*Ding*

  For assisting in the destruction of an Earth elemental, you have been awarded with the [Slayer of Earth] feat.

  For assisting in the destruction of a Gale elemental, you have been awarded with the [Slayer of Gales] feat.

  Jeff stared at the system messages, almost in shock. Everything had happened so quick. One moment, he was out in the wilderness, staring down the forces of nature man shouldn't even be able to witness let alone subjugate so simply. The next, he was whisked away to this large room with everybody else and system messages flooding his vision.

  He was thankful the room was so large. A repurposed gymnasium, maybe? Empty, barring the hundreds of people packed in like sardines. A simple stage at the opposite end of the room with a handful of people standing up, looking out over everybody else with a look of, pride? Envy? Jeff wasn't sure. They looked pleased for the most part, with just a hint of something else lurking beneath the surface. Expectation? Annoyance?

  "Two feats!" Somebody whispered nearby. "Did you get them too?"

  "What do these slayer feats do again?" Another person asked.

  "My frost skill isn't working. Nothing's happening." Another person mumbled.

  A blast of wind rushed out over the crowd, grasping everybody's attention as the sea of heads turned towards the stage at the front.

  "Hello," the woman at the front of the stage said in a soft voice. "I'm Rose, I work with Foizo's disaster management group. Today was a most fortuitous day as we had several high level visitors willing to assist with subjugating these dangerous forces."

  Rose paused as she looked over the crowd. "But we here at the FDMG would like to make one thing abundantly clear. This is an anomaly. And one that we don't take lightly. Please listen to us and accept our best judgment in any future disasters, we may not always have these powerful people assisting us, and believing we do can and will lead to your unfortunate deaths. Trust in our alarms, and you will be as safe as you can be, even if you feel future disasters are less disastrous than this one was."

  Jeff felt as though Rose's gaze settled on him for just a moment and felt a moment of pride. First he'd been asked to restrain his sinkhole magic, and now he was even being recognized as a significant contributor to Foizo's disaster management group? At last, the glory of sinkholes were being recognized.

  "Today, you should have all been blessed with the same two feats. Slayer of Gales and Slayer of Earth. These both grant you several abilities if you didn't already have them." Rose held out her hand and formed two balls of magic. In her left hand, a small ball of earth. And in the right, a small ball of rushing winds.

  "You should have received both the Gales skill and the Earth skills. Neither of these will work for any of you in this room, and we would appreciate it if you didn't strain our defences trying to use them anyway. You've also received a bonus to Earth and Gale affinity for all of your classes. That is all for the required listening, you may leave through the doors on the sides if you do not wish for assistance learning your new skills." Rose gestured to both sides of the room where large double doors swung open.

  Most people began to leave, with the ones who didn't being the lower level, younger folks. Kids with only a couple classes or some younger adults with physical classes. Jeff decided to stick around for a moment longer.

  "Earth and Gales are what we refer to as true elemental skills. They allow you to both create," Rose formed a small ball of earth that she held in her hand. "As well as manipulate the elements." The ball floated off her hand, drifting across the people who still remained.

  "This is done through a series of magical formulas that the system forms autonomously for us as we pull on the skill's structure within our souls. If you have a magic class that lets you see mana, you can see these formulas for yourself, but rest assured even without seeing them, they will function perfectly." Rose paced back and forth on the stage.

  "Hey man," Tom said from next to him. "Do you need this? Seems pretty basic, to me."

  Jeff shook his head. "No, I was curious if they might know something different but it seems like baby's first magic skill."

  "Wanna dip out then?" Tom asked.

  "Sure. Hungry? Could go grab some dinner." Jeff suggested.

  "I know a good spot," a feminine voice said from behind the two.

  Jeff turned and saw one of the palest women he'd ever seen. Skin white as snow, with the hair to match. A black dress with red stripes that almost matched her piercing eyes. She looked intense. Dark red level 124 mage, Jeff identified.

  "Oh yeah?" Tom asked. "We've only been in town about a month so haven't had the time to try everything yet."

  "Yeah, yeah. I know a few spots, been in Foizo for a while now. Comfy place, I think. Easy to lose track of time here." The woman laughed.

