Chapter 33: The Purpose of the Inn

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With delicious juice and food, the two happily filled their stomachs.

Finn, after the initial enjoyment though, started analyzing and even critiquing his own dish now.

He cooked the meat and judged it was finished just by the standards he knew from Earth. For example, the color of the meat, its consistency, and how it bounced when he poked it.

For the most part, it seemed sufficient and was even enough to create something decently edible, but Finn was a perfectionist when it came to food.

He reviewed the time he was cooking. On Earth, rabbit meat was lean and was very prone to being overcooked. This one had similar characteristics, but it reacted a bit differently to the heat.

He remembered when it first hit the pan, it didn’t sizzle so much as a hiss, almost like the surface moisture was reacting to something different under the flesh. The fibers tightened quickly under heat, just like rabbit meat, but the smell was less grassy, and a bit more… oily.

He had to ignore the spices he lacked, too, because these were just limitations he had to accept. That said, he ought to have gathered more seeds because it needed to be a bit more salty in his judgment.

Speaking of spices and condiments, so far he had salty (Purplestep) and Peppery (crushed sunberry leaves), and sweet (jams, syrups, and glazes from the fruits).

Someday, he’d create vinegar and soy sauce at least. Maybe ketchup. But those would need a few more ingredients as well as time.

Back to the dish—he thought as he took another forkful of the savory goodness—this meat was just shallow pan-fried because he was impatient to fill up his stomach.

Since it was a new ingredient, he didn’t want to waste too much time if he wasn’t a hundred percent certain that things could work out.

There were still so many ways to cook it, assuming he could get the right combination of ingredients. He could fry it, sautee it, and maybe even braise it and so on. He was feeling a bit tingly in excitement to try them all.

He should marinade it well next time. Or smoke it. Yeah, smoking would be perfect.

Then there was the mashed tuber. Unlike the potato, this one was a lot drier, which meant it was rich in starch but low in moisture. It needed more fat or something acidic to lift the weight. Perhaps…he should’ve used the oil from the meat and added a bit of the vine gel.

In terms of taste, it was more of a cross between a sweet potato and a chestnut. This meant that in terms of composition, it had more natural sugars, which also meant he could enhance its flavor by doing light caramelization.

He might not have gone to culinary school or nutritionist school—or elementary school, for that matter—but he knew about food science because of his obsessions.

He was, unsurprisingly, looked down on a lot for being ’uneducated’, so he had a lot more to prove than others.

Basically, most hours outside of work, for years, he spent on teaching himself these things.

He was not fond of reading, however, never was and never will. He mostly learned through videos like MeTube, Instantgram, and Taktak, as well as through listening to things like audiobooks. One of his habits back then was listening to nutritionist facts while he was cooking.

Sometimes, he’d find the reason why certain techniques were done that way, and perhaps gain insight into how to do things better.

Pang, on the other hand, was just munching in happiness. Both of his previous masters were pure combat types and couldn’t cook, and even if they hired people who could cook to maximize the kitchen, they couldn’t compare to this—and this guy had literally just encountered these ingredients today!

One had to know that the previous Innkeepers and their people were locals to that world. This guy had the disadvantage of being brought to a totally new one.

The Great Pang was actually quite impressed.

He wondered what else he could make…

If he could hunt outside and butcher monsters, he would. That way, he’d get a lot more food! Sadly, the Causality wouldn’t allow him. It wouldn’t be good for the Innkeeper’s growth anyway.

The two ate quietly in their own thoughts. After a while, Finn ended up watching his first customer in this world, and his lips twitched upwards when he saw how much he was enjoying it.

With the tension softening up, the two started to catch up. At some point, the topic ended up with his previous masters, and they spoke of what Pang could speak of.

He mentioned how the first master had the moniker of demon king due to his killing abilities. The second one, on the other hand, was the crazy soldier who could enter the alien mobs with his mecha— in what was practically a suicide mission — and come out unscathed.

“Both of your contractors were fighters?” Finn couldn’t help but ask as he sipped the juice. “Isn’t that a bit odd?”

“Innkeepers usually are pure combat types, actually,” he said. “You’re the anomaly, la.”

“What? Was that always the case? I mean, isn’t the system an inn-building one?” He mentioned that they knew combat before, but he didn’t know it was their specialization.

“Hearth-building, la,” Pang corrected, as if it explained the difference. At first, Finn didn’t get it, but when a thought came to mind, his stomach tumbled.

Why did it suddenly feel like an unwanted responsibility was looming over him?

“…why would the cosmos send hearths to those worlds in particular?” he asked, not sure he wanted to hear what the panda was about to say.

“Because people needed a place to rest in the chaos,” Pang paused, looking straight at him. “The type that needs a bit of… outside help to go through.”

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