Talent System: I Instantly Master My Opponents Skills
Chapter 109: A Good Cook

Chapter 109: A Good Cook

In the silence he could hear only the steady rhythm of his beating heart.

The sun did not set, instead it still hung in the sky.

"Is this the place?"

"Yes."

Jason came down from the tree upon hearing of their arrival.

’They took the biggest one.’ Jason noted as he watched the bear in front of him.

Kira and Sean had taken the leader of the Ice bears, its throat was slashed open with blood staining its fur and it had a hole in-between its head, courtesy of his dagger.

The girl lagged behind them, her blue hair blew in the light wind and her blue piercing eyes felt familiar.

Jason would have mistaken her for a member of the Hachiman clan if not for the fact that she didn’t have a name.

Sean was the one who carried the bear on his back.

’There’s just one problem with their plan, they seem to forget that this place is cold.’

Jason didn’t voice it out, instead he watched them keenly.

"Did anyone come here while we were gone?" Kira asked as Sean dropped the bear on the ground.

"No."

He wasn’t actually looking for anyone, he had only paid attention to his dinner.

Kira nodded at his reply.

"Bring it here."

Sean begrudgingly dragged the bear over to where his brother was.

The little boy was obviously stilled pissed off, he walked away and sat a good distance away from them.

"Do you know how to skin monsters?"

Jason shook his head.

Kira did not respond.

He took out the weapon that he had used for his sneak attack earlier and crouched next to the bear.

"If you mean to stay with us, you better learn."

He didn’t look up.

Using his handy weapon, he began to strip the bear of its clothing.

The boy worked carefully to remove the fur, even if it was just its clothing.

"How is the Hachiman clan like now?" Kira asked, not taking his eyes off what he was doing.

Jason was unsure of how to respond to his question, he was sure he and Kira were not talking about the same time.

"Its doing fine, nothing unusual happened."

In the end, he decided to go with an answer that didn’t suggest much.

Kira stopped what he was doing, and looked up, facing Jason with a skeptical look.

"Have there really been no attacks from the civilians?"

It was Jason’s turn to look skeptical.

"Don’t you know about civilian attacks?"

"No, I’ve never heard about them."

Kira did not speak.

He refocused at the task at hand instead.

"What are civilian attacks?" Jason questioned, seeing as how Kira had stopped.

"Attacks by civilians because they think the clan’s took away the blessings of the gods."

Neither Jason nor Kira spoke after that, they were too focused on other things.

Even though he worked carefully he finished the work quickly.

"Can you cook bear monster meat?" Kira asked, not turning his gaze away from the bare monster.

Jason had never cooked bear in all of his two lives.

But he had advanced cooking as a skill so he had knowledge on that.

"Yes, I can cook it."

’Let him cook.’

The corner of his lips tugged up slightly.

"Do you mind cooking it?" Kira asked.

"No, but there isn’t anything that I can use to cook it."

"They’ll bring it soon."

He turned away, looking into the distance.

"Are you alright?" Jason questioned, his companion had been looking into the distance for sometime, even forgetting to breathe.

Kira woke up from his daze.

"I’m fine." He hurriedly replied.

’Like I would believe that.’

He focused on the soon-to-be-meat, deciding on the most optimal places to cut so it would be satisfactory for three people.

Jason wasn’t going to eat from it, he had already eaten before they arrived.

But, he would make sure to store some meat inside his space when he was done, in one of his crates for food.

He would need the protein after all.

’How big should I cut the pieces into?’

’Do they even have spices?’

While he was busy, Sean moved past him and went up the tree.

It wasn’t particularly difficult considering that his body was enhanced by mana. The boy quickly scaled the tree and went to the highest branch of the tree.

He jumped down with something strapped on his back.

"What are you doing?" Kira shouted.

Jason looked up immediately and turned towards the person next to him.

’This is the first time he’s sounded like this!’

Jason turned.

He saw the younger brother of Kira free-falling from the tree.

’Does he think he won’t survive that.’

He glanced back to Kira and noticed that he was gone from his position.

