Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Discovering New Berries and Baking

Following the sweet scent, vines and leaves gradually began appearing on the dungeon walls.

'Could this be......'

Could it be what I thought?

Moving a little further, the source of the sweet fragrance was revealed.

A plant bearing clusters of purple, magenta, and green berries.

"I knew it — it was a grape-family vine."

It did not seem to be ordinary grapes, though.

The leaves and fruit shape looked closer to wild grapes — meoru.

"It looks like some kind of wild grape."

"Wild grapes? Are they edible?"

At Ria's question, I stroked my chin and said,

"Hard to say. Since they grew in the Rift, they could be toxic."

Rin bounced on her toes trying to pick the berries.

But she could not reach.

She turned to me with both arms outstretched.

"Pick me up!"

I lifted her up.

She studied the wild-grape-like berries closely.

"Rin, what do you think? Do they look edible?"

When I asked, she waved her arms trying to reach the berries.

"Rin will try one."

"They might be toxic, so you cannot."

"They're not."

"There is no toxin?"

"Nope, none."

"Hmm, then let me taste one first."

If Rin — a Dryad — said there was no toxin, there probably was not.

Still, just to be safe, I would taste-test first.

My Third Awakened body had resistance to most poisons.

I picked one ripe purple berry, peeled the skin, and tasted it.

"Hmm, it is sour and astringent. A hint of sweetness too. The aroma itself is nice. If properly cultivated, it could be quite good."

The sourness and astringency were strong from lack of proper nutrition.

The branches and leaves were withered from insufficient nutrients.

"Rin will make them grow."

"Want to try?"

"Yeah!"

"Then instead of the ones that have already grown, let us find some that are just starting to form and grow those."

"Okay."

We found berries that had just begun to set, and Rin used her growth ability on them.

As Rin concentrated the earth's Mana, the berries grew rapidly.

It never stopped being amazing to watch.

The berries grew and ripened to perfection in no time.

"Once she grows them, they are just like wild grapes."

Wild grapes had a richer flavor and more intense aroma than regular grapes.

So rather than eating them raw, they were better made into wine or jam, which softened the flavor and enhanced the bouquet.

I touched the berries.

[Dryad's Meloph]

[Taste & Rarity: A]

A grape-family berry called meloph.

I would just think of them as dungeon wild grapes.

Since there was no description of toxicity, it was confirmed to be nontoxic.

"Ria, it came up as an A-Rank berry."

"Really? I am curious about the taste."

"There is no toxin, so give it a try."

I picked one and fed it to Ria.

Ria ate it and nodded with satisfaction.

"Mmm, sweet and delicious. The aroma is much more intense than regular grapes."

"Is it?"

I gave one to Rin first, then tasted one myself.

"Oh! You are right — the aroma is incredible. It tastes like the finest wild grapes you could find."

No — even the finest would not taste this good.

It was A-Rank, after all.

If I made wine with these, it would produce a remarkably aromatic vintage.

Jam would also be delicious.

Rin's expression brightened as she tasted the dungeon wild grapes.

"Rin, do you like this dungeon?"

"Yeah! I love it! The best!"

I had been worried there would be nothing to show.

Well, there was at least one thing.

I was glad Rin was satisfied.

'I should still take her to the arboretum on our day off.'

Taking Rin to every famous arboretum in the country was one of my bucket list items.

We explored the dungeon further.

The dungeon wild grapes only grew in the eastern section.

The other directions had nothing noteworthy yet.

Just scattered wild grass here and there.

"Seon-u, I want to grow berries here."

"You want to come here and grow wild grapes?"

"Yeah. I want to farm wild grapes here."

"All right, but you must absolutely never enter the dungeon alone. It is dangerous."

"I knoooow. Hehe!"

According to Maxim, creating a dungeon meant monsters could appear at any time.

The reason was a monster called the Golden Goblin.

An extremely rare creature, it could open portals connecting to other Rift dungeons.

It would snoop around looking for things to steal, then leave.

The problem was that it often left the portal open, and during the days it remained active, other monsters could wander through.

That was how monsters came to inhabit new dungeons.

So there was no telling when something might happen, and I could not send Rin into the dungeon alone.

'Well, we have plenty of bodyguards at the Rift house, so it should be fine.'

Ria and I were there.

When we were away for restaurant work, there were the S-Rank trio and the knight quartet.

Of course, they also went hunting frequently on their days off.

But that was still fine.

Ruina, who had volunteered as a lady-in-waiting, was always at the Rift house.

And Bell, who could detect monsters, was there too.

With those two, I could entrust Rin with confidence.

