Reincarnation Of Audemars - Chapter 149

The fifth day for the interns had arrived and today I would need them to prepare certain cuisines that would definitely tickle our taste buds nonstop.

The menu today would be Black Pepper Roasted Pork with Brocolli, Cauliflower and Baby Kailan in Oyster Sauce for lunch. As for dinner, I would introduce Beef Stew with Potatoes and Carrots for dinner.

Midway for mid-morning snacks, I would have the interns prepare glutinous rice flour to make into a steamed pudding with a slice of Musa belle banana in the centre. It would be wrapped in banana leaves and then it would be prepared for us as well as the children in the Keating’s Day Care Centre. There would be a total of 250 servings that would be enough to go round for both sessions.

Then as for mid-afternoon snacks, it would be mashed tapioca, coconut gratings, some food colouring as well as some glutinous flour to hold the cake in place as it would be shaped with a brim of a cup and be pan-fried with a bit of fat that would be spread into the pan with screw pine leaves.

The list of ingredients had been prepared along with the recipe that notes of its measurements to make for a group of 8. It would then be multiplied accordingly to make for the 250 servings for both the Castle’s occupants and the children at Keating’s Day Care Centre.

Since the interns had 2 days of relaxing in the kitchen, it’s now to whip up a storm to make these desserts. The rest is up to them to create the stew and I showed the interns how to prepare the sweet corn rice. It was basically the same herbs and spices used but with a twist. A blob of fat was being used to stir fry the rice in a wok before ending transferred to cook the rice in a cauldron.

The rice, after being cooked had a yellowish tinge in them due to the spices used and there were heaps of sweet corn kernels in them as it was steamed together with the rice. One look at it would definitely whet someone’s appetite and the sweet aroma of the rice what wafted out from the steam filled the whole Castle.

“Sir, this is what you mean by cooking rice in a different manner?” an intern asked as she scoped a spoonful of rice in her palm and gently blew in it before she rammed it down her mouth. Hah hah hah…

“Yup, rice is not meant to be white steamed only. It is so boring after some time and you could even cook a whole meal inside it. It would be shown sometime later but in the meantime, you could do with these 3 cuisines and make a serving of 20 pax for the rest of us.”

“There will be lamb shank and chunks of fist-sized meats cooked with red wine in some light gravy until it becomes dry and this would be cooked together with rice that had been mixed with saffron to give it a yellowish colour and also the herbs and spices with certain leaves inside it.”

“As for this saffron rice, there’s no need to use the screw pine leaves but we use a lot of parsley and mint leaves, with cinnamon, cloves and the other ‘siblings’ instead.”

“The siblings that I mentioned are cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, Szechwan peppercorns, ginger, nutmeg, and liquorice. The flavours that you would receive from this would be sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami.”

There we a lot of note-taking and discussions among them in hearing the new cuisine that they would be undertaking. I explained that its a fusion of Chinese, Indian, Mediterranean and French cuisine all mixed together to make this fine meal.

Just the mention of the meal alone would make them salivate. Even as they were preparing the mid-morning snack, after they had successfully made the glutinous base for the ‘pudding’, I showed them an example of how to fold them into the banana leaves and used two wooden skewers to closed the two ends together.

A layer of each steamer basket could hold 40 of these cakes and we have an 8 layer steamer basket that could do the job well. In times like this, it would be good to train them to make quantities in order for them to prepare banquets that some nobles would throw every week.

Since it was lull period in the training grounds as well as the fusion chamber in the Realm of Mind is still duplicating the hundred thousand of weapons, I decided to head to the courtyard to do some light training. I changed to a red and black gi that I had bought in the Atelier on my last visit and put in black canvas shoes meant for sparring on unarmed combat.

“Wow…dear. You looked stunning in that pair of clothes. You really look like a martial artist.” remarked Patricia as she saw me sauntering down the stairs and into the living area. “I don’t look like a martial artist because I am one of them.” I chided Patricia and I went straight into the courtyard and activated the button to raise the 8 wingchun statues from the ground.

I set the wingchun spring to be the hardest because I’m not sure the effects of my kicks and punches as I’ve lately dumped a total of 11k points into my strength. I wonder what kind of damage rating it would do.

I went in the centre of the arena and went into a pouring stance where I would be one with Mother Nature and was watched by Prius, Rebecca and Patricia who sat in the shade under the awnings of the seating area.

“Your husband is really a remarkable man. Not only he is good in culinary but he is also proficiency of several weapons too. And he is also an unarmed martial artist as well?”

“Wow… In this era who would go against the enemy with just his bare fists and feet?” remarked Rebecca to Patricia as she watched how I was pouring myself on one leg and stood on it with almost 90% of my body weight.

“Well, it’s good to be versed in ranged, close combat as well as unarmed combat. Who knows he might train a team of pugilist as what he had informed me earlier.”

“Unarmed combat is used even with armed foes and the way he does it was quite a feat. He dodges and then attacks while keeping his distance away from striking distance.”

