Chapter 32 – Bread Fruit Juice

She made her way slowly down the mountain.

At the fork in the road at the base of the mountain, Mo Lan parted ways with Vasida and Sylph.

She headed straight back to the dormitory, while Vasida and Sylph took the right fork—one of them was going to the Ingredient Collection Station, and the other wanted to find Bi’er in the farmlands.

Back at the dormitory, she grabbed a basket of Breadfruit and began experimenting with different ways to prepare them.

Since heating would destroy the Breadfruit’s magic restoration effect, Mo Lan went straight to cold pickling methods.

Following the approach for pickled plums, she cut the Breadfruit into small pieces, flattened them with the back of a knife, and marinated them with different seasonings.

Sugar-pickled, salt-cured, and a salty-spicy version—she made a small dish of each.

The estimated pickling time ranged from half an hour to two hours.

Then, using a generous amount of salt, she pickled a small jar of plums. After leaving them overnight, she would drain the liquid and add minced garlic, rock sugar, and other ingredients. These would need to pickle for a full week.

It was a shame there was no soy sauce, otherwise she could have made a soy sauce-marinated batch too.

After finishing these, Mo Lan turned her attention to juicing the Breadfruit.

There was no juicer in the dormitory kitchen, so she could only cut the Breadfruit into the smallest pieces possible, put them in a basin, and slowly pound and press the juice out with a wooden pestle meant for crushing garlic.

When eating them raw, the Breadfruit had seemed quite juicy—similar to an apple.

But when it came to actually juicing them, five or six Breadfruit filling an entire large basin only yielded a single cup of thick Breadfruit juice, and even that required squeezing and filtering several times over.

Mo Lan took a sip. The sourness was so intense she had no desire to try a second sip—it was several times more sour than eating Breadfruit raw.

But no matter. She had another trick up her sleeve.

She brewed a pot of honey water with warm water and added a generous amount of white sugar, stirring until everything was fully dissolved. She tasted that too.

Cloyingly sweet—the complete opposite extreme from the Breadfruit juice.

While waiting for the honey-sugar water to cool, Mo Lan activated her Witch Sight and began tasting the previously pickled Breadfruit dishes.

The sugar-pickled Breadfruit pieces tasted sweet at first bite, but the moment her teeth bit down, that hint of sweetness was completely overwhelmed by sourness.

The salt-pickled ones were the same, just salty at first bite instead.

The best that could be said was that the initial taste was slightly better than eating them raw—after that, it was about the same.

The filling effect was unaffected, and through her Witch Sight, Mo Lan could see that after eating these two dishes of Breadfruit, the glow of her energy aura had brightened slightly. The magic restoration effect was clearly unaffected as well.

So cold pickling was indeed a viable path—it was just that a short pickling time wasn’t enough for the flavors to penetrate, so the improvement in taste was minimal. The ones sealed in the jar might develop a decent flavor given enough time.

As for the remaining salty-spicy batch—the first sensation was salty and spicy, followed by sour and spicy. The sourness and the heat mingled together, each amplifying the other’s intensity, the aftertaste seemingly endless. She couldn’t even finish a single piece before tears and snot were streaming down her face.

Mo Lan didn’t even have time to observe the magic restoration effect before she rushed to chug several large cups of water. It took a good few minutes before she recovered.

The moment she recovered, she immediately eliminated the salty-spicy version.

One bite, and the Breadfruit hadn’t even filled her up—instead, the spiciness had made her drink so much water she was bloated. It was even worse than eating Breadfruit raw.

Her stomach was so distended that even though the honey-sugar water had already cooled by now, Mo Lan had no choice but to pace around the room and let things digest before continuing. Otherwise, she was afraid she’d throw up.

After walking around for a while, once she felt she had a bit of room, Mo Lan began adding the honey-sugar water to the Breadfruit juice, dipping a finger in to taste after each addition.

It wasn’t until the entire pot of sugar water had been added that the flavor finally became a normal, pleasantly sweet-and-sour juice with a nice drinkability.

Mo Lan took a few small sips and observed the change in brightness of her aura. To her surprise, she discovered that just those few sips had a restoration effect comparable to eating an entire small plate of pickled Breadfruit.

She took a few more small sips, and sure enough, she hadn’t been mistaken! Perhaps it was because juicing the Breadfruit had required several fruits’ worth—the concentrate really was the essence. Since her Magic Power still hadn’t fully recovered, she drank a few more sips.

As she kept drinking, Mo Lan noticed something was off. She patted her stomach:

“Based on this restoration effect, the filling effect should be just as strong! How is it that my energy aura has already brightened by a noticeable amount, but my stomach doesn’t feel particularly full yet?”

Something about this effect didn’t add up—could the fullness have been affected?

She had originally planned not to bother her friends this evening, but now she couldn’t help herself.

Before long, Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph had all come over after hearing the news.

“Try some!” Mo Lan poured each of them a cup of honey Breadfruit juice.

“If Moira made it, I don’t even need to taste it—I already know it’ll be good!” Vasida was singing praises before she’d even taken a sip.

After all, she had the backing of a world with a rich culinary culture!

“That’s because you didn’t see the state I was in when I was taste-testing other things earlier,” Mo Lan said, her scalp still tingling at the memory.

Vasida grew curious. “What things? Could anything be worse than Breadfruit?”

“Now that you’ve said that, I simply must let you try it!” Mo Lan was quite glad she hadn’t gotten around to throwing away that small plate of salty-spicy Breadfruit.

She turned around and brought it right over, even thoughtfully placing it directly in front of Vasida.

“…” Vasida wished she could slap herself.

“Chili peppers? And garlic? Raw?” Lilith wrinkled her nose. “I really can’t imagine what Breadfruit, chili peppers, and garlic taste like mixed together and eaten raw! But I’ve had this type of chili pepper before—it’s not very spicy! Vasida, just be careful not to eat the garlic bits and you should be fine.”

Vasida took Lilith’s advice, pushed aside the garlic bits, and picked up a tiny piece.

Mo Lan silently brought over a large teapot.

The very next second, Vasida was hopping from the heat. Mo Lan placed the teapot into her hands at just the right moment, and she grabbed it and started chugging.

Completely unsurprised, Mo Lan went to the washroom and came back with a damp towel. Once Vasida had calmed down a bit, she pressed the towel to her face, wiping away the tears and snot.

Vasida was so dazed from the spiciness that she looked at Lilith accusingly. “Lilith! You tricked me!”

Lilith refused to believe it. She even suspected Vasida was putting on an act!

She picked up a piece too and popped it into her mouth. “How could it possibly be that spicy! I grew these chili peppers mysel—HAH! Water! Water!”

She’d eaten too hastily—Mo Lan hadn’t had time to pour water yet.

Unable to bear it any longer, Lilith cast Spring Water spell directly into her own mouth.

The very first thing she said after catching her breath was: “How is it that spicy?!”

“It’s probably the sourness of the Breadfruit amplifying the heat of the chili peppers,” Mo Lan explained.

Sylph, the sole survivor in the room, was deeply grateful for her slow and cautious nature—it had saved her from disaster.

She hurriedly took a sip of the honey Breadfruit juice to calm her nerves.

The next moment, her eyes lit up. “This is delicious! You all have to try this one!”

Vasida and Lilith each took a sip as well.

“It really is good!”

“Compared to that salty-spicy pickled Breadfruit from just now, it’s like night and day!”