***

Rin strolled through the dungeon, growing wild grapes and picking a bountiful harvest.

I began processing them in the Rift house kitchen.

I plucked every berry from their stems one by one and washed them thoroughly.

I put them in a pot, added a small amount of water, brought it to a boil, and mashed them with a potato masher.

I strained the mashed contents through a sieve twice to completely remove all skins and seeds.

I added sugar — about 10 percent of the juice volume — and brought it to a boil again.

'Normally you would add 30 percent or more sugar, but since Rin grew these herself, the sugar content is high enough that I do not need much.'

Once it started boiling, I added a small amount of lemon juice.

I continued boiling until the consistency thickened — and the dungeon wild grape jam was complete.

I set it aside to cool.

Then I began baking.

Watching me, Ria said,

"It has been a while since I have seen you bake anything besides pizza."

"True."

"What are you making?"

"Pie."

"Pie? I have been wanting to learn. I should watch closely."

"I will teach you as I go."

First, I combined 250 grams of all-purpose flour with 130 grams of finely diced unsalted butter, mixing until it formed a volcanic crater shape.

I poured 80 milliliters of cold water mixed with small amounts of sugar and salt into the crater's center and gathered the dough.

I kneaded it well, flattened it out, placed it in a bowl, covered it with plastic wrap, and let it rest in the refrigerator for thirty minutes.

After thirty minutes, I took the dough out, rolled it flat with a rolling pin, and pressed it into a pie mold.

I rolled the pin across the top of the mold to trim off the excess dough.

Using a fork, I docked the entire base of the dough inside the mold.

I generously spread the pre-made wild grape jam on top.

"Now I just need to cover it with a dough blanket."

"The lattice-pattern blanket, right?"

"Exactly."

I gathered the trimmed dough, re-formed it, and rolled it out again.

"Now I cut this into long strips about 1.5 centimeters wide."

"Ah, and you weave those strips in a lattice pattern over the top of the pie."

"Right. You weave them in a zigzag lattice like this, then trim the ends neatly. Done."

"It is beautiful. Baking is fun."

"It is."

Unlike apple pie, there were no chunks of fruit to bite into, but grape — or wild grape — pie was a delicacy in its own right.

Personally, I preferred grape pie over apple pie.

Before baking the pie, I made something else.

I cut a test batch of pastry dough into long strips, brushed them with melted butter, folded them into triangles like folding a paper fortune teller to create multiple layers, and tucked a small amount of wild grape jam into the triangular folds.

Once baked, these would become wild grape jam pastries.

Lastly —

'A vegan whole wheat bread with absolutely no dairy — no butter, no milk, nothing.'

A vegan bread for Rin.

I added whole wheat flour to a bowl and mixed in salt.

In a measuring cup, I combined warm water with yeast and allulose, stirring to dissolve.

I poured the liquid into the bowl, added a tablespoon of olive oil, and mixed well.

I lined a bread mold with parchment foil, placed the dough inside, shaped it, and sprinkled sesame seeds on top.

After thirty minutes of proofing —

"All right, time to bake."

"Okay."

I would bake them in the wood-fired oven.

I set the oven's fire lower than usual and placed the grape pie, grape pastries, and whole wheat bread inside.

While waiting for them to bake, Ria said,

"These are going to be delicious. Once they are done, let us call everyone and share."

"Let us do that."

"I hope the Blessing of Dexterity triggers too."

"Oh, right. I completely forgot about the Blessing of Dexterity."

"You were so focused on making them that you forgot."

"I suppose so."

Would the dungeon wild grapes trigger the Blessing of Dexterity like the Applecherry fruit wine and toast had?

I pulled the pastries out first after fifteen minutes.

The result:

[Master's Meloph Pastry]
[Blessing of Dexterity Effect: Growth Stat growth speed increased by 50% for 10 days.]

The Blessing of Dexterity appeared.

"The buff is a 50 percent increase in Growth Stat growth speed for ten days."

"Really? That is a great buff."

It was indeed good.

A 1.5x increase in growth speed.

Meaning muscle strength and flexibility would develop 1.5 times faster.

'This is basically a natural steroid.'

Of course, my own Growth Stats had already hit their cap, so training would not raise them further.

"Seon-u, you need to start eating the Royal Jelly food consistently."

"Huh......?"

"The Royal Jelly food raises your Growth Stat cap by one random stat each time you eat it."

"That is true......"

"With a 1.5x growth speed, you just need to eat it and train."

Recently, I had not been eating the Royal Jelly yogurt ice cream that raised Growth Stat caps.

