As Dave walked around town, perhaps the most pleasant change of all was how the people looked at him. Oh, they were still very respectful, perhaps in some ways even more so now. What had changed was all the fear and scraping. Well, maybe not all of it, but a good portion of it.

  When a farmer or baker or lumberjack looked at him, there was no longer this inseparable gulf between them. They were not serf and noble, or not simply that. Fighting with him on training missions in the dungeon had done wonders for many of them. For others it was seeing him trying his hand at crafting right alongside them, unafraid to accept pointers from mere serfs.

  He had proven himself to be a man of his word and was elevating all of Eris’ Rise. While it had only been two weeks since the changes, the time dilation meant that for most of the town it had been much longer. Almost none of them spent as much time as he did in the time dilation, but they all spent some.

  Originally Dave hadn’t been sure how many people would take him up on his offer of leveling them up in the dungeon. It had taken a few days for some people, but now he had more people wanting to level up than he had space in the dungeon or competent team leaders. There was something so exhilarating to the gamer in him to see a middle-aged cook who had been stuck at level zero her entire life get all excited. More than once he watched as they set down their pan and took a hand axe or short sword into the dungeon, trusting in him to keep them alive.

  Fortunately the deal with Altracia made it so that the survival and scavenger modes scaled with the average level of the party. He could go in with a group of Tier 1s, and as long as they listened to him, they would be safe. The Tier 1 monsters with Tier 2 mini-bosses that they would come across were of no consequence to him. Power leveling was demanding but gratifying work that took up half of his time in the dungeon.

  Talvenicus had more or less taken over the running of the tower. That was what they were calling the structure that was being built outside the dungeon. It was intended to be a six-story tower at some point but was likely a few years away from completion. For now it was a glorified guard shack.

  It didn’t seem to matter how early Dave arrived at the dungeon, the former mayor was always there waiting, with clipboard in hand and a list of teams that needed to be run through the dungeon. Dave still ran a good number of the teams himself. He trusted Jaselm and a handful of the paladins along with several of the elven druids or forest wardens to lead teams, but with some two thousand people wanting to be leveled up, it was a never-ending task.

  Dave found it gratifying that the Tier 2s who had previously maxed out were almost as excited as the level zeros who had never expected to level up. Perhaps it was a simple as that. The one group had never expected this, and while they might have fantasized about it as children, most had long since given up their expectations. Whereas the higher-leveled people knew just what they could gain with an extra tier.

  Those thoughts left his mind as Dave walked into the mess hall. Breakfast was winding down, as most of the people here were early risers and already started with their workday. What hit him, though, wasn’t the conversation of the few people who started to hush as he walked in. No, what hit him was the smell that wafted out the door as soon as he opened it.

  Seeing one of the kitchen workers clearing a table, he called out, “Esmeralda, what is that wonderful smell?”

  She curtsied before answering, “Good morning, Lord Murkwood. I can’t rightly say. I just know that the cooks are all in a tizzy.”

  Dave was actually happy to get that much of an answer from her, as a week ago she had gone all cotton mouthed whenever he tried to ask her a question. That had been before her first run through the scavenger dungeon. She had been as scared as the rest of them, but danger either breaks a person or sharpens them. For Esmeralda it had been a refining moment. The tiger had appeared where the mouse had been before, and Dave wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t soon be switching out her spot in the kitchen for the town guard.

  As Dave walked back into the kitchen, he was greeted by Emmaline. She was the leader of the human cooks, and as the races had merged better, she had become the de facto head of the mess hall and all its operations. Her second was a bone-thin moon elf named Isha. The two were quite a sight, the short, pale and pleasantly plump human shadowed by her much taller, darker and gaunter counterpart.

  Dave had no complaints about their work though. Expressions about too many cooks aside, the mess hall was running better than ever, and now he needed to know what this delicious new smell was. “So can you tell me what’s cooking now, Emmaline?”

