Chapter 112: Chapter 109: Live Cooking Show of a Certain Hot Pot

「Yoosh, Let's do this!!」n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

To begin with, let’s start with creating the overall structure and foundation of『Witch's Kettle』 with clay. I don’t think that I would encounter any problems during this stage. After all, thanks to 『Vile's Claydoll』, I’ve become something of an expert when sculpting with clay. Clay was an easy enough material to work with, it was accommodating and an forgivable medium, the only thing you had to look out for was the structural integrity of the piece and controlling your strength. With my high skill level, making a pot should be child’s play. I slowly wetted the clay in order to give it more flexibility so I could mold it into the shape I desired. The cool material moved underneath my deft hands, molded into the basic form of a pot. After I had finished that step, I continued the process, lightly engraving the bottom of the pot with the formulae I required. I was careful to not damage the shape I had molded since the material was still very pliant.

「Yup…this is it.」

I drew the magic formulae with a branch from a fairy walnut tree. The magic formulae was drawn exactly as the one that appeared in my mind.

The letters that comprised the magic formulae were what you would call archaic. The letters didn’t bear a resemblance to any other language I knew- the ancient language didn’t look like chinese characters, alphabets or even hieroglyphs. Rather, I concluded that it was more like a collection of pictorial symbols than alphanumeric letters.

The appearance of the magic circle was completely different to that of the curse mark that was branded onto the palm of my hands. It felt like drawing the yin-yang symbol over and over again. [TL : Taiji symbol?]

After I drew the magic formula completely, I chanted the spell in a deep, steady voice.

「Open, 『Witch's Kettle』.」

Immediately after, a swirling, obsidian black mist began to creep around the ground, gradually enveloping the bottom of the pot. The tendrils of mist writhed through the air in a chaotic fashion when I had invoked 『Vile's Clay Doll』 . The slightly misshapen pot took on the form of a dark pewter cauldron in the blink of an eye.

I circled the object one, giving it a through inspection. I marveled at the mysterious material that it was made of. When I touched it, it felt peculiar, it had a strange and unique texture that I couldn’t exactly put my finger on. It didn’t feel like either metal or porcelain and it’s surface was neither hot nor cold. It certainly piqued my interest.

Although I didn’t make it with clay, the lid was made of the same material. I cautiously opened the lid, my curiosity was nearly unbearable at this point, warring with my instincts of self-preservation.

Removing the lid revealed the bottom part of the pot, covered by swirling chaos. It felt like a flickering illusion- one moment you could see the bottom and in the next, it was once again obscured. Was it actually an optical illusion?

「I wonder what exactly is it that this pot can do…」

It came out kind of mediocre. It was alright but, it didn’t give out any particular reaction. The experience was definitely anti-climatic since it appeared as if it was the kind of curse that materialized and stayed put in one place. It didn’t budge even a bit.

「Anyway, I guess I should begin with most familiar one.」

『Witch's Kettle』Now that I was familiar with it and recognized its form, it was time to decode its function. Let’s start experimenting with this. I planned to make ointment with the 『Witch's Kettle』, which would be an efficient method to see how exactly it worked.

「Fakelion's leaves.」

I found them scattered all around the floor of the dome forest as I made my way to the Fairy Plaza. I had gathered them into bushels and stored them in my inventory. I rummaged within my bag for a bundle of the leaves and threw them into the pot.

「Fairy walnut's leaves.」

「GA!」

Now, these leaves were extremely common. Luckily, they could be found anywhere in the Fairy Plaza, so I had requested Rem the first to begin procuring these leaves. As usual, she worked fast and efficiently. The ingredient was ready in a jiffy.

