After William freshened up and recovered from the battle earlier, he gathered his things and headed down once more, descending into the floors below rather wistfully.
Today was a quiet one.
[Progress: 10.65%]
William suddenly stopped in his tracks.
'What was I going to do again?' Oh, right, I wanted to try out making vestiges with the archives.'
He made sure to ask for advice from the Ludus Company's support line.
The answer they gave him was succinct and direct.
-To create a stable and powerful vestige, you must first find a suitable base. Then, with the correct item to serve as the base, you can attempt to inscribe the archive onto it. Layer the strings of ingenuity in a way that sews it into the item. This is a very difficult thing to do, so seek a specialist if you need proper assistance.
William was intrigued by this and wanted to try it out as soon as possible. So he went to the second floor to hopefully use one of Lian's items as a suitable base.
When he reached the second floor, he was surprised to see a relatively short line at Lian's store.
Not wanting to disturb her, he used his transformation skill to change his face into someone completely different. Appearing as an average middle-aged man.
He waited until it was his turn at the front and inquired about the items she was selling, not the gacha, to which she'd smile and say.
"Well, for the common items, they are around ten loreld each! The rares are around a hundred, the epics a thousand."
William politely requested one of the rare items. To which, Lian's eyes would light up like fireworks as she bolted straight into the back room to search for one.
She brought back a unique trinket; it was a fancy-looking earring that was rather shiny, it was diamond-shaped, and had various patterns engraved on its surface.
[100 Loreld has been transferred.]
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As Lian saw a middle-aged gentlemen approach, she couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity with him. Perhaps having something to do with the way he acted, it reminded her of someone close to her...Someone she would never see again.
She smiled and excitedly grabbed one of the rare items she had rolled painstakingly for from the backroom, before completing the transaction with him.
Afterwards, she waved the man goodbye.
'He reminds me of the boss...And...'
Her thoughts trailed off, clearly unwilling to think any further about this subject.
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William returned to the top floor with the earring, a bit intrigued by Lian's past, but also understanding of the grief that occurs when losing a loved one.
'...'
He sat down on the sofa as per usual, sighing while taking out the archives from earlier.
It was at this time that he realized...the archives seemed a bit more transparent than earlier.
'Erasure?'
It made a certain amount of sense, after all the core abilities verifiers wielded were given by the fruit of the tree of knowledge. So once a verifier perished the tree would naturally attempt to retrieve its power.
'I see...'
William began tinkering with the archives he had. Trying one at a time, while leaving the rest to Xiao Wei, who seemed to be able to sustain the archives within her body.
He used his status as a Reader of Lore to read the ingenuity signature on the Luck archive. While dealing from the mental backlash of reading into it, he began to write.
An hour of effort with zero result and a more transparent archive later, William resigned himself to calling Linen for help. Though, he currently had no way of contacting him remotely, so he'd have to head back to that pond place.
'Eh, I'll go at night. Easier to stay hidden.' William decided.
He began to think about todays events.
'The battle today, they were pretty rowdy. If it weren't for making a statement, I probably would've let them join...What great assets they would have been.'
'Overall, it was a pretty easy fight.'
William's stomach began to rumble at this moment, probably because of the fact that he hadn't eaten in a couple of days. For a reader like him, issues like this could still be fatal if left unresolved for long periods of time, so he exasperatingly got up in search of something to eat.
He dragged himself over to the fridge, checking what was inside.
Low and behold, there was nothing to eat. Just a bunch of raw meat, vegetables and the like. Things he had to cook, which he wasn't in the mood to do.
Suddenly, he caught a whiff of a delicious scent coming from the dining room.
William walked over to the dining room, to see Fei Kangzhen and Li Jiaojie enjoying a nice lunch.
Seeing him arrive, they'd both greet him warmly.
"Hey there b-boss! Want some?" Fei Kangzhen gestured to the empty seat with a plate of fried rice and some meat in front of it.
"Boss, great to see you. We watched your battle earlier, we'd be lying if we said we weren't scared, but you're as strong as ever it seems. Have some food, we made it ourselves." Li Jiaojie proclaimed with heavy eyes.
William smiled and sat down, indulging in the delicious meal they had prepared for him.
Whilst eating and chatting with his two top officers, he decided to check out the details of the title he had received earlier.
[Title: Demon of the Eclipse.]
[Details: The one who wields the Eclipse, will naturally be consumed by the shadow it casts. When abilities of solar and lunar nature are active simultaneously, they will strengthen each other through resonance. Beware the Eclipse.]
'Pretty nice, a buff is always nice to have. That last part is concerning...This system does enjoy messing with me quite a bit.' William sighed internally.
He continued to devour his meal with haste. It was very delicious surprisingly. The meat was nice and juicy and the fried rice had the perfect ratios of umami flavour.
"This is simply scrumptious. Where did you two learn to make a dish like this?" William commented like a professional food reviewer.
"Just some online tutorials. And alot of practice." Li Jiaojie said off-handedly.
William nodded. Before finishing his meal up.
