“Good morning Sean.” Chris said as I walked up to help out with breakfast.

“Morning.” I nodded, still half asleep. “What’ve we got this morning?”

“I’m going to have you take a break for today. You’ll be in charge of dinner tonight. Any ideas?”

“Bit of pressure, no?” I chuckled.

“Sorry about that.” He said with a slight grin. “If you need a day to plan, which is what I usually give people, I can give you until tomorrow. I just wanted to see what you could do under pressure.”

I thought about it for a second. They did have some basic cooling technology, but it would only keep meat good for a few days. As we were only on our second day out, we wouldn’t have much issue just yet. After that we would have to resort to dried meats, which would really hamper what we could do. As it was, most of the meals were simply roasted meat and vegetables. Easy fare to make, hard to screw up. What could I do to impress them though?

“Hey, Chris, you have one of those grinders for sausage?” I asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“I got a hankering for something from home.” I said, and I really did. I had seen condiments similar to ketchup and mustard, and I would only need a few things to make it work. “What kinds of sugar do you have?”

“Just white. The rest is too expensive for us.”

“Alright. I can do dinner tonight. I’ll need some onions, ground meat, sugar, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, egg and milk. Can we use all that?”

“I think so. The eggs and milk are nearing the end of their usefulness, so it’s good to be using them up. Is this all for the main?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I was thinking we could do some mashed potatoes or just regular roasted vegetables as the side.”

“Let’s go with the roasted veg. I’ll be one of your trainees on this new dish, along with two others. If you can demo it once, and walk us through the recipe afterward then we can really get you a good boost to your cooking skill.”

“That sounds fine. I think the only prep through the day we will need is to grind up the meat. Can we shoot for 10% fat? Probably need six pounds or so ground.”

“Easily done.” He nodded. “I’ll make sure that is ready for you then.”

“Alright, thanks. Let me know if there’s anything else.” I said, grabbing a bowl of breakfast. As much as I missed bacon and eggs on occasion, there was something nice about the simple fare. Not having to help out in the morning was a nice change, and soon enough we were on the road again.

“No Gareth today?” I asked Carrigan as we were moving.

“Nope. He rotates everyone so they get a day off while guarding, making sure he goes last.” He answered. “So, are you going to be practicing magic today or not?”

“I suppose I should get back to it.” I said. “Before we do that though, I need to see what’s in here.”

“Where did you get a safe?” Carrigan asked. “And more importantly, is this the reason behind your ‘brother’s’ find back in town?”

“Why yes, it is!” I chuckled. “And I obtained it from the Adventurer’s guild, right after they tried to cheat me. Without any objections, I just took the whole damn thing. Too bad the receptionist’s key didn’t work in it.”

“Pity there was a massive fire there right after.” Carrigan grumbled. “So, what’s in it?”

“Gimme a second.” I answered, delving into the thing with telekinesis. Sure enough, there were four tumblers with that weird shear line issue that the locksmith showed me. I simply used my little cheat, and was in within seconds. “There we go.” I said, opening up the safe. Inside were three smaller boxes filled with bronze, silver, and gold coins.

“Not a bad haul.” Carrigan whistled. “I’m glad you let us get a day away before opening this. Could have been some uncomfortable questions with the guards.”

“That’s the beauty of those storage rings. Nobody can really see into them except the owners, right?”

“For the most part. Some of the bigger cities have things to detect contraband within the rings, but as long as you aren’t smuggling it should be fine.” He said with a shrug. We dropped into a simple silence for a bit, before I noticed a slight change in scenery.

“Hey Carrigan, what’s the deal with these trees? I thought the human lands were mostly plains.”

“They are. We’re nearing the edge, and an offshoot of the Great Forest. It’ll take a few days to travel through before we start hitting the foothills, where the trees will thin again.”

“Gotcha.” I nodded. “Any dangers we need to be worried about?”

“Not really. Most of the monsters will be low level and avoid us. Just give a warning if you feel like there’s something in the canopy following us. Sometimes a tribe of crimson back apes will get a bit aggressive.”

“Will do.” I said, and sat down to think. Water was the next element, but to be truly useful in spells it was going to require a lot of pressure. I wasn’t going to be able to obtain that with the novice level spell, at least not enough to get it considered a piercing missile. “Well, nothing’s gonna happen if I don’t try.” I muttered, targeting a tree in the distance. A blob of water made it about a third of the distance before splattering against the ground.

