Sure enough, there’s more people this time, he thought as he suppressed a sigh, glad that he’d already dismissed his astral constructs before they arrived.

Though, given the attack last time, he supposed that it was reasonable that they’d brought along a few guards, just in case.

That said, he didn’t have enough chairs to accommodate everyone.

Theril and the siblings were back, as well as their mother. But this time Reldan had returned, which pleased him to see the young guy again. With him, though, were another two bow users as well as three spear users, including someone who looked like he could be the siblings’ father given his facial features and hair/fur colour.

Looking at Celys, Kalduin, Myra, and the newly introduced Nalun, he could certainly see the family resemblance. Though, Kalduin’s colouring took after his fiery-haired mother with Myra’s took after her father’s black. Though, her hair was more a very dark purple with some scarlet in there. The tips of her ears were a purple/black, though, along with her tail. Though, all three had white inner ear… fur. Hair? Shrug.

All told, they made for quite the stunning family. That said, he supposed that perhaps he was biased. Maybe he liked foxkin? The others in the group were certainly good-looking people, from the men to the women, so maybe it was a racial trait? Generally good-looking people? Was that a thing?

What he did know, though, was that his pot wasn’t going to be big enough to feed them all to satiation.

Celys must have caught him glancing at his pot, because she then motioned one of the spearmen forward.

“We thought that it might be rude if we didn’t contribute to the meal today,” she said graciously as the spearman, whose name he’d already forgotten, came forward with a very large backpack.

A moment later, he’d pulled out a veritable cauldron along with a matching lid, as well as a giant ladle. Another one came forward, a spearwoman this time, and pulled out a large, cloth-wrapped item that she then handed over to him with a nod of her head.

Nodding back, he felt the mass give way a bit in his hands, then finally caught whiff of it. Ah, meat, he thought, giving another smile and nod before turning back to the round-bottomed cauldron and wondering how they’d thought it would work on his stove. Sure, it had a built-in handle that you could use to hang it over a fire, but….

“I’ll see what I can do after the lesson,” he said before stepping into the kitchen and placing the large hunk of meat in the fridge.

When he turned around again, he noticed Myra looking at him a bit oddly, but shrugged it off. Given how much he’d studied, it was likely due to his increased vocabulary.

The lesson then proceeded without much fanfare. The extras chose to hang around outside, playing a game of dice to pass the time. Though, he did notice that they were keeping an eye on their surroundings, proving that they weren’t just there for show.

That said, the lesson was much shorter than the previous one, likely due to him actually doing his homework this time. Nalun, it seemed, was the most surprised amongst the group, likely due to this being their first meeting and all. Which led to him questioning Joram much more than anyone else had up to that point.

“You’re sure that you’re new to Common?” Nalun asked suspiciously from where he stood by his wife, who was doing her best to not look embarrassed at her husband’s open suspicions.

“Yup,” he replied, not really caring about something as simple as that. “I’m a quick study.”

Nalun didn’t seem convinced, though he didn’t press the issue… in the direction he expected, anyway.

“So, I heard that you’re pretty good with a sword,” Nalun said, changing directions. “Would you care for a spar? It’s been a while since I’ve practiced with a swordsman,” he said, making Joram suspect a few things.

First, that perhaps their village tended towards spears, likely due to hunting or something like that. The other thoughts revolved around him being protective of his village, and his daughter. The man couldn’t have missed how attentive Myra had been towards him during the lesson, but had likely misinterpreted her interest in him. Because who wouldn’t be proud of a student who showed such progress?

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m good with a sword,” he replied, shaking his head as he raised his hands, palms facing Nalun.

“Don’t be modest,” Nalun said, a wolfish grin spreading on his face. “I heard that you managed to take down several hobs the other day. That’s something to be proud of,” he said, nodding to the guards. “Ask any of them,” he then finished, his smile not fading a whit.

“You can play later,” Myra butted in. “But we first need to prepare today’s meal,” she said, taking Joram’s arm and pulling him towards the kitchen where she then looked at the knife block and cutting board.

Joram just went along with it, not really wanting to test himself against an obviously proficient fighter like Nalun. Especially when his victory had been more of a brute-force solution than anything remotely elegant or skill-based.

So it was that he got Myra washing the vegetables as he got to inspecting the cauldron. Its round bottom was more a pain in the ass than he’d initially thought it would be. Given how thick the pot was, it would take ages to even heat up, let alone gauge when it was up to temperature. It was also cast iron, which meant that it was going to be much too heavy for his glass-topped stove.

He did have other pots, but they were from the same set, which meant that their size decreased each time, making them not terribly useful in this instance. Though, he could use them to cook things individually….

