Lucius awoke in the real world. His body couldn't register anything for a little bit.

He tried to access the alternate world, but it wasn't there. He guessed that he was still asleep in that world.

When he moved his body, he gasped in pain. Lucius's entire body was sore almost to the point where he couldn't move. He slowly sat up.

I'm getting so confused. How does this system work? If I get injured in the other world, I don't get injured here, but if I get super sore in the other world, I get sore here too? Lucius thought. This is weird.

Very reluctantly, he got out of his bed and walked into the bathroom. He cranked the water on and relaxed in the hot water. Slowly, his aching muscles relaxed until he could properly move them again. Still, they hurt.

Lucius was grateful for the weekends. He wouldn't be able to go to school in this condition.

After his heat-bath. Lucius brushed his teeth and walked into the kitchen. The electronic stove read 6:30. His little sister wouldn't be up until at least seven o'clock.

He grabbed a large pot out of a cabinet and filled it with water. He set it on the stove and set the heat to high. He dumped in some meat and a dash of salt. He grabbed some vegetables from the fridge and cut them up. He dumped them in the pot.

Simple stew.

As he waited for it to cook, he thought about what he had to do today.

I need to make a big pot today. I might need to cook for the entire village today. Then I probably will spend another five hours or so making things for the households... ah, this is going to be a pain.

Lucius opened his laptop and went on the internet and searched up "Tamahagane* Katana."

*(AN: Tamahagane is what real katanas are made out of. For more information, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_swordsmithing)

He ordered one- a real one. It was pricey, but it might be worth it.

Lucius soon turned the stove off and put the stew in two bowls. He added some white rice to both bowls. He set one on a tray and sat down. He ate his stew.

After he finished his meal, he forced himself to wake up in the other world. Lucius couldn't really explain how he did it-  it was just a feeling.

He laid down on his couch and turned his attention to the other world.

----------------------------------------

Lucius sat up and stretched. The water bath affected his muscles in this world too.

He walked outside to where Luna was.

"Mornin'," Lucius said.

"Good morning. You slept like a rock. Did Balos work you that hard?" Luna grinned.

"No kidding. Speaking of him, do you know where he went?"

"He went with a bunch of other people into the forest. I think it was a hunting party," Luna said.

"How long have they been gone?" Lucius asked.

"About ten minutes," Luna said.

"Well, I guess I should get to work too," Lucius said. He dunked his head in water to rouse himself, then dragged a log over. The clearing of the forest gave Baylight Village a massive stockpile of wood.

He brought out his katana and cut it in two. Then, he hollowed them out, forming two gutter-like pieces of wood. He repeated this with more pieces of wood until he had at about ten of them.

Lucius went into the forest and gathered a bucketful of super-sticky tree sap. He found that the tree sap could hold things together like super-glue and didn't seem to decay under the rain. Perfect to hold things together.

He stuck the heated part of his blade into the bucket and walked back to his house. The hot sword made it impossible for the sap to harden.

Then, he brought some more wood out and lit it ablaze. Lucius suspended the bucket of sap above the fire and walked back to the cut-wood.

He pieced two pieces of wood together and slathered sap in between the pieces until it was sealed. Then he hardened the sap using his sword, connecting the wood.

Satisfied, he did it with the rest of the wood until he had a shell-like structure. He then carved more wood into a bowl-shape and sapped it to the bottom of the shell.

In about one and a half hours, he made an improvised large pot!

Then he thought of a complication.

There is no way I can suspend something like this. If this is filled with things, it would be waaay to heavy to suspend. But if don't suspend it, it's going to burn, Lucius thought. His mind drifted into the real world. I need some metal. I won't be able to make a big metal pot like this, but I can at least line the bottom of the pot. That way, it won't burn.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Lucius jogged over to Luna. "Where can I find some strong heat resistant metal?" He asked.

Luna thought for a moment. "You can melt down some of the weapons I have. A mix of all of those different metals should be enough to be resistant to a flame."

"But if they are resistant, how would I melt them?" Lucius asked. He thought about this but found no way around it. Fortunately, Luna had a solution.

"How many fire crystals do you have?" Luna asked.

"About fifteen," Lucius said.

Luna nodded. "Ten should suffice. Just make a pit and dump the weapons in there. Then drop ten fire crystals in there. Ten fire crystals are enough to melt almost any metal."

"Thanks," Lucius said trotted back into the house. He took out ten fire crystals brought them outside. There, he saw Luna ripping the ground out.

"You're helping?" Lucius asked.

"Well, yeah," Luna said. "There's nothing to do right now, plus I'm hungry. I can't eat unless you finish the pot quicker."

Lucius laughed a bit. They dug out a deep hole and dumped the ordinary weapons in the pit: the swords, knives, scrap metal, the things that weren't special. Then, they threw in a few pieces of wood and dropped in the fire crystals.