「The bloom of the White Flower.」

「KISHA!」

While I had asked Rem the first to collect the Fairy Walnut leaves , I had delegated the task of acquiring branches which had the White Flower sprouting with them to Arachne Rem. It wasn’t a very difficult task since these too could be found sporadically throughout the Fairy Plaza. I glanced over the gathered branches and immediately started plucking off the blooms of the flowers. The actual flower was the only thing I needed in this recipe to complete it.「Mix those ingredients together and――」

The cauldron bubbled and boiled after I had tossed all the prepared ingredients into the pot. I began to stir the mixture using one of the left over branches from the fairy walnut tree. It was easier to use that rather than a pestle due to the depth of the cauldron. As I continued to gaze at the contents of the pot, it almost looked like the swirling chaos at the bottom of the pot was churning faster and faster with every second that passed. Also, it seemed like the volume of the mixture of ingredients had drastically reduced. How strange!

「UWAA, t-this is!?」

A dew

「Could it be that it'll automatically complete the process!」

Amazing! This skill is just wonderful, it’s so efficient and practical. I almost started daydreaming about all the situations it could be used in and what processes it could help speed up. Yes, this curse will definitely make my life so much easier! With this, I had finally reached Takanashi Kotori’s『Alchemy』 skill which could automatically finish the process.

「….I’ve got it. I’ve got it now, Ruinhilde-sama.」

『Witch's Kettle』：Literally, it was just a witch's kettle, definitely not a cooking tool- a tool of chaos to create poison, curse, or magic. At glance, it look like a normal pitch black kettle but… This was in fact an all-purpose cooking device in one. At first glance, it looked liked a normal pitch black kettle however…this was in fact an all-purpose cooking device in one vessel.

The process was mind blowingly easy. You just needed to throw in all of the ingredients and voila! The ointment was completed by using this skill, taking only the short duration of three seconds. Now, let’s look at the finished result, it looks quite syrupy doesn’t it? The difference was extremely visible when compared with the hand made version. The viscosity of this ointment was much higher, it almost resembled a jelly that you could easily smear onto your wounds. Additionally, with this tool, you could finally kiss goodbye to the relentlessly annoying task of performing the manual labor to make these products. The muscle ache from making it last time had made my body throb in pain for a whole week, it was so vivid that I could almost imagine it now. This tool also packed yet another punch- even the difficult to deal with, hard and unyielding shell of the fairy walnut seemed to be taken care of just as easily as it handled all the other ingredients. For this cauldron, using such a difficult ingredient was a piece of cake! Let’s throw some of these fairy walnuts along with their shells and let the pot do its job…just like that, those irritating shells got crushed to smithereens in a matter of seconds!

The best part was that its functions aren’t limited to just acting as a mixer. Now, let’s pour the icy cold water drawn from the fountain nearby into the waiting pot. We’ll wait for a while and…done! The water had boiled in the blink of an eye. Whoops, I guess it's still too early to be surprised, after all, there were still many functions to explore. Now let’s experiment once again, if we wait for three seconds…voila! The boiling water has frozen! I couldn’t believe my eyes- this pot had frozen boiling water at a moment’s notice.

Yes, rapid heating and freezing was possible as long as you had purchased this magical pot. Moreover, you could also use this pot to make dried provisions or fill the pot with different kinds of wood chips to create a huge variety of smoke. That would turn it into an instant smoker! Wow, could you imagine the flavor of the meat using that technique?

Grind, dry, smoke, cooler, heater, stew, broil…every single cooking method could be made in just a few moments with very little consumption of mana, all available in just this one magical pot! This 『Witch's Kettle』was truly a revolutionary cooking tool, your best cooking partner. Moreover, if you place one order of this pot right now, you'll――

Oops, my mistake! Although I definitely got sidetracked midway through the process, now I fully understand the magnitude of the skill of this pot. Its performance was absolutely spectacular.

「No, that's understatement, this pot is truly a marvelous item…」

I mean, this pot was so amazing to the extent that I was confident that this item alone was enough to help me cook for myself throughout my entire lifetime. There was no doubt in my mind that it would last that long, after all,this pot was a piece of cookware fueled with mana.

