Chapter 27: Building the wall Part 5
Aric got to work for half an hour, making the plank for the goblin. The goblins seemingly got better and faster the more they moved. Aric decided to check the stats of a random one and saw that the strength and endurance stats had increased by one.
It seemed like hard, focused work helped them get stronger. Aric thought about feeding them, but he wanted to make sure that he finished lining up the planks around the whole area.
Thanks to Ariel, they were able to move far faster than they normally would be able to. A few hours after noon, they had already lined up the full five-hundred-meter-square space.
Aric was pleased with this, so he decided it was finally time to get some food going. He stopped making planks and pulled up the system shop interface to start shopping.
With the new population that they had, he needed to spend a lot more to cook. He decided to prepare bean porridge and some bread. He had seen this food back on Earth; it was cheap and easy to prepare, well, from what he knew.
He searched for the exact recipes, and it didn't cost much, just 200 gold from the system, so without wasting much time, he purchased the recipe.
[Beans (black-eyed peas or brown beans)
Palm oil or vegetable oil
Onions (chopped)
Garlic (optional)
Crayfish (ground)
Pepper (fresh or dried)
Salt
Seasoning cubes
Smoked fish or stockfish (optional)]
After checking the ingredients, he started estimating how much it would cost for him to cook for everyone. He spent a few minutes making the calculation, and finally, he made his estimate, and the ingredients came to a stunning 2,000 gold.
"Shit, we can't spend this much on food every time. Unless I find a steady way to gain gold, we might need to start getting food through other means," Aric said to himself. But regardless, he paid for the ingredients, as well as a way bigger pot, and got to cooking.
According to the recipe, he had to wash and rinse the beans, so he did that in a bowl, little by little. Then he transferred it into the massive pot that was already filled with water and was on the fire.
He washed all the beans and poured them into the pot, allowing it to boil. He let it sit for half an hour until the beans were soft. He dropped the pot from the fire and drained the excess water from it before covering it and keeping it aside.
He took his biggest pan and placed it on the fire. Taking the palm oil that he bought—this was a reddish oil that he knew came from palm trees or something—he poured it into the pan and let the oil start boiling. He chopped up his garlic, onion, and other spices into the pan and used a spoon to fry them up until they started giving off a pleasant smell.
He took the pan down, set the pot back, and then poured the fried sauce into the pot. He placed the seasoning cubes after breaking them into a powder and then poured in salt and pepper. He used a large spoon to mix it up as best as he could.
He covered the lid and let it simmer for a bit. Then he took off the lid, and the aroma blasted into the air. All the goblins immediately turned their attention to what Aric was doing; the aroma from the food was making their stomachs churn.
"Alright, this works," Aric said, looking at what he had finished preparing with a satisfied look on his face. He got plates that would be enough for the goblins. It cost him 250 gold, and that was along with spoons and some more cups.
He placed the pot down from the fire, leather armor working as a mitten. Immediately after the food was done, he sent an instruction to all the goblins, asking them to line up.
Immediately, they all charged and got in line. Aric smiled, seeing that they had started getting a sense of civility and he didn't need to threaten them to get them to come.
He started serving the food onto the wooden plates he bought, along with spoons. One by one, they all collected their food and immediately found somewhere to sit down.
He was not worried about their water, though; they could drink from the stream, it was fine. After he was done with the goblins, he got a plate for Elisa. He served her food and headed for the house. He bought a bottle of water and carried a cup as well.
He knocked twice on the door before walking in. When she saw it was him, she sat up. He smiled at her and placed the food before her. He opened the water and poured it into a cup.
"I hope you'll like it," he said and got up to leave.
After he left his house, his next target was Ariel. She was still out where she cleared the trees and had not come back since.
Aric knew he needed to talk to her, so he headed to meet her. There, he saw her seated on a stump. He didn't say anything, just walked to her side and sat on the ground beside the stump.
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"Hey, Ariel," Aric said.
"Yes?" she responded.
"I know you didn't like what I did with her. I'm sorry for that, I didn't mean to hurt you. She was being savage, and I didn't want to hurt her, so I looked for other options.
It's not an excuse for what I did, but I'm sorry for it," Aric apologized, his voice sounding sober.
"I'm not angry at you, Aric. Why would you think that? Men have multiple women in this world, it's all up to your wish and beliefs.
I was just... just jealous, that was all," Ariel said.
"Jealous?" Aric asked again, just to confirm.
"Yes. When I saw you hold her, it was like it was something that should have been me, and that made me jealous," Ariel explained.