Book 2. Chapter 22: Celebration and Crafting

Book 2. Chapter 22: Celebration and Crafting

Jake was hard at work: cooking. The whole Hart family was, in fact. Ophelia was roasting a wyvern flank, her mouth drooling as she basted it with oil and Jakes seasoning, and watching the meat cook. Fhesiah was helping Bloodberri cut vegetables and general preparations, while Bloodberri prepared some sides for the upcoming meal.

Jake was preparing the girls and his favorites. Hot magical air was gathered and condensed around the food in the magic butter-filled pan, as it was heated and magically fried to perfection, using his magic oven of his design. Jake had gotten the idea from the air fryers and convection ovens of Earth, and the magical fire and condensed air along with fantasy materials really created for some delicious results, and in such a short time allowed Jake to prepare many foods.

He made sweet potato fries, potato chips, mozzarella sticks, hot giant-chicken wings, and home-made pizza rolls. All using premium fantasy ingredients, containing mana. The magical cows milk that went into the butters and cheeses brimmed with vitality, and made the flavors really explode. Jake wryly smiled at the idea that this normally artery-clogging, weight gaining meal would actually be good for you. Not that these girls had anything to worry about regarding that, their training and efforts burning thousands and thousands of calories.

He included several home-made dipping sauces. Bloodberri and Fhesiah finished their jalapeno cornbread and chili, along with a hearty chefs salad. Ophelia cut the roasted flank into steaks, and the meal was completed. A veritable buffet now lay in front of them, and Jake also splurged on making some alcoholic beverages: strawberry margaritas. They would need to disable the purifying flames ability they all had, but could still use it to more or less set their level of buzz.

Jake started grabbing some food, but froze when he realized Ophelia had grabbed nothing.

Whats the matter, Ophelia? Why arent you digging in?

Ophelia said, Its just, theres so many good things to eat, its hard to choose.

Jake was confused. I thought you can nearly eat as much as you want, though? You can just have some of everything. Im probably the only one who can only have a bit of each and will have to choose.

Ophelia shook her head; Jake just didnt get it. Perhaps, as a man, he couldnt. Ophelia said, Thats not it. Well, its hard to explain If I have too much of one thing, I wont be able to have how much I want of another.

Jake was still confused and thought about how he could break this awkward situation. Shed probably get over it and eat eventually, but perhaps she wouldnt enjoy it as much as he hoped. The wide array of delicious foods had placed her into some sort of decision paralysis, he guessed. Jake thought he had an idea.

I made those potato chips with some mana infused peanut oil with you in mind, I thought they came out extra crispy. You should start with those.

Ophelia smiled and reached out for some, taking bites and crunching on them happily.

Fhesiah, your favorite was the spicy chicken wings, wasnt it? I made them this time with crystalized pepper flakes, and the chicken is a special kind, raised and cared for with much attention, like the wagyu beef of Earth I told you about. What do you think?

Theyre spicy as I like them, husband. These are your best ones yet; the outside is both spicy and crispy. The insides, which there are a lot of, are juicy and full of flavor. Somehow, knowing that they were pampered to be slaughtered for my consumption makes them taste even better.

Bloodberri had grabbed the large wyvern flank that had the steaks cut out of it and began eating right away.

The table was all smiles and enjoyment after that, each having a little bit too much to eat and drink, even for them. They had ice cream that Jake had pre-made for dessert, and the table got noisier as they had more to drink. They moved on to the next activity Jake had prepared to celebrate: karaoke.

The girls had expressed interest previously, otherwise Jake would never be the one to bring it up. He figured they could go wild and enjoy themselves, and he would at the very least enjoy watching them. They certainly had the right number of drinks in them to make it fun, that was for sure.

Bloodberri and Ophelia would focus on making a set of armor for Ophelia and Fhesiah to upgrade and match Jake and Bloodberris new armor quality as best as they could. They could hope to create a new weapon for Bloodberri, a slightly longer spear staff that was meant to be used two-handed for Ophelia and improve the quality of Fhesiahs fan as well. Jake also needed a higher-quality shield.