I had held off because the Royal Jelly supply was running low and I wanted to save it for selling.

It was absolutely not because the stat-raising training was grueling.

'Nope, definitely not.'

Then why did my conscience prick me slightly?

In any case, it seemed I was about to embark on hellish training once again.

"We do not have much Royal Jelly left, right? Let us visit the Honeybee Queen again soon."

"Yeah, let us......do that."

Ria was brimming with motivation.

I was breaking into a cold sweat.

'The S-Rank trio will be the happiest to hear this news.'

They had been nagging me to raise my stats nonstop.

Twenty percent of my stats was, after all, their share.

The grape pie and whole wheat bread finished baking next.

The grape pie had the same Blessing of Dexterity buff as the pastry.

I brought everything outside.

"Woof!"

Bell had smelled the delicious aroma and was bouncing excitedly.

"Bell, go call everyone. Tell them there are baked goods to sample."

"Arf!"

Bell dashed off toward the outer forest.

Rin, who had been tending the orchard, ran over to us.

Ria scooped her up.

"Rin, Seon-u baked a special bread just for you."

"Wow! Thank you, Seon-u!"

She waved her arms toward me.

Ria caught the hint and carried Rin closer.

Then —

SMOOCH!

Rin planted a kiss on my cheek.

A smile spread across my face involuntarily.

So this was the joy of raising a daughter.

Garrett, Ruina, and Eriksson soon arrived from their quarters.

The Sword Saint was on guard duty at the restaurant outpost.

Santos, Benny, and Neville were out hunting.

So these three were everyone available.

"Seon-u, did you bake something?"

"Yeah, it is nothing fancy, but I called you over to try it."

"Wow, the pie is gorgeous. Much prettier than what I bake."

"You bake well enough yourself, Ruina."

Ria and I usually made breakfast together.

Lunch was handled at the restaurant.

Dinner was also a joint effort at home.

So despite being a lady-in-waiting, Ruina did not handle our meals.

She helped with cleanup, though.

She did occasionally bake bread or pie.

Her skills were quite good.

'She has been studying baking diligently to become an excellent lady-in-waiting.'

Setting that aside.

I sliced the pie like cake pieces and plated them.

One pastry per person as well.

I poured a glass of white wine for everyone to enjoy alongside.

For Rin, I sliced the vegan whole wheat bread and plated it with dungeon wild grape jam for dipping.

Rin picked up a piece of bread, took a bite of the jam-spread part first.

She chewed happily.

"Yummy! The bread is nutty. The sauce is sweet!"

Sweet — she meant sweet.

She had gone beyond simply saying "yummy" to using flavor descriptors like "nutty" and "sweet."

Truly remarkable progress.

Under Ria's education, Rin's vocabulary was growing richer by the day.

Eriksson was also impressed by Rin's expressiveness.

"Wow, the little one's got a way with words. She is picking up language fast, so she must not be slow on the uptake."

Meanwhile, Eriksson — a full-grown adult — still spoke like a rowdy teenager.

No amount of scolding from the Sword Saint had changed that.

But Rin took Eriksson's words as a compliment.

"That's right, Rin is smart!"

Her shoulders puffed up with pride at the praise(?).

She went on dipping her bread into the dungeon wild grape jam, eating happily.

"Please, everyone, try some."

"Of course."

"Thank you for the food."

They cut into the grape pie with a knife and speared a piece with a fork.

"Mmm, this is delicious! The jam inside the pie is amazing. The aroma is wonderful."

Ruina showed the most enthusiastic reaction to anything I had made recently.

"This is indeed very tasty."

Garrett also ate with satisfaction.

Eriksson was surprised by something else entirely.

"What is this absurd buff......? For Hunters who have not capped out their Growth Stats, this would be insanely valuable."

"Right. I have already maxed mine out, though."

"You can just eat that thing, can't you? The Royal Jelly yogurt ice cream. Eat it and raise your cap."

Eriksson said the exact same thing as Ria......

He added one more remark.

"Do not forget — your stats are our stats."

How brazen.

"You are really trying to get stats for free, huh? You have not even maxed out your own Strength stat yet, have you?"

"Ahem! Strength is not really necessary for me. I am an assassin class."

"There is no such thing as an unnecessary stat. Ria, if you are going to train me, train Eriksson too."

"What? That is a dirty move — dragging me down with you."

"It is. Consider it the price for trying to freeload stats."

Hearing our exchange, Ria laughed and answered.

"All right. I will train you both."

At that, I was satisfied with my successful attempt to drag Eriksson down with me.

Eriksson, on the other hand, looked miserable.