“Welcome back you two. How did it go?” Lady Vannil greeted them as they entered her office.

“It went very well. We got some good support thanks to Micah’s friends. We should be able to get production going quite quickly by heading to Alta.” Eric replied, but Lady Vannil frowned.

“That is going to be a problem, here, take a look.” She handed Micah a paper.

Micah read through it, “You have to be kidding me. Bandits? They really expect us to believe that? Here, take a look at this report.”

Eric looked over the report. There were sections of it; One being an encrypted message, the second being a decoded version, both of which Eric could read and understand for some unknown reason he decided to keep to himself.

Let’s see, omitting the long winded wording, it says that a group of bandits attacked Little Odal and used a military tier magic and froze the lake. Requesting assistance to melt the ice to restore path.

“So this means that the path via the river is blocked. How long would it take to restore it?” Eric asked.

Lady Vannil let out a frustrated sigh, “I should have guessed you would not have noticed. Bandits using military tier magic is unheard of, thus is why it has the term ‘military’ in it.”

Eric thought for a moment and realized what she meant. “You mean to say that this was an attack from a country? Hmm, the only people I can see benefitting from the river path being closed is Goun.”

Lady Vannil lightly laughed, “You’re not as dull as you seemed earlier. Correct, Goun most likely dressed some of their soldiers as bandits and froze the lake. For what reason specifically, I am unsure. It cannot be to force Alta to travel through their territory to get here. I also doubt it would be an attack on Meerka either. It is too hard to tell at this time. Though Goun is notorious for causing skirmishes with Alta.”

“So then, what are our options to get there then?” Eric asked.

“It will take several days for the military force to reach the lake by ship. It will probably take a week for them to get it cleared again. Ships leaving for Alta will be frozen until it is cleared. So around two weeks for it to be cleared. So you are looking at close to a month before you would be able to arrive. The only way to cut down the time would be to head to the port town to the north. You would be able to drop a little over a week if you headed there. That port usually has several ships there. I figure there is probably a merchant caravan building up to make the trip to save themselves time and money. By the time you reach there the ice should be dealt with and the ships there ready to load up and head to Alta.”

Micah said she would check into the caravan and see if any of her friends were shipping anything with it since she made plans to drink with some of them that night. Eric headed down to the guest room after saying he was going to get some food and head to his room to get some rest. After entering his room, he slipped into his Haven.

“Reveal which is unknown [Identify].” Eric was testing out his new spell with various materials that were stored in his workshop.

After about thirty minutes of using the spell, he accidently cast it without the full incantation and it ended up working anyway.

“Reveal unknown [Identify].”

He tried doing the same thing with [Tinder] and [Molding], but it did not work. Eric felt that if he casted a spell enough times and got used to it, he could abbreviate the incantation a bit but he wondered if it was because they were simple spells.

The item he just used the spell on was piece of scrap metal he never got around to checking with his equipment.

Metal scrap. Composition: Steel. “Reveal unknown [Identify].” Steel: 97% Iron, 2% Carbon, 0.74% Manganese, 0.26% Nickel.

“Awesome, this spell will be really useful for crafting. I wonder is craftsmen in this world use it like this?” Eric wondered aloud to himself.

“Eric! You in here?”

He heard a familiar voice from just outside his workshop, “I’m in here Luna!” He called out.

Luna entered the workshop with an energetic step.

“How are things so far?” She asked approaching him.

“So far, the first part of my plan is starting off well. Take a look at this.” He showed her the body of a wooden crossbow.

“Hmm, are you going to use this to fight the Church of Light?”

He shook his head, “Not directly, they would wipe me out of existence. I plan to use this to strengthen the general populace to a point where they can defeat the strong monsters of this world. From what I know so far, the most dangerous is the basilisk.”

“How will that help?” Luna asked.

“Simply, it will remove the church’s biggest enterprise. People will not want to spend a ton of coin to hire Heroes when they can either take the beasts down themselves, keeping the materials, or hire some adventurers or hunters who would profit greatly from selling the components.”

Luna was in awe at his plan.

“That sounds great! But I know about crossbows, I don’t think it alone will take a basilisk down.”

Eric smiled confidently, “It is a big part of the tactic. I plan to use a powder called vulta, it is supposedly insanely spicy. Do you know of pepper spray or mace?”

