"I will hire couriers equipped with spatial rings to transport it," Adrian added. "It will be fast and secure. You will not have to worry about wagons or logistics."

"If this liquid can actually cut my food budget down," Draven said seriously. "You can absolutely have the toxic powder. It is completely useless to me anyway, and it is not a loss for me at all."

"Thank you." Adrian smiled.

The three men relaxed in the hot water and talked for another hour. They traded different stories and complained about the annoying royal court.

Adrian finally walked out of the Duke’s estate. By the time he got back to the inn, it was almost midnight.

He pushed the suite door open, only to see that it was extremely silent.

Claire was already sleeping in her own room, which meant Aria was alone in here right now. Or, well, mostly alone. Because Lorcan was definitely lurking in some dark corner nearby just waiting to stab an intruder.

Aria sat at the center of the massive mattress. She was fighting a losing battle against sleep just to wait for him. Her little head drooped, her eyes slid shut, only for her to suddenly jerk awake and blink hard to stay conscious.

She heard the sound of his boots and rubbed her tired eyes.

"Papa?" she mumbled cutely.

"How is my little angel so sleepy?" Adrian smiled softly.

He walked over and gently patted her hair.

"Why are you still waiting up?" Adrian whispered. "Just lay down and sleep."

He pulled the heavy blankets right up to her chin, tucking her in tight. Then he took off his stuffy noble clothes off and threw on a loose cotton tunic and some comfortable trousers.

He crawled onto the mattress beside her.

Aria immediately rolled over. She threw her tiny arm across his chest and rubbed her face on his arm.

Adrian just laid there in the dark and smiled. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. And the two of them just peacefully drifted off.

They got back Oresfall and Adrian walked straight into the mansion, and locked himself inside his study.

He sat on his leather chair and looked at the table.

His oak desk looked pretty neat, but it wasn’t empty. Trade ledgers, military records, and construction updates stacked up on each other. Though, this wasn’t for him to work on.

He paid smart people to handle the paperwork. These were just backup copies left for him if he wished to know about everything going on in the territory.

So he shoved the massive stack of papers aside and just stared at the table.

His brain instantly shifted gears. It jumped right back to the main problem that he had in his mind right now.

He had a massive list of things he needed to accomplish in the near future. The absolute top priority was the promise he made to Marquis Draven. He needed to figure out a way to turn the toxic, tough monster meat into a cheap, edible food source for Draven’s Army.

’I need a potion to get rid of the impurities first. I already know that it’s possible and I also know the recipe thanks to the novel but I need to make it look like I got help from others.’ Adrian thought.

His hand moved toward the small silver bell sitting near the inkwell. One ring, and a servant would sprint down to the alchemy lab and drag Celeste up here.

’No.’ Adrian thought. ’First let’s get the recipe. I already know one thanks to the novel but let’s see if we can improve on it.’

Adrian closed his eyes, ’Dungeon Link.’

The system screen appeared in his mind and he got to work.

’System.’ Adrian commanded mentally. ’Filter the library. I need every single book, scroll, and research paper that contains information on purifying monster meat. Isolate anything that talks about making toxic flesh safe for human consumption.’

He didn’t even have to wait.

The response was almost instantaneous and a new, translucent blue screen popped up right in front of the previous one.

[Query Processed. Filtering Royal Library Archives.]

[Results Found: 3]

Three books. Out of the tens of thousands of books he had stolen from the Emperor’s private collection, only three books had information connecting to making monster meat edible.

This was because innovation came with need and desperation. People already had normal animals for meat so no one even considered making monster meat safe. That only changed when most of the kingdoms here were caught by a drought that would happen in five to six years.

’Compile them.’ Adrian ordered. ’Take all the data from those three books and the one that I’ll provide you, and give me the absolute best, most efficient and cheapest method to completely purify monster meat and make it edible.’

He wrote down the method he knew on a paper and sent it into the dungeon.

[Compiling Data...]

[Synthesis Complete. Optimal Purification Method Generated.]

The screen refreshed to show a highly detailed, step-by-step recipe. Multiple regular plants, herbs and ingredients were listed out and the process was simple too.

Adrian grinned since the first half of the problem was basically solved.

But the second half was the annoying part. He didn’t promise this to Draven but he still wished to do it anyways.

’Okay.’ Adrian thought, tapping his finger against his desk. ’The meat is safe to eat now, but it’s still pretty damn tough. System, cross-reference the library again. Find me the best methods to tenderize monster meat.’

The screen shifted.

A massive list of culinary techniques flooded his vision.

Adrian started scrolling through the results. His excitement completely vanished after reading the first few lines.

Because the system was just giving him basic cooking techniques. Most of them were exact copies of the stuff he already knew from watching late-night cooking videos back on Earth.

There was the buttermilk soak. The lactic acid in the milk was supposed to break down the tough muscle fibers over time.

There was the lime juice and vinegar marinade, heavy salt brine and all those things.

Adrian let out a long sigh and rubbed his temples.