New family member

After that, I shakily returned to the inn.

I would never have thought I'd be scammed. It's my fault, though, for avoiding towns because of Hati, and thus not really showing up much in any other Adventurer's or Merchant's guilds.

When it comes to adventurers, my impression of Iron Will, who accepted my escort request before, was so strong that I didn't even imagine I would be swindled. My first impression of this world was that royalty and nobles and people in positions of power used that power to do whatever they wanted. But come to think of it, if there were good merchants and adventurers, there'd be bad ones too — obviously. Even in my previous world, there were good and bad people.

At any rate, my plan was still to leave this town and hurry on over to Leonhardt. I mean, even though the way I got it was... something... I still managed to get the map I wanted.

'Yeah, that's good. After I eat breakfast with Hati, let's hurry and prepare to leave.'

"Right then, let's go."

"Are we done already?"

"Yeah, let's hurry up."

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

Leaving the town of Rautel, we steadily made progress along the road.

"Hati, about where we're going, I'm thinking of Leonhardt."

"Even if you tell me the name of the country I would not understand. Which direction is it?"

"To the east. It's on the eastern coast."

"Ohhh, the eastern ocean? There are sea serpents and krakens there. Those are all delicious in their own way."

'I-Is that an ominous name I hear? I mean, sea serpents sound like underwater dragons, and isn't the kraken a ginormous squid? I think both of them are boss level monsters. Nowaynowaynoway, let's pretend like I didn't hear that, yeah.

Actually, Hati is okay with fish?'

"Of course I prefer meat, but every once in a while I eat fish, too."

'I see. Now that I think about it, he eats snack bread and says it's good, so I guess he can just eat anything.'

"Hm, talking about fish has made me hungry. Cutting through the forest will lead us to the same road leading east, and there is a lake in the middle, too. Oi, we are moving." 'Huh? Is that a done deal?'

"H-Hey, will we be okay cutting through the forest like that? Like, aren't there dangerous monsters and stuff?"

"Hmph, who do you think I am? There is no need to worry about that." 'Ahh, is that so? But still, it's fine for Hati because he's strong, but there's no way for me to do that.

"I will keep a barrier around you permanently because you are weak, do not worry." 'Weak...' I mean, it's true, it's all fact, but it still hurts to hear out loud.'

"Hurry up and get on my back." 'Yeah, yeah.'

When I climbed onto Hati's back, he leapt off into the forest. "Let's go."

"F-Fast, fast! TOO FAST!! GO SLOOWEERRRRR" I screamed while clinging on to Hati's back for dear life as he fairly flew through the forest.

"Hang on tightly so you are not shaken off. I will be going at this speed until we reach the lake." 'A victory for his appetite. Goddammit, why did his gluttony have to assert itself now?!'

"GYAAAAHHHH!!!"

"A…a...aaaa..." My screams echoed through the forest.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

Thanks to Hati putting me through hell, we reached the lake.

'Hahh, hahhh, hahhh, I thought I'd die... Running through the forest at that kind of speed, even just remembering it...*shivers*' It took everything I had just to cling onto Hati for dear life. Flopping onto the ground, I felt painfully well just how reassuring hard earth was until Hati's face popped up above me.

"Oi. We are eating fish." ...'Come on, Hati, at least let me rest a little.'

'Man, Hati's appetite never stops, does it? Still, if you want to eat fish, how do you plan on catching them? We don't have a fishing rod. Don't tell me you plan on going into the lake yourself?'

"This is best for catching fish." Saying that, Hati...

*CRACKLE* *CRACKLE* *CRACKLE*

Lightning danced across the lake's surface... and fish popped up to the surface one after another. Soon, the lake's surface was covered in fish.

'Hati, dude, that's too much. That was probably just Lightning magic, but what do you plan to do with all those fish?'

"I used magic to gather them at the shore, so take what you like."

"Take what I like? Are all of them dead?"

"They are all stunned into a death-like state from my Lightning magic. They will revive eventually." 'Ahh, I see. That must be tough for the fish. Well, I'll go pick some out I guess.'