Then there was the meat. What would he do with a roast that big? Should he just throw it in a roaster and let it cook? Or should he toss in some veggies to go along with it? Both had their appeal, but maybe having some crispy meat would be a nice change of pace….

Joram then took the meat out of the fridge then unwrapped it to take a good look at it. It was, well, red. It also looked to have a decent amount of marbling in it, as well as a thin layer of fat on portions of it, making him think that it would have made a decent brisket… if he’d had a good smoker to work with, that is.

Rubbing his chin with his off hand, he considered the problem for a while before just shrugging. No sense in worrying about something that you didn’t have a solution to. So, he grabbed the roaster, tossed the meat inside, then quickly retrieved some steak seasoning and rubbed the meat down before covering it with the lid. Next, he set the stove to pre-heat, then washed his hands before getting to preparing the veggies alongside Myra.

Once again, he ignored the looks that he was getting form his other guests and concentrated on his work. He wished that he’d added the rub to the meat before the lesson, but hindsight was 20/20, as it were. They’d just have to deal with what came out of it.

Because, really, he only had so much time to prepare the meal, and so many ingredients to work with given his dwindling supplies. He was glad that he’d been practicing with [Grow], and would use the peels and cut-offs from today’s meal to practice even more. Hopefully he’d get a lot of seeds out of it, for he really needed to restock his pantry.

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Then the oven beeped, and the roast went in. He would allow the roast to slowly cook at first, then he’d remove the lid before turning the oven to “grill”, hopefully getting the crispy result he was hoping for.

The rest of the meal would be a simple veggie stew, though seasoned well enough so that it wouldn’t taste too bland.

At this point, he kind of wished that he had another oven so that he could make some bread…. Oh, he thought, remembering the extra appliances in the second storage room. Then silently cursed the lack of a second plug for the stove until he remembered that Altaea had also saved the wiring and outlets from the other apartment. But then silently cursed once again his lack of house-wiring knowledge. And the extra fuse needed to accomplish all of that.

Another shrug later, he decided to just ask.

“Does your village have places to buy food?” he asked Myra as they filled the cauldron with root veggies.

“Yes?” Myra more asked than stated.

“Can we get bread there?”

“Yes, but it takes about an hour to get from here to there,” she replied, bringing up the flaw in his budding plan.

“Crap,” he said, knowing full-well that he was no runner, but also not comfortable asking someone else to do that for him.

“I’m a pretty fast runner,” one of the spearwomen piped in from outside, impressing him with her hearing.

“Would it be safe for just one person?” he asked, concerned that she might run into trouble by herself.

“That’s fine,” she said, waving it off like it was nothing. “What do you need?” she then asked, tempting him greatly.

“A few loaves of bread that would go well with stew, and some butter?” he asked, not sure how much he could ask for.

“Well, given that you’re the one making the bulk of the food, that should be fine,” Celys added from her place at the table. “It’s only polite to bring something for the host. It’s also my fault for not thinking to bring along some bread,” she said, laying the blame on herself with a smile.

“OK, then,” he said, giving both Celys and the spearwoman a nod of thanks before the woman got up and immediately took off at a run.

“She’ll get first choice of the roast when she gets back,” he said to no one in particular, though he caught Nalun nodding as though what he’d said was the right and proper thing to do. Which got him thinking that that had been the reason why the woman had so readily volunteered to literally run the errand.

Once the cauldron had been sufficiently filled with veggies, he again wondered at how he’d get the thing heated.

He briefly considered making a tripod for the thing, but ruled that out due to his lack of experience in shaping metal. Which led him to thinking of ways of heating it more directly. Most of which were quickly discarded due to the limitations of available resources.

“Did you cut all this stone yourself?” Celys asked, bringing him out of his thoughts to see her admiring the stone stacked near the door.

“Ah, yes,” he replied, not quite sure what to say.

“It looks like Moss Stone,” Celys said, rubbing her finger along its smooth surface.

“That it is,” Nalun agreed, nodding.

“Would you be willing to sell it, Joram?” Celys asked, startling him with the question.

“Sure?” he replied, not sure of its worth, though he did need to get some money eventually.

“Then, we can work out a price later, seeing as how we would need to bring a wagon to transport it anyways,” Celys said, nodding happily.

“How much would you need?” he asked, now a bit curious.

“If you have more, then I would be happy to take a wagon full of it,” she said, once again surprising him with the generous offer.

Not only that, given how happy she seemed to be about getting her hands on the stuff, he wondered just how much it was worth. Though, seeing as how Theril had seen his weights, he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d recognized the stone, or just hadn’t cared.

But given his current issues, he wasn’t comfortable giving away his entire supply of stone, no matter the price.