He bowed in thanks to the two, before heading back to the living area with the sofa. He sat down next to a napping Xiao Wei.
"I'm hungry..." A tired and sleepy looking Lian limped up the stairs. Clearly in search of something to eat.
"Red Braised Pork...." She muttered as she seemed to be in a daydream and sleepwalk state. Being half-conscious and half thinking about food. Drooling constantly before wiping it with her sleeve.
'Good grief...' William sighed before getting up from his relaxation and walking over to the fridge, grabbing a large piece of pork belly.
"Go sit down in the dining room, I'll make something for you to eat. Sheesh..." William criticized the half-lucid Lian, who listened very well and hopped over to the dining room happily.
Due to the title Hog Slayer's effects, his mastery at cooking pork was enhanced to superhuman degrees.
William started to recall times from when he was a child, wanting to learn his mother's recipe for this very dish. Happy times.
'Alright people, usually cut it into 2-3 cm cubes (about 1 inch if you're an imperial user...). You could use bigger chunks if you wish. Make sure they're more or less the same size and extend the cooking time if necessary.'
William cut the pork belly into chunks using a big meat cleaver. Before grabbing a bottle of red liquid
'Shaoxing rice wine, an essential ingredient for this dish. Unlike others which only call for a little bit, for this dish I recommend you use at least 240ml for around 600g of pork belly.'
He also grabbed two bottles of dark brown liquid.
'Dark and light soy sauce, essentials in an asian kitchen'
Then, he picked up some spices and a bottle of white powder.
'Ginger, star-anise and bay leaf, as well as good old sugar.'
'First step, blanch the pork.'
William dumped a bunch of the cubes of pork belly into a pot, the pot was full of cold water and was set to high heat. When it started to boil he made sure to scoop off any foam that appeared on the surface.
After blanching, he put the pork into a clean pot then poured in Shaoxing rice wine and hot water, just enough to cover the meat. Adding light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger, star anise and bay leaves too.
He turned on the heat to bring the liquid to a full boil. Covering with a lid and turning down the heat. Leaving it to simmer for at least one hour.
He stirred the pot with master level precision once in a while, making sure the heat and spices were spread nice and evenly.
To pass the time he walked into the dining room, due to the aroma coming from the kitchen, all three of his top officers were eagerly awaiting the food. Especially Lian, whose eyes were glued onto William when he walked in, clearly sad that the food wasn't finished yet. He sat down and began talking to them.
"Patience. You can't rush perfection or whatever they say." William said to the bug-eyed Lian casually.
She pouted with her arms crossed, not in a spoiled way, but more like a cat that was denied its meal.
"Hungry..." She pleaded for food dazedly.
William sighed and began talking to everyone there, chatting about upcoming plans, lives before the Library, and other fun stories.
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"And that's when I realized, he betrayed me!" Li Jiaojie said rather self-deprecatingly, although in a clear joking manner.
To which the rest of them chuckled and laughed. Meanwhile, Lian was still in a hungry daze, completely blank slated.
'If Sasha hadn't taken her in, I fear she may have died on the streets...' William thought to himself.
"What a friend to have, is he still doing alright?" Fei Kangzhen inquired.
"No...He was murdered in the Third World War, the War to end all Wars, I suppose he was in the majority, we're lucky to have even survived that time. Us 30% of the population..." Li Jiaojie replied sadly.
An air of melancholy enveloped the room as William was silent, and Lian even seemed more quiet than usual.
"It's been an hour, I'll finish up the food now." Said William, eager to switch the topic.
'Turn the heat up to the highest. Add sugar to the braising liquid and leave to boil fiercely. As the sugar melts and the water evaporates, the broth will dramatically reduce its volume and become thicker. '
During this process, William expertly stirred the pork cubes to make sure each one had an even coating of the broth, giving them all a wonderful flavour.
He then plated the pork alongside some rice that Li Jiaojie and Fei Kangzhen had prepared before, but hadn't used. And brought it over to the dining room.
Upon seeing the big pile of food, Lian instantly became lucid, her eyes shining with gluttony. She immediately picked up her metal chopsticks and began brawling with Li Jiaojie and Fei Kangzhen's chopsticks to grab the first piece of meat.
They interchanged blow after blow after blow, causing the sound of metal clanging to echo throughout the top floor. In the end, she came out victorious and devoured the biggest piece of meat.
She savoured the flavours of the braised pork with a wide smile on her face, true happiness.
Seeing someone enjoy the food he made this much, meant alot to William, it reminded him of his childhood, when he always aspired to become a chef, to ease his mother's burden.
Although he made the food for others to enjoy, he ended up being the one experiencing the gift of food. After all, like his mother always said:
Food made for others, feeds yourself too.
[Progress: 11.22%]
(Side Note: I did so painfully average on my Physics and Chemistry exams! I want to cry. Of course it's these two science subjects that everyone cares about the most that I do so bad at! I'm great at math! How come these two decided to be so annoying...This is exactly why I made William suffer through the pain of science too, though I suppose he already understands it. I'm as much of a disappointment to my parents as ever...great. Stress and Anxiety, my oldest friends.)