Already, it was the final month before Jane and his teacher would depart. He could not muster up even a little bit of nostalgia towards any place in the village except for his house, so he was honestly not feeling too bad about it. His brother most likely felt the same way. Jane still felt like there wa something he was missing, though.
'How did he do that?'
A while ago, his teacher had ued magic to teleport them to the tower with the locket in it. Jane had begun thinking that his teacher had taught him all the magic he knew, but there was yet again no possible way for him to replicate that spell's effects as he was now.
'But first, dinner.'
Since Jane had told his brother about his magic training, it wouldn't look weird for him to be out at night. Indeed, Jane was currently in the middle of the forest. He was beginning to see why his teacher liked hosting there lessons in the woods so much. There were plenty of practice targets around, a soft ground to land on, and incredibly low chances of running into anyone else. The only downside was that slipping and falling would mean getting dirt on yourself.
Jane manifested a blob of flesh using 'Grow' and 'Flesh', then formed the outline of a decently sharp cutting implement using 'Include'. Soon enough, he had something that looked like a knife in his hands, and he began using it to cut the flesh in front of him into different bits of meat.
Before long, he had palm-sized steaks made from the remains of his magic. Jane considered having nothing but meat for his meal, but it was cold, and he wanted something more filling. So, he got to work on preparing vegetables, as well. using a similar method as before, he created mysterious plants, and cut them into small pieces. The earlier steaks were also diced up.
Jane fished around in his pocket for a bit, eventually pulling out a pouch of various herbs and seasonings. In his other pocket, there was a considerable amount of salt in a similar container. These would become the foundation of his late-night cooking session.
First, Jane manifested a cooking setup on the ground. He arranged 'Include' runes into something that looked like a stool, and waited for it to form. Then, he changed the shape into that of a pot, and waited for it to come into existence as well.
While his pot was forming, he made the strongest 'Heat' spell he could, then ran it over the rudimentary stove. He, with his little blacksmithing knowledge, had the thought that melting the metal slightly and waiting for it to reform might increase it's cohesion. Once the pot was done, he also blasted it with the same heat.
Jane had watched his brother cook many times in the past, so he had a rough idea of how it worked. Since he didn't have any other oil on hamd, he stripped some of the fat off of what was formerly skin, and threw it into the pot. Then, he set the pot down on the stool-like stove, and lit a 'Fire' underneath. It was truly economic, self-sufficient cooking.
The fat sizzled inside of the pan, and eventually there was enough oil to coat the bottom. Jane disposed of the crisped-up tissue, then threw the meat in. Along with it, the hardier spices in his pouch were randomly thrown in to share in the heat. Once the meat did something that Jane was not entirely sure the purpose of, he added the vegetables in as well, and waited for those to do something. Truthfully, Jane knew almost nothing about why exactly people did what they did while cooking. He tried to trust in their actions, however. The only thing he knew was not to burn anything by leaving it over the heat for too long.
Once everything was at risk of becoming charred, he chucked a healthy amount of water in, and added the rest of the herbs.
'Come to think of it, don't people usually cover the pot at this stage?'
Jane made a quick lid out of metal, and laid it on top of the pot. He would have to wait for quite a while before his meal was done, so there was plenty of time to continue on training. In particular, his thoughts about the prospect of teleportation had rekindled his interest in movement magic.
'It can't be that simple, right?'
Jane walked a safe distance away from the bubbling soup, and formed a number of 'Force' runes right underneath his feet. Just as he expected, he began levitating. He started moving the 'Force' runes upwards, and his body traveled with them. He frowned a little, and dispelled the magic.
'I can move upwards and downwards, but it's mostly dependent on gravity when I go down. Even worse, I can't move in any other directions.'
He plopped himself down on the ground, and ran simulations in his head while listening to his food cook.
'Come to think of it, aren't bones really heavy?'
Jane quickly casted a few spells inside his body, and then began floating. His bones were all currently being directed upwards using projected and included 'Force' runes— except for the regions near sensitive organs, of course. He had half-expected to end up in unspeakable agony again, but there was almost no pain in this form of movement. Before continuing with his experiment, Jane reinforced his body to be able to handle rapid accelerations. Then, he adjusted the strength of the preexisting 'Force' runes to just barely be able to keep him in the air.
Since his runes were currently balanced with the force of gravity, he was essentially weightless. While it was a little fun, there was really no good reason to ever stay like that. Thus, he began manifesting more runes.
Similar to the ones already enveloping his bones, he constructed more 'Force' runes. This time, however, their 'Project' was facing in a different direction than upwards. His hypothesis was that he would move under the effects of only that 'Project'.
Indeed, his plan worked. There was only one slight problem with it. He was in a forest, perhaps one of the worst places to fly at high speeds. While busy patting himself on the back for his success, he flew straight into a nearby tree.
'At least I reinforced myself, huh? But how am I going to deal with this?'
While still nailed to the tree, Jane began thinking.
'If I was flying stupid fast and then ran into a bird flying in my direction, we might both explode... Even if I reinforce myself, it would still be annoying to clean whatever guts off of my face. Flying is totally a scam, isn't it?'
His childhood dreams were crushed, just a little. If there was one consolation, it was that he still had the choice to fly, whereas before, he had even been scared of heights.
'No matter how I look at it, there's only one good method to get around. I need to learn to teleport. But first, dinner.'
Jane's soup had been at a rolling boil for quite a while now, and it was probably done. With something.
'This is surprisingly fun. Maybe I can become a chef alongside being a mage. I would never have to buy ingredients, either.'
Jane formed a spoon out of metal, and greedily ladled some of the soup to his mouth.
'Maybe not... I'll just ask my brother to cook... ugh.'
Ironically, despite his complete and utter lack of cooking talent, he had quite the sensitive tastebuds.