“That’s what he told me,” replied Patricia as she watched me making slow circular movements with my arms as I slowly became one with Mother Nature.

My body is the trunk of a tree and my limbs were like the branches slowly swaying in the wind. It was taught in Taichi as I slowly controlled the breathing and let my body move by itself as it became one.

I opened up my eyes and I ‘attacked’ the nearest wingchun statue some feet away. I moved two quick steps and made a lunged punch and then used the protruding arms of the statue to block using a palm heel strike.

The statue was shaking under the pressures of the earlier punch and it was making clattering sounds as it shook under its spring. A palm strike block was followed by an elbow strike on the other protruding arm and a reverse chop was delivered afterwards.

I moved to the next statue in two quick steps and delivered a sidekick, followed by a right kick using the same leg. A small jump was sent by my left leg in a reverse back kick and the statue was violently vibrating on it spring even though I had set it to the hardest.

Small indentations could be seen where my first punch and kicks landed thereafter and I was wondering how many kilograms were forced into each punch and kick. Frankly, these statues were being used to be made into knives or darts throwing practises as well as swords and daggers. I don’t think it would be fitting to be kicked and punched by me at all since its a dead target.

After 45 minutes of a series of kicks and punches, blocks and parry… I had completed the session and walked back to where the trio was sitting. “Do you want me to send some live targets for you? They’re the hoodlums from my house and they’ve got nothing better to do and you could whoop their ass anytime. They would arrive the minute I send word for them.”

Rebecca was recommending the two hoodlums from her quest and since they have nothing better to do, it would be best to hand them over to the to me as sparring partners.

“Sure, why not. It is been some time since I spar on a triangular formation. Send them over, I let the statue return to their normal position underground and those hoodlums could use there wooden daggers and swords and I would whoop their ass. Hah hah hah… ”

I agreed the moment it was suggested to me and when Rebecca summoned them, they came a short while later and changed their iron swords into wooden ones and wore padded armour to absorb the punches and kicks that they would be receiving next.

“What are their respawn rate?” I queried and Rebecca announced it was between 15 seconds to 30 depending on the injuries they sustained. “That should be fine, I’m just using my hands and feet. What damage would I be able to afflict to them.”

Unknown to Rebecca I had 11k points on my Strength, 13k on my Dexterity and 16k in my Constitution. I would really love to find out how much would a 25% strength of punches and kicks would afflict on them.

The hoodlums arrived and wore their turtle vest and armed themselves with wooden daggers, swords and also a staff that they had set aside. “Come at me at the same time and do not hold back…!” I called out to them and so the spar session began.

One of them had a wooden sword and was coming at me as he slashes down. I stood there unmoving as the blade nearly reaches to me, I sidestepped and held on to the wrist and used his motion to my advantage.

His arm holding the sword was pushed down in front of him, making him lose his balance and had thrown off his body weight forward. I grabbed his elbow and used gravity to make him bundle forward and he fell flat on his back. Still holding his elbow, I flipped my body and landed a knee strike downwards right in his turtle vest and let out a groan as my knee struck his solar plex.

“Ooommmpppfffhhh…I’M OUT…” he hollered as he clutched his body and dropped the wooden sword he was holding. One move, one hit, one kill.

The other one was smarter and tracked me with a series of blade attacks. Slashes, hacks and chops were delivered and I managed to evade and block every one of them. I saw an opening when he held the sword in both hands and swung it above his head to slash it down towards me.

I used a double overhand block that stopped his wrists just as he brought the wooden sword down. I smiled at his alarmed face and I grasped his wrist and twisted my body around. The wooden sword actually had blunt edges and top but when I brought the sword down in a downward arch, I bent his wrist and drove the sword past my sides and into his stomach.

It was a quick motion that uses his body movement and when the wooden sword was twisted and directed into his stomach, he had no way to avoid it and it was like performing a harakiri. That wooden sword pierced the turtle vest and went into his stomach and he let out a yelp before falling like a sack of potatoes on the ground behind me.

“Eh… Are you alright?” I managed to ask before he disappeared into starlight and respawn back 15 seconds later. “Sorry… Sorry… Didn’t mean to kill you with a wooden sword. Eh… I didn’t know my own strength, you ok to continue?” I asked out of concern because I don’t want to be in their books even though they are just NPC.

“A wooden sword with a blunt tip could penetrate a padded vest with ease?!?! What kind of demonic strength did you posses, Audemars?” asked Prius as he peered into me and tried to get an Insight on my attributes.

I unhide my attributes and he was shocked. “11k strength and you can already do so much damage? Those monsters out there in the Southern Wastelands have strengths 3 to 5 times of yours… 11k in strength is like child’s play.” Prius highlighted to me and I later discovered that there are traits that had been overlooked.

“Then how about the rest of the members who are doing the battle Quests in the Southern Plains?” I asked since I did not know the consequences of sending them there to perform their quest.

“God Help Them…” Prius simply replied and just stared blankly at me.