As we pulled up to what would be our campsite for the evening, I made sure to check my notifications for the day.

Notification:

You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.

...

You have reached level 5 in Infused Flavour.

You have 1 available Evolution Quest.

You have earned 25 experience for making an enjoyable meal.

…

You have earned 50 bonus experience for healing someone with your meal.

…

You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.

…

You have earned 136 experience for a rune used in combat.

...

Congratulations! Your Infused Flavour skill has 1 available Evolution Quest:

Achieve 20 unique buffs. - 0/20

Wow! Another evolution—and so quickly.

Although for this one, I couldn't help but feel a little concerned. Could I accidentally evolve it into something that stopped providing buffs?

And if I did... what would happen to Precise Palate?

I'd need to be very careful when choosing that one.

I also noticed I'd gained experience from the combat earlier. Liane must've been busy in the forest dealing with smaller creatures because I had nearly 32 separate "buff used in combat" notifications.

Curiously, the rune only seemed to grant experience when it was actually used—not just applied. Everyone had one on them, but I'd only received two notifications total. That was useful to know.

There were a couple of things I really wanted to get done tonight. First, while we still had some daylight, I was hoping Jen might help me skin the Baelvryn Liane had brought back.

Once the horses were housed and brushed down, I caught up with Jen. She quickly agreed, and after Milo summoned a large stone slab, we got to work.

Crisplet didn't seem interested in any of it and was off exploring the area around the camp.

"I forgot how large this thing was," Jen said, eyeing the beast—but she got straight to work. She began by removing the guts, then started breaking it down and skinning it. For this one, she wanted to keep as much of the hide intact as possible since it was quite valuable.

I tried to help, but honestly, I didn't contribute much.

It took just under an hour for her to finish. I stored each piece as she went, and in the end, I was left with two things I wanted to test: a chunk of forequarter meat, and several of the organs.

I was curious to see if I could use Reduction on individual parts rather than the entire creature, like I'd attempted in the past.

And if that was possible… then maybe I could reduce only the parts we didn't eat—less waste.

Reaching out to the large chunk of meat, I used Reduction, and was left with a blood-red orb. The liquid inside looked like it was rotating violently.

"Well, that one worked!" I said excitedly.

Would you like to store [Uncommon] Baelvryn Essence for 5 mana? Yes/No

I then tried the same with the organs—though I really should have separated them first. Instead, the whole pile—everything except the intestines and stomach—was consumed in one go. Still, I stored that essence as well.

Lastly, I cut five decently sized steaks before we finished cleaning up and went inside, calling Crisplet to come in from outside.

Heading to the campfire, I was trying to decide what wood to try tonight. I was really tempted to use Thornroot. Given its association with blood, and the Baelvryn's own connection to it, maybe there were synergies I could explore?

"Milo, we're having Baelvryn tonight," I said, "and its essence looks like a volatile blood orb. Do you think it's worth trying Thornroot with it? They both seem blood-related."

Milo looked thoughtful. "Well… hmm. Normally, I'd be very cautious about anything blood-related like that. But so far, we've not had any negative buffs."

"Try it!" Liane said, jumping in with far too much enthusiasm. "I'll go first. If it's fine, you can infuse the rest. If it's bad, we'll have health potions ready and just not infuse any more."

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She grinned. "It might give me a bleed effect while stabbing!"

Milo just shrugged. "Look—that's something you'll need Hari's approval on, not mine."

"Approval on what? What are you up to?" Hari asked, suddenly appearing.

Jen didn't even wait for an explanation. She just looked at Liane and asked flatly, "What have you done now?"

"Hey! I've not done anything. Our wonderful support here wanted to run an experiment, and I just happened to be free to help—that's all!" she said cheerily.

I explained the idea again, this time to both Hari and Jen. Surprisingly, Hari agreed.

"We've no reason to believe the effect will be negative," he said. "And it's better to find out now in a controlled environment."

That settled it. I gave Crisplet a small amount of the Thornroot to burn while cooking the steaks. Once Milo created a stone grill over the fire, I got to work.

Deciding to lean into the blood theme, I rubbed the outside of the steaks with salt, pepper, and Blood Tear powder before placing them on the grill.

They were thick cuts, so while they cooked, I started mixing a dough in a bowl—flour, water, salt, a dash of sugar reed juice, yeast, and butter. Once it started to come together, I handed the bowl to Milo to knead for a bit.

When the dough was ready, I set it aside to proof. It would only make a few rolls, but that was fine. The only help Milo had given was a bit of kneading.

After about twenty minutes, Crisplet signalled that the steaks were done. I pulled them from the fire, plated them, and set one aside to infuse.

Liane eagerly grabbed it, took a plate, and sat down to take a bite. Jen and Hari sat nearby, both holding health potions—just in case.

A small squeal followed.

Jen and Hari immediately uncorked their bottles, but Liane quickly waved them off.

"It's fine! It's fine. It just tasted really good!" she said, before going slightly cross-eyed as she checked her status.

"There's some weird stuff going on for sure, but nothing bad," she added, though she didn't elaborate.

Seeing my opportunity, I asked, "Do you mind if I test one more thing?"—already pulling out one of the Baelvryn essences.

