A Pheasant at the Campsite
Bella knew her job well. She tethered the horse and carriage in a suitable spot, slipped between the trees, and returned before long.
"This place looks good!"
She had zeroed in on a clearing with just the right amount of leaf cover. Seeing her move like that, it was easy to believe she was a woman of this era — she carried herself like a seasoned noncommissioned officer, a professional.
Seo Hwarang watched her and spoke up. "No need to bother with a tent. The weather's fine, and we're just sleeping anyway."
It wasn't purely a kindness. He didn't plan on sleeping much to begin with. Every hour spent unconscious was an hour stolen from cycling his skill cooldowns.
"Yes, sir!"
Bella answered brightly, then hesitated. "Um, Master Mage?"
"Hmm?"
"If you're planning to keep training your magic..."
How to describe Seo Hwarang's current state? Ten different spells were manifesting in a continuous, overlapping cycle.
Fwoosh! A Fire Bolt bloomed above his head and dissolved, only to bloom again. Light Arrows, Wind Cutters, Dark Clouds — the whole repertoire churned without pause.
'An absolutely absurd monster.'
Frankly, Bella had spent the entire journey fighting to hide her astonishment. 'There must be an ocean of mana packed inside his heart.'
It had to be one of two things. Either he had bottomless mana reserves, or his mana regeneration was monstrous enough to keep pace with that output. Whichever it was, he was a monster either way.
'I wish he'd put that to use hunting for us or something.' But she shook her head before the words could leave her mouth. The man had been paid a whole gold coin — who was she to expect him to hunt on top of it? Just do her own job diligently.
"I'll help too, Bella."
Yoo Seon-ah began pulling tools down from the underside of the carriage.
"Oh, no, you shouldn't! By the contract, that's my—"
"I'm starving too."
The two women spread leather and cloth on the ground and got ready to chop firewood.
Seo Hwarang wasn't idle either. Consider it part of his proficiency training.
"I'll gather the firewood."
How? Simple.
1st Circle — Master Wind Cutter
Whiiiing! The wind surged once and lanced toward a tree. With proficiency at 55, controlling the blade's path no longer gave him any trouble at all.
Chachachak! A thick cluster of overhanging branches sheared away in neat sections, and even as they fell, the severed limbs splintered into perfect firewood-length pieces.
"Wow..."
Bella, mid-way through setting up the camp, stopped to stare in open admiration. 'He said that's a 1st Circle spell...' Having never been to the capital, she honestly had no way to judge. Perhaps the famous mages there really did wield their 1st Circle spells with that kind of flair?
Having produced a full day's worth of firewood, Seo Hwarang pushed deeper into the forest. They had provisions from the village, sure — but survival demanded a little romance, and what was more romantic than hunting wild game?
'Never actually hunted before.' How hard could it be? Almost anything out here would be weaker than a horned bat. Besides, a quiet hope flickered within him: maybe a quest would pop. Whatever quest appeared, he intended to squeeze every item out of it and haul the haul back to Earth for sale.
Wuuum. Casting skills in an endless rotation, Seo Hwarang swept the area around the campsite.
The grand total of his sweep: one pheasant.
'Harder than I expected.' The continent was this vast — how was there not a single wild animal in sight? Even taking this one bird hadn't been straightforward. Fire Bolt would have incinerated it on the spot, so that was out. He'd used Wind Cutter to knock it out of the air, then landed a Light Arrow on the staggering bird to finish it.
Rustle! Seo Hwarang pushed back through the brush and returned to camp.
"Master Mage!"
Bella greeted him with a beaming face.
"Find anything?"
Yoo Seon-ah asked, stirring the firewood. The more she poked at it, the more oxygen fed the flames, and the brighter they roared.
'Not bad.' Seo Hwarang nodded to himself. They'd clearly put in real effort — the place actually looked like a proper makeshift camp now. There was bedding to sleep on, a fire, cooking gear laid out and ready.
He held up the pheasant with a wry smile. "Found something. All of one bird."
"Wow!"
Bella clapped her hands in genuine awe. "Amazing! Goodness! You caught a pheasant!"
Unlike the disappointed Seo Hwarang, she seemed sincerely astonished. "One of those will feed all three of us with leftovers to spare! Wow, a pheasant — the bird only nobles get to eat — right here! Your hunting skills must be truly incredible."
Pheasants were notoriously wary birds. The smallest sound or movement sent them bursting into flight or bolting for cover. Add in their blistering speed and plumage that blended perfectly into the forest, and they were famously hard to even spot.
"Is it really that impressive?"
"Of course! Here, let me have it! I'll cook it!"
"You know how to cook?"
"Honestly, I've never handled one before! But all bird dishes are more or less the same, aren't they? Just skewer it and roast it over the fire!"
"..."
She wasn't wrong, exactly, but it did nothing to settle his nerves.
Tsk.
'I'll just do it myself.'
"Forget it. You've worked hard enough today — just rest. I'll handle the cooking."
"Huh?"
Bella blinked in bewilderment. "You, Master Mage?"
"You can cook?"
Yoo Seon-ah echoed, looking equally surprised. They wouldn't know, but Seo Hwarang was a man who had read well over a hundred thousand books — and naturally, that library had included every cookbook imaginable.
'Never cooked one myself, mind you.' But the knowledge was firmly lodged in his head. Everything from the fundamentals of cooking to recipes for wild game you could prepare in the field.
'Mom was the same way.' She'd been no chef, and he'd always wondered why she read cookbooks. Apparently it was all for moments exactly like this.
