Kentucky Fried...?
"Just drop it right in this drawer sir." Came the monotonous voice of the tired person behind the exchange counter.
Ryo rolled his eyes under his hood before pretending to fish around inside his cloak, just pausing to grab the monster stones he had collected from his Item Box and dropped them all carelessly in the drawer that popped out on his side. The teller on the other side of the glass pulled out the drawer on her end and sorted through the cores. To Ryo's surprise, it didn't take her all that long to calculate his dues, and she pushed the drawer back out, this time full of about 15,000 Valis.
Ryo just picked up the bag and turned his back on her before walking out, slipping the bag into his Item Box and picking a random road to go down. The sun was setting in the sky, and he wanted to see what the night life was like before settling in for the night. He leapt onto a roof and began walking across the rooftops in thought, watching the streets as he went by while looking for something to do. As he did so, his mind went back to his time in the Dungeon. Going all the way down to the 6th Floor on your first run really could not be said of many people.
But it was anticlimactic as it could get for one such as him. It was somewhat entertaining to see monsters that he'd never seen before but the novelty wore off. Battling cursed spirits in his books was so much more fun than what the first floors had to offer. He'd flicked a kobold in the head with little to no effort and just that alone had painted the wall with its brain matter, so that was something to go by. On the other hand, getting to study these monsters gave him some ideas on how to utilise his techniques better. He morphed his hand into that of a War Shadow's and smirked.
If the time ever called for it, he could take the shape of a monster provided he had a good image of it. Wolves and snakes weren't all that fun after doing it for a while.
Regardless, if Ryo ever did want to have a bit of fun while fighting, it was unquestionable that he was going to have to go much much deeper than how far he'd gone. Thanks to his foresight though, he'd marked the Floors with talismans so he could just warp to the entrance Seventh Floor the next time he wanted to go adventuring and continue from where he'd left off.
The Pallum had mentioned something about 'pits'. If he remembered correctly, pits were deep tunnels that could go through entire floors. If you had ropes and hooks or if you were strong enough to not break your legs, a pit could be an easy way of skipping entire Floors to do deeper, as a different means of descending further in the Dungeon than just the stairs that existed on ever Floor.
And as for the Loki Familia's discussion...well he simply didn't care. If other adventurers were in danger because of corpses of all things then that was their fault. The only really good thing he'd gotten out of this little trip were the monster parts he'd harvested...and of course the tad bit of cash he'd gotten. Though for someone like him, it barely counted as pocket money. Ryo calculated the 15000 Valis to be equivalent to that of perhaps 100 dollars. Of course, if he were to take the actual coins back home with him, they'd be worth so much more because of their gold content. But a kid like him who was rather used to undeserved wealth didn't really consider that much money a big deal.
Though it also made sense why adventuring was hard business. Great risk and little reward. You would have to be so much stronger and so much better to make a lot of money in a short time. It probably didn't take more than a week for 15000 Valis to be sucked up just for your daily needs.
But yes, he'd finally taken the first step on his actual intended journey.
His stomach growled a little at the thought of food and he decided then and there that it was as good a time as ever to test out his ideas.
Better than having to sate it than eating some poor unfortunate human who just happened to cross his path in his ravenous state...it had happened several times before, though that was mostly in his much younger days when he was not able to completely control his new impulses. He didn't want a repeat of the time they'd found the corpse of a young girl with a chunk missing from her neck stuffed inside the janitor's cupboard during his years in middle school. It had been most inconvenient considering the chaos that followed.
Though nobody ever did suspect the quiet little albino boy who was well matted and dressed up nicely by a rich and influential member of the local council and community. Naturally, suspicion fell to the lower class, those from the riff-raff and the bums of the streets. Only they could behave so 'animalistically and uncivilised' as had been among some of the descriptions of the event when it aired on TV.
Keeping an eye on the distance, he clasped his hands together and warped to the very edge of the city wall. Nimbly dropping down, he slipped into the shadowed canopy of the forest quicker than a shadow and started making his way to a clearing.
...
Once he reached there, he did as was customary of him and built a roaring fire as a temporary campsite. When the clearing was light enough, he tossed aside his cloak and a real excited smile adorned his face as he opened up his grocery system, sighing at the sight of the website-like screen popping into view and displaying an array of options for him to choose from. Immediately he went to work and bought a folding table and a camping stove which arrived promptly in a box for him.
