Pulling out the salt crystal, turning it in my hands.

I had only used it on Lily's food since the day it nearly destroyed my mana channels, but if all it took was to purify it…

I used Transformation on it, watched as the blue glow appeared and faded. Looking up, I saw Liane watching me with a guilty smile, and it only took a second before Jen threw her hands up.

"There's no way to stop this happening, is there?" Jen asked, defeated.

Liane put on her best hurt look. "This is important to test, and we have everything ready to go if it goes bad!" she tried to reason.

"We also know that this was enough to push Trev to paralysis. I don't know exactly how much mana Trev has, but it's more than you," Jen countered in a stern voice.

"Trev also didn't know to burn off mana, or what was going to happen," Liane tried to counter.

"You have what, fifty mana? What if it ticks up mana faster than you can burn it, even with your ability? No—this time I'm going to have to put my foot down and say we can't risk it. We're too far from anyone capable of helping you, with a possible angry army only a day away," Jen said, her tone final.

"Forty, and Fine." Liane mumbled and handed the crystal back to me.

I was surprised when Milo grabbed it from my hand.

"She might not, but I can. Let's go outside first so that if I need to burn mana quickly, I am able to," he said, heading toward the entrance.

Micca had just been watching the exchange with rapt attention, she quickly got to her feet to follow him outside. Jen said something I couldn't quite make out and ended up following Milo as well.

Liane looked like she'd won a prize, even if she wasn't the one trying the salt.

As we all came outside, Hari's attention immediately turned to us.

"What did she do?" Hari asked before Liane had a chance to answer.

"What? I didn't do anything this time!" Liane said from behind Milo, trying not to look guilty.

"That's not entirely true," Milo began. "Trevor realised that he could purify the drake and make it safe to consume, so now we are testing the salt since it's also been purified. But first I needed to burn off a bunch of mana," Milo explained, handing the salt to Jen, who appeared on his right.

"Are you sure about this?" Hari asked; concern was clear in his voice. In the background, I noticed both George and Darren had weapons in their hands, which surprised me—I didn't expect George to start today.

"Well, I wouldn't have been if I didn't just see drake get purified, and I suspect if we don't do this safely, our wild child over there will do it behind our backs at some stage," Milo said, gesturing to Liane when he mentioned 'wild child.'

She put on her best fake-outraged face, but there was no hiding the smile behind it.

"Fine. Just be safe, please." Hari sighed and turned back to George and Darren.

Milo walked off to the side, moving to where there was nothing around him, before he started to unload spells in dramatic fashion. I just watched in awe as giant pillars of stone appeared and crashed into the ground, or the very earth itself erupted into jagged stone spikes.

Micca had come to my side and was watching in absolute amazement as the massive display of power continued. Even Darren and George had stopped whatever training Hari had started as a gale formed between the spikes—followed by an absolutely colossal piece of stone forming above the spikes, and crashing down with a deafening boom.

The dust cloud that was kicked up from that attack then seemed to collect and condense into a ball before forming into small stone spikes and exploding outward.

I knew Milo was powerful, but seeing this display really put things into perspective—just how strong they all were.

I couldn't see anything surviving those attacks, yet I knew from experience just how powerful some creatures could get now.

Before long, Milo had seemingly used enough mana. Dusting his hands off, he turned back to us with a smile on his face.

"Right, let's try this salt then, shall we?" he said happily.

I thought he would lick the crystal like I had, but he took a much better approach and scraped off the corner of it, gathering a little on a knife, then placing it in his mouth. He handed the crystal back to Jen—presumably in case he needed to burn mana.

But after a short pause… nothing. Milo didn't cast anything.

He was smacking his lips together, though. "Strange," he muttered.

"I think you've purified it. There's no mana generation, but it's made my lips tingle—and there's a spice to it, as well as the expected saltiness. Very strange," he muttered again, pulling out a notebook.

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I had to chuckle, but already Liane was over by Jen, clearly trying to try it herself.

Then she stopped. Her eyes shot wide as she turned to face me.

"The dragon!" she said excitedly.

"No." Hari's voice cut through.

"It's one thing to try these rare ingredients, but we're high enough level that we'd probably survive if it goes wrong. That dragon is of legendary quality. If it goes wrong, there is no saving you—you will die. Absolutely not," he said angrily, before turning to me.

"Trevor, no one but Lily or an equally powerful creature eats the dragon. Is that clear?" Hari said in a very stern voice that brooked no argument.

I just nodded. I wasn't about to argue otherwise or try my luck on this issue.

I heard Liane mutter, "No fun."

But Jen immediately hit her on the back of the head. "He's right, you know. Don't push your luck."

"Fine!" Liane said, folding her arms. "I won't try any dragon until we know it's safe."

I saw Hari, George, and Darren return to training and realised he was teaching them the same basic formations he'd been drilling into me the last few days—repeating them until they were muscle memory.