“Oh! Heard about that stuff from elder ******. She said is used to blind and disable… Ooooh, I see now. You are planning to use the crossbow for its easier use with a bolt filled with the powder. It would disable the basilisk’s paralyzing sight and make it difficult for it to use its poison breath if it can’t breathe properly!”

Eric smiled at how well she figured out his plan.

“I am not sure if it will absolutely work. It might be able to resist the powder since it has to resist its own poison. I don’t think it will be the case from the bits of information I garnered from the soldiers.”

Eric picked up the bow arms for the weapon and bolted them into place.

“Aren’t bolts a bit advance for here?”

“I made sure to check when I was looking around the Crafters District earlier today. The ones here are mostly plain iron for most everything while using primarily steel for weapons and armor. Everything else in the city was made from quarried stone, wood, cloth, glass, and iron is mostly used as fasteners. I did see that they use brass and bronze too.”

Luna laughed as Eric prattled about his trip.

“Sounds like you had a good time, that and you have the heart of a craftsmen.” She giggled, making him feel a little embarrassed.

“Anyway, I plan to finish this before I head to sleep for the night. Tomorrow I plan on manufacturing the mechanical parts of it, as well as the support struts. I also need to make the steel wire for the bow string.”

“I can’t wait to see the finished product.” She smiled.

That was when Eric remembered the one thing he wanted to ask her about.

“Um, I have a question Luna. The blessing you gave me to understand the language here, could you have made a mistake?”

“Hmm? What could you mean?”

“You said what you gave me was the most common language in the world, yet… I can understand incantations, which allows me to immediately learn any spell that I hear. Then there was a time today where I spoke the language of Forest Giants. I was even able to understand a coded message that Lady Vannil handed me. She had the translation written below it, but I was able to read the coded part easily. I kept quiet about that one in front of them.”

As he listed the examples, Luna broke out in a cold sweat while forcibly smiling.

“Hmm, uh, well, that is odd indeed… Iwillbesuretoaskaboutitlater!” She said quickly as she disappeared in a flash of light.

She messed up…

The following morning he ate his last couple of eggs and last three slices of bacon.

I need to restock my fridge before we leave. I hope they have bacon in this world. Let’s see, I will need…

Eric started creating a list of food items he wanted while he ate. He finished up and rinsed his plate off with water.

Hmm? The plate is completely clean? That’s weird, I didn’t even use soap… Could this be another Luna mistake?

He grabbed a glass from his cupboard and filled it water. He was a bit apprehensive to drink it, but downed it anyway. A warm tingling feeling flowed through his body like every single cell in his body were being embraced by a lover.

“Whoa…” He felt completely renewed and clear headed.

HOLY SHIT! This water is divine! Both figuratively and literally! Thank you Luna for making another mistake! I wonder what it would be like to bath or shower in this.

The sound of a knock echoed through the air like someone knocking on the side of a water tank.

Looks like my experiment worked.

Eric shifted back to the room and answered the door.

“Morning Eric. You have breakfast yet?” Micah was there, in the armor she was in yesterday, but today she was now looking far more masculine. Her, his shoulders were squared, chest and rump were flat, and he had a defined jaw line.

“Going for a more masculine look today Micah?” Eric sighed, which Micah answered with a feminine giggle that did not match with his look at all.

“We don’t have a lot of time today, the caravan will be leaving today just after noon. Jigglyballs helped get us a spot on-.”

“You have to be messing with me! Who the hell would name their kid that? Please for the love of the gods, just be serious and tell me the truth.” Eric said grabbing Micah by the shoulders.

“Uh, um, sorry, but that is her name.”

“It’s a woman!?” Eric exclaimed.

After calming down from his outburst, they headed to the main hall where Lady Vannil was waiting. Eric was holding his head with one hand because he had a killer headache from learning that the names of gnomes rarely translated well to the common language, but the gnomes themselves loved the names because they were entertaining.

I should get me a flask and fill it with that divine water.

“There you are. Micah already filled me in on your trip. Take this.” She tossed Eric a pouch, opening it he saw there were several silver and a couple of gold coins in it.

“Use that to get supplies for the trip. I gave a letter to Micah for a noble friend of mine in Alta. They will assist you and set you up with a base to operate out of while you are there.”

Again.

