It wasn't long before there was a knock at the door, and a moment later, Hari let Nathan into the house. Knowing he was on his way, not much had been said in the few minutes it took him to arrive—mostly just Micca trying to understand more of what had happened. The idea of a random dragon showing up for a snack was something she simply couldn't accept.

And I didn't blame her.

As Nathan entered, his eyes scanned the room and landed briefly on Micca—likely because he didn't recognise her—but it didn't linger long.

"So, want to tell me what that was all about?" Nathan asked, looking flustered.

I'm not sure if it was ideal or not, but Liane answered first.

"Dragon wanted a snack. Cat's been telling its friends—good word of mouth. That's really the goal of any chef," she said with a laugh.

"I'm not in the mood for jokes," Nathan snapped back.

"Despite the absurdity of that statement, it's not a joke," Hari said, in a far more professional tone. He shot Liane a look that earned him an eye-roll, but she didn't say anything else.

Nathan let out a long sigh. "Care to elaborate?"

"Well, we didn't hear the conversation—that was between the three of them—but from what Trev's told us, the fight seems to be over. The shadow cat—Lily—encouraged the dragon to seek out Trevor for a snack made from the tail of the storm dragon," Hari explained patiently.

"That... that's absurd. You expect me to just believe that?" Nathan asked.

"You can believe whatever you like. You witnessed it just like we did," Hari replied with a shrug.

A moment later, Nathan sank into a nearby chair. "What am I going to tell all the adventurers? I can't tell them that story..." he said, exasperated.

"You're absolutely right. You can't tell them that," Liane added. "That would just put even more attention on Trevor."

"Too late for that. He had a shadow cat show up in the middle of a hundred adventurers and push him into a meeting with a dragon—in front of everyone. What do you think is going to happen?" Nathan said, rubbing his face.

"To be honest, the only thing keeping him safe right now might be the fear that anyone trying to grab him would have to deal with both a dragon and a shadow cat," Nathan added with a short, humourless laugh.

"We need to figure out how to cook the dragon's tail," I said, the realisation hitting hard. "Lily told the dragon I usually take three days, but I wouldn't even know where to begin…"

Hari looked at Nathan. "I don't think I need to stress how important it is to make sure no one steals it," he said with a stern warning.

Crisplet flared up bright red and shot off a burst of sparks, as if to second the threat.

"Stolen? Why would anyone steal the tail?" I asked genuinely confused.

"Trevor… you remember how much the drake scales were worth?" Jen asked.

"Yes?"

"Times that by at least ten for a dragon of that size—probably more, since you mentioned it's legendary. Then you've got the blood, which is incredibly valuable for alchemy, and I'm sure the flesh has value somewhere as well." She let that settle.

"Oh, sorry," I said sheepishly. I'd just seen it as a giant piece of meat—and not even one that was mine, really.

"So what are we going to do then?" Hari asked, turning to Nathan.

"That all makes sense. Yes. I'd very much prefer to still be breathing next week," Nathan said dryly. "I've got a couple of other teams in the city, similar level to yours. If the fight really is over, we can section off an area—"

"I'll set up a location just outside the city," Milo cut in. "We don't want the dragon randomly turning up to collect its dinner and accidentally levelling half the buildings."

"Yes—good idea. We can assign those other parties to help guard the area," Nathan said, glancing at Hari for confirmation.

"Sounds like a plan. Tomorrow morning, we'll start construction," Milo nodded.

"So… back to what I asked earlier," Nathan said, turning a tired look around the group. "How do we explain this to the adventurers? They're going to be hounding me—and probably your whole team—for answers."

Micca shocked everyone by speaking up. "Tell them his guardian showed up to introduce him to a friend."

There was silence for a long while before Nathan found his voice.

"It was a shadow cat and a dragon…" he said, staring at her like she was crazy.

"Yeah? And?" Micca retorted.

"Who's going to believe that?" Nathan asked, frustrated.

"Sounds like everyone will—who saw what happened," she replied with a smile.

"Fine," Nathan muttered, getting to his feet. "I'll send the groups out to you as soon as they check in. Just... please don't get us all killed."

And with that, he left the house.

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"Well, that certainly doesn't add any pressure or anything," Micca said with a laugh.

"What's for dinner tonight?" Liane asked, glancing over. "Can you do one of the spiders?" She added, far too excited.

"No!" Jen snapped. "Absolutely not."

"And you're not eating any of that dragon meat either. The drake is bad enough," Hari added, throwing a look at Liane.

"Woah, I wasn't going to steal any dragon meat… this time," she said, holding her hands up.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to cook, to be honest. I was feeling exhausted, so whatever it was, it needed to be simple. At least I was back in the house with a proper kitchen again.

I pulled out a couple of the spider legs I'd stored and, just for Liane, set those aside.

For everyone else, I pulled out the Thunar again and removed the rest of the fillet from one side of the fish, portioning it into nine Thunar steaks, I went with salt, pepper, and some of the Lemon Tea Grass I'd found on patrol. I also added a bit of Mana Truffle.

Then I got to work. Deciding to mix things up a little, I pulled out my pot and, with Milo's help, got it filled with water. Into that, I added salt, some dried Blood Tears, crushed Virfolium, and a very roughly chopped onion for flavour. I placed the spider legs into the pot.

