Entering the familiar inn, I noticed Larry had already emptied the place out, as the only people currently here were from my own group. The only exception was Janette, who was currently in conversation with Micca at one of the tables.

  “I’m going to go into the kitchen,” I told the others. Crisplet rapidly left the brazier before following me into the small space that was once so familiar.

  I caught sight of Geo, who was already working away at a dish I recognised straight away—he was preparing the ingredients to make crumbed fish.

  “Mind if I use some kitchen space?” I asked from the doorway.

  Geo smiled broadly. “You don’t need to ask, lad, get in here.”

  Entering the kitchen, Crisplet followed me, clearly looking around, before spotting the stone oven built into the wall.

  “This is the second kitchen where I learnt pretty much everything,” I said, gesturing to Crisplet, but the focus was clear as he had already moved to the oven, looking back at me.

  I just laughed and gestured that it was okay. “You’re fine to take over the oven, I’m sure Geo won’t mind.”

  Geo let out a laugh. “Not at all. Crisplet understands you?”

  “Yeah, he understands everything.” This was reaffirmed by Crisplet, who shot off a burst of embers.

  “That’s a yes,” I chuckled.

  Geo looked at Crisplet entering the oven. “What’s a no, then?”

  A moment later, a piece of coal flew out of the oven and hit Geo in the forehead, catching him by surprise.

  “That.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh as I pulled out the three chickens I had bought.

  Geo raised an eyebrow at the chicken. “That’s basic, isn’t it?”

  I shook my head. “It is, but I feel I need to make an offering at the temple of a roast chicken.”

  “You know we have plenty of food there, right?” came the voice of Martin, appearing in the doorway.

  “Not for the people—for the Goddess. Three times I’ve prayed to her, and three times I’ve had the smell of roast chicken waft over me during the prayer,” I explained, staring down at the chicken.

  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Did I go all out and use all my best ingredients, or keep it super simple?

  “Ah—sorry. Martin, this is Geo. Geo, this is Martin.” I did the introductions, though Martin had already made his way into the kitchen and was shaking Geo’s hand.

  Since I had three, I decided to do both a simple one and a complex one. For all three, I made a very basic stuffing, mixing butter, bread, garlic grass, onions, and just basic salt and pepper.

  On the outside of the first, I added a small amount of fire salt and pepper, with a healthy coating of oil that Geo had in the kitchen.

  For the other two, I made them a little fancier. Instead of regular salt and fire salt, I used Pyrrhosite.

  “What are you doing?” Martin asked, looking at me scrape the salt off the large crystal with the back of the knife.

  I looked up, confused. “Uh, scraping off some salt?”

  Martin shook his head. “You’re going to damage your knife like that!”

  Looking around, he seemed to find what he was searching for and held it up for Geo to see. “You don’t mind if we use this, right?”

  Geo shook his head, and Martin came over with a stone bowl and mini stone club. “This is a mortar and pestle. It’s used to grind spices—and in this case, salt crystals…”

  Martin finally took in the crystal. “What kind of salt is this deep red colour?”

  “It’s called Pyrrhosite. It’s a rare quality one we found.”

  Martin’s eyes widened. “Rare?” he stammered. “Is this even safe?”

  I chuckled, scratching the back of my head. “It is now…”

  Geo laughed. “There’s a story there, isn’t there?”

  I just nodded, but Martin was still staring at me. “Trev, are you sure you want to use this on something as common as a chicken? You know you could probably sell this and make a fortune, right?”

  “Yeah, it’s fine. I don’t need much for the meal, and I don’t really need money right now.”

  Shaking his head, Martin pulled himself together and got back to the lesson. “All right, with hard items like this crystal, seeds, or even bark—you want to grind them to a powder or a paste.”

  He placed the mortar and pestle on the table, using the pestle to chip off a small chunk.

  “You can do this ahead of time and just store it away, so you only need to pull out a small vial of it instead of this whole crystal.” He carefully handed the crystal back to me.