'Oh, there are a lot of purple fish here.' From Appraisal, I learned that they're called violet trout. They're about 30cm long, so they might be good grilled with salt.

I shoved the violet trout into my Item Box. Of course, I don't plan to put all the fish in there, but taking a little extra to save for later should be fine. Even I wanted to eat fish since it's been all meat lately, so leaving some extra fish in my Item Box so I can eat some whenever I want wasn't a bad idea.

'Hey, what's this pretty big one?' There was a silver fish around 80cm long. From Appraisal, it was called a king trout. If it was this big, even I might be able to fillet it. 'Let's take a lot of this as well.'

'Ooh, and that is?'In the middle of the violet and king trout, there was a giant fish around 3 meters in length.

"Wow, is that not a lake shark? How rare." Asking about it, it seemed to be a rare shark that even Hati had rarely seen in his long life.

'Although it doesn't seem to be fit to eat...' Well, even if we couldn't eat it, it was still a large monster. Not to mention, if it was as rare as Hati said, I should be able to sell it. For now, I stowed it in my Item Box too.

"Take some of this, too. It tingles the tip of your tongue and is delicious." Hati said, and used Wind magic to gather some fish around me.

Woah, what the heck is this? It was a shocking pink fish with blue stripes around 50cm long. It was the kind of color that screams, "I have poison in me!" though... Appraising it, I found out that its name is poison lakefish, and it's inedible. Actually, this thing clearly had poison in it. Is Hati okay?

"Hati, you've been eating these, right?"

"Yes, several times. It was delicious and left a tingling sensation at the tip of mine tongue."

"I think that tingling was poison. It looks like this fish is called the poison lakefish. Did you not appraise it before eating, Hati?"

"I would not do something as annoying as that. Something like poison would never work, anyway."

"It might not work on you, but it's still poisonous to me. I can't take these. Not to mention, you don't have to eat something poisonous like this. I've been making your meals properly, haven't I?"

"Mm, that is true, but this is still pretty..."

"I can't put something poisonous with other ingredients. I'll make something with the violet and king trout I got, so hold it in."

"Mmrmrmm... fine."

'Now then, it's the first fish I've had in a long while. How should I cook it? I can grill the violet trout whole with salt, and then fillet the king trout... Hmm, roasting the king trout in foil as well as cooking it a la meunière would be good. If I do that though, I'm out of butter, and I'd need to buy flour as well. I'd also like mushrooms for the foil roast, so let's go shopping.'

Opening up the Online Supermarket, I bought butter, flour, and mushrooms, as well as the usual spices and seasonings I used frequently. I also didn't forget the foil I needed to foil-roast the fish.

'Next is... Oh, this is good every once in a while.'

Once I'd got everything I needed, it was almost time to start cooking. 'I'm going to grill the violet trout whole with salt, so it would be best to have an open fire. First up is gathering firewood, then.'

I quickly gathered enough firewood from the surrounding forest, and set fire to it. Of course, I used magic. I'd done some training in it, so I'd become quite good at controlling Fire magic.

With this, I'm prepared to grill.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

Start off by removing the violet trout's innards. There are people that like the bitterness of the innards, but I'm not one of them, so I take them out.

Use some sticks found while gathering firewood to skewer the violet trout and sprinkle them with salt, then stab the sticks into the ground by the fire and grill them.

While that's happening, move on to the king trout. Start off by filleting them. Whoops, too much of the meat got stuck to the spine while trying to remove it. Well, it'll be fine even if the meat is a little lopsided as long as the spine is removed.

Next up is the foil-roast. Coat some aluminum foil with butter and sprinkle the coating with onions. On top of that, place an appropriately sized cut of king trout onto the foil and season it with salt and pepper. Layer some shimeji mushrooms and Japanese hackberry onto the fish and lightly douse it with Japanese sake before adding a pat of butter, and then close the foil. Leave it at the edge of the fire to steam and cook.

Now, the meunière. Season a cut of the king trout with salt and pepper and let it sit for a little before wiping away excess moisture. Then, coat it with a thin layer of flour and cook the surface in a frying pan.

