Breakfast

"Ah, up already?" Eisen asked as he stepped out of his tent, while Bree was already beginning to pack things up. She turned around when she heard the old man's voice and smiled at him.

"Mhm! I don't need to sleep much, after all, ~! What about you, did you sleep well?" Bree asked with a bright smile as she began to pack her backpack again.

"Yeah, I slept amazingly, actually." Eisen smiled and helped Bree disassemble the tents. And after they were done, Eisen had another question. "So, about today, what kind of Goblins do you think we'll face?"

Bree placed her finger against her cheek and looked up a little bit as if thinking. "Hmm… We'll probably only fight against Rank 2 Goblins for now, so there isn't a huge variety of them. The most common ones are the Warriors, Rogues, Mages, and Fighters. There are still rare ones, like Goblin Bards for example, but real variety only starts at Rank 3. Let's say there's a Rank 2 Goblin Mage… it can go all kinds of directions, Pyromancy, Aquamancy, Terramancy or Aeromancy, once it hits Rank 3. But that's the last stage for most goblins, the only Rank 4 ones are Goblin Kings!"

"Oh, is that so? Rank 2 Monsters will be the limit, for now, right?" Eisen asked while starting to get things ready for breakfast, and Bree nodded in response.

"Mhm. Until you're about Level 50. Then you can start taking on Rank 3 Monsters. Rank 4 Monsters when you reach Level 100. Then Rank 5 ones when you hit about Level 150. And so on…"

"I see… So that Dungeon you talked about has Rank 3 monsters then?"

Bree tilted her head to the side and crossed her arms. "Weeell… Dungeon monsters are weird… Dungeons themselves have Ranks, so the monsters inside are always of that rank… Meaning, a Rank 3 Dungeon only has Rank 3 monsters. But that's only strength-wise. They don't actually have a rank since they are 'fake' monsters. The only thing they have is a level. For example… Erm… A Rank 3 Dungeon might have Monsters ranging from Level 50 to Level 100. It's like the strength that people have, I guess? Like, there could never be a Level 150 Monster outside, but there are Level 150 monsters is Rank 5 dungeons. Get it?"

"I think I get the gist of it, yes. Just have to see a dungeon for myself to fully get it, right?"

"Yup~!"

Eisen smiled and looked at the ingredients in front of him. If he had enough time on his hands, then he could have made some bacon. But that literally takes two days, although it's probably quicker with the help of the game system, so he couldn't do it just yet. He definitely needed to use a lot of the boar meat for the next few days, otherwise, they could never get rid of it before it went bad. Of course, Bree's spell already prolonged the time they had, but it still wasn't forever.

It wouldn't be real bacon, but Eisen still figured that he could make something like mock-bacon. So, Eisen grabbed some of the Boar belly, as well as a few different herbs and spices, together with his trusty knife.

He grabbed some of the garlic and crushed it up with the flat side of the knife, and then sliced the onions into fine, tiny pieces. Since he liked the unique flavor of that nut he used in the salad yesterday, somewhat sweet and smokey, he also crushed up some of them and made sure they turned into a fine powder. He put that mixture into a bowl and added salt, pepper, and water, as well as a bit of sugar. Usually, he would use brown sugar instead of normal white one, but he didn't see any in the general shop in Melroe, so Eisen had to make do. Once that was done, he mixed everything together finely and placed the boar belly into it to let it soak in a little bit while Eisen went looking for other parts of the breakfast.

"Hey Bree, wait here for a bit, I won't be gone for long."

"Oh, alright! Be careful!"

"Of course!" Eisen chuckled as he stepped out of the small clearing, looking up into the trees to look for bird nests. It didn't take too long for him to find one, and luckily it wasn't too far up. Since Eisen wasn't an idiot that would walk into monster-infested woods without a weapon, he had his sword over his shoulder, which he quickly used to knock the nest out of the tree, and to his delight, it was filled with half a dozen eggs, just a little bit smaller than a chicken's.

Eisen felt somewhat bad that he was doing this, but then again, after all the hunting he did the past few days, what would this change?

He grabbed the eggs and brought them over to the camp, where Eisen quickly started a fire and set up the tripod and the pan, pouring a little bit of oil on it. While the boar belly was continuing to soak in the brine, Eisen thought about what to do with the eggs. He could make omelets, although he would need more eggs to make a properly sized one.

Scrambled egg also sounded good, but there was one thing that fit best with bacon. Sunny side up!

