Chapter 34: First Night in the New House

“The type that needs a bit of… help to go through.”

“Okay…what kind of ’help’?” he asked, handing more pieces of meat to distract him. Sadly, the bear just took the meat and went to the sofa, not answering him at all.

He sighed, rubbing his temple, and he just leaned over the counter for a while. He looked at the blue sky, and it was already darkening. What a pity he didn’t have light, but he’d just have to live like the olden people until he could get a core.

Anyway, it was said that one would get sleepy after eating, and it wasn’t any different with him. However, he still had one uncooked meat with him to deal with. In retrospect, he shouldn’t have killed it yet to keep it fresh, but that was too cruel.

While Pang said that the beasts here weren’t sentient, just bloodthirsty beasts, he wasn’t sure how it was for the other animals.

That said, he would have to treat the meat if he didn’t want it to go bad.

He had no fridge, nor did he have an abundance of salt, so he could only smoke-dry it. He looked at the oven with chimneys. He could perhaps keep the fire running and smoke them above the cooking area. This way, he didn’t have to set up a fire outside. Plus, since it was made within the kitchen, maybe it’d add some buffs too, even if it were just jerkies.

Thinking of this, he got back to work. He decided to marinate the remaining meat to get a bit more taste, adding an especially large amount of purplesteps, aka the salty seeds.

Considering the plant’s description, which mentioned that it was used as a preservative, this meant that it was really salt in the functional sense of the word.

If he were to theorize, the plant probably gathered minerals from the ground and it would collect in the seeds, but he was no botanist, so it was just a guess in the end.

Anyway, the best way to preserve meat without refrigeration was the dry cure, cold smoke, and then dry storage.

Doing it this way would only extend the meat’s life (assuming the meat here behaved the same as on Earth) for about 12 hours at most, but he shouldn’t be sleeping for that long anyway.

He cut the meat as thin as possible and rubbed the purplestep seeds—hereby just referred to as salt seeds—and hung it above the running fire. He added a few more loose branches and dry leaves to serve as fuel.

If he had the utilities running, this fire would never die down. For now, he had to feed it with fuel as much as he could.

Anyway, since he didn’t know exactly how much this particular meat needed, he just based it on Earth meat standards for now. He’d just learn the right timing the more he made.

If he judged this as Earth meat, then this thickness and cut would need a minimum of 2 smoking hours. During that time, he prepared the rest of the meat for smoking overnight.

If this batch worked out, then he could sleep in peace and leave it behind. Anyway, depending on the cut, the longer the smoking time was better.

He also decided to complete and stockpile his makeshift spice/condiment sets, making sure he had enough stock even if he had gluttonous customers, as he had with an inn spirit.

Two hours passed by in a flash, and he could finally take it out. Using the [Dish Analysis] skill he confirmed that the jerky, in fact, had been smoked.

[Low-quality Jerky (Unranked, Superior). Tough, dry, and roughly seasoned, but edible and can last for 45 hours before spoilage. A few grams can remove hunger for a few hours and give a few points of stamina, depending on the eater’s level and metabolism.]

“Wow, even such roughly handled food is borderline essence food!” Pang mumbled, though not without grabbing one to ’test’.

“Impressed?”

“I kind-of am, la,” he said between chewing.

Finn laughed. He might not be a fighter, but he could at least do this!

After leaving the rest of the meat to smoke, he finally decided to call it a night. The next step overall (as an Innkeeper) was obviously to activate the so-called [Hearth Market], but that’d need a customer, which was a bit out of his control at this time.

How difficult could it be? He was just in the middle of nowhere.

However, he was an optimistic guy, and since the system acknowledged it as a ’good location’ he’d brainwash himself that it was.

Anyway, seeing as there were no urgent time-bound missions, he decided to rest. He went to the toilet to do his business. It was a pity that there was no water so he had to use leaves and stuff. Fortunately, he was a hiker and something like this was no big deal to him.

Speaking of the toilet, it was… interesting. Considering the aesthetics of the place, he once feared that this was a completely medieval place and he’d either look at a hole on the floor or a chamberpot.

Fortunately, it wasn’t that.

There was a proper sitting toilet made of stone, in fact. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to sit in (especially since it was rough), but it was better than expected. There was even a shower, but since water was off, he had no way of knowing how effective it was.

He had asked Pang if the other Inns were like this, too. He couldn’t imagine how cultivation or the interstellar worlds would react to such a design. It was then that he found out that the technology shown in the inn was only slightly better than what was available in the current world.

This meant that there was at least plumbing, so he didn’t have to explain the concept to the locals, if and when he encountered them.

Finn entered one of the bedrooms, while Pang conquered another one, just because.

Each room already had a bed, a desk and chair, a nightstand, and a closet. It was really clean. He hadn’t noticed it before when he woke up earlier.

In the [Room], there seemed to be upgrades available too, but they were just softer comforters, pillows, as well as some customization options. The other upgrades, like most, were still [??] for him. He didn’t even bother with them though, simply because even the smallest thing was 1 gold! Not worth it!

At first, he was a bit reluctant to use the bed. He was still dirty, after all. Not to mention, technically speaking, the same regeneration effects were applied as long as he was within the room.

In the end, the bed was too tempting. He’d think about hygiene later. He deserved this rest! Comfort first!

He just took off the clothing and hung them on the chair of the study table. He didn’t even bother to get dressed, not wanting to waste the clean newbie clothing.

He had no water. He couldn’t stomach being dirty in body and in clothes. He left his boxers on, but not much else.

As he lay down, he immediately felt like he was sleeping on the clouds. A comfortable moan left his mouth, and his eyes turned heavier and he willingly succumbed to it, finally getting the most comfortable sleep he had in a while.

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