Standing in front of the stove stirring a batch of chili, Draden found his mind occupied with the idea of biscuits. He couldn’t get the idea of making them out of his head now. As far as he was concerned, flaky biscuits were meant to go with chili and stew, but he hadn’t made that yet.

  The issue was that he had never made biscuits before and only knew the basics of how the recipe worked. Everything he had made so far -outside of the pudding- had only required him to remember the original recipe. He wouldn’t be able to do that with biscuits and didn’t even really know where to begin.

  Yes, he had seen people make them at various points in his life, so he knew the basic ingredients, but not the measurements or anything else. The odds that they were all using the same recipe were also slim to none.

  With a growl of annoyance at himself, he snatched up his notebook and flipped it open to a free page. Thinking was fine, but he wasn’t getting anywhere just standing there.

  No matter how small, he needed to do something. Twirling the pencil he used around his thumb once, Draden wrote the date at the top of the page, followed by the words ‘Grand Buttermilk Biscuits’ all in English. He wrote all his notes and recipes in English for two simple reasons. Security, and to hold on to that part of himself. As for why he chose this version of biscuits, it was simply because he enjoyed the Pillsbury biscuits more than any other. That didn’t mean he would succeed, only that was the recipe he was aiming to mimic.

  Beneath that, he wrote ‘Flour’, ‘Butter’, and ‘Buttermilk’ just to get the obvious ones out of the way. Then he began tapping his pencil against the pad as his mind was coming up blank.

  This was his first time recreating a recipe in this manner, and it was not going well. He was not a true chef, not yet at least. He had only recently taken on the guise and still lacked many of the basics.

  Chefs on Earth, at least the classically trained ones, knew things he would likely never know. Or it would take him a long time to learn and pick up. There were innumerable things that he didn’t even know that he didn’t know.

  Recreating this recipe would be a test of his skills, and not something that he finished within a day or two. It would be a mark of his growth, and perhaps that was why he was looking forward to it so much.

  Draden finished making the new batch of chili and lowered the heat on the pot. After putting a lid on it to ensure the amount of liquid didn’t drop, he headed out to the front portion of the restaurant. There were still a couple of hours until it opened for the day. Thanks to all the preparations he had done before, he had finished earlier than usual.

  It was nice, and meant that he had time to do other things.

  Which, in this case, meant he was able to show Emilie and Alice how to handle a sword. Over the next half-hour, he took them through some simple exercises. It was hard, sweaty work and left both women exhausted, but that was quickly taken care of with a snack. They would sleep well that night, but the energy inside his food would push aside the exhaustion until then.

  They all took quick showers to clean themselves and then re-entered the restaurant. Inside, they found Coradine and Marcus teaching Leah and Eowin the basics of magic and how it pertained to elemental affinities.

  Draden watched them for a few minutes and then moved into the back. It was time to summon his ingredients for the day, and there was something he wanted to try.

  When he received the dehydrated spices, they would come in metal tins, safe for shelf storage. He thought he would eventually be able to get more items from the ability once he upgraded it with spirit coins. That was just a guess though.

  However, what he was thinking was somewhat of a shortcut to his current recipe problem.

  Grabbing his notebook, he began writing down all the different items he wanted that time around. He included a few melons that he hadn’t seen in the market, specifically adding that they were seeded versions. His own personal garden might have the same benefits as anything that came from Earth, but it would help to ensure that he always had certain items on hand.

  Ripping the sheet from his notebook, he placed it on the counter and grabbed the money he had prepared. At the mental prompting, the coins in his hand turned to dust and fell through the gaps in his fingers to the floor below.

  On the counter in front of him, the sheet of paper flashed, and a moment later, a glowing circle appeared, which began rapidly expelling different items.

  A box of pectin was followed by another bag of sugar. Then there was the large container of curry powder, a bottle of vanilla concentrate, some chocolate chips -he wasn’t a huge fan of chocolate, but he was in the minority- followed by several other ingredients needed for recipes he was considering or had begun to run low on.

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  This had been an expensive summons, especially with how terrible the conversion rate was.

  Then came the stars of the show, a large watermelon, a cantaloupe, and a blue tube with silver ends. He wasn’t sure if that one would work or not, but he was glad it had. It was a tube of Grands Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits. The ingredient list was what he wanted; it obviously wouldn’t be an exact match. It couldn’t be like one was from a factory and had to be shelf-stable. However, there were a lot of chemicals and ingredients he could automatically remove just for that singular purpose.

  However, there were a few items on the ingredient list that were incredibly useful, like baking powder, sugar, and salt. He hadn’t had those three items listed before. Sure, he had been fairly certain that salt had been part of the recipe; it was a constant for nearly every baking recipe he could think of.