“Damnit.” I grumbled. “It just doesn’t have the power to get a distance shot it.” Looks like the manifested element was a poor choice. Time to treat it like air, and use elemental mana only. I started out at around 75% water mana, and the spell lost cohesion fairly rapidly. Weird. That’s what the air needed. I lowered it to half, and the spell held together a bit longer, but still seemed off. I went back and forth, until I ended with a 65% mana density.

“Noticed it, yeah?” Carrigan asked after I managed the missile.

“Hmmm?”

“The elemental missiles. They use different amounts of elemental mana. My old professor thought it had to do with the phase of the element. Water uses less because it’s a liquid. Air uses a bit more because it’s a gas. Fire, light and dark are something different, and so require pure elemental mana.”

“Energy.” I nodded. “They are forms of energy and can only be passed on in certain ways.”

“Oh?” he asked, perking up.

“Yeah. You can transfer via contact, like touching a hot pan. That’s what we called conduction. Convection is through the movement of air currents. The last one is radiative transfer. Energy is transferred in waves.”

“Waves?” He seemed confused.

“Yeah. Ever dropped a rock into water? Those ripples are waves of energy moving through the water. Sound is the same, it just moves through air. That’s why your thunderclap spell is so loud. Imagine the splash of dropping a human sized rock into water. Water won’t transfer the energy as well as air, so you are making a bigger splash.”

“Huh. So I could do the reverse, couldn’t I?” He asked. “Compress a bit of air down, and release it all at once.”

“Yep. It would make a boom just like the thunderclap, and the expanding air would probably knock back whatever was close to it. Put it in the right spot, you could easily deafen your opponent.”

“Well. I’ll have to test this a bit, but thanks. Maybe I’ll come up with a countermeasure to loud noises as well.”

“Speaking of countermeasures, would you be willing to help me out with something later on?” I asked. “If I can get it working, I would love for you to hit me with lightning.”

“You want me to blast you with lightning?” He asked incredulously. “Well if you insist, yeah I can do that.”

“Maybe we should work on blasting a shielded target first. But anyway, I need to work out my water shield before we go testing it.”

“Alright. Though I am looking forward to testing it.” He said with a devilish grin.

Leaving Carrigan to his dreams of electrocuting me, I thought about what I could do with water. With its density, it might make a better vortex shield than air, at least when it comes to deflecting projectiles. Following the blueprint from the air vortex shield, I substituted summoned water for the air. I didn’t bother with the thin whips that the air had, as it added unnecessary weight. The shield was definitely heavy enough that I couldn’t lift it with telekinesis like the air shields, but that was fine.

“Elendria, would you mind shooting an ice spike at the shield? Keep it low power please.”

“Of course master.” She said, immediately sending an ice bolt flying towards the shield. We both smiled as the bolt was deflected down as soon as it struck the shield, barely piercing it at all. “Let’s see just how strong that shield is!” She grinned.

“WHOAH! WHOAH! WHOAH!” I called out, holding a hand in her direction. “Let me reposition it so that if the shield fails we won’t hit the cart behind us.”

“No faith in your spell master?” She asked with a grin.

“I know how strong your magic is, I would rather be safe than sorry.” I said, repositioning the shield. “And please, stop calling me master. You’re no longer a slave.”

“Very well. But I have devoted my life to you, so will you at least permit me to call you my Lord?”

I sighed. This was frustrating. “Elendria, you don’t have to call me anything like that. It’s uncomfortable for me.”

“Sean.” Carrigan interrupted. “Relax a bit. In our world, having someone who has advanced to a higher tier still refer to you with an honorific is important. It will make others think twice about crossing you, or even pushing the lines. If she is recognized as elven royalty? That is even better.”

I stared at the both of them for a second before slumping my shoulders. “Alright. Call me my lord. Just, if we aren’t in public can you just call me Sean?”

“Of course. Sean.” She said with a gentle smile. “Empowered Ice Lance!” A spear of ice as big around as my thigh, and nearly four feet long flew past my head before getting deflected by the shield. It struck what would be the outer portion if it were on the left arm, which just so happened to be flowing upward. The ice lance did pierce through, but it was deflected enough that instead of impaling the shoulder of the defender it went careening off into the distance.

“SWEET JESUS!” I shouted, ducking down and cowering away from where the spell went shooting through, much to Carrigan’s delight.

“HA! Oh you look so pale there Sean, you ok buddy?” He chuckled.

“That was scary as fuck!” I nearly whispered. “I didn’t. Ok no, didn’t piss myself.” I said, subtly checking my pants.

