Chapter 23

I wiped my hands on a small towel before opening the door to my apartment. Cora stood on the other side, giving me a curious but playful look.

“He said yes,” I told her as I turned back to my current task of preparing breakfast.

I wasn’t just making breakfast for today, though. I was making enough food to cover multiple breakfasts for the entire party.

“That’s good,” Cora replied before noticing the changes to my apartment’s floor plan. “What’s all this?”

“I’m making breakfast, obviously,” I chuckled. “It’s a lot easier to cook in a real kitchen instead of bothering with trying to do everything in the dungeon.”

“That’s true. Do you need help with anything? I’m not very good in a kitchen, but I can chop or slice meat easily enough.”

“Sure,” I said, removing a large piece of pork belly harvested from one of the rock boars on the fourth floor. I’d alchemically cured it using a cheap but effective curing liquid I’d picked up during my last trip to the camping supply store.

I’d cured about half of the supply that I’d kept from the beasts that I’d covertly harvested within my demesne during our last delve. I had no intention of sharing the beast looting secret with anyone, but I doubted anyone would notice a few mobs disappearing, especially when the loot gathered wasn’t diminished at all.

“Slice that into bacon. Try to get some of it really thin, and some of it a little thicker.” After a moment of thought, I said, “Actually, let me show you.”

I demonstrated three different cuts. One for the thin strips of bacon that I preferred, one a little bit thicker that I’d found most people liked, and a much thicker cut, meant to be eaten as Korean-style barbecue.

I’d need to get all of the accompaniments to make the meal work, but that wouldn’t be too hard since this realm had most of the basic ingredients. Those that were missing could be substituted easily enough.

The thought of galbi, which was what Korean barbecue was usually called, reminded me that I really needed to document the many recipes I’d memorized before ascending.

It would have been nice to have been able to bring along a MealMaker, which was an artifact capable of transmuting any material into a meal based on the recipes stored in its memory crystal.

Unfortunately, traveling between realms made such a feat impossible. And since Dia didn’t appear to allow transmutation, it wouldn’t be something I could recreate here.

Once Cora understood what I needed her to do, I returned to my side of the kitchen, which had temporarily taken the place of the living room.

“I really didn’t think you’d talk him into it. He seemed so intent on delving solo.”

“He is only agreeing to a single delve, though he knows we plan to stay for three or four days.”

“You’re going to show him your sanctuary?” Cora asked.

“I don’t see why not. It’s not like we’re going to leave him to fend for himself at night.”

Besides, I’d already shared the existence of the space with Cora and Mike. I didn’t think bringing Stephen in on the secret was much of a risk.

Worst case, the fact that I had access to such a space might draw a bit of unwanted attention, especially once people realized that the Originator for the dungeon was a former Time/Space Mage. But I could honestly say that the space was created using a boon, and it was not something that I’d been involved in creating at all.

Even in my old realm, my soulbound pocket dimension wasn’t something that I’d actively created. The original inventory had been more of a bound artifact than any kind of spell or skill. It had later become a soulbound dimensional space that I’d gained the ability to physically enter through a challenge rift reward.

“Where is Mike right now, anyway?” I asked. “I figured he’d be with you.”

“He’s talking to someone from the Builder Guild. They finally realized he was an Earth Magi and are trying to get him to help with the city’s expansion.”

“I would have thought all of the relevant guilds would have been keeping track of what skills the new Ascenders reported,” I said with a frown as I removed a pair of perfectly done eggs from the small sauce pot on the cooktop.

Those went into storage while a fresh pair took their place. While they cooked, I worked on my next batch of scrambled eggs. I still had a couple of dozen eggs to go through before I started on the bacon. I’d do bacon-fried eggs afterward, just for a bit of variety.

I wondered why the Builder Guild was only just reaching out to Mike. It had been almost two weeks since he registered with the Delver Association, after all.

“I guess they’ve been busy preparing for the big influx that is coming,” she said with a shrug. “Apparently, a large airship is scheduled to arrive the day after tomorrow, and they’ve only just realized that they aren’t going to have enough room to accommodate everyone.

“Regardless, someone realized an Earth Magi was among the new Ascended, and they reached out to see if he would be willing to help. Mike’s been talking about heading over to the local branch and signing up. This just saves him a bit of time.”

Priest Zeth had mentioned that the city would experience some growth with the arrival of the new Ascender Dungeon, but I hadn’t given much thought to how that would impact the city.

It was obvious, now that I considered it. The people moving here would need places to live and the infrastructure to support them. That meant expanding the city, which required builders.

“I’ll admit, I’m a little worried about how much time they will demand from him,” Cora said with a frown. “On top of the pittance they’ll offer as compensation due to his copper ranking – never mind the fact that he’s an Ascender – helping with the expansion is inevitably going to cut into our delving. They already expect him to spend the next two days working with them.”

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“I doubt it’ll interfere too much,” I countered. “The rules are pretty strict about stuff like that. The priority is for us to reach our first evolution. If they interfere with that too much, they’ll probably get into trouble.

“I’d be willing to bet they’ll only ask him to work two or three days a week, at most. The rest, they’ll want him spending in the dungeon to reach his first evolution as quickly as possible.”

“You think so?”

I nodded. “Yes. The hospital suggested something similar to me during my last shift due to the increase in patients over the last week or so. From what Healer Seraphine said, it looks like they’re expecting the city’s population to double over the next year.”

I’d been a little surprised at how quickly the city was expected to grow, especially considering how difficult and costly it was to move to a new city. That wasn’t even taking into consideration the bureaucratic side of things.

While people were mostly free to travel as much as their finances and capabilities allowed, obtaining residency in a new city was not as simple as just moving somewhere and claiming yourself as a resident.