The Daily Life of the Late Bloomer Tamer - Chapter 17

“Good morning, Orto.

“Muu.”

As soon as I logged in, I rushed to my farm and found that the crops I planted yesterday are now ready to be harvested. It seems that harvesting the crops on the farm gives players experience in harvesting and farming. My level rose one by one along the way.

Today’s harvest was a ★4 crop. Yup, yup. It’s going well. I gave most of it to Orto and asked him to convert it into seeds.

“Okay, let’s mix the rest of the crop.”

The first thing I’m going to make is a portable food mixed with spinach. Now that I’ve grown it, I’ll have to taste it before I can sell it.

There are many “????” symbols in the list of recipes. Most are unselectable and are written in gray. This is an unlocked recipe. Once I have all the ingredients, they turn from gray to white and can be selected, although I had to cook them to identify the name.

I chose the only “????” that is in white then start the auto-cooking process.

I follow the instructions and cut the edible grass and spinach into small pieces on the cutting board. Then, boil them in a pot with water, and it is done.

Portable food can also be made by mixing, but I heard that the quality is higher if it is made by cooking.

While I wonder how the muddy liquid can turn into solid portable food, there is a familiar popping sound effect.

The tasteless and hard brown portable food turned into the dark green color of spinach.

“Hmmm, from the appearance, it doesn’t look delicious.”

If it had been a softer, younger leaf color, maybe I would have a different impression. But it is a deep, dark green color that made me want to say, “No, thanks. I’m full”.

The number of servings I can make at one time has been reduced from five to four. However, the effect had increased.

Name: Portable food (spinach flavor)

Rarity: 1 Quality: ★4

Effect: Restores the user’s fullness by 37%.

The percentage of fullness restored increased significantly. As expected, the quality increased as well. I used to have to eat shitty tasting portable food five times a day, but with this, I only have to eat it three times a day.

“Okay, let’s try one.”

I take a bite of the green portable food.

“Yuck. ……!　Disgusting!”

The taste is so bad that it pierced my brain. The synergistic effect of the spicy and bitter flavors made the food taste terrible.

“It tasted far worse than anything I’ve ever tasted…….!

I’d rather eat dirt than this. It is the worst taste I’ve ever tasted. I’ll never make this portable food again. I promised myself that.

“Yes, that’s right. I also have to feed Orto.

“Mu!”

I managed to ignore the demon’s voice that kept whispering [Let Orto eat it!] to me and took out the honey carrot juice.

I appraised it and found that it could be given to tamed monsters. It restores 35% of fullness, which is the same as portable food (spinach flavor).

“Looks delicious…….”

A horrible aftertaste lingers in my mouth. I just can’t stop looking at it. It looks more and more delicious.

“Mu!”

“Ha!”

Orto pulled my robe, and I returned to my senses. That’s right, Alyssa-san told me to give it to my monster too.

Although I am also tempted by the tasty juice. I’m a real person, and I can eat real nice food. This is a treat for Orto. Let’s give it to Orto before I get the urge to drink it again.

“Orto, I’ll give you this.”

“Mu?　Muu!”

“Oh, you’re happy?”

“Mummummu!”

After jumping up and down to express his joy, Orto takes the juice from my hand reverently. He looked as if he was receiving a certificate of commendation.

Then, like an old man drinking fruit milk at a public bath, he put his hands on his waist and drinks it down in one gulp. It looks so delicious. Orto’s face is usually expressionless, but now he’s smiling so brightly.

“I’m glad you’re happy.

“Mummumummu!”

“Oh, you’re going back to work now?”

“Mumumumumu!”

The effect is incredible. It’s as if I’m watching a fast-paced movie, and Orto is working at high speed right in front of me.

“It’s so different from when I gave him honey dumplings.”

I wonder if food can change the way we work, just like money. But I found out something good. It would be interesting to give Orto different kinds of food in the future. On the other hand, I’d like to see how he reacts when I feed him lousy food.

I wonder if this is related to the monster’s affection level, which is rumored to exist as hidden status?　If that’s true, would it be better to let them eat what they like?

“Well, I don’t think I’ll be able to give you anything as delicious as this for a while.”

