A few hours passed, and the tranquil clearing gradually shifted from quiet to lively as everyone began returning one by one for a short break before resuming their training.
The first to erge from the treeline were Aurora, Kate, and Lirae. "I brought lunch!" Aurora announced proudly as she took out the corpse of a gigantic mutated stag with six eyes and bone spikes jutting from its spine. The monstrous thing hit the ground with a heavy thud that cracked a nearby rock.
"Mother, have you cooked with this beast before? I think if you use this at, you can get a lot of experience and skill points!" Aurora bead.
Damon's mother froze like soone had just handed her a live bomb. Her eyes traveled up the grotesque mountain of muscle and bone, lingering on the extra set of eyes and the serrated antlers that seed a little too sharp even in death.
She gulped. "I… No, dear. I have not cooked… that."
Behind her, Damon's father whispered under his breath, "It still looks like it's alive…"
Seeing her dilemma, Kate quickly stepped forward. "I can help you clean it and cut the at out, mother. I have also brought so new beast at for you."
Damon's mother let out a sigh feeling thankful for the girl's offer. But the next second, Kate also reached into her inventory and, with the casual grace of soone pulling groceries from a shopping bag, dropped another corpse beside the first. This one was a massive boar-like creature with tusks made of crystallized mana and a hide so tough it looked like armor plating.
The ground shook. Damon's mother took a step back. Damon's father took two.
Aurora clapped excitedly. "Perfect! Now we have a beginner-level monster and an interdiate-level monster for cooking practice!"
"Beginner?" Damon's mother repeated, staring at the six-eyed abomination.
Aurora nodded sagely. "I barely used any mana to defeat it mother."
Lirae, who had been silently observing, stepped forward with solemn dignity. "I also offer tribute." She lifted a delicately wrapped bundle from her inventory and placed it beside the corpses.
It unfolded into a third beast, a sleek, panther-like predator with glowing red veins and three tails.
Damon's mother made a small sound, more like a squeak.
Damon's father whispered, "…I think its fur is moving."
Lirae bowed. "Its blood is still warm. The heart only stopped beating minutes ago. Its flavor should be at its peak."
Damon's mother covered her mouth and nodded weakly. "Y-yes… very… fresh."
Aurora leaned in with a bright smile. "How can I help mother? What shall I start cutting first? Do you want to cut the at first or the vegetables first?"
Kate eagerly stepped forward, hands already glowing faintly with mana as if she were about to perform surgery instead of cooking. "Mother, I can tenderize the at. Or slice it. Or extract its blood. Whatever you want."
"I can debone it," Lirae added imdiately, looking extra eager.
Aurora again chid in impatiently, bouncing on her toes, as if she was a student waiting for the teacher to call her. "And I can chop vegetables! And the monster! And the spices! And the monster again if needed!"
Damon's mother stared at the three won. Aurora was practically vibrating with murderous enthusiasm, Kate was holding a glowing blade of blood like a professional butcher, and Lirae looked like she was ready to conduct a sacred culinary sacrifice.
She gulped. Then gulped again and then gulped again. She was used to Georgina, who couldn't give two fucks about what happened in a kitchen, soone who would burn rice and then bla the pot for being too sensitive.
That too Damon's mother would have to repeatedly argue with her just to get her into the kitchen.
But this? This was the exact opposite. This was three terrifyingly powerful won, all very scary in their own right and awaiting her orders with stars twinkling in their eyes. Did they really want to help her? What was going on…
She turned a pleading look to Damon, but Damon had already taken a strategic step backward, pretending to admire a tree. His mother's eye twitched violently.
Aurora leaned forward, excited. "Mother, tell what to do! I want to help!"
Kate nodded eagerly. "Please instruct us. We are ready."
Lirae bowed. "Command us, elder matriarch."
Damon's mother choked on her own breath. Damon's father slowly approached his wife, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Honey…" he said very gently, "just go with the flow, don't stress it too much."
Damon's mother imdiately snapped to give the old man a glare. She was pretty sure the guy was enjoying her plight but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction!
So she straightened her back, wiped her palms on her apron, and forced a smile that was half courage, half survival instinct. "O-Okay… let's just start by taking small slices of at. Let see what type of dish will suit each beast at the best." All three won lit up like she had just bestowed divine enlightennt.
"Yes, Mother!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"As you command, Matriarch."
Damon's mother froze again. Matriarch?? But before she could correct them, the three terrifyingly enthusiastic won leapt into action.
Aurora, with a grin too bright for soone standing over a corpse, summoned a pitch-black cleaver that humd with dark mana. "Small slices! Understood! I will create the most perfect small slices known to mankind." She raised the cleaver dramatically and got to work.
Kate then used a thin blade of blood and started working on her beast.
Lirae approached the panther-like creature with ceremonial reverence, her hands glowing with crimson sigils. "I shall remove its bones without rupturing a single blood vessel. The marrow still holds essence. Wasting it would be sacrilegious." She bowed her head to the corpse. "May your remains bring nourishnt to our family."
Damon's father coughed. "Why does it sound like she's preparing it for burial?"
But Damon's mother was already overwheld trying to process everything happening at once. Three monstrous corpses. Three overpowered won. Three different weaponized cutting techniques. And all of them looking at her like she was Gordon Ramsay's twin sister.
Damon's mother could only throw helpless looks at her unfilial son, who was still pretending not to notice her plight.
Damon laughed lightly on the side. "Maybe I should intervene…" He murmured to himself and sat on the thought, procrastinating on sothing else. He only looked in the direction again after a few minutes when unexpectedly the situation had changed a lot.
Damon blinked. All of the previous awkwardness had sohow completely disappeared. Damon blinked.
Aurora was kneeling at Damon's mother's side, attentively fanning the bonfire with a gentle breeze. Kate was carefully arranging slices of at on a flat stone heated by controlled fla magic. Lirae was stirring a pot with a wooden ladle, expression solemn, as if she were blending the essence of an ancient ritual.
And right in the middle of all this, Damon's mother sat surrounded by neatly prepped ingredients, giving instructions like she had trained these won from birth.
"Kate, thinner slices for the stew. That cut is too tough."
"Yes, Mother." Kate imdiately corrected it.
"Aurora, keep the fla steady. No scorching."
"Of course! Perfect stability!" Aurora bead, adjusting her movents obediently.
"Lirae, slow stir. You're activating the spices too quickly."
Lirae bowed deeply. "My apologies, Matri… uh… Mother."
Damon's mother gave a satisfied nod and sprinkled herbs into the pot with a flourish that would make a professional chef jealous. She looked unexpectedly proud, confident even, like soone who had tad three apex predators and turned them into kitchen helpers.
"She looks… happy," Damon muttered.
"Of course, she is. Look at that woman checking out her system interface every other second. She must be gaining a lot of skill points." His father clicked his tongue, eyes filled with jealousy. He then shook his head helplessly and continued, "At this rate, she is definitely going to leave behind in the dust. She is going to beco so overpowered high-level character and she is going to lord it over . Hmph. That damned woman! She always has such good luck!"
Damon stood there for a long mont, baffled. A few minutes ago, she had been on the verge of fainting. Now she was running a cooking class. His father noticed his stare and smirked. "Your mother adapts quickly."
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