Chapter 21: Chapter 21
After a bit more deliberation, Darius decided to go with the spear. The bow was fine and all, but having two ranged fighting styles sounded like it would conflict rather than harmonize in reality.
On the other hand, a spear's close/mid-range combat style added to his long-range magic style was the perfect combination.
In fact, now that he considered the topic, Darius was quite surprised as to why spear magicians had not really been featured in media, yet sword-wielding magicians named Spellblades existed. The best explanation he could come up with was that it was most likely an aesthetic thing.
After all, a person swinging a sword like a noble hero who could also shoot out fireballs looked cooler compared to a person with a spear doing the same. However, Darius was not pursuing aesthetics, but practicality.
As such, he changed the criteria.
[Would you like to change the Rusty Iron Sword into an Iron Spear? This will cost 0.25 Conversion Points.]
Quite costly compared to changing it into a normal quality iron sword, but understandable. After all, the quantity of metal required had increased while the workmanship would be changing at a fundamental level.
In this case, it was only so cheap because the amount of iron he had reduced to cost for the first stage of transmutation.
In a split second, Darius' hand was no longer holding a wretched rusty iron sword that looked like it would crumble the next second, but a finely made iron spear of a dark-grey color that had a double-bladed spearhead.
Its heavy weight made it quite burdensome to carry around and he barely managed to swing it a bit before he nearly toppled. 'Another thing those stories failed to capture was how goddamn heavy metallic weapons are and how hard it is to get used to them.' Darius cursed internally before he inspected his new weapon.
[Iron Spear - Weapon
Durability: 50/50
Quality: Perfect
Damage: 7-10
Description: A sharp and balanced spear made of fine iron and the best possible craftsmanship. Created through pure Transmutation.]
Darius nodded with pleasure. As expected of the Transmutation skill, it really didn't cut corners in production. The spear's minimum damage was already more than twice the maximum damage of the iron dagger, which was a given just looking at their sizes.
Darius smiled as he made up his mind to gain a spear skill by all means and raise it. He suspected it would not be as easy as it had been with Skinning and Butchery, since those two could be considered simple skills with short learning curves.
Fortunately, thanks to his ability of Transmutation, he wouldn't have to strenuously learn spearmanship up to the point where such a skill would be generated, rather opting to create it in exchange for his precious Conversion Points.
Fearing that the hyenas could come back or he might encounter another beast like the Grey Bear, he desired more methods to resist their assault.
As such, he took out another leaf and performed the conversion to an empty book.
[Would you like to change the conifer leaf into an empty book? This will cost 0.01 Conversion Points.]
When the empty book was formed, Darius checked how much it would cost to convert it into a basic spear manual.
[Would you like to change the empty book into a basic spear manual? This will cost 4 Conversion Points.]
Darius blew air. It seemed he would have to wait until tomorrow... He would have to make do with a bit of cleverness and magic until midnight. Worst case scenario, he still had the Short Warp scroll to get out of danger.
For now, Darius moved onto a subject that was crucial to his survival in this world. He removed a Bronze Ando Coin from his Inventory and held it up.
[Would you like to change the Bronze Ando Coin into a Silver Ando Coin? This will cost 0.1 Conversion Points.]
Darius smacked his lips, an action that he made to try and hide his quivering heart. What he had just discovered was so scandalous and dangerous that he would likely be killed on the spot if someone were to find out.
Darius could print authentic money. Not counterfeit, not shoddy, but actual money that would be no different from those used by Andrato Kingdom's banks. No, considering the elitist nature of his ability, it might even be better.
As a merchant, he abhorred and loved this ability. He loathed it because rampant spending with external/non-circulatory funds was bound to cause chain effects depending on how much new currency would be introduced to the system, causing inflation and economic chaos.
He loved it because no matter the situation, he would have enough money to pay his way out of everything as long as he dedicated some time to making coins every day. Truly, a double-edged sword.
Darius took his experiment further.
[Would you like to change the Bronze Ando Coin into a Gold Ando Coin? This will cost 0.3 Conversion Points.]
Darius was even more shaken. It seemed as if the premier currency of the land itself could not escape his grasp. Thanks to the small Infoblock, he knew the true value of a gold coin.
By Earth standards, it was roughly the same as having $100,000. It was absolutely not a joke and should be handled with care. It was a sign of status, wealth, and identity, as only nobles and above could realistically afford to hold such a coin.
Still, Darius had about 1.84 Conversion Points left for the day, so he transformed 5 of his Bronze Ando Coins into Gold Ando Coins, leaving him with about 0.34 Conversion Points for the day. Those 5 Gold Ando Coins would not be spent until he reached the big city, and its importance was vital in securing land, title, and identity, one of Darius' biggest issues right now.
(Editor's Note: We are aware that using his CP on the potions would have used up a total of 0.0003 CP, but since minor conversions like that will be completely inconsequential even in the future, we hope you forgive us if we use rounded up numbers instead of writing 'Darius had 1.8397 CP left'.)
Seeing as he was now done with his experiments, Darius paid attention to another issue he had put off in order to focus on his travel, which was hunger. Ever since he had woken up from nothingness yesterday, he hadn't taken a single bite out of anything.
He had only drunk the Pure Water, and while that had staved off fatigue and hunger greatly, it wasn't a permanent solution, especially since the water had lost most of its active effects and long since shifted into a passive one.
Then again, this was why he had attempted to skin and butcher the Grey Bear in the first place. Darius found a nice tree off the side of the footpath and sat down beneath it.
