Chapter 77 – Picking Mushrooms

I then followed Fio and Shiro.

“Here!”
“Wuff!”

The place that Fio and Shiro guided me to was covered in soft-looking mountain vegetables.
They looked just like the ones I had seen on the old continent. And those were delicious.
And so with great hope, I activated the appraisal skill.
There was no poison. They were edible plants.

“Yes, you can eat them. And they look delicious as well.”
Up until now, the ones I had gathered looked more like wild grass if anything.

“Wuff!”
Fio wagged her tail excitedly. And then she started to eat them.
Shiro also started to eat them while wagging her tail and barking.

“He-hey. You’re going to eat them raw?”
“It’s good.”
“I see. Good.”

Indeed, Fio and Shiro had said that they were delicious mountain vegetables.
And even if the demon wolves were intelligent, it was not like they could cook.
So if they did eat them, they would have to be raw.

“Theo. Eat.”
“Well, I guess I’ll have some too then.”

And so I tasted it as well. It was very juicy, and a lot more delicious than I would expect a mountain vegetable to be.

“Raw vegetables… It is kind of like cabbage.”

Kuro and the others were whimpering inside of the basket.
Apparently, they wanted to eat it as well.

“Kuro, Roro, Ruru. You want to eat it too?”

When I put some of the cabbage-like plant in front of their nose, they started to eat it.

“Is it good?”
“…Wuff?”

They were saying, while it was not bad, they still preferred meat.

“Well, demon wolves are mostly carnivorous.”
‘Kyuo. Good.’

Hippolius also tasted some and seemed to like it.
However, Hippolius even enjoyed eating weeds.

“How does it compare to the other mountain vegetables?”
‘Both taste good.’
“I see. Do you want some too, Pii?”
‘Pii is full.’
“I see. In any case, I’ll gather as much of this as I can.”

I then gathered about half of them. As there was so much growing, there was more than enough.

“Since nothing seems to be eating them, I suppose there are no boars in this area?”
“There is.”
“Wuff.”

Apparently, there were demon boars. But since this had been demon wolf territory, there were not many here.
I suppose there was balance in the speed that demon boars reproduced, and the speed at which they were being eaten.

But after the wolves were chased out, this was the home of the demon bear.
And so the boars did not increase.

“So if nothing happens in the future, they might start increasing in number.”
“Wuff!”

Shiro said it would be fine, because she would hunt them.”
However, it would surely be difficult for Shiro to do it all alone.

‘Kyuo! Hippolius will help too!’
“Thank you.”

If Hippolius hunted them, then balance should be maintained.

“Theo! Theo!”
“What is it?”
“There is more.”
“It grows in other places too?”
“No!”

Fio shook her head exaggeratedly.
Apparently, it was a different kind of mountain plant.

“Good Fio and Shiro. Guide me to that place then.”
“Okay!”
“Wuff!”

Fio and Shiro ran off cheerfully.
After that, I followed them for some time, and then they stopped.

“Here!”
“Wuff!”
“These are…mushrooms, I see.”
“Mushroom!”
“Wou!”

There were a lot of mushrooms that were poisonous.
And there were some that could kill you, that also happened to look like mushrooms that were delicious.
Also, there were not many mushrooms that could be eaten raw.

“I’ll have to appraise them very carefully. So don’t eat any yet.”
“Okay!”
“Wuff.”

Fio and Shiro were sniffing at them, but they did not eat the mushrooms.

“Very good.”
“Wuff!”
“Hahaha!”

I patted them on the head and started to appraise the mushrooms.

“…Hmm. It’s not poisonous. However, it’s probably better to not eat it raw.”
“Cook!”
“Wou!”
“…Ahhh… So one of the adult wolves would cook it with breath.”
“Wuff!”

Apparently, they did have the concept of cooking.

“That’s amazing.”

I suppose they were roasting them.
This was quite unexpected. They were so smart.
A lot more intelligent than the demon wolves of the old continent.

“I see. Now that I think about it, they made Fio clothes as well.”
“Wuff.”

Shiro’s tribe knew how to use tools and to cook food.

“You wolves really are amazing.”
“Wuff.”
“Well, let’s try cooking and eating these then.”
“Wuff!”

And so Fio and Shiro told me which leaves to use to wrap up the mushroom.
After that, I put some firewood together and ignited it.
Then I placed the wrapped up mushroom in the center and waited.

“I think that about half an hour should do.”
“Wou…”

According to Shiro, it was much faster when the wolves did it.
This was likely because they were good at adjusting their fire breath.

“But with this method, we should take our time.”
“Wuff…”

As we talked about such things, I noticed that something was slowly approaching us.