CH101

When Ben got back he noticed Thera in the living room, completely absorbed in her studying. Rather than bother her while she was in the middle of it he instead opted to get dinner started since Sonya wasn’t home yet.

He looked around the kitchen for whatever ingredients were on hand and decided to try and get creative with it for a change instead of going off a recipe he knew. As with every time his crafting improved he’d gained an almost instinctual understanding of how to use the different materials and ingredients he was already familiar with and thought it might be fun to see just how far that would go.

He grabbed a variety of vegetables he thought would go well together, as well as some of the spices he liked and diced them all up into fine pieces before breaking them down further into a fine puree.

Once that was done he grabbed a few pieces of meat to start marinating, while trying to figure out a sauce to go with it once he was done, ultimately deciding that a spicy cream sauce was the way to go. Well, sort of a cream sauce at least. Ben wasn’t sure it really qualified when the liquid in question wasn’t farmed from anything that would qualify as a mammal, but in the end it didn’t matter as long as it tasted good.

While that was cooking down he worked on speeding up the marinating process, having finally gotten the hang of reducing the cooking time for ingredients the same way he could reduce the crafting time of materials by running mana through them in the correct way, something he’d only begun to manage after he had gained complex mind to look after it.

By the time the sauce was done so was the marinating process, and he cooked and diced the meat soon after. Finally he ended with the veggie puree, adding an egg to it as a binder from some sort of large amphibian-like species, and taking out scoops to fry like a pancake in hot oil.

When he was done, the house was filled with the smell of his cooking and he turned around to get Thera to feed as well as see if Sonya was home, only to find them chatting at the table already.

“Oh hey, didn’t notice you guys.”

“That’s because you get way too invested in your work,” Thera told him while eyeing the food with hunger.

“I only just got in,” Sonya said, smiling. “It smells great though, what did you make?”

“I just felt like getting a little creative with it so it’s not really anything,” Given the ingredients he used he wouldn’t really be able to compare it to other things from his homeworld, but he was positive it would taste good at least, and they seemed to agree once they dug in.

“I have to say, it really is a treat having someone with a high crafting skill around to cook,” Sonya told him between bites.

“Thanks, but it’s not like a meal from someone with a pure cooking skill,” Ben said, thinking back to the meals in Anailia and how, as much as he enjoyed the jack of all trades master of none role his skill seemed to give him, some things were better when there was a specialist around. Sonya though seemed to disagree.

“Maybe that would be true if we’re comparing it to someone with blessed cooking, but people with that are exceedingly rare. You’re blessed crafting could blow away an average cook.”

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“Ha, well thanks, I’ll try to make sure I’m back at a decent enough hour to do my fair share,” It was good for his practice too, he couldn’t expect to raise his crafting if he only focused on smithing and alchemy. With that thought in mind, he looked at the two women in front of him. He’d also bought plenty of sewing supplies while in Anailia, maybe if he picked up some fabric he could make them some shirts or something to practice that aspect of his crafting skill. Assuming his teacher was right he should be close to getting the next level already, he shouldn’t neglect it.