  Martin then demonstrated how to grind it into a fine powder. When he was done, he handed me the mortar so I could grind the salt myself. I looked around for something to store the salt in and stumbled across a couple of the small vials I had used for the soup.

  I didn’t have any empty ones and was contemplating throwing away the contents of one of the vials when Geo came over holding an empty aged metal tin.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Use this.”

  Thanking him, I put the ground salt into the tin and stored it away. The next change was pulling out three death caps and a small handful of dilwater berries. If I were honest, I just wanted to scare my old mentors, but I knew they’d both go really well with the stuffing.

  Geo was the first to notice. “Trev, what are you doing? That’s toxic!”

  Martin quickly clued in to what I was cutting. “Are you trying to kill us?”

  I couldn’t help laughing, catching them both off guard. Placing a dilwater berry in my mouth, I said, “It’s all fine. Here, try one.” I held out two berries.

  “A lot has changed since I was cooking here. Try it—trust me.” I reassured them, holding the berries closer.

  Geo was the first to reach out and grab one, only hesitating slightly before putting it in his mouth. Martin quickly followed suit.

  “So—are you going to tell us why these are not toxic?” Geo asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I have an ability that lets me purify toxic ingredients, making them safe to eat. That’s why I can use dilwater berries, or death caps, or that salt, which originally nearly burnt my mana channels,” I explained.

  It looked like Martin was about to lecture me about the salt too. “I know now not to test random ingredients—especially rare ones. Don’t worry.”

  I went back to cooking, dicing up the mushrooms and leaving the berries whole, making a similar stuffing to the first but with the more exotic ingredients. I also made sure to use several of my dried herbs as well as the virfolium leaves, avoiding the mana regeneration ones. I used this stuffing on the two chickens I had not prepared yet.

  On the outside, I used Pyrrhosite salt again as well as pepper. I then took all three over to Crisplet in the oven. I felt like Crisplet wanted to show off a bit, because after positioning all three in a row, he pierced them with a bar of ash and coal he made, which then became a spit he rotated.

  I saw Martin help Geo prepare dinner for everyone. He began cutting up tubers to fry in tallow. I wanted to help, but there really wasn’t anything left I could assist with—which reminded me.

  “Oh, Geo—while I remember, you don’t happen to have any dunder for a sugar-reed drink I’m making?” I asked.

  Both chefs looked at me. “You’re making rum? Why is someone your age making rum?” Martin asked.

  I nervously chuckled. “Um—well, I’m making regular juice for myself, but the rum is for the party, and I think I’ll be able to buff it too.”

  Geo laughed. “It’s a pity you’ll be gone before I can try it, but do be careful; there are a lot of toxic parts in making it. Anything else you’re making?”

  “I’m also curing three boar bellies before I smoke them. They’ll be ready tomorrow,” I said, remembering that I’d either need to smoke them tomorrow or store them until I could.

  “So you’re making boar bacon and rum. You’ve really come a long way in such a short time,” Martin said.

  I spent the rest of the time in the kitchen explaining some of the other things I’d made over the last couple of months, but leaving out the really crazy stuff—like Lily, the drake, or the dragon. I would cover that later tonight when I caught up with everyone, but I knew that if I mentioned any of it now, I’d have to explain it fully.

  It took a little over an hour before Crisplet alerted me that the chickens were ready. I stored the regular one and one of the special ones away immediately, before heading out and grabbing the attention of Liane, who made her way into the kitchen as well.

  I made sure to infuse all three of them.

  Crisplet had moved to Geo’s pan and was now helping him cook the fish, while Martin handled the fried tubers.

  After placing the chicken on the table, I began to cut it into segments. Once it was done, I added a small bit of the stuffing and portioned it onto four plates.

  “Here—try this,” I said, getting everyone’s attention.

  Geo didn’t want to turn away from the fish.

