Not the bottom of the lake, but under a clear blue morning sky, there were a lot of voices all around-- Chilli was snuggling up to his ear while Nelly was sleeping on his stomach. He had a bit more memories this time.
One thing had not changed as far as he could figure, he had fought a lot of people, he had drunk a ton, there were bets again and August's family seemed to have good luck at this - Sarah had won stuff this time.
But the things that had changed were - a)their clothes had self-repaired, b)Chilli's proportions had changed, she no longer looked like a teenager, but a little grown-up doll, her clothes too had become more elaborate, c) this time half the time people attacked him first, not the other way around and he got to fight a far bigger variety of opponents d)...
D was the killer. He had just the smallest glimpse of biting into Layla's neck and not in a nice vampire-like gesture, but a solid, real, feral, animal-like bite, that had him taste her blood. It should have hurt, but her expression was inviting to eat more and Ian was pretty sure he and Nelly had merged and were doing that to Layla together. And they were doing more than just biting, crap--
Of all the things they could have done-- and it did not help that along with that bite, they drained a chunk of her aether and it was delicious.
Nelly woke up as well, yet rather than telling anything she smiled, kissed him and he got her memories as small video bits with sensations included. Getting memory pieces from her, he figured how to return them and gave his own as well. Then he sat up and took a moment to process it.
It wasn't just Layla they had literally and metaphorically eaten. Nina was on that list well and Ian could only hope it wasn't like with fights. No, if it was like that with fights-- it was naive to think Layla and Nina were the only ones--
Ian felt a familiar presence and looked over at Bermont, his lips naturally forming a smile.
Bermont returned the smile and leaned down to do the same thing Nelly had done - gave him memories of six reviews of his ambrosia. It was different times and in the memories, the party sounds were hushed like they were a fair distance away from it. There were also no other people around, Bermont was properly keeping a secret.
[[It was already night at that point. August let out a breath. "Ian, huh? Tell him to learn different alignments, spices are best burned up in dark alignment, they infuse more completely. He feels like a guy who might like fire-aligned things, but not in this one. Good work otherwise."]]
[[Tiamat smiled like a Cheshire cat "Purple will be sad to know you got his first one, but hmm, it's wonderful, but if he does want to improve, then I can tell outright the ice is incomplete." Tiamat looked somewhere sideways, her pupils narrowing a lot - "of course it is, he hasn't completed Lacus' book yet."]]
[["Agh, this is great," Noren said. "Nothing less expected from the lad who outdrank me. I wouldn't change a thing in it! That's the whole charm of newbie ambrosia, imperfect, but lots of love."]]
[[Riveria smiled. "Ice is incomplete, but it's ambrosia, it doesn't need to be perfect to bring joy."]]
[[Leum smiled. "Tell Ian to snipe Riveria with ice spears, she'll shoot back properly made ones, he's the type who learns well by feeling things with his body. But that's being nitpicky, I'd happily drink it anytime, ambrosia doesn't need to be perfect."]]
[["Amusing!" Gertrude, the dragon with reddish-gold hair said, her eyes sparkling over. "I'd gladly buy a barrel of this."
"This is his first one, he's looking for advice on improving." Bermont's voice sounded different inside.
"What a silly person, ambrosia doesn't need to be perfect," Gertrude said. "If he's set on improving, tell him to make more, trade it for other ambrosia of all kinds and drink it. Ambrosia needs to match the maker's taste, not other people's tastes."]]
[I agree with all of them,] Bermont added. [Ambrosia gets better the more skilled you become. Knowing and playing around with differently aligned aether will help you test out more options, being better at magic will help you infuse more properties, but it is most important to drink a lot and make a lot, that's how you find your taste and discover how to make ambrosia you would love even more.]
[Thank you, my only problem might be that with the way I'm acting when drunk I won't have many opportunities to drink.] Ian figured it was best to honestly admit, that's why feedback was so valuable.
[You can come to my place for that,] Bermont said. [And if I'm out, then go visit dwarves with a few barrels, they act no different than you do when drunk and they are happy to drink anytime.]
As for how to visit either of them - Bermont put a ring on Ian's thumb. Since Ian can speak in dragon language, then he should be able to use the artifact to resonate with him, Bermont will tell if he's available and where to go. How to resonate - bite into his thumb and send a message just how they are doing now. (Ian figured it was best to do it when alone, ought to look rather weird for those who don't know - licking a ring and all.)
About dwarves - Ian had apparently out-drunk three elder dwarves so far, he can go to any of their places, knock at the gate, then just say who he is and that he's seeking drinking companions.
[The game of keeping secrets won't be compromised by them.] Bermont seemed majorly amused about that.
[The game, huh?] Ian was no longer sure how the game worked.
[You love me because I'm ticklish, that's the best I've heard a human say about me,] he was very amused.
Looked like the dumb stuff he had blurted out had made its rounds along with Kenneth's excuse and-- Kenneth had been right about dragon language being on the secret side of things then, but if it was so convenient and-- [I wonder why dragon language isn't a common practice,] he noted.
