The First Legendary Beast Master novel Chapter 341

Chapter 341 This Feels Like... School

The next morning, there was no attack on their section of the line, but the Hill Giants tested other sections further west down the border. It was oddly serene, with the artillery in the distance giving a steady thunder, nearly below hearing, setting a rhythm for the day's activities.

Physical training, a rotation on the front line, where Karl waited patiently for something to happen, and then classes in the afternoon.

The following day was an afternoon rotation on the line, so he had classes in the morning.

The third day he was off the line again, so he had the morning free to train and work on his meditation to build the strength of his beasts.

By the sixth day without an attack on the line, it was becoming a smooth routine, but Karl was becoming nervous. They hadn't hit the Hill Giants that hard, so they weren't retreating because of the casualties. No, they were up to something, and their Earth Magic kept the Golden Dragon Army from sending scout planes far enough inland to find out where they were massing troops.

Every tiny village had at least one Elder who had been taught the trick to anti-aircraft fire, and it didn't take much to shoot down the scout planes.

"You look twitchy." Tessa noted as they finished dinner in the fort. They hadn't eaten dinner in the mess hall since the first day, only breakfast and lunch, so that they would be able to keep up with the news and orders more easily. The food was mostly canned everything. Even the bread came from cans. The idea was that it would lessen the strain on the clerics, so they could just heal and not worry about dealing with the food supply, but the quality of the long duration preserved foods wasn't always all that great.

Some things were. The preserved eggs cooked as well as any, and the barbecue beans were just as good as they were fresh out of the pot. The canned potatoes were fine, but the green beans were atrocious, and everyone avoided them like the plague unless they had been heavily spiced or drenched in a sauce.

In comparison, the dinner that Tessa and Lotus came up with was always fresh, including the meat that Karl donated to the process. Some of the meat sources hadn't been as good as others, but there were still quite a few of the giant pigs, and those were outstanding.

Karl had considered sharing one with the line, but Hawk was resistant to the idea, and they had eventually come to a compromise. It was Karl's birthday in two more days, and Hawk had agreed to donate a pig to the meal, so the line could throw a proper party.

Nobody in the Mines could really afford birthday parties that were more extravagant than a cake with friends, so that was their tradition. But with a whole Academy full of Elites, they could throw a full on barbecue, and trick the students into eating up one of the Rocs, which Hawk found entirely too stringy for his tastes.

They tasted vaguely like chicken, and weren't unpleasant, but if you didn't marinade and deep-fry them, their natural state was almost a jerky. That meant Hawk, who liked his food raw, was out of luck. The frying was an essential step to making them edible.

So, on the seventh day after their arrival, the day before his birthday, Karl went to talk to the mess hall's leader, the Professor from the culinary arts department.

"Professor Pom, could you spare me a moment? I would like to make a request and a donation for tomorrow's lunch." Karl greeted the aging chef.

She smiled at him, but the look on her face was full of suspicion, and she was ready to tell him to get the hell out of her kitchen at any moment.

"Tomorrow is my birthday, and I have saved one of the giant pigs from the Frost Giants, as well as the body of one of the Rocs. I would like to have the Roc brined and deep-fried, and the pig slaughtered and smoked for a barbecue feast at lunch.

I know that we have plenty of beans and salad to go with it, and everyone loves a good barbecue." Karl explained, before she could yell at him for wasting her time.