Chapter 40

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons — Episode 40

It couldn’t be anything other than exactly what Gio had been looking for.

“...”

Of course, there was more to the description of Weeping Fringe.

...A medicinal herb that grows like a bell with a concave shape; if dried in sunlight for over a month, it turns pink and its leaves grow even plumper.

The fully refined pink Weeping Fringe produces a sweetness so strong it feels like it could tear your tongue.

Lulupu petals pickled in this sap are of great help in restoring the optic nerve.

Elixir method: Dry Weeping Fringe in sunlight for at least a month.

The ideal time is when it takes on a deep pink color and the leaves have thickened to about 3 cm.

Squeeze out the sap from the leaves, which have swollen plump with moisture from the air.

This alone makes an excellent painkiller, and if you place Lulupu petals inside and store it in a cool place, you can make a medicine good for optic nerve recovery within three days.

“...”

But it was too long.

He just skipped it.

‘I need spices, not medicinal herbs.’

In the end, the only part that caught his eye was “a spicy flavor and aroma.”

Something about optic nerve recovery, but he was doing this to eat tasty sausage—he didn’t need medicine.

“Does it look like a morning glory.”

Not exactly the same, but in the way its leaves fluttered like lace and in that it was a vine plant winding around trees, the shape was fairly similar.

Except its leaves were far bigger than morning glory’s...

“They’re almost as big as my hand.”

“Ggurur?”

“Yeah, pretty big.”

Even though Gio’s hands weren’t small, Weeping Fringe was large enough to spill over them a little.

“It’s unusual that the vines are a deep white, too.”

The leaves called “Weeping Fringe” boasted a gradient where the green deepened toward the tips.

The vine connected to the leaves was an opaque white, and it seemed like it would really stand out in the evening.

“Anyway...”

He’d obtained chili peppers.

‘I should try making chili powder with this.’

He liked it a lot.

“Let’s check the condition.”

He picked Weeping Fringe, tore it, and smelled it, and sure enough, the sharp, spicy scent was exquisite.

Even if it wasn’t exactly the same as Earth’s chili pepper, it was roughly similar, and it had a strangely soft aroma that seemed like it would go well with this meat, which had a nutty scent.

The complex fragrance almost felt dizzying.

‘A scent mixed with chili and mala... and a little star anise?

It also feels like there’s a soft sweetness similar to pandan leaf... and since the meat happened to smell like walnuts or hazelnuts, if I make it well like this, I could whip up a tantanmen-flavored sausage in one go.’

Having thought that far, Gio muttered.

“But...”

There was a problem.

“I think using too much of this would be burdensome.”

As someone who eats anything, Gio wouldn’t have minded the chili scent being as strong as it wanted, but the aromas of mala or star anise or pandan leaf were a bit strong.

Mala gives a numbing tingle and pandan leaf’s lingering sweetness is something you can just pass over, but star anise.

“This is a bit too strong.”

“Ggurururur...”

“...”

After tearing off a small piece and putting it in his mouth, it was even more so.

“Yeah, it’s too strong.”

The aroma was at the point of stabbing past his nose and into his brain.

“Is this assassination.”

If anything, it was suicide, but it was an incredibly intense scent.

Star anise is a spice mainly used to remove the off smell from pork, characterized by a sharp yet somehow sweet-bitter fragrance.

The problem was that the “sweet” part and pandan leaf’s subtle sweetness combined to give an excessive heaviness.

“I can’t use too much of this.”

From the description earlier, it sounded like if you did something with it, it becomes insanely sweet, and seeing how that strange sweetness was mixed here and there within the aroma, he vaguely understood.

If you did something right, it really might end up that sweet.

“But it isn’t bad.”

“Ggur...”

“I’m not going to tell you to eat it raw, so you don’t have to worry, Honey.”

It was all going into the sausage anyway.

“...”

“...”

At that point, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

“...Are all the ingredients going in medicinal herbs?”

“Gguk.”

“What kind of sausage am I trying to make?”

Anyway, if there was too much, he’d wrap up the leftovers for Yoo Sungwoon.

* * *

After the long adventure ended.

Returning to the cabin, Gio declared proudly,

“I did it.”

He’d found ginger.