[You can't use it with those you do not like, you can't accept it if you don't like the sender,] Bermont replied.
Huuh, well, Ian was happy to hear Bermont and Kenneth liked him then. So it was a test of liking or disliking someone at the same time as well. Ian didn't want to-- well, try this with anyone he did not like to begin with, though, but it might be a sad realization to 'kiss' someone only to find they did not like you.
[Emotionally scary to use, huh?] Ian noted. Did Kenneth know about this?
Bermont pulled back, bursting into a laugh. And he kept laughing while they accepted some freshly baked bread and a warm drink from a kid with white angel wings called Alan, who passed by saying the same thing Kiri had said last time - "Don't worry if you are lacking memories, this is normal." But he also added that - "I hear they return in small bits the more you learn about the event from others."
Kenneth walked up, taking some food along the way - "Back at tickling Bermont, I see," he said, sitting down nearby.
"Too much tickling for one day," Bermont said, then put up a hand in a 'see you' gesture, running off to find Gertrude. There were a lot of people around, they had been lost in their little world, but somewhere in the background Cassis was asking something to August, people were having rowdy conversations and this was what he had likely missed out on at the previous event. The bottom of the lake was silent, they could sleep as much as they needed, but here it wasn't so easy.
"Morning," Ian said to Kenneth and noticed that Chilli was holding her phone again, but she put it away and sat down on his shoulder now.
"Morning," Kenneth returned. "Need some stats about what you three did?" Kenneth sipped his drink and upon getting confirming nods, he said - "425 battles, gold and platinum ranks decided they won't let a newbie get cocky," he said with a grin. "You won against a gold-rank mage called Adelyn Durant by shooting her down using water spears. She now owes everyone drinks."
That battle wasn't in their memories, but as Kenneth spoke about it Ian recalled she was a green-haired girl with faerie wings. She stayed up in the air and they had no choice but to shoot her because they couldn't close the distance one bit. 424 losses, huh? Not really unexpected, though.
"And after that, you alternated between outdrinking people and eating Arachnes till you passed out after Gertrude outdrank you two," Kenneth said. "For it to be a complete victory, she doubled the amount after you two were out."
Alternated-- huh, means... "How many Arachnes did we eat?" Ian asked, but there was a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"Only 9," Kenneth said.
Jeez! 9? 9.... 9?!?!
"If Gertrude hadn't taken an interest in you for being the man Bermont loves for giving him his firsts--"
Ian wanted to bury himself in a hole. Yes, he was the one 'who loves Bermont because he is ticklish', but for Bermont to take a stance of 'I love Ian because he gives me his firsts'... Bermont was far too good at this game.
"--then 20 wouldn't be impossible," Kenneth said.
"I need to send her --something in thanks," Ian said, he almost slipped up by saying 'a barrel,' which-- Ian wasn't even sure he couldn't say, but better safe than sorry.
"And Albus too, she kept fixing you up after all your adventures," Kenneth said.
And while they slowly enjoyed their meal, Chilli shared what she remembered from the event, filling in ten more fights and one drinking bout, Ian didn't expect to be competing against Gerald in drinking, but Chilli added Sarah said she would marry him if he wins... uh... well, Ian didn't know if to feel bad about defeating Gerald then. But to marry someone for winning a drinking bout. Wasn't it better to marry someone who lost in something of that sort?
Turned out there were bets on that as well-- hah, Ian felt complicated about all of his activities turning into gambling events. "Who won that bet?" Ian asked.
"Four people, 10 is a nice number," Kenneth said. "Grisham, Layla, Sophie from Hills clan and Borus, son of Leon from Golden capes."
"How did we manage to have all those events without being pulled into something else?" Ian asked.
"Drunk Mandy follows a pattern of entertaining those who don't seem entertained enough or aren't busy with something important enough," Kenneth said. "The group following you were busy and entertained and while you went off with Arachnes, others were having drinking bouts, so it was always active."
Hmm, it made sense then. It seemed like a puzzle of figuring out what counted as important enough and what counted as entertaining enough, then.
They were done with their meal, so Kenneth summoned a wisp, fed it a potion and got them to the workshop. "Now then," he said. "What do you need for brewing 18 barrels?"
"Improved ones or the same as before?" Ian asked.
"Improvements would mean?" Kenneth asked. And Ian replied, learning to infuse dark alignment into spices and finishing the tome.
"The first one is easy, I'll teach you that, you can work on ice later," Kenneth said. And they sorted out how much things they would need. It wasn't only learning the dark one, Ian would need the light one as well for growing chilis and the first thing they would need in huge amounts was aether essences. Kenneth said it would take forever to gather it in the city, so Ian had to make enough containers for all the ambrosia, fill them with honey, stock them up in artifacts, Nelly helped with that, while Chilli was doing something on her phone.
"Right," Ian recalled. "I found out that dragon language has one issue."