“Lady Vannil, I do not want to sound unappreciative, but why are you so intent on helping? I know about what Micah said, but is there a reason?”

She wryly smiled, “I, lost my faith long ago. You helped to restore that a bit, gave me hope that you may be able to do something to help the people of this world, and become the hero I always wanted to see.”

Well that is a hell of a weight… Better not screw up.

“Then I will promise you, I will do what I can, and will not give up on my goal to save, them.” Eric meant the Heroes, but with all the other soldiers around, he did not want to broadcast such an obvious hint that he was challenging the Church of Light. They said their goodbyes and the two of them were seen off by all present.

Micah and Eric caught a quick cart ride toward the market, as they were dismounting Eric asked a question. “Hey Micah, is there storage magic?”

Micah looked at him a bit surprised, “Of course there is. It is pretty pricey, we can head to Wanda’s and order… Nah, you can just learn it here.”

Eric got confused until Micah spoke immediately, “Open a closet space and give me access. [Closet].”

He (Micah) reached forward and his hand disappeared like he reached beyond this reality into another. Shortly after he pulled a money pouch out.

“See. I am sure you can use it now. You don’t really need to say the incantation to access it. There is another one called [Pouch] that a number of people use for carrying their money.”

So by the names of the spells, the first probably holds a small closet’s worth of items while the other is the size of a coin purse, maybe a bag.

“Thanks Micah. I will use it to store my items.” Eric tried using the spell, and he could tell the storage size when he finished.

“Oh right, time moves a bit slower inside it, so food stuff last a bit longer than usual. Hahah, I can tell by the look on your face, it is about a tenth the speed. So if hot food cools down in about twenty minutes, it would take just under three hours and twenty minutes stored in there.”

That is useful. But my fridge would preserve foods longer. I will have to secretly transfer the items from [Closet] later.

Eric purchased a few dozen eggs, pork, beef, deer, and the thorned rabbit meat.

“Oh, Eric, if you want gooooood meat, I recommend buying some of this. This is meat of a rocket boar, hey mister, do you have any of the rib meat left?”

The vendor smiled and said he only had a little bit left.

“That’ll be a small silver for one pound, I got four pounds in total.”

“We’ll take it all for three and a tenth silver.”

“Come on now mister, this stuff will sell before the end of the day.”

“But I know the meat normally costs around eight large copper per, coming out to three silver and a two large copper. You’re just trying to cheat us.”

The vendor clicked his tongue and agreed to sell what he had at Micah’s offered price. Eric stored it away and they head off to buy salt.

“Does something like that happen often?”

“Nope, normally people sell at the proper and fair price. That guy was just being greedy. Rocket boars are hunted pretty regularly, so I know there is no shortage, it just sells out really quick. That guy probably still had some still because no one wanted to pay the price he was asking, so I punished him a little.”

They arrived at the salt vendor, Eric tried a small sample.

Oooh, this tastes like sea salt, I love this stuff!

He bought two pounds and stored it away.

“You know Eric, your diet will be pretty unbalanced if you only eat meat. Aren’t you going to buy any vegetables or fruits?”

“I have plenty in my gre-… I have it handled, not to worry.”

Micah looked at him quizzically, wondering what he was going to say.

Phew, I almost mentioned my greenhouse in my Haven.

“Well, whatever, if you say so.”

Eric felt a bit relieved, but could tell that Micah was not letting it go quite yet. Eric felt he had enough supplies to stock his fridge now and they headed off to the North gate.

“Hey Micah! Good to see you made it.” A little pink haired gnome smiled broadly at their approach.

“Hey Jiggly, this is Eric.”

“Oho, you finally found yourself a ma-.”

“Wrinklebottom already did that joke.” Micah cut the gnome off who shrugged it off.

“Alrighty, well, we should be heading out soon, we are waiting on one more cart who ran behind schedule due to injury. So feel free to hang out in my cart.” Eric climbed into the covered cart while Micah said he was going to check in with some people in the caravan.

Let’s slip out for a bit.

Eric appeared in front of his fridge and unloaded all the meat while he started heating up a pan to fry a slice of rocket boar. He was a bit nervous of someone seeing he was missing, he thought about the cart and a mirage of the area appeared around him.

“Oh, that is neat. I can keep track of what is happening. At least I won’t appear on top of someone.”