  "Well, lead the way then!" Jeff bowed away and waved his hand forward, gesturing for her to lead.

  The woman smiled. "I saw you out there earlier. Was hard not to notice you really," she giggled.

  "Don't pay this guy too much mind," Tom said. "He's nice, at the end of it all. I'm Tom, this is Jeff. Nice to meet you."

  "I'm Zoe, nice to meet you two too." Zoe said, leading them out of the room as Rose continued her lesson about magic. The importance of control, how to improve the efficiency of your skills. The usual lesson people got when they first learned magic.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Most people got the lesson as children from their parents, but it was easy to forget if you never ended up using magic so it wasn't uncommon for it to be repeated a few times.

  Zoe lead them through the streets, down some dark alleyways and across some fields until they eventually landed at their destination. It looked like little more than a small wooden gazebo. Wooden posts held up the roof that only just covered the handful of tables set throughout the restaurant. In the middle was a small kitchen area set up in a circle with the chef standing right in the middle of it, surrounded by cutting boards and cooking surfaces.

  The chef looked up as they entered and smiled. "Zoe! Long time no see. How've you been?"

  "I've been well, got a couple new friends here I just met. We helped slay a couple of elementals together." Zoe laughed. "Thought we'd stop by for some dinner to celebrate our new feats."

  The chef smiled. "I see, I see. New friends, huh? Pretty high level these two."

  Jeff puffed out his chest like a bird showing off for a mate. He was level 401 with his sixth class — and as a sinkhole wizard no less, it was a point of pride for him.

  "Yup. I happened to be behind them when everybody was whisked away and heard them talking about wanting some dinner. Thought I'd introduce them to the best meals in the city." Zoe said.

  "The best, huh?" The chef's eyes narrowed.

  "Well, almost, at least." Zoe smiled.

  The chef laughed.

  "What are you two even talking about?" Tom asked. "I feel like you're talking in code we don't understand."

  "That's 'cause we are." Zoe said leaned in to whisper. "See, 'new friends' means marks. Best meal in the city means assassination, but if I say almost the best meals in the city that means we're going to drain you for all your mana. It's a whole thing." She giggled.

  "So what, the food's gonna be poisoned, and you'll drag us off to your murder hole somewhere?" Jeff looked at the chef.

  "They've got it all figured out, Zoe." The chef laughed.

  "They do, Mike." Zoe said. "I'll need your fastest working poison. What do you two like? Mike can make basically anything."

  "I could go for a dragon steak." Tom suggested.

  "Hey now, can't be wasting dragon meat on a poisoned meal." Mike said. "How 'bout some drake meat. It's a bit tougher but works great in a stew. Plus, I actually have it." He laughed.

  "Sounds good to me," Zoe said. "You two?"

  Tom and Jeff both shrugged. "Sure."

  "Great, have a seat wherever and I'll let you know when it's done." Mike gestured to the empty seats in the restaurant.

  The trio sat down at the nearest table, it was set up with some glass jars of various seasonings. Salt and pepper Jeff recognized, though there was also some red spice and a yellow one he didn't.

  Tom grabbed the yellow one and sprinkled some on a finger then licked it. "Huh."

  "Good?" Jeff asked.

  Tom grinned. "I'm not your test subject. Try it yourself, then we can talk."

  "I like the red one, personally." Zoe said. "It's a nice citrusy kick and goes pretty well on most things here, really."

  "But you won't tell me about the yellow one either?" Jeff asked.

  Zoe laughed. "I'm not gonna ruin your friends fun."

  "Fine, fine," Jeff sighed as he reached out and grabbed the glass jar of yellow seasoning. He sprinkled some of the flakes onto his finger then tasted them.

  It tasted like the essence of savouriness, like you'd taken some ryz and distilled it down to its most core flavour. An intense meaty flavour. It would be good on something bland, maybe on some toasted brul, but he couldn't imagine putting it on a meaty stew.

  "So, you two got here a month ago then? Perfect timing, looks like. Did you bring those two with you from wherever you were?" Zoe asked.

