When I reached the kitchen, I was hit with a wave of heat. It felt like I had stepped into a sauna and every part of me wanted to turn around and head back. Instead, I took a breath and looked around for someone who looked like they were in charge. The man I found was portly, with a beard that was made of black smoke. I wanted to touch it and find out if it was solid or not, but quickly pushed that thought down.

“Ah, you must be the Matriarch’s guest. They warned us you may want more food. Do you have a preference? We still have of meat left.” The man’s voiced reminded me of my grandfather. It was deep, jolly and comforting part of me wanted to have a conversation with him, but I decided against it.

“Actually, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind sharing your knowledge with me. I want to raise my cooking skill and learn some recipes if possible.” He paused for a moment before nodding his head in agreement. “I can show you a few things, but you will need to find your own recipes.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he waved his to silence me.

“It isn’t that I don’t want to share them with you. it’s that we pass each recipe down from master to student. It wouldn’t be proper for me to share them with you. I can let you watch me prepare a few things. That way you can get the skill experience. If you have any recipes of your own, you can practice them under my guidance.”

I was going to keep asking him, but it wasn’t worth it. I am only at level 2 anyway, so chances are I wouldn’t be able to learn many of them. It was a bit worrying that people were against sharing information, though. I made a mental note to check that once I got to a city. If this was going to be a consistent thing, then I had to build a library rapidly. I came back to the moment and gave the man a smile. “Sounds good to me. Uh, what’s your name?”

“Kide. I do not recall the proper term of address for humans and I am not sure if you are a patriarch of your people.” He paused, and I filled in the unasked question. “Darterrius, as for your question, I think so. It’s really just me right now.”

“Well, I won’t pry too much, but I would suggest you start coming up with more solid answers than that.” He let out a bellyache of a laugh that reminded me of Jolly saint nick before heading over to the middle of the room. I followed him and we stopped in front of a countertop that looked like a sink. It was made of black stone, with five openings on each side. Kide removed a stone from his robes and tapped it against the middle. A small shower of sparks shot from the stone. He repeated the motion two more times before the sparks ignited two of the five openings. Two blow torch like flames shot into the middle of the stone.

“Ah, alright, so we are going to start with something simple.” He gestured to a box almost as tall as I was on the other side of the room. “Go into the Cold Box and bring me the wrapped bundle of scorpion meat.” After a brief search, I was holding the bundle out next to him. He removed a blade about the size of my hand from a drawer, sliced the bundle open, and grabbed a stone sheet. It looked a bit like one of the things you would use with a pizza oven. He placed it over the flame and then the meat on top of that.

The idea is to maintain the heat while seasoning the meat. For this, we are going to make something fairly simple. We won’t need to add too many steps. Reach in the shelf behind me and bring the black, blue and green bottles.” I nodded and was back with the bottles a moment later.

"I took care of the seasoning before putting the meat away. Now, we add these here," he said.. Now we add these here.” He opened each of the bottles and poured them over the meat. They looked and smelled a bit like steak sauce and hot sauce. The third container was poured onto the board. It was a brown powder that looked a bit like seasoned salt. Instead of him using any kind of utensil to move the food or the board, he just reached forward with both hands. My instincts shouted at me to pull his hands back, but instead of the expected sight of his hands blistering and burning. He was unbothered. It took my brain another second to connect the dots. He had a resistance to fire. That must also carry over to cooking.

“Alright, now grab one of the stone containers in the corner and we can get this packed away.” I returned a moment later holding a to go box made of grey stone. Despite its appearance, it wasn’t too heavy. I wouldn’t want to carry out around all day or anything. He placed the steak inside and I placed a hand over it in order to get the stats.

You have found: Iron Scorpion Steak(2x)

Details: Increases poison resistance by 50% for 1 hour

Item Rarity: Common

Item Quality: Well prepared

Weight: 20oz

"Wow, that's better than what I made my first time." A quick glance told me that I had gained levels without actually doing anything. which just made the excitement from learning something new even better.He chuckled and slapped his hand down on my shoulder."I had better be able to do better. My skill is pretty damn high. Now go back into the cold box and grab the meat on the top row. I should have a few stone utensils you can use. Let's get you some practice.

