Chapter 85: It Is Worth It
After Aker made his resolve to continue his Body Conditioning, he stopped thinking about his Source Core. It took him almost two years to absorb enough nature particles to break through all five levels so there was no telling how long it would take for him to absorb into the deep areas of the skin, muscles, organs and bones.
Since Aker had such drastic changes to his Venas following his last fight he wanted to check on his Peerless Body. Currently Aker didn't know how to see his Peerless body status unless he was completely exhausted and since he had a new training area, he wanted to try it out immediately so it worked out perfect.
Aker wanted to pick up one of the weapons he had never tried before, however, he didn't want to develop bad habits with them, so he bit his lip and persevered deciding to wait for someone to give him some guidance on at least the basics before trying.
That being the case, he practiced with his throwing darts first using a target that Vance had especially set up for him. Aker's throwing dart skills had become exceptional and one of the driving factors for that was the gravity stone. As Aker was training his swords and knife under the extra weight of the gravity stone, he was also training his throwing darts as well. Having to launch a projectile under such weight allowed for Aker's darts to become scarily deadly. When he was in The Pit throwing the darts around neither the magic beast nor the audience could see what was happening.
Aker had been tossing around his throwing darts in the arena for weeks before someone in the crowd had finally ascertained that he was using them. Before they discovered what was happening with the throwing darts the audience would strangely see magic beast charge at Aker then suddenly hit the ground or roar out in extreme pain. For a couple of weeks, it was the talk of The Pit, what was Aker doing to injure and drop those magic beasts.
Since Aker didn't have anyone to teach him how to use the throwing darts, he developed his own style. As Aker used the throwing darts in actual combat, he had learned that it was best if the approaching enemy didn't know you were using throwing darts, so he developed a throwing motion that blended in with his normal movements. Based on the tens of thousands of throws Aker did in practice he found he could hold the darts between his fingers while also holding his sword. As he moved the sword, he could release the darts at the right angle and strike his target. The hardest part of using this type of attack was the accuracy as he was not lining up his target with his eyes. It was difficult at first but he found that with enough practice and fighting he had developed a type of sense wherein he could track where each magic beast was, the direction it was headed in as well as pertinent information such as speed, size and so on.
Because he was able to process all the relevant information and after enough practice it became somewhat easy to strike down the magic beast with throwing darts. Every now and then he would end up missing but his overall accuracy rate was in the high eighty or low ninety percent.
Finishing up his throwing dart practice Aker proceeded to practice with his swords. He recalled the attack of that hyped up Level 2 Fire Ape and the sheer power it displayed, just the thought of it made Aker shiver a little.
"When I get a chance, I'm certainly going to have to learn how to build formations like Alex did. The ability to take a Level 1 Intermediate magic beast and raise its level all the way to Level 2 Basic is unbelievable. That strength gain was amazing and that was just a basic formation that could be taught to magic beast. Using formation flags and formation relics can allow for a multitude of possibilities from what I read. Too bad I don't have any books or someone that knows how to build formations now otherwise I would practice right away." Aker could only lament at the fact that he couldn't begin practicing formations on his long trip. For him a year traveling to Dilnara wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
He had just found out that he still needed time to absorb more nature particles and this trip would allow him to absorb without issue. He had previously read that it was impossible to absorb nature particles while traveling in the void of space as there was no nature to produce the particles. He had initially wanted to try only to see if perhaps the issue was not that there were no particles but that they didn't have the ability to draw nature particles in and it seems his hypothesis was correct.
Also, Aker had just recently discovered that he could inject nature particles in his cooking. For him this was exciting news and he wanted to begin practicing with it immediately. Once he perfected nature particle injection into his dishes thus becoming a magic cook, he could then begin the process of learning how to inject nature particles into the weapons he forges and practice toward becoming a magic blacksmith. Obviously progressing from just being able to inject a few ingredients to actually creating magic weapons was a long way off but it was a goal to work towards.
