Chapter 477 - A Gentle, Refined Sweetness
At night, I worked at the mansion.
I made new furniture, while Mion tended the fields with Sweee and Pan's group.
I crafted beds, tables, chairs, and bookshelves. Thanks to my improved Crafting (Woodcraft) Skill, it went smoothly.
"Woof!" "Meow!" "Kuru-ru~"
Lupi and her group returned from gathering Marone Fruits.
The wooden boxes they handed to Shal's group were overflowing with Marone Fruit.
"Oh, thanks! Mion, how about a break?"
"Coming!"
Mion acquired Spirit Magic using the Light Spirit Stone she made earlier today.
She also received a Tree Spirit Stone from Sweee. Now, all that was left was a Water Spirit Stone, I suppose? The Fire Spirit Stone wasn't used much for farming or gardening, so she said it could wait.
"~~~♪" """~~~♪"""
"Alright, alright. I'll make a snack with the Marone."
The easiest thing to make… would probably be Marone Kinton?
"Yes!" "Ryuu~" "Kuru~"
They offered to help, so I started by having them make boiled chestnuts.
Raz and the other Carbuncles were good at peeling the thorny Marone skin. They skillfully cracked them open and took out the nuts.
Pan's group checked each kernel to make sure there were no wormholes, and it seemed all of them were fine.
I had Mion boil water and cook the kernels. In real-time, it would take about an hour, so in game, 15 minutes should be enough.
"How does it look?"
"Looks good. Okay, cut them in half and scoop out the insides. Oh, be careful, your hands might slip."
"Right!"
Perhaps because I was teaching her in real life, Mion carefully halved each one.
It seemed like letting her do all the steps would give her more skill experience, so I decided to just offer instructions.
Pan's group helped with scooping out the insides with spoons.
"Now, slowly mash it with this stick. You don't need to use too much force."
Then, she mixed in Sky Sugar and kneaded it over low heat.
The Sky Sugar gave it a slightly greenish tint, but… it should be fine.
I'll have to figure out how to make refined sugar eventually.
"Looks good. Once it cools enough not to burn you, roll it into bite-sized balls."
"It's so simple."
"Actually, boiling takes time, and scooping out the insides is usually a lot of work."
She rolled them by hand, one by one, lining them up.
The 100 Marone Fruits turned into the same number of Marone Kinton.
"~~~?"
"Yeah. Let's all eat."
"Okay!"
The Marone Kinton had a comforting Marone flavor. The sweetness from the Sky Sugar was subtle and refined.
It paired perfectly with Papu Leaf Tea.
"How's the gardening going? Are you enjoying it?"
"It's incredibly fun. Thanks to Sweee-chan, my Gardening skill went up by two levels."
Apparently, Sweee had given Mion various instructions for tending the flower beds.
That was a good thing, but,
"Wait, you can understand what Sweee says now?"
"Ah, yes, somewhat…"
She couldn't understand as perfectly as I could, but she seemed to have started understanding things like 'where' and 'what she wants me to do.'
"Is it because you learned Spirit Magic?"
"And perhaps because I also got a Guardian title?"
"Ah, right, that's it."
She opened her status to show me, and indeed, she had four Guardian titles: Fairy, Selkie, Urisk, and Cait Sith.
I only started understanding them somewhat after getting my Guardian title, too.
And on top of that, getting [Apostle of the Jade Goddess] made me understand even more. Actually, Mion is the Jade Goddess, so it feels like she should be able to speak normally… or perhaps not.
"That title I got, Apostle of the Jade Goddess, what was the reason for it, I wonder?"
"Perhaps the total amount of MP you've replenished into the Goddess Statue?"
"Indeed, there isn't a Goddess Statue that large anywhere else."
It was possible that it was awarded for surpassing a certain total MP amount replenished into the Goddess Statue. But if that were the case, it wouldn't be strange for players on the mainland to have gotten it too.
Or perhaps… in the latest PV, there was talk about the goddesses gathering in the Necropolis. Was that implying we should search for other life-sized Nameless Goddess Statues like the one I found on my island?
If so, there was a possibility that other Uninhabited Islands might have them, just like mine…
"Shou-kun?"
"Ah, sorry. I was just lost in thought."
Mion looked at me with a puzzled expression at my answer.
I told her about the possibility of other islands, like Ramune-san's island, having life-sized Nameless Goddess Statues in their churches.
"I see. But wouldn't there be such Goddess Statues on the mainland too?"
"Hmm, the mainland's Goddess Statues might have been collected in the large churches, I wonder? It seems a lot happened after the Calamity."
And was there also a possibility of abandoned towns remaining, like the Necropolis?
The Dragon Capital in the northern part of the mainland was still inaccessible, the southern part had undeveloped lands, and to the east, there was the Demon Kingdom.
"Is Anshia-san searching for those as well?"
"I see…"
Does she want to display her own Goddess Statue in the Necropolis?
But she didn't seem like that type, and her gameplay so far hadn't been about satisfying such self-aggrandizing desires, I thought.
"Well, I don't really care about what others are doing. More importantly, I wonder if there's a church on the Southern Island?"
"Ah…"
Since there were water cottages (?), people must have lived around there.
Well, whether people actually lived there is debatable, but such a setting wouldn't be strange. If so, there should naturally be a church.
"I really need to go check it out once. There's also the Southern Ocean Seabed Resource Mining Facility to consider."
"That's true. In that case, we might want to invite the Dragons as well."
"Ugh, I already spoke with Argenta-san, and Azure-san must know too."
They had been eager to investigate, so they were probably thinking, 'Why didn't you invite us!?'
"Shall we send them a letter?"
"Yeah. Something like, 'we just went because of a sudden matter, but we'll call you for a full investigation.'"
"Exploring the Southern Island during the Okinawa training camp sounds good."
Southern Island in real life and in-game, huh?
Speaking of which, what about the live streams during the training camp? If it's a club activity, they're bound to do it, but…