We spent the better part of three hours preparing food. Most of which went into the ring and then to feeding Sanaa and Tenebris. I couldn’t be sure, but they seemed to be eating a bit more than when I first summoned them. I took a took a seat in a small meeting room and reviewed my notification.

Congratulations! Your skill Cooking has leveled up. Cooking has reached levels 4,5,6 and 7. The taste of all dishes you create are improved by 12%. Your success rate of creating a meal has improved by 12%

Before I could bask in the glory of my new levels, Zakia entered the room and took a seat. “So, what do you need?” She rested her hands on her lap as she waited. “Well, I was hoping you could show me the way to the nearest city? I need to find people willing to settle down. I also need to sell some things and make some money.” She nodded.

“The closest city is Afrium. It’s where the adventuring guild can be found, as well as other people like you. Fighters and wanderers, I mean. You might find people like what you need. It’s a pretty long trip even with mounts. I assume you have some packed away?"

I nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem. It would be a good idea to bring some extra water skins with us.” I was about to continue when a thought came to me. “Do any of you have skills with mining? Or mining tools?” The sudden change threw her off for a moment, but she answered quickly enough. “There should be a few people with the skill decently high. We haven’t had a new mine to work in quite a while. Why?”

I nodded as I started to plan things out a bit further. “I have a gold mine, but I don’t have the equipment to work it. If we can work it together, we can have some ore to trade. If you have a smelter, we might be able to have some bars or coins.” Her eyes widened as she processed the information. When she was ready, she stood up and was nearly out of the room before I could say anything.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“We are going to have to push our departure back a few days, at least. I have to tell grandmother.” She was out of the room a moment later. I stared after her for a second before chuckling. “I guess gold is king.” I let myself get comfortable and a nearly fifteen minutes later both women joined me.

“I am told you would like to form an agreement with us? Do you know the potency of this mine?” I glanced between the two of them while the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I had a feeling that I should be very careful with what I said next. “I have discovered a gold mine on my lands, but I don’t have the resources to work it at the moment. I planned to go to Afrium and find people and the needed resources. I would be interested in discussing an alternative arrangement with you.”

She nodded along until I finished speaking. “I can send some people to work with you for the right price. I can arrange some equipment as well. Enough to get you started, but we will need to discuss payment. We would need to receive access to at least 20% of the mine’s resources. If there are any rare or higher metals inside, we can discuss a different rate for those, but we would need a fair share of those. We can either rent the equipment to you or you can purchase them separately.”

From what I could tell, what she suggested was fair. I wished I had someone with a better knowledge of trade agreements, though. After thinking about it for another moment, I offered a revision. “I find the offer you made more than reasonable, but I would like to make a change. I can offer you 30% if you add in payment for the equipment and to support the start of a profitable friendship.” It was a bit heavy on the kissing up, but if it worked, it worked.She flashed me a smile before nodding her acceptance. Before I could say anything else, a prompt came into view.

Congratulations! You have gained 300 Relationship Points with Matriarch Shauriana! Your relationship has improved from happy(+500) to happy(+800).

Congratulations! You have gained 300 Relationship Points with the Ifrit of the Burning Chasm! Your relationship has improved from happy(+500) to happy(+800). Your relationship status has changed from neutral to happy.

Notice! You have learned the skill Statescraft. As the leader of a state, your words and actions have the potential to affect the word. Increase this skill to improve the regard other leaders have for you and your policies. Statecraft can be improved by representing your state with other states, factions, or other important figures. The words of a ruler have weight and should not be given carelessly. You can now earn State Points. Every skill level adds +1% to negotiation power and +1% to the likelihood of other settlements taking your threats and offers seriously.

Radiance has received 300 State Points with the Burning Chasm.

Notice! Due to lacking a Capital Building, all accumulated State Points have been lost. You currently have 0 State Points.

“What the fuck are state points!” I exclaimed before remembering I was sitting with two other people. I paused, expecting for there to be a relationship point or drop or some other punishment for being rude. Instead, the matriarch laughed.

“I should have assumed that you hadn’t spoken with another state leader before this. State Points are a resource that can be earned through negotiations and dealings with other states. They can be used for a myriad of things, though you will have to discover what your state can do on your own.”