「This is basically the same kind of cheat like 『Alchemy』.」

Reproducing various cookery effects using mana was an extremely tedious and challenging task, even with the most current technologies to help out. However, lo and behold- I’ve received a power similar to the creating power and ability of『Sage』 which could create something with only a mere magic circle and a spell. Yes, exactly like how Takanashi Kotori could create 『Red Knive』 as long as she has the foundational weapons and monster materials.

However, even I couldn't make the enchanted weapon using my 『Witch's Kettle』. This pot was only a way to avoid the mixing by hand phase in the process of frug creation that I was doing. Even if I had all the necessary ingredients for making my frug, one small mistake could cost me everything. It was a very volatile process, even a tiny misstep during the mixing phase could result in failure.

Things were different now that I had such a smart tool in my hands- such complicated mixing processes could be ignored and the result wouldn’t suffer even a bit. The output would be as good as before…yes, this skill must be regarded as a mandatory skill for my vocation as a shaman particularly.

「Well, whatever…Imean, this pot is made with an automatic claydoll forming function, so…I'm sure that I can create both poisons and drugs as long as I have knowledge of the recipes.」

Nevertheless, it took me a few minutes to cheer myself up and regain my mood which had fallen from my sky high expectations. Somehow, I was expecting super convenient alchemical abilities from my pot. I was certainly a bit disappointed but there was no way I’d let my bad mood drag me down and loom over me forebodingly like a dark thundercloud.

「Oooh, such a nice aroma!」

Steam rose enticingly from the pot in dancing tendrils as soon as I took off the lid. Inside the pot bubbled a light brown creamy soup, the oily aroma of the soup was tickling my nose.

It turned out great.

I scooped out some of the content of the pot with a makeshift ladle made by combining the branch with Goma’s wooden bowl like thing.

「――Uhm, so good. This is even more delicious than grilling it.」

That was the impression of my first ever great boar's botan nabe, a Kyoto nabe which used the wild boar as the main ingredient.

Today, I’ve tried cooking with this almighty piece of cookware which was called the『Witch's Kettle』. I've tried looking around the dome forest for the other ingredients for this botan nabe. The result was edible wild grass and giant shimeji mushroom-like mushrooms.

Thus, I’ve completed the first ever “dungeon botan hot pot” with grasses, mushrooms and great boar as the main ingredients.

The result was just mediocre since hot pot was the kind of dish that even someone who was as unskilled as me could make as long as they had the ingredients and the knowledge. Rather, if it was Mei-chan making this instead…I think she wouldn’t even need the 『Witch's Kettle』 to be able to make botan nabe leagues more delicious than the simple one I had attempted to make.

「This is truly a convenient tool since I can just freeze the leftovers to enjoy later.」

Although I didn’t go overboard with the amount I made, there was still a decent amount of leftovers remaining after I finished my meal. I was a small eater, so over half the hot pot was remaining, I froze the rest as I maintained its temperature at 0 degrees. Since I didn’t have a thermometer, I adjusted the temperature exactly the moment before the water solidified into a block of ice.

While it's true that both freezing and heating consume mana, but the amount is miniscule. Moreover, the vessel could maintain constant temperature without any need for me to keep focusing on it as long as I continuously poured a small stream of mana. That’s why I just need to pour a tiny fraction of my mana reserves into the pot to maintain its current temperature.

「Yosh… I guess it's the time to create poison.」

Three days had passed since my arrival in this Fairy Plaza. I spent those three days testing various things with my 『Witch's Kettle』. Now I continue to make the preparations to continue my journey into the deeper part of the dungeon.

That’s why I was exploring the huge dome of the forest that was surrounding the plaza, foraging for herbs or poisonous plants. Though no amount of time was enough if I worked at it all by myself, I believed that I made considerable progress with both hunting and foraging thanks to the aid provided by Rem the first and Arachne Rem.

Especially, Arachne Rem’s thread was a great asset, it was an extremely versatile thread since it could capture a demon alive.

「KISHISHI.」

「Ah, welcome back.」

Speaking of Arachne Rem, she just got back from hunting. Everything went well on her side. She was dragging along three cocoon of today captured prey. I saw Goma=like black feet proturded from inside one of those cocoon.