  "I hope not," Tom said. "We came from the Injellar capital, hitched a ride with a caravan. You said you've been here a while? Grow up here, then?"

  Zoe shook her head. "No, no. I grew up pretty far away actually. Came here in my twenties, I think? It's been a while."

  "Immortal?" Jeff asked.

  Zoe nodded. "Yeah. You?"

  "No, not yet." Tom answered. "We're trying. How'd you get it?"

  "It's not replicable, anything I know is public knowledge now anyway." Zoe said.

  The smell of frying veggies wafted through the air and Jeff turned to watch Mike cook. A large pot was sitting on one of the cooking surfaces, steam billowing out from it full of that wonderful roasting veggies smell.

  A large slab of meat was summoned onto one of the cutting boards and Mike cut it down to size with expert slices, each motion with the knife practice and perfected. The smaller bite sized cubes vanished into whatever storage item Mike was using and he poured water from a summoned container into the large pot of veggies.

  It sizzled and boiled as it touched the hot metal bottom, roaring with that wonderful scent as steam blasted Mike's face.

  "So you're a looper then?" Jeff asked, the woman's level not matching what somebody her age should be otherwise.

  Zoe nodded. "Yeah, I've looped a few times. What brought you two to Foizo?"

  "Never been, always wanted to come." Tom said. "Foizo is the only city that's ever managed to secede. Bit of a journey, but it's always been on our bucket list."

  Jeff nodded. "Plus, it's a new country to come spread the great word of sinkhole too."

  "Oh shut up, Jeff." Tom rolled his eyes.

  "No, no. What's this sinkhole stuff about anyway. I heard you screaming it out there earlier." Zoe said.

  Jeff looked at Tom with a glint in his eye and chuckled to himself at his friend's frustration. "Well, I'm glad you asked."

  Jeff flashed a pulse of mana through his storage bracelet and summoned forth a few papers, pushing them to the side. "What's stronger than a sinkhole?"

  "I don't know, what?" Zoe asked.

  "No seriously. Think of one thing that's stronger than a sinkhole." Jeff said.

  Zoe paused for a moment before she answered. "A bird. Can't fall in a sinkhole if you're flying, right? Bird wins."

  "Aha!" Jeff held up a finger. "That's where you're wrong, you're not thinking about sinkholes the right way."

  He reached out to one of the papers and pushed it towards Zoe. It was an expertly crafted drawing of a sinkhole made by none other than himself. "This is a sinkhole."

  "This is clearly a spike." Zoe said.

  "Oh god," Tom whined.

  Jeff pushed another of the sheets forward, a diagram showing the sinkhole as though you were standing on the other side of the ground. "You see, it's all about perspective. For us, it looks like a spike. But sinkholes transcend human perspective. From the other side, this is a bonafide, genuine sinkhole."

  Zoe nodded. "So it's an upside down sinkhole?"

  A large pot of bubbling stew slammed down on the table, a metal ladle hanging off the side of it. "Dinner's served. Drake stew with extra poison just for you lot." Mike said.

  "Oh thank god," Tom leaned back in his chair.

  Mike waved his hand over the table, summoning three bowls and the utensils to match along with a loaf of steaming hot brul.

  "Well," Zoe grabbed the ladle and poured herself a bowl of the rich, dark stew. "Shall we? Mike's the best cook in all of Foizo if I do say so myself."

  "Better than listening to Jeff rant about sinkholes." Tom poured himself a bowl and ripped off a piece of the brul.

  "I think we could do both..." Jeff mumbled as he poured himself a bowl.

  "No." Tom said.

  "Fine, fine." Jeff ripped off a piece of brul and dipped it into the stew. The thick broth clung to each crag on the roughly ripped brul. Bits of small diced vegetables hung on the interior structure of the brul, and Jeff took a bite.

  The flavour was immaculate, rich and meaty with a delightful sweetness with each bite of the colourful vegetables. The brul was fresh and funky, with a crisp crust and the perfect amount of chew to the soft interior.

  *Ding* You have consumed Mike O'Kafali's Drake Stew. All stats increased by 10% for ten hours.

  Links:

  Ko-Fi:

  Patreon: