284: Uncle

Rushing out of the temple, I only had one goal, as I heard Liane filling in the others behind me, particularly Luis, who wasn’t familiar with who Lukas was at all.

There was a part of me that felt bad as I had gone there to see the Head Priest, and instead of doing that, we let him know we were there only to rush out.

“What are you going to make, Trev?” I heard Liane ask as she jogged alongside.

“I don’t really know, just a simple broth with regeneration. I don’t know what his level is; all I know is he had the swordsman class,” I answered.

Milo, who wasn’t far behind, said, “That’s an uncommon class, I believe? If so, even at sub-level ten, he should be able to withstand regeneration. Just be careful about overloading his stats, in particular, his intelligence and wisdom stats are usually low.”

This was all incredibly useful information, and I felt like I would just make something very simple; this didn’t need to taste great, it wasn’t a dinner.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“I know you’re not worried about it, but we should also work out just how much gold you gave them too,” Liane chuckled.

I felt a pang of guilt for a moment, but Liane seemed to realise what her comment might make me feel and quickly followed it up.

“To be clear here, Trev, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have done it, only so we can keep track of it in Milo’s notes,” she added.

She was right; they never questioned me no matter how much I spent, but I knew that Milo recorded everything.

We reached the inn in what felt like no time at all, and Gilain looked surprised as we entered, sitting at the table with Jamal.

“Back already? That was fast; did something happen?” Gilain asked, already getting out of his chair.

“Kind of?” I said.

Hari entered the inn after me, and speaking directly to Jamal, “Would Trev be able to use the kitchen?”

Jamal just waved in the general direction, “Go for it, not sure how clean it’ll be in there; I don’t remember when I used it last.”

With his blessing, though, I went straight to the kitchen with Crisplet, Milo, and Liane trailing behind.

The kitchen was not as bad as I expected it to be; it was clear that it had not been used, as every surface seemed to have a layer of dust over it, and the roof in the corner looked to be sagging slightly. Long term, I would be worried about it collapsing, but not right now.

The oven looked serviceable as Crisplet quickly got it lit after I provided him some wood.

Milo caught my attention, “Trev, do you remember at the village on the way here you made the soup that had Clear Body?”

I nodded and immediately understood what Milo was leading to, “That gave Major health regeneration, though?” I said, concerned.

“But the stats were low, nothing over five, if I remember right. I think going for that same healing liquid would be very beneficial here in case there are any infections he’s fighting,” Milo said.

Liane agreed, “He’s covered in wounds, not just the missing leg, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all.”

I couldn’t help but feel truly thankful to have found this group in this moment.

“Thanks for everything,” I muttered.

Liane just smiled.

Going from memory, to achieve a clear body, I needed to stack several elements. In this case, it was blood owl, blood tears, blood owl beak powder, and virfolium.

I caught from the corner of my eye that both Liane and Milo were working together to clean the kitchen itself. Milo was using his magic to clear the dust while Liane was there with a rag in hand, and water from Milo, already wiping down all the surfaces.

“Lily, are you there?” I said out loud.

She appeared only a moment later in the corner of the room.

“Could you find me two blood owls? I’ll cook you some really nice Drakon in return,” I asked hopefully.

There was a sigh, but she vanished.

I didn’t want to change the recipe too much, to ensure I hit the same buffs, so I would put corn in this one as well, and I would be sure to just strain off all of the meat and corn, and only serve the liquid.

While Lily was hunting, I pulled out everything else I would need for the dish: onions, corn, virfolium, blood tears, and the blood owl beak powder.

I also pulled out a slab of Drakon, slicing off ten slices in total, and after getting a grill from Crisplet, I started to cook them off.

“Should we do the offering now too?” I asked.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on NovelPhoenix. Report any occurrences.

Milo spoke first, “I’m guessing you smelt something again? I saw the breeze so I was sure something happened, just no time to discuss it.”

“You didn’t smell the fresh bread?” I asked, confused.

Milo let out a laugh, “No, Trev, I’m sure I can speak for everyone; no one else did. It’s odd they request specific foods, though.”

Liane, who was cleaning a set of shelves, joined in, “I bet there’s another event like the mana pulse again.”

Milo frowned, “The problem with that is it’s going to have an effect on the world that people are going to struggle to deal with.”

“Like the increase in monsters,” I said.

“Like that, but that aquatic plant you purchased? They said they haven’t seen it around these parts before. I would bet money that plant becomes common in the river system around here moving forward, and it’s a direct result of the increased mana,” Milo explained.

“It’s called Drownweed,” I said.

Liane let out a snort, “Well, that name doesn’t paint it in the best light, does it?”

“It’s likely a highly accurate name for what it is. In areas with enough mana, it likely grows like a weed, as a lot of aquatic plants do, and if you’re caught in it, you can drown due to the paralysis, and that’s just one change out of likely hundreds,” Milo said.

“So I shouldn’t make an offering then?” I asked, confused.

Milo shook his head. “It’s not that. I’d need to get to a proper library. My current hypothesis is that a lack of gods over the last millennia or two is directly correlated with a drop in mana. I think right now we’re seeing a restoration of sorts. People will adapt, but it will be hard. There are records of a lot of very powerful creatures out there.”

Lily arrived back, dropping three blood owls on the ground and immediately eyeing the Drakon that was currently cooking.

“We’ll get these clean for you,” Liane said.

Taking the three birds and leaving the kitchen, I heard “Jen, give me a hand” from the other side of the door.

Looking around the room for a moment, I couldn’t help but laugh at Clacks, who was currently following Milo as he cleaned, occasionally shooting a bead of water at any dirty patches, clearly wanting to help also.

I would need to roast the birds before I started the stock I would use for the soup.

While I waited for that, I pulled out the ingredients to make bread, I wasn’t actually sure if Crisplet could make bread on his own as he lacked the appropriate limbs to knead the dough, and Clacks’ involvement might be limited, but I was sure if I allowed them to put their finishing touches on it, that would work.

Thinking on that, I got a great idea.

“Clacks, would you like to help me?” I asked.

I had figured by now with certainty that Clacks could understand us, and although that was concerning in some regards for a baby monster to already understand us, I wasn’t about to question it.

Clacks hopped across the counter, coming up to where I was pulling out flour.

“I need some water, Clacks, and I want this water to come from you. It’s going to be our offering to the god who gave you that leaf, okay?” I said.

Clacks flapped her wings and approached the bowl I pulled out to collect the water.

“If you run low on mana, make sure you stop and Uncle Milo will finish it off,” I said.

From behind me, I heard Milo stop cleaning before saying, “Uncle? What are you teaching her! I’m not that old.”

I ignored him; this would be payback for all the jokes he made about ‘my cat’ in the past.

What I didn’t ignore, however, was giving all the Drakon slices to Lily, who had been watching them cook this whole time.

Liane returned with the three birds, fully butchered, along with all the additional parts in case I wanted to use them. As this was a dish I was used to, I very quickly had them in the oven with Crisplet to start roasting and get some colour on them.

She took a seat in the corner.

I turned around just in time to see Clacks had filled the bowl I pulled out halfway and was letting out a chirp.

“All done?” I asked happily, getting another chirp in response.

It wasn’t a lot of water, but I figured since we really only needed to make three small rolls, I could make do with a tiny batch.

“Thanks, Clacks, be sure not to use all your mana,” I said.

Milo looked over, seeing the small bowl. “Do you need more?”

“No, I’ll make do with this. We don’t need big bread rolls for the offering, I don’t think,” I said.

“You could always get a small amount of river water; it’ll work fine here. The natural mana from the tree purifies the water so it’s safe to drink, and the locals here don’t bathe or wash in the river, so it’s kept pristine,” Milo explained.

“Except for the dangerous weed in there,” I laughed.

Milo grinned. “Yeah, it’s probably best they don’t swim in there now. We’ll be sure to tell the city officials before we leave, though I suspect they have already seen the signs.”

My attention turned back to the trouble at hand. I’d mostly tried to push it out of my mind and not think about it, but that was impossible, really.

“Do you think Lukas will recover?” I asked.

Liane was first to answer. “Yes, his body will recover, though that’s not the difficult part.”

“The leg?” I questioned.

She shook her head. “That ties in largely to the main issue that people run into, and it’s all up here,” she said, tapping her head.

“The mental toll of losing a party member and nearly being killed yourself really does a number on people, Trev,” Milo said.

“Raymond is a prime example; he only got injured slightly, but that fear was enough to break his party and he trekked across the kingdom alone just to settle his mind, essentially,” Liane added.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Trev,” Milo reassured.

“I have to ask though, Trev, isn’t this the kid who snubbed you at the inn?” Liane asked.

I nodded, not knowing what to say.

“If his party have essentially abandoned him to his fate here, I’ll go out on a limb and say he’s likely not had a good run, or a group that cared much for him,” Liane added.

Milo clearly agreed as he was nodding. “Just be prepared that sort of environment can change people, Trev, and not for the best.”

“I know, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll help him even if he doesn’t want anything to do with me. Perhaps in time he’ll come around if that’s the case,” I said.

During the conversation, I had finished kneading the small amount of dough. In the end, I didn’t need any more water, so I set it aside to rise, as Crisplet let off sparks to let me know the birds were roasted.

I could get the stock started now, which I would turn into soup.

“It’s going to take a couple more hours to finish the soup. We can go to the temple at any time here?” I double-checked.

Milo nodded. “Yeah, it’s one of the only temples that is open all day and night, and has people available at all times. It’s required due to the healing they offer; they can’t make people wait outside till morning.”

This made me feel better. Lukas would have the soup by morning. I just had to be careful it wasn’t too potent.