He also needed to practice with the new weapons that Vance had left him in his room. Aker also heard that Kara was picking up the zither for instrument training and he had a thought 'wouldn't it be amazing if I could play an instrument with Kara when I see her' so he was looking for an instrument that could be played in conjunction with the zither to learn.
He would need to practice his forge techniques and it wasn't just magic cooking he wanted to perfect in the kitchen as he still wanted to learn how to make more and different dishes using various different ideas.
Aker had hundreds of books on magical engineering alone and couldn't wait to get into them, not to mention he was on an actual ship and he could get an up close and personal look at the magic converter.
As Aker contemplated all of it, he felt that a year just wasn't enough time, perhaps he shouldn't have made any recommendations on how to improve the efficiency of the converter thus giving him two years travel time.
As Aker finished his sword training and was breathing heavily, he was met with the familiar stats of his Peerless Body. As Aker glanced over his status his breathing stopped and his eyes widened in disbelief, his Peerless Body was no longer level 8.....it had jumped two levels and he was now at level 10.
In complete disbelief Aker excitedly looked over to his skills points and as anticipated it was what he was expecting. He could clearly see that next to Skills was the P19 signifying that he had nineteen skill points that he could allocate.
Aker's first instincts were to just start allocating points, however, after gathering his wits about him and calming down he decided that he didn't need to do it right this moment. He had time to consider his options and decide based on his current situation.
While Aker was in The Pit, he had been making decisions based on the concept that he needed to survive. He had even made some decisions that were counter intuitive to his long-term growth so that he could see immediate gains.
He didn't regret these decisions at all, what use was setting himself up for long term growth if he wouldn't be capable of surviving long enough to harvest? Since he had managed to survive for two years in The Pit and walk out as someone who had no training before being tossed in, he felt pleased with his decisions.
However, now that he was out of The Pit and the immediate danger of daily life and death battles and on a ship, he had a respite that would allow him to adjust his priorities. Since that was the case, he should take a deep breath and consider how he could allocate his points and maximize his long-term growth, at least for the time being.
After seeing his two-level increase and his skill points it dawned on Aker that during this trip, he wouldn't make any progress on his Peerless Body. Since there were no battles to be fought, there would simply be no way to advance in his Peerless Body. Since that was the case these nineteen points would be the last points he would be able to allocate to his skills for at a minimum a year, but probably more like a year and a half to two years.
Finishing with his practice Aker was hungry and excited to try out the new kitchen. As he approached the door to his room, he again felt apprehensive as the turned the handle, only when the door opened did he breath out a sigh of relief as he walked through.
Aker walked around the ship headed towards the kitchen, Cap had pointed it out on the way to his room earlier and with Aker's memory he was able to walk right to it.
Aker's joy upon walking into the kitchen was hard to quantify. The kitchen was completely state of the art with all brand-new cutlery, stations and dishes. Amazingly enough the kitchen stations were made from Freicium the extremely light weight and durable metal that Aker had discussed building the ship out of earlier.
Freicium was expensive and as such it was generally used sparingly, for someone to build working stations out of it was a testament to their commitment to the culinary arts. As Aker's eyes scanned the room it instantly caught the site of a frizzy haired and distraught Sampson.
When Aker had first walked into the kitchen he was so enamored with the glow and brilliance that his eyes couldn't help but try and take it in one bit at a time, as though savoring each glorious tool and equipment.
Sampson whose head was down clearly lost in his own insanity felt the peering eyes of Aker as they glanced over him in a judgmental way. Realizing someone was in the kitchen he raised his head and upon seeing Aker he showed none of the cool and collected attitude that Aker was accustomed to when dealing with Sampson.
"Little boy, I'm so happy that you have come. Hurry run over to your station and make me a dish. Make me something I have never seen before, something that can justify my decision to abandon my life and decide to challenge the universe in the pursuit of my art." Sampson's scarcely understandable words signified to Aker that Sampson was struggling with his decision. For anyone the unknown heightens their fears and will force many to question their decisions. Now Sampson was headed into the unknown.... No, that wasn't right, he did understand they were headed to the front lines of the war between the Underground Empire and the Fenlon Empire which added to his trepidation.