"Really?" Kenneth asked, although-- he didn't look too surprised.
"It doesn't work unless people mutually like each other," Ian said. "So it could be emotionally challenging."
"Ah, you are right," Kenneth said. "It could lead to a lot of problems. It's a pity. We might not be able to use it then." He said that, but--
"You don't seem upset," Ian said.
"Well it did sound too good to be true," Kenneth replied. "It was a gamble with little downsides, though, because you got the best taste-tester for your next creation and you can use it with Nelly."
"True," Ian agreed. And it could be used in emergencies as well because the speed was incredible. Ian couldn't think as fast as he could converse in dragon language, it was almost like a cheat to slow down time in his surroundings.
"But, try to check if you can use it with these four," Kenneth said as Brielle, Aubrey, Adrian and Jayden came to the workshop.
Ah-- Ian started to feel shaky-- he liked these four, he didn't want to find out if--
"Use what?" Jayden asked.
"Ian might be able to teach you certain magic," Kenneth said. "It doesn't work on everyone, but if it does, it has the same effects as mythical grade time perception skill without draining much aether."
The four looked impressed and curious right away.
"And what's the catch?" Aubrey asked.
"Firstly, it takes two people to activate, secondly, it looks like a french-kiss," Kenneth said.
Brielle squinted-- "Kenneth, you are not talking about falling in love and feeling like a kiss lasts a long time, right?"
"Ian, do you mind if I kiss Nelly?" Kenneth asked.
"I think you need to ask Nelly that," Ian said. He was curious about what kind of demonstration Kenneth would make.
Nelly made thumbs up. Kenneth found a piece of paper, a pencil and moments after he kissed Nelly, his hand moved so fast over the paper it might even seem like disappearing. And the hand moved back, lifting up the paper with a complex summoning seal on it.
"Ok, I got it," Brielle said.
"Kenneth, aren't you a better person to--" Ian started.
Kenneth pulled Ian's face down, kissed and asked a simple question of - 'who will be more heartbroken to find out the truth in case they do dislike either of us?' And Ian understood that he had been insensitive. Kenneth had been working with them for a decade and if Kenneth was uncertain there was likely a reason. And they hadn't told about the reason for it working or not working so-- in case it does not work, then it would just be Ian randomly kissing a colleague, end of the story.
"No, I'm the best person," Ian said as Kenneth pulled back.
Aubrey smiled, crossing her arms. "Kenneth, do you dislike us?"
Both Ian and Kenneth looked over at her startled.
"If Ian does succeed with teaching us dragon language, do you think it's hard to figure out the conditions if we use it?" Aubrey asked.
The other three didn't seem to know about this, but they did look to and from Kenneth to Aubrey in this.
Kenneth sighed. "I meant to order you to keep it confidential, but figures that if I found out about it, others would as well."
"My grandmother told me about it," Aubrey said. "But that said I only know that dragons can impart memories and knowledge on those they like by a simple kiss. I kept up with the thread, so I know our newb's been kissing Bermont and what you did now-- easy to figure."
Looked like there was a thread up like the last time, that wasn't surprising and it likely did stand out a bit, or somewhat, since he was kissing no.4 in mythical beast rankings. Kind of like kissing a celebrity.
"Kenneth doesn't like us, huh?" Adrian said and Jayden looked bummed out as well.
"Uhm, it needs to be mutual," Ian said. "Dragons can't speak like that to people who don't like them. Kenneth would be heartbroken to learn--"
That surprised the four-- and they all grinned-- "Awwhh,"
Kenneth was red.
Brielle sighed, walked up to Kenneth and kissed him and soon after the other three did as well. Looked like all worries had been meaningless; they all liked each other well enough.
"We can also transfer memories," Ian said and he and Nelly ended up teaching that as well and so in a few minutes, they had all confirmed that they liked each other. Ian felt that was the case, but it was still titillating because one can never be sure. But it looked like only Ian and Kenneth had been worried, everyone else gratefully accepted the new skills.
"Is Bermont ok with you sharing this around?" Brielle asked.
"I did tell it would be used here," Ian said. "Had I known about the conditions for use I wouldn't have tried it on Kenneth so casually, though."
Aubrey and Brielle exchanged smiles.
"There was no bet, right? About kissing three people you like most at the event," Aubrey checked.
Ian shook his head.
"I was just trying to clean things up somewhat," Kenneth said. "But I didn't think Ian would drop that gem," Kenneth cracked up, then explained the context.
They all listened with an 'oh, I see' kind of looks on their faces, nodding at times like 'yeah, that makes more sense.'
"I get that Bermont gets the firsts, but Ian, bro, brew us some too sometime," Jayden said.
"That's what you four will be helping him do, ambrosia takes insane amounts of aether to brew," Kenneth said.
"And that's why Tomb of Toutatis," Brielle said.
And before Ian could ask much more or if he needed to prepare anything other than the pile of honey flasks, Kenneth sent them off towards the ominous-sounding place.