“It’s very different from the ginger I know, but the aroma and taste are similar, so let’s call it ginger.”

“Kungkung.”

“I’m not glossing over it—it really is similar.”

It has light brown skin with a faint pink tint.

The flesh is a deep red.

It contains a large amount of starch, so the efficiency is high when dried into powder.

Edible without any separate refining process.

A ginger-family plant characterized by a sharp, biting aroma.

Elixir method: Slice thin and dry, then steep as tea—it’s good for headaches.

Grind into powder and dry in sunlight—it’s good for the digestive organs and excellent for restoring immunity.

“Right?”

“Ggururu...”

Anyway, it wasn’t like there was only one kind of ginger on Earth.

“There’s a guy called galangal.

It has a more complex aroma and a softer taste than the ginger mainly used where I lived...”

“...”

“If you’re bored, it’s okay to say you’re bored.”

“Gguk.”

“Alright, then.”

This ‘Arum’ he found this time suited Gio’s tastes perfectly.

The flavor was quite spicy, but closer to a burning sensation than a numbing one.

The aroma was strong enough to be similar to the ginger commonly used in Korea, and if used well, it seemed it could be used as a spicy, sharp spice.

“Ta-da.”

And he’d found many other things as well.

“This one is nutmeg...”

Raven Walnut

The shell is red, the flesh is white, and the seed is black.

Mainly...

“Teacher, aren’t I talking right now?”

...The part used is the seed, which can be used raw or dried.

A spice mainly used for its soft, deep fragrance.

The shell and flesh can be made into medicine.

Elixir method: The seed can be eaten after peeling away the flesh and steaming it while still soft, or it can be finely chopped or dried hard to use as a spice.

If you dry the shell in sunlight for at least a day and then steep it, it becomes a medicine good for the joints.

If you squeeze out the flesh’s sap and harden it, it becomes an ointment good for recovering from external injuries.

“A stubborn fellow.”

“Ggurururur...”

“I’m glad you agree too.”

Honey seemed to acknowledge it as well.

Anyway, he found nutmeg—Raven Walnut by name.

Even on Earth, it was a popular spice that, without being overly stimulating, removes off smells and elevates dishes to feel more refined.

And the biggest gain of all.

“Finding vinegar is truly an amazing discovery.”

Wow, the mysteries of nature!

“No, really, vinegar brewed by nature itself...”

“Ggururuk?”

“I think trying to eat everything just because it looks like you can absorb it is a bad habit, my son.

Later you might eat something strange and get an upset stomach, so let’s learn to restrain ourselves.”

“Ggururururur...”

“Right, vinegar isn’t something that just naturally makes itself on its own.”

Life was truly interesting.

“I was just thinking about whether I should try making vinegar or liquor with mangdung fruit, too.”

There are many ingredients you can make vinegar from.

“You can make vinegar from grains like rice, barley, or wheat... and from fruits like jujubes or peaches, from flowers like lotus or roses, and even from honey.”

But the methods took quite a lot of care.

“That’s just how fermented foods are.”

The important point with fermentation was that if you slip up, it just becomes spoiled porridge.

You had to raise the exact right bacteria while keeping proper temperatures and amounts for true fermented foods to be completed.

And as he’d already thought a few times, this place was a paradise for cooks.

“Like how vinegar can just come out on its own from inside some big tree.”

That tree looked quite peculiar.

It was a tree whose lower trunk near the roots bulged out roundly like beads, and among them there was a tree that was especially harder and a dark reddish color.

When he approached because it smelled sour, vinegar was slowly seeping out from the swollen trunk.

“It was a tremendous sight.”

Once again, Gio had to cry out to the spirits of heaven and earth.

Candy Trap Tree

A tree whose lower trunk is swollen round like candy.

Hermaphroditic; its leaves are outside, but its fruit grows inside the swollen trunk.

If you don’t take out the Candy Trap Tree’s fruit in time, which has a strong sweet and bitter taste, it begins to rot inside, and depending on various conditions, the fruit mixes with the tree’s sap and becomes vinegar, juice, or fruit wine.

Elixir method: If you remove the fruit before it ferments and soak it in droong-droong tree sap, it can be used as an excellent nutritional supplement.

