CH723

Looking around, Fone taking stock of how things had ended up as well as the damage the chimeric group had taken, their leader asked one question before making any firm choices.

“Can any of you detect any other demons in the vicinity?”

He looked at the chimeras and all of them gave a negative before turning to the rest of the adventurers, getting the same and leaving their leader to nod.

“Alright, given how that turned out we’ll be taking a break for a couple hours so everyone make sure to eat and get a bit of rest. Thera, I’m sorry but if I could ask you to deal with the wounded?”

“Of course,” She nodded, looking at the rest and seeing results far worse than from the first encounter. While there were no broken bones or lost limbs, she was seeing cuts deep enough that they could become problems in the future if they weren’t treated along with what looked like swelling from some injuries that she wanted to properly appraise. “For now, anyone who’s actively bleeding, with me. I’ll look over the rest of you after.”

She spoke with the firmness of a healer far too used to unruly patients and without a word the group moved at her orders, the most obviously injured going her way while the rest of them got settled as Ben made a fire to begin cooking, pulling ingredients from his rings to pull together a simple meal and very quickly noticed eyes moving to him as they smelled the food he was putting together.

What others had packed was largely dried goods, something simple that could be stored and consumed for what was supposed to be a couple days out in the woods but largely lacking in terms of flavour. Then there was himself, the holder of an eighth-leveled awakened crafting cooking around them. The food he could make might as well have been hard drugs in comparison with not only the heightened senses of the chimeras making them extra aware of that fact but even the adventurers they’d come with.

Even Pato and his party, who had the advantage of an awakened space magic which meant he could carry larger volumes of ingredients without having to worry about space, were looking over, ignoring their meal that was much the same in terms of dried meat with only the benefit of some fresh fruit to go along with it, telling him that none of them were much in the way of cooks and leaving Ben to sigh as he turned to Fone who was at least trying to be slightly less obvious about his desires.

“Hey Fone, I don’t mind cooking for everyone so long as anyone who wants a bowl supplies some ingredients for me to work with if that’s cool with you?”

“You heard him,” The oni said, getting up and offering some of his own dried meat, just as attracted to the smell of what Ben had already been making as anyone else. “All of you just make sure you’re going to be polite about it if you take him up on that.”

With the offer out, people started to move, with the chimeras not in the middle of treatment coming to offer some of their dried goods while Pato came over to offer some of his group’s available fruits and vegetables, looking like he wanted to say more but holding back to let Ben cook.

Which first meant pulling some more raw metals from his rings, reshaping them to make a large enough pot for the amount of people he now needed to feed as he prepared what he’d consider a simple stew, using some of his own supplies to help fill it, even if he was making good use of what he’d already been given.

Materializing water and some of the compounds that existed within the meat cells he’d learned to materialize, he could now in essence create a broth on demand before using it with his material manipulation to force the dried meat he’d received to take in some of the liquid to rehydrate it while at the same time softening it with the destructive aspects of that same skill, creating something far more tender than it otherwise would have been before pulling out a knife to dice some of the vegetables, again using his magic to help break them down faster to speed up the cooking process.

Once done he materialized salt and pulled a few more seasonings to add before deciding to make it just a bit thicker by materializing the fruit cells he’d learned to create without connecting them into a greater whole, letting them easily break down to improve the texture of the broth.

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