n

n

n

"I'm finally done!

" Layn screamed from the bottom of his lungs, falling down on the hard bricks that made up the floor of the kitchen.

"After two damned days, I finally did it!

" he praised himself, even more, adoring the crude result of his poor craftsmanship.

nFor the last two days, Layn had a single task. To turn the bricked structure called a kitchen into a real one. And to do that, there were more than just a few utensils that he had to prepare.

nFirst came the fridge. Obviously, without all the complicated chipsets, coolers, and liquid coolant, Layn had no way to even approach the topic from the usual, technical standpoint. Creating a fridge that people from his original time would consider a fridge was just impossible.

nBut what would be magic worth if it couldn't substitute for technology in situations like this?

nLayn ended up setting on the wisdom of his ancestors. He didn't do it because he found the idea fancy or inspiring, but simply because he had no other real choices. If he wanted his group to be capable of storing food for long periods of time, something absolutely necessary on the grassy desert, he had to rely on the wisdom of the past.

nAnd soon, the entire kitchen had to go through a serious remodeling.

nFirst, Layn got two of the mercenaries to dig a huge basement for the kitchen. Once that was done, the excavated material was set in the area of influence of the crystal Layn recovered from the nearby site in the lake, turning it into a prime, formation-setting material.

nThen came the annoying part that consumed over one and a half-day of Layn's efforts. With the walls of the basement hardened, Layn then personally covered them in a thick layer of the magic-infused material. Once that step was done, he enclosed himself with this new refuge of his, working tirelessly for the entire night to carve all the markings and runes necessary to bring his desired formation to life.

nLayn came out of the basement roughly an hour after the daybreak. His entire body was covered in a mix of dried-out sweat, dirt, and the formation material. Yet, despite his state indicating just how hot it had to be in this unventilated, underground room, Layn was actually shivering from cold when he came out.

n'Still, that formation was a **ing miracle,' Layn thought to himself, slowly gathering his body up from the floor. Yes, the floor. It was another of the improvements made by Layn as soon as the fridge-like basement reached its completion.

nThe formation within the basement had two elements. The main and the simpler one was the freezing effect that the formation imposed on the area enclosed by the formation padding. The actual challenge of setting that formation laid in its other part, responsible for limiting the output of the freezing formation.

n'In the end, using a military-grade trap formation to create a fridge was a bit too much,' Layn thought, patting the bricks that made up the floor of the building. And as strange as it might be, this floor was necessary.

nAccording to Layn's plans, before this place would turn into a proper city with craftsmen, farms, and various factories, all the buildings were set to have their floor made with the hardened earth. It was the simplest kind of floor to create, given how all it took to be placed was a burly man stomping on the ground for a few hours.

nBut that wasn't the case for the kitchen. With the powerful formation freezing its basement at all times, the cold spread all around, turning the lands nearby the kitchen completely unusable for farming. While this alone wouldn't be a problem given how Layn wasn't insane enough to place farms in the middle of the settlement, there was another, huge problem to fix.

nWhen the freezing temperature of the basement propagated in every direction, the floor of the kitchen was no exception. And the triple layer of the Layn's brick barely did this job. With this protection from the cold, the kitchen became usable again.

n'But I couldn't afford to keep it uncomfortable, could I?' Layn smiled at his own thoughts as he looked towards the last element he personally installed in the building.

nIt was a stove. Quite simple in its design, it consisted of three chambers. One at the bottom, and two empty ones stacked right above it. The bottom space served as the burning area. Once filled with fuel and ignited, it would heat up both of the other chambers, one of which would be covered with a huge, cooking plate, while the other one connected to the airflow system that Layn wasted another few hours to implement.

nThe airflow system was based on a pretty simple idea. If fully insulating the floor of the kitchen from the cold of the basement was impossible, all that Layn had to do to fix this problem was to introduce some heat back to the system.

nAnd that was specifically what the other chamber in the stove was there for. Rather than being used for cooking, it forced the overheated air from the chamber into a special tube, that connected the spaces intentionally left between the three layers of the bricks. The floor consisted of a layer of bricks, supported by a huge amount of small, wooden blocks, another layer of bricks, another layer of blocks, and then a final layer of bricks.

nThe tube from the stove only reached the uppermost layer. From there, the hot air would hear up both the brick above and below, before moving between the second and third layer, once again giving away its heat to warm them up.

nMost of the thermal energy would be lost during the first passage. By the time the air would escape from the other heat-losing space, it would be already closer in temperature to the basement than to the stove. And it was this air, that would be then transported out of the system by another tube, ending right above the ground.

n

"Did you finish?

" Irea asked as soon as Layn moved out of the building.

n

"My job is done here,

" Layn flung the cape part of his robe as he turned to the side.

"But that doesn't mean it's over. Pavrien!

" In the middle of explaining the situation to Irea, Layn shouted heartily.

n

"Yes, master?

" The young mercenary reported in less than a minute, standing before the archmage at attention.

n

"Call the people. The sooner you guys finish the kitchen, the sooner our dear Irea will get to cooking!

" Layn announced with a smile. Some of the mercenaries just so happened to be near enough to overhear his words, resulting in half of the camp instantly throwing themselves at work.

n

"It looks like everyone was fed up with what we ate so far, huh?

" Layn muttered under his nose while sending a nudge to Irea's side.

"Thanks for offering to cook for us. For now, I will have to rely on you, but in the future,

" Layn started only to cut his words in half and suddenly turn silent.

n

"In the future, what?

" Irea asked, unwilling to pass on the opportunity to bully her partner a bit.

n

"In the future, we will get some servant to cook for us instead,

" Layn replied with a smile.

nBefore long, the kitchen was finally put to good use. As soon as the mercenaries finished setting up simple tables and workstations from the little materials outside the bricks they had, Irea was already in the process of mixing various herbs and roots that mercenaries found over the last few days.

nThe sun started to slowly go down when the feast was finally done. Layn couldn't believe how many different dishes Irea managed to come up with given the little ingredients they had in the whole camp. But once the archmage saw the desperation and dedication with which his people threw themselves at the hot food, he could only nod his head with content.

n

"Let's try it as well,

" Layn muttered to himself, grabbing a small piece of herbal-infused meat from one of the stone platters. Meat by itself was pretty easy to come by in this sea of grass thanks to the abundance of small monsters and animals all over the place. The only problem with this kind of pray laid in how small it was, making it impossible to prepare a single, huge piece of meat for someone to feast on.

n

"How is it?

" Irea asked, instantly appeared on Layn's side when she noticed him taking his first bite.

n

"Marvelous,

" Layn smiled in response, wiping the drop of meat juice from the corner of his mouth.

n

"That's good to hear,

" Irea replied as her face relaxed from the amount of relief that washed through her soul.

n'To think that something as little would be so important for her,' Layn thought lightly before resting his back against the wall of the doorway and looking outside the dorm building.

nIt was meant as nothing but an act of calming himself down by alternating the bustling insides of the door and the endless calm of the early night outside. But just the single look was enough for Layn to notice that something was wrong.

nThe problem was very hard to nail down as if it was some kind of ghost spooking the archmage out. Irea quickly noticed Layn's peculiar behavior, throwing her own glance outside, only for her face to freeze as she asked.

n

"Layn… Where are all the stars?

"

n