Entering the hall, I saw Hari watching as both Darren and George were going through the steps to build muscle memory. Hari caught sight of me straight away but made sure the two of them kept swinging, pulling out a training sword and throwing it in my direction.

  “Jump in there, Trev—you’ve not practised in a while.”

  I took up a position next to George and tried to remember the steps, but I failed miserably.

  What seemed like forever later, Hari let us stop, and George immediately asked me to spar. We had a rivalry of sorts back at the academy, no… orphanage. Lukas was far more competitive, but George was always there, and he never actually won, so I suspected today would be the day he got his revenge.

  “All right—no abilities, no buffs, and we’re not trying to hurt each other,” Hari said.

  I stood across from George, who currently had a one-handed sword and a small buckler, while I was holding a slightly longer sword in two hands with no shield.

  I know Hari said no abilities, but I still wondered if I could sneak some Barrier Melon without him noticing.

  “All right, go,” Hari said.

  George lunged towards me, going for a stab—which I saw coming; that was his old move, he always opened with that. What caught me by surprise, though, was that it was a feint, as George pulled the strike just as I was moving to deflect and came from another angle, striking me on the side.

  I leapt backwards to put some distance between us, but before I knew it, George was already inside my guard and tapped me again.

  I tried my best to make an opening of some kind, and every chance I felt I had, his buckler slipped into place just in time.

  The fight didn’t go on for long. I didn’t hit George once. It highlighted two things to me: the first was how little I actually knew about fighting; the second was the value of Hari’s training.

  I didn’t have time to dedicate days like George and Darren, but I felt that if I could spare an hour a day to some basic practice, it would help me out. I wasn’t planning on engaging in combat anytime soon, but it would be nice to be able to defend myself in a pinch if I were forced.

  Once our fight was over, Darren stepped forward to spar with George, and I was rubbing my arm, feeling embarrassed at how poorly I had performed.

  “Not as bad as I suspected,” Liane whispered.

  “What do you mean? I lost horribly,” I retorted.

  “You did, but you don’t have the stats for it, nor do you have the training and the passive skills. Remember, a soldier gets a basic weapon-mastery passive, so they are going to be a step above you in combat even before training,” she explained as I walked to Milo’s area.

  “True. I’d like to get a little better though—just in case I need to defend myself one day, you know?”

  Liane just nodded, and when I entered the cave area Milo had been working in, I was rendered speechless by the sight in front of me. Where there was once a giant hole in the stone cave, there now was a very large, intricately carved stone balcony that overlooked the ocean—but even more than that, I noticed now it had a thin lattice of stone preventing someone from falling out.

  Or, I guess, stopping someone or something from coming in. Looking closer, I noticed he had also made several planter boxes, clearly for Joanne.

  “Looks amazing, Milo,” I said, making him jump.

  “Thank you,” Milo beamed. “I’m just adding the finishing touches now, but it’s all pretty much done. This mini-lake here is rather special as well. I don’t know how sensitive to your surrounding mana you are yet, but that lake has a potent presence of water mana.”

  “I didn’t know you could feel different mana types,” I said, scratching the back of my head.

  “Oh—sorry, that’s my fault. I forget you didn’t have any lessons on mana and magic. Well, very quickly: everyone who has access to skills that use mana will be able to sense their surrounding mana with a bit of effort. It’s an important skill, as the surrounding mana will affect the strength of your spells,” he explained.

  He gestured towards Crisplet in the brazier. “This lake here, for example, would likely serve to dampen Crisplet’s spells, and he’d find his fire less potent. But, more than that—even ones like earth magic—the stone is stronger, the dirt heavier, due to the water mana condensed in it. I suspect that’s why the stone around here is as strong as it is.”

  “So if I cooked down here, Manaflair Crust would take on water-mana properties for the meal?” I said, remembering the brief description mentioning that the environment affected the results.

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  “Probably—but if Crisplet were involved, you’d find it was likely cancelled out, as the fire mana around Crisplet is likely more powerful,” he said.

  “You two are boring when you talk magic like this, you know that, right?” Liane said with a smirk.

  “Yes, but he has to learn,” Milo said to Liane, clearly missing the mirth in her tone.

  I walked out onto the balcony, approaching the edge, where the water crashed into the rocks below. The smell of the salty air was strong here, but there was beauty in it all as I watched the ocean below, despite being so high up.

  “All done now?” I asked Milo.

  “Yeah, all done. I’m going to take my samples, even if I feel I have worked out the reasoning already. There could be something else affecting these rocks I have yet to discover.”

  “Oh—before I leave, would you be able to fill up the two barrels I purchased with water? I need to soak them for a couple of days, I was told,” I asked.

