Afternoon arrived, Mark and the rest of the group stopped to eat and give the horses a breather. Natasha and the guards arranged a campfire and Mark prepared a table and chair where he could serve their lunch. The mages were resting with their noses stuck in a book. Just like the rules in Dungeons and Dragons, they needed to memorize the spell again before using it, which Mark found a little weird. It meant that mages at their level had limited spells for the day like ammunitions in a gun and once they were all gone, the mage was done.
Lossa told him that for powerful mages, it would rarely happen that they would run out of spells in a single battle. So that meant that not only Mana was needed, but you would also need to memorize the spells which he found a bit complicated. Ardeen informed him that for the legendary archmages, they didn’t need to do those anymore and he was not sure how it worked since it would take a very long time for him to reach that level if ever.
Mark thought that the complicated magic system of this world was becoming so interesting that he was beginning to become a bit obsessed with it. It was like finding a good game with a magic system that you can spend hundreds of hours theory crafting. He remembered being obsessed with Diablo 2 and the different builds and variations that you can craft with its skill tree.
Mark remembered one difference though when he thought of his Neverwinter Nights game that he played before. As a mage, he only needed spell slots and not any Mana resource. He couldn’t wait to learn the basics of magic in this world.
When the table and chair were set up, he asked the twins what food they would like for lunch.
“My mother said that she remembered eating some sweet pastries from the city and couldn’t wait to eat that again so I would like to have something like that please,” Isaac said.
“What about you Aaron, what would you like to eat.”
“I would like to eat meat since it can make me strong like my father,” Aaron replied.
Mark replicated chicken, pork, beef, and fish dishes. He also prepared bread and rice. The different meat was cooked differently from each other. They were roasted, fried, grilled, stewed and more. The quality was superb since it was cooked by top restaurants from his home world that he kept a copy of in his inventory that he could replicate anytime.
He also replicated two types of cakes, chocolate, and mocha, his personal favorite. For drinks, he prepared the evil drink from his home world, the soda. He replicated liters of assorted flavors. He didn’t serve any liquors since they were still traveling.
“Being with you will definitely make me fat,” Natasha said when she saw the feast that he prepared.
“I know. Every mealtime is a feast, but I shouldn’t complain since we are the ones eating it and I’m sad to say that it will end once this journey ends,” Lossa said while looking at the food almost drooling.
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Everyone started to eat but Mark made sure that the twins would not have any problems. He hovered over them anxiously as if afraid they would choke or something which Natasha found hilarious.
Mark made sure that the meat that the twins took a fancy to would be sliced small enough so they could eat them fine. He also served them juice drinks that were prepared from actual fruits instead of the evil sodas. He was glad that the twins ate a lot and when they tasted the chocolate cake, both boys mentioned that it was the greatest food ever invented. Mark saw Natasha nodding when she tasted the cake.
“Next time, I’ll let you taste Ice Cream. It’s delicious as well.” Mark told the twins. The boys smiled and said that they couldn’t wait for the ice cream.
After lunch, everyone prepared to continue their travel. Mark made sure that all the things that he replicated were stored in his inventory and he destroyed them immediately for the trash not to take up space.
Mark cast his Space Floating Disc but this time, instead of putting a couch, he put in a bed so that the twins could lie down and sleep in the afternoon.
When he asked the twins to lie down on the bed, the boys suddenly hugged Mark and thanked him. He almost bawled his eyes out but stopped embarrassing himself in time. He tucked the kids and commanded the disc to follow Natasha.
Mark cast his Floating Sunflower spell to make sure that he would have enough MP just in case. He overheard the mages exclaiming again about the spells that he was using.
Night arrived and the group stopped to rest for the evening. Mark summoned his RV and then prepared the food inside it. This time he prepared something light so the twins would not have any problems digesting the food and cause sleep issues.
Mark told Natasha that if anybody wanted to eat something more or different, there were frozen dinners in the refrigerator that they could heat in the microwave anytime. After saying that, everyone promptly took some and heated them and Natasha and the mages just laughed. Mark forgot that light food would not work with those guards.
After dinner, Mark washed the kids with warm water in the toilet and then led them to the bedroom. He ruthlessly told Natasha that she should find some other accommodation, and the guard captain just laughed and told him that she finds him doting on the orphans adorable.
Mark tucked the twins and then told them that he would read them one of his favorite fairy tales.
“What is a fairy tale, Mark,” Isaac asked.
“It’s a story that’s filled with magic that will make you happy.”
“My mother tells us stories when we go to sleep too,” Aaron said then suddenly he cried, and Isaac joined him. They didn’t cry loudly, just tears flowing from their eyes. Mark gave them a moment, hugged them, and told them not they should stop since he was going to start on the story.
After a few minutes, the children stopped crying and Mark summoned his tablet and opened the story about Cinderella. When he asked Sam to download Web Novels, he was surprised to see that his best friend also downloaded diverse types of books, from textbooks to fairy tales.
The children started listening to Mark weaving the tale of the poor orphan girl who worked as a slave in the kitchen for her stepmother and stepsisters who turned into a princess loved by a prince at the end of the story. Halfway through the story, Mark saw Natasha listening to him tell the story and when she saw him see her, she smiled at him.
Mark saw the children sleeping and at that moment, he changed his mind. At first, he thought of letting them stay in the orphanage since Natasha assured him that the orphanage in the city was well-managed and the orphans were treated very well but he thought that he would keep them. At first, he thought that he would not be able to take care of them since he would be busy exploring the world, learning about magic, learning about people, the dungeon in the world, the ruins, and more but he thought that the kids, instead of hindering him would probably make the journey much more enjoyable.