“I’m sorry my Lord, I thought you were prepared.” Elendria said with a slightly mocking grin.

“It’s ok Elendria. Lokir willing, I’m sure I will get you back at some point.” I answered, grinning back at her. “But first I need to finish up my water spells. Elendria, would you make a block of ice coming off the side of the wagon for practice? As strong as you can please.”

“Of course my Lord.” She said with a nod, though she couldn’t suppress her smile. She created a pole of ice three feet long, and put a block on the end for me to attack. “Will this do?”

“Splendidly.” I said with a nod. I started out with my current level of water jet. At the distance, it couldn’t do any damage to the block, but that was understandable. Playing with the nozzle bit, I was able to create a much stronger blast. It took several hours, and two stops to rest, before I managed to craft what I felt was the perfect nozzle for the pressure. The system seemed to think so as well, as water jet managed to reach the maximum.

Although it had reached the maximum power, it still wasn’t enough to cut through the ice. “Damn Elendria, that is some tough ice.” I muttered. Well, I had thought to make a sandblaster anyway, why not make one with water? And what could make a better abrasive than diamond? Instead of wasting earth mana to create a multitude of small gemstones that I could throttle outward, I decided to imbue a bit of the water with earth element. Effectively making a diamond dust inside the spray cone.

“Oh shit!” I cried out, cutting the mana flow off from my new spell after a few seconds. The mana drain was absolutely incredible, and I had almost burned through my entire mana pool.

“Are you ok my Lord?” Elendria was there immediately, helping hold me up while Carrigan was staring at the ice plate.

“I’ll be ok.” I said, panting. “I just burned through the mana a lot faster than I anticipated.”

“What spell was that?” Carrigan asked, pointing to the ice block. The ice block that was now sporting a rather substantial hole cut nearly through it, as well as spider web cracking through the rest of the block.

“System calls it Abrasive Water Jet.” I said. “And that’s what happens when you use high pressure water to shoot really small diamonds at objects.”

“You don’t say.” Carrigan said, face getting slightly pale. “If you hit flesh…” He trailed off.

“You get seconds to use it. I don’t know many people that can sustain 250 mana per second, do you?” I asked. “Even with my mana pool, I can only hold it for six seconds at a maximum.”

“Still, if you aim it right, that’s a death sentence.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” I said, flopping down into Elendria’s lap. “It isn’t a very long range spell, so you would have to let someone get in close. Something I would prefer not to do.”

“Fair point.” Carrigan said absentmindedly. “This is. It’s just.” He struggled to find the words. “I’ve seen you pull off some insane things. Hell, nearly half of your spells are new adaptations! I’ll be honest though, I’m scared of what you will be able to do with fire, let alone what you can do once you start combining into higher elements.”

“Why fire?” I asked, though I had an inkling that was about to be confirmed.

“Damage. Of all the elements, fire has the greatest potential for damage and destruction. Something you seem to have a knack for.”

“I know.” I said quietly. “That’s why I’m waiting to train fire until we get someplace safe. But I think that’s enough practice for today. I’m out of mana, we’re nearly done travelling for the day, and I have questions that have been burning at me for a while.”

“We will answer what we can.” Elendria said, as she collapsed her ice creation with a simple wave of her hand.

“Thanks. I know you are a tier two species, but what does that entail? Are there different options?”

“I’ll handle this if you don’t mind?” Carrigan said before Elendria could say anything. “There are many things that go into the evolutions. Titles, skills, classes, and professions all make some sort of impact. The lowest of the tiers, and easiest to obtained is simply high race. This is the bare minimum of requirements. You have to reach your level cap, either in actual levels or in your profession, and enter a five level dungeon for your challenge. You won’t go through the actual dungeon, but you will be challenged based on your profession. Finish everything, and you would become a high human. Lifetime is usually tripled, and you will gain more attributes per level up. Usually it is just one.”

“So what would you have to go through to become a specialized race like frost elf?” I asked, turning to look at Elendria.

“I had to hit my level cap as well, and a mastery of ice magic. At least three master level spells, one completely mastered, and one grandmaster spell at least halfway mastered. When you challenge your ascension, you have to do it at a ten level dungeon.”

“Is there something higher?” I asked.

“The highest we have ever seen has required a level 20 dungeon. A dwarf managed to reach the same requirements as I did for frost elf, only he did it with all the base elements. When he emerged, he had evolved into the only pure elemental dwarf. He went into seclusion soon after, sick of people pestering him with questions.”

