Chapter 139: Growth-Accelerating Fertilizer

He could gloat all he wanted; with delicacies right in front of her, Su You couldn't hold back any longer.

After washing her hands, she picked up a large sand snail and started eating. After just one, she found it hard to stop.

Because the sand snails had thin shells and thick meat, eating them was effortless. In just a dozen seconds, Su You had polished off seven or eight in a row.

There were only fifteen snails on the plate. Once she had finished half, Meike joined in.

However, his "dry rice" (eating) skills were clearly not as practiced as Su You's. Out of the remaining seven or eight snails, he only managed to snag three; Su You devoured the rest.

Despite not getting more snails, Meike wasn't upset. After all, Su You's performance was the ultimate validation of his culinary skills.

"I'll try out some other recipes. If they work, everyone can eat something fresh tonight." Although Meike wasn't a picky eater and had only been in the territory for a little over a day, he couldn't stand eating nothing but meat and berries every meal.

Back when he was a High Mage, he might not have had "delicacies from land and sea" every day, but he certainly lived well.

Only in the past, when his cooking skills were poor and he traveled abroad, did his rations look a bit pathetic. But now that he possessed top-tier culinary skills himself, how could a chef let himself starve?

Su You was satisfied after finishing the food. She glanced at the Sunset Flowers in the tavern, which were already budding, and reminded him, "That's all the ingredients we have for now."

Meike paused, and his previously rough handling of the vegetables became a bit gentler.

Su You continued, "I collected these this afternoon from the southern part of the territory. Based on my observations, that direction should lead to the sea. These are all specialties of the coastal region."

"No wonder I've never seen them before." Meike had rarely—or rather, never—been to a coastal area. Combined with his nomadic lifestyle of wandering to learn cooking, it was normal that he didn't recognize them.

"The seaside should actually have many more delicious ingredients, but unfortunately..."

"Unfortunately what?" Meike had a vague guess, but he followed Su You's lead and asked anyway.

"Unfortunately, the seaside is usually crawling with sea monsters." For example, Fishmen (not Merfolk), Water Turtles, Ice Snakes, Multi-legged Octopuses... and even Water Elements (also known as Water Sprites) that can use water-magic attacks.

While these monsters didn't have exceptionally high combat power, they shared a common trait: most were ranged attackers.

For instance, Fishmen attacked by throwing tridents. These tridents weren't physical weapons in the traditional sense, but were manifested from the Fishman's energy. After throwing one, they could use their energy to generate a new one immediately.

The Water Turtle's attack sounded a bit comical, but it was quite powerful. It fired high-pressure water jets using water stored in a specialized organ, similar to how a hamster stores food in its cheek pouches.

The Ice Snake wasn't strictly a ranged attacker, but that didn't matter. Its most dangerous trait was its toxicity. Even if it wasn't a ranged monster, if one didn't have the strength to kill it in a single blow before it could counter, the best strategy was always to kill it from a distance.

...

These were all monsters that could spawn by the sea. While they wouldn't all appear at once—usually only two or three types would spawn in the same area to prevent them from fighting each other—none of them were easy to deal with in the early game.

"...That does sound like a bit of a headache. Don't expect me to go handle those monsters alone." Meike was narcissistic, but he wasn't conceited. If he were still a High Mage, he would have swept them away with his staff, but as a mere Novice Mage now, he could only stammer in response.

"Don't worry, you won't be alone when the time comes." Su You planned to unlock the coastal map after the Dark Creature invasion ended. She was just giving Meike a heads-up so he wouldn't keep pestering her for ingredients later.

With fifteen snails per plate, she had only gathered 57 in total—enough for three plates and a small snack. Once they were gone, they were gone.

However, she had a larger supply of wild vegetables and seagrass, which required fewer ingredients to cook.

The recipe for Stargrass was one portion of Stargrass plus one piece of meat for a stew, or two portions for a cold salad. Hemp Vine and Green Silk could also be stir-fried using two portions per dish. By that calculation, she had enough for nearly a hundred dishes, which would last a while.

But having vegetables without rice wouldn't do. Su You prepared to go make some growth-accelerating fertilizer.

Fertilizers had grades; the higher the grade, the better the effect, and the more expensive the materials.

For now, Su You only planned to make Basic Growth-Accelerating Fertilizer. The materials were [Bone Meal *1, Ash *3].

Ash was easy—there was plenty to be scooped up from the Heart of the City fire. Bone Meal was made by processing bones at a workbench: [1 Unknown Bone = 3 Bone Meal].

There was no specific requirement for the type of bone; any bone would do. Skeleton-type monsters were the best source.

Su You had collected many bones while leading the team to kill Ghost Skeletons, and she had bought more when purchasing materials from the caravan. Checking the warehouse, she found she had fifty-three bones.

About a third of these were drops from monsters; the rest were purchased.

While taking the bones, Su You also dug out the ash collected last time. She took these items, along with some clay collected during her outing, to the workbench to begin crafting the fertilizer and a few other items.

**[Consume Bone 10 to craft Bone Meal 30?]

*[Crafting in progress: Bone Meal 3, Estimated time: 10 seconds]

*[Remaining: Bone Meal 27, Estimated time: 90 seconds]

...

Su You repeated this operation three times, placing ten bones in three different workbenches to maximize efficiency.

She originally had six workbenches, one of which was an Intermediate Workbench. After setting up the workshop, she had crafted four more, bringing her total to ten.