Day 351-360/Day 359

Day 359
Today I spent the morning with Alchemist-san. Speaking of what we are doing, we are experimenting on how to reproduce the tastes from my memories. Normally the Sisters would be the ideal ones to approach if you want to reproduce the taste of a certain dish since they are the ones who are more experienced with food. But this time, the Alchemist-san is more qualified.
- This might seem abrupt but do you remember the first thing I ate since my reincarnation?
It was white, well-rounded, soft and fatty, and filled with plenty of nutrients. Yes, it was a caterpillar. From the cave that we once lived in, caterpillars were relatively easy to obtain by digging into the wall. I suddenly missed its taste, but after finding and eating one of those caterpillars, it had somewhat thinned in flavor, I mean, there was no depth to its taste.
Why is the taste different? I can only tilt my head and wonder.
However, if I were to really think back on it, it feels like the caterpillars I'd previously caught had about the same taste. At that time I did not think too deeply about how they taste or especially care because there were not many options to eat like there are now. The difference is much clearer now that my tongue has had more experience with food.
- I wonder why that is, exactly.
When I use the【Old Demon's Wisdom】that I had obtained from the old man goblin, it seems that Gobujii had made a dilution of a special poison, called【Goblin's Poison Arrow】to give to the caterpillars. Doing so adds a mellow taste to the caterpillar, it seems to become thicker and delicious just like trout. In other words, that means that what we were eating at the time was not an ordinary caterpillar.
If poison is required, the Sisters and Meal Hero would be outside of their areas of expertise. Although the Meal Hero is capable of making medicines based on the food itself, as one would expect, asking him for poison would be unreasonable. That's why the Alchemist-san, who excelled at its production method, was singled out.
Having in mind reproducing such a taste, I used a mortar made from Rembara stone that had a surprisingly long history as well as a【Rising Drug Efficacy】effect, grind up a liquid made from an "India" tree found in the Great Forest. Added to that were some kinds of poisonous plants which are native of this region, that had been left sun-drying for a few days. Among them were leaves of "Wild Anxiety Ansebi", roots of "Spinaceous Igurashisa" and fruits of "Real Death Isshimi". All of which were ground together into a paste.
In the clan we were born in, the【Goblin Community of Small Devils】, this magic item was something that the oldest person had to take over for many years.
Previously it was a product that Gobujii had chosen as his favorite, but ever since Gobujii passed away, nobody had used it, leaving it stored in a warehouse, forgotten. If you were to look at its effects alone, there are plenty of better items available so there was no reason not to store it in the warehouse.
For this time though, I think I will first try to replicate the product to that same effect, so I'll be pulling that item out of the warehouse and use it instead.
That way, we can just get to see how to raise its production efficacy many times over, so in the future there may be no need for it anymore, finding its end inside the warehouse. Anyway, I was there to advise Alchemist-san, and continue to occasionally help with the work.
Although I can work comfortably with the poison around me because it has no effect, I truly believe that, since the preparation is quite difficult, if even one mistake was made in the formula then it would've meant death for Gobujii. Anyway, it took a few hours of struggling while adjusting the concentration by pouring water in.
There were plenty of failures through our lack of experience, and we ended up having to redo it several times. The bastard of a poison was almost impossible for the Alchemist-san's processing ability to figure out, but she said that she was happy to try and at the same time I vowed to create a success and was apologetic. I did not want to end up with a failure.
As I became accustomed to the process, I finally felt as if I could figure it out - it seems like it did come out as a poison in the mortar - which is apparently referred to as 【Goblin's Poison Arrow】 - after collecting it, we reduced it to a certain amount.
【Goblin's Poison Arrow】is used afterwards, mixing it with just a sap of a highly detoxification solution poured in a mortar, as its poisonous contents are lowered. Then a white smoke rose from it while producing a *Fsshhh* sound.
I pulled the white smoke into one place using【All Creation】so that it does not damage the surroundings with its toxicity. We then proceeded to add water to the mortar.
Before long, the white smoke started gaining more momentum. The smoke decreased after a little while, leaving the remaining poison changed from a blue to a light blue. Reaching this point, the toxicity is weak, becoming a poison that is of little to no use.
In the meantime, several dozen caterpillars were dropped in. Slowly consuming the poison out of the mortar, the rapidly growing caterpillar blossom. When the poison is almost eliminated, I removed the caterpillar and gave it a quick wash using【All Creation】, then ate it off with a crunch.
Its *jelly-ish* *squishy* body provided a reasonable elasticity that was like a cooked shrimp, juicy and rich fluid fills my mouth. It would be inferior to the dragon meat. Not even winning out to other labyrinth ingredients.
But it does remind me of the old days, a kind of nostalgic taste. Since the procedure has been found, I think I will try to mass produce it and distribute them to everyone. Since it is likely that Alchemist-san will help with the mass production, we will have an easier time with it. Oh, but it really is a nostalgic taste.