This was too much work for the almost two weeks they had on route perhaps, but they would do their best to make it. They now had tons of monster materials, and they could fill in the gaps with CP or purchases on the market.

Jake was now focused on jewelry. This had a dual purpose for tomorrow. Bloodberris reaction to the earrings was so large that he just knew it would be a big deal for her to be presented with it first. Jake had thought long and hard about what was missing from their equipment and compared what kind of enchantments would work on jewelry. Meaningful protection from jewelry was somewhat of a challenge, as its not like a ring could help with blocking a blow from a mace or a dagger, without some major ingenuity.

But Jake had gotten an idea from the energy reservoir on his armor. He could add a meaningful reservoir in one piece of jewelry that was large enough: the necklace for Bloodberris massive chest. The same jewel wouldnt work for Fhesiah and Ophelia being too large to fit in armor afterwards being the size of a softball, so Bloodberri would just have to be first, or just have one slightly better, for now.

He purchased a jewel for this purpose and thought it was a shame that the jewel would not be visible. It just didnt match the personalized item that he wanted to make, a blue sapphire. The strange red gem that gleamed like golden flames were frozen inside and used in his armor was simply not available, or completely outside of their price range.

Jake carved runes on a much smaller gemstone as a test, doing his best to replicate the effect of a reservoir. The tiny gemstone only barely fit the runes he intended to use, and he sighed with relief when it stored a small amount of mana. He repeated the process on the much larger gemstone and inlaid it in a metal contraption, a sort of jewel clasp with runes of its own.

Something he needed Ophelias help for would then surround this contraption. He would have loved to keep this a surprise for each of the girls, but she would have to help him forge both his and her necklace in the future. Jake and Ophelia worked on the necklace together, forging several fantasy materials into a heart that encompassed the jewel, but covered both it and the jewel housing contraption completely.

The heart had two halves: one black, and one white. They had formed an alloy out of mithril and white gold, and mithril and black gold. Jake was satisfied with how the colors had turned out, and the much larger two-toned heart encompassed a red-gold heart, meant to symbolize Jakes. On the outside, he added a crystal blue heart, and a red heart, meant to represent Ophelia and Fhesiahs hearts. Jake added the final runes to the enchantment on the heart. This stretched Jakes knowledge of runes to the maximum. It just barely fit the final enchantment.

The jewel had a reservoir that filled itself with the mana in the environment. The contraption had the ability to monitor the users life and trigger the enchantment on the heart if they were in danger. The heart would create a runic barrier and heal the user, hopefully, enough to protect their life when combined with the barrier.

Jake then used his advanced enchanting to add the system-assisted enchantment of increasing the users constitution slightly and used a durable mithril-gold chain enchanted with system-assisted durability for the necklace portion, Jake being unable to inscribe such a thin thing with runes, at least not yet.

Five Hearts as One, Epic Grade

Born from the crafters desire for the wearer to be protected, this necklace helps protect the wearer from death and increases constitution slightly.]

Jake was surprised he managed to make an Epic Grade item, but figured it mostly had to do with the high-quality materials and enchantments, really pushing the limits of the near-peak T1 materials. Jake guessed that normally such success would be near impossible without having level 5 of [Advanced Enchanting], but his high attributes combined with his high mana control, using the mana of his hearth, and even using his [Improvisation] subskill to merge the three pieces into a single one made this all possible.

Jake was glad that he was able to finish before the evening. They wrapped up all their training and crafting and had dinner. They played some board games in the evening, that Jake picked up on the multiverse market, and it was Ophelias night, so he ended the evening in her feathery embrace.

Jake made his final preparations for their date after they did their normal training and breakfast routine. Once again, he had planned some things that might be a little different from what most people would consider for a date with a girl, let alone a first one, but he thought she would enjoy it.

Jake got dressed, and instead of flowers in a vase like he had done for Ophelia, he had different gifts that he thought she might enjoy, holding them within his storage bracelet. Jake wryly smiled at the fact that at least this time, the one filling Berris head with crazy ideas might only be in her own mind. Fhesiah wasnt giving her a talk when Jake arrived at Bloodberris door.

He knocked on her door, and when she opened it, he couldnt help but be taken aback; she looked stunning.