The wind was lovely and the air was crisp as could be. After taking a short rest since he had walked quite a distance with his young body, he had to sip on the Pure Water then lie down a bit to regain stamina.
Once done, he rose to his feet and began his next task.
It was time to learn how to cook.
Chapter 22: Chapter 22
Darius could make stuff like fried eggs, boiled eggs, boiled rice, and fry bacon or sausages, but that was truly entry-level stuff. His knowledge regarding cooking pretty much ended there, since he had usually left that task to either his personal chef or had gone out to eat at some fancy restaurant.
Darius scratched his head and moved away from the tree he had rested under. He made sure to pick up some dry wood from the area around its roots and bark, gathering them into a pile.
He found some stones and formed a ring out of them. He then dug out the center of it with his iron dagger and removed the grass, leaving only the bare earth. Fatigued once again, he took another short break before tossing the dry wood in the middle.
Darius then cast an Ember spell onto the wood, which instantly caught fire, saving him from actually getting the wood to light up, arguably the hardest part of creating a cooking fire. Magic certainly made one's life easier.
Once the fire reached a suitable level, Darius created a spit over it with a bunch of longer and thicker branches he had found. Now came another hard part…
Darius fetched sand from the earth around and concentrated.
[Would you like to change the handful of sand into a handful of kosher salt? This will cost 0.001 Conversion Points.]
Darius made the conversion. The dark brown sand became a pristine white mineral that every human who ate food worshiped, the almighty salt. Without this divine sediment, most food would taste like garbage.
One could make food without fancy spices by just using salt and still end up with a gourmet-level meal, whereas making a meal only using fancy spices could easily make good food taste like crap.
Darius held up the blessed salt and praised the gods in heaven that this sediment existed in Faust before placing a majority of it into his Inventory, saving only a smattering of it for his current meal.
In his left, he had spawned one of the cuts from the Grey Bear's meat. It was still as bloody and taut as it had been when Darius had cut it out, making him frown. However, he simply pierced it horizontally with a shaved and washed branch with enough thickness to hold the weight.
The moment the meat came over the fire, the blood dripped down and made a sizzling sound as it was quickly burnt up. Unsurprisingly, fire made by magic was far more potent than fire made from rubbing two sticks together really fast.
Darius carefully spread the salt over the meat after a lot more of the blood had drained away, using his hands to smear it over the fire. He should have probably done this before putting it on the spit, but he had dreaded the idea of salt mixed in with bloody meat.
After doing this, he carefully stirred the meat over the fire slowly, but his eyes weren't actually on the ingredient, instead they were fixed on his notifications, eagerly waiting for the one that would grant him the knowledge of cooking.
It took 5 minutes of continuous rotation of the meat for the desired result to appear.
[Congratulations! You have learned the skill, Cooking!]
[Cooking - Level 1 Skill
Cost: 2 Stamina per minute
Description: Prepare many dishes with a seasoned hand. The quality of all cooked meals is raised by 5%.]
Immediately, Darius stopped what he was doing as he felt the knowledge of the fundamentals of cooking assimilate with his mind. It was almost as if he had been a basic cook for years and had simply forgotten how to perform the vocation temporarily.
Once this was done, he tossed what he had been making to the side as he stood up. Darius wanted a proper meal, not whatever abomination would have come out of his amateurish attempt just now. He was aware that he could not get a meal like those he had enjoyed on Earth here unless he used his Conversion Points, but that would be wasteful.
He would have to be smart about his life in Faust and find a compromise between what was acceptable for his palate and what would be filling enough to carry him until he encountered civilization.
Darius smiled when an idea came to mind.
He took out his iron dagger and cut some sticks of wood into thinner versions with a flat end at the bottom and a pointed end at the top. After that, he cut the meat of the Grey Bear into smaller cubical shapes.
Darius walked over to a bush nearby and plucked some leaves.
[Would you like to change a variegated leaf into a fresh onion? This will cost 0.003 Conversion Points.]
Darius made the change. The leaf expanded and became a ripe, pink onion that looked freshly harvested. He wasted no time in shaving off its skin and cutting it into quarters as well, then taking the smallest sections of each quarter.
After carefully washing it using his Pure Water and then coating the meat with a healthy amount of salt, he was ready to assemble his meal: khebabs.
That's right, it was the best option Darius could come up with given his limited ingredients, Conversion Points, and acceptable palate. Luckily, onions existed in this world too, but he would need to add some more stuff before he could describe his work as done.
Darius assembled the khebab traditionally. One cut of meat, one onion, another cut of meat, another onion, and so on until there were five cubes of meat with four onion slices between them.
Darius had carved five small branches into khebab sticks, so he repeated the assembly for the others. Now that he had done this, he placed the sticks at an angle over the fire, sticking their butt end firmly into the earth.
He then poured some of his water into his palm.
[Would you like to change a handful of Pure Water into a handful of cooking oil? This will cost 0.005 Conversion Points.]
Darius smeared the oil over the khebabs gently and firmly, making sure to give them a nice coating of it. Sighing with relief, he washed his hand with the rest of his water thoroughly before creating some more of it.
With almost every done, Darius created his last ingredient that would perfect the flavor.
[Would you like to change the handful of sand into a handful of suya spice? This will cost 0.0012 Conversion Points.]
Sprinkling the reddish spice over the glazed khebabs that had been turned over about 3 times, Darius extracted them from the fire and inspected them.
[Sub-Saharan khebab - Consumable
Durability: 1/1
Description: A unique meat skewer that tastes as good as its smells. Can restore up to 2 points of Stamina and Health out of combat.]
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
27 Power
stone You may also Like
Paragraph comment