Chương 130: Chapter 103: The Chef of Dunmere

The first difficulty in feeding Dunmere was that most of its kitchens no longer existed. The surviving stoves belonged to buildings already holding wounded people, displaced families, or stores too dry to place beside an open flame. The inn had one usable stove and three cracked pots, while Bellan's hearth was intended for boiling water rather than feeding work crews.

By midmorning, six tubs of rendered fat, four crates of smoked meat, and the recoverable frost-beast cuts remained beneath canvas while people ate grain broth diluted across too many bowls. Ranked meat continued ageing despite the cold, and every hour reduced what the town could preserve, trade, or convert into work. Lysa found me beside the ironwood pile, where Halden and Mörk were sorting beams by length and damage. She carried Pell's food tally in one hand and a broken ladle in the other.

"The remaining stoves can feed forty properly or everyone badly."

"How many people?"

"One hundred and twelve counted this morning, including wounded and children. There may be more sleeping outside the centre."

"I saw fewer yesterday."

"People become easier to find when food is being counted." Halden looked towards the paved market yard.

"The stone has drainage, open air, and enough distance between surviving structures to reduce fire spread."

"It has no kitchen," I said. Lysa pressed the broken ladle against my chest.

"Then make one."

"I am not a cook."

"You were not a miner before Eisenfeld."

"I failed the first assessment."

"Then your qualifications are consistent." Halden bent towards the beam to hide the movement of his mouth. Lysa continued before I could explain that repeated humiliation did not form a trade history.

"I do not need fine food. I need everyone fed before the evening work line, and I need the same stores to remain safe tomorrow." The market yard offered stone paving, two undamaged grates, a surviving wall section, and more animal remains than a sensible kitchen would use as structural material. The old well still produced water after Mörk cleared the broken boards from its cover.

Wind entered through the southern opening hard enough to scatter sparks, but the remaining market wall could shelter the fire if Halden prevented the heat from reaching its cracked foundation. He objected to the first design in enough detail that I knew he had accepted the task. I proposed three frost-boar longbones beneath the largest grain cauldron, with antler hooks above for meat racks and smaller pots.

Halden replaced one bone support with stone, moved the firebox half a pace from the wall, and required Iron straps anywhere heat could reach tendon bindings. Mörk carried the support stones and held the cauldron at working height while we built beneath it. Repeatedly lifting the pot would have required more labour than constructing around the load, which seemed to please him more than the final shape. Beastcraft made the materials legible.

Boar leg bones carried enough density to serve as uprights after the marrow was removed and the outside charred. Deer antlers could hold drying strips and utensils if their bases were bound before heat made them brittle. Tendon cord tightened under warmth, so each hanging rack required space to contract without turning its contents into the fire. By noon, the station occupied one side of the market. Two stone fireboxes sat beneath the grain cauldron and a smaller Iron pot recovered from Wade's stores.

A frame of ironwood offcuts and boar bone held three antler racks above the smoke. Hide screens blocked the worst wind, while a bellows made from deer skin and salvaged valves fed air through a clay-lined channel Halden shaped himself. The structure looked as though the southern herd had tried to become scaffolding and encountered engineering supervision. Mörk pressed both hands against the cauldron rim.

"It holds." Halden examined the nearest strap.

"That only confirms the present load."

"It continues holding while you explain the distinction."

"Heat has not tightened the rear binding."

"Then test it after heat." Lysa returned with Edda, Fen, Bellan, and two older children carrying roots and grain. Edda looked over the antler hooks, blackened bone, hide bellows, and suspended pot without asking whether any part was respectable.

"Can it cook?" she asked.

"It can hold the cauldron."

"That was not the question." The first meal used frost-boar because it carried the most fat and the least time. I cut the meat small enough to cook before evening, removing glands and dark tissue Beastcraft identified as carrying the strongest taste. The fat softened slowly, then rendered in a sudden rush and scorched the first onions against the hotter side of the pot. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Edda struck my wrist with Lysa's broken ladle.

"Lower the fire."

"I did."

"You lowered one side."

"There are two fireboxes."

"Yes. Both belong to the same meal." Ember Blade had taught me to concentrate heat into a useful edge. Cooking required the opposite judgement. Heat moved through Iron, liquid, fat, meat, grain, and time, and forcing one layer only made the failure arrive sooner. I pulled fuel from the hotter box and used the bellows lightly on the other until the boil became even.

Smoked deer entered after the roots because it needed less time, followed by damaged grain that thickened the broth and spread the salt across more bowls. We opened boar joints for the ranked marrow, which dissolved slowly enough to give the stew weight without consuming meat that could survive another day. The fox meat caused the next failure. Even after Beastcraft removed the obvious glands, direct heat brought a sharp smell out of the flesh and spread it across the yard.

Edda asked for vinegar the town did not possess, while Bellan supplied bitterroot and warned that using too much would convert hunger into nausea. Mörk tasted one strip.