  The chief cook smiled happily. “Just the man I was hoping to see.”

  “Oh, really?”

  Isha chuckled and said, “If one needs to test out a new recipe, who better than the strongest of men.”

  Dave smiled now. “You see, Emmaline. That’s how you butter up a nobleman. But seriously, are you going to let me taste test for you?”

  “And here I was thinking that you wanted to be treated like just another citizen of Eris’ Rise, and of course we want you to try it out for us,” Emmaline responded.

  The two cooks led him back into the kitchen. It was a wonder of efficiency every bit as structured as Talvenicus had the dungeon raids running. Many of these women were familiar to him from recent dungeon runs. He wondered if their newly acquired levels would produce results in the kitchen.

  Seconds later a tray of what looked like bite-sized balls of rice was presented to him. He looked around, and every cook had stopped what they were doing and were looking at him intently. Not wanting to keep them all waiting, he reached out and grabbed one, popping it into his mouth.

  Almost immediately, he was moaning like a stuck pig. “Oohh, soo good. What is that?” he asked between bites as he grabbed a second treat. The rice had a tang of citrus and something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. The meat inside was tender and savory. The two tastes balanced each other out, and Dave thought this would have been something he might have found at a gourmet restaurant back home.

  Still no one answered him, and he wondered why until he noticed that he had a notification flashing in the corner of his mind’s eye. With a thought he pulled it up.

  Food Buff—Tangy WP Onigiri: +10 health regen/minute, +2 base attack, +2 Wisdom. Duration: 1 hour. Stacks: 2/5.

  “That is amazing. How did you know to make this, and what is WP?” Dave asked.

  “Honestly, it was a bit of a team effort,” Emmaline said as she grasped hands with Isha. “When I got leveled up, I put as many character points as possible into cooking. You know how crafting skills can sometimes be raised beyond their normal tier? What am I saying? Of course the baron knows that. Well, I’m sorry that I’m rambling so, my lord. I’m just so excited.”

  “What she is trying to say is that both of us have been able to raise our cooking to Journeyman level, and it has opened the option of making magical recipes,” Isha said, finishing for her friend.

  “That is wonderful. This can be a game changer for all of us,” Dave said.

  “Game changer?” Isha asked, looking perplexed.

  “Oh, it’s just one of Baron Murkwood’s peculiar sayings,” Emmaline said.

  “What I mean to say is that this could be very beneficial to the people of Eris’ Rise. In combat, in dungeon runs, and maybe depending on what all you can make.”

  “So far just this. We don’t exactly have a list of recipes, so we are making it up as we go along. This one required two ingredients with at least a touch of magical properties to make it work,” Emmaline said.

  “What ingredients?” Dave asked.

  “The main one is wolf-pig meat. Those things are growing so fast we are going to have to start using them for food or they are going to overrun us. But it didn’t work right until we added some of the new fruits growing from the trees. Even the normal trees have been blessed as the sacred ash spreads its roots and intermingles with them. So an orange tree that normally would be barren until summer again produced another harvest of fruit even with winter coming down on us,” Isha said.

  “Oh and don’t forget about the grass of the gods. We are so lucky to have found some in the dungeon,” Emmaline said.

  “You people have the funniest names for such an amazing herb. My people call it korianda, but I agree with Head Cook Emmaline, we are truly blessed that the dungeon is able to grow it in such abundance. No other herb has so many uses. It can be used for simple tasks like seasoning food or making soap. Yet poisoners and alchemists alike have need of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t become one of the most profitable exports for Eris’ Rise.”

  “Hmm, I know what the other ingredients look like, but what does this korianda, or grass of the gods, look like?”

  No sooner had Dave asked than one of the assistant cooks ran and grabbed a bunch of the herb to show him. When he saw it, he smiled. “Oh, that’s cilantro. Emily used to make great salsa or guacamole with it.”

  “Gak a mole? What is that?” Isha asked.

