"Wow! Look how he's cooking!"
"Amazing! I never thought Cooking Magic existed!"
"Is he really a dragon?! He's more like a showman, hahaha!"
"He's funnier than I thought."
"His Family is so lovely too…"
While I made all kinds of shows while cooking, all while my family narrated their adventures, we easily won the hearts of most of the younglings, although the elderly were still a bit suspicious, when they tasted my seafood spicy curry, such doubts faded away.
"Woaaah! What is this thing?!"
"S-So tasteful! It feels like my tongue has awakened from a slumber!"
"Seafood is so good! I didn't thought that these tiny bugs called shrimps and those crab things would be this delicious!"
"T-This is rice?! They're so soft for being grains!"
"Hmmm~ This fruit and ice cream dessert is crazy good!"
"You call this pasta? It's so nice!"
"Hahaha! Please come for more! There's much more food!" I laughed, as I continued preparing food for everyone.
Of course, it wasn't as if I couldn't divide myself into two. So I left a Doppelganger preparing the food, while I quickly joined on a more personal dinner with Surtr and his group.
"Woah, so this is the surface! There's no ceiling!" Jamar was looking outside of the window of the mountain-made cave house the fire giants carved inside the mountain, looking down and above. "So much light too… And it is kind of dry around here… Ugh, I think that if I wasn't strong enough, I would get a bit sick… I can tell why my family doesn't come out from down there."
While we were exploring the Myconid village, we had lunch with the mushroom people, and Jamar's grandfather also asked for forgiveness from Jamar, and recognized his strength.
Later, in between tears, he let him come to the surface while the rest of the Myconid recognized him as their hero for having assisted in defeating Trafalh and also rescuing the Mountain Guardian from being possessed by what everyone now calls an "Evil Spirit".
We also learned a few interesting things about Myconid… One of them is that they're all genderless. Or well, most call themselves "he", but they don't seem to have women, female, and the like. They reproduce asexually through spores, interestingly enough.
"Seems like you're getting used to the surface pretty easily!" Laughed Surtr, he was helping me cook as well.
"Y-Yeah, a bit, but it is still scary!" Jamar said. "This curry is really good though!" The little mushroom was enjoying his curry plate, stuffing his cheeks with it. "So spicy! I only have tasted something similar when I ate poisonous mushrooms… But I got sick for a week, ugh."
"Hahaha, this kid's quite funny." Nadia laughed.
"I guess not only Drake and his family will become our new allies, but Jamar here!" Mina smiled. "I hope we can get along!"
"S-Sure! I'll make sure to grow stronger and pull my own weight!" Jamar nodded, while drinking some tropical fruit juice.
"But for real, this food's really good!" Nadia laughed. "This meat seems… Much less smoky."
"Yeah! And the sweets which are so rare around here… they're so lovely!" Mina smiled while eating cheesecake.
"Honestly, I never thought it would be possible to completely recreate earth's food like you've done, Drake." Surtr said. "I've had to just do with what we had here. My magic nor powers don't extend to giving me food items and anything like that… And sadly, things like rice, grains, and so on are very rare. We mostly eat meat with tubers and herbs. Most fruits here are also just… really bitter, or spicy. I never thought oranges or apples existed in this world too!"
"Hahaha, well, from now on, I can give you as many as your village needs. Even once we depart from here, I'll leave a connection to my divine realm." I said with a smile. "Maybe we could trade endemic ingredients from this continent with ours. I think we could sell them at pretty good prices out there. In Jotunheimr for example, spicy and bittern foods are very rare. Also, these monsters meat is really smoky, and unique as they can mix the smoky flavor to however you cook them!"
"I had mostly grown used to it, and was a bit tired too… I'm amazed you're finding them tasty." Laughed Surtr.
"Anyways, it should be ready by now." I said, quickly beginning to serve the food.
Benladra and Kate came running inside the house after running and playing with the kids for a while and joined in the feast with all of us.
There was Grilled and Salted Lava Fish, Grizzly Bear Burgers and Juicy Steaks, Fire Salamander's Meatloaf, and more. The unique smoky flavor and smell of the meat of this continent was very appetizing, and when mixing the burgers with cheese, tomato, lettuce, and bun, it was even better.
"Borgar so tasty!" Benladra said with a smile, eating two burgers at once.
"This fish… was from a lava pool?" Wondered Kate.
"More or less." I laughed. "Ah, here, there's also Lesser Blaze Dragon Steak and Burges I made with the meat of the Trial's monsters."
I placed a huge plate with this premium, draconic monster meat. My family didn't even hesitate to eat right away, and I also tasted the flavor and the texture, it was much better than I had imagined, honestly.
"W-Wait, this is dragon meat?!" Surtr panicked.
"It is lesser dragon meat, they're dragon-like monsters that aren't related to us, they were originally born from the dungeons, and spread around the land." I explained. "They're just a completely different species that are very dragon-like, but lack our intelligence, and are just wild beasts."
"I see…" Surtr nodded.
"Though, auntie Leviathan's smart!" Said Benladann.
"Ah, well, she's an exception because she's really strong and ancient." I explained. "But I think she has reached the most intelligence a monster dragon can reach."
"Leviathan?" Surtr wondered.
"Well, I guess we have to talk a lot… Let me explain things out from the beginning. Also, we need to talk about the Trials of the Venerable… The Flame Emperor, and the other wielder of the Red Orb Fragment."
"Yeah! About time you talk about that! He has one of my brother's fragments! Give it back!"
FLAAASH!
Suddenly, Aegir manifested herself in front of everyone.