"Feed this to people who have offended Lysa."

"We cannot spare them," Lysa said.

"Most are repairing roofs." Talia arrived from the Cataract with damp records beneath one arm and tasted the second strip without invitation.

"Smoke it harder, mince it, and mix it with boar fat."

"You know how to cook southern fox?" I asked.

"I know how large households disguise cheap meat." Edda looked at the quality of Talia's coat beneath the mud.

"You worked in one?"

"Briefly enough to resent the menus." The answer redirected the question without lying cleanly enough to invite another. We smoked the strips above green wood, minced them with boar fat, grain, and a measured amount of bitterroot, then formed the mixture into rough dumplings. The flavour remained strong but no longer announced itself before the bowl arrived. The first hundred portions left before dusk. Children and wounded people received more broth and softer meat.

Labourers received thicker servings with fat stirred through them. Lysa held back the southern-watch share until the guards returned, preventing the people nearest the pot from turning arrival time into entitlement. ABILITY ACQUIRED Basic Cooking has awakened at Iron (early). You now better understand basic preparation, fire control, food safety, ingredient combination, ration use, and the conversion of available materials into sustaining meals. The word Basic carried no embarrassment.

My shoulders hurt from stirring, lifting water, cutting meat, and moving fuel, while smoke and rendered fat had entered every part of my coat. The ability had appeared because one hundred and twelve people ate before the food spoiled, which gave it more useful weight than several abilities acquired through combat. The kitchen did not become easier the next morning. It became larger.

Lysa assigned six people to preparation, three to water, two to fuel, and four children to collecting bowls before they vanished into the ruins. Pell made ration markers from broken roof tiles and objected when grease obscured the numbers. Mörk added a second antler rack, while Halden replaced one tendon binding after overnight contraction tilted the cauldron towards the wall. Basic Cooking supplied what Beastcraft had not.

It showed which meat needed immediate use, how long broth could remain warm before becoming unsafe, and how much fat labourers could digest before the additional calories slowed their work. Grain produced different value depending on whether it thickened stew, became flatbread, or stretched fox mince across more people. We stopped treating each meal as one cauldron. Bone broth began before dawn and remained at the edge of the heat.

Boar fat rendered separately, then moved into sealed tubs for lamps, leather, waterproofing, or later food. Deer smoked above the station while damaged cuts became stew, and fox mince went into grain cakes cooked against hot stones. By the second day, the market smelled of food before ash. People began gathering before serving time, first because Pell's ration count required them and then because the fires, water, and work had created a place where orders could reach people reliably.

Pell moved his inventory table beside the kitchen. Bellan sent recovering patients into the yard when weather allowed. Labour crews reported there before Lysa assigned them to wells, roofs, ironwood, drainage, or the open southern approach. The herd disappeared in stages while its remaining materials changed use around us. Boar shoulder became stew, ribs became broth, and fat became food or fuel. Deer bones entered stock after their straightest sections had already become tool blanks.

Antlers held ladles above the fire until damaged tips were cut away for hooks. Rain struck on the third evening and pushed smoke beneath the surviving awning. The larger firebox lost heat while two cauldrons still needed to finish before the night patrol changed. More air would restore the boil but burn the grain against the bottom, while more water would preserve the batch by reducing every portion. I divided the meal instead. Mörk lifted the smaller cauldron while Halden shifted the grate.

Edda transferred the soft meat and broth intended for Bellan's patients. The remaining stew took more grain, fox mince, and fat, becoming dense enough for labourers and guards. Talia held the hide screen against the wind until Mörk drove new stakes between the paving stones. The work stopped being only about whether food cooked. The same stores had to produce different meals for wounded people, children, guards, and labourers without allowing one group's need to consume another's share.

ABILITY ADVANCED Basic Cooking has advanced from Iron (early) to Iron (mid). You now better understand ration scaling, bulk preparation, ranked ingredient behaviour, nutritional allocation, preservation timing, and maintaining consistent meals under poor conditions. The system notice vanished behind steam. No one nearby saw it, and the patrol arriving through the rain needed bowls more than an explanation. Talvek took his serving without asking whether command received a different portion.

His armour rested under the awning while Edda replaced the damaged shoulder strap with deer hide, leaving him thinner and older beside the fire. He tasted the stew.

"This contains fox."

"Partly."

"It tastes like something hiding inside a boar."

"Talia suggested the method." Talvek looked across the fire towards her.

"That explains why the truth arrives late." Lysa had already begun discussing permanent smoke racks, tanning space, winter ration agreements, and whether southern-beast processing rights could be issued before Dunmere restored any recognised border. Pell argued that licences required jurisdiction. Lysa replied that the beasts had recognised Dunmere sufficiently by dying within cart distance.

At dusk on the fourth day, Pell moved the shift-assignment slate beneath the antler racks because workers had begun reporting to the kitchen before searching for the old bell.