I muttered to myself so that Ort would not hear. It’s a gift from Alyssa, after all. If you buy them at Alyssa’s store, they cost 500 G each. I can’t afford to buy them every day.

“Get back on track and do the next mixing.”

What I can make with the materials I have now is a wound potion and a low-grade potion.

“Let’s start with the wound potion.”

I’ll try to make a high-quality product. I’ve already made the wound potion so many times, I think I can make it manually. Well, what I have to do is the same anyway.

I mix the four wound medicinal herbs with the purifying water and mix them together slowly. Finally, I poured in some magic power.

” ★5? Seriously?”

“My mixing level has increased.”

As expected, the experience of creating a high-quality product is also high. My mixing level was raised by two levels at once. It may be because my level was low to begin with.

Name: Wound Medicine

Rarity: 1 Quality: ★5

Effect: Restores 15 HP. Cool down time 10 minutes.

It seems that even if the quality of the wound potion increases by 1, the amount of recovery only increases by 1. I guess this is why people say it’s only useful in the beginning.

But that is fine!　The important thing is that I can make a high-quality product!　As I thought, if I do it well, the manual mixing would produce a higher quality product.

“Well, let’s try something a little more creative.”

Unlike auto production, manual production is not guided by a system, but this gives the player more freedom. It is possible to make various changes by mixing ingredients different from the recipe or using different techniques in the production process.

And it seems that successful new recipes can be registered as original recipes. The idea of having one’s own unique recipe really tickles the nerd in me, doesn’t it? Let’s see what kind of experiments I should try.

They say it’s easier to just look at the bulletin board?　That would be boring!　It’s interesting because you have to think for yourself and experiment. Well, suppose you’re going to use something so rare that you’ll never be able to find it again. In that case, you can use the bulletin board or information brokers or whatever. But this time, I’m just making wound medicine and potions. Looking at the forums is my last resort.

There’s no guarantee that there won’t be new recipes or new ways to mix things in the final version. I have to try things on my own first.

“I think I’ll increase the number of times I stir.”

I put the ingredients into the mortar and started to mix them together with the wooden pestle. Usually, I stop mixing when the mixture becomes muddy, but this time I kept mixing until the mixture became smooth.

“Hmm, not good.”

However, there was no change in the wound medicine made from the ingredients. The result is ★5, but nothing has changed even though the stirring time was 5 times longer than usual.

“No, no, it’s only the first time. Next, next.”

This time, I would stir the ingredients until they are silky smooth, pour them into the pot, and boil them on the portable stove.

I’m not sure if it would be a problem to use cooking tools during the process, but it seemed okay. When the liquids had evaporated to a certain extent, I put it back in the mortar and poured magic power into it.

“What’s this?　It’s a wound potion, but…….”

Name: Wound Medicine Powder.

Rarity: 1 Quality: ★3

Effect: Restores 17 HP. Cooldown time: 10 minutes.

Side effect: dehydration.

I just made medicine powder. Until now, it always turned into pills. Is it because I skipped the water?　Moreover, instead of increasing the amount of recovery, it seems to cause a side effect called dehydration.

Dehydration is a condition that occurs in deserts and other places where your status decreases until you drink some water, and it actually makes you thirsty. Isn’t it more of a disadvantage if you get dehydrated every time you use it?　Though, maybe it can be used as a last resort.

“Well, I guess it is a successful experiment, right?”

Let’s keep working like this. My next idea is the opposite. I wanted to use a cloth to filter the mixed ingredients, but I don’t have a cloth. So I used the edge of my Azurite robe to filter it. I wrapped my robe around the blend and squeezed it tightly to extract the liquid.

My robe is now green and dirty. The durability value is also decreased. Well, maybe it will be restored once I recover its durability. Maybe.

“Okay, next is to mix it.”

Name: Wound Potion, Water

Rarity: 1 Quality: ★3

Effect: Restores 8 HP. Cooldown time: 5 minutes.

I see. This is a water potion. It’s a drinking potion in a bottle that I don’t know where it came from. The amount of recovery is reduced, but the cooldown time is shorter.

“Hmmm. Looks like there’s a lot of room for innovation here. Mixing is interesting. Next, I’ll experiment with lower grade potions.”

I gazed at the two wound potions registered as my original recipe with a grin and prepares for the next experiment.