He cut two pieces of the boar and tossed them into the pan while he started to cut the rest of the one pound into strips. One was bite sized and the other was a three inch long strip.

Bite sized piece is done… Oh, OOOHH! That is good! Tender, juicy, good flavor. Let’s add a bit of salt to the other slice. HMMMM! Delicious! Let’s put half the strips in the smoker and the rest in the fridge.

Eric turned on his smoker and set the temperature.

“What…? I just started it and it is already at temp? Is this another Luna mistake? Or should I be calling them blessings since they are awesome? Yeah, I’ll go with that. I pray to my Goddess Luna, and thank her for her bountiful blessings.” Eric gave a quick prayer of thanks to Luna, he felt like Luna might have just broke out in another cold sweat, but figured it was his imagination.

He loaded the meat into the smoker to turn it into rocket boar jerky. I bet Micah will lose her, his, whatever, they will lose their shit when they try this jerky. Oh! Maybe I could use it to bribe them into telling me their true gender so they can stop teasing me about it! Muwahahaha.

“Hey Eric you still in there?” Eric heard an echo of a voice. He shifted back into the cart once confirming no one was looking.

“Yeah Micah?” Eric popped his head out of the cart.

Micah explained that they will be heading out soon as the last cart had arrived. The caravan leader spoke to the group, organizing their placements, and reminding them to always put their lives above their wares.

What a nice guy.

Once his speech ended, the caravan rolled out.

The trip continued uneventful until around sundown, when they decided to set up camp. Small groups of adventurers walked a large perimeter around the camp area, setting up warning signal traps and warding spells. A few of the merchants pulled together to start cooking a meal for everyone. Remaining help staff worked to set up some multi-person tents and dig out a latrine. Eric assisted with the cooking while Micah assisted with setting up the tents.

“Ho, ho, you have some serious skill there young man. Are you a chef?” A stout man with a large belly asked Eric. The man wore a colorful robe that looked like it was made by the Aztec’s of Eric old world.

“Hahah, I lived on my own for many years Mr. Barlett, I had to learn how to cook for myself. Though my mother did teach me the basics.”

Mr. Barlett gave a hearty laugh as they all continued to prepare the stew. Eric pulled a piece of jerky out of his pocket and bit a piece off. He looked like he was crying of joy from the taste of it. The jerky was the smoked rocket boar he put in his smoker hours ago. He shifted in and out of his Haven within a couple of minutes to take it out and turn the smoker off.

“Oh, ho? What is that you are eating Eric? Some kind of jerky?”

“Rocket boar, sniff, jerky. I made it before coming out, it came out, absolutely divine.”

Mr. Barlett gulped hard while staring at the bit of jerky in Eric’s hand, who tore off an unbitten piece and gave it to the man.

Mr. Barlett took a sniff of it, “Oh, ho! This is smoked jerky!” He took a bite. “Huh?” He dropped to his knees.

“My, my, BLESS THE GODS!” Mr. Barlett shouted at the top of his lungs, slowly chewing each bite, savoring every tiny bit of flavor has tears ran down his face, a blissful smile on his face.

Many of the people nearby looked over to see what was happening. Multiple people looked on in envy over the shear happiness on Mr. Barlett’s face. They looked to Eric in hope of being one of the people to taste the divine looking jerky.

“Sorry everyone, I don’t have enough to give out to everyone, but tell you what. I will cut up six of my eight pieces and add them to the stew. If you are lucky, you may get a winning bite!”

The people cheered at Eric’s generous offer. Micah only laughed in surprise as Eric basically won over everyone in the caravan in one shot. Eric cut the strips into ten bits each and added them into the stew, Eric could have sworn the moment they hit the surface, the stew took on a golden glow.

Did I just divine the stew? This might be a crazy night tonight…

Eric’s thought from earlier was not wrong.

“BLESS THE GODS!” “BLESS THE GODS!” “Blessings be onto the gods!”

Person after person gave out thanks to the gods. Eric was surprised that the flavor of the stew, that he figured would have been more filling than flavorful, was bursting with flavor that led to peop-. “BLESS THE GODS!” Yeah, that.

That continued until the very bottom of the pot was licked clean, literally. Eric watched the gnome Jigglyba-, Jiggly dive head first into the pot and refuse to leave it until it was sparkling clean.