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RAWS
 
“三百五十九日目”
今日は朝から錬金術師さんのところに入り浸っている。
何をしているかと言えば、思い出の味を再現するための実験だ。
料理の味を再現するのなら姉妹さんと、今なら飯勇達も巻き込んだ方が確実だ。
しかし今回は錬金術師さんの方が適役である。
――唐突だが、転生してから俺が初めて喰ったのは何か覚えているだろうか。
白くぶよぶよで丸々と太った、栄養たっぷりの食材。
そう、芋虫だ。
かつて住んでいた洞窟だと、壁を掘れば比較的簡単に得る事の出来た芋虫である。
ふとのあの味が懐かしくなり、芋虫を見つけて喰ったのだが、何というか、薄いというか、味に深みが無かったのだ。
なぜ味が違っているのか？　と小首を傾げる。
だがよくよく思い返してみれば、以前自分で捕まえた芋虫もこんな感じだった様な気がする。あの時はそこまで深く考えなかったし、今みたいに他に喰うモノも多くなかったので特に気にしていなかったが、舌が肥えた今なら違いが明確に分かった。
――これはどういう事だろうか。
そう疑問に思ってゴブ爺を喰って手に入れた【老鬼の知恵袋】を使ってみると、どうもゴブ爺が【ゴブリンの矢毒】という特製の毒薬を薄めて芋虫に与えていたらしい事を知った。
そうする事で芋虫の味がまろやかになり、濃厚でトロトロに美味しくなるらしい。
つまりあの時に喰っていたのは、普通の芋虫ではなかったのだ。
毒薬が必要になるとすると、姉妹さんや飯勇達では専門外になる。
薬膳ならば飯勇も作れるが、流石に毒は無理だ。
そういう訳で、毒薬などの製法に長けた錬金術師さんに白羽の矢が立ったのである。
そんなこんなであの味を再現の為に、俺は意外と長い歴史のある【薬効上昇】効果があるレンバラ石製の臼と、“インディア”という木で作られたを使い、ゴリゴリと大森林ではそこら辺に自生している数日天日干しした数種の有毒植物――“”の葉、“”の根、“”の果実など――を磨り潰していた。
これ等は俺達が生まれた【】にて、長年氏族の最年長者が引き継いできた伝統あるマジックアイテムである。
以前はゴブ爺が愛用していた品だが、ゴブ爺が死んでからは誰も使わず倉庫に安置されていた。
効果だけで見れば他のもっと良いのが沢山あるので、倉庫に仕舞われていても仕方あるまい。
今回は再現という事で道具も同じモノを用意しようと思い、倉庫から引っ張りだして使っている。
次回があれば手法も分かっているだろうから使わないかもしれないが、せっかくなので今後何かに使えないか模索する事にしよう。
ともかく、錬金術師さんに助言され、時折手助けしてもらいながら作業を続ける。
毒は俺に効果は無いので気楽に作業できるが、ゴブ爺、一歩間違えれば自滅するような結構難しい調合をよくやっていたな、と実際にしてみて思う。
ともあれ、水を注いだりして量を調整しながら悪戦苦闘する事数時間。
経験不足もあって失敗作は多く、やり直しは幾度かあった。
出来損ないの毒薬はそれはそれで使い道があるらしく錬金術師さんが処理を快く請け負ってくれたが、申し訳なさと同時に必ず成功させると心に誓った。
失敗で終わるのは嫌だった。
慣れてきて、ようやくそれっぽいのが出来たので臼の中にある毒薬――【ゴブリンの矢毒】と呼ばれているらしい――を採取し、ある程度量を少なくする。
【ゴブリンの矢毒】はまた後で使う事にして、中身が少なくなった臼に解毒効果の高い“バッテラ”の樹液を注ぐ。
するとシュワシュワと音を出しながら白煙が上がった。
白煙は有毒なので周囲に被害が出ないように【森羅万象】を使って一ヶ所に集めつつ、臼の中に水を追加。
すると白煙はより勢いを増した。
しばらくすると少し減った、青から水色に薄まった毒が残る。ここまでくると毒性も弱く、あまり使い道がない毒薬になる。
そんな中に、芋虫を数十匹ほど投下した。
臼の中の毒薬を啜り、急激に成長していく芋虫達が蠢く。
毒薬が殆ど無くなると、芋虫を取り出して【森羅万象】を使ってサッと水洗いしてから、パクリと喰う。
ぷよぷよとした胴体はエビなどのようにプリプリとしたほどよい弾力を備え、ジューシーで濃厚な体液が口内を満たす。
竜肉には劣るだろう。その他の迷宮食材にも勝てはしない。
しかし何か昔を思い出させるような、懐かしい味だ。
取りあえず手順は分かったので、量産して皆に配ってみようと思う。量産には錬金術師さんが手助けしてくれるそうなので、簡単にできるだろう。
ああ、しかし、本当に懐かしい味だ。
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Day 358 == Day 359 == Day 360 
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Category:Novel
Category:Re:Monster Volume 9