Oh, the violet trout's done grilling, and the foil-roast has swelled to bursting so it looks like it's steamed nicely. Take the well-done violet trout off the skewers and line them up on a plate.

Open up the foil of the foil-roast, add some ponzu, and it's done. Ponzu was used today on a whim.

By the way it's also good to add soy sauce with the butter to make soy-butter flavored foil-roast, and it's even delicious with just salt and pepper.

Plate the cooked meunière and add pre-made tartar sauce to finish it. The usual soy-butter meunière is also good, but butter is being used for the foil-roast as is, so tartar sauce is a good substitute this time.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

"Hati, food's readyー" As soon as I said that, Hati came flying. He bit straight into the whole grilled violet trout.

"Humm, hrmm, fish after a long while is delicious." 'That's nice to hear. Now then, I should eat too.'

'Accompanying that, I had... canned beer that I saw on the Online Supermarket and suddenly wanted to drink, because it's been a while. I'm not that fond of alcohol, but I do feel like drinking every now and again.'

The skin on the whole-grilled violet trout was crispy and delicious. The mushroom's umami had soaked into the foil-roasted king trout, so it paired well with the refreshing taste of the ponzu. As for the meunière, the light white meat of the king trout went great with tartar sauce.

'I've done pretty well here, in my opinion. It had great synergy with the beer, too. *Gulp* ...Man the beer is great. It'd been a long time, so the fish was satisfying, too.'

"There is no more. I want seconds. This one wrapped in silver, and this one with the white on it. This white stuff has a strange taste but it is good." 'Ahhh, sure sure. Foil roast and meunière, right? So Hati took a liking to the tartar sauce, huh? It is tasty.'

I made more of the foil-roast and meunière while sipping on my beer. I made some soy-butter and simple salt and pepper foil-roasts, but kept the meunière with tartar sauce because Hati seemed to like it. I made more and more food and brought it out for Hati.

"*sigh* That was delicious. It has been a while since I have eaten fish." 'Of course Hati likes meat the most, but it looks like he's cool with fish too, so I'll cook some every now and again.' Luckily we got a lot of fish today, and even an extra large one. Let's have the Adventurer's guild butcher it the next time I go to one.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

"Stone Bullet!" One small stone projectile flew with a whoosh, before losing speed 20 meters away and dropping to the ground.

*Sigh*...

I was practicing Earth magic now, but it wasn't going so well. I'd become able to throw some pretty respectable Fireballs, so I was testing if I could use other magic. Thinking it an obvious Water spell, I tried chanting, "Water Ball," but nothing happened. Next, I tried Wind with "Wind Cutter," but that also turned up nothing. Lastly, I tried Earth with "Stone Bullet," and a stone so small it might have been a grain of sand popped out of the palm of my hand.

While I was happy to discover I had an affinity for Earth magic, Hati, who was watching me, laughed out of his nose again. Frustrated, I started practicing Earth magic hard, but just like before, it wasn't going well, and I had no idea why.

'I think I'm properly circulating the magic power in my body, though. I tried testing this out with a Fireball and it worked out. Why doesn't stone bullet work, then? It's a little pathetic but it does activate, so I guess there's nothing else but to practice a lot.'

"I am amazed at how bad you are at learning." 'Grrrr... not everybody's an amazing cheater like you, you know.'

"How about another battle? It worked the last time when you were trying to learn Fire magic, did it not?" Just that one sentence from Hati brought memories of that swarm of goblins to my head.

'Nightmare, it's a nightmare... *shiver*'

"Don't joke with me. I never want to go through that again." I couldn't deny that I learned how to make a proper Fireball, but the fear that came with being left alone in the middle of that swarm of goblins was not trivial.

"But at this rate you will never learn Earth magic."

*Sigh*... This is why geniuses suck. If everyone learned everything right away there would be no strife in the world. Normal people like me have to practice.'

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

With dinner finished, I was thinking it was about time to sleep, so I started to ready the sleeping spaces for Hati and I. That's when I noticed, at my feet... when did that get there?