“Wow.” I said, stunned. So there were tiers within tiers for this evolution. I had originally thought to just do it quickly so that I could grow faster, but that would be folly. Who knows what I could evolve into if I mastered something as difficult as celestial magic? I already had the grandmaster spell requirements with otherworldly solar system, and I had barely scratched the surface of it.

“Sean!” I was startled from my thoughts by Chris’ shout. “Come on, we need to make dinner!”

“Coming!” I said, groaning as I got out of the cart. “Sorry guys, duty calls.”

“No worries my Lord.” Elendria smiled. “Though I am excited to see what you are making for us tonight.”

I headed over to the fire, and saw several cooks waiting for me. “Alright, I’ll make the first one, then walk four of you through the steps again while I make the fifth portion. This is a recipe called meatloaf, and is one of my favorites. While we get the first bit going, can we set up a small oven area with some bricks?” I asked.

“I could see what Bribis can make us.” One of the cooks was off in a hurry, while the rest gave a small chuckle.

“THANKS!” I called after him. “Anyway, we start with dicing an onion. Simple process, then we season it with a bit of salt and pepper. Into a sauté pan with it and a bit of oil, and we are going to cook it down until it is tender. While that goes, in a bowl we add in one pound of our ground meat, thank you to whoever did that. I like at least ten percent fat, otherwise it just doesn’t cook right.”

About this point in the demonstration, the cook returned with Bribis, who set about making a few small brick ovens for us. “Six will be enough.” I called, getting a grunt in return.

“Alright, so into the bowl goes a pound of meat. One egg to help bind things together. One cup milk, one cup bread crumbs. Salt and pepper to taste, and then we add in the cooked onions.” I said, dumping everything together, making sure that I broke the egg yolk open and had it partially mixed in. “Oooh, cold.” I shuddered. “Mix this thoroughly, and form a rough loaf shape on a sheet of metal.” I said, showing them what I meant.

“Sir, why did you cook the onions first?” Someone asked.

“Personal preference. If you don’t, they end up being crunchy in the final product. I’m not a big fan of that. If you want we can make a loaf without cooking the onion to compare?” I asked Chris.

“Let’s do them all the same, this time.” He said with a nod.

“Fair enough. Now, on to the sauce. In a separate bowl, and with clean hands, mix up a third of a cup of ketchup, two tablespoons of mustard, and two tablespoons of sugar. Normally I use brown, but we only have white so that will have to do.” I mixed up the sauce, whisking it thoroughly to avoid lumps. “Now we just pour and spread this over the meatloaf, and it will form a fantastic glaze as it cooks.” I said, sliding the first bit into the oven. “You want to cook it until the center of the loaf is cooked through, no pink in the meat. It should take about an hour, depending on your temperature.”

“I changed my mind.” Chris said after seeing the final product. “Jerry, you will make the fifth batch with the rest of us. It’s a simple enough recipe that I think Sean can simply walk us all through it.”

I shrugged and stepped back from the bowl, letting Jerry take my place. The rest of the cooks sat down, then turned to me. “Let’s get going then.” I said with a smile, walking them through the process. I was slightly jealous at the speed with which they were able to dice up the onions, but then again these were people that had been practicing daily for years. Their preparation went off without a hitch, and once everything was in the oven and cooking Chris had everyone start prepping enough vegetables to make the meal.

An hour later, and the camp was loving the new meal. We simply split each loaf down the middle and cut up slices to make things easy, though we had to turn down several people who were wanting extra glaze to put on their meat. At the end of the night, I headed over to help out wash the sheet pans, as they had a bit of burned grease on them.

“Not a bad meal, not bad at all.” Chris said, tracking me down. “Easy to prepare, and I’m thinking there is a lot of flexibility in that recipe.”

“Most definitely.” I said, nodding to him. “Change the glaze, things you put in the loaf itself. I’ve even seen people wrap it with bacon and slow cook it with smoke.”

“I see. Well, now on to the important part. How much did your cooking skill advance?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah I should have checked that. Let’s see here, level 11?! I gained five skill levels for that?” I turned to look at Chris, confused.

“Yep, sounds about right.” Jerry chuckled. “Teaching others your recipes in a way that they can easily follow is the quickest way to improve cooking skill. Especially in the camp cook bit.”

“He’s got it in one.” Chris said. “Now, go get some rest. Tomorrow you are back on dish detail. I’ll take care of breakfast in the morning.”

“Appreciate it.” I said with a yawn, stumbling towards my bedroll. Hopefully tomorrow would be just as productive as today was.