After hearing these two stories from Xenia and Brody, the group moved on to other topics, although Eisen quickly remembered something when Xenia told her story, looking over at Bree who seemed to think the same.
"You've got it with you so that it can't be stolen, right?" Eisen asked, and Bree swiftly nodded, rushing over to the backpack while the others looked at the both of them confused, before Bree took out a soccerball-sized crystal sphere with different carvings all over it, while you could see the pitch-black core in its center.
With a smile, Eisen deleted the enchantments on the sphere's surface, that were there to contain the incredibly wicked mana inside of it, before Xenia immediately jumped ever so slightly from the sudden energy that she felt. "Wait, is that…?" She muttered out before Eisen nodded.
"It is, yes." He smirked as he used transmutation to 'peel' the mana crystal layer away from the black crystalized mana inside of it. "We found one of them as well. In the beehive where I also found Melissa."
Since he didn't know what kind of use this crystalized mana had, Eisen extended his hand and gave it to Xenia. "You said you wanted to research it a bit, right? You can have it if you want, but if you figure out any positive use for it, or if it can be used to create some kind of magical item, give it to me, and I'll make something with it." Eisen told her before Xenia took the dense, compressed mana into her own two hands with bright eyes.
"Thank you! Wow, that's great! I'll let you know if I find anything!" She exclaimed with a smile before Eisen turned toward Brody next.
"I also have something for you." He said before the Demon-Orc perked up his face in surprise.
"Eh? You do?" Brody asked curiously, and Eisen slowly nodded before grabbing the two gloves that he made in front of his new disciples today, handing them over to the martial artist.
"I made them quite quickly, but they should be pretty helpful," Eisen told Brody, before continuing. "The stat requirements on it aren't that big of a deal either, especially for someone with your level," Eisen explained to the martial-artist who immediately tried the gloves on, looking at them with a smile.
"Whoa, that's pretty dope. What're the metal plates on here?" Brody curiously asked since he knew it wasn't iron or steel or something like that, and Eisen quietly chuckled. "Well, that's Mythril I made with my element. Usually, Mythril absorbs shock, this one absorbs it and returns some back to the source." Eisen explained, before the others, all looked at Eisen in surprise, and especially Horan, the tank from Brody's party, was quite interested in this peculiar metal.
"Haha, I'm actually working on another batch of it, don't worry. It's been inside of the infuser non-stop ever since we got to this town, so I'm hoping for it to be able to absorb a good bit of my elemental mana and have it become below-average or average grade. The amount it needs to get to the next grade rises exponentially, after all. I'm sure I'll be able to make some great items for all of you then. We'll be needing it soon anyway." The old man chuckled with a smile before he began to come up with some general ideas, even taking in suggestions and wishes as he did, so that everyone in the group would be perfectly equipped for when they began conquering the islands.
---
After finishing some more conversations, some more important than others, Benjamin logged off and then stood outside of the capsule soon after. The day before, he had a serious discussion with Melody about limits and how she should treat him and all the guests in the house, meaning that she shouldn't try to take control over everyone's life while she was here.
Benjamin did appreciate that Melody was worried about him, but he was 70 years old and far from going senile. His body felt healthier than it did in years, while he was a lot happier than he was just a few weeks ago.
He could take care of himself, and Melody needed to see that, especially that Benjamin would ask for help if he needed it. Reluctantly, she then accepted it after a long talk filled with lots of convincing.
And so, Benjamin could make breakfast on his own today, although he only made something pretty light for everyone, considering that they would be eating their fill later that afternoon and evening.
Because it was the day of the barbecue, Benjamin already bought everything that he needed to feed everyone that would be coming, and now he just needed to prepare everything first thing in the morning.
He really had a little of everything, after all, a few dozen people would be coming today. He had things for burgers, hot dogs, different salads, some ribs and of course different marinated meats that you could just throw on the grill and eat without anything special added onto them.
But not only that, he obviously also had some things for grilled vegetables, since he knew some of the people that would be coming were vegetarian or vegan. But Benjamin said he didn't want to do all the work himself, so he told the adults in the house to set everything up outside, the younger children to make some decorations, and the teenagers to help him out in the kitchen.
"Alright, I have the meats in the fridge with all the other ingredients. I'll tell you what you need to do, though, so don't worry about that." Benjamin explained, before looking over at Benji, who the old man knew to be a great cook. "You please take care of all the chicken, please. We'll make Pineapple-Chicken skewers, Marinated Teriyaki Chicken, and honey-glazed chicken. I have the recipes-" The old man began, before Benji interrupted him, already grabbing the thick recipe book on the shelf.
