mushrooms were edible too, with a flavor close to shiitake. They had a faint ammonia smell, but simply grilling them was enough to make them palatable. I now had myself a feast.
I know. These are promising finds, but they’re not what I’m looking for.
“Guess I have no choice...” I said out loud.
I started contemplating the idea of using magic. Temperature-sensing and smell enhancement spells might yield a breakthrough, but there was a catch. Although the gods had gifted me with skill and talent, I still didn’t have much mana. Things would turn ugly if I got attacked when I was out of magic, but just wandering around aimlessly meant slim chances of finding any meat.
“What should I do?” I said after a pause.
I’d already cast Thermo-Sense once today. It had used up a lot of mana, so I could only afford to cast it once more if I wanted to save enough power for cooking. Plus, I’d be left with no mana for other strong spells. Should I really use it now?
“Hmm...”
What to do, what to do? Do I really want to give up? Am I really gonna fill up on weird-tasting wild plant soup again? No way!
“All right. I’m going for it!” I declared to myself.
I’ve made up my mind. I’m eating good food tonight! And I’m gonna find the ingredients for it right here and now!
I could only keep up Thermo-Sense for about five minutes—that was my time limit.
“Grant me the sight to see warmth, heat, and life. Thermo-Sense!” I chanted.
As I felt mana gather in my eyes, my vision changed—heat now glowed red, just like a thermal camera. I desperately scoured the ground, grass, and dense foliage above before time ran out.
Then, just before the magic faded, I spotted it.
“Is that...a bird’s nest?” I asked myself. “And some nuts too?”
The source of the heat was coming from up in the branches. A closer look revealed a tangled cluster of twigs, woven together like a basket. Most likely, there were eggs inside, but the parent bird was nowhere in sight. Just around the nest, I also spotted several faint flickers of heat—probably ripe nuts. The bounty was at least five meters up. It wasn’t anything I could reach with my tiny body, so I stood there, weighing my options.
“How should I do this?”
Making them fall with magic felt too risky—the eggs could crack. I needed something that wouldn’t drain my mana dry. As I sifted through my knowledge, the perfect spell came to mind.
“Unseen arm! Take hold and rise at my command! Mana Arm!”
This spell for manifesting a long, translucent arm was usually used for handling bulky ingredients. While it didn’t have monstrous strength, it was easily stronger than my toddler body and moved with finesse too. I used the magic arm to gently grab three eggs that were nestled in the branches. I also plucked every ripe, dark nut I could. What a haul.
The nut I’d found was the ancestral species of the casse nut. Its shell was tougher than stone. That was probably why the birds hadn’t gotten to them even though they were ripe. I guessed that small animals ate them, but maybe they’d fled in the wake of the fire. Either way, I was lucky that the nuts had been left behind.
“I scored something worthwhile,” I said.