「Yup, today harvest is also satisfying.」

「SHAAAA!」

When I brushed the this nice girl, Arachne Rem let out an indistinguished groan between happiness and anger. By the way, the place I'm brushing was her boobs-like part on her chest, but since it was covered with hard shell, it's more like brushing metal than caressing boobs. I assure you that this isn't me sexually harassing Arachne Rem, this is just an act to satisfy my intellectual curiousity.

「Welcome to the hidden laboratory of shaman, Goma-kun….」

I said so with mad-scientist like tone to the Goma who desperately trying to break free from inside the adhesive cocoon.

I've completed the prototype of the poison in the first day I arrived in this plaza. The result was salve poison that could easily mixed with others though.

I've prepared three kind of prototype poison for today test.

『Arachne's Poison』：Poison secreted from Arachne's fangs. Though it was useless against me, it could paralize the other hunting target of Arachne.

『Yellow Frog's Poison』：Maybe similar with the paralysis poison used by Yokomichi Hajime. It was similar with the poison secreted from that yellow frog's outstretched barbed-tongue.

『Spirog's Poison』：Poison made from the combination of Arachne's and yellow frog's poison.

Let's test the effect of these three poison on that Goma. It might be better to lower the dose till non-lethat, or else I can mixing it and double the dose bit-by-bit to increase the effect of the poison. Though there's so many things that I wanted to test such as the effect of the poison in cool temperature or hot temperature, or when combined with others ingredients, I've to test these three prototype first.

「Nevertheless, it feels like human experimentation….」

I asked Arachne Rem to make a giant spiderwebs wall in between the trees outside of the plaza and placed my guinea pig on it.

Before I began my experiment on Goma-kun, I crucify the poor guy in "大"-like shape. Despite it's attempt to resist while shouting  "Mugamuga" or whatever it is, it couldn't break free from Arachne's binding.

I feel a little bit sorry for the poor Goma but… Well I guess the same could be said to you guys who attacked as soon as you find me, these guys had eaten one of my classmate too so I guess power is justice. My bad but, we human won't be able to live in peace with you filthy Goma ever.

Even now, I won't hestitate to turn this Goma into my guinea pig. Thus, I calmly started my human experimentation-like activity with testing the effect of paralysis poison.

The process is easy. I just need to put a little bit of that poison on the tip of my knive and made a small incision on Goma-kun skin with that particular tip. Now I need to observe the effectiveness of this paralysis poison. Then I'll improve the one which show its effect immediately.

Please, worke out. Goma's arms made a crunching sound as I prayed in silent.

「Mugu, gumumu, GUMOAAA――」

Three days had passed since the first test of the poison.

「… Yup, I guess I've completed it for the time being.」

I finished the refining of paralysis poison which show instant effect and suitable for live combat. Well despite talking big like that, the poison already strong to begin with, all I did was making a slight adjustment.

『Spirog's Paralysis Poison』：Poison from Spirog's poison as its base mixed with flambeau's oil, powdered mandragora, basilisk's powdered bone, and a little bit of my blood. A drop of It was lethat enough to knock out a goma.

Though it takes sometimes to manufacture it and gathering the ingredients, the result was a potent paralysis poison.

One small wound from a knive that coated with this poison was enough to instantly incapacitate the small fry like Goma and Red dog. Rather than convulsed like when afflicted with normal paralysis poison, the victim of my paralysis poison instantly fainted with their eyes wide open, stunned till they couldn't as much as moving their muscle.

I mean, that Spirog's poison was strong enough to paralyze a charging Great Boar. Thus, I can expect it to work on the Basilisk's class boss.

Nevertheless, my blood, mandragora, and sometimes Claydoll were were surprisingly versatile. Well maybe because the basic of all curses was the blood of its user. And no need to say about the famous mandragora. Picking it up was the right choice.