“It says that I just lost all my points due to not having a Capitol Building. That was one of the blueprints you gave me, right?” She nodded. “Yes, it shouldn’t be much of an issue for you at the moment. You will need to get some people to live in your lands before you start worrying about it, but I would recommend you build one quickly. If only to avoid losing out on more state points,” She laughed while folding her legs.

“Now I believe you and my granddaughter were planning on heading for Afrium? I would suggest you wait a bit. You will need gold in order to sell for coins or to barter. Unless you want to make multiple trips.” It made sense to me, so I didn’t argue. “Will you be coming as well?” She shook her head.

“No, although I am quite curious to see your Place of Power it wouldn’t be wise. I would need to bring an entourage with me and I don’t think you have the facilities for that right now. I imagine my guard wouldn’t be pleased with the impromptu trip.” She gave a nod to Zakia, who was clearly doing her best not to look irritated. She was not very good at it.

“In that case, allow me to offer you hospitality as soon as we can plan an appropriate time.” I did my best to put on a kingly grace while locking my gaze on the Matriarch. She nodded her agreement, and a beat passed before anyone said anything.

“So now that part is done, how should we deal with this? It’s going to take sometime for the mining and smelting process. In addition, we will need to move the smelter to your place. It’s going to be a long journey with a lot of moving parts.” Zakia added, and I couldn’t help but agree.

“Well, we can start moving later in the day. The night won’t pose an issue to us once we reach my lands. I can not build homes, though. So we would need to either camp out under the stars or throw something together. Tenebris and Sanaa should be able to alert us to any monster attacks before they happen.”

Both women looked at me in obvious confusion for a moment before nodding slowly. “I am not sure why night time won’t be an issue in your territory, but it would be more difficult to travel in the dark. We would be traveling through an area we haven’t been to before.”

I stared at them blankly for a second before I remembered that I hadn’t told them about my abilities yet. “My city, Radiance, has some unique state spells. One of the abilities they have is that it creates a large sun in the sky. As long as I am paying the price, I technically have day time all the time.”

Shaurianna laughed before starting. “That is an interesting spell some of the monsters might not attack in the daytime. I won’t ask you what else it can do. That way we can avoid you trying to come up with an excuse as to not tell me. It will take sometime but we should be able to arrange everything.” She looked over at Zakia. “Please gather everyone in the meeting chamber. I have a feeling some of us are going to be quite busy for the next few days.”

“I will gather Tenebris and Sanaa. Do you want me to meet you, or would you prefer to discuss things with your people first?” There was a brief pause, and the matriarch looked like she wanted to ask a question but thought better of it. “It would be better for you to join us now. We would appreciate it if you drew us a map to your home. It would be easier than having you guide us.”

Part of me wanted to say no, but it would be useful to have allies that knew where I lived. I also didn’t have anything they could steal. “Alright, will you take care of the basilisk cure before we leave? Or will you need more time” She considered her answer for a second as stood up to leave.

“We will have to wait at least two days. It will give us enough time to get the designers together as well. It will give you some more time to practice the cooking skill.” She gave an amused smile before leaving me alone. I waited a moment before making my exit. So far, the trip has been worth it. I made my way back to the guest room and found Sanaa and Tenebris flying lazily around the room.

“Master,” They said together.

“Hello you two. Are you comfortable here? I assume the heat isn’t bothering either of you?” Tenebris was the first to respond. “Not at all. It is very nice here.” He flew down and landed on my left shoulder while I took a seat on the bed. Sanaa flew down and took her perch a second later.

“Master, when will we get to hunt?” Her softer voice saying that somehow made it sound more intimidating. I reached up and scratched below her chin. The resulting hiss was oddly cute. “Probably not for a couple of days. We have to schedule some things, but we will be going on a trip soon. You should also have plenty of food.” They both sent a wave of happiness through our connection. I couldn’t help but laugh. “We should get to hunt plenty. I will also make us some more food for while we move about.”

“Do you trust these people?” The question made me hesitate for a moment. “They are our friends, but be careful when I am not around. I don’t know how people will react to you two. I especially don’t want you to hurt anyone. Well, not without my permission.”