Then, he was felt wind blow against him.

’He’s gone.’

He had already positioned himself in the right place to catch his brother.

Jason was in a daze by how fast Kira had moved.

"He really does care about his brother."

The falling boy was caught.

"What the hell did you do that for! I could have landed myself!"

"...You picked up that language from the last town we went to?"

Sean did not answer.

He quickly got out of his brother’s arms and handed him the bag before going back to his initial resting place.

’How did Sean know to bring the bag?’ Jason wondered as the boy passed by him.

He didn’t dwell on it as soon after the bag was handed to him.

"Everything for cooking is in the bag, when you want to set it on fire, tell me."

Jason wanted to question how they would cook in the cold, but he chose not to question it.

Heat manipulation was one of Kira’s talents, and if he thought about it, it wouldn’t be hard to discover how he got such a technique.

The bag was big, containing everything he would need to cook. Even spices were included.

’First off, I’m not making a stew, I’m just cooking the meat.’

He wouldn’t even be able to fry it.

Jason set to work.

Using a proper knife that he had found in the bag, he began to cut the meat.

’First, I’ll have to remove the blood tissues, hides, bones, lungs and as much fat as possible.’

Even though it was a monster, it basically still had the parts of any normal bear.

He started with removing the lungs.

Jason still held a deep grudge towards this Ice bear as it had stabbed him through his abdomen, but he managed to exercise restraint while removing the lungs so as not to rip out the other organs with it.

’Even though it might be like a normal bear, its heart is still deadly.’

The fact that he knew he was dicing up a former human being whom had died and turned into a monster did not affect him.

Jason carefully removed its blackened heart.

’Unlike the goblins, this one is quite black.’

A typical heart.

It was just abnormally black.

"Water." Jason called out to Kira. "I need water to wash it."

He was done removing the inedible parts and wanted to wash the meat.

Kira was standing next to him, observing his movements with his eyes. He didn’t trust a stranger well enough to allow them cook the food they would all eat, he could poison them.

He stood close by and watched Jason.

He walked over to the pot and put his palm above it. Then he closed his eyes as he tried to concentrate.

"Are you using water magic?" Jason questioned.

Kira opened his eyes.

He saw that he had done nothing.

"Strange." He muttered to himself before closing his eyes yet again.

He tried again, pouring much more mana into it.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that it had worked.

He took his hand away.

Jason began to wash it.

’Its a shame that I can’t fry it.’ He thought, taking a whiff of one of the various spices in the bag.

Jason didn’t understand the labels on them, so he resorted to sniffing them.

He would know instinctively on which one was right for the meat.

"I’m done." He announced.

After putting the water inside, Kira proceeded to channel heat into the pot.

The snow under it quickly defrosted.

’Heat manipulation. It also requires mana so he’s finding it a bit hard to use it while I’m here."

"Since I’m done, I’ll go rest over there."

Jason pointed towards the tree.

Kira nodded.

’I’m not responsible for it now, and I’m obviously not responsible for how it’ll turn out.’

They didn’t have the proper equipment to cook bear meat, he was simply working with what he had on hand. If it turned out bad, he would just say it wasn’t his fault.

When it was done, they all took plates.

Jason had decided to eat, because it would be strange if he didn’t.

"Is it poisoned?" Sean questioned, staring skeptically at the meat.

"Its not." Kira answered.

"That’s fine, but if I die because of this..."

Kira winced at his words.

Sean bit down on it.

He chewed the meat intensely.

"Is it good?" Jason asked, seeing as how the boy was eating it.

"Its alright." He answered quickly before continuing.

Even the girl was surprised by how good it tasted, they quickly finished the food.

’I’m truly a good cook, even with the wrong stuff.’

"Jason."

"Hmm?"

Jason was thinking of where they would sleep.

"How did you dispose of the corpse on the ground."

’Which corpse? I only killed, I didn’t dispose.’

"I didn’t dispose of any corpse." Jason admitted.

Kira’s face grew serious, a sharp contrast to how he looked before.