After setting those out, he bought a pot for deep frying, along with a cutting board. Looking off to the side on a screen, he saw the system was offering a sale on spice assortment, which was really just one of those cheap little racks of small jars that barely had anything them. But he was just one person, so it didn't really matter and all. After that, he bought a bottle of peanut oil and set everything out in preparation.
Then, with some measure of anxious anticipation he pulled out one of the legs of a Frog Shooter and slapped it down on the cutting board. It was very large in size, and when pulled out to full length stood almost as tall as he. That was just the leg. Who knew how big the rest of the frog would be if the top half was still there? He stared at it as he ran his mind through different ways he could eat this before shrugging and just deciding on a simple deep fry.
"First we remove the skin." He said as he stuck a finger between the rubbery skin and the soft pink flesh. It was hard enough trying to pull skin off of a normal frog, but when a person with super strength was doing it...it was no surprise when he just tore off the whole thing. "Now to remove the nerves." He dug around in the cut end of the leg until he found something that looked like a long piece of white wire. Since the leg was severed, it was no difficulty to just yank it out.
It was important to remove these nerves from frog legs especially when they were fresh. Because once in hot oil, the nerve would make the leg flap about involuntarily and put you at risk of being splattered with hot oil, not to mention it was a waste of ingredients and a mess. Ryo threw it into the grass before lifting the leg up and holding it there for a second.
A moment later, the leg collapsed into perfectly cut pieces, like they'd been sliced by a sharp knife.
"Now for the marinade." He muttered as he turned his attention the spices. Buying a large jug for the next step, he began opening the spices he needed for this particular meal. After that, he began making the marinade.
"Buttermilk, pickle juice, cayenne, black pepper, garlic and onion powder, and then a generous sprinkle of salt." He muttered before whisking it up together. Grabbing a portion of the cut pieces of Frog Shooter legs, he threw them in and covered the jug with a plate. He then grabbed a bowl for the dry ingredients, and used the same spices as before for the batter, barring the buttermilk and pickle juice of course, and mixed them in with flour.
It would take about an hour for all of that to properly marinate, so Ryo decided to occupy his time with reading. After procuring a stump from a tree, he sat by the fire while immersing himself in the pages of The Mayor of Casterbridge. Just a selection from his grandfather's little library. Ryo had developed a bit of a bookworm habit in this new life of his, and when he wasn't cooking, refining his sorcery or just committing random murders, he would read as a means of expanding his vocabulary and his imaginative abilities.
It was also a good way to study the psyche of humans with this new perspective that had come with this new body. Sometimes when humans created the concepts of things as 'demons' and 'monsters', you'd find that in reality it was just them putting a face and a label onto those parts of themselves that they were afraid of. Embodying the cruelty and evil inclinations of humanity into the form of monsters made them more accepting of the wrong they did, and how they could abuse their free will to commit the most heinous acts ever, while all the while trying to maintain the moral high-ground.
Humans were such hypocrites...and the biggest hypocrites of all were so-called 'heroes'. One of the reasons why Ryo held both an immense hatred and intrigue for Bell Cranel, his ever bound anchor in this new opportunity. For Cursed Spirits were formed from human emotions and they were as anchored to humanity as a patient to a life machine. Remove their fears, and you lose the Cursed Spirits.
For that reason, Ryo had to make sure that his true Technique remained to have a reason for existing and that there never arose a need to use it in any world he visited.
...
When about an hour had passed and the fire was almost burned down to embers, Ryo fired a Dismantle into the trees before pulling the severed branches to him with gesture of his hand. Guiding them to the fire and providing new fuel, he turned his attention back to his meal and began heating the pot on the stove, filling it with just enough oil to fry all pieces of meat he had. Withdrawing the marinated pieces of frog from the jug, he dusted them good with the dry ingredients before dropping them into the hot oil.
For the next few minutes, nothing occupied the clearing but the sounds of frying and the smell of what would be fried chicken if people didn't know any better. When they were done, he took them out and placed them on a plate to cool a bit.