  “Never mind, it’s not important,” Dave said. He grinned because he knew they all thought he had the weirdest expressions, but they were usually just normal Earth words or idioms. He continued, “I guess I don’t need to know all the ins and outs of it. I really only need two things.”

  “And what is that, my lord?” Emmaline asked.

  “First, I need to know what I can do to help you create more recipes like this.”

  “That’s simple enough. Recipes if you can find any, but I suppose that will probably have to wait until spring when the merchants can return. I don’t know if there are any recipes out there for magical dishes, but I expect if there are, they are secrets of the nobles, but you never know.”

  “That makes sense. Is that all?” Dave asked.

  “Well, the wolf-pigs and the blessed trees are good ingredients, but if you can find any more magical plants or especially magical beasts, then I think we could come up with a wider selection just on our own, my lord. Oh, and definitely don’t forget to ask the dungeon to make more of what you call cilantro,” Emmaline answered.

  “I will see what I can do,” Dave said as he made a mental note to talk to Altracia about this. She seemed to have a knack for creating magical creatures, given that the wolf-pigs had been hers in the first place.

  “What’s the other thing, Baron Murkwood?” Isha asked.

  “The other thing,” Dave said, confused for a moment, as he had been lost in thought. “Oh, I know. More of these.” As he finished speaking, Dave’s hands snaked out and grabbed three more of the onigiri, like a child sneaking a cookie. One of them he popped into his mouth immediately and noted the buffs all went up by five, one and one respectively. Pleasantly the duration also extended another thirty minutes.

  “Oh, just like my husband you are, my lord. Always stealing treats and ruining your appetite. You get along now before I tell Lady Emily,” Emmaline said.

  Dave knew she was only jesting, but it was still refreshing to see her so comfortable with him. This leveling thing was working out better than he would have ever imagined.

  From there Dave continued to make the rounds of the craftsmen for the next hour, but only managed to make three more stops before he had to head out for the dungeon. He gobbled down the remaining two snacks and saw that they stacked to 5/5 with +25 health regeneration/minute, +5 base attack and +5 Wisdom. He thought it an odd combination of buffs but wasn’t going to argue with anything that could help his people.

  Each of the other craftsmen were excited about their progress. The human tailors were learning to make the elven leather armors. It appeared that combining their thought processes was already paying off, as one of the humans had practically created a loom for making fibers faster. Dave had already seen some designs because they had been researched in the dungeon, and it was far from perfect but was already improving the speed of making warm winter clothing.

  The brewers also were quite happy to see him come around. Dave had never lived through a winter where you were truly snowed in, but Talvenicus had assured him they needed a good supply of ale. They already had a fair number of casks ready but were working on something special. They begged off showing him much about it, as it was inside the dungeon and would need a couple more days of the accelerated time to be ready for consumption.

  The final craftsman that he visited this morning was Hiroto Niuchi. Dave got regular reports on their progress from Mira, who was apprenticed to the enchanter, but sometimes it was still good to check in himself. The elf insisted that the enchantments that Dave had asked to have put on the gates could not be done piecemeal in the dungeon and hauled out. It had something to do with losing strength if they were not woven as one grand enchantment.

  That didn’t mean that Hiroto had not gone into the dungeon for training. On the contrary, as a max Tier 2, he had immediately realized the blessing of being able to progress into the third tier and had made as many dungeon runs as he could so far. The extra character points he poured into enchanting and related skills. The man honestly seemed like he was decades younger just from the excitement.

  As Dave walked up to see him walking around the large gates that were horizontal and waiting to be hung once the wall was finished, he called out, “How goes the progress, Master Niuchi?”

  “Very well, Baron Murkwood. Very well indeed. Your daughter had a splendid idea about inverting some of the enchantments that I already knew, and we have come up with something I think you will like.”

  “Well, what is it?”