In an instant, there was a massive bonfire. It quickly melted the weapons into a silvery liquid.

Then Lucius thought of a problem.

"How are we going to get the molten metal out?" Lucius asked. He didn't have the equipment or the skills to get the metal out of the pit.

"Easy," Luna said. She bent down and scooped up the molten metal in her hands like it was nothing.

"What are you doing?!" Lucius rushed over, but Luna stopped him.

"I'm fine," Luna said.

"What about your hands?" Lucius asked in a panic.

"I'm a dragon. I'm resistant to flames."

"But this is no ordinary flame! You said it could melt any metal!"

"Do I look like metal to you?" Luna said. Lucius grinned and packed dirt into the large bowl that he made for the bottom of the pot. Luna then poured the metal into the bowl. She repeated it with the rest of the molten metal, then molded the metal to fit the shape of the bowl.

Then, Lucius stuck the metal bowl to the bottom of the pot with sap. He then filled it with water and patched up the areas where the water came out.

Then, he stepped back and examined his work. It seemed to hold the weight of the water and didn't break open. Lucius grinned.

As if on cue, Balos and the other hunters came back. There were about fifteen of them, all bearing fresh kills. Some had herbs and a few leafy greens with them.

"Welcome back!" Lucius grinned and waved. Balos and a few of them waved back. Balos looked at the big pot that Lucius made.

"I'm assuming you want me to keep the meat here?" Balos asked.

"Yeah, and can you bring the people that can cook from the village?" Lucius said. He wasn't sure if he could cook for fifty people alone. Even though he could cook, he was still an amature. Balos dropped the meat down and the hunting group disbanded.

Lucius refilled the pot with water and dropped it into the pit that had the metal in it. He dropped a few more logs into the small fire.

Soon, a group of five wolf-people came up and looked at Lucius nervously. There were two men and three women, all carrying tools like knives, wooden spatulas, and stir-sticks.

"Hello," Lucius said and put on a smile, trying to make himself look as friendly as possible.

"Hi," one said, but the rest didn't say a word.

"Relax guys, I'm not here to punish you. I have a quite easy task for you," Lucius said, keeping his voice calm. "Since you all know how to cook, I want you to cook for the village today."

They nodded and got to work. They walked over to the dead animals and quietly got to work. Lucius joined them.

"Mind if I join?" Lucius said. They shook their heads.

Lucius sighed. They are still scared of me. I need to find some way to relax the mood...

"So I'm not very good at cooking but I want to learn. Can you guys teach me how?" Lucius said with an innocent smile.

At this, they began to relax.

"Sure, no problem," one of them said. She walked over and shook Lucius's hand. "Call me Flare."

"Hi, Flare. You probably already know me," Lucius said and grinned. "Oh, and by the way, whatever what you do, you won't get kicked out of the village or get killed. As long as you are teaching me in one way or another, anything you do is fine," Lucius added. They all seemed pleased with this and got to work.

Even though they seemed a bit tense at the beginning, they began to relax. Soon, they seemed comfortable around Lucius as if he was one of their own. When he made a mistake, he was scolded in all directions, when he asked for help, it was given. Even though he had authority, nothing the wolf-people would do could endanger their stay.

They taught Lucius cooking techniques that no one in the real world could even dream of. Cutting techniques, stirring techniques, all sorts of things. Soon, Lucius was cooking up to a storm.

They finished the cooking. As the chefs started going back to the town to call everyone, Lucius personally thanked all of them. He was grateful. He could do a lot more in the cooking field now. And he could even apply the skills in the real world.

Lucius then went to the garden he made. In the past few days, he didn't have much time to tend it. He would quickly water the plants, then head off to other work. But now, he had some free time.

His plants were almost a foot high now. There were all sorts of plants-- some grew berries, some had massive flowers, but there was one flower that caught Lucius's attention.

It was tiny, the smallest plant of the bunch. It was about two inches tall, but it was proportional. Like someone grew the plant and shrunk it down. The stem was practically invisible, a thin line hidden among leaves.

It was the flower that Lucius first encountered. The flower that flowed into him, that changed his life forever.

Quickly, he turned around and despite his aching limbs, he ran.

Wheres Luna? Lucius thought. His curiosity was about to blow his head in two pieces unless he was given information.

Lucius found Luna but before she had any questions, he grabbed her by the hand and returned the garden.

He pointed at the flower. "What is this flower called and what does it do?" Lucius asked.

Luna looked at it. "It looks like it could be a Sear plant. Why are you so anxious?" Luna asked.

"What does it do?" Lucius asked again.

"Well, I'm not sure exactly what it does, but there are legends about it. One of them says that it can link people from different worlds into this world, but it has never been done before."