‘I should also look for a tree that has juice or fruit wine in it.’

Anyway, with all those miscellaneous ingredients...

“The time has come.”

He was ready to make sausage.

“This is true content.”

“Kung?”

“You’ve already fulfilled your usefulness with cuteness.

Watch.”

Gio washed his hands.

“I wonder how the intestines I soaked beforehand are doing.”

Gio walked over to the basin where he’d soaked the deer intestines.

Modern sausage usually uses collagen casings.

That would have made it much easier, but since this was a forest utterly detached from modernity, Gio had no choice but to insist on the classic method.

“No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find casings in the cabin.”

“Gguk?”

“Drawing casings is a bit...”

Casings made of paint sounded like they’d tear easily, and it felt unsettling.

He also thought drawing thin, transparent casings one by one would be annoying work.

Honey, staring at the intestines, cried ggururuk.

As if saying the shape was different from what it knew.

“Since I prepped them, they’ll be a bit different from what you know.

I removed all the fat and foreign matter that filled the inside and left only the skin, so the shape’s a little different from how it started.”

The intestines, pickled in sour fruit, didn’t smell.

“Maybe it’s because the meat didn’t have that dank smell to begin with.”

After checking the cleaned and deodorized intestines, Gio lifted the basin with them.

Now he planned to go down to the kitchen and start with chopping the meat.

“When you make sausage, it’s good to use tough cuts with strong aroma.

Depending on your taste, thinking about how tough a meat to use, and what cuts to mix, is part of the fun of cooking.”

“Ggurururururur...”

“Since you can’t eat it right now, why don’t you back up a bit?”

He immediately began chopping the meat.

“At this rate, the pig-bird will steal it all.”

He had to hurry and make the sausage.

“It’d be fine to add a little more of this cut.”

“Kung?”

“That way the texture is better.”

How you chop the meat also had a big effect on sausage texture.

If you cut the pieces big, they’re harder to bind together, but you get a dense, lumpy texture; if you mince it fine, you get a soft texture that breaks apart little by little in your mouth.

“It’s even better if you mix it properly.”

On Earth, because drying becomes an issue, people use a consistent size for minced meat, but this place was inside a painting overflowing with the mysteries of nature.

Thanks to that, Gio could plan a sausage with unique texture.

A little coarsely chopped, or completely minced.

‘This way, the texture will be good, and it’ll fill the casing without gaps so it’ll look good too.’

After chopping all the meat, Gio brought over the ingredients he’d mix into the mince.

‘Milky Way Mary’ to add the scent of pepper and chili; ‘Weeping Fringe’ to handle an intense, stimulating flavor and aroma; ‘Arum,’ a ginger-family plant that’s clearly spicy like chili and has a sharp aroma.

‘Raven Walnut’ to gently catch off smells and add refined 풍미, and the sweet-and-sour ‘Candy Trap Tree vinegar’ to add variation to the flavor...

“...”

He was excited.

“Nice.”

He couldn’t contain this excitement.

“Who could ever have an experience like this.”

Mysterious ingredients from a deep, silent forest where you can’t find a single human.

Cooking with ingredients that held flavors he’d never imagined, while breathing in crisp phytoncide.

That day, Gio made about 10 kg of sausage.

“...”

“...”

Getting carried away, he’d gone a bit overboard.

“I admit the mistake.”

He nodded.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine.”

“Kung.”

“We have Mr. Yoo Sungwoon.”

“Ggururuk.”

The two agreed in unison about the malignant inventory.

* * *

“Gio, are you in here?”

Yoo Sungwoon, who had come to give Gio bungeoppang again after a long time.

“I happened to see the student we met last time selling bungeoppang, so I bought a bag.”

“I see.

Thank you for your kindness.”

“It’s no big deal, so take it.

If you absolutely have to repay it, like before, I’m asking for something simple to eat.”

“As it happens, I have something perfectly appropriate.”

“Oh, yeah?

I was hungry, so that’s great.”

How much time had passed.

“...”

He came out of the gallery holding a paper bag packed full of sausages.

“...That’s not appropriate at all.”

He knew it wasn’t exactly the same case, but he felt like he’d been scammed.

Fantasy, modern,