But since they were prepared quicker than Bacon, Eisen decided to help Bree finish packing up while the boar belly kept sitting in the brine to at least give it as much time to soak it in as possible.

When they were done cleaning up, Eisen grabbed the boar belly and let the brine drip off, carefully removing the excess moisture with a thin, clean rag.

After that, Eisen grabbed his knife and carefully cut off thin slices off the boar belly and placed them on a plate one after another. He was pained that he couldn't smoke the meat first, but that really would take too long. But there was more than enough meat left to make some proper bacon once Eisen had the time.

So, for now, Eisen placed the mock-bacon into the pan and smiled at the quiet sizzle, then called Bree over, telling her that breakfast was about to be ready.

He got a few strips of bacon ready for him and Bree and placed them on their plates, then cracked two of the eggs over the rim of the pan. When they were finished, Eisen gave him and Bree one of the eggs each and then began to prepare two more eggs, as well as a little bit more bacon, setting the leftover two eggs and the raw bacon to the side.

While he was then sitting down at the table, Eisen looked at the information of the food he just prepared.

[Mock Boar-Bacon]

[Quality – Highest][Rank – 0]

[Description] Bacon that has been made from Boar Belly. Since a few steps have been skipped or shortened, it cannot be seen as real bacon, but it is great for what it is.

[Mountain Finch Egg Sunny-Side Up]

[Quality – High][Rank – 01]

[Description] An egg of a mountain finch that has been prepared sunny-side up.

A finch egg? Aren't those supposed to be much smaller than that? Well, maybe a mountain finch in this game was much larger than usual?

Eisen shrugged those curiosities away since he really didn't care too much at this point. And this was a world filled with magic, so maybe a mountain finch was just a finch that evolved through earth mana? From what he knew about beast evolution, this might be the case, but he couldn't know for sure.

Either way, for now, Eisen just wanted to eat breakfast.

---

Eisen jumped to the side to dodge an incoming attack and twisted his torso to the side so that his Zweihänder sped up quickly and cut off the arm of the Goblin Fighter in front of him. While the goblin fell to the ground and held the open wound on its arm, Eisen felt something penetrate the center of his back. It wasn't directly painful, but it was very, very uncomfortable, and stung like a bitch.

"Shit!" He yelled out as he looked at the notification in the corner of his eye telling him about the damage he received.

Eisen jumped forward while Bree yelled out the name of a spell to restrain the Goblin that just stabbed the old man, leaving a small dagger stuck in his back.

Trying to ignore that sting that kept growing stronger, Eisen kicked the Goblin rogue to the side and staggered it, then swung his sword downward, splitting its head open.

At last, Eisen stabbed the Goblin Fighter with his Zweihänder to kill it. Then, rubbing the surface of his necklace while twisting his head to look at Bree, he called her over.

[You are now level 37]

"They're dead. But I can't reach that damn dagger, could you help me out with it?" He asked, and Bree nodded and then practically sprinted up to him to slowly pull on the dagger stuck in Eisen's flesh.

"Here, a pill!" Bree said and showed the deep red marble-sized sphere to him. He grabbed it and immediately placed it into his mouth, crushed it up and then swallowed it, immediately relieving the soft pain that he felt.

"Thanks. Now, I got an idea. It might be a bit risky, but how about we move on to, well… Rank 3 Goblins? My status is what it should be for someone at Level 50. And it should speed up my growth, isn't that so?"

Bree looked at Eisen with a somewhat conflicted smile until she nodded slightly. "That might be a good idea, but it's going to be a lot, lot harder. You'll probably take a lot more damage than you do now… Because let's be honest, that dagger didn't hurt you much, did it?"

"Not really, no. It drained about 50 HP." Eisen chuckled, and Bree seemed to open some kind of skill window, probably something that had to do with her Database skill, and looked through some information she had about the area.

"Hmm… Then I have an idea if you want. You mentioned you have a quest you need to level up for a lot, right? We could also just do that in the dungeon then. But it's your choice, I don't mind either way~!" Bree smiled and joined her fingers together behind her back, waiting for a decision from Eisen.

He closed his eyes and scratched his beard in thought. Of course, he was interested in what a dungeon would be like, but he was also getting the feel for fighting these goblins. It might be a good idea to continue fighting them so that he could keep the flow up.

"Let's fight the Rank 3 Goblins for now." He suggested, and Bree nodded her head in approval.

"Okaay~!" She said with her lips formed into a big smile.

Eisen chuckled lowly and looked at his young companion. "Let's go!"