While those were cooling, he took out his pan that he kept in his shadows and put it on the stove to make the sauce. In went in a knob of butter with a generous pour of hot sauce he also got from the system. A touch of vinegar and a couple of teaspoons of soy sauce and he stirred it with a spatula until he was satisfied with the colour. He removed it off the heat for it to cool a bit and replaced the pot in the fire to double fry the meat. Once they were done, he put the sauce back on and mixed yogurt, cayenne and garlic powder and stirred until it was a nice consistency.
Americans should know this sauce very well.
When that was done, Ryo tossed the fried meat in and soaked them in the sauce before pouring it all on a plate and letting it sit for a bit while he cleaned up. He grabbed the pot of frying oil and looked around, unsure what to do with it before he caught sight of a giant termite mound a few steps away from the clearing. His face lit up with a smile, and a moment later a colony of termites were depopulated almost to nil by way of burning hot oil.
To clean up, he simply made a hand sign and his shadow opened up, pouring out a ton of water courtesy of one of his shikigami and just threw the utensils in for a few moments to let the intense water pressure clean them. Once they were squeaky clean, he dismissed the water and the shadows closed over the pot and pan, sending back to their usual resting place amongst his other tools. He cleared away any sign of his meal preparations before sitting down in front of the fire with his plate in hand, chopsticks at the ready, while inhaling deep breaths of what was on his plate.
Needless to say, the smell was quite appetizing...for him at least.
He carefully picked up the smallest piece, letting the majority of the sauce drip back for now as he wanted to taste the meat more. Placing it in his mouth, his teeth clamped down on this mouthful and the juices of the frog shooter meat burst out on his tongue, combined with all the seasonings he mixed in. For a moment he sat there unmoving before an expression of pure culinary pleasure spread across his face.
"Delicious!" He said to himself and he ate another piece, this time fully coated in sauce. "This exceeded my expectation. And if I must say, I have outdone myself good. This will definitely garner a good reception once it's out there." He considered for a moment fetching some Chardonnay to wash it down but decided against it as he'd rather appreciate this new meal in full.
When he was done, he place the plate on the ground and just drank water to wash away the grease in his mouth before staring into the fire. The monster meat definitely tasted like frog...but dozens of times better in both depth of taste and juiciness. For something to be so flavourful yet still retain a degree of mildness was unbelievable. And that had been from a simple deep fry...who knew what else this could lead to?
Ryo took out a notebook from his belt and began jotting notes down before flipping it closed with a loud snap. Two monster dishes so far had proved astounding. Now that he was in the thick of it, he had to move on and see what else he could cook up with monster flesh. At last...he would fulfil his self-given purpose which he'd wished for but had never gotten...
To cook!
---
"It seems I chose to enter the city again through the wrong entrance." Ryo muttered as he looked around his settings.
After his meal, he'd blasted away his camping area with a short burst of Red, and had gone flying around to enjoy the cool night air while admiring the landscape. It helped his meal and his mood settle better. He'd flown all around the outside of the city to finally determine how big it was...and safe to say it did have quite some size to it for a medieval city. But perhaps it was because of its nature...the capitals of other countries could not possibly be this big.
He'd flown over the wall again in a random location because he wanted to do a bit of sightseeing, to see what the city life was like at night...and he'd ended up in a very exotic place indeed.
If the hazy pink lighting of most doorways and the strong scents of lustrous perfumes didn't give it away, then the salacious grins of the many women greeting men at those very doorways paired with their attires gave it away. Ryo cringed in disgust as he turned away from the sights and the stench of hormone driven men who would waste their wealth in being entertained by such feral filth as these women. He closed his cloak around himself and walked through the streets with his head slightly down as he avoided looking at people.
It was one of the few times he cursed his enhanced senses because while he may not have been looking at anyone, his ears could pick up every word that was being said by the people around him and the kind of language they were using...it was so full of carnality that he considering levelling the entire area. But it was best for him now that he he didn't draw any large attention to himself. And it was not like he would have as much ease as simply destroying a district full of regular people.
This was the red light section of the entertainment district...the operating grounds of the Ishtar Familia and as such was not an ideal area to stir up trouble. He finally saw himself coming to the end of that section and the hazy lights began to fade when a voice called out to him from an alleyway.