"Woah!" It was miniature tree with a humanoid shape. He has bark-like skin, branches for arms, and large expressive eyes. He was about 30 centimetres high and it was moving slowly towards me.

"...Is this a tree?"

"It is."

"Eh? Hati, didn't you put up a barrier?"

"Of course I did. It might have already been inside the barrier when I erected it."

"What's the point of a barrier if there's already something inside?"

"Hmph, is there really a need to be so scared of such a puny thing that does not even qualify to be called a small fry? You really are a coward."

'Yeah, yeah, I'm just a huge wimp. At any rate, are trees really so weak as to have Hati say that?' "Won't he attack us?"

"Evolved forms do, but a tree of that level is just feed. Not to mention from its size, that tree has probably just been born."

So this thing won't attack me? Interested, I tried poking the baby tree seedling at my feet with my finger.

When I poked him, he started to stagger and wobble. He looked at me with a cute expression and said, "I'm Groot.

It was fun, so I kept poking at him. In reaction, the baby tree formed a tentacle and poked my finger in what felt like a fearful manner. Huh, it might be kinda cute. At any rate, what a friendly tree seedling.

"Hey, Hati, are tree seedlings usually this friendly towards humans?"

"That is probably just because it is a freshly born. Normally, if it were to see anything other than another seedling, it would run or hide. It´s look like some mutated seedling"

'I see. A newborn tree seedling, huh? How's its status?' I appraised the friendly tree seedling at my feet.

[Name] ------

[Age] 3 days

[Race] Baby seedling

[Level] 1

[HP] 2

[MP] 1

[Attack] 1

[Defense] 2

[Agility] 2

[Skills] -----

'So weak!'

Three days old... he really was just born. His race is even Baby sedling. From now on, he was going to steadily grow from a baby seedling to a regular tree, is how it feels, definitely. But right now, as a baby seedling, he was so weak there was no way he'd survive meeting another monster. Even though he was pretty cute and friendly... I want to at least feed him something.

"Hey, do seedling in this world primarily obtain their nutrients from the soil they are planted in?"

"This thing can be called a omnivore plant. It can eat almost anything."

'If that's the case, would that be okay?'

Thinking that, I removed something that was piling up in my Item Box: Fruit and vegetables left over, soup left over, etc. A lot of stuff had been piling up.

I tried putting it in front of the seedling and asking, "Is it okay?" After poking at it with a tentacle, it enveloped it. Somehow it was absorbed by the tentacle and disappeared within seconds.

"Woah, that's impressive!" The seedling wrapped a tentacle around my leg like it wanted more.

"More, huh? Wait a second." I put more and more of the left overs that had been piling up in front of the Groot... And Groot enveloped more and more of the it, and dissolved it.

"You're amazing, aren't you?" When I said that, he started to stagger and wobble. He looked at me with a cute expression and said, "I'm Groot.

"Hm? Do you understand what I'm saying?" The seedling climbed onto my chest.

"Woah." Supporting the seedling with my arms as I held it, the seedling jiggled like it was satisfied.

"Wow, you really are friendly for a tree seedlig," I said while petting it.

"Hey, that thing has become your familiar, you know?"

"...Huh?"

"I am saying that that tree seedling has become your familiar."

"What? I haven't done anything to form a contract with it, though...?"

"As long as that seedling wants to contract with you, and you accept it, the contract will be completed."

"Eh? But I haven't accepted anything of the sort."

"Whatever you say, the contract is already finalized. You can check your status."

I checked my status at Hati's suggestion...

[Name] Hajime

[Age] 24

[Job] Spoon Hero/Victim from Another World

[Level] 3

[HP] 110

[MP] 110

[Attack] 83

[Defense] 82

[Agility] 78

[Skills] Appraisal, Item Box, Fire magic, Familiars (Contracted Magic Beasts): Fenrir, Baby seedling

[Unique Skill] Online Supermarket

What-? When did Baby seedling get added to my familiars list?!

...I decided to name it Groot. I won't hear any comments about how I've got no naming sense.