episode_0089

At the same time.

Cain was busily moving about to keep his promise of making delicious food.

“Hup!”

1. He froze a slime found on the roadside with ice magic and placed it atop a pot. 2. He gently melted it over low heat to ensure the slime wouldn’t die. 3. He added water…

“Wait!”

“What?”

“You said you’d make delicious food!”

“That’s what I’m doing.”

“Then why a slime?!!”

Serena spoke angrily.

Right.

That was the normal reaction.

No sane person would eat a slime as food.

Why?

Because slimes are monsters made of mucus + dirt + weeds + corpses + miscellaneous junk.

If it were pure mucus, it might have been usable as a cooking ingredient,

but the contents were too gruesome to be edible.

“You put it in the pot knowing that?!”

“There’s a way to make it taste good.”

“?”

“Just watch. This is seriously delicious.”

3. He continued adding water. 4. The slime, now full of water, expelled its contents.

Pfooo!

‘Just like in the game.’

This was the slime cooking method.

If you feed a slime enough water, its belly swells until it vomits everything out.

Not just the water it drank,

but also the green liquid mixed with dirt, weeds, corpses, and other junk.

Repeating this process a few times yields a slime clean enough to eat.

“Ta-da! A transparent water slime purified through multiple rounds of cleansing!”

“You expect me to eat this?”

“You could eat it as is.”

It was basically like water jelly.

Texture: jelly.

Taste: refreshing water.

It could substitute for water,

and the slime wouldn’t move around inside the body or cause problems.

‘As long as you don’t eat the core, it’s fine.’

The core.

A small, bead-like object inside the slime—essentially its heart.

Mucus connected to the core becomes a living slime,

while mucus separated from the core remains just mucus.

So,

mucus detached from the core is safe to eat.

…As he explained this, he tossed fruits and sugar into the slime.

Blurp!

The slime bubbled as it absorbed the fruits and sugar.

The once-transparent slimes gradually deepened in color.

The one that ate strawberries turned red. The one that ate oranges turned orange. The one that ate apples turned yellow. The one that ate green grapes turned green. The one that ate blueberries turned blue. The one that ate purple grapes turned violet.

The slimes in the pot had transformed into a rainbow.

In this state, he quickly removed and discarded the cores.

Plop! Plop! Plop!

The coreless mucus slumped, lifeless.

Eaten as-is, it felt like water jelly.

Frozen with ice magic, it became like store-bought fruit jelly.

Dried with magic to remove moisture and hardened through various processes, it turned into a chewy, gummy-like jelly.

He made all three versions.

“Ta-da!”

Six fruit-flavored water jellies, regular jellies, and hard jellies—

A grand total of 18 jelly varieties in a gift set!

…Or so he presented it, but—

“……” “……” “……” “?”

Serena, Ria, and Sophia’s reactions were less than enthusiastic.

“These are seriously delicious, I swear.”

“But it’s a slime?…”

“It’s obviously just jelly.”

“What’s jelly?”

“Ah…”

Come to think of it, the concept of jelly didn’t exist in this world.

Oh well.

He’d prove its deliciousness by eating it first.

Munch.

He took a bite.

“So… how is it?…”

Even his usually trusting companions watched with a mix of anticipation and concern.

“Huh?… Huh?!… Wh-whaaat?!…”

“Cain?!”

“No way… This is incredible…”

“?”

“How can fruit jelly taste this good?… Unreal…”

The concentrated fruit juices burst explosively,

while the sweetness of the sugar melted smoothly, creating a fantastical flavor.

It was genuinely delicious.

Even as juice, it had been tasty,

but as jelly, it was even better.

…After sharing his thoughts—

“……”

Ria cautiously took a bite first.

“!!!”

“Well?”

“As expected of Master! It’s really good!”

“Right?”

“It’s good?… Let me see…”

Serena took a bite, and so did Sophia.

Then—

They rapidly devoured the rest, exclaiming in amazement.

“Wow!… Who knew slimes could taste this good?!”

“As expected, my lord. Every dish you make is delicious—my taste buds rejoice daily.”

“There’s plenty, so ask if you want more.”

“Yeah!”

“Yes!”

Since he’d used six large slimes, the quantity was substantial.

