Isaac is smiling quite a bit, clearly he's excited for this, he pulls some bundles of firewood firewood from the cart and assembles a cooking fire which he places a cast iron cauldron on top of. Alice sits on the ground and watches with curiosity, not that she could do much at the moment either in her current state. She watches as Isaac casually pulls out a waterskin and starts filling the cauldron with it... and keeps filling it, this waterskin just endlessly pours water until the cauldron is full. While it's filling up Isaac waves his hand and a floating disk of light appears before him, here he dices the strange potatoes, slices up some wolf meat and prepares the ingredients for a basic hearty stew. Once everything is in the pot he snaps his fingers towards the wood which instantly lights up into a proper roaring campfire, he begins stirring and tending to it adding salt and tasting it, it could just be the blood loss and starvation but the smell coming from this caldron was heavenly. By the time Isaac ladles a bowl for her she's practically salivating, she spoons up some nice chunks of meat and potatoes and blows on it just so it barely won't burn her mouth and takes a bite. It's amazing, the stew is so simple, she's never had wolf meat before but these potatoes are something else, they melt easily in your mouth and are full of savory flavor. As she chomped this down faster and faster she didn't quite seem to realize it but she was getting less tired, her aches were disappearing and she was more alert, by the time she was holding out the bowl for seconds she was completely recovered. Isaac chuckles as he fills up her bowl full again and takes a few bites of his own food.
Isaac: "So then, feeling better already I take it?" Alice nods to him but her mouth is quite busy slurping down the rest of her already nearly empty bowl. "The magic makes things better in every way, ingredients, ore, materials, most nobles in tier zero zones can't afford to purchase even one of these potatoes due to the demand"
At this point Alice can't be shocked anymore, with a heavy satisfied sigh she puts the empty bowl down and leans back on her hands, she looks up at the now night sky. The two crescent moons looming over the treetops remind her of the closed eyes of a giant, she always found it a bit unsettling.
Alice: "So the higher tiers you go the better the food gets then huh?" She has a bit of a dopey smile on her face from the mere satisfaction of the food and perhaps the thought of even better food to find later.
Isaac: "Heh, that's one way to put it, but... well that's not really the point but yes that is technically correct"
Alice: "So then what's the next steps before I waltz into the next tier of monsters and other stuff that'll kill me?"
Isaac streeeetches a bit and looks up as a familiar hissing approaches from the treeline, the cloud serpent crawls out from the dark and approaches it's master, though it seems to glare at Alice first. Isaac pets and scritches it as it comes over to curl up with Isaac by the cooking fire "Awww, looks like someone had a good time hunting didn't you sweetie? oh yes you did" Alice watches on with confusion as he treats this massive serpent which now has blood on it's mouth from whatever it ate as it were a house pet... Alice had to admit that this kind of life seemed pretty damn cool.
Isaac: "Well, first of all let's get your mana skin up to snuff by practicing some control and some self defense after that, you're pretty wasteful just take a look at it and see for yourself"
Alice holds up her hands and watches the outlines, a faint aura of blue that seems to flicker and wisp away just like the campfire "So it's not supposed to look like flames then?"
Isaac: "No no, remember when I showed you those images of the unchained? Lack of control will cause you to lose aura as it seeps away, you can still get away with it but it's a bad habit"
Alice grumbles a bit as she crosses her arms in a huff "I thought it looked kind of cool though"
Isaac: "Yeah but you know what else is cool? not dying kid, speaking of you should head to bed, there's more training tomorrow"
Alice: "But that doesn't eve-... eh you know what I don't care anymore" She sighs and walks to teh cart and steps inside, looking back before she shuts the door "Oh and Isaac... thanks for helping and stuff... also screw you though that training sucked" And she shuts the door.
Isaac smiles and pets the now sleeping serpent for a while, a bit later he pulls out a black notebook and a pencil and spends a little while writing. He nods to himself as he puts the pencil down and tears the page out of the book and rolls it up, uses his finger to trace a few glowing runes in the air which upon completion wrap around the message which vanishes in an instant. Isaac leans back and sighs and pull out a book to read by the fire, sitting there in the cool and night air with just the sounds of the crackling fire in the background.
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A piece of rolled parchment drops onto the bar, Lucius looks up from his mug and spots it, quickly dropping the mug and snatching the parchment, unrolling the thing he reads the contents quickly. A smile starts to form on his face with each word he reads, finally closing it up as he finishes.
An older looking woman walks out from behind the bar, she spots his smile and approaches him and delicately touches his shoulder. "Honey, did you get any good news?"
Lucius: "Isaac wrote today, he said he's teaching her magic safely and taking it slow, he says she's doing pretty well, they're going to start out at the forest of needles" He looks to her with his smile softening.
Rose: "Yeah no... I've known Isaac long enough that what you just said sounds like complete horseshit"
Lucius laughs a bit. "Yeah no he's definitely putting her through hell, eeehn well, he's the best chance she has, the guy's a weirdo but he knows his stuff"
Rose sighs a bit as she picks the mug off the floor and wipes it off "Well then next time we see him remind me to give him a thankyou... and a punch to the face right after"
Lucius nods "Yeah, we'll see her at the guild exams hopefully, now c'mon help me clean up so we can head to bed it's getting late"
The lights in the bar go out one by one leaving it illuminated by the closed eyes of the moons and the only sounds the rustling of the wind. The peace is broken as twinkle from a pearlescent orb shines in front of the tavern door, a man leaning against it, his overcoat blows in the breeze, he lifts the orb up to his lips and for a second it's deathly silent as the wind dies down.
Commissar: "They went north-west to the forest of needles, we're leaving tonight..."