Re:Monster Vol.9 (Day 336 - Day 370)

Day 359

Today I spent the morning with Alchemist. Speaking of what we are doing, we are experimenting on how to reproduce the tastes from my memories. Normally the Sisters would be the ideal ones to approach if you want to reproduce the taste of a certain dish since they are the ones who are more experienced with food. But this time, the Alchemist is more qualified.

- This might seem abrupt but do you remember the first thing I ate since my reincarnation?

It was white, well-rounded, soft and fatty, and filled with plenty of nutrients. Yes, it was a caterpillar. From the cave that we once lived in, caterpillars were relatively easy to obtain by digging into the wall. I suddenly missed its taste, but after finding and eating one of those caterpillars, it had somewhat thinned in flavor, I mean, there was no depth to its taste.

Why is the taste different? I can only tilt my head and wonder.

However, if I were to really think back on it, it feels like the caterpillars I'd previously caught had about the same taste. At that time I did not think too deeply about how they taste or especially care because there were not many options to eat like there are now. The difference is much clearer now that my tongue has had more experience with food.

- I wonder why that is, exactly.

When I use the【Old Demon's Wisdom】that I had obtained from the old man goblin, it seems that Gobujii had made a dilution of a special poison, called【Goblin's Poison Arrow】to give to the caterpillars. Doing so adds a mellow taste to the caterpillar, it seems to become thicker and delicious just like trout. In other words, that means that what we were eating at the time was not an ordinary caterpillar.

If poison is required, the Sisters and Meal Hero would be outside of their areas of expertise. Although the Meal Hero is capable of making medicines based on the food itself, as one would expect, asking him for poison would be unreasonable. That's why the Alchemist, who excelled at its production method, was singled out.

Having in mind reproducing such a taste, I used a mortar made from Rembara stone that had a surprisingly long history as well as a【Rising Drug Efficacy】effect, grind up a liquid made from an "India" tree found in the Great Forest. Added to that were some kinds of poisonous plants which are native of this region, that had been left sun-drying for a few days. Among them were leaves of "Wild Anxiety Ansebi", roots of "Spinaceous Igurashisa" and fruits of "Real Death Isshimi". All of which were ground together into a paste.

In the clan we were born in, the【Goblin Community of Small Devils】, this magic item was something that the oldest person had to take over for many years.

Previously it was a product that Gobujii had chosen as his favorite, but ever since Gobujii passed away, nobody had used it, leaving it stored in a warehouse, forgotten. If you were to look at its effects alone, there are plenty of better items available so there was no reason not to store it in the warehouse.

For this time though, I think I will first try to replicate the product to that same effect, so I'll be pulling that item out of the warehouse and use it instead.

That way, we can just get to see how to raise its production efficacy many times over, so in the future there may be no need for it anymore, finding its end inside the warehouse. Anyway, I was there to advise Alchemist, and continue to occasionally help with the work.

Although I can work comfortably with the poison around me because it has no effect, I truly believe that, since the preparation is quite difficult, if even one mistake was made in the formula then it would've meant death for Gobujii. Anyway, it took a few hours of struggling while adjusting the concentration by pouring water in.

There were plenty of failures through our lack of experience, and we ended up having to redo it several times. The bastard of a poison was almost impossible for the Alchemist's processing ability to figure out, but she said that she was happy to try and at the same time I vowed to create a success and was apologetic. I did not want to end up with a failure.

As I became accustomed to the process, I finally felt as if I could figure it out - it seems like it did come out as a poison in the mortar - which is apparently referred to as 【Goblin's Poison Arrow】 - after collecting it, we reduced it to a certain amount.

【Goblin's Poison Arrow】is used afterwards, mixing it with just a sap of a highly detoxification solution poured in a mortar, as its poisonous contents are lowered. Then a white smoke rose from it while producing a *Fsshhh* sound.

I pulled the white smoke into one place using【All Creation】so that it does not damage the surroundings with its toxicity. We then proceeded to add water to the mortar.

Before long, the white smoke started gaining more momentum. The smoke decreased after a little while, leaving the remaining poison changed from a blue to a light blue. Reaching this point, the toxicity is weak, becoming a poison that is of little to no use.

In the meantime, several dozen caterpillars were dropped in. Slowly consuming the poison out of the mortar, the rapidly growing caterpillar blossom. When the poison is almost eliminated, I removed the caterpillar and gave it a quick wash using【All Creation】, then ate it off with a crunch.

Its *jelly-ish* *squishy* body provided a reasonable elasticity that was like a cooked shrimp, juicy and rich fluid fills my mouth. It would be inferior to the dragon meat. Not even winning out to other labyrinth ingredients.

But it does remind me of the old days, a kind of nostalgic taste. Since the procedure has been found, I think I will try to mass produce it and distribute them to everyone. Since it is likely that Alchemist will help with the mass production, we will have an easier time with it. Oh, but it really is a nostalgic taste.