But with the Holy Grail of Sacrifice, mass production was trivial.

‘This is the best.’

Store a dish’s recipe in the Holy Grail,

and voilà—unlimited replication!

Thanks to this, one batch could yield five or ten servings,

ready to eat anytime.

It saved cooking time,

freeing up more hours for research.

“Cain? What are you doing with the leftover slimes? Another dish?”

“No. This is for research.”

“Cooking research?”

“No. Biotechnology research.”

He prepared slime mucus with varying concentrations of nutrients in glass containers.

This was a nutrient broth—

essentially nutrient jelly.

He’d made it a few times during biotech classes in college.

It was the same medium used in labs to culture molds or bacteria, often shown in news segments.

…But explaining this would be pointless—they wouldn’t understand.

So he demonstrated instead.

“Ria.”

“Yeah!”

“Press your palm firmly into this jelly.”

“Like this?”

Squish!

Her handprint remained in the jelly.

“Sophia.”

“Yes.”

“Cast a growth acceleration spell on this.”

“Understood.”

Growth acceleration magic—

a spell to rapidly mature living organisms.

Using it drastically reduced mold cultivation time.

Whoosh.

As Sophia’s light enveloped the dish, various molds sprouted.

“!!!!!!” “!!!!!!”

Both Ria and Sophia recoiled at the disgustingly vivid display.

Mold.

At a glance, the colorful fuzz might seem pretty,

but it evoked an inexplicable revulsion.

He believed this disgust stemmed from survival instincts.

Eating moldy food could be fatal.

Those who liked mold died,

while those who hated it survived.

Over centuries, millennia, only mold-haters remained.

Thus,

hating mold was perfectly natural.

‘Same with bugs.’

Most people like shrimp,

but hate insects.

Despite their similarities, why the disparity?

Again, survival instincts.

Shrimp are harmless,

but many insects are dangerous.

Some are venomous,

others spread disease,

and some devour crops, leading to starvation.

Thus,

those who liked bugs died out—

from poison, illness, or famine.

Only bug-haters survived.

So,

hating bugs is entirely natural.

‘The same logic applies to other inexplicable aversions.’

…That said,

it was just a hypothesis—not definitive.

Merely his personal theory.

…As he finished,

Serena stared at him incredulously.

“You caught slimes and grew mold just to explain that?”

“Of course not.”

“?”

“The mold was just to test if the nutrient broth worked. The real goal is different.”

“Which is?”

“Growing plants.”

“?”

“This is the main focus.”

While mold could be cultured,

so could plants.

That was the key.

“Don’t plants grow in soil?”

“Normally, yes.”

For most plants, soil was the most efficient medium.

But—

For unconventional growth, this method was superior.

“Unconventional growth?”

“Yeah.”

“Like what?”

“For example… growing a plant without a single seed?”

“Without seeds? How?”

“From a leaf.”

“A leaf? Is that possible?”

“It is.”

Slice! Slice!

He cut square holes into a leaf.

“Holes?”

“Discard the perforated leaf.”

“???”

“Place the small square leaf fragments onto the jelly.”

“??????”

“Now cast the growth spell.”

Sophia obliged.

Then—

A green mass swelled from the leaf fragments, resembling a clump of cells.

“What’s this?…”

“In biotech, this is called a callus. Grow it further, and sprouts emerge.”

“Sprouts?!”

“Yep.”

Thanks to the spell, sprouts appeared almost instantly.

“Plant these sprouts in soil… water them… perfect.”

The sprouts grew vigorously into small trees.

Experiment success.

A tree grown from a single leaf—a resounding triumph.

“Tell the Goddess of Abundance later. This is another way to cultivate plants.”

“Uh… It’s fascinating, but… is this necessary?…”

“It will be.”

Since he planned to diverge from the game’s path, he wasn’t sure how things would unfold,

but this method would be useful in the next region.

Hence the early preparation,

and the preliminary experiment.

“?”

Ria was scrubbing her hands furiously, her face pale.

“Ria?”

“Eeek… There’s mold on my hands!…”

“Ah…”

Ria had learned the importance of handwashing.

Previously, she only cleaned her hands when visibly dirty,

but now that she knew about mold—

invisible filth clinging to her skin—she scrubbed with newfound zeal.