Seeing his teacher frazzled and flustered Aker snickered to himself and thought 'so, even this calm and collected teacher who's only obsession is art can be like this too'.
Not wanting to allow Sampson to see his inner thoughts Aker was confident, his eyes were beaming, his shoulders back he stood tall as he replied "Let's see what we can come up with. I have been experimenting with several different ideas."
For Aker this was a perfect opportunity. He had been wanting to try experimenting with some ideas he had from home and he wanted to practice with his magic cooking. He should be able to do both and give his teacher some confidence in his decision to travel with them.
Aker had an idea of something he wanted to try, something he had on earth a single time that he had desperately wanted to recreate. It was a favorite dish of his mom's, she had mentioned when she took him to a cheap French restaurant that she had once had the dish in Paris, her face shined as she reminisced. For Aker he had found that cooking different meals allowed him to connect with his mom, he hadn't realized at the time, but his mom enjoyed food and cooking and would often make him different dishes from around the world.
Aker took some butter, melted it and rubbed it on the inside of the baking dish. He then took some crumble cheese and sprinkled it around the baking dish giving it a nice even coat. After getting the baking dish ready he set it aside and moved the rack down to the bottom of the oven and turned it on to broil.
He then cracked a few eggs and separated them into whites and yolks. These were surprising enough chicken eggs as Aker had known them on earth, as it turned out chickens were common across the entire universe. The rest of the universe however referred to them as white robins and were not as widely accepted as an ingredient for dishes. A few chickens were specifically added to the ship just for Aker's sake as he had asked for them.
As Sampson watched Aker separate out the white and yolks his calm demeanor was restored and his normal "snobbish" attitude was restored as he watched intently each of Aker's actions.
After separating out the white and yolks, Aker put the whites in a bowl for mixing and set the yolks aside.
He picked up a block of cheese and grated it into a separate bowl and set it aside.
He then grabbed some flour, butter, and milk to make the bechamel sauce. He melted the butter into the saucepan then whisked in the flour and cooked it on medium for a few minutes until it had thickened up and slightly toasted.
He then cooled the bechamel and scraped it into a large bowl and waited until it was just cool enough to touch. After that he added egg yolks into the bechamel and stirred them together. He added the cheese and some seasoning, namely salt, pepper, and cayenne to finish the batter.
Before adding in the spices Aker concentrated on drawing in the nature particles and tried to inject them into the spices. His initial two tries ended in failure due to the low quantity of nature particles but on his third try he was able to inject two of the three spices successfully. Seeing that it worked Aker was beside himself with glee. He had considered trying to get the cayenne to also inject with nature particles, but he was pleased with two out of three, especially since this was his first real try.
He put down that bowl and then beat the separated egg whites until they became stiff. He then put a large spoon full of the beaten egg whites into his batter and mixed it together.
He repeated this process until all the egg whites were mixed in with the batter. He wanted to put them in one spoon full at a time to make sure that the egg whites were evenly distributed through the batter. In his practice he discovered this process was the best way to accomplish even distribution.
Finally, he poured the completed batter into the baking dish until it was roughly half full. He then put it into the oven and allowed it to broil for a few minutes before changing the temperature to four hundred degrees and allowing it to bake for twenty minutes.
As he removed the baking dish from the oven Sampson watched in anticipation. When he saw that the dish had raised up and appeared light and fluffy his taste buds were titillating, he couldn't wait to sample it.
Immediately following Aker setting the dish down Sampson grabbed a spoon full and upon the heavenly dish reaching his mouth he exclaimed in delight "mmmmmmmmhhhhhhh.........". His eyes closed as he savored the flavor.
For a few minutes both Aker and Sampson sat quietly for different reason. Aker was reveling in his first successful magic dish. While it only had a couple of ingredients and could just barely be considered a magic dish he was still overwhelmingly pleased with the result.
Sampson was relishing the miracle creation, trying to understand the different flavors and getting lost in its filling yet airy taste. With a small sigh and a smile on his face Sampson looked out into nothing in particular and muttered "It is worth it".
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