  “Don’t worry, Crisplet will let you know if it’s about to burn—he’s a wonderful cook.” I gestured towards the plate.

  Martin didn’t wait, and Liane was already eating the moment I plated it.

  I took a bite myself, savouring the soft meat. It was still incredibly juicy; the sweetness of the berries had permeated the meat itself, and the salt added a hint of spice.

  It was a delicate balance of flavours, and nothing overpowered the others.

  “Trev, this is great!” Martin said, taking a big bite.

  Geo and Liane just nodded, their mouths too full to speak. The scene was interrupted when an ember flew into the back of Geo’s head, causing everyone to laugh, and Geo got the fish off the heat before it burnt.

  I stored everything once it was done cooking to keep it all as hot as possible for when we served.

  A short while later, poking my head out of the kitchen, I saw that Elder Peter had already arrived and was currently sitting at a table with Milo, who had a notebook out. The Matron had also arrived along with Gemma—the Matron sitting with Jen and Hari, and Gemma sitting with Micca, Janette, Darren and George.

  “Showtime,” I said, looking at the others. “Crisplet, do you want to come out and meet everyone?”

  I wasn’t sure if he’d want to stay in the oven like normal, but today he happily joined me as we all left the kitchen and made our way out to see everyone. I gave an awkward wave to Peter, the Matron and Gemma.

  Larry had positioned a table in the middle of the room to hold all the food, so I started by pulling out all of Geo’s fish, then all the fried tubers. Lastly, I pulled out all the remaining rolls I had—minus the mana regeneration ones—and also the lemons Geo had cut up.

  “Help yourselves!” I announced before grabbing a plate and getting a piece of fish.

  Everyone happily ate. The food was so popular that we actually ran out, and Geo, Martin and Crisplet rushed back to the kitchen to prepare more.

  Once everyone was full, I approached the middle of the room. I felt really awkward doing this, but I wanted to let everyone know what had happened since I’d left Dunhearth for the first time.

  I went into detail explaining my journey to Boltron, our run-in with Lily, and my near-death encounter with the Galvonson. I described what happened in Boltron itself, with eyes widening and gasps when I explained about visiting the storm temple and the subsequent destruction of Boltron.

  Everyone was just silently watching—well, except Liane, who was still eating.

  I finally reached the stage in the story where we rescued George and Darren. I saw Gemma wiping away a tear after finding out about Brandon. Lastly, I spoke of our journey back to Dunhearth.

  Throughout the whole story, Crisplet had been by my side, making quick ash sculptures to enhance my tale, making one of himself, and Lily, the dragons, I wished I could have kept them, but he only kept them for a couple seconds before making the next one in my story.

  There was silence when I finished telling my tale, then it was broken by Larry.

  “Trevor, you’re an idiot. Why would you try a dish you knew you’d stacked to a ridiculous level with mana regeneration?” he said.

  This completely broke the tension, and everyone chuckled.

  “It wasn’t my brightest moment,” I muttered.

  “Wait—so you’re being followed by a creature that took on a dragon… and won?” Gemma asked.

  “Yeah. I don’t think I’m being followed as much as I’m being accompanied by her at this stage,” I replied.

  “Where is she, then?” Gemma asked.

  “That… I don’t know. She’s been missing for a while.” I frowned. I was growing more concerned about her as the days went by.

  The Matron and Peter were both shaking their heads.

  “Incredible. To think your class has grown by so much, and you’re surrounded by such powerful creatures. Usually when you hear tales such as this in a tavern, it’s because the person is too drunk,” Peter said with a chuckle.

  The conversation went on for a few more minutes before there was a loud knock at the door.

  “We’re closed tonight,” Larry called out, not getting up to open the door, which had been locked to stop people wandering in.

  A loud voice called back, “Sorry to intrude. This is Captain Liam Taylor of the Royal Guards. Would you mind opening up for a moment?”

  “Captain?” I muttered.