"Hey there." A sultry voice said and he came to a stop knowing full well that he'd been addressed.
He cast his eyes over to the alley he was passing and watched as a scandalously clad Amazon walked out with a finger on her lips, blinking at him with painted eyelids as she posed with one hand on her hip.
'Manners maketh man' as his guardian used to tell him, and given that whether he liked the old skeleton or not, he had a debt towards the man who raised him. A debt that couldn't really be repaid, so for the sake of that due, he spoke calmly and politely.
"Can I help you with something?" He said quietly.
"That's exactly what I was thinking about you." The Amazon said as she grew closer. "You don't look all that happy you know. It's not really good for our reputation if someone leaves here without their frowns upside down." She cocked her head to the side as she lifted a hand and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "So, maybe it's you really that needs helping. What's wrong? Couldn't find company tonight?"
"I wasn't looking for any." He said with a bit more forcefulness to his tone. The Amazon however misunderstood him.
"Couldn't catch anything huh?" She smirked as she looked at his features.
His pale, silvery white hair which sparkled under the moonlight that shone through on him between the opposite two buildings. His blood red piercing eyes which seemed to glow from the folds of that cloak and his razor sharp features were quite an unusual sight. Not to mention he was very intimidating in both his air and his expressions. She could understand why her sisters wouldn't really take him on, since he looked quite unusual. He was a scary looking man...
...just her type actually. Just the sight of him was making her excited. Not to mention, her Amazon instincts were telling her that he was strong...very strong.
"Well then." She held up her hair as she raised her arms, accentuating the shape of her figure as she stepped out further. "How about I accompany you for the night?"
"You do bad for your reputations by yourselves if you cannot understand the concept of 'no'." Ryo said grimly. "Why are you insisting?"
"You're the one who needs to explain himself better." She said. "After all, why would any man come to this place except to find the company of someone like me?"
Ryo said nothing as from a point of view she was right. There was only one reason for men to come to this place...men who had not accidentally stumbled into this area that is. But how was he going to explain? The moment he did so, he knew he would start looking like an idiot making excuses to that woman's eyes which was something he would never tolerate. Nobody would ever think in such a way about him. It seemed there was only one way about this...
"We get guys like you all the time around here." The Amazon said as she walked right up to him. "Tough guys who can't find what they seek and then just leave all moody and stuff. You don't have to explain anything to me. I've got plenty of experience with guys like you...so let me just take care of you alright?"
She stretched out a hand to touch his broad chest, the way she knew men liked before she would trail her fingers upwards to touch that sharp chin. But as soon as her fingers were a few inches away, she felt a strange sensation as her feminine digits touched something around Ryo that made the air ripple and wave about.
"Huh?" She cocked her head in confusion as she tried to push further. She couldn't feel anything physical blocking her way and yet she could see that she was coming nowhere near him. She looked upwards to be met with a completely different set of eyes than the one she'd seen earlier. Instead of blood red eyes, this time she was met with eyes that were actually glowing for real this time, only they were a dazzling blue, like stars swimming around in a vibrant blue sky.
That was before some sort of invisible sharp force smashed into her forehead, stunning her before another shot was placed to her heart and she didn't even feel herself flying backwards and hitting a wall inside the alley she emerged from as she slumped downwards. By the time she'd registered a sharp pain inside her chest, her last breath had already left her lips. In addition to being a night entertainer, she'd also been an adventurer and yet even those had not saved her from this fate.
To an outsider, they would see only a large imprint on her forehead before a very large dent in the left side of her rib-cage where her heart would be. What Ryo had done was use a very fine focus with these particular set of eyes and fired pure cursed energy with no Technique involved. First he'd targeted her forehead to stun her so that she made no noise when he delivered the second invisible and much more powerful knot of cursed energy right where her heart was.
The organ exploded inside of her chest as she was sent flying backwards and her body hit the wall, the sound being drowned out by the chatter and the music coming from behind him. Only a few seconds later did blood begin to pour out of her nostrils and her mouth and other orifices as it pooled around her. But by this point, Ryo was long gone and anybody that would find her eventually would not come to be aware if it for a long while yet.
When her corpse was discovered eventually and much later, the culprit was fast asleep back at the Gate Inn.
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