“Maybe give me a few more days,” he hedged, thinking that it might be better to deal with the goblins before selling off the stone he’d planned on using for defense.

“Don’t worry about the time too much. Just let me know so that I can arrange a wagon for the next visit,” she told him graciously.

Nodding, he got back to the issue of the cauldron. He thought that maybe if he used [Matter Agitation], then that might work. Though, having to repeatedly use the power every minute or so would be a pain in the ass. Maybe if he’d had a psicrystal already, he could have left that task to it. But alas, he hadn’t been working on that particular feat… ability? Whatever it would be called, he hadn’t practiced it yet even though he had a list of abilities he could use stuffed into his head. He was, after all, a “20th level” Shaper.

He just had to get familiar with everything before he could use any of it. Hence the long practice sessions he’d been putting in.

Not only that, but he now had to sort out and deal with everything that came with being a “20th level” Soulknife… er, Soulbolt. He still needed to work on [Psychic Reformation] so that he could unlock more of those class features….

Getting back on track, he looked at the “moss stone” and wondered if it was one of those stones that had water molecules trapped inside of it that would make it hazardous to use in a firepit. Then he remembered Celys.

“Is moss stone good to use in fireplaces?” he asked.

“I can be,” Celys replied, looking thoughtful. “Though, most people just use it decoratively as its colour is rather striking,” she finished, once again looking back to the pile of stone.

Nodding, he got to work.

He stepped outside and round the house to his other stack of the moss stone, then started moving it into another stack. Or, rather, the base for what he planned. Once the base was outlined, he used one of the stone “sticks” to dig away the forest floor until he reached soil, then dug a bit more so that they was a general bowl shape left behind.

The base wound up being quite large, as each section of moss stone was about 1.2 metres long. From there, he stacked the stone in smaller layers until he had an opening at the top that would fit the cauldron’s base. Overall, the whole thing wound up being waist height on him, and with the cauldron, he’d just barely be able to reach over and stir its contents.

Which, really, was fine if he didn’t account for the heat that would escape from the sides of the thing. Given what he’d made the stove out of, there were many gaps here and there that would allow most of the heat to escape from the “oven”.

Shaking his head, he unstacked most of it, then started taking measurements and noting down angles. As he reworked it, he used [Modify Matter] to just “cut” the pieces into the right shape. It wound up looking a bit lopsided, though, as he’d shifted the top opening towards the side slightly so that it would be easier to still the cauldron. Once done, it looked scores better than his first attempt, so he used [Modify Matter] to fuse the whole thing together so that it wouldn’t fall apart on him.

The front of the furnace/stove/oven had an opening so that he could throw in some wood, or just see the bottom of the cauldron. He’d also left an opening in the back so that the smoke could escape. With that done, he asked if anyone could get some firewood and got a few odd looks before a pair each of the guards went off to gather wood.

He supposed that they’d question him not having wood with which to cook, but he didn’t care. The ones who’d been coming over this whole time knew that he didn’t use it, so they’d have learned it anyways.

Eventually he had what he needed, and the fire was started, and the cauldron placed. He then quickly filled it with water, having waited until it was in place before adding that much more weight to the already heavy cauldron.

Then it was time to wait. And answer more questions, it seemed.

“So, how did you get so big,” one of the spearmen asked, pointedly looking at his mostly bare arms.

“I use weights,” he said, shrugging. He was surprised that Theril hadn’t told them about it.

That then led to him going back inside to retrieve his dumbbells so that they could have a go at them. This time, he’d wisely removed most of the stone discs before passing them over, leaving only 20kg on each one.

Still, they were incredibly impressed with them. Nalun too, if he judged the man’s expression correctly. So it was that the fighter-types played around with the dumbbells while he attended to his cooking duties while also answering food questions from Myra.

About when he thought that things were ready, the spearwoman turned runner came back with four loaves of oval shaped bread and what looked like a full kilo of butter. Everyone was happy to see her, Brin, or Brineth in full, when she presented her bounty.

Then he sighed before clearing off the table before taking it outside, then extended it with its hidden section, so that there’d be room for everyone to sit around it.

The meal went over well, and Brin had been particularly pleased to get the first cut of meat. He had even been able to brush off Myra’s comments and questions about how the table had been returned to pristine condition by presenting her with the second slice of roast.

Then, once the last bit of stew had been scraped from the bottom of the cauldron, they packed up and said their goodbyes, promising to be back in another two days, if that was all right with him. Once assured, they set off and he set himself to tidying up again. Though, the fact that they’d left the cauldron with him led him to believe that he should expect at least the same number of visitors the next time.

Which meant that he’d need to start [Grow]ing more food, and quick.