"In here, right? Don't worry; you just work on the other stuff." Benji said with a smirk before flipping through the book and slowly getting the recipes ready, before Benjamin chuckled and put on his apron, giving one to the three teenagers helping him out as well.
"You two, please work on the salads for now. I have a different recipe book on that shelf over there." He said as he looked over at Sophia and Kyle, who nodded in response before enthusiastically grabbing the recipe book and starting to get all the ingredients together, while Benjamin began to work on some of the other meat.
More specifically, the ribs. The cut that Benjamin chose was the classic Spare Rib cut, for which he first began to work on the dry rub, which was quite quickly made by mixing chili, garlic & onion powder, paprika, ground mustard & cumin, dried oregano, black & white pepper as well as some cayenne, for a flavorful powdered mixture.
For the next step, Benjamin put on some gloves so that he wouldn't get the spices stuck on his fingers and accidentally touch his eyes or something like that. After that, he began to cover the ribs in the mixture, thoroughly patting it into every nook and cranny.
And then, those ribs were covered in plastic wrap and then placed into the fridge, where they would stay until just before the barbeque would start. In the meantime, Benjamin would begin making the barbecue sauce.
After mixing some apple cider vinegar, tomato puree, dark brown sugar, some more cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder & ground mustard as well as some Worcestershire sauce, Benjamin began to simmer the sauce on low heat, which he would continue doing for an hour and a half.
Now that everything for the ribs was prepared, Benjamin moved on to the next dish. He already placed the regular marinated meats in the fridge yesterday night, so that he could quickly put them on the grill later without any issues.
The dish he would be preparing now were grilled shrimps. The first thing he did was to combine some oil, garlic, celery seeds and red pepper flakes in a small saucepan, before cooking it over medium heat and stirring it occasionally until the garlic was golden and sizzling, after which he whisked in some whole-grain mustard, before transferring the whole mixture to a bowl and letting it cool completely.
In the meantime, Benjamin began to de-vein the shrimps by making a shallow cut down the back of the shrimps and pulling out the vein that could be found after that he removed the shell of the shrimp. Once the shrimps were prepared, the old man added them to the oil-mixture and seasoned it with salt and black pepper, tossing the shrimps in the mixture to coat them, before placing them into the refrigerator.
Next, Benjamin thoroughly washed his hands and checked up on the others. Benji was doing a great job, just as the old man expected him to, and Sophia and Kyle were also working on everything pretty quickly and got quite a few different things done so far.
Happy that they didn't need any help, Benjamin began to work on the grilled vegetables. Although they didn't need anything complicated to be done with them, and you could just throw them onto the grill whenever Benjamin wanted to make a few different vegetable skewers as well just to have some variety.
He didn't choose to do anything too complicated with these either, just chop a few things up and put them on a stick to place onto the grill quick and easy.
After that, he began to help the others out with their tasks, choosing to assist with the chicken first, and since Benji was nearly done anyway, the grandfather-grandson pair managed to finish soon afterward.
And after thoroughly cleaning their hands again, they began to help out Kyle and Sophia with the salads, which also didn't take much longer to do. "Alright, good job, all of you. Thanks for your help." Benjamin exclaimed with a smile, collecting the aprons again before everyone began to clean up the kitchen and then went outside to help set everything up.
Benjamin liked to throw these kinds of parties every once in a while, and he was somewhat looking for an excuse to do so while his kids and grandchildren were in town, although he then realized that he didn't need an excuse for that, and then simply began planning everything. Either way, since this was the case, Benjamin chose to get some party furniture a while ago, although he ended up making most of it himself. So all of those fold-up benches and tables were being put up outside right now together with some party-tents, just in case it would end up suddenly raining today, although rain wasn't forecasted. Better safe than sorry.
After everything had been set up and the time for the party was approaching closer and closer, Benjamin chose to get one of the most important things for the party from the basement.
"Tony, Natsuo, Benji and Kyle, please come with me to the cellar." Benjamin told them, leaving out Christie because she was busy with something else and Melody, Michael and Sophia because he knew that Michael was against it, and simply respected his choice not to indulge in what the others were about to get.
"Ooh, I haven't been here in years. You never let us down there on our own anyway!" Natsuo exclaimed with a smirk, before Benjamin nodded with a laugh.
"Obviously, yeah. I couldn't leave you there when you were kids because you'd just have made a mess or broken things, and I obviously couldn't leave either of you down there as teenagers." He said with a grin obviously insinuating something that both Natsuo and Tony immediately understood, and only Benji and Kyle were somewhat confused because neither of them knew what was down here.
But they knew once Benjamin opened the cellar door and they stepped down the spiraling stairs in the back of the house, leading to the large room filled with numerous bottles and barrels of alcohol.