My goal here was to see if the system would allow me to apply essence to all the legs at once—rather than individually. And if it counted as spider leg soup… surely that would work, right?

I explained the plan to Crisplet and used Treant wood for the fire, mostly due to the surplus we now had after the Treant attack.

While the soup came to a boil, I started cooking the Thunar steaks on a stone plate using a bit of butter. I really should have prepared some vegetables or starch to go with them, but honestly—I was tired.

At some point, Liane came in, saw the spider legs, and happily parked herself in the corner. She started carving something out of a piece of wood. I couldn't tell what it was, but it was the first time I'd seen her engage in any kind of hobby that didn't involve stabbing something.

The Thunar steaks were ready first. I plated them together and used Infuse on all of them.

Liane still took one while waiting for the spider legs.

Once the soup was ready, I was thrilled to find I could use the Bark Viper Essence on the whole pot! I couldn't, however, also apply the Spider Essence—I assumed it was due to overlapping buffs between the large spider and the small one. Something to test later.

The Thunar gave similar buffs to last time: Fire Immunity, +3 Endurance, +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, Increased Earth Magic Potency, and Sprint.

The spider, on the other hand—even just drinking a little of the broth provided buffs. Could I bottle this like a potion?

The soup gave: Fire Immunity, +2 Dexterity, +4 Endurance, +2 Perception, Major Improved Stealth, Major Poison Resistance, Regeneration, Increased Earth Magic Potency, and Ambush Efficiency.

It would make Liane an absolute powerhouse.

She realised it too.

"We need to figure out how to preserve that. Those buffs are amazing!" she said, almost bouncing in her seat.

Unsure how to divide and store it, I just stored the whole pot for now.

The night carried on for a little while longer, but after a full day of patrol followed by racing back to town, we were all completely exhausted—and ended up heading to bed fairly early.

The next morning, I kept things very simple again. I baked some rolls using the same herbs as before to create the endurance-based ones, and with the Treant wood, they also gained Earth potency. Alongside that, I made a basic porridge. I was running out of fruit—especially berries—and I didn't even have any Dilwater left, so I didn't bother infusing it.

Our goal today was to head out of town and into the clearing between the forest and the city to set up a fortified stone kitchen where we could prepare the dragon tail—and know well in advance if anyone was approaching.

Micca was coming with us. Hari deemed it too risky to leave her behind, so for now, she was saddled up behind Jen.

That was the plan anyway.

But the plan quickly fell apart. As we approached the gate, there was already a crowd gathered nearby, watching—and they quickly spotted us on our horses heading in that direction.

"Here we go…" Hari muttered.

Crisplet immediately turned a violent shade of red.

"Young boy! Young boy! A moment, if you please!" one of the older men called out, rushing toward us.

"How did you tame a Shadow Cat?" another shouted.

"How much for dragon blood? I need it for research!" a third yelled.

And it just kept going. I noticed, however, that none of them could get close. It was like something was pushing them back—their robes and coats flicking about as though caught in a strong wind.

I figured that was Milo's doing.

"Let's move forward. Don't stop until I say so. Milo, wall behind us to stall for a little if you could," Hari ordered.

Milo gave a nod and started forming stone.

We all began moving through the gates. The people tried to follow, but Milo quickly raised a stone wall behind us, sealing off the entrance and trapping them inside as we rode out.

"Won't that last a long time like your structures?" I asked, looking back as we picked up speed.

"If they don't break it down, it'll only last about half an hour. I didn't put a lot of mana into it," Milo explained.

We rode hard, heading in the same direction we had taken during our mountain patrol. I wondered if this was Micca's first time on horseback—she was holding on to Jen like her life depended on it. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

It had only been a couple of weeks since I rode for the first time myself, and I'd barely been able to walk afterwards.

Once Hari was satisfied with the location, we stopped, and Milo got to work. The idea was to build something big enough that the adventuring groups headed our way would be able to spot it—but not so big that it would draw even more attention.

Although after the reception we had while leaving the city, I doubted we could avoid that.

Still, Milo wasn't taking any chances. The outer walls were thick, and there was no easy way in or out unnoticed. Between the outer and inner walls was a viewing corridor exposed to multiple windows, which Milo had positioned to cover every approach.

The whole thing was a work of art.

It looked like a miniature fortress—but it was really a stable, a giant butchery, a massive kitchen with the largest oven I'd ever seen, and an area for us to sleep.

Once Milo was done, Hari set up a watch. Jen had to help me with butchering because there was absolutely no way I was doing this alone. Liane and Milo took to the walls, while Hari stayed near the entrance.

Micca remained inside with me and Jen.

I gave Crisplet just a small amount of wood to start heating the giant oven. We didn't need it roaring yet. I also needed to cook a couple more Drake steaks—just in case Lily returned expecting a meal.

When I pulled out the dragon tail, it practically took up the entire room.

It was hard to fathom just how large the creature truly was. And I thought it had a stubby tail when I saw it flying… apparently not.

Jen pulled out her knife and attempted to cut under one of the scales. I watched as she pushed hard—really hard.

"Uh… we might have a bit of a problem," she said with a nervous chuckle.

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