As the incantation was uttered, a faint ripple of magic emanated from the tip of the wand.
Those few gray mushrooms seemed to actually twitch; their color began to shift toward an eerie pink, and their surfaces even started secreting a viscous liquid!
Did it work?!
Louis didn't even have a few seconds to celebrate before that pink glow quickly faded, and the mushrooms returned to their original dusty gray appearance, as if everything just now had been an illusion.
"Fine," he sighed. It was just as he had expected. The illusions created by Transfiguration ultimately couldn't last, and it was even less possible to truly change the inherent properties of matter.
He pointed his wand at a bundle of wild vegetables nearby; this time, he wanted to see if he could transform them into the shape of Dittany leaves.
The wand flicked.
This time, there wasn't even a hint of a reaction. The wild vegetables remained wild vegetables, green and lush, as if mocking his overestimation of his own abilities.
"Tsk." Although it was an expected outcome, the successive failures still left Louis feeling somewhat frustrated.
His current mindset was a bit like a gambler who had casually bought a lottery ticket.
Even though he knew rationally that winning the jackpot was impossible, deep down, he still harbored a sliver of hope, thinking "what if."
In fact, many of the potion recipes recorded in the book "magical potions and draughts" included quite a few ordinary materials that also existed in this world.
For instance, certain plant roots (like monkshood/aconite), animal hair (rat tails?), or even mineral powders, and so on.
But if he couldn't solve the problem of those crucial materials exclusive to the magic world—such as Dittany, Horklump juice, Billywig stings... these potion recipes were like castles in the air to him, treasures that could be seen but not touched.
This made him feel like he was suffering a huge loss.
After all, this copy of "magical potions and draughts" was one of the few textbooks that covered all the basic potion content from years one through five at Hogwarts, unlike his spell books, most of which only recorded first-year material.
Having a vast library of potion recipes but no suitable materials to make them a reality was truly regrettable.
But on second thought, he was currently just a "wild" Wizard who had been self-studying for a few months using a first-year textbook and a second-hand guidebook; he couldn't even recognize all the basic spells yet.
Expecting to reach for the stars and brew advanced potion now was indeed a bit overly ambitious.
"Besides," Louis began to give himself an out, "brewing potion is naturally quite troublesome; the steps are tedious, and the requirements for heat control and material ratios are high."
"Even if I had the materials, I might not succeed on the first try, and the risk of failure is high. How could it be as convenient and fast as magic spells?"
"It's no big deal even if I can never make potion... yeah, it doesn't matter."
After Louis's nonchalant self-consolation, he felt much better.
Then, he irritably picked up the large iron pot containing the fish and walked toward the river.
Since things had come to this, he might as well eat first!
...Of course, he wasn't actually going to use these ingredients to make some fanciful potion.
Since they were gifts from the child, he thought he might as well cook a meal, serving as a response to their pure-hearted intentions.
In his previous life, he had lived alone for many years, and combined with his interest in cooking, he had taught himself a decent set of skills.
When he went on picnics with his roommates before, they had also messed around and figured out many simple outdoor cooking methods together.
He skillfully found a flat rock by the river, built a simple stove with a few large stones, and gathered some dry branches to start a fire.
"Incendio!"
Nothing happened. Louis nonchalantly put his wand away and then pulled out a lighter.
Once the flame was lit, he went to the river first.
The iron pot still contained the river water he had fetched earlier; although it looked clear enough, he cautiously poured it out and then cast Scourgify, cleaning the pot inside and out.
Next, he raised his wand and whispered the incantation at the empty pot: "Aguamenti."
A stream of clear water appeared out of thin air and poured into the pot, filling it about halfway. He placed the pot on the stone stove and began to boil the water.
While waiting for the water to boil, Louis went to the riverbank, efficiently gutted the fish, washed the wild vegetables and mushrooms from the basket, tore them into small pieces, and opened a can of meat to have ready.
When the water in the pot began to form fine bubbles, he carefully added the prepared ingredients. Then, he took the various jars of seasoning from the basket and sprinkled some in based on his intuition.
Finally, he covered it with a lid "borrowed" from the RV, letting the flames lick the bottom of the pot as the long brewing process began.
Louis hadn't originally expected much. After all, the ingredients were simple, the seasonings were incomplete, not to mention the lack of heat control. In this environment, as long as it was edible, the taste was secondary.
However, things turned out completely beyond his expectations.
Before long, a rich, savory, almost soul-stirring aroma wafted from that unremarkable iron pot, drifting with the river breeze toward the camp.
Standing by the fire, Louis was instantly stunned by this sudden fragrance.
Hmm?
Why... does it smell so good?
This aroma seemed to be more than just the freshness of the fish; it was mixed with the crispness of vegetation and an indescribable mellow scent, smelling wonderful.
He lifted the lid in confusion and saw that the fish soup had already simmered into a milky white, looking like thick milk.
The fish was stewed perfectly, white and delicate, almost melting. It was garnished with emerald-green wild vegetables and gray-brown mushrooms, the colors looking very appetizing.
The fragrance hit him like something tangible, making him, someone who had stayed up all night and was already famished, unable to stop himself from swallowing.
Smelling this strange fragrance, he even felt that much of the fatigue caused by physical exhaustion and mental tension had dissipated.
"What's going on? I didn't... actually brew some kind of weird potion, did I?!"
Louis's fanciful guesses resurfaced. He quickly picked up a clean spoon nearby, scooped up a spoonful of the scalding fish soup, and without even bothering to blow on it properly, sent it straight into his mouth.
"Sss—ha—!"
The scalding fish soup instantly soothed his mouth, and an indescribable explosion of extreme umami erupted on his taste buds!
The sweetness of the fish, the crispness of the wild vegetables, and the richness of the mushrooms blended perfectly, forming an indescribable complex flavor.
More peculiarly, after the soup went down his throat, a warm current seemed to slowly slide down his esophagus, dispelling the last trace of fatigue and chill from his body.
By Merlin! This is way too delicious!!!