I wasn't surprised to see both had discarded using the spear. Now, George had a short sword, while Darren was using an axe.

Leaving them to it, I started to walk back inside, where I was met with an ember to the chest as I walked through the door.

"Sorry, Crisplet. We were just stepping outside to check something—not leaving you behind," I said apologetically, remembering my old promise to always let him know where I was going.

Sitting back down at the fire, Micca quickly sat next to me.

"That magic was so cool!" she said in a hushed tone.

"I know, right? You should see him when he has an earth potency buff—he basically shook the mountain," I said excitedly.

"How does anything survive all that?" she asked, still looking off into the distance in awe.

"I wondered the same thing! But when the Galvonson attacked us, I watched it take a giant stone pillar directly to the body, and it was still fighting. Then those stone spikes—the Chironid we're eating today just dashed around them in a blur." I said, remembering the fights.

The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully. I started practising my runes, particularly the cold rune I was most recently working on.

"You know where that might be useful?" Milo pointed out halfway through.

"If you end up using that sugar reed to make the drink you were planning, and it allows you to carve a rune into a wooden barrel storing it, it might allow you to enchant the contents of the barrel itself—since your skills so far have shown items that are food-adjacent can be included in your cooking-only skills. Like all the stuff you're storing in the pantry. That book included," Milo said, gesturing to the book.

"How would that help the drink, though?" I asked curiously.

"Do you have any idea how nice it is to have a cold drink after a day of fighting—or even travelling? But also, if that rune works, what's stopping your barrier skill from also working and providing each sip a barrier buff temporarily?" Milo suggested.

Now that was interesting… and something I hadn't considered at all.

I wrote down the notes in my own notebook, making sure to try that, and highlighted that I needed to make the sugar reed drink.

Once dinner time was about an hour off, I diced up some tubers and added them to the stew. I also decided, since we had tested it and it should be safe now, to add a little bit of the Pyrrhosite salt to the stew as well.

I pulled out the chunk of dragon tail to prepare for Lily and decided to add both the salt and the rare honey to it, along with some other dried herbs, before placing it on Crisplet's grill bars to start cooking.

I watched as it slowly gained an amazing aroma and a super golden brown colour. wishing I could try it myself.

But Hari had made it very clear he wouldn't stand for it, and I wasn't willing to sour the happy mood of everyone by being reckless now. The stew, on the other hand, was difficult to describe. Despite no real spice being added to it, it had an unmistakable heat that stung your nostrils—like a mix of smoke and dried chillies.

Once the hour passed and everything was ready to go, Lily was already there, practically sitting in the flame watching the dragon tail cook. I knew once she showed up there was absolutely no chance Liane would risk taking any—so in a way, it was a relief.

Lily's presence still startled George and Darren as they came back in after their training. They had been out there all afternoon, and now sat down next to myself and Micca.

"I think I've learnt more this afternoon than I have in the last ten years," Darren said, shaking his head.

"Agreed. I never thought you'd be an axe wielder!" George said with a laugh.

"He's not wrong—I was surprised to see you with an axe too," I added.

The conversation turned to friendly banter between the two of them, before they pulled Micca in as well, and it was great to see all three of them getting along—especially if the plan was to have them be Micca's guards.

After I got the signal from Crisplet that the stew was ready, I used Infuse on it and began serving up bowls. But I was nudged by Lily the moment I began.

"Yours is not ready yet. You need to wait for Crisplet to give the signal, then I need to infuse it. I can give you some of this stew while you wait, if you like? I have plenty," I said, offering a bowl to Lily, who looked from Crisplet—where she was clearly asking a question—then back at me, then at the bowl.

I guess that was decided, I thought, and with a chuckle, I served up an extra bowl of stew to Lily as well, placing it on the ground so she could eat it while still watching the dragon tail cook.

I served everyone else as well, and sure enough, the dish really was spicy. There was a real savouriness to it, and the Chironid meat fell apart; it was so tender. It was actually surprising—but by five bites in, my mouth was basically on fire, and I ended up getting water from Milo, who seemed to be loving it.

"You see, Trev? This is what you need a chilled drink for!" he said with a laugh.

Micca looked to be struggling the most with the heat. "It's so good, but so hot," she said, taking another bite.

It wasn't long before Crisplet signalled the dragon tail, and Lily shot to her feet.

"Wait, wait—I'm coming! Let me infuse it first. I'm getting really close to level twenty-five. If you could go out and do some hunting, it would be really helpful," I said, looking to Lily as I pulled the dragon tail from the fire and placed it on top of her now-empty bowl, using Infuse.

Reaching out, I went to try to rub Lily's head again. I don't know why I did it—I just felt compelled to, like it was the right thing to do. And when Lily didn't stop me, I knew it was.

"Thanks for helping so much, Lily," I said, before returning to my seat and continuing to eat my stew.

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