He had done this kind of butchering in the army. Survival training during field exercises, and once he'd been picked as the squad representative and cleaned an entire chicken.
'Should be about the same as back then.'
First things first.
1st Circle — Master Aqua Splash
Water, in abundance. He summoned a wave and filled the cooking vessels to the brim. Mercifully, the water carried no salt.
Next.
Flap-flap! He wrung the neck of the still-living pheasant, then plucked it clean. Working his hand inside, he drew out the innards without a trace left behind, then washed the bird in the water.
'Pretty solidly built, isn't it?' Being a large specimen, it was plump with meat.
"Bella."
"Yes, sir!"
She snapped to attention at his surprisingly professional handiwork.
"Do you happen to have salt or pepper?"
"Yes! It's all in the spice box here!"
He opened the satchel she pointed to, and sure enough, everything was there. Salt, parsley, dill, mustard seed, garlic, onion, thyme...
"Not much salt, though?"
"No, sir. As you know, salt is terribly expensive. That little bit was hard enough to get."
Hmm. First thing to buy when they reached a city, then — salt. Seasoning was the soul of any dish.
Seo Hwarang crushed the parsley and thyme and rubbed the mixture evenly over the entire bird. 'Oil or butter would have made this better.' Oh well. Working within the limits of the wild, coaxing the most delicious dish possible out of a handful of ingredients — that was part of cooking too.
"Hey, sis."
"Yeah?"
"Hand me one of those wooden skewers."
"O-of course!"
Yoo Seon-ah, for her part, was completely absorbed in watching him work. 'This guy.' She'd assumed he was a bookworm shut-in, but look at him — he moved like a total veteran Awakener. And his cooking? Forget five-star hotel chefs. This bastard. Why on earth had he been working at a library all this time? He could have opened a restaurant and made a fortune.
Whatever she was thinking, Seo Hwarang pressed on. He took the skewer, ran it through the pheasant, and set it over the campfire, turning it slowly as it roasted. 'Keep the moisture in.'Ssssss! He splashed it with water at intervals, cooking it through while keeping it succulent. A splash of wine would have been even better — that much he'd miss.
"Wow, smell that."
"That's actually insane..."
"Look at it browning up so nicely. Mmm-mmm!"
Gulp.
Bella and Yoo Seon-ah swallowed hard, eyes glued to the roasting bird. Direct-flame roasting should never be done up close to the fire — and pheasant, being firmer than chicken, turned rubbery in an instant if you seared it too hard.
'From a distance, and slowly. That's the way.'
Seo Hwarang didn't stop there. He skewered garlic and onions as well, setting them to roast alongside the bird as accompaniments, and cooked those to a turn too.
Perhaps half an hour passed like that.
"There. Done."
At last, a protein-rich meal was born. "Dig in, everyone. Eat fast — training waits for no one."
Seo Hwarang took the first bite, and Yoo Seon-ah and Bella followed suit.
"Wow."
The appreciation burst out of them with the very first mouthful.
"This is insane! So this is what pheasant tastes like!"
Bella closed her eyes, savoring the flavor. "Ahhh, I'm so glad I came along. To think I'd get to eat food like this. It's so moving I could cry."
It was on an entirely different plane from the food sold in the villages — where they barely salted anything and served meat half-cooked, charred, or tough as leather.
"So you're not just good at magic, Master Mage?"
There was genuine feeling in Bella's voice. No exaggeration — she genuinely believed this was the most delicious thing she had eaten in her entire life.
"Here, try it with the garlic and onion too. They cut right through the richness."
Seo Hwarang held them out with a contented smile. Watching the girl — who felt for all the world like a daughter of his own — chowing down happily was healing in its purest form. 'First time cooking this dish, and seeing someone enjoy it this much... so this is the kind of joy it brings.' He found his mood lifting for no particular reason.
"Hey."
Yoo Seon-ah, meanwhile, wore a blissful expression and thrust her thumb skyward. "This is just the best. Nothing more to say. You could run a business off this, no question. Should we open a franchise chain alongside our item business?"
Crackle, pop!
The firewood burned on. Pheasant roasting over a campfire deep in a forest as dusk settled in — how peaceful, how utterly romantic. After breathing Seoul's stale air every single day, to camp like this, wrapped in the scent of the wild woods...
But he couldn't afford to lose himself in it. Finishing his meal and enjoying a brief moment of leisure, Seo Hwarang rose to his feet.
"Bella, cleanup."
"Of course!"
"Sis, gather your mana back up. I'm starting training again."
"Okay!"
Minds refocused, each to their own task. And somewhere in the rhythm of it, a thought occurred to him.
'Is there no Cooking skill?' Learning one seemed like a good way to stack proficiency. There was a Leatherworking skill, after all — a Cooking skill had to exist. Once the seals lifted, he'd have to check the whole list.
The same routine repeated itself, day after day. They traveled by carriage and, when hunger struck, consumed the provisions they'd brought — dried meat strips and hardtack, mostly. And when night fell? They built another makeshift camp and cooked. The only real change was that whenever wild game crossed their path along the way, Seo Hwarang hunted it on the spot. Just yesterday he'd taken a wild boar, and they'd gorged themselves magnificently because of it.
Thankfully, no bandits or monsters appeared on the road. A road at all meant people traveled it regularly — and according to Bella, the monsters kept to far deeper wilds.
Then, after roughly a week on the road—
"We're almost there!"
Bella cried out. "You can see the other carriages now, can't you?"
"So I can."
"It'll come into view any moment."
The first great city of their journey. Calderon — the city ruled by Count Edmund von Valens — spread out before them in the distance.