  There was also some oil and water, it seemed, which he hadn’t thought of either. He might have gotten around to it eventually, or continued to think that buttermilk was the only liquid in the recipe.

  He would still need to figure out the rest of the recipe on his own, but just having most of the ingredients was incredibly nice. This was not going to be a quick project for him, it was one that helped him grow.

  With a grin, he set everything to the side and held up the box of pectin. At the moment, there was something more important he had to do. It was time to introduce everyone to the wonders of Jello.

  He couldn’t restrain the giggle that burst forth at the thought of everyone’s reaction to the dessert.

  Considering how they had reacted to pudding, this one would really blow their minds. He continued to chuckle as he put several saucepans on the stove.

  “-it’s alive.” He sang softly to himself as he threw the packets of pectin into the boiling water and then mixed in some of the fruit syrup he had prepared for the pudding. That old commercial always came to mind when he made Jello.

  If he was going to make this again, then he really needed to figure out how to make his own pectin. All he knew though, was that it could be gathered from apples, not the process itself. Which was infuriating.

  Draden found himself full of little pieces of information like that. He would know one or two steps of something, but lacked the rest of the knowledge.

  Unfortunately, there was no way to fix that particular problem, not anymore. He had already tried to summon books, recipes, and other sorts of information before, but it had always failed. It never even accepted his coins. Which, to him at least, meant that it wasn’t a matter of money, but that the request was simply incompatible with the system.

  Something which was entirely likely since it was meant to be used to summon ingredients, not other items. At least for the moment. There were possibilities with that potential upgrade. However, it would be some time until someone deigned to pay him with a spirit coin. Let alone do it consistently.

  Taking the list of ingredients off the pre-made item was something he had just thought of, but had been fairly certain it would work. That said, it was rather costly, so not something he would be doing too often.

  Draden oiled a pan for the biscuits and put them in the oven, all the while sucking on one of his snack balls.

  Honestly, he was already growing a little tired of them. It wasn’t that they were bad or anything, just that he wasn’t the type of person who enjoyed eating the same thing over and over again. He had been eating them nearly constantly since he first made them the day before.

  He really needed to make something else, and he actually had a decent idea for it this time. He just needed Coradine’s help.

  “Hey Coradine, you mentioned before that you could create ice, right?” He asked the woman as she came back from her room with several books in her hand.

  She nodded. “I can, yes. It’s one of my affinities, so it’s incredibly easy for me to freeze something.”

  He tilted his head at that, his mouth opening and then closing as he shook his head. There would be time for questions later. Despite the years he and Lorna had been together before she had been kidnapped, they hadn’t spoken much about the intricacies of cultivation or magic much. It had just been part of their lives. Both had picked up a few things, but not the specifics.

  Now he was regretting that wasted time with a passion.

  “That’s good, I think. There is a dessert — well, a drink really — that I would like to make, but I need ice for it. A lot of it, preferably. Small pieces, if you can manage it.” He held his fingers together, so they formed a small pebble size.

  “I can manage that.” She agreed after a moment, forming one from the moisture in the air as a demonstration. “Depending on the amount you want though, I’ll need more water.”

  “That’s fine, I have plenty in the kitchen.”

  Coradine handed the books to Marcus and then followed him into the kitchen, her own curiosity driving her onward.

  “Do you know which affinities Leah has yet?” Draden asked her as he pulled out the bucket of water he had prepared earlier, just in case she had agreed to help.

  “Not yet,” She paused, and then changed her statement. “Let me rephrase that. We know that one of them is water, as that is the one you have seen her use, and which she enjoys playing with the most. However, any others, of which we are both sure she has, will have to wait until she becomes able to access her magic in a more normal manner.” She finished with a slight smile.

  That didn’t stop them from making guesses, of course. Since they already knew what affinities Leah’s mother had possessed, they were able to make some educated guesses. That didn’t mean anything until she was able to use it though.

  As they continued talking, she started making pebble ice for him from the clean water in the bucket. “So, what is this new drink that you are going to make?” Coradine had only been there for a couple of days, but she had already become intensely curious about the man.

  Each day since she had arrived, she would detect strange fluctuations coming from his kitchen. It only happened once a day, and at different times. Marcus had felt it as well, but only when he was relatively close; otherwise, the fluctuations were impossible to detect. Unlike her, however, he was content to let the man have his secret. Marcus had his and understood the desire for people to respect his privacy. Unfortunately, she was inherently a curious person.

  Besides, she wanted to know how Draden was creating these qi and healing energy-infused meals. He wasn’t buying expensive qi-rich beast meat as most other chefs chose to do. Instead, he was doing something different, and it was driving her absolutely batty trying to figure out how he was doing it.

  Draden grinned at her and held up a pitcher of orange juice and a spare meat mallet. “Do you want to watch?”

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