  “Hmm, you got it untreated. This gives you an opportunity actually, if you’re interested. We’ll soak the first one normally, but for the second one—you should consider having Crisplet lightly char the inside. This does a few things: it acts as a filter to the liquid inside, removing harsher compounds, but it also will enhance the flavour and colour of the liquid as well.”

  I shrugged; I didn’t see why not. I pulled out both barrels, and Crisplet happily went into one.

  “Just a thin layer, please, Crisplet,” I asked, and a moment later a tower of flame emerged from the barrel. It lasted for just a few seconds and then stopped.

  Once I was sure it was over, I looked over the edge of the barrel, and the entire inside was a mixture of black and white—not a single spot was left untouched.

  A moment later, Milo filled it with water. I was surprised when both barrels had water shooting out the sides. I was about to rush to pack it with wax but was stopped by Milo.

  “This is normal, Trev. It’s what they meant in preparing them. The wood will expand and fill the gaps, essentially sealing it. If there are any major leaks after a day or two, and once you’ve tightened these bands, then you use the wax if you have to. Leave them with me; I’ll keep an eye on them,” he said, shifting them closer to the pool of water.

  ***

  Back in the kitchen, I pulled out the two halves of the cleaned eel onto the counter. I had an idea of how I wanted this cooked, so first I threaded it through the iron rod. The eel was surprisingly larger than the rod, but it would do.

  I was going to save this for a campfire, but I decided against it. Instead, I had Crisplet make me a long grill the entire length of the oven. Under it sat hot coals, which I felt were mostly for appearance, but I appreciated it.

  I noticed already an earthy smell emanating from the oven; I gave Crisplet some extra Echoheart to burn for this dish.

  I started making the sauce I would baste them with, starting with the Glyntar honey. To that, I added some fine Pyrrhosite, along with Fire Salts to add a nice spice to it. Next, I wanted to see how deep I could go on the mana side of things.

  So I mixed in some Mana Tear flowers, a dash of the Mana Willow powder, and Legarant petals.

  After mixing it all up, I felt the honey mix was a little too thick for what I needed to do. Looking at my inventory for solutions, I landed on the spider soup. I had given most of it to Liane, but this would really test the limits of how many buffs I could stack into one dish, since the soup had its own selection of buffs already.

  And potentially, I would activate both Second Simmer and Crust using this.

  I winged it, added the soup, and thinned the basting sauce a small amount. When I was happy with it, I got to work. I didn’t have the brush that Geo had back in the kitchen to spread it over the eel, so I would have to make do.

  I poured it on top, using the back of a wooden spoon to spread it all over, before placing them both in the oven.

  It only took a couple of minutes before Crisplet sent off the sparks, so I pulled them out, flipped them over and poured more sauce onto it, before placing them back in the oven.

  This continued for a short while—pulling it out, adding more sauce, and placing it back—with the eel itself becoming a richer and richer brown. It smelt amazing. There was a spice, but also a sweetness, a very brief tingle on my tongue, then an earthiness from the fire came through subtly at the end.

  Soon I got the burst from Crisplet letting me know to remove them, and when I did, the grill collapsed. I took that as a sign that it was ready to go. I used Purify and Infuse on both of them before quickly placing them in my pantry to maintain the heat while I prepared some sides.

  Would you like to store [Rare] Spice Infused Mana Eel ×2 for 5 mana? Yes/No

  I pulled out a small bag of rice to go with it, prepared it in my pot, added the lid and let it cook. I had plenty for everyone at least, and the second half was for Lily, who had not shown up yet.

  “Lily, are you watching?” I said tentatively to the shadows.

  For just a second, I swear I saw her green eyes in the shadow under the countertop.

  “I have food ready for you.”

  A moment later she was there. I couldn’t help but chuckle—if I didn’t have food, would she have just ignored me? I was sure she’d looked to see what I was doing.

  I pulled out one half of the eel and placed it down for her. She started with a tentative small bite, but then it was all gone a moment later, faster than I had seen her eat anything in the past, with the only exception being the dragon.

  I was curious myself now; I couldn’t help it. Pulling the eel out onto the counter, wanting to try just a small amount for now while we waited. Slicing off a small bit at the end.

  It looked incredibly juicy, and the honey basting had created a sticky crust on the outside.

  I placed it in my mouth, and the flavour was intense. I first got a sweetness from the honey, which was almost immediately flooded like a surging flame across my tongue, before that settled and I was left with a fresh saltiness.

  I was just about to pull up my status sheet when the world grew dark again.

  In the split second it took me to fall to the ground, I had two thoughts go through my head:

  The first—what did I do wrong? I purified the dish.

  The second—I hope Liane finds me first.