Yup, probably should not do that again, h-hey, don’t look at me like that guys, I’m not doing that again… probably… maybe… I mean it was pretty funny to watch…

Most of the people went to their tents or carts to get some sleep while several stood watch. Eric and Micah were not on the watch list as they were customers who purchased a ride, it was left to the adventurer guards. Eric sat on the back step of the cart, sighing, content, when Micah sat down on the step too, and scooted up against him. Eric looked down to see Mr. Micah, was now Miss Micah, as her features were now far more feminine than he had ever seen before.

“H-hey, Eric, you um, still have two pieces left right?”

OHO! Is this it? Do I finally break the mystery?

“Hmm, I might be willing to give you a whole one.”

“Wh-what’s the condition?” Micah asked cautiously.

“Nothing much, you just have to tell me the truth.” She tensed up, her actions and face were completely conflicted.

Eric could see she was in complete turmoil, to go for temporary bliss? Or reveal the greatest secret of all of Meerka?!

Now! Make your choice!

“O-okay, but I want to see it first.” Eric pulled one out holding out for her to see.

“Mmmm, I’m, I’m, I’m actually, more clever!” She snatched it away.

Oh you did NOT!

“That wasn’t the deal!” Eric complained.

“That’s what you get for being a jerk and not indicating what truth you were seeking. Now move aside, I want to get some sleep.”

Eric was pretty annoyed she did that, but he couldn’t refute what she said, he really did not specify what he wanted to know. She climbed up, and wiggled her peach shaped buttocks, taunting him, and hopped in.

Eric could only sigh as he headed to the single tent he set up next to the cart. Eric didn’t want to sleep in the common tent as he wanted to sleep in his bed, and enjoy his last ready piece in privacy. Eric had a tent in the basement of his Haven. It was easy to setup as it just needed to be unfolded and clipped into the right places. After climbing inside he shifted to his Haven.

The following day went smoothly, but many seemed rather sullen with the quality of meal when they set up camp. Eric had to repeat himself many times to people asking if he had anymore jerky, which he said he ate one and lost the other in a wager. Though Mr. Barlett did comment that the meals did taste a little better than on his usual caravans.

“I think it is due to your cooking skills Master Eric.”

Master?

When asked, Mr. Barlett said he felt it was only right with how good of a cook he was. Eric could only laugh, he tried asking him to drop the Master part, but he refused, saying to him Eric was a master chef worthy of such a title. Eric gave up a little bit after.

“Hey, Eric, you really don’t have anymore?” Jiggly asked, a pleading sadness in her eyes.

“I really am sorry, I really don’t have anymore. It is hard to cook in this kind of environment for this many people. A stew is best for lots of people and is less time consuming.”

Jiggly plopped down on the ground where she stood and started to pout like a small child. Eric could only sigh, he thought she looked adorable, but he didn’t like the guilt.

That’s when Mr. Barlett lent a helping hand, “Master Eric, why not make something just for her, an original recipe?”

Jiggly perked up and looked to Eric with puppy dog eyes, and he caved.

“Okay, okay, let me get some ingredients and I will make something JUST for you Jiggly. To thank you for the ride to Alta.” Eric made sure to accentuate the word ‘just’ so that no one else would bug him to make food for them too.

Jiggly popped up overjoyed. “Yay! Thank you Eric!”

Eric went to her cart to hide himself going into his Haven. He grabbed some fresh vegetables and a few strips of beef he cut the previous night.

Did these ingredients always look this, good?

Eric didn’t have much time to contemplate the conundrum and would have to check later, he headed back out.

Slicing the onion up into slivers, he tossed them into a pan with a bit of butter and garlic he minced as well. The leftover parts, he put into his [Closet].

“Mmm, that smells sooooo good.” Jiggly salivated.

Next he added some strips of green and red pepper, continuing to stir fry the vegetables, caramelizing the onions and browning the garlic. Lastly he added the beef strips after lightly salting them.

The salt doesn’t look any different.

The aroma of garlic and onions filled the area around him, drawing some jealous stares.

“Don’t even think of harassing him to make any of you food, this is solely for Miss Jiggly.” Mr. Barlett called out, warning everyone not to cause trouble.

Eric nodded his thanks to Mr. Barlett.

I might need to sneak him another piece of the divine rocket boar jerky as thanks.