「I guess it's about the time to continue my journey.」

Before I realized it, I've been staying in this plaza for one week. I ended up getting too absorbed with my experiments or doing things like foraging the ingredients in the forest to refine poison, or making small articles.

I think I didn't waste this one week since I managed to create such splendid poison.

「My Blackhair Bind is also strengthened thanks to Arachne Rem's cooperation.」

I stretched out my hand toward the twitching gomaw who got paralyzed and crucified at the spiderwebs for the sake of becoming my guinea pig..

「Slice it――『Silverhair Severing』」

A flash of light sliced through the air for a moment, a beautiful single thread coiling around the Goma's neck and―― Decapitated it.

The steel wire-like thread that fired from my hand was 『Silverhair Severing』. It was a new branch skill of 『Blackhair Bind』 which I created by mimicking Arachne's finishing move, the steel wire.

Its power is as you can see. Just that single wire was enough to decapitate the Goma's head. Moreover, by injecting more mana in it… It'll become strong enough to decapitate the head of that Macho Goma.

Its quality was far apart from the feeble tentacles I created till now. Though it took a long time to cast and huge amount of mana. But that's only matter of my mastery over this new skill.

As a result, I've mastered the 『Spider Thread Bind』, the adhesive-type thread. The mana consumption for this skill is more than Blackhair Bind, but less than Redhair Twine. It's really versatile skill since it's instant cast type. It could be used in live combat by combining it with 『Spiderweb Twine』.

The secret that enabled me to create the derivate skill of 『Blackhair Bind』 laid in 『Witch's Kettle』. Frankly speaking, it have something to do with me tinkering the inside of the kettle. Or should I say that it's like the kettle itself speeding up the mutation of the Blackhair.

As I was expected, the change of Blackhair's form and nature would be easier with magic, in science term, you might say that magic has changed the moleculars arrangements of Blackhair. I have no way to proof my theory but, I know that I could adjust the change easily and quickly by using the 『Witch's Kettle』.

In a sense, what I did was remodeling old curse to make a new and more powerful curse. It seems 『Witch's Kettle』 was far more versatile than I expected.

「Well I guess I finished doing all I can do in this place.」

Curse, equipment, poison, then drug. I've nothing left to do in this place. It's about the time to leave this place――

「But let's have a good long bath in the bathtub and sleep before leaving this plaza.」

Recovering one's spirit is important too.

In fact I've noticed this fact in the second night after I arrived in this plaza that I could take a good ol bath in bathtub with hot water with this 『Witch's Kettle』. The bathing itself only took miniscule amount of mana but, using claydoll to make a jacuzzi-like pot was another matter.

The water is naturally drawn from the fountain. Fortunately, since the water was gushing out from higher place, from the foot of fairy statue, I can make use of siphon principle to draw water by placing the jacuzzi-pot on lower position than the statue.

Eh, from where did I get the hose you ask? the current me could easily use 『Blackhair Bind』 as makeshift hose. I left exhausted after experimenting for two hours.

「A~h, I'm rebo~rn」

After immersing my body in the hot water-filled 『Witch's Kettle』, I felt like I'm enjoying the paradise in this hellish dungeon. Yup, any Japanese will turn useless against a good ol hot bath.

「A~h, it'll be a true paradise if I can enjoy the bathtub along with Mei-chan and Randou-san.」

Fortunately the two of them aren't here to hear me saying my worldly desire. Being alone like this let me to be myself.

As a side note, my masteries over 『Spider Thread Bind』's nature allowed me to create a makeshift hammock. In some way, a good soft bed is more important that bath.

I mean, I always yearning to at least get some hammock for my bedding. And, as soon as I created it in accordance to my imagination! Psst- The matter about me rolling on top of it was the secret between me and Rem.

ANyway, thanks to 『Witch's Kettle』, I could enjoy living like a human again inside of this dungeon but…. Please spare me from spending my entire life in this kind of place.

Well, let's do my best starting from tomorrow, onward to another life threatening dungeon diving.