Descending Into A Novel

Chapter 133:Special Celebration

"He ow. You actually beat him."

Ellen squinted at him,"Were you hoping I’d lose?"

"Would you believe me if I said no."

"I would actually."

"Then it’s a no."

Erin, nestled in his arms looked back and forth. Unsure of what exactly was going on. Only aware that something good had happened to Ellen.

Which is why her tail, was currently swinging back and forth. Was also currently tickling Raymond in the stomach, but he didn’t want to let go of Erin so he didn’t mention it.

"I was just very surprised at the outcome."

Ellen of all people defeating Zachary was not something he expected.

First of all, Zachary had the system. He was someone who could grow stronger practically limitlessly like Raymond himself. His talent enabled him to become the strongest in the world. If not for the dimension being a low level dimension, Zachary would have grown much further. Perhaps even able to match him at his peak.

After the defeat of the demon king, Raymond had actually been planning on contacting him to initiate him into the system users group, but the whole situation with the end of the world occured so unfortunately he couldn’t.

Anyways, in contrast to Zachary. Ellen should have lost the fight by nearly every factor. She was slightly faster but that was it, and Zachary’s light was faster anyways. He was stronger, and in a close range fight. He should have won.

But Ellen managed to barely clinch the win. Mainly by evading the entire fight and only using the Kairos arrow at the end.

Just scrolling on the academy forum. Raymond could see several posts calling Ellen a fraud runner who relied on items. Making him let out a tsk when he first read it.

Sure the Kairos set was amazing. But trying to use it at their current level was near impossible. Ellen could barely bring out a tenth of its ability, and they were trying to accuse her of cheating for relying on items?

He sighed, lifting up Erin and putting her on Ellen’s lap instead. Leading to a confused look from them both.

"You looked a bit distracted."

Her hands automatically moved to pet Erin, "and this is supposed to help me how?"

"It’s already helping isn’t it?"

"...you’re right actually."

She felt her own mind clear up as she focused on Erin. Feeling her soft hair under her fingers, and the warmth contained in her little body.

Erin turned to face her, her red pupils meeting hers.

O . O

>_<

O . O

’So cute!!’

Seeing Ellen and Erin, he unknowingly let out a smile. Before rolling his sleeves up and stretching his fingers.

"To celebrate. How about I make us a little treat?"

"You know how to cook?"

"This is my first time trying to make it. But I have the complete recipe in my head so it’s probably fine."

Truthfully, Raymond had been craving this earth drink for a while now. Yet he had always been too lazy to make it since Terra unfortunately didn’t have it.

However, with Ellen’s victory against Zachary. That provided a good enough excuse to make it, and it also gave Raymond the motivation required.

The Earth drink that he had been craving was called boba. A soft chewy pearl that was usually added into drinks and deserts.

As Raymond explained what he was making, he pulled out several prepared ingredients onto the kitchen countertop.

First things first, pot on the stove medium heat.

He poured in a small amount of water. Only enough to cover the bottom and a little more. Then brown sugar, he put in a little bit less then the recipe asked for since Erin was also going to be trying it, and he didn’t want her to develop any dental issues. Ellen also didn’t like things that were too sweet.

Stirring it together with a wooden spatula until it was dissolved, he added in the most crucial ingredient.

Cavanava root starch.

Terra and Earth were very similar, but they still held many differences. Different names, different ideas and different lives.

Take for example, angels. Calling someone an angel on Earth was a complement. Whereas calling someone an angel on Terra wasn’t exactly the same, considering real angels like Thomas existed.

Needless to say, trying to find tapioca starch was difficult when the word was different. But he managed to find a different fruit that held similar properties.

Putting in a few tablespoons, he stirred it into the brown sugar syrup until it thickened. Before turning off the heat and adding the rest to create a brown dough.

Ellen looked at the dough with a strange expression, while Erin stood on her tip toes trying to see the countertop.

He punched his fingers until it left a small gap the size of a pea, "I need help rolling the dough. It should be small pearls around this size."

"I wanna help!"

After getting a platform for Erin, the three of them rolled out the dough with their hands. While Raymond and Ellen created nearly perfect smooth round pearls. Erin created what could only be described as the idea of a sphere.

"Does the shape matter?"

"As long as its roughly the same size it should be fine."

After several minutes of rolling the pearls. Raymond prepared another pot of boiling water to cook the pearls. Dumping them into the pot once they were done.

"Now we just wait for a few minutes. Lets prepare the tea while we wait."

"Tea? How does this go well with tea?"

"With milk and sugar, not the hot steeped kind like Lin Qingyi’s."

Although, he was going to use tea from Lin to make it.

Lin Qingyi frequently invited them over for tea drinking and to chat and hang out. Each time, she would always give them some tea leaves that she had cultivated herself.

They were meant to be drunk by steeping them, but Raymond figured it would probably be the same.

Preparing a third pot of boiling water, Raymond dumped in the tea leaves. Watching as the water turned a light brown over the course of several minutes.

Seeing that enough tea flavor had saturated enough of the water, he added whole fresh milk, and even more brown sugar to taste.

So far so good, everything was going according to the recipe Raymond remembered.

Both Ellen and Erin grabbed a single pearl each, curiously giving it a taste.

Their eyes lit up simultaneously, marveling at the chewy texture. Almost like a gummy, with just the right amount of rich sweetness from the brown sugar.

"This is really good!"

"Mhm!"

Erin reached for a handful, only for her hand to get swatted away by Raymond before she could touch it.

"Don’t eat so much now. It will taste better once we’re done."

She stared at him, before reaching for another handful the moment he looked away only to get swatted away once more.

"What did I just say?"

"Hmph."

Raymond ignored the sound of her tail slapping agait the floor, choosing to let Ellen handle that.

Since the milk tea was ready, he only had one final thing left to prepare.

Once more in a pan, he put in a small amount of water and brown sugar. Simmering it until the water evaporated and he was left with a brown sugar syrup.

"Watch this."

Combining the syrup and the pearls, he put a small amount into an empty glass. Before adding in some ice and the now cooled milk tea.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t manage to get the wide straws since they never created them yet in this dimension. But Raymond could deal with that.

He also prepared a smaller glass for Erin, with extra pearls compared to Ellen’s and his.

Using a spoon to scoop the pearls, Raymond let out a soft hum.

He hadn’t been able to enjoy certain Earth delicacies ever since being stuck on Terra,and this Boba hit just the right spot.

Sweet, rich, chewy. It was the ultimate drink. Raymond couldn’t think of any other words to describe it.

And seeing Ellen and Erin’s reactions, he knew he wasn’t alone.

"How is it?"

"...why didn’t you make this sooner?"

Erin joined in, "Yeah dad! Why didn’t you make this sooner!"

"Ahem. It tastes better since it’s a special occasion doesn’t it?"

Sipping the sweet milk tea, Ellen felt her stress and fatigue fade away in moments. She suddenly understood why Raymond occasionally groaned about missing food from other dimensions. She also suddenly understood Raymond’s saying of ’people don’t know what they want until you show it to them’.

All these years, she had been missing out on such a thing!

Seeing her cup already near empty, she let out a disappointed sigh. Followed up by another disappointed sigh from Erin, who had also finished hers.

That was it.

Decisively making up her mind, she put her hand on Raymond’s shoulder.

"From now on, you are to make this every month, no every week. You got that?"

"No."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Not for free."

"Deal."