Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 130 Campfire, Dinner

Jady readily agreed, acting very familiar with the place. She pulled a few sirens aside and started chatting about intimate things between women, leaving Zhang Yuankai and the other two blockheads staring at each other in disbelief.

A short while later, Jade came over, followed by the sirens. They looked at each other, and it was Jade who spoke first:

“They want to build a suitable house by the river, but it’s too much trouble for me to handle alone, so they’re asking if you can help them.”

Zhang Yuan looked at Xier and the others, and the sirens immediately put on obedient expressions and nodded repeatedly.

“Alright, the sooner the better. It’s only afternoon now, so we can start now. Jade, I’ll leave the timber and stone to you.”

"no problem."

Even though she knew Zhang Yuan had a bunch of strange and unusual summoned creatures, when the three-meter-tall little one appeared before her, Jady couldn't help but exclaim, "What, what is this?"

"You've seen him before, that little stone man."

"You mean that stone elementalist who was much shorter than me before? Could he have advanced to the Elemental Elder level? That physique is just too much." Jady's cherry-like mouth was now wide open like a catfish's.

"He was just a baby back then, but he's all grown up now." This person blatantly lied, spouting nonsense without batting an eye.

As a druid, Jedy wouldn't believe such nonsense, but since the other party clearly didn't want to talk about it, she didn't press the matter further.

With a little help, building a small house is a piece of cake.

Whether it's rocks or logs, in Xiao Xiao's incredibly strong hands, it's no different from holding an egg or chopsticks. In addition, after advancing to the second star, Xiao Xiao has already acquired preliminary intelligence. With the help of its master's commands, it actually does a pretty decent job.

Xiao Xiao herself seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the process, her eyes glowing blue as she focused intently on the large toy in front of her without even turning it. Yes, Xiao Xiao probably treated the arduous task of building a house as a child's game of building blocks.

Once today's work is finished, the logs have been inserted into the foundation and reinforced with stones, half of the work is done. The remaining roof and other details will have to wait until tomorrow.

Seeing Xiao Xiao looking at him with lingering interest, and even gesturing towards the "construction site" with her pillar-like hand, Zhang Yuan smiled and comforted her before sending her back to the void chessboard.

The female druid beside her looked on with envy. Such a huge stone golem. Ordinary stone and earth elementals couldn't even reach that size. As for elemental elders or elemental princes...
With her current abilities, it's hard to say whether she can achieve it in this lifetime, and Jady couldn't help but feel a little disappointed when she thought about it.

That evening, everyone had a bonfire party. We had pheasants and rabbits caught from the nearby woods, mushrooms and wild vegetables, beef, mutton and vegetables bought from a nearby farm, and fish and shrimp that the Siren Sisters volunteered to catch from the river. All sorts of delicacies were available.

And Zhang, of course, would not forget the specialty of his home country, a nation of foodies—hot pot.

This thing is basically a must-have in all kinds of time-travel novels, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it's everywhere. However, what is common can also be elegant, and it is precisely good things that make people remember them.

He took out the large pot from his storage bag, set it on the campfire, filled it halfway with water, added beef and mutton bones, blanched them, then changed the water, added some seasonings like scallions and ginger and salt, and continued to simmer.

Zhang Yuan chuckled, stopping Kegan from his impatient attempt to throw all the meat and mushrooms in together for a big hodgepodge.
"Don't rush, let's have something interesting tonight."

Ignoring the dwarf's bewildered expression, he pulled the man along and began slicing the beef and mutton. Jady watched indifferently; while not a vegetarian, she wasn't particularly fond of meat. It was a waste of talent for two dignified warriors to slice meat. At Zhang Yuan's prompting and insistence, all the meat was cut into thin slices, barely thicker than those cut by machine in his previous life.

The sea monsters weren't idle either. They took bamboo baskets to the riverbank and washed all the mushrooms, vegetables, and fruits clean. They also properly processed the fish, shrimp, and shellfish, and then placed them in plates, categorized by type, next to the pot.

Once everything was ready, Kegan, who was already a little impatient, grabbed a spoon to drink the soup, but Zhang Yuan stopped him. He then saw his cheap captain casually take out several extra-long forks and distribute them to everyone.

Someone hadn't expected them to learn to use chopsticks so quickly; these forks were prepared for that situation.

Put a little salt in your bowl, pick up a few slices of mutton with a fork and dip them into the boiling pot. When the mutton turns white, pull it back, blow on it a couple of times, dip it in the salt in the bowl, and put it in your mouth.

While the lack of soy sauce, sesame paste, and other condiments is a bit of a shame, the authentic flavor is still quite good.

The dwarf brother was already impatient, so he picked up his fork and stabbed at the pile of beef slices with such force that it was like piercing armor. When he pulled the fork back, the tips of the fork were completely covered by the meat.

Kaigen excitedly put the real meat skewer into the hot pot, ready to follow suit. However, there was too much meat, and many of the meat slices simply fell off after being cooked in the pot.

With quick reflexes, Zhang Yuan took out the chopsticks he had prepared for himself and stirred several slices of already cooked beef. He glanced at the dwarf who was blowing his beard and glaring at him with a mocking look, dipped the beef in some salt, and fed it to Xier.

Syl, who was busy peeling shrimp, was flattered and quickly opened her little mouth to bite into the beef. In her haste, she also bit into the chopsticks.

"Let go, let go, let me pull it out first, otherwise you'll bite it off."

Zhang Yuan quickly pulled out his chopsticks and looked at Xier, who was chewing away, and found her very cute. He reached out his left hand to pinch her little cheek and patted her head. It felt really nice to feed a pet like this.

There was nothing that Hill could do about his boss's clumsy handling, so he could only roll his eyes and grumble as he chewed the beef in his mouth even harder.

Following the same method, after feeding the three sea monsters one by one, Zhang Yuan, satisfied, prepared to fill his own stomach. But then he looked again and, wow!

Kaigen devoured the meat like a whirlwind; several large plates of meat were now less than half full. No matter how much meat there was, it couldn't withstand his skewer-like eating style.

Ignoring the dwarf's innocent gaze, Zhang Yuan directly picked up the plate of meat and threw the vegetables and mushrooms into the pot as well.

Pointing with his chopsticks, he said, "Don't be shy, eat more of the dishes."

After saying that, he ignored the dumbfounded Kegan and devoured the remaining half plate of mutton with the same ferocity as a hungry tiger descending the mountain.

Fortunately, there were also fish and shrimp, plus roasted pheasant and rabbit, so everyone enjoyed the meal and the guests were all very happy.

Afterwards, the cleanup was done, not to mention the pots and pans. But Kaigen really had a good appetite; he ate the whole pot of soup, so nothing was wasted.

Zhang Yuan declined Jie Di's suggestion to stay in the cabin temporarily, and simply set up camp next to the half-built house. The evening breeze by the river carried away the day's hustle and bustle, and the group fell asleep peacefully.

(End of this chapter)