  “Perhaps seeing is believing.” With that, the old elf walked over to some planks that were partially buried in the ground and standing upright like targets. Two of them were rather scorched, but the third one still looked like fresh-cut wood. “Do you have a fire spell that you could test this out with, Baron?”

  Dave grinned. The man probably already knew the answer to that. He and Mira had spent many hours inside the dungeon working on a new spell. It had started out as a variant on lightning bolt, as it seemed the simplest way to create a new spell. This wasn’t yet the level of a masterpiece combining several schools of magic that he hoped for, but with how busy he was, he was thrilled to have made his own spell.

  He couldn’t resist the urge to pull the spell up and look at its description. It was a Tier 3 Evocation spell.

  Fire Bolts: Two modes—burst or repeating. In burst mode it hurls 4 streams of fire at the same time. Each is 6 inches wide and up to 100 feet +5 feet/level long. The bolts can be directed to the same or different targets within range. Each bolt causes 75–100 +2/level fire damage and has a high chance of igniting flammable materials.

  Repeating mode hurls up to 1 bolt per tick for 7 ticks. Mana: 85. Cooldown: 10 minutes -1 tick/level.

  “Is a Tier 3 spell too much for the test? Sadly it’s the only fire spell that I know so far,” Dave asked.

  “It will just be a good test of the enchantment that we have created. Could you aim your spell at the unscorched target?”

  Dave nodded and then began casting the spell. It took a few seconds, but he felt the magic gather and respond to his command. The mana swelling through his body made him feel so alive. He wondered how he had ever been able to make it on Earth without this amazing sensation.

  Then he released the first bolt. It burst forth from his hand and streaked across the thirty feet to the target, exploding in a burst of flame about two feet in diameter. Dave fully expected the wood to shatter or at the very least be consumed in fire.

  Instead the most wondrous thing occurred. The fire danced along the wood for two seconds and seemed to be drained or absorbed into the wood without leaving so much as a black smudge. The challenge encouraged Dave, so he let loose with bolt after bolt, and each time the result was the same.

  Dave was so intent on trying to destroy the plank that he almost didn’t notice the tree that was a dozen paces away starting to burst with energy. Leaves that were almost gone began budding anew, and an aura of vitality seemed to fill the tree. Only when his sixth fire bolt shattered the plank did he stop and ask about it.

  “It seems that the enchantment has a limit, but don’t worry, the one on the gates will be much stronger,” Hiroto said.

  “Yes, but what does the enchantment do? I have some guesses, but for the sake of time, can you just tell me, Master Niuchi? And not sure if my eyes were deceiving me, but did that tree over there start to grow new leaves like it was spring?” Dave asked.

  “Very well, I had an enchantment that diffuses heat to make it harder for fires to start. It spreads the heat out over a larger surface and hopefully keeps any one area from burning,” Hiroto began.

  Dave immediately had visions of stove tops and grills with evenly spread heat for cooking, but didn’t mention it so as not to get the elf off on another tangent.

  “Your daughter, however, suggested that it would be more ideal if we could channel the heat into a specific purpose. She at first wanted to make it so the heat could be absorbed and used to blast out an attack in response, thereby making the enemies only weapons work against them. We couldn’t make that work, but then I thought about the sacred ash and how it has been strengthening all the trees here. These planks are cut from its seedlings and have a great tolerance for magic.” The enchanter was clearly excited.

  Dave just listened intently as the man continued, “That is when I realized that we could channel the energy through the wood and down into the ground to the tree’s roots. Ultimately what our enchantment does is absorb incoming energy and convert it to food for the trees. Some types of energy, like fire, are easier to absorb, but I hope eventually to be able to absorb anything that might be thrown at our gates.”

  This really would be a boon, Dave realized. Not only would it make the gates more durable, but it would empower the trees that were doing so much for Eris’ Rise. In only the past two weeks they had seen increases in animal growth rates, purified water, and just this morning fruit that could be used in making magical food.