She eyed me suspiciously but nodded.

I went to try to infuse the essence into the steak, to see if it was possible to double the buffs...

Essence rejected. Cannot apply duplicate source: [Baelvryn] already in dish.

Well, that made it simple.

"Damn. Can't double stack the buffs," I said with a sigh, turning back to the other steaks and using Infuse on them all before handing them out.

I quickly took a bite.

The buffs were interesting... Fire Immunity, +3 Strength, +2 Endurance, +2 Willpower, +1 Intelligence—then two passive abilities. One called Sanguine Ascendance, which I was especially curious about. And another—Minor Fear Aura.

"Erm, what is Sanguine Ascendance?" I asked, glancing around.

But it seemed I wasn't the only one wondering.

Milo was already pulling out books like a madman, flicking through one, then tossing it aside for the next.

"I've heard it before. I know I have…" he muttered, flipping through another.

By the time he'd gone through nearly fifteen books, he suddenly leapt to his feet, nearly knocking over his food.

"I've got it!" he said triumphantly, before reading from a worn page:

"Archmage Wade Ambraelle, who specialised in blood magic, received a powerful passive ability called Sanguine Ascendance. It was said to be the combination of Rapid Regeneration, Poison Resistance, Fear Resistance, Major Blood Affinity, and Bleed Conversion—granting the user increased Strength and Intelligence while bleeding. It's rumoured there was an additional effect, but the Archmage refused to elaborate, and no known record of it exists."

"Wow," was all Liane could say. "Well, that's something we should definitely keep to ourselves, eh?" she added with a chuckle.

Milo sat again, still muttering to himself as he double-checked everything and finally pulled out his notebook.

"Milo," Hari said calmly, watching him, "maybe don't write that one down just yet. Just in case, yeah?"

Milo looked torn between safety and scholarship, but in the end, he didn't write it down.

I ate a few more bites before storing the rest and heading over to the rolls. They were proofed by now, so I copied exactly what I did yesterday—added the dried Virfolium—then portioned out three rolls and placed them into the stone oven Milo constructed.

It didn't take long for them to bake. Once I pulled them out, I didn't even wait for them to cool before testing... but—nothing.

I couldn't infuse them.

It was just like when Geo had helped me. Even though all Milo had done was knead the dough, it still didn't work.

So... did the baker have some technique that let him make dough without directly handling it?

I needed to find out when we got back to town.

I wanted to tell Milo the results, but he was so absorbed in his books and notes that nobody could get through to him. Apparently, the buffs from tonight—or specifically the combination—were a big deal.

I ended up turning in early.

Even the next morning, I found Milo still sitting on watch. Though calling it "watch" was generous—the number of books around him told me Jen had probably done most of the actual watching last night.

"Morning," I said to both of them, then made my way over to Crisplet, greeting him too.

"Morning, Crisplet."

I got a burst of sparks in reply.

Crisplet's creation today looked like a mage tower—tall and circular, with a bulbous top and tiny windows running up the sides. I didn't think he could actually get inside this one though... it looked too small.

I pulled out the leftover porridge and portioned ten rolls using the baker's dough. This time, I didn't adjust the balance of potency or duration. I just served them up for breakfast.

As expected, everyone grabbed a spare for later—an easy, portable endurance buff. But what surprised me was the Thornroot still burning in the fire. I had completely forgotten it was there, and it had clearly altered the buffs.

Sure, there was still the expected endurance boost from the Virfolium, but now the roll also gave +4 Endurance, Minor Bleed Mitigation, and Minor Poison Resistance.

"Milo, could I grab my notebook, please?" I asked.

He handed it over without even looking up, and I immediately jotted down the findings. Aside from the endurance, poison resistance, and fire immunity—which I assumed were from Crisplet, the Virfolium and the Dilwater berries—everything else must've come from the wood.

Good to know.

"Oh? What is it?" Milo asked, seemingly only now looking around before clearly checking his own status. "Ah, very interesting. Yes, good—write down those notes. We still need to check the rolls, right?" He glanced around as if expecting the dough to still be there.

"I already looked at that last night—no luck. It wouldn't let me infuse it," I said with a laugh. Just how out of it had Milo been? If we'd been attacked, would he even have noticed?

"So that leaves the theory of the baker having abilities. Yes, tomorrow we should speak with him and find out," Milo said, nodding to himself.

As we packed up for the day and Crisplet settled into his brazier, I couldn't help but notice just how close he was to completing all three of his quests. I was already 9 out of 20 on mine too.

It wouldn't be long before we both had them finished!

Our job for the day was simple: ride up the path until about lunchtime. We didn't need to travel all the way to the other side. Once midday hit, we'd turn back toward town—and finally get to sleep in a proper bed!

I also had so much to tell Micca.

We were only a couple of hours into the ride when an incredible roar echoed from the north. It wasn't loud enough to hurt our ears this time, but it was unmistakable.

"That was…" Hari started, his voice trailing off.

"Yep," was all Liane said.

"Let's go back to town. Right now," Hari said suddenly, his voice sharp and serious as he took a bite of a roll and wheeled his horse around.

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