Eric smoked some more the night before. Eric finished up and moved the food into a two bowls.

“And, done, one for you, one for me. I present a simple garlic beef stir-fry.” He handed a bowl to Jiggly who took it like she was receiving it from the hands of a god.

She took a big whiff of it, shivering in expectation. Using her fork, she brought the food to her mouth and, chomp! Chewing for a bit, she swallowed in silence.

Everyone watched on, anxious to know. She mumbled something, with her head hanging.

Everyone was still silent, until one person spoke up, “What did she say?”

“D.”

“D?” Many asked in unison.

“D, d, ddddddDDDDELICIOUS!” Jiggly had one of the most blissful, innocent smiles on her face that shone brightly from the very depths of her heart.

She continued eating, continually commented how good it tasted. She even shared a bite with Mr. Barlett as thanks for suggesting the idea in the first place.

“Ho, ho, this is truly delicious Master Eric.” Tears streaming down his blissful expression.

Eric laughed and enjoyed his own food.

Mmm, this tastes really good, not like the divine boar jerky, but this is really good.

Micah, in super feminine mode, sat down next to Eric, hoping to get a bite, but Eric was still bitter about what she did the night before and gave what he had left to Mr. Barlett, who happily accepted it. She looked on enviously, but knew she could not complain after what she did the night before. Micah watched, bitterly as the last bits disappeared into Mr. Barlett’s mouth. She stood sullenly for a moment before walking off to the cart in defeat.

Well, that is one win for me, to her, probably double digits wins against me…

Several more days passed, with the trip being mostly peaceful, with the occasional attack by small monsters, but the adventurers took care of them with very little trouble.

“Master Eric, a group took down a long haired bull earlier, bled and butchered it. They wanted to know if you could grill it up for everyone tonight.” Mr. Barlett informed Eric.

Eric agreed and asked if he could find him a large grill he could use, and they would need a decent amount of coal or wood.

The night came and they set up a large grill over a fire pit and the party got underway. Eric used some lighter fluid from his Haven to get the fire started quickly. Taking some oil, he brushed it across the surface while he had a few people seasoned the meat to his instructions.

Hmm, that should be hot enough.

Eric was no master of grilling, but he had a brother who owned a very popular barbeque restaurant. His brother gave him all kinds of tips, tricks, and advice.

“The meat is ready Master Eric.”

These guys too? Oh well…

One of the helpers informed Eric that the meat was prepared. He had them hand over the thickest cuts first to get them cooking. The sizzle was quite satisfying to all who were listening. Eric kept adding meat onto the grill, as well as some vegetables from his greenhouse.

Oho, I was right.

Eric investigated the mystery of his ingredients, only to find, anything he put in his fridge would become its most fresh and perfect form. He also theorized that anything in it would stay fresh forever while inside. The vegetables in the greenhouse would not only regrow overnight, they would be a top quality ingredient. The last couple times he cooked, he was expecting some pervy scene out of a cooking anime he watched before. Not that he would want to see that with a bunch of burly dudes, maybe Micah so he could find out the truth.

“Delicious! You have done it again Master Eric.” Mr. Barlett called out as he tore into the meat and vegetables. Eric received continuous praise for his cooking, which he made sure to point out that he had good ingredients and seasonings, and that was the reason for the taste.

“Hohohoho, no need to be humble with us Master Eric, we all acknowledge your skill.” Mr. Barlett laughed heartily.

“Eric!” Jiggly clung onto his back, “Marry me!”

Not this again…

“Jiggly, don’t bother Eric about that. No man likes a clingy woman.” Enter, masculine Micah! To the rescue!

“Heeeeeeh?” Jiggly whined.

“Not to mention, he likes large breasts.” Micah commented.

“And how would you know that?” Eric asked Micah.

“I saw you glance multiple times when we were at Wanda’s, and at other ladies of decent size. Sorry Jiggly, but you really have no chance.”

“Waaaaaah!” Jiggly charged off as quickly as she came.

“How much longer until we reach the port town Mr. Barlett?” Eric asked.

“Hmm, we have traveled for about ten days. We have about four more days of travel to go.”

Eric thanked him for the information and went off to his tent. Everyone else tended to shoo him away, telling him to leave the clean